Organic- or Inorganic-based Nanomaterials: Opportunities and Challenges in the Selection for Biomedicine

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ranjith Kankala

: Since the inception of nanotechnology, several efforts have been dedicated to fabricating diverse nanodevices with exceptional performance. These innovative constructs have been applied in medicine due to their tailorable physicochemical properties (chemical composition, optical activity, spectra, and charge) and morphological attributes (size, shape, and surface area). Moreover, these versatile nanomedicines could promisingly offer better performance over the conventional therapeutic strategies. Broadly speaking, in terms of chemical composition, nanobiomaterials are classified into two predominant categories of organic and inorganic-based components. Despite their success and enormous versatile advancements in the past two decades, the significant progress towards clinical translation has been hampered by their corresponding intrinsic limitations. In this perspective, we give a brief overview of these organic- and inorganic-based materials, highlighting opportunities and challenges towards their utilization in medicine. Finally, we provide an interesting outlook in lessons learned and looking forward to developing these materials, emphasizing their scope towards clinical translation.

2012 ◽  
Vol 1373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Grzmil ◽  
Kinga Łuczka ◽  
Marta Gleń

ABSTRACTA method for obtaining of amorphous aluminium ammonium phosphates is developed. The statistical program STATISTICA 9 is used for planning and evaluation of the experiments. Research is carried out according to the Box-Behnken model for the following values of independent variables (input factors): pH: 6.0 ± 2; concentration of reagents: 40 ± 10 wt%, molar ratio of NH4+:PO43- in substrates (2 ± 1:1) i.e. Al3+:NH4+:PO43- (0.66:1-3:1). On the basis of this research, process parameters are determined, in which materials with the expected physicochemical properties (chemical composition, specific surface area, oil absorption number) can be obtained.


2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-21
Author(s):  
Mai Thi Hoang Vo ◽  
Thach Ngoc Le

Montmorillonite is a "green" solid catalyst and support used in many organic reations. In this paper, we describe the method to prepare two acid-activated montmorillonites from Binh Thuan and Lam Dong clays. We still prepared some cation exchanged montmorillonites as Fe3+ Zn 2+ and Al 3+. The Vietnamese montmorillonites and K-10, KSF (two commercial Fluka montmorillonites) were determinated simultanneously on some physicochemical properties such as crystalline structure, chemical composition, cation exchange capacity, adsorption capacity, porisity, surface area and acidity. The results shows that the quality of Vietnamese montmorillonites are equivalent with K-10 and KSF.


2004 ◽  
Vol 193 ◽  
pp. 435-438
Author(s):  
Marta Mottini ◽  
Francesca Primas ◽  
Martino Romaniello ◽  
Martin Groenewegen

AbstractThe Cepheid Period-Luminosity relation is unquestionably one of the most powerful tools at our disposal for determining the extragalactic distance scale. While significant progress has been made in the past few years towards its understanding and characterisation, both on the observational (e.g. the HST Key Project) and theoretical (e.g. non-linear pulsation models, non-LTE atmospheres etc.) sides, the debate on the influence that chemical composition may have on the Period-Luminosity relation is still unsettled. Current estimates lead to differences in the distance as large as 15%, effectively limiting the accuracy of Cepheids as distance indicators. To further tackle this problem, we have obtained high resolution spectra of a large sample of Cepheids in our Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds. The superb quality of the data allow us to probe the detailed effects of chemical composition (alpha, iron-group, and heavy elements) over more than a factor of ten in metallicity. Here, we present the first preliminary results of the analysis of iron abundances in a sub-sample of Cepheids.


Polar Record ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 12 (79) ◽  
pp. 407-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest E. Angino ◽  
Kenneth B. Armitage ◽  
Jerry C. Tash

During the past few years, interest in the physicochemical properties of ice has expanded considerably (Gorham, 1958; Sugawara, 1961; Coachman, Hemmingsen & Scholander, 1956; Langway, 1962). Little, however, is known of the chemical composition of precipitation in the polar regions or of the chemical composition of different types of ice. Consequently, it is thought that the following information, compiled as a part of a much larger chemical study of several Antarctic lakes, might be of some interest to students of chemical meteorology and to those workers investigating the physical properties of ice.


Author(s):  
A. Legrouri

The industrial importance of metal catalysts supported on reducible oxides has stimulated considerable interest during the last few years. This presentation reports on the study of the physicochemical properties of metallic rhodium supported on vanadium pentoxide (Rh/V2O5). Electron optical methods, in conjunction with other techniques, were used to characterise the catalyst before its use in the hydrogenolysis of butane; a reaction for which Rh metal is known to be among the most active catalysts.V2O5 powder was prepared by thermal decomposition of high purity ammonium metavanadate in air at 400 °C for 2 hours. Previous studies of the microstructure of this compound, by HREM, SEM and gas adsorption, showed it to be non— porous with a very low surface area of 6m2/g3. The metal loading of the catalyst used was lwt%Rh on V2Q5. It was prepared by wet impregnating the support with an aqueous solution of RhCI3.3H2O.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 2617
Author(s):  
Alicja Szatanik-Kloc ◽  
Justyna Szerement ◽  
Agnieszka Adamczuk ◽  
Grzegorz Józefaciuk

