Photo-Triggered Nanomaterials for Cancer Theranostic Applications

Nano LIFE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (02) ◽  
pp. 2130004
Author(s):  
Amreen Khan ◽  
Nishant K. Jain ◽  
Mayuri Gandhi ◽  
Rajendra Prasad ◽  
Rohit Srivastava

Cancer is one of the most prevalent diseases with mortality rate considerably increasing every year. Conventional treatment strategies for cancer like chemotherapy suffer from the drawbacks of multiple-dose requirements and non-specificity of drug action. Moreover, the cost involved in the diagnosis and treatment is very high. Recently, the application of nanotechnology in the field of cancer has witnessed tremendous significance due to the unique size, shape, and surface properties of nanomaterials. With the intention to utilize biocompatible and biodegradable nanomaterials in cancer and reduce the non-specificity, approaches such as targeted nanotherapeutics came into existence. Besides having therapeutic potential, some materials demonstrate their applicability in bioimaging forecasting distinct optical properties. In this review, we have discussed the basics and principles guiding the design of different photo-triggered nanotheranostic materials used in cancer. Additionally, recent developments and advantages offered by the NIR-responsive photodynamic and photothermal agents along with their future scope have been presented. An overview of the toxicity and clinical prospect of photosensitive agents is also summarized. Overall, the field of photo-triggered cancer nanotheranostics has huge potential that can be clinically translated into an affordable and safe treatment approach.

2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 217-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romualdas Ginevičius ◽  
Valentinas Podvezko ◽  
Saulius Raslanas

The economic effect of buildings’ renovation largely depends on implementation of energy saving methods and devices. A very high economic effect is achieved by wall insulation. In this respect, it is even higher than the replacement of windows. The alternative solutions of wall insulation of buildings differ in the materials used, labour expenditure and other aspects. The cost of renovation depends on the solutions made. The criteria describing the available wall insulation alternatives may have different values. Moreover, they may change in different directions, i.e. a higher value of some criteria denotes a better state, while for others they mean a worse situation. In this environment, a compromise variant is required, which can be found by multicriteria evaluation methods. To reduce the effect of various methods on calculation results, it can be recommended to assess the object (or phenomenon) considered by several different methods, with a subsequent determination of the average estimate value. In this way, the disadvantages of some particular multicriteria evaluation methods could be compensated by the advantages of others. The integration of methods will be correct if there is a correlation between the values obtained by different methods. Santrauka Ekonominis pastatų renovacijos efektyvumas priklauso nuo energiją taupančių priemonių įgyvendinimo. Pastatų sienų šiltinimas yra viena iš geriausių priemonių ir net efektyvesnis energijos taupymo požiūriu negu langų keitimas. Pastatų sienų šiltinimo variantai skiriasi vienas nuo kito pagal medžiagas, darbo sąnaudas ir pan. Nuo to priklauso renovacijos kaina. Kriterijai, atspindintys skirtingus sienų šiltinimo variantus, gali turėti įvairių reikšmių. Gali skirtis jų kitimo kryptys, t. y. vienų kriterijų reikšmių didėjimas padėtį gerina, kitų – blogina. Kompromisiniam variantui pasirinkti padeda daugiakriterio vertinimo metodai (MCDA). Norint mažinti metodų specifikos įtaką skaičiavimų rezultatams, tą patį nagrinėjamą reiškinį tikslinga vertinti keliais būdais, paskui nustatyti šio vertinimo vidurkį. Tokiu atveju vienų daugiakriterio vertinimo būdų trūkumus kompensuoja kitų būdų privalumai. Metodų susiejimas bus korektiškas, jeigu reikšmės, gautos naudojant įvairius būdus, tarpusavyje koreliuoja.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 3644 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fidel Toldrá-Reig ◽  
Leticia Mora ◽  
Fidel Toldrá

The agro-food industry generates large amounts of waste that contribute to environmental contamination. Animal fat waste constitutes some of the most relevant waste and the treatment of such waste is quite costly because environmental regulations are quite strict. Part of such costs might be reduced through the generation of bioenergy. Biodiesel constitutes a valid renewable source of energy because it is biodegradable, non-toxic and has a good combustion emission profile and can be blended up to 20% with fossil diesel for its use in many countries. Furthermore, up to 70% of the total cost of biodiesel majorly depends on the cost of the raw materials used, which can be reduced using animal fat waste because they are cheaper than vegetable oil waste. In fact, 6% of total feedstock corresponded to animal fat in 2019. Transesterification with alkaline catalysis is still preferred at industrial plants producing biodiesel. Recent developments in heterogeneous catalysts that can be easily recovered, regenerated and reused, as well as immobilized lipases with increased stability and resistance to alcohol denaturation, are promising for future industrial use. This manuscript reviews the available processes and recent advances for biodiesel generation from animal fat waste.


e-Polymers ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Tripti ◽  
R.S. Haldar ◽  
S. Geetha ◽  
U.K. Niyogi ◽  
R.K. Khandal

