Nanoparticle-Based Immunotherapy for Cancer

ACS Nano

DOI: 10.1021/nn5062029

Kun Shao, Santiswarup Singha, Xavier Clemente-Casares, Sue Tsai, Yang Yang and Pere Santamaria

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Optimized Assembly and Covalent Coupling of Single-Molecule DNA Origami Nanoarrays

ACS Nano

DOI: 10.1021/nn506014s

Ashwin Gopinath and Paul W. K. Rothemund

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Wet-Spun Continuous Graphene Films

Chemistry of Materials

DOI: 10.1021/cm5033089

Zheng Liu, Zheng Li, Zhen Xu, Zhixiang Xia, Xiaozhen Hu, Liang Kou, Li Peng, Yangyang Wei and Chao Gao

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Nanoparticle above a Dielectric Interface: Plasmon Hybridization Model, Comparison with the Dimer System, and against Exact Electrodynamics Calculations

The Journal of Physical Chemistry C

DOI: 10.1021/jp509238j

Jean Lermé

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Frequency-Resolved Nanoscale Chemical Imaging of 4,4′-Dimercaptostilbene on Silver

The Journal of Physical Chemistry C

DOI: 10.1021/jp509082c

Patrick Z. El-Khoury, Tyler W. Ueltschi, Amanda L. Mifflin, Dehong Hu and Wayne P. Hess

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Nanostructured Two-Component Liquid-Crystalline Electrolytes for High-Temperature Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Chemistry of Materials

DOI: 10.1021/cm503090z

Daniel Högberg, Bartolome Soberats, Satoshi Uchida, Masafumi Yoshio, Lars Kloo, Hiroshi Segawa and Takashi Kato

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Scalable Fabrication of Polymer Membranes with Vertically Aligned 1 nm Pores by Magnetic Field Directed Self-Assembly

ACS Nano

DOI: 10.1021/nn505037b

Xunda Feng, Marissa E. Tousley, Matthew G. Cowan, Brian R. Wiesenauer, Siamak Nejati, Youngwoo Choo, Richard D. Noble, Menachem Elimelech, Douglas L. Gin and Chinedum O. Osuji

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Gefitinib loaded folate decorated bovine serum albumin conjugated carboxymethyl-beta-cyclodextrin nanoparticles enhance drug delivery and attenuate autophagy in folate receptor-positive cancer cells

Background: Active targeting endocytosis mediated by the specific interaction between folic acid and its receptor has been a hotspot in biological therapy of many human cancers. Various studies have demonstrated that folate and its conjugates could facilitate the chemotherapeutic drug delivery into folate receptor (FR)-positive tumor cells in vitro and in vivo. In order to utilize FA-FR binding specificity to achieve targeted delivery of drugs into tumor cells, we prepared Gefitinib loaded folate decorated bovine serum albumin conjugated carboxymethyl-?-cyclodextrin nanoparticles for enhancing drug delivery in cancer cells. On this context, the aim of our study was to develop a novel nano-delivery system for promoting tumor-targeting drug delivery in folate receptor-positive Hela cells. Results: We prepared folic acid (FA)-decorated bovine serum albumin (BSA) conjugated carboxymethyl-?-cyclodextrin (CM-?-CD) nanoparticles (FA-BSA-CM-?-CD NPs) capable of entrapping a hydrophobic Gefitinib. It was observed that nanoparticles are monodisperse and spherical nanospheres with an average diameter of 90.2?nm and negative surface charge of ?18.6?mV. FA-BSA-CM-?-CD NPs could greatly facilitate Gefitinib uptake and enhance the toxicity to folate receptor-positive Hela cells. Under the reaction between FA and FR, Gefitinib loaded FA-BSA-CM-?-CD NPs induced apoptosis of Hela cells through elevating the expression of caspase-3 and inhibited autophagy through decreasing the expressing of LC3. It also confirmed that clathrin-mediated endocytosis and macropinocytosis exerted great influence on the internalization of both NPs. Conclusions: These results demonstrated that FA may be an effective targeting molecule and FA-BSA-CM-?-CD NPs provided a new strategy for the treatment of human cancer cells which over-expressed folate receptors.

