Li Li

The University of Queensland | UQ · Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology

Bone metastasized breast cancer reduces the quality of life and median survival. Targeted delivery of small interfering RNA (siRNA) and chemotherapeutic drugs using nanoparticles (NPs) is a promising strategy to overcome current limitations in treating these metastatic breast cancers. This research develops alendronate conjugated polyethylene glyco...

Chemotherapy is a critical modality in cancer therapy to combat malignant cell proliferation by directly attacking cancer cells and inducing immunogenic cell death, serving as a vital component of multi‐modal treatment strategies for enhanced therapeutic outcomes. However, chemotherapy may inadvertently contribute to the immunosuppression of the tu...

Cancer chemotherapy is generally associated with many severe adverse effects. Many cancer studies are currently focused on repurposing conventional non-toxic anti-parasite drugs for cancer treatment. Since cancer cells and parasites have many features in common, some anti-parasite drugs such as benzimidazoles have been recently found to possess the...

Oral vaccine is a non-invasive, ideal way to protect communities from infectious diseases. Effective vaccine delivery systems are required to enhance vaccine absorption in the small intestine and its cellular uptake by immune cells. Here, we constructed alginate/chitosan-coated cellulose nanocrystal (Alg-Chi-CNC) and nanofibril (Alg-Chi-CNF) nanoco...

Efficient multi-targeted intervention of complex pathogenic factors may hold promises for Alzheimer's disease (AD) treatment due to the continuous failure of single-targeted therapy in clinics. To this end, we developed two dual-targeted layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanoparticle (NP)-based nanomedicines in this research for simultaneously reducin...

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one key technology in modern diagnostic medicine. However, the development of high-relaxivity contrast agents with favorable properties for imaging applications remains a challenging task. In this work, dual Gd(III) and Cu(II) doped-layered double hydroxide (GdCu-LDH) nanoparticles show significantly higher longi...

Nanocellulose-contained suspensions significantly enhance the wettability of three plant leaves, increase the water adhesion onto the foliage, improve topical delivery of three model pesticides, and effectively resist rain wash-off from leaves.

The cancer cell membrane (CCM) emerges as an advanced cancer treatment vaccine to boost the immune response against cancer and has shown great potential in cancer immunotherapy. However, the CCM vaccine faces the challenges of a weak and short immune response, ascribing to the immune escape and low accumulation of CCM in the antigen presentation ce...

Direct hypoxia alleviation and lactate depletion in the tumor microenvironment (TME) are promising for effective cancer therapy but still very challenging. To address this challenge, the current research directly reshapes the TME for inhibiting tumor growth and activating the antitumor immunity using a drug-free nanozyme. Herein, the acid-sensitive...

Novel sonosensitizers with intrinsic characteristics for tumor diagnosis, efficient therapy, and tumor microenvironment regulation are appealing in current sonodynamic therapy. Herein, a manganese (Mn)‐layered double hydroxide‐based defect‐rich nanoplatform is presented as a new type of sono‐chemo sensitizer, which allows ultrasound to efficiently...

Antibiotic resistance of bacteria has caused a significant public health challenge and economic problem, resulting in a necessity to find efficient antibacterial agents. Conventional bactericidal agents hinder the growth of bacteria by slowing down the cell wall synthesis or disturbing bacterial DNA replication, protein production or other bacteria...

PEGylation is a common method use to modify the physiochemical properties and increase the solubility of chitosan (CHI). Knowledge of optimal reaction conditions for PEGylation of CHI underpins its ongoing use in nanomedicine. This study synthesised methoxy polyethylene glycol grafted CHI (mPEG-CHI) using carbodiimide-mediated coupling. The effect...

Pleiotropic drug nanoformulation promises the enhanced efficacy of nanomedicines on market. Our recent work demonstrated that polydopamine (PDA)‐based drug encapsulation is a potential strategy for such nanoformulation, yet its mechanism remains poorly investigated. This work elucidates the mechanism of PDA‐encapsulated Cur nanoformulations (CP NPs...

