Ai-Wei Lee

Taipei Medical University | TMU · Department of Anatomy

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) not only posed major health and economic burdens to international societies but also threatens patients with comorbidities and underlying autoimmune disorders, including Crohn’s disease (CD) patients. As the vaccinated population is gradually relieved from the stress of the latest omicron...

Oxaliplatin (OXA) is the first-line chemotherapy drug for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), and the emergence of drug resistance is a major clinical challenge. Although there have been numerous studies on OXA resistance, but its underlying molecular mechanisms are still unclear. This study aims to identify key regulatory genes and pathways assoc...

Poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA) brushes were tethered on a silicon surface possessing a 500-nm hole array via atom transfer radical polymerization after the modification of the halogen group. Dextran-biotin (DB) was sequentially immobilized on the PMAA chains to obtain a P(MAA-DB) brush surrounding the hole edges on the silicon surface. After loading...

Malignant glioma can be divided into grade III (Gr. III) and grade IV (Gr. IV). Gr. III glioma patients have significantly better overall survival (OS) than those with Gr. IV glioma, also known as glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). We explored differentially expressed genes (DEGs) from the GSE4290 and GSE109857 datasets between Gr. III and Gr. IV gliom...

Skin is an important organ that mainly functions as a barrier. Skin diseases can damage a person’s self-confidence and reduce their willingness to socialize, as well as their social behavior and willingness. When the skin appearance is abnormal, in addition to affecting the quality of life, it often leads to personal, social, and psychological dysf...

We report a significant breakthrough in the development of complementary hydrogen-bonded drug-carrier systems, namely the construction of self-assembled nanoparticles with desirable functionalities conferred by the presence of stable complementary uracil–adenine (U–A) hydrogen bonding interactions between the drug and carrier complex. Herein, an ad...

Functionalized amphiphilic polymers consisting of hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol) pendant groups and a hydrophobic poly(epichlorohydrin) backbone can spontaneously self-organize into single-chain polymeric nanoparticles (SCPNs) in water, without exhibiting concentration-dependent effects or requiring additional reactive additives or subsequent pu...

Water-soluble conjugated polymers (WCPs) composed of a hydrophobic polythiophene main chain with hydrophilic tertiary amine side-chains can directly self-assemble into sphere-like nano-objects in an aqueous solution due to phase separation between the hydrophilic and hydrophobic segments of the polymeric structure. Due to the presence of gas-respon...

Physically crosslinked supramolecular polymers composed of a hydrophobic poly(epichlorohydrin) backbone with hydrogen-bonding cytosine pendant groups and hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) side chains spontaneously self-assemble to form highly controlled, reversible supramolecular polymer networks (SPNs) due to cytosine-induced transient cross...

Lycopene is the most abundant carotenoid in tomatoes, which has been identified to have the properties of anti-inflammation in addition to the capability to inhibit the expression of adhesion molecules. Intercellular adhesion molecules play a critical role in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. Here, we report that the topical use of a lycopene decrease...

pH-Responsive hydrogen-bonded supramolecular micelles, composed of a water-soluble poly(ethylene glycol) polymer with two terminal sextuple hydrogen bonding groups, can spontaneously organize in aqueous media to give well-defined, uniformly sized spherical micelles. The supramolecular micelles exhibit a number of unique physical characteristics, su...

The geometry of resonant absorbers (RA) is varied by tryptic digestion to design a probe platform. The process includes fabrication of a line array of poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA) brush as an RA, tailed by the immobilization of gelatin. The gelatin-modified PMAA RA is a kind of one-dimensional plasmonic grating, possessing an optical feature with...

Water-soluble supramolecular polymers can be created by incorporation of self-complementary multiple hydrogen bonding groups. However, technically simple fabrication of water-soluble supramolecular polymers with highly desirable physical properties—to achieve micelles suitable for effective delivery of drugs for cancer treatment—remains a significa...

Electrospun polyacrylonitrile fiber membranes (EPFMs) were coated with multilayer films, assembled using the layer-by-layer (LbL) technique through the alternate deposition of poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), to develop an antithrombogenic drug release membrane for hemodialysis. Methylene blue (MB) and heparin (HEP...

The new concept of modifying and tailoring the properties of existing two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials by invoking the assembly of supramolecular networks upon association with a adenine-functionalized macromer (A-PPG) has significant potential to facilitate the development of highly water-dispersible few-layered 2D nanosheets. In this study, we...

