Poly(styrene-co-maleic anhydride)s were modified with poly(propylene oxide (PO)-co-ethylene oxide (EO)) side chains (Jeffamine) with different EO/PO molar ratios, varying between 0.11 and 3.60. These copolymers were then further functionalized with a β-mercapto ketone of δ-damascone. The obtained poly(maleic acid monoamide)-based β-mercapto ketones were then studied as delivery systems for the ...

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) recognize specific microbial products in the innate immune response. TLR3, a double-stranded RNA sensor, is thought to have an important role in viral infections, but the regulation of TLR3 expression and its function in keratinocytes are not fully understood. Here we show the Th1 cytokine IFN-γ increased the TLR3 expression via STAT1 in cultured normal human epiderma...

Engineered Spider Silk Protein In article number 2200986, Anna Rising and co-workers present the impressive strength of spider silk fibers conferred by poly-alanines in stacked β-sheets (steric zippers pink). By protein engineering expression prokaryotic hosts, they have done what spiders cannot do: increase hydrophobicity intermolecular interactions steric (turquoise) thereby generating strong...

2-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HP-β-CD) microfibres with diameters ranging between 3 and 7 µm were prepared by aqueous solution based high-speed electrospinning (HSES) technique then used as carbonising agent at wt% loading besides 15 ammonium polyphosphate (APP) to obtain flame-retarded poly(lactic acid) (PLA) composites. The high specific surface area of the microfibrous HP-β-CD was found ha...

P-glycoprotein (P-gp) overexpression has become the most common cause of occurrence of multidrug resistance in clinical settings. We aimed to construct a micellar polymer carrier to sensitize drug-resistant tumors to doxorubicin (DOX). This A-B-C-type amphiphilic copolymer was prepared by the sequential linkage of β-cyclodextrin, hydrophobic poly(d,l-lactide), and hydrophilic poly(ethylene glyc...

Toll/IL-1R domain-containing adaptor inducing IFN-β (TRIF) is an adaptor molecule that is recruited to TLR3 and -4 upon agonist stimulation and triggers activation of IFN regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) and expression of type 1 IFNs, which are critical for cellular antiviral responses. We show that Akt is a downstream molecule of TRIF/TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1) and plays an important role in the a...

In this work, we study how chain topology can induce different polymorphic behaviors in poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)-based materials. A linear PVDF precursor with two azido groups at the junction point, (PVDFx-N3)2 and three 4-miktoarm star copolymers (PVDFx)2-b-(PEOy)2 poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) arms were synthesized employed study. The amphiphilic miktoarm prepared by a combination of ani...

Logic gate nanoparticles, where two chemical transformations take place one after the other, were successfully formulated from a newly synthesized random co-polymer. This polymer, poly([2,2'-(propane-2,2-diylbis(oxy))bis(ethane-2,1-diyl) diacrylate ]-co-[hexane-1,6-diyl diacrylate]-4,4' trimethylene dipiperidine), (poly-β-aminoester ketal-2) contains two pH responsive moieties within its backbo...

Multiarm star polymers, denoted PEIx-PLAy and containing a hyperbranched poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI) core of different molecular weights x and poly(lactide) (PLA) arms with y ratio of lactide repeat units to N links were used in this work. Samples were preconditioned to remove the moisture content and then characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) ...

A novel, fluorescent chemosensor based on β-(2-pyridyl)acrolein-rhodamine B (RB-AC) derivative was synthesized and its sensing performance with poly(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate (PEGDMA) polymer particle was investigated. The prepared β-(2-pyridyl)acrolein-rhodamine B/poly(ethylene glycol)dimethacrylate (PEGDMA/ RB-AC) particle was used for sensing of Al3+. The PEGDMA/RB-AC particles showed ...