Metallodrug platinum compounds are indispensable components in the current standard combination for colorectal cancer treatment yet with severe additional adverse effects compromising the clinical outcomes. Having tumor microenvironment modulation and immunostimulatory effect, bio-compatible manganese (Mn) materials hold great promise for developin...

The oral vaccine has attracted much interest due to easy administration, induction of local and systemic immune responses, and pain relief. Nowadays, functional nanoparticles and nanocomposites consisting of inorganic and organic materials as carriers or adjuvants have shown the enhanced antigen absorption in the gut and improved immune response vi...

Dynamic drug delivery systems (DDSs) have the ability of transforming their morphology and functionality in response to the biological microenvironments at the disease site and/or external stimuli, show spatio-temporal controllable drug delivery, and enhance the treatment efficacy. Due to the large surface area and modification flexibility, two-dim...

Background Multi-modal therapy has attracted increasing attention as it provides enhanced effectiveness and potential stimulation of the immune community. However, low accumulation at the tumor sites and quick immune clearance of the anti-tumor agents are still insurmountable challenges. Hypothetically, cancer cell membrane (CCM) can homologously t...

Therapeutic delivery systems have been developed and used to carry therapeutic agents such as drugs, proteins, and genes to targeted disease sites to enhance drug efficacy and reduce toxicity. However, off-target and immunogenicity remain the major challenges for delivery systems. To overcome these problems, various cell-mediated delivery platforms...

Immunotherapy has made great progress in recent years while most cancer patients cannot benefit from it. Photochemotherapy combination strategy holds great promise for developing novel immunotherapy for the patients bearing immunosuppressive tumors such as colon cancer. In this research, a novel core/shell-structured polydopamine (PDA)-based nanopl...

2D nanomaterials are widely investigated for biomedical applications, attributed to their large specific surface area, high therapeutic loading capacity, and unique optical, thermal, and/or electronic characteristics. Lattice defects affect the theranostic performance of 2D nanomaterials significantly by altering their electronic properties and che...

Nanomedicine has gained much attention for the management and treatment of cancers due to the distinctive physicochemical properties of the drug‐loaded particles. Chitosan's cationic nature is attractive for the development of such particles for drug delivery, transfection, and controlled release. The particle properties can be improved by modifica...

Background: Colon cancer is a top lethal cancer in man and women worldwide and drug resistance is the major cause of cancer-related death. Combinational therapy and drug delivery with nanoparticles have been shown to effectively overcome drug resistance in many cancers. We previously reported that nanoemulsion (NE) loaded paclitaxel (PTX) and BEZ2...

Combination chemotherapy with two or more complimentary drugs has been widely used for clinical cancer treatment. However, the efficacy and side effects of combination chemotherapy still remains a challenge. Here, we constructed an albumin-stabilized layered double hydroxide nanoparticle (BLDH) system to simultaneously load and deliver two widely u...

The success of cancer therapy is always accompanied by severe side effects due to the high amount of toxic antitumor drugs that off-target normal organs/tissues. Herein, we report the development of a trifunctional layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanosystem for combined photochemotherapy of skin cancer at very low therapeutic doses. This nanosystem...

Studies of insect movement are hampered by the small size of insects and the associated difficulty in tracking them in the environment. We tested the potential of quantum dots (QDs) to mark large numbers of insects very quickly. Our results demonstrate that green CdTe (cadmium tellurium) QDs were effective markers in the laboratory and can be appli...

Combination therapy has been extensively studied to achieve a more efficient inhibition of tumor progression. Herein, a nanoplatform based on layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanoparticles (NPs) is specifically constructed for the effective combination breast cancer therapy without the traditional anticancer drug. Cu‐containing LDH NPs loaded with in...

Oral administration of vaccines has been limited due to low immune response compared to parenteral administration. Antigen degradation in the acidic gastrointestinal environment (GI), mucus barriers, and inefficient cellular uptake by immune cells are the major challenges for oral vaccine delivery. To solve these issues, the current study investiga...

Nanotheranostics have been actively sought in precision nanomedicine in recent years. However, insufficient tumor accumulation and limited cell uptake often impede the nanotheranostic efficacy. Herein, pH‐sensitive charge‐reversible polymer‐coated layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanohybrids are devised to possess long circulation in blood but reserv...