AbstractIt is true that the developments in material sciences along with the improvements in various aspects of technology involved in transforming materials into products, over the years, have been responsible for making many of the impossible-looking devices possible. It is also a fact that the demand for a new, improved and better material has never ended; in fact it has been increasing to a greater degree and with bigger dimensions than ever before, especially in recent times. As a matter of fact, for certain advanced applications, the need for efforts to have new materials can never be over emphasized; for example, in the area of biomedical devices such as intraocular lens (IOL). The advances in the field of bio-medical applications require the materials of high quality meeting stringent norms of performance. For implants such as the ones like IOL used for correction of vision of the eyes, besides the quality and performance of materials, biocompatibility is an issue of major concern. The material scientists have been working on the development of materials for IOLs targeting the needs arising out of the developing countries. The challenges include not only to bring down the cost of the materials used for IOLs but also to increase the biocompatibility of IOLs. For making the development process easy and bringing the state-of-the- art of knowledge to those looking for new materials, it is thought necessary to review various facets of IOLs in the present paper. Not only the aspects related to the recent developments in biomedical devices of eye care but also related to the properties of available materials vis a vis the deficiencies in properties of existing materials have been covered in this review. The aim has been to bring out the gap areas at various levels of process of product chain starting from the monomer to polymer, blank to IOL, insertion of IOL into eyes to life cycle of IOLs, mainly to provide certain possible and feasible leads to meet the challenges of making new and more biocompatible materials.


Author(s):  
Fidel Toldrá ◽  
Leticia Mora ◽  
Fidel Toldra Reig

Animal fats, usually found as waste from slaughterhouses, meat processing industry, and cooking facilities, constitute some of the most relevant waste with costly treatment because environmental regulations are quite strict. Part of such costs may be reduced through the generation of biodiesel that constitutes a valid renewable source of energy because it is biodegradable, non-toxic and has a good combustion emission profile. Furthermore, biodiesel can be blended up to 20% with fossil diesel for its use in many countries. Up to 70% of the total cost of biodiesel majorly depends on the cost of the raw materials used, which can be reduced using animal fat waste because they are cheaper than vegetable oil waste. Transesterification with alkaline catalysis is still preferred at industrial plants producing biodiesel. However, recent developments in technologies for process intensification like ultrasound, microwave, and different types of reactors have been successfully applied in transesterification and improved biodiesel production. Better efficiency has been achieved with new heterogeneous catalysts and nanocatalysts that can be easily recovered, regenerated and reused, and immobilized lipases with increased stability and resistance to alcohol denaturation. Also new adsorbents for increased oxidation stability of biodiesel. All these developments are promising for industrial use in near future.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Men-Bao Qian ◽  
Chang-Hai Zhou ◽  
Hui-Hui Zhu ◽  
Ying-Dan Chen ◽  
Xiao-Nong Zhou

Abstract Background Clonorchiasis is attributed to the ingestion of raw freshwater fish harboring Clonorchis sinensis. Morbidity control is targeted through the administration of antihelminthics. This study modelled the cost yield indicated by effectiveness and utility of different treatment strategies against clonorchiasis. Methods About 1000 participants were enrolled from each of 14 counties selected from four provincial-level administrative divisions namely Guangxi, Guangdong, Heilongjiang and Jilin in 2017. Fecal examination was adopted to detect C. sinensis infection, while behavior of ingesting raw freshwater fish was enquired. Counties were grouped into four categories based on prevalence, namely low prevalence group (< 1%), moderate prevalence group (1–9.9%), high prevalence group (10–19.9%) and very high prevalence group (≥ 20%), while population were divided into three subgroups, namely children aged below 14 years old, adult female and adult male both aged over 14 years old. The average of cost effectiveness indicated by the cost to treat single infected cases with C. sinensis and of cost utility indicated by the cost to avoid per disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) caused by C. sinensis infection was calculated. Comparisons were performed between three treatment schedules, namely individual treatment, massive and selective chemotherapy, in which different endemic levels and populations were considered. Results In selective chemotherapy strategy, the cost to treat single infected case in very high prevalence group was USD 10.6 in adult male, USD 11.6 in adult female, and USD 13.2 in children. The cost increased followed the decrease of endemic level. In massive chemotherapy strategy, the cost per infected case in very high prevalence group was USD 14.0 in adult male, USD 17.1 in adult female, USD 45.8 in children, which were also increased when the endemic level decreased. In individual treatment strategy, the cost was USD 12.2 in adult male, USD 15.0 in adult female and USD 41.5 in children in very high prevalence group; USD 19.2 in adult male, USD 34.0 in adult female, and USD 90.1 in children in high prevalence group; USD 30.4 in adult male, USD 50.5 in adult female and over USD 100 in children in moderate prevalence group; and over USD 400 in any population in low prevalence group. As to cost utility, the differences by treatment strategies, populations and endemic levels were similar to those in cost effectiveness. Conclusions Both cost effectiveness and cost utility indicators are highly impacted by the prevalence and population, as well as the treatment schedules. Adults especially men in the areas with a prevalence over 10% should be prioritized, in which selective chemotherapy was best and massive chemotherapy was also cost effective. In moderate endemic areas, the yield is not ideal, but selective chemotherapy for adult male may also be adopted. In low endemic areas, all strategies were high costly and new strategies need to be developed. Graphical Abstract


