Fluorescence-Raman dual-mode quantitative detection and imaging of small-molecule thiols in cell apoptosis with DNA-modified gold nanoflowers

Author(s):  
Chenbiao Li ◽  
Peifang Chen ◽  
Imran Mahmood Khan ◽  
Zhouping Wang ◽  
Yin Zhang ◽  
...  

The monitoring of small-molecule thiols (especially glutathione) has attracted widespread attention due to their involvement in numerous physiological processes in living organisms and cells. In this work, the dual-mode nanosensor...

Pharmaceutics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 995
Author(s):  
Yucheng Peng ◽  
Xiaomeng Wang ◽  
Yue Wang ◽  
Yue Gao ◽  
Rui Guo ◽  
...  

The design of multimodal imaging nanoplatforms with improved tumor accumulation represents a major trend in the current development of precision nanomedicine. To this end, we report herein the preparation of macrophage (MA)-laden gold nanoflowers (NFs) embedded with ultrasmall iron oxide nanoparticles (USIO NPs) for enhanced dual-mode computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of tumors. In this work, generation 5 poly(amidoamine) (G5 PAMAM) dendrimer-stabilized gold (Au) NPs were conjugated with sodium citrate-stabilized USIO NPs to form hybrid seed particles for the subsequent growth of Au nanoflowers (NFs). Afterwards, the remaining terminal amines of dendrimers were acetylated to form the dendrimer-stabilized Fe3O4/Au NFs (for short, Fe3O4/Au DSNFs). The acquired Fe3O4/Au DSNFs possess an average size around 90 nm, display a high r1 relaxivity (1.22 mM−1 s−1), and exhibit good colloidal stability and cytocompatibility. The created hybrid DSNFs can be loaded within MAs without producing any toxicity to the cells. Through the mediation of MAs with a tumor homing and immune evasion property, the Fe3O4/Au DSNFs can be delivered to tumors more efficiently than those without MAs after intravenous injection, thus significantly improving the MR/CT imaging performance of tumors. The developed MA-mediated delivery system may hold great promise for enhanced tumor delivery of other contrast agents or nanomedicines for precision cancer nanomedicine applications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yixin Tong ◽  
Yuan Huang ◽  
Yuchao Zhang ◽  
Xiangtai Zeng ◽  
Mei Yan ◽  
...  

AbstractAt present, colorectal cancer (CRC) has become a serious threat to human health in the world. Dipeptidyl peptidase 3 (DPP3) is a zinc-dependent hydrolase that may be involved in several physiological processes. However, whether DPP3 affects the development and progression of CRC remains a mystery. This study is the first to demonstrate the role of DPP3 in CRC. Firstly, the results of immunohistochemistry analysis showed the upregulation of DPP3 in CRC tissues compared with normal tissues, which is statistically analyzed to be positively correlated with lymphatic metastasis, pathological stage, positive number of lymph nodes. Moreover, the high expression of DPP3 predicts poor prognosis in CRC patients. In addition, the results of cell dysfunction experiments clarified that the downregulation of DPP3 significantly inhibited cell proliferation, colony formation, cell migration, and promoted apoptosis in vitro. DPP3 depletion could induce cell apoptosis by upregulating the expression of BID, BIM, Caspase3, Caspase8, HSP60, p21, p27, p53, and SMAC. In addition, downregulation of DPP3 can reduce tumorigenicity of CRC cells in vivo. Furthermore, CDK1 is determined to be a downstream target of DPP3-mediated regulation of CRC by RNA-seq, qPCR, and WB. The interaction between DPP3 and CDK1 shows mutual regulation. Specifically, downregulation of DPP3 can accentuate the effects of CDK1 knockdown on the function of CRC cells. Overexpression of CDK1 alleviates the inhibitory effects of DPP3 knockdown in CRC cells. In summary, DPP3 has oncogene-like functions in the development and progression of CRC by targeting CDK1, which may be an effective molecular target for the prognosis and treatment of CRC.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (13) ◽  
pp. 3215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirza Hasanuzzaman ◽  
Haifa Abdulaziz S. Alhaithloul ◽  
Khursheda Parvin ◽  
M.H.M. Borhannuddin Bhuyan ◽  
Mohsin Tanveer ◽  
...  