Breast cancer is the most common one in women worldwide and doxorubicin (Dox) is one of the most commonly used and effective drugs for breast cancer treatment. Unfortunately, Dox-based chemotherapy faces irreversible cardiotoxicity and unsatisfactory therapy efficiency. It is desirable to devise Dox nanoformulations with less adverse effects and gr...

In article number number 1900343, Zhi Ping Xu, Zi Gu, and co‐workers describe how two‐dimensional layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanoparticles are able to act as “spaceships” to achieve targeted delivery so as to enhance diagnostic/therapeutic efficiency and minimize systemic toxicity. With tunable layered structures and pH‐triggered biodegradabili...

Continuous blood purification technology such as hemodiafiltration has been used worldwide for saving patients suffering from severe diseases or organ function failure, especially in the intensive care unit and emergency setting. The filters as core devices are commonly made of polymer materials as hollow fiber membranes. However, the membrane is o...

Overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is commonly known as a key factor in the progression of many chronic inflammation diseases such as atherosclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. In this study, a metal oxide nanodot coated-layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanocomposite is constructed for theranostics of ROS-related diseases. This is the fir...

Hybrid supercapacitors (HSCs) are promising new energy storage devices offering both high power density and good energy density. However, because of the energy storage mechanism difference in two electrodes, the capacity imbalance issue is challenging which often results in limited specific capability in the HSCs. The conventional approach by balan...

Amine-functionalized adsorbents have attracted much attention in removing indoor CO2 to reduce the risk of human health. In current work, polyethyleneimine (PEI) modified silica monolith (PEIx-silica) was synthesized through a sol-gel method using PEI with molecular weight of 750000, 25000 and 10000 as template agents. The N2 adsorption result reve...

2D nanomaterials represent one of the next‐generation biomaterials with versatile physicochemical advantages that allow for diverse biomedical applications in disease diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. In particular, layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanoparticles, as a typical 2D nanomaterial, have recently shown unprecedented advances in controll...

19F magnetic resonance imaging (19F MRI) agents capable of being activated upon interactions with cancer triggers are attracting increasing attention, although challenges still remain for precise and specific detection of cancer tissues. In this study, a novel hybrid 19F MRI agent for pH‐sensitive detection of breast cancer tissues is reported, a c...

Tumor theranostics (a portmanteau of therapeutics and diagnostics) is now achieved in various ways with complex nanoparticle systems. Layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanoparticles are effective at drug/gene delivery and as imaging agents in potential tumor theranostics. This mini-review paper summarizes recent progress in developing LDH nanoparticle...

Suitable carriers are crucial to RNAi applications for cancer genotherapy and T-cell immunotherapy. In this research, we selected two extensively-investigated biocompatible inorganic nanoparticle carriers, i.e., layered double hydroxide (LDH) and lipid-coated calcium phosphate (LCP) and then compared their efficacy for siRNA delivery in T cells, in...

Responsive nanoprobes play an important role in bioassay and bioimaging, early diagnosis of diseases and treatment monitoring. Herein, a upconversional nanoparticle (UCNP)‐based nanoprobe, Ru@UCNPs, for specific sensing and imaging of hypochlorous acid (HOCl) is reported. This Ru@UCNP nanoprobe consists of two functional components,, i.e., NaYF4:Yb...

Nanoparticles (NPs) are intensively investigated as adjuvants in new generation vaccines, while how these NPs promote the immune responses has not been well understood. In this research, we have tried to elucidate the possible pathways for layered double hydroxide (LDH) NPs to provoke immune responses. As previously reported, LDH NPs efficiently de...

The pH in tumour cells and the tumour microenvironment has played important roles in cancer development and treatment. It was thought that both the extracellular and intracellular pH values in tumours are acidic and lower than in normal cells. However, recent progress in the measurement of pH in tumour tissue has disclosed that the intracellular pH...

Metals and metalloids play fundamental roles in many physiological processes in biological systems, but imbalance of these elements in the body may cause many diseases, such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and even cancers. Thus, to better understand the metallome in health and disease, quantitative determination of their localization,...