An ultrasensitive light-responsive block copolymer, a combination of multi-armed poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(caprolactone) polymer as a water-soluble element and maleimide-anthracene linkers as a photosensitive group, was successfully synthesized and rapidly self-assembles to form spherical micellar nanoparticles in aqueous media and phosphate-buf...

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease. Even though scientists predict that abnormalities in lipid metabolism play an important role in the pathogenesis of psoriasis, the actual underlying mechanisms are still unclear. Therefore, understanding the possible relationship between mechanisms of the occurrence of psoriasis and dyslipidemia is...

Dipeptidyl peptidase‐4 (DPP‐4) inhibitors are a well‐known and novel class of oral anti‐hyperglycemic drugs. DPP‐4 inhibition facilitates ulcer healing in patients with diabetes. However, the actual mechanisms, which are independent of lower blood glucose levels, are still unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the effect of the D...

Self-assembled pH-responsive polymeric micelles, a combination of hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol) segments and hydrogen bonding interactions within a biocompatible polyurethane substrate, can spontaneously self-assemble into highly controlled, nanosized micelles in aqueous solution. These newly-developed micelles exhibit excellent pH-responsive b...

Environmental stimuli-responsive nucleobase-functionalized supramolecular polymers, a combination of oligomeric polypropylene glycol segments as a thermosensitive element and hydrogen-bonded uracil as a photosensitive moiety, were successfully developed and undergo spontaneous self-assembly to form uniform nanosized micelles via self-complementary...

Background: In addition to conventional approaches, detecting and characterizing CTCs in patient blood allows for early diagnosis of cancer metastasis. Methods: We blended poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) into nylon-6 through electrospinning to generate a fibrous matbased circulating tumour cells (CTCs) assay. The contents of nylon-6 and PEO in the el...

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) was grafted on silica (Si) surfaces in the form of one-dimensional (1D) gratings to form well-defined line patterns. The tethered PAN 1D gratings were then subjected to a cyano-to-tetrazole conversion reaction to generate a tethered polyvinyltetrazole (PVT) 1D grating. This results in different properties for the transverse...

We grafted azido-terminated poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) brushes onto thin gold films on silicon as a bottom electrode. A probe of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) presenting a 4-pentynoic acid succinimidyl ester unit was grafted onto the azido-terminated PNIPAAm brushes through a click reaction, resulting in block copolymer brushes. The PNIPAA...

Conventional in vitro circulating tumor cell (CTC) detection methods are always limited by the blood sample volume because of the extremely low abundance of CTCs among the large number of hematologic cells. The aim of this study was to overcome this limitation by designing and constructing an in vitro CTC capture assay. We blended poly(sulfobetaine...

In this study we used the poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) as a medium to blend with a organic DNA, herring sperm DNA (HSD), to generate PNIPAAm-HSD supramolecular complexes. Bio-multiple hydrogen bonding (BMHB) between PNIPAAm and HSD was investigated that changed the temperature responsiveness of PNIPAAm relatively to the HSD concentrations....

Electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers of very small diameters have potential for integration into filters capable of increasing the particle filtration efficiency. To fulfill the requirements for high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters with a reasonable pressure drop, we generated aligned electrospun PAN fibers through pre-alignment at...

In this study we employed poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) as a matrix that we hybridized with five different nucleobase units (adenine, thymine, uracil, guanine, cytosine) to generate PNIPAAm–nucleobase supramolecular complexes (PNSCs) stabilized through bio-multiple hydrogen bonds (BMHBs). These nucleobase units interacted with PNIPAAm throu...

Poly(2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) was grafted onto flat silicon substrates via atom transfer radical polymerization to form bottom layers. Two fabrication processes, very-large-scale integration and reactive ion etching, were applied in sequence to generate 400 nm-scale hole arrays of tethered poly(2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) layers as...

Study design: Experimental, controlled, animal study. Objectives: To assess the effects of vitamins C and E (VCE) treatment on oxidative stress and programmed cell deaths after rat spinal cord injury (SCI), as well as functional recovery. Setting: Taiwan. Methods: Fifty-four Sprague-Dawley rats were used for the experimental procedure. In th...

In this study we fabricated a nanopillar array of silicon oxide, involving very-large-scale integration (VLSI) and reactive ion etching (RIE), as two-dimensional periodic relief gratings (2DPRGs) on Si surfaces. Thiolated oligonucleotide was successively immobilized on the thiol functionalized surfaces of 2DPRGs by disulfide bond as an optical prob...