Polyamines (PAs) are found in all living organisms and serve many vital physiological processes. In plants, PAs are ubiquitous in plant growth, physiology, reproduction, and yield. In the last decades, PAs have been studied widely for exploring their function in conferring abiotic stresses (salt, drought, and metal/metalloid toxicity) tolerance. The role of PAs in enhancing antioxidant defense mechanism and subsequent oxidative stress tolerance in plants is well-evident. However, the enzymatic regulation in PAs biosynthesis and metabolism is still under research and widely variable under various stresses and plant types. Recently, exogenous use of PAs, such as putrescine, spermidine, and spermine, was found to play a vital role in enhancing stress tolerance traits in plants. Polyamines also interact with other molecules like phytohormones, nitric oxides, trace elements, and other signaling molecules to providing coordinating actions towards stress tolerance. Due to the rapid industrialization metal/metalloid(s) contamination in the soil and subsequent uptake and toxicity in plants causes the most significant yield loss in cultivated plants, which also hamper food security. Finding the ways in enhancing tolerance and remediation mechanism is one of the critical tasks for plant biologists. In this review, we will focus the recent update on the roles of PAs in conferring metal/metalloid(s) tolerance in plants.


Nutrients ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacco J.A.J. Bastings ◽  
Hans M. van Eijk ◽  
Steven W. Olde Damink ◽  
Sander S. Rensen

d-amino acids, the enantiomeric counterparts of l-amino acids, were long considered to be non-functional or not even present in living organisms. Nowadays, d-amino acids are acknowledged to play important roles in numerous physiological processes in the human body. The most commonly studied link between d-amino acids and human physiology concerns the contribution of d-serine and d-aspartate to neurotransmission. These d-amino acids and several others have also been implicated in regulating innate immunity and gut barrier function. Importantly, the presence of certain d-amino acids in the human body has been linked to several diseases including schizophrenia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and age-related disorders such as cataract and atherosclerosis. Furthermore, increasing evidence supports a role for d-amino acids in the development, pathophysiology, and treatment of cancer. In this review, we aim to provide an overview of the various sources of d-amino acids, their metabolism, as well as their contribution to physiological processes and diseases in man, with a focus on cancer.


2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 729-734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danny Hung-Chieh Chou ◽  
Nicole E. Bodycombe ◽  
Hyman A. Carrinski ◽  
Timothy A. Lewis ◽  
Paul A. Clemons ◽  
...  

2010 ◽  
Vol 70 (22) ◽  
pp. 9265-9276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vaibhav Kapuria ◽  
Luke F. Peterson ◽  
Dexing Fang ◽  
William G. Bornmann ◽  
Moshe Talpaz ◽  
...  

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 177-184
Author(s):  
Antonio F. Miguel

Living organisms are open dissipative thermodynamic systems that rely on mechano-thermo-electrochemical interactions to survive. Plant physiological processes allow plants to survive by converting solar radiation into chemical energy, and store that energy in form that can be used. Mammals catabolize food to obtain energy that is used to fuel, build and repair the cellular components. The exergy balance is a combined statement of the first and second laws of thermodynamics. It provides insight into the performance of systems. In this paper, exergy balance equations for both mammal’s and green plants are presented and analyzed.


2001 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 273-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina A Buhimschi ◽  
Carl P Weiner

Oxygen radicals and reactive oxygen species are normal attributes of aerobic life. In most molecules, the electrons are paired and, with the exception of hydrogen, the four outer most pairs of each atom form chemical bonds. Electrons are in a relatively stable energy state when paired. A free radical is a molecule with an unpaired electron. Free radicals of oxygen are of particular importance to living organisms in which they are involved in the genesis of a wide array of diseases and physiological processes (e.g. life span and ageing).


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paweł Moskal ◽  
Ewa Ł. Stępień

Abstract In this review article, we present arguments demonstrating that the advent of high sensitivity total-body PET systems and the invention of the method of positronium imaging, open realistic perspectives for the application of positronium as a biomarker for in-vivo assessment of the degree of hypoxia. Hypoxia is a state or condition, in which the availability of oxygen is not sufficient to support physiological processes in tissue and organs. Positronium is a metastable atom formed from electron and positron which is copiously produced in the intramolecular spaces in the living organisms undergoing positron emission tomography (PET). Properties of positronium, such as e.g., lifetime, depend on the size of intramolecular spaces and the concentration in them of oxygen molecules. Therefore, information on the partial pressure of oxygen (pO2) in the tissue may be derived from the positronium lifetime measurement. The partial pressure of oxygen differs between healthy and cancer tissues in the range from 10 to 50 mmHg. Such differences of pO2 result in the change of ortho-positronium lifetime e.g., in water by about 2–7 ps. Thus, the application of positronium as a biomarker of hypoxia requires the determination of the mean positronium lifetime with the resolution in the order of 2 ps. We argue that such resolution is in principle achievable for organ-wise positronium imaging with the total-body PET systems.


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