Synergistic photo-release of drugs by non-linear excitation

2014 ◽  
Vol 1688 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerio Voliani ◽  
Giovanni Signore ◽  
Orazio Vittorio ◽  
Paolo Faraci ◽  
Stefano Luin ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTNanomaterials engineered in novel multi-modular systems in which every component works in a synergistic way with others could potentially lead to a completely new type of tools for nanomedicine. The development of nanostructures able to release drugs directly within the target after a stimulus can drastically improve the therapeutics efficiency by reducing side effects. Gold nanoparticles offer one of the most suitable platforms for the development of modular nano-devices. On the one hand, their surface properties enable effective coating by peptides containing at least one cysteine, thus yielding stable and non-cytotoxic systems. On the other, their intriguing photophysics, characterized by the surface plasmon resonance, can be exploited for novel excitation schemes. Doxorubicin is a widely used, but toxic, cancer chemotherapeutic agent. In order to localize its therapeutic action while minimizing its side effects, doxorubicin was covalently conjugated to 30 nm peptide-encapsulated gold nanospheres by click-chemistry and then it was photo-released in a controlled fashion through the cleavage of the 1,2,3-triazolic ring by a multiphoton process using 561 nm irradiation at µW power. Selective apoptosis of human osteosarcoma (U2OS) cells was observed only in the irradiated 100x100 micron area in less than six minutes after the stimulus. Notably, the apoptotic effect of doxorubicin was completely inhibited for at least eight hours until its release “on demand” was externally light-triggered.

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (26) ◽  
pp. 3096-3104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuai Deng ◽  
Yige Sun ◽  
Tianyi Zhao ◽  
Yang Hu ◽  
Tianyi Zang

Drug side effects have become an important indicator for evaluating the safety of drugs. There are two main factors in the frequent occurrence of drug safety problems; on the one hand, the clinical understanding of drug side effects is insufficient, leading to frequent adverse drug reactions, while on the other hand, due to the long-term period and complexity of clinical trials, side effects of approved drugs on the market cannot be reported in a timely manner. Therefore, many researchers have focused on developing methods to identify drug side effects. In this review, we summarize the methods of identifying drug side effects and common databases in this field. We classified methods of identifying side effects into four categories: biological experimental, machine learning, text mining and network methods. We point out the key points of each kind of method. In addition, we also explain the advantages and disadvantages of each method. Finally, we propose future research directions.


Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 354
Author(s):  
Katerina Gioti ◽  
Anastasia Papachristodoulou ◽  
Dimitra Benaki ◽  
Nektarios Aligiannis ◽  
Alexios-Leandros Skaltsounis ◽  
...  

Oleuropein (OLEU) is the most distinguished phenolic compound found in olive fruit and the leaves of Olea europaea L., with several pharmacological properties, including anti-cancer actions. Adriamycin (ADR) is an anthracycline widely used as a chemotherapeutic agent, although it presents significant side effects. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of oleuropein alone (20 μg/mL) and in co-treatment with ADR (50 nM), in MG-63 human osteosarcoma cells. Therefore, cellular and molecular techniques, such as MTT assay, flow cytometry, real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), western blot and Elisa method, as well as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, were applied to unveil changes in the signal transduction pathways involved in osteosarcoma cells survival. The observed alterations in gene, protein and metabolite levels denote that OLEU not only inhibits MG-63 cells proliferation and potentiates ADR’s cytotoxicity, but also exerts its action, at least in part, through the induction of autophagy.


The Chert Bed of Middle, or possibly Lower, Old Red Sandstone age discovered by Dr. W. Mackie (1914) at Rhynie, in Aberdeenshire, has become famous among palæo-botanists on account of the beautifully preserved remains of the earliest known land plants, described by the late Dr. Kidston and Prof. Lang (1917-1921). In addition to the plants, however, the Rhynie Chert also contains animal remains, for the most part very small and in a very fragmentary condition, although the fragments themselves are in many cases exceedingly well preserved. The vast majority of these animal remains are evidently Crustacean in character, and it was at first thought (see British Association Report, 1919, p. 110) that they belonged to several, or at least to two, different species. Subsequent work has, however, convinced me that all the Crustacean remains so far seen in the Rhynie Chert belong to the one species described in this paper.


