Lei Zhang

Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter- Chinese Academy of Sciences

Aims This study aims to delve into the anti-fatigue and sleep-aiding effects of various formulations containing Ganoderma lucidum extracts. Materials and methods PGB [incorporating Ganoderma lucidum extract (GE), broken Ganoderma lucidum spore powder (GB) and Paecilomyces hepiali mycelium (PH)] and GBS [composed of GE, GB, and Ganoderma sinense po...

Supramolecular assemblies fabricated by peptide-photosensitizer conjugates have attracted increasing attentions in recent years as drug carriers for chemotherapeutics (CTs). However, these assemblies have been known to suffer from disintegration by serum components leading to off-target drug release, and thereby impairing antitumor effects and caus...

P-glycoprotein (P-gp/ABCB1)-mediated multidrug resistance (MDR) in cancers severely limit chemotherapeutic efficacy. We recently reported that phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) 110α and 110β subunits can be novel targets for reversal of P-gp mediated MDR in cancers, and BAY-1082439 as an inhibitor specific for PI3K 110α and 110β subunits could r...

Chemotherapy is one of the important methods to treat cancer, and the emergence of multidrug resistance (MDR) is one major cause for the failure of cancer chemotherapy. Almost all anti-tumor drugs develop drug resistance over a period of time of application in cancer patients, reducing their effects on killing cancer cells. Chemo resistance can lea...

Background: Multidrug resistance (MDR) mediated by ATP binding cassette subfamily B member 1 (ABCB1/P-gp) is a major cause of cancer chemotherapy failure, but the regulation mechanisms are largely unknown. Methods: Based on single gene knockout, we studied the regulation of CDK6-PI3K axis on ABCB1-mediated MDR in human cancer cells. CRISPR/Cas9...

The efficacy of cancer chemotherapy can be attenuated or abrogated by multidrug resistance (MDR) in cancer cells. In this study, we determined the effect of the CDK4/6 inhibitor, ribociclib (or LEE011), on P-glycoprotein (P-gp)-mediated MDR in the human epidermoid carcinoma MDR cell line, KB-C2, which is widely used for studying P-gp-mediated MDR i...

Globally, the incidence of thromboembolic diseases has increased in recent years, accompanied by an increase in patient mortality. Currently, several targeting delivery strategies have been developed to treat thromboembolic diseases. In this review, we discuss the mechanisms of thrombolysis and current anticoagulant drugs, particularly those with t...

C086, a derivative of curcumin, was previously identified as a novel heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) inhibitor and was found to exhibit stronger anti-tumor activity than curcumin. However, the inferior water solubility of C086 limits both its bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy. In this study, we aimed to improve the solubility and consequently...

At present, the development of antineoplastic drugs has been highly concerned. Many strategies have been developed to explore the safety and effectiveness of antitumor drugs. In recent years, the progress of structural analysis of tumor-associated proteins provides a solid foundation for the design of new targeted drugs through efficient prediction...

Escherichia coli (E. coli) DH5α has been recognized as a non-pathogenic bacterial strain with tumor colonization ability. However, whether such a bacteria-driven drug-delivery system can improve the targeting of tumor therapy or not remains essentially untouched. Herein, a series of zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) photosensitizers with different numbers...

Staphyloxanthin (STX) is a virulence factor produced by Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) including methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), a widely distributed Gram-positive bacterium related to several clinical human infections. We herein reported that Naftifine, a broad-spectrum antifungal agent, plays an important role on photodynamic antimicro...

Background The protein plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), an inhibitor specific for urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) and tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), has been shown to have a key role in cancer metastases. Currently, it is unknown as to whether the exocellular inhibition of PAI-1 can inhibit the migration of cancer cells. Metho...

Conventional antibodies used for cancer therapies can only target the extracellular epitopes of tumor-associated antigens (TAAs); however, they struggle to enter cancer cells to interact with intracellular TAAs. Intrabodies are the engineered single-chain antibodies that can be transferred to the living cells or expressed within the cells and targe...

Background: PI3K/AKT is a vital signaling pathway in humans. Recently, several PI3K/AKT inhibitors were reported to have the ability to reverse cancer multidrug resistance (MDR); however, specific targets in the PI3K/AKT pathways and the mechanisms associated with MDR have not been found because many of the inhibitors have multiple targets within...

The overexpression of ABC transporters induced by anticancer drugs has been found to be the main cause of multidrug resistance. It is actually also a strategy by which cancer cells escape being killed. Tetrandrine is a natural product extracted from the stem of Tinospora crispa. In this study, tetrandrine showed synergistic cytotoxic activity in co...

