Sonodynamic therapy using water-dispersed TiO2-polyethylene glycol compound on glioma cells: comparison of cytotoxic mechanism with photodynamic therapy

Sonodynamic therapy is expected to be a novel therapeutic strategy for malignant gliomas. The titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) nanoparticle, a photosensitizer, can be activated by ultrasound. In this study, by using water-dispersed TiO(2) nanoparticles, an in vitro comparison was made between the photodynamic and sonodynamic damages on U251 human glioblastoma cell lines. Water-dispersed TiO(2) nanoparticles were constructed by the adsorption of chemically modified polyethylene glycole (PEG) on the TiO(2) surface (TiO(2)/PEG). To evaluate cytotoxicity, U251 monolayer cells were incubated in culture medium including 100 μg/ml of TiO(2)/PEG for 3h and subsequently irradiated by ultraviolet light (5.0 mW/cm(2)) or 1.0MHz ultrasound (1.0 W/cm(2)). Cell survival was estimated by MTT assay 24h after irradiation. In the presence of TiO(2)/PEG, the photodynamic cytotoxic effect was not observed after 20 min of an ultraviolet light exposure, while the sonodynamic cytotoxicity effect was almost proportional to the time of sonication. In addition, photodynamic cytotoxicity of TiO(2)/PEG was almost completely inhibited by radical scavenger, while suppression of the sonodynamic cytotoxic effect was not significant. Results of various fluorescent stains showed that ultrasound-treated cells lost their viability immediately after irradiation, and cell membranes were especially damaged in comparison with ultraviolet-treated cells. These findings showed a potential application of TiO(2)/PEG to sonodynamic therapy as a new treatment of malignant gliomas and suggested that the mechanism of TiO(2)/PEG mediated sonodynamic cytotoxicity differs from that of photodynamic cytotoxicity.     

High-contrast, high-intensity laser pulse generation using a nonlinear preamplifier in a Ti:sapphire laser system

We report a high-contrast, high-intensity Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplification system that incorporates a nonlinear preamplifier based on optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA). By cooling the Ti:sapphire crystal in the final amplifier down to 77 K, the chirped-pulses are amplified to 2.9 J at a 10 Hz repetition rate without a thermal lensing effect. Pulse compression down to 19 fs duration obtained after amplification indicates a peak power of 80 TW. With the OPCPA, the temporal contrast is significantly improved to better than 7x10(-9) in a few picoseconds interval prior to the main laser pulse.     

蛋白质跨膜传输的飞秒和频振动光谱快速实时监测

Characterization of conformation kinetics of proteins at the interfaces is crucial for understanding the biomolecular functions and the mechanisms of interfacial biological action. But it requires to capture the dynamic structures of proteins at the interfaces with sufficient structural and temporal resolutions. Here, we demonstrate that a femtosecond sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy (SFG-VS) system developed by our group provides a powerful tool for monitoring the real-time peptide transport across the membranes with time resolution of less than one second. By probing the real-time SFG signals in the amide I and amide A bands as WALP23 interacts with DMPG lipid bilayer, it is found that WALP23 is initially absorbed at the gel-phase DMPG bilayer with a random coil structure. The absorption of WALP23 on the surface leads to the surface charge reversal and thus changes the orientation of membrane-bound water. As the DMPG bilayer changes from gel phase into fluid phase, WALP23 inserts into the fluid-phase bilayer with its N-terminal end moving across the membrane, which causes the membrane dehydration and the transition of WALP23 conformation from random coil to mixed helix/loop structure and then to pure α-helical structure. The established system is ready to be employed in characterizing other interfacial fast processes, which will be certainly helpful for providing a clear physical picture of the interfacial phenomena.     

高聚物在超临界二氧化碳介质中的溶胀行为

研究了LDPE、PP、PA6、EVA、PS、PU六种聚合物在超临界CO2 中的溶胀情况 ,观测了溶胀温度、溶胀压力、溶胀时间和降压时间对聚合物溶胀前后重量变化的影响以及溶胀后聚合物中CO2 的解吸曲线。     

A Convenient Synthesis of Aromatic-Ring-Substituted Diacetylenes

A simple and convenient way for the preparation of symmetrical diarylbutadiynes 5 with improved yields is reported (Scheme 2). The reaction time is drastically reduced using this method compared to previously reported procedures.     

Preparation of a uniform poly(methyl methacrylate) macromonomer and its polymerization

Syndiotactic poly(methyl methacrylate) (st-PMMA) macromonomer having methacryloyl end group was prepared from st-PMMA living anion and separated into uniform macromonomers by means of supercritical fluid chromatography. A uniform macromonomer with the degree of polymerization of 32 was polymerized radically in benzene at 60°C. The uniform dimer, trimer and tetramer of the uniform macromonomer were isolated from the polymerization product by means of gel-permeation chromatography (GPC). The intrinsic viscosity ([η]) in tetrahydrofuran of these uniform comblike polymers was determined by GPC/differential viscometric analysis. The plot of logarithmic [η] against logarithmic molecular weight indicated that the trimer and tetramer assume a little shrinking molecular shape as compared with the unimer and dimer.     

Heterogeneity of active species in metallocene catalysts

From a detailed analysis of poly[ethylene-co-(1-hexene)] obtained with typical metallocene catalysts, it was found that metallocene catalysts give two kinds of copolymers which differ in crystallinity. It may be thus plausible to assume that there are two kinds of active species in metallocene catalysts.     

基于非周期多层膜的X射线成像研究

设计了惯性约束聚变（ICF）诊断实验用X射线Kirkpatrick-Baez（KB）显微镜,给出了系统的结构参量.使用ZEMAX光学软件对KB型显微镜进行了性能模拟,结果表明：在8 keV能点,放大率为8倍时,轴上点的最佳空间分辨率小于2 μm,200微米视场的空间分辨率优于10μm.采用磁控溅射方法制备了W/B4C非周期多层膜,经X射线衍射仪（XRD,工作能量8 keV）测量,其反射率为20％,带宽为0.3°,达到了KB型显微镜成像系统的要求.使用Cu靶X射线管进行了成像实验,得到了放大倍数分别为1倍和2倍的一维X射线像.