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Hydrogels, known for their mechanical and chemical similarity to biological tissues, are widely used in biotechnologies, whereas semiconductors provide advanced electronic and optoelectronic functionalities such as signal amplification, sensing, and photomodulation. Combining semiconducting properties with hydrogel designs can enhance biointeractive functions and intimacy at biointerfaces, but this is challenging owing to the low hydrophilicity of polymer semiconductors. We developed a solvent affinity–induced assembly method that incorporates water-insoluble polymer semiconductors into double-network hydrogels. These semiconductors exhibited tissue-level moduli as soft as 81 kilopascals, stretchability of 150% strain, and charge-carrier mobility up to 1.4 square centimeters per volt per second. When they are interfaced with biological tissues, their tissue-level modulus enables alleviated immune reactions. The hydrogel’s high porosity enhances molecular interactions at semiconductor-biofluid interfaces, resulting in photomodulation with higher response and volumetric biosensing with higher sensitivity. 

Abstract Ferroptosis has been shown to play a crucial role in preventing cancer development, but the underlying mechanisms of dysregulated genes and genetic alternations driving cancer development by regulating ferroptosis remain unclear. Here, we showed that the synergistic role of ELF3 overexpression and PTEN deficiency in driving lung cancer development was highly dependent on the regulation of ferroptosis. HumanELF3(hELF3) overexpression in murine lung epithelial cells only caused hyperplasia with increased proliferation and ferroptosis. hELF3overexpression andPtengenetic disruption significantly induced lung tumor development with increased proliferation and inhibited ferroptosis. Mechanistically, we found it was due to the induction of SCL7A11, a typical ferroptosis inhibitor, and ELF3 directly and positively regulated SCL7A11 in the PTEN-deficient background. Erastin-mediated inhibition of SCL7A11 induced ferroptosis in cells with ELF3 overexpression and PTEN deficiency and thus inhibited cell colony formation and tumor development. Clinically, human lung tumors showed a negative correlation betweenELF3andPTENexpression and a positive correlation betweenELF3andSCL7A11in a subset of human lung tumors withPTEN-low expression.ELF3andSCL7A11expression levels were negatively associated with lung cancer patients’ survival rates. In summary, ferroptosis induction can effectively attenuate lung tumor development induced byELF3overexpression andPTENdownregulation or loss-of-function mutations. 

The use of bioelectronic devices relies on direct contact with soft biotissues. For transistor-type bioelectronic devices, the semiconductors that need to have direct interfacing with biotissues for effective signal transduction do not adhere well with wet tissues, thereby limiting the stability and conformability at the interface. We report a bioadhesive polymer semiconductor through a double-network structure formed by a bioadhesive brush polymer and a redox-active semiconducting polymer. The resulting semiconducting film can form rapid and strong adhesion with wet tissue surfaces together with high charge-carrier mobility of ~1 square centimeter per volt per second, high stretchability, and good biocompatibility. Further fabrication of a fully bioadhesive transistor sensor enabled us to produce high-quality and stable electrophysiological recordings on an isolated rat heart and in vivo rat muscles.