川北医学院

Collecting duct carcinoma (CDC) is a rare, aggressive renal cell carcinoma arising from Bellini ducts. We present a 61-year-old male with persistent dull lumbar pain. Imaging revealed an enlarged right kidney with cortical atrophy, severe hydronephrosis and renal calculi; calculus-induced obstruction was suspected preoperatively. Postoperative histopathologic and immunohistochemical examination confirmed CDC. The patient declined adjuvant therapy and died 6 months after surgery. This case highlights diagnostic challenges of CDC concealed by stone-related obstructive nephropathy.

Heparin cannot be administered orally due to its poor intestinal mucus permeability and limited cellular membrane penetration. To address the challenge, we developed a new nanoplatform through electrostatically driven self-assembly of enoxaparin sodium (ENO) with cationic chitosan (CS), followed by surface functionalization with poly( alpha-lipoic acid) (pLA). The resulting pLA@CS/ENO exhibited a mucus penetration rate of 61.2 % within 4 h, 3.7 and 1.7 times that of free ENO and CS/ENO, respectively, due to polydisulfide-driven mucin network depolymerization. Through thiol-mediated cellular uptake, the pLA@CS/ENO achieved 2.2 times the cytoplasmic delivery efficiency of CS/ENO within 6 h. Additionally, pLA@CS/ENO's lower Pearson coefficients versus uncoated CS/ENO confirmed enhanced lysosomal escape via pLA-mediated membrane destabilization. Pharmacokinetically, pLA@CS/ENO established a sustained anticoagulation profile, prolonging the effective therapeutic duration to 8 h, significantly longer than that of free ENO (1 h) and CS/ENO (2 h), without increasing bleeding risk. In a rat model of coagulation, pLA@CS/ENO robustly reversed coagulopathic markers, with restoration rates exceeding 70 %, and significantly mitigated microthrombosis and tissue injury in the livers, kidneys and lungs. Collectively, this study demonstrates a novel oral nanotherapeutic strategy that sequentially overcomes the mucus and epithelial barriers, offering a promising platform for effective oral anticoagulation management. V. on behalf of Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is characterized by severely immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME), which leads to tumor ferroptosis resistance and dominant protumor M2 macrophages, restraining innateto-adaptive antitumor immune cascade. Herein, an endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-enriched pH/redox-sensitive SPIONS@P-CpG-DOX nanogel was constructed to realize dual ER-targeted manipulation on TNBC cells and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) to elicit an ER-centered innate-to-adaptive immune amplification axis. In TNBC cells, nanogel-induced ER stress inhibits the GSH-GPX4 axis and accelerates lipid peroxidation, triggering ER-originated ferroptosis and immunogenic cell death (ICD) to release antigens and damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) for immune priming. In macrophages, nanogel activates ER-dependent STING/NF-kappa B pathways without ferroptosis, facilitating M2-to-M1 polarization and inflammatory TME remodeling. The dual ER-initiated pathways synergistically facilitate dendritic cell (DC) maturation, enhance intratumoral CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell infiltration and build long-term systemic immune memory. In 4T1 TNBC models, the nanogel efficiently inhibits primary tumor growth, postoperative recurrence, distant rechallenge and lung metastasis with favorable biosafety. This work validates ER as a core regulatory hub linking tumor ferroptosis and macrophage reprogramming, providing an organelle-targeted strategy for durable TNBC immunotherapy.

Measurements of refractive index (RI) and temperature play a vital role in a wide range of applications. Nevertheless, cross-sensitivity remains a major obstacle when RI and temperature need to be measured simultaneously. In this study, a novel sandwich structured Omega-shaped fiber optic-based sensor was designed and fabricated. The sensing structure was prepared by splicing a no core fiber (NCF) segment between two single mode fibers (SMFs), followed by bending the SMF-NCF-SMF structure into an Omega shape. After the sandwich nanolayer was deposited on the fiber surface, the Omega-shaped bending region promoted leakage of the core mode into cladding modes, thereby inducing a localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) response. Meanwhile, mode mismatch effect at the SMF-NCF interface excited Mach-Zehnder interference (MZI) signal. The LSPR and MZI components were effectively separated using fast Fourier transform (FFT) combined with filtering, which allowed RI and temperature to be detected independently. The sensitivities of the LSPR and MZI signals to RI were 3.29 (a.u)/RIU and 2.94 (a.u)/RIU, respectively. Meanwhile their sensitivities to temperature were-0.0009 (a.u)/degrees C and-0.0007 (a.u)/degrees C, respectively. These results demonstrate that the sandwich nanolayer modified sandwich structured Omega-shaped fiber sensor provides an effective platform for simultaneous dual-parameter detection.

Transarterial embolization and transcatheter arterial chemoembolization are important locoregional therapies for intermediate-to-advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), yet their efficacy remains constrained by the performance limitations of embolic materials. Although traditional embolic materials have been widely used in clinical practice, they commonly suffer from poor drug loading capacity, uncontrollable release kinetics, suboptimal spatial selectivity, and unpredictable embolization duration, making it difficult to meet the demands of precision and combination therapy. In recent years, advanced biomaterials, represented by hydrogels and microspheres, have provided new approaches to improving the controllability and comprehensive efficacy of interventional embolization therapy through the optimization of material properties and functional expansion. This review provides an overview of the basis and limitations of the clinical application of traditional embolic materials, focuses on the embolization performance and functional advantages of biomaterials, and discusses their potential for combination with systemic therapy. In addition, we discuss the challenges in clinical translation of embolic drug-delivery systems and future directions, aiming to inspire further research on precision embolization therapies.