Yijie Shi

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Experimental Realization of a Polarization-Independent Ultraviolet/Visible Coaxial Plasmonic Metamaterial

Nano Letters

DOI: 10.1021/nl5028183

M. A. van de Haar, R. Maas, H. Schokker and A. Polman

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Carbon Nitride Photocatalysts for Water Splitting: A Computational Perspective

The Journal of Physical Chemistry C

DOI: 10.1021/jp507372n

Cristina Butchosa, Pierre Guiglion and Martijn A. Zwijnenburg

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Histopathological and ultra structural effects of nanoparticles on rat testis following 90 days (Chronic study) of repeated oral administration

Background: Nanoparticles (Ag NPs) have recently received much attention for their possible applications in biotechnology and biomedical. However, little is known about the toxicity in reproductive organs of animal model following exposure to Nanoparticles.ObjectiveThis study therefore, tried to examine the effects of Nanoparticles with a mean diameter of 5-20?nm range on the histology of the testis of wistar rats and correlate it with Transmission Electron Microscopy results.Materials and methodsSixteen wistar rats were randomly divided into two groups of 8 rats each. Each group received the following via gavage technique for 90?days: Control Group (Group-1)-tap water; Experimental group (Group 2) - Nanoparticles (20ug/kg/day). After ninety days (chronic study), rats were sacrificed and testis tissues was processed for histology and transmission electron microscopic study. Results: There was significant difference between the observations of group-1 and group 2. The changes observed in the testis were disarray of the spermatogenic cells and disorientation of the testis. These changes were observed to have been disappearing from normal histological features. Detailed structural damages were observed with TEM analysis, such as depletion of germ cells, germinal cells necrosis, especially in spermatogonia and Leydig cells had an abnormal fibroblast-like appearance, abnormal space between neighboring sertoli cells, mitochondria, lost cristae and vacuolated (none energized) with those animals exposed to nanoparticles. Conclusion: It seems that nanoparticles have acute and significant effects on spermatogenesis and number of spermatogenic cells. More experimental investigations are necessary to elucidate better conclusion regarding the safety of nanoparticles on male reproduction system.

Mansee Thakur

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Degradation Mechanisms of Platinum Nanoparticle Catalysts in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells: The Role of Particle Size

Chemistry of Materials

DOI: 10.1021/cm501867c

Kang Yu, Daniel J. Groom, Xiaoping Wang, Zhiwei Yang, Mallika Gummalla, Sarah C. Ball, Deborah J. Myers and Paulo J. Ferreira

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Chemotactic Separation of Enzymes

ACS Nano

DOI: 10.1021/nn504418u

Krishna Kanti Dey, Sambeeta Das, Matthew F. Poyton, Samudra Sengupta, Peter J. Butler, Paul S. Cremer and Ayusman Sen

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Silicon particles as trojan horses for potential cancer therapy

Background: Porous silicon particles (PSiPs) have been used extensively as drug delivery systems, loaded with chemical species for disease treatment. It is well known from silicon producers that silicon is characterized by a low reduction potential, which in the case of PSiPs promotes explosive oxidation reactions with energy yields exceeding that of trinitrotoluene (TNT). The functionalization of the silica layer with sugars prevents its solubilization, while further functionalization with an appropriate antibody enables increased bioaccumulation inside selected cells. Results: We present here an immunotherapy approach for potential cancer treatment. Our platform comprises the use of engineered silicon particles conjugated with a selective antibody. The conceptual advantage of our system is that after reaction, the particles are degraded into soluble and excretable biocomponents. Conclusions: In our study, we demonstrate in particular, specific targeting and destruction of cancer cells in vitro. The fact that the LD50 value of PSiPs-HER-2 for tumor cells was 15-fold lower than the LD50 value for control cells demonstrates very high in vitro specificity. This is the first important step on a long road towards the design and development of novel chemotherapeutic agents against cancer in general, and breast cancer in particular.