A delivery platform with highly selective permeability through blood brain barrier (BBB) is essential for brain disease treatment. In this research, we designed and prepared a novel target nano-platform, i.e. layered double hydroxide nanoparticle (LDH) conjugated with targeting peptide-ligand angiopep2 (Ang2) or rabies virus glycoprotein (RVG) via...

This study focussed on the formulation, characterisation of lemon myrtle (LM) and anise myrtle (AM) essential oil (EO) in water nanoemulsion and their antibacterial activity. The required hydrophilic lipophilic balance (rHLB) value of LM EO and AM EO was 14 and 12, respectively. The Central Composite Rotatable Design (CCRD) model produces the small...

Upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) are one kind of luminescence nanomaterials that convert low energy photons to high energy emissions. These nanomaterials have recently attracted enormous attention due to their unique photophysical properties, such as resistance to photobleaching and photoblinking, low background autofluorescence, and long lumines...

Initially emerging as a widely used clinical antiparasitic drug, albendazole (ABZ) has been increasingly recognized as an effective anticancer agent due to its outstanding advantage, in other words, low toxicity to normal cells but high effectiveness against parasites and some tumors. The major challenge is its poor water solubility and subsequentl...

A novel sandwich-like composite with ultrathin CoAl-LDH nanoplates electrostatically assembled on both sides of 2D polypyrrole/graphene (PG) substrate has been successfully fabricated using facile hydrothermal techniques. The PG not only serves as an excellent conductive and structural scaffold to enhance the transmission of electrons and prevents...

In the search for novel solid acid catalysts for the gas-phase catalytic dehydration of glycerol to acrolein, sepiolite clay minerals were activated with hydrochloric acid to produce acid-activated sepiolite catalysts. The effects of the activation process on the texture and acidity of acid-activated sepiolite, and their roles in gas-phase catalyti...

Sheet-like layered double hydroxide nanoparticles (LDH NPs) have showed great potentials in biomedical applications such as nanocarriers for drug and gene delivery, biosensors and imaging agents. However, target delivery of drugs and genes using LDH NPs to the desired tumor sites is a major challenge in cancer therapy. The aim of this study is to d...

The hydrogenolysis of glycerol is considered a sustainable process to produce 1,2-propanediol (1,2-PDO). However, the development of a cost-effective solid catalyst and a cleaner process minus the addition of external hydrogen remains a challenge. In the present work, a series of Cu/oxide (SiO2, MgO, Al2O3, and ZnO) catalysts were prepared and eval...

A 3D hybrid nanostructure, in which petal-like ultrathin nickel-aluminum layered double hydroxides (LDHs) are vertically grown on the conductive graphene/polypyrrole (GP) substrate, was designed and fabricated by a facile hydrothermal method. SEM and TEM observations manifest the successful synthesis of this specially-designed nanostructure, in whi...

In this work, a ZnO-layered double hydroxide@graphitic carbon nitride composite (ZnO-LDH@C 3 N 4) was synthesized via co-precipitation method with solvothermal treatment. The structure and morphology of ZnO-LDH@C 3 N 4 composite were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron micr...

In this paper, we have developed a simple yet efficient method to prepare stable single-sheet MgAl-layered double hydroxide (MA-NS) suspensions without using organic solvents or surfactants. This green approach involves a fast co-precipitation with hydrothermal treatment. The average hydrodynamic diameter of mono-disperse fully-delaminated LDH nano...

Colon cancer is the third most common cancer in the world, with drug resistance and metastasis being the major challenges to effective treatments. To overcome this, combination therapy with different chemotherapeutics is a common practice. In this study, we demonstrated that paclitaxel (PTX) together with BEZ235 exhibited a synergetic inhibition ef...

Layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanoparticles (NPs) have found various potential applications in control delivery of therapeutics, including many negatively charged drugs, oligonucleotides, genes, and peptides/proteins. The current study specifically investigated the surface coating with mesoporous silica (mSiO2) to make an [email protected]/* */2 c...

