Jiahao Xia, Yizheng Tan, Huaping Xu Acta Polym. Sin.; 2020, 51, 1190. The dynamic covalent bond (DCB) is a kind of special bond that can cleave, reform, and exchange under external stimulus. DCBs have been evolved in a wide range of polymers like self-healing materials, shape memory materials and so on. Selenium is an essential element in human bodies. Our research group pioneered in the research of Se-containing dynamic polymers, and discovered that many Se-containing bonds are dynamic covalent bonds with very mild responsive conditions due to selenium’s unique chemical properties. This f...

Chenxing Sun, Yizheng Tan, Huaping Xu ACS Materials Lett.; 2020, 2, 1173. Nanomaterials are good platforms for the combination of different cancer treatments, such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy. However, those materials mostly serve as delivery vehicles for efficient and targeted transport of anticancer drugs. Stimuli-responsive chemical bonds have already been widely applied to construct these nanomaterials for controlled drug release. Diselenide bonds are one example of dual redox responsive bonds. Different from other stimuli-responsive nanomaterials, diselenide- c...

Tianyu Li, Huaping Xu Cell Rep. Phys. Sci.; 2020, 1, 100111. Cancer remains a major global health problem, causing significant economic burden worldwide. Current clinical cancer treatments are unsatisfactory in terms of both antitumor efficacy and biocompatibility. Meanwhile, nanomaterials attract much attention as potential treatment strategies with improved antitumor efficacy and reduced side effects. Selenium-containing nanomaterials are considered to be a promising biomaterial candidate among many different approaches during the last decade. Selenium-containing nanomaterials exhibit go...

Jichun Yang, Shuojiong Pan, Shiqian Gao, Yiheng Dai, Huaping Xu Biomaterials; 2020, 249, 120054. Thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) is an essential mammalian enzyme that possesses a selenocysteine active site. TrxR is overexpressed in many malignant tumors and has a close relationship with apoptosis, drug resistance, recurrence and metastasis of tumors. Recently, TrxR has emerged as a promising target for anticancer therapy. Herein, we developed a TrxR-interfering drug delivery system (DDS) based on RGD-PEG-PUSeSe-PEG-RGD self-assembling micelles for imaging-guided gemcitabine (GEM) chemosensiti...

Yiheng Dai, Ke Zheng, Yizheng Tan, Wentian Xiang, Banruo Xianyu, Huaping Xu Adv. Sustainable Syst.; 2020, 4, 2000072. Faced with ever-severe gold mineral depletion, it is meaningful to obtain a sustainable gold resource by utilization of accumulating waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Inspired by fischesserite, the first naturally occurring selenide of gold, a novel selenium-containing polyurethane (Se-polyurethane) is prepared. This material is able to extract aqueous gold in its elemental form with a selectivity 437 times over Cu and 443 times over Ni and a capacity of 802...

Shuojiong Pan, Jichun Yang, Shaobo Ji, Tianyu Li, Shiqian Gao, Chenxing Sun, Huaping Xu CCS Chem.; 2020, 2, 225–235. Thioredoxin Reductase (TrxR) plays a pivotal role in defending cells against reactive oxygen species (ROS) and maintaining a reduced intracellular environment. It has been discovered that TrxR is elevated significantly in human cancer, evidenced by its association with the promotion of tumor cell proliferation, inhibiting tumor cell apoptosis, as well as enhancing tumor drug resistance. Hence, finding highly selective inhibitors of TrxR is urgently needed. Herein, we develo...

Shiqian Gao, Tianyu Li, Ye Guo, Chenxing Sun, Banruo Xianyu, Huaping Xu Adv. Mater.; 2020, 32, 1907568. Considering the limited clinical benefits of individual approaches against malignancy, natural killer (NK) cell-mediated immunotherapy is increasingly utilized in combination with radiotherapy and target therapeutics. However, the interplay of targeted agents, immunotherapy and radiotherapy is complex. An improved understanding of the effect of chemotherapy or radiotherapy on specific molecular pathways in immune cells would help to optimize the synergistic anti-tumour efficiency. In thi...

Cheng Liu, Zhiyuan Fan, Yizheng Tan, Fuqiang Fan, Huaping Xu Adv. Mater.; 2020, 32, 1907569. Structural color materials with reversible stimuli-responsiveness to external environment have been widely used in sensors, encryption, display and other fields. Compared with other stimuli, visible light is highly controllable both temporally and spatially with less damage to materials, which is more suitable for structural color patterning. Herein, a new diselenide-containing shape memory material is prepared and used for creating patterns via visible light stimulus. In this system, the structura...

Tianyu Li, Shuojiong Pan, Hao Zhuang, Shiqian Gao, Huaping Xu ACS Appl. Bio Mater., 2020, 3, 1283-1292. Developing multifunctional carrier-free nanomedicine with high efficacy attracts tremendous attention in cancer treatment. Here, we develop selenium-containing carrier-free assemblies with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) property, which achieve the combination of cancer radiotherapy with chemotherapy. Under γ-radiation, diselenide bonds in the assemblies can be cleaved to form seleninic acid, which exhibits anticancer activity by upregulating the reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels i...

Peng Zhao, Jiahao Xia, Muqing Cao, Huaping Xu ACS Macro Lett., 2020, 9, 163-168. Wavelength-controlled Se–S dynamic chemistry was put forward recently as a convenient way to regulate the balance of a selenide sulfide exchange reaction. In this paper, we synthesized an asymmetric polymeric amphiphile linked with a Se–S bond and then induced it to self-assemble into vesicles in water. When the visible light was applied to the assembly solution with addition of toluene, Se–S bonds containing vesicles were ruptured. Thus, the wavelength-controlled light responses of relatively stable polymer a...