Author(s):  
V. Lysenko

The social order posed by the society to the training of highly qualified personnel for the strategic needs of the labor market is associated with the changes in the economy, including the processes of its computerization and digitalization. Transformations in the digital economy determine new requirements for specialists’ training, their competences and qualification. The rapid changes in socio-economic conditions cause the need to transform the system of vocational training in order to meet the demands for competencies that correspond to the current technologic trends and methods of production. The reforms of vocational education system can be significant in resolving contradictions between the quality of training, on the one hand, and public and employers’ demands, on the other hand. Close cooperation of professional educational institutions, employers and social partners through their joint design and development of teaching technologies and methods for advanced vocational training of qualified specialists can be considered as one of the most efficient factors and conditions for resolving the above mentioned contradictions. These new conditions have already been created in the Centers for Advanced Vocational Training (CAVT), which can be characterized as a new type of infrastructural solution to the problem of aggregation of advanced vocational training programs and material and technical resources owned by science, education, production. The article focuses on some features of interaction and cooperation among vocational educational institutions, employers and social partners (social and public-private partnerships, networking cooperation, educational and technological cluster), which are taken into account in the performance of the Center for Advanced Vocational Training of the Kemerovo region.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 390-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
PEDRO CABALAR ◽  
JORGE FANDINNO ◽  
LUIS FARIÑAS DEL CERRO ◽  
DAVID PEARCE

AbstractIn this paper, we propose a variant of Answer Set Programming (ASP) with evaluable functions that extends their application to sets of objects, something that allows a fully logical treatment of aggregates. Formally, we start from the syntax of First Order Logic with equality and the semantics of Quantified Equilibrium Logic with evaluable functions (${\rm QEL}^=_{\cal F}$). Then, we proceed to incorporate a new kind of logical term,intensional set(a construct commonly used to denote the set of objects characterised by a given formula), and to extend${\rm QEL}^=_{\cal F}$semantics for this new type of expression. In our extended approach, intensional sets can be arbitrarily used as predicate or function arguments or even nested inside other intensional sets, just as regular first-order logical terms. As a result, aggregates can be naturally formed by the application of some evaluable function (count,sum,maximum, etc) to a set of objects expressed as an intensional set. This approach has several advantages. First, while other semantics for aggregates depend on some syntactic transformation (either via a reduct or a formula translation), the${\rm QEL}^=_{\cal F}$interpretation treats them as regular evaluable functions, providing a compositional semantics and avoiding any kind of syntactic restriction. Second, aggregates can be explicitly defined now within the logical language by the simple addition of formulas that fix their meaning in terms of multiple applications of some (commutative and associative) binary operation. For instance, we can use recursive rules to definesumin terms of integer addition. Last, but not least, we prove that the semantics we obtain for aggregates coincides with the one defined by Gelfond and Zhang for the${\cal A}\mathit{log}$language, when we restrict to that syntactic fragment.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
James Theroux

The case method can be classified as a type of experiential learning because students treat the problem in the case as if it were real and immediate. Until the Internet there was no practical way for cases to actually be real and immediate. The Internet makes possible instantaneous distribution of cases, and it makes possible their creation in real time. This article describes a recent attempt to use the Internet to bring business reality to business courses, and to facilitate communication among instructors, students, and the case company. It explores the challenges and difficulties involved in producing a new type of case study, and it assesses the feasibility of doing so on a regular basis. The goal of the author is to stimulate a dialog about how the Internet can be used to move forward all of our teaching methods, but especially the one that is prominent in schools of business: the case method.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 808
Author(s):  
Andok Mónika