The effect of heparin adsorption on colloidal stability of layered double hydroxide particles as potential drug delivery agents was studied in aqueous suspensions. The lamellar structures were prepared by the coprecipitation method and composed of magnesium(II) and aluminium(III) mixed hydroxide as the layers and carbonate anions between the layers...

A physiologically based pharmacokinetic model was developed for accurately characterizing and predicting the in vivo fate of long-circulating inorganic nanoparticles (NPs). This model is built based on direct visualization of NP disposition details at the organ and cellular level. It was validated with multiple datasets, indicating robust inter-rou...

Lipid coated calcium phosphate (LCP) nanoparticles (NPs) remain an attractive option for siRNA systemic delivery. Previous research has shown that the stoichiometry of reactants affects the size and morphology of nanostructured calcium phosphate (CaP) particles. However, it is unclear how synthesis parameters such as the Ca/P molar ratio and mixing...

One of the major challenges for nanoparticles to be used as a drug/gene delivery platform is their tendency to aggregate in electrolyte solution (physiological environment). The present work introduced albumin pre-coating strategy that effectively prevented inorganic layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanoparticles with different sizes and interlayer a...

Control preparation, aqueous stability, and ion release of several Cu–Zn-containing crystals in suspensions have been investigated as potential dual micronutrient foliar fertilizers. These crystals were prepared by quick co-precipitation through simultaneously adding potassium hydroxide and copper salt solutions into zinc salt solution, and charact...

Electroplating sludges, once regarded as industrial wastes, are precious resources of various transition metals. This research has thus investigated the recycling of an electroplating sludge as a novel carbon-doped metal (Fe, Ni, Mg, Cu and Zn) catalyst, which was different from a traditional carbon-supported metal catalyst, for effective NO select...

The wide use of metal electroplating involving CN(-) necessitates the cost-effective treatment of both CN and metals (Zn, Cu, Ni etc.). In this research, we developed a novel strategy - Ni(2+)-assisted layered double hydroxide (LDH) precipitation - to simultaneously remove aqueous CN and Zn/Ni metals. The strategy is to convert CN(-)/Zn(CN)4(2-) to...

Colon cancer is the third most common cancer and the third largest cause of cancer-related death. Fluorouracil (5-FU) is the front-line chemotherapeutic agent for colon cancer. However, its response rate is less than 60%, even in combination with other chemotherapeutic agents. The side effects of 5-FU also limit its application. Nanoparticles have...

Nanoscale crystals containing manganese and iron as potential foliar fertilizers have been further investigated with the experience accumulated from previous research on potential zinc foliar fertilizer. Compared to Zn(II), Mn(II) and Fe(II) are easily oxidisable in ambient environment, adding stricter criteria to compound selection to prevent oxid...

The synthesis method of layered double hydroxides (LDHs) determines nanoparticles' performance in biomedical applications. In this study, hydrothermal treatment as an important synthesis technique has been examined for its influence on the physicochemical properties and the drug release rate from drug-containing LDHs. We synthesised MgAl-LDHs inter...

In this work a novel strategy has been developed to prepare well-dispersed amine-functionalized SiO2 nanodot-coated layered double hydroxide nanocomposite (NH2-SiO2@LDH) via electrostatic interactions and condensation of (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES). This nanocomposite system is well dispersed in culture media and phosphate buffered salin...

Uniform and well-dispersed Ru nanoparticles with a diameter of 4-6 nm supported on chromium oxide (Cr2O3) nanoparticles have been prepared via the impregnation method. The catalytic activity of the Ru/Cr2O3 catalyst in ammonia decomposition and the rate of hydrogen generation are evaluated. The physical and chemical properties of Ru/Cr2O3 catalysts...

A series of iron oxide supported on alumina-intercalated clay catalysts (named Fe/Al-Lap catalysts) with mesoporous structure and high specific surface area were prepared. The structural and chemical properties were studied by nitrogen sorption isotherms, X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra (UV-vis DRS), X-ray photoelectron...

Supercapacitors that have been actively sought for electricity storage and many metal oxides/hydroxides, including transition metal-containing layered double hydroxides (LDHs), have been widely investigated. In this research, Co- or Mn-containing LDHs were prepared through precipitation in methanol, followed by the hydrothermal treatment and disper...