Author(s):  
J. Temple Black

Tool materials used in ultramicrotomy are glass, developed by Latta and Hartmann (1) and diamond, introduced by Fernandez-Moran (2). While diamonds produce more good sections per knife edge than glass, they are expensive; require careful mounting and handling; and are time consuming to clean before and after usage, purchase from vendors (3-6 months waiting time), and regrind. Glass offers an easily accessible, inexpensive material ($0.04 per knife) with very high compressive strength (3) that can be employed in microtomy of metals (4) as well as biological materials. When the orthogonal machining process is being studied, glass offers additional advantages. Sections of metal or plastic can be dried down on the rake face, coated with Au-Pd, and examined directly in the SEM with no additional handling (5). Figure 1 shows aluminum chips microtomed with a 75° glass knife at a cutting speed of 1 mm/sec with a depth of cut of 1000 Å lying on the rake face of the knife.


The article is devoted to reengineering of technological processes - a method of their qualitative transformation on an innovative basis, which in turn assumes the availability of tools that make it possible to establish the economic efficiency and technical capability of such transformations of construction production, to identify the effect of their implementation. In this regard, the problem of forming a parametric model of reengineering of construction technological processes, which involves four enlarged groups of indicators that reflect the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the processes: materials used, working time, machine time, spatial organization, is considered. It is established that parameters can have either an absolute (physical, cost) or relative (point, percentage) expression and also make their own decomposition. The practical significance of the provisions given in the article is determined by the development of methods of technical rationing, which leads to a reduction in the cost and duration of construction.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 1311-1327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pala Rajasekharreddy ◽  
Chao Huang ◽  
Siddhardha Busi ◽  
Jobina Rajkumari ◽  
Ming-Hong Tai ◽  
...  

With the emergence of nanotechnology, new methods have been developed for engineering various nanoparticles for biomedical applications. Nanotheranostics is a burgeoning research field with tremendous prospects for the improvement of diagnosis and treatment of various cancers. However, the development of biocompatible and efficient drug/gene delivery theranostic systems still remains a challenge. Green synthetic approach of nanoparticles with low capital and operating expenses, reduced environmental pollution and better biocompatibility and stability is a latest and novel field, which is advantageous over chemical or physical nanoparticle synthesis methods. In this article, we summarize the recent research progresses related to green synthesized nanoparticles for cancer theranostic applications, and we also conclude with a look at the current challenges and insight into the future directions based on recent developments in these areas.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (13) ◽  
pp. 2330-2355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anutthaman Parthasarathy ◽  
Sasikala K. Anandamma ◽  
Karunakaran A. Kalesh

Peptide therapeutics has made tremendous progress in the past decade. Many of the inherent weaknesses of peptides which hampered their development as therapeutics are now more or less effectively tackled with recent scientific and technological advancements in integrated drug discovery settings. These include recent developments in synthetic organic chemistry, high-throughput recombinant production strategies, highresolution analytical methods, high-throughput screening options, ingenious drug delivery strategies and novel formulation preparations. Here, we will briefly describe the key methodologies and strategies used in the therapeutic peptide development processes with selected examples of the most recent developments in the field. The aim of this review is to highlight the viable options a medicinal chemist may consider in order to improve a specific pharmacological property of interest in a peptide lead entity and thereby rationally assess the therapeutic potential this class of molecules possesses while they are traditionally (and incorrectly) considered ‘undruggable’.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (30) ◽  
pp. 3633-3651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Blanco-Rivero ◽  
Fabiano E. Xavier

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are considered a major health problem worldwide, being the main cause of mortality in developing and developed countries. Endothelial dysfunction, characterized by a decline in nitric oxide production and/or bioavailability, increased oxidative stress, decreased prostacyclin levels, and a reduction of endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor is considered an important prognostic indicator of various CVD. Changes in cyclic nucleotides production and/ or signalling, such as guanosine 3&#039;, 5&#039;-monophosphate (cGMP) and adenosine 3&#039;, 5&#039;-monophosphate (cAMP), also accompany many vascular disorders that course with altered endothelial function. Phosphodiesterases (PDE) are metallophosphohydrolases that catalyse cAMP and cGMP hydrolysis, thereby terminating the cyclic nucleotide-dependent signalling. The development of drugs that selectively block the activity of specific PDE families remains of great interest to the research, clinical and pharmaceutical industries. In the present review, we will discuss the effects of PDE inhibitors on CVD related to altered endothelial function, such as atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension, stroke, aging and cirrhosis. Multiple evidences suggest that PDEs inhibition represents an attractive medical approach for the treatment of endothelial dysfunction-related diseases. Selective PDE inhibitors, especially PDE3 and PDE5 inhibitors are proposed to increase vascular NO levels by increasing antioxidant status or endothelial nitric oxide synthase expression and activation and to improve the morphological architecture of the endothelial surface. Thereby, selective PDE inhibitors can improve the endothelial function in various CVD, increasing the evidence that these drugs are potential treatment strategies for vascular dysfunction and reinforcing their potential role as an adjuvant in the pharmacotherapy of CVD.


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