Na Li

Microbial infections often disrupt the delicate balance of host commensal microbiota, leading to dysbiosis and recurrent infections, yet current therapies lack the capacity to simultaneously eradicate pathogens and restore ecological homeostasis. Here, we report a synergistic therapeutic strategy for Candida vaginitis that integrates targeted pathogen clearance with vaginal microecosystem restoration. We engineer a vaginal microenvironment‐degradable hydrogel, HCS/FUC@Lab ^PC , which self‐assembles from highly deacetylated high molecular‐weight chitosan oligosaccharide (HCS) and fucoidan (FUC) to encapsulate Lactobacillus (Lab) coated with procyanidine (PC). Within the vaginal microenvironment, the hydrogel gradually degrades and releases HCS, which efficiently eliminates Candida albicans ( C. albicans ) by disrupting cell wall integrity and interfering MAPK related signaling. FUC and PC further contribute to microenvironmental remodeling through their intrinsic anti‐inflammatory and antioxidant activities. This remodeling facilitates stable colonization of Lab, which subsequently reinforces barrier integrity through competitive exclusion and metabolic modulation. In murine models, this approach effectively disrupts the infection–dysbiosis–recurrence vicious cycle, supporting an integrated therapeutic strategy that combines pathogen clearance, microenvironmental remodeling, and microecosystem restoration.

Conductively bridged metallic nanodimers could enable extreme near-field enhancement via charge-transfer plasmons (CTPs). Existing studies have focused predominantly on particles with the size of a few hundred nanometers. However, at nanometer scales, where quantum confinement and tunneling dominate the optical response, the role of conductive bridges in modulating higher-order multipolar plasmons is largely unknown, leaving a critical gap in the understanding of CTPs in the quantum size regime. Here, using time-dependent orbital-free density functional theory, we investigate quantum plasmonics in symmetric dumbbell-shaped sodium nanodisk dimers where two identical sub-10 nm nanodisks are center-connected by a conductive nanorod. Our results reveal a dual hot-spot formation, i.e., a strong CTP mode with a near field that permeates the entire gap and an exceptionally bright Bennett hot spot confined to the disk bases. This dual formation is achieved when the dipolar resonance of the bridging nanorod is energetically aligned with that of the nanodisks, and the bridging nanorod contributes negligible Bennett-type multipole modes. By systematically varying the geometry of the dumbbell-shaped nanostructure, we show that the dipolar-mode energetic overlap and the suppression of higher-order Bennett modes of the bridge depend sensitively on the bridge length, diameter, and nanodisk aspect ratio. This work introduces a quantum plasmonic design principle based on a dipolar–multipolar synergy, providing a pathway toward experimentally realizable extreme near-field enhancers for single-molecule optoelectronics, nonlinear optics, and quantum sensing.

Infected diabetic wounds are complicated by bacterial infection, oxidative stress, and hyperglycemia, limiting conventional monotherapies. Combination therapies suffer from uncontrolled release and poor responsiveness to pathological cues. Here, we report a nanoparticle-cross-linked hydrogel that integrates structural integrity with environment-triggered delivery. We utilized self-assembled epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG)-tobramycin (TOB) nanoparticles as dynamic cross-linkers within a phenylboronic acid-modified gelatin network. The engineered system provides dual-stage responsiveness: the hydrogel disassembles under the hallmark hyperglycemic and acidic conditions of diabetic wounds, releasing the nanoparticles, which then dissociate under acidity to synchronize drug release. Such sequential disassembly acts as a synergistic “one-two punch,” allowing EGCG to scavenge ROS and remodel the inflammatory microenvironment, while TOB provides prolonged antibacterial action. In vivo, the system significantly reduced bacterial load, accelerated epithelial regeneration, and promoted high-quality wound healing. By seamlessly coupling nanocontrolled release with microenvironmental sensing, we present a precision-engineered platform for the synergistic treatment of recalcitrant diabetic wounds.