Thousands of tons of zeolitic materials are used yearly as soil conditioners and components of slow-release fertilizers. A positive influence of application of zeolites on plant growth has been frequently observed. Because zeolites have extremely large cation exchange capacity, surface area, porosity and water holding capacity, a paradigm has aroused that increasing plant growth is caused by a long-lasting improvement of soil physicochemical properties by zeolites. In the first year of our field experiment performed on a poor soil with zeolite rates from 1 to 8 t/ha and N fertilization, an increase in spring wheat yield was observed. Any effect on soil cation exchange capacity (CEC), surface area (S), pH-dependent surface charge (Qv), mesoporosity, water holding capacity and plant available water (PAW) was noted. This positive effect of zeolite on plants could be due to extra nutrients supplied by the mineral (primarily potassium—1 ton of the studied zeolite contained around 15 kg of exchangeable potassium). In the second year of the experiment (NPK treatment on previously zeolitized soil), the zeolite presence did not impact plant yield. No long-term effect of the zeolite on plants was observed in the third year after soil zeolitization, when, as in the first year, only N fertilization was applied. That there were no significant changes in the above-mentioned physicochemical properties of the field soil after the addition of zeolite was most likely due to high dilution of the mineral in the soil (8 t/ha zeolite is only ~0.35% of the soil mass in the root zone). To determine how much zeolite is needed to improve soil physicochemical properties, much higher zeolite rates than those applied in the field were studied in the laboratory. The latter studies showed that CEC and S increased proportionally to the zeolite percentage in the soil. The Qv of the zeolite was lower than that of the soil, so a decrease in soil variable charge was observed due to zeolite addition. Surprisingly, a slight increase in PAW, even at the largest zeolite dose (from 9.5% for the control soil to 13% for a mixture of 40 g zeolite and 100 g soil), was observed. It resulted from small alterations of the soil macrostructure: although the input of small zeolite pores was seen in pore size distributions, the larger pores responsible for the storage of PAW were almost not affected by the zeolite addition.


Database ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faisal M Fadlelmola ◽  
Kais Ghedira ◽  
Yosr Hamdi ◽  
Mariem Hanachi ◽  
Fouzia Radouani ◽  
...  

Abstract African genomic medicine and microbiome datasets are usually not well characterized in terms of their origin, making it difficult to find and extract data for specific African ethnic groups or even countries. The Pan-African H3Africa Bioinformatics Network (H3ABioNet) recognized the need for developing data portals for African genomic medicine and African microbiomes to address this and ran a hackathon to initiate their development. The two portals were designed and significant progress was made in their development during the hackathon. All the participants worked in a very synergistic and collaborative atmosphere in order to achieve the hackathon's goals. The participants were divided into content and technical teams and worked over a period of 6 days. In response to one of the survey questions of what the participants liked the most during the hackathon, 55% of the hackathon participants highlighted the familial and friendly atmosphere, the team work and the diversity of team members and their expertise. This paper describes the preparations for the portals hackathon and the interaction between the participants and reflects upon the lessons learned about its impact on successfully developing the two data portals as well as building scientific expertise of younger African researchers. Database URL: The code for developing the two portals was made publicly available in GitHub repositories: [https://github.com/codemeleon/Database; https://github.com/codemeleon/AfricanMicrobiomePortal].


Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 374
Author(s):  
Teresa Szczęsna ◽  
Ewa Waś ◽  
Piotr Semkiw ◽  
Piotr Skubida ◽  
Katarzyna Jaśkiewicz ◽  
...  

The aim of this study was to determine the influence of storage temperature and time on physicochemical parameters of starch syrups recommended for the winter feeding of bee colonies. The studies included commercially available three starch syrups and an inverted saccharose syrup that were stored at different temperatures: ca. 20 °C, 10–14 °C, and ca. 4 °C. Physicochemical parameters of fresh syrups (immediately after purchase) and syrups after 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, and 24 months of storage at the abovementioned temperatures were measured. It was observed that the rate of unfavorable changes in chemical composition of starch syrups and the inverted saccharose syrup, mainly the changes in the 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) content, depended on the type of a syrup and storage conditions (temperature, time). Properties of tested starch syrups intended for winter feeding of bees stored at ca. 20 °C maintained unchanged for up to 6 months, whereas the same syrups stored at lower temperatures (10–14 °C) maintained unchanged physicochemical parameters for about 12 months. In higher temperatures, the HMF content increased. To date, the influence of this compound on bees has not been thoroughly investigated.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuan Wang ◽  
Jun Cai ◽  
Lei Zhao ◽  
Dejun Zhang ◽  
Guojie Xu ◽  
...  

AbstractExperimental and clinical studies over the past two decades have provided overwhelming evidence that human cancers, including prostate cancer (PCa), harbor cancer stem cells (CSCs) that sustain tumor growth, drive tumor progression and mediate therapy resistance and tumor relapse. Recent studies have also implicated NUMB as a PCa suppressor and an inhibitor of PCa stem cells (PCSCs); however, exactly how NUMB functions in these contexts remains unclear. Here, by employing bioinformatics analysis and luciferase assays and by conducting rescue experiments, we first show that NUMB is directly targeted by microRNA-9-5p (miR-9-5p), an oncogenic miR associated with poor prognosis in many malignancies. We further show that miR-9-5p levels are inversely correlated with NUMB expression in CD44+ PCSCs. miR-9-5p reduced NUMB expression and inhibited numerous PCSC properties including proliferation, migration, invasion as well as self-renewal. Strikingly, overexpression of NUMB in CD44+ PCSCs overcame all of the above PCSC properties enforced by miR-9-5p. Taken together, our results suggest that inhibiting the expression of the oncomiR miR-9-5p and overexpressing NUMB may represent novel therapeutic strategies to target PCSCs and PCa metastasis.


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