Roberto Fenollosa

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Local Optical Activity in Achiral Two-Dimensional Gold Nanostructures

The Journal of Physical Chemistry C

DOI: 10.1021/jp507168a

Shun Hashiyada, Tetsuya Narushima and Hiromi Okamoto

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Ordered Heterostructures of Two Strictly Alternating Types of Nanoreactors

Chemistry of Materials

DOI: 10.1021/cm502816a

Matthias Stöter, Bernhard Biersack, Nele Reimer, Markus Herling, Norbert Stock, Rainer Schobert and Josef Breu

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Synthesis and bioactivities of silver nanoparticles capped with 5-Amino-ß-resorcylic acid hydrochloride dihydrate

Background: Conjugated and drug loaded silver nanoparticles are getting an increased attention for various biomedical applications. Nanoconjugates showed significant enhancement in biological activity in comparison to free drug molecules. In this perspective, we report the synthesis of bioactive silver capped with 5-Amino-?-resorcylic acid hydrochloride dihydrate (AR). The in vitro antimicrobial (antibacterial, antifungal), enzyme inhibition (xanthine oxidase, urease, carbonic anhydrase, ?-chymotrypsin, cholinesterase) and antioxidant activities of the developed nanostructures was investigated before and after conjugation to silver metal. Results: The conjugation of AR to silver was confirmed through FTIR, UV?vis and TEM techniques. The amount of AR conjugated with silver was characterized through UV?vis spectroscopy and found to be 9% by weight. The stability of synthesized nanoconjugates against temperature, high salt concentration and pH was found to be good. Nanoconjugates, showed significant synergic enzyme inhibition effect against xanthine and urease enzymes in comparison to standard drugs, pure ligand and silver. Conclusions: Our synthesized nanoconjugate was found be to efficient selective xanthine and urease inhibitors in comparison to Ag and AR. On a per weight basis, our nanoconjugates required less amount of AR (about 11 times) for inhibition of these enzymes.

Syeda Naz

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Tamm State-Coupled Emission: Effect of Probe Location and Emission Wavelength

The Journal of Physical Chemistry C

DOI: 10.1021/jp506190h

Ramachandram Badugu and Joseph R. Lakowicz

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PVM/MA-shelled selol nanocapsules promote cell cycle arrest in A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells

Background: Selol is an oily mixture of selenitetriacylglycerides that was obtained as a semi-synthetic compound containing selenite. Selol is effective against cancerous cells and less toxic to normal cells compared with inorganic forms of selenite. However, Selol?s hydrophobicity hinders its administration in vivo. Therefore, the present study aimed to produce a formulation of Selol nanocapsules (SPN) and to test its effectiveness against pulmonary adenocarcinoma cells (A549). Results: Nanocapsules were produced through an interfacial nanoprecipitation method. The polymer shell was composed of poly(methyl vinyl ether-co-maleic anhydride) (PVM/MA) copolymer. The obtained nanocapsules were monodisperse and stable. Both free Selol (S) and SPN reduced the viability of A549 cells, whereas S induced a greater reduction in non-tumor cell viability than SPN. The suppressor effect of SPN was primarily associated to the G2/M arrest of the cell cycle, as was corroborated by the down-regulations of the CCNB1 and CDC25C genes. Apoptosis and necrosis were induced by Selol in a discrete percentage of A549 cells. SPN also increased the production of reactive oxygen species, leading to oxidative cellular damage and to the overexpression of the GPX1, CYP1A1, BAX and BCL2 genes. Conclusions: This study presents a stable formulation of PVM/MA-shelled Selol nanocapsules and provides the first demonstration that Selol promotes G2/M arrest in cancerous cells.

Ludmilla de Souza

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Sensitive, High-Strain, High-Rate Bodily Motion Sensors Based on Graphene–Rubber Composites

ACS Nano

DOI: 10.1021/nn503454h

Conor S. Boland, Umar Khan, Claudia Backes, Arlene O’Neill, Joe McCauley, Shane Duane, Ravi Shanker, Yang Liu, Izabela Jurewicz, Alan B. Dalton and Jonathan N. Coleman

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