The present study shows how Hungarian churches and religious communities responded to the physical closure and relocation to online spaces in the spring of 2020, since while physical gates became closed, digital gates became opened. In the churches, work began in two directions with particular intensity. On the one hand, they organized their online appearance. On the other hand, they began to rethink their theological reflections on the possibilities of digital technology. The study also analyses both the event- and community-based presence of the churches as well as what they broadcast to their believers. The intention was to find the answer to what the presence of the camera meant in the process of live broadcasting, with a special focus on the visual elements and procedures that differed from the visual perception of real presence during streaming: the camera movement, the different viewing angles, the location of the cameras, the cut, and the sound quality. In other words, the believers had a new visual experience, an optical representation of reality, which afforded them a new type of interactivity and participation. In addition, the study highlights the generational differences that can be explored in digital transitions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-97
Author(s):  
Béla Mester

Abstract The role of the diaries and memoirs in the process of the conscious self-reflection and their contribution to the emergence of modern individual personalities are well-known facts of the intellectual history. The present paper intends to analyze a special form of the creation of modern individual character; it is the self-creation of the writer as a conscious personality, often with a clearly formulated opinion about her/his own social role. There will be offered several examples from the 19th-century history of the Hungarian intelligentsia. This period is more or less identical with the modernization of the “cultural industry” in Hungary, dominated by the periodicals with their deadlines, fixed lengths of the articles, and professional editing houses on the one hand and the cultural nation building on the other. Concerning the possible social and cultural role of the intelligentsia, it is the moment of the birth of a new type, so-called public intellectual. I will focus on three written sources, a diary of a Calvinist student of theology, Péter (Litkei) Tóth, the memoirs of an influential public intellectual, Gusztáv Szontagh, and a belletristic printed diary of a young intellectual, János Asbóth.


2021 ◽  
pp. 429-443
Author(s):  
Roddy A. Stegeman

When you store your belongings in a private locker, does the owner of the locker pay you? On the contrary, you pay the owner, for he is providing you with a service called safe-keeping. In effect, the owner holds your belongings safe until you take them back. So, why is it that you accept money from a bank to hold your money for you? The obvious answer is that the bank is not holding your money; it is lending it out and rewarding you with a portion of what it collects in interest. If you are happy with this arrangement, you have likely sought out a bank in your neighborhood that provides you with the greatest return on your deposit. Unfor tunately, there are several things very wrong with this type of transaction. Most important is that you are engaging in a tran saction that is commercially unsound. You and your bank engage in a legally non-binding agreement when, on the one hand, your bank promises to return your deposit on demand, and on the other hand, loans a portion of it to others for a specified period of time. Contractually, these two acts are incompatible, as the same money cannot be both a de-mand deposit and a loan simultaneously. Either, you deposit your money, reserve the right to de-mand it back at any moment, and pay the bank for holding it on your behalf. This is called a demand deposit. Or, you surrender your right to your money for a specific period of time, permit your bank to lend it to others, and receive interest for your risk and sacrifice. This is called a time deposit. Commercially, treating your demand deposit as money that can be loaned to others is not an enforceable contract, for the law insists that there must be mutual assent when two parties enter into an agreement. You and the bank are simply at odds when you expect to retrieve your money at any moment on demand, and the bank lends a portion of it to others for a fixed period. Legally speaking, both parties to the transaction do not agree to the same contractual terms in the same sense.


Author(s):  
GEETA KRISHNAMURTHY ◽  
DEEPTI ROY ◽  
JYOTSNA KUMAR

Cancer is a dreadful disease and, in most cases, leads to death even when it is being treated. Even though synthetic drugs are still in use for the treatment of cancer, the seriousness of the side effects of these drugs has boggled researcher’s mind to find more effective drugs which will help to overcome the side effects and have greater potency in trying to make the patient completely free of the disease. Recently, researchers turned their attention towards bio-components present in natural products. Curcumin, a polyphenol and the main constituent of a rhizome Curcuma longa, has geared significant interest due to its wide spectrum of therapeutics values, especially anticancer activity. Paper summarizes the chemistry and bio-metabolism of curcumin in the human body. Aim of this review article is to gather the dispersed efforts of researchers predominantly in improving the bioavailability of curcumin. In the present review, comprehensive literature on anticancer activity of Curcumin via combination therapy, structure modification, synthesis of analogues, novel delivery systems have been highlighted. Besides, the review paper explicated several challenges associated with Curcumin as an adjuvant chemotherapeutic agent and emphasizes more on clinical studies.


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