Adhesives are essential in diverse industrial fields, and bioadhesives play a critical role in medicine for minimally invasive tissue repair and device integration. However, existing systems, particularly polyethylene glycol (PEG)‐based adhesives, often suffer from brittleness, inadequate performance under extreme temperatures, and limited substrate versatility. To overcome these challenges, we developed a novel polyphenol‐PEG adhesive platform through citric acid (CA)‐mediated liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS). This process, driven by CA‐regulated hydrogen bonding as confirmed by XPS, FTIR, UV spectroscopy, and solution studies, produces adhesives with exceptional properties: peel strength near 15 N/cm, shear strength exceeding 4 MPa on hydrophilic substrates, rapid adhesion within 10 s, and operational stability from liquid nitrogen temperatures up to about 150°C, maintaining over 1 MPa shear strength at 200°C exposure. The adhesive demonstrates effective sealing of fractured bone, adhering to wet biological tissues and serving as an eco‐friendly solution for restoring cultural artifacts. This study establishes the condensate formed by the CA‐regulated LLPS process in the polyphenol‐PEG system as a novel, ultra‐robust adhesive suitable for demanding biomedical and industrial applications.

Protein‐based bioadhesives are emerging as sustainable alternatives to traditional adhesives, with potential applications in biomedicine, tissue engineering, and electronics. However, challenges such as low adhesive strength, poor substrate and environmental adaptability, and limited recyclability persist. Unlike previous studies that focused on replicating key chemical units, interaction patterns, liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS), and nano/microscale structures in natural adhesives, a novel strategy is proposed that partially disrupts the noncovalent interactions between polyphenols and proteins through amino acid modulation. This approach facilitates the migration and enrichment of polyphenol adhesive molecules at substrate interfaces along with amino acid, where they synergistically enhance substrate adaptability. The high cohesion and dynamic nature of the resulting network, driven by noncovalent interactions, ensures both high adhesive strength and full recyclability of polyphenol‐protein adhesives (PPA). Importantly, this strategy expands the PPA toolbox, incorporating proteins (gelatin, collagen, silk, keratin) and polyphenols (tannic acid, proanthocyanidins, epigallocatechin gallate), broadening their applications in daily‐use adhesives, industrial products, and cultural relic restoration across both dry and wet environments. This work enhances the understanding of balancing adhesion and cohesion, providing insights for the design of high‐performance bioadhesives.

Recently, a new phase, ω–Fe, has been observed in martensitic substructures, providing a new path for studying the position and evolution of nitrogen in high-nitrogen steels. In this paper, the density functional method was used to investigate the thermodynamic and dynamic stability of N atoms in the phases of ω–Fe, α–Fe, and γ–Fe in martensite, as well as the influence of magnetic order on them. The calculated results show that in the pure Fe phases, ferromagnetic α–Fe is a stable phase both in thermodynamics and dynamics. ω–Fe and γ–Fe are most stable in ferrimagnetism and show dynamic stability, while in ferromagnetic state they are unstable in both thermodynamics and dynamics. N-atom doping of 25% (Fe₃N) makes γ–Fe and ω–Fe thermodynamically and dynamically stable in ferromagnetic state. However, a higher N content is not conducive to the stability of ω–Fe and γ–Fe. The electronic structure shows that as the content of N atoms becomes higher than 25%, the 2p orbitals of N atoms move towards the Fermi level and become more dispersed, resulting in a large contribution of the density of states at the Fermi level. In addition, N atoms are not conducive to the stability of α–Fe, as they relax to the structure of γ–Fe at 25% N content (Fe₃N), while α–Fe in higher N contents (Fe₃N₂ and FeN) relaxes to the structure of ω–Fe correspondingly. Obviously, N tends to stabilize in the ω and γ phases in martensite, and our study provides a new clue for the formation mechanism of nitrides and martensitic transformation in Fe–N alloys.