Vaccination is one of the most effective approaches in the prevention and control of disease worldwide. Oral vaccination could have wide applications if effective protection cannot be achieved through traditional (eg, parenteral) routes of vaccination. However, oral administration is hampered by the difficulties in transferring vaccines in vivo. Th...

Conventional oral vaccines with simple architecture face barriers with regard to stimulating effective immunity. Here we describe oral vaccines with an intelligent phase-transitional shielding layer, poly[(methyl methacrylate)-co-(methyl acrylate)-co-(methacrylic acid)]-poly(d,l-lactide-co-glycolide) (PMMMA-PLGA), which can protect antigens in the...

Human DAB2 interaction protein (DAB2IP) is a member of Ras-GTPase activating protein family and functions as a tumor suppressor, implying it could serve as a prognostic biomarker in cancers. Here we generated a mouse monoclonal antibody, 2A4, directed against human DAB2IP. This antibody was identified as IgG1 and specifically recognizes DAB2IP in b...

Transgene transfection techniques using cationic polymers such as polyethylenimines (PEIs) and PEI derivatives as gene vectors have shown efficacy, although they also have shortcomings. PEIs have decent DNA-binding capability and good cell internalization performance, but they cannot deliver gene payloads very efficiently to cell nuclei. In this st...

Hyperbranched amphiphilic polymer PG6-PLA-PEG was synthesized through grafting hydrophobic poly(D,L-lactide) (PLA) segments and hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) blocks to hydrophilic hyperbranched polyglycerol core (PG6), subsequently. To achieve cell targeting property, folic acid (FA) was further incorporated to the hyperbranched polymer t...

Hyperbranched polymers, PG6-PEI25k and PG6-PEI800, were synthesized through grafting branched polyethylenimines (PEIs) with molecular weights of 25 kDa and 800 Da to a polyglycerol core (PG6), respectively. The structure of the polymers was characterized by 1H NMR and FTIR. Through agarose gel electrophoresis retardation assay, PG6-PEI25k and PG6-P...

Temperature- and pH-sensitive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid-co-poly(ε-caprolactone)) (P(NIPAAm-co-AAc-co-PCL)) hydrogels were synthesized to immobilize plasmidDNA (pDNA) compacted with heparin-modified polyethyleneimine (Hep/PEI). The interior morphology of the prepared hydrogels observed by SEM showed macroporous structure clearly. It...

A strategy for efficient gene delivery and expression was developed by encapsulating complexes of plasmidDNA and heparin-modified polyethylenimine into thermosensitive dextran–poly(ε-caprolactone)–2-hydroxylethylmethacrylate–poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (Dex-PCL-HEMA-PNIPAAm) hydrogels. Thermosensitive hydrogels (THs) with different compositions wer...

This study aimed to develop endurance to copper stress in Potamogeton crispus L. by inoculation with the anti-copper strain ACU - a novel Enterobacteriaceae bacterium isolated from the rhizosphere of Eichhornia crassipes with high copper-removal ability. A spherical copper-resistant bacterium, namely ACU, was isolated from the rhizosphere of E. cra...

Bacillus thuringiensis produces various groups of active proteins, such as Cyt, Vip and Parasporin, in addition to the Cry protein. In this study we show S-layer proteins to be a new group of parasporal inclusions of B. thuringiensis. The S-layer consists of a two-dimensional lattice structure and is the outermost component of many archaeobacteria...

Two genes, ctc and ctc2, responsible for surface layer (S-layer) protein synthesis in Bacillus thuringiensis CTC, were mutated and resulted in B. thuringiensis Tr5. To synthesize and express the N-acyl-homoserine lactonase (AHL-lactonase) in the extracellular space of B. thuringiensis, the aiiA ( 4Q7 ) gene (an AHL-lactonase gene from B. thuringien...

Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) has strong ability to remove Cu2+ from copper-contaminated water. Physiological responses in E. crassipes exposed to known concentrations of Cu2+ were examined in this study, and demonstrated that E. crassipes could accumulate 314 mg kg−1 dry weight of Cu when exposed to 5 mg l−1 of Cu2+ for periods up to 14 d. However,...

The resolution recognization sites of transposon Tn4430 of Bacillus thuringiensis was inserted into cloning vector pRSET B and pUC19, resulting recombinant plasmids pBMB1201 and pBMB1202. Both of the mini res fragments, BamHI/HindIII fragment in pBMB1201 and EcoRI/HindIII fragment in pBMB1202, were ligated to the 3.3 kb EcoRI/HindIII fragment of sh...

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a Gram-positive bacterium, belonging to Genus 2, Bacillus, in Group 18, as classified in Bergey’s Manual of Determinative Bacteriology (ninth Edition). One of the characteristics of Bt is that proteinaceous crystals appear in the cells during sporulation. The parasporal crystals have been extensively researched and wi...