Novel Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Induce Ferroptosis in a Panel of Cancer Cell Lines

The use of nanomaterials rationally engineered to treat cancer is a burgeoning field that has reported great medical achievements. Iron-based polymeric nano-formulations with precisely tuned physicochemical properties are an expanding and versatile therapeutic strategy for tumor treatment. Recently, a peculiar type of regulated necrosis named ferroptosis has gained increased attention as a target for cancer therapy. Here, we show for the first time that novel iron oxide nanoparticles coated with gallic acid and polyacrylic acid (IONP–GA/PAA) possess intrinsic cytotoxic activity on various cancer cell lines. Indeed, IONP–GA/PAA treatment efficiently induces ferroptosis in glioblastoma, neuroblastoma, and fibrosarcoma cells. IONP–GA/PAA-induced ferroptosis was blocked by the canonical ferroptosis inhibitors, including deferoxamine and ciclopirox olamine (iron chelators), and ferrostatin-1, the lipophilic radical trap. These ferroptosis inhibitors also prevented the lipid hydroperoxide generation promoted by the nanoparticles. Altogether, we report on novel ferroptosis-inducing iron encapsulated nanoparticles with potent anti-cancer properties, which has promising potential for further in vivo validation.     

Ecological interaction and phylogeny, studying functionality on composed networks

We study a class of composed networks that are formed by two tree networks, T_P and T_A, whose end points touch each other through a bipartite network B_PA. We explore this network using a functional approach. We are interested in how much the topology, or the structure, of T_X (X=A or P) determines the links of B_PA. This composed structure is a useful model in evolutionary biology, where T_P and T_A are the phylogenetic trees of plants and animals that interact in an ecological community. We make use of ecological networks of dispersion of fruits, which are formed by frugivorous animals and plants with fruits; the animals, usually birds, eat fruits and disperse their seeds. We analyse how the phylogeny of T_X determines or is correlated with B_PA using a Monte Carlo approach. We use the phylogenetic distance among elements that interact with a given species to construct an index κ that quantifies the influence of T_X over B_PA. The algorithm is based on the assumption that interaction matrices that follows a phylogeny of T_X have a total phylogenetic distance smaller than the average distance of an ensemble of Monte Carlo realisations. We find that the effect of phylogeny of animal species is more pronounced in the ecological matrix than plant phylogeny.     

Systematic study of luminescent properties of new lanthanide complexes using crown ethers as ligand

This is a report on the synthesis, characterization and spectroscopic study of 24 lanthanide-crown ether coordination compounds, where Eu(III), Tb(III) and Gd(III) were complexes to 12-crown-4 (12C4), 15-crown-5 (15C5), 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) and 2,2′-dipyridyl (dipy). The compounds were synthesized in an ethanol/acetone solution at room temperature and analyzed using CHN elemental analysis and infrared, absorption and emission spectroscopies. The polarizability that the ligand exerts on the emission process was verified and found remarkable. The Eu-15C5-phen complex showed the highest quantum efficiency (71.6%) because of its low non-radiative rate and highest polarizability with reference to the ligands system.     

Tests of ordered hypotheses in linkage in heredity

The asymptotic null distribution of the likelihood ratio test for two cases of ordered hypotheses in a particular genetic model is considered. A simple iterative process is proposed in order to get the restricted estimates. It is shown that both tests have asymptotically a chi-bar squared distribution and the same size. A simulation study is also conducted in order to compare the usual unrestricted test with the corresponding one of ordered hypotheses. Finally, the results are extended to some special cases.     

Reflectance and ultraviolet spectroscopy: predicting the relative growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in pine biomass

Ultrasound treatment favors enzymatic attack on vegetal materials and influences biological activity. The objective of this study was to develop substrates for Saccharomyces cerevisiae based on the hydrothermal treatment and ultrasound treatment of pine needle biomass. The samples subjected to ultrasound treatment at 550?°C and 650?°C showed higher reflectance bands at around 200?nm after 80?min of ultrasound treatment and lower band gap energies associated with lower IC₃₀ values. The hydrothermal treatment with 100?min of ultrasound treatment generated more promising materials for the use of the substrates with the eukaryotic model S. cerevisiae.     

Phase calculation with a swept source in optical coherence tomography: Jitter influence

An analysis of phase modifications introduced by laser jitter in frequency-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) is described. It is shown that a 1D spurious phase function is introduced as a consequence of this phenomenon. This phase function is added to any other introduced by the object under analysis causing a superposition of both. The result may impose some limitations for unambiguous determination of phase changes of objects. Experimental and theoretical results are presented.     

Critical behavior of the absorbing state transition in the contact process with relaxing immunization

We introduce a model for the Contact Process with relaxing immunization CPRI  . In this model, local memory is introduced by a time and space dependence of the contamination probability. The model has two parameters: a typical immunization time τ$\tau$ and a maximum contamination probability a$a$. The system presents an absorbing state phase transition whenever the contamination probability a$a$ is above a minimum threshold. For short immunization times, the system evolves to a statistically stationary active state. Above _τc(a)${\tau }_c\left(a\right)$, immunization predominates and the system evolves to the absorbing vacuum state. We employ a finite-size scaling analysis to show that the transition belongs to the standard directed percolation universality class. The critical immunization time diverges in the limit of a→1$a\to 1$. In this regime, the density of active sites decays exponentially as τ$\tau$ increases, but never reaches the vacuum state in the thermodynamic limit.     

The synthetic preparation of naturally-occurring aromatase inhibitors,morachalcone A,isogemichalcone B,and isogemichalcone C

A convergent synthesis applicable to the preparation of oxidized prenylchalcones is reported that relies on key Claisen–Schmidt, Mitsunobu, and vinyl/benzyl Stille coupling operations. The synthetic strategy was applied towards the preparation of the natural products morachalcone A and isogemichalcones B & C, allowing their preparation in less than 10 steps and 6–8% overall yield.     

A Ferrofluid with Surface Modified Nanoparticles for Magnetic Hyperthermia and High ROS Production

A ferrofluid with 1,2-Benzenediol-coated iron oxide nanoparticles was synthesized and physicochemically analyzed. This colloidal system was prepared following the typical co-precipitation method, and superparamagnetic nanoparticles of 13.5 nm average diameter, 34 emu/g of magnetic saturation, and 285 K of blocking temperature were obtained. Additionally, the zeta potential showed a suitable colloidal stability for cancer therapy assays and the magneto-calorimetric trails determined a high power absorption density. In addition, the oxidative capability of the ferrofluid was corroborated by performing the Fenton reaction with methylene blue (MB) dissolved in water, where the ferrofluid was suitable for producing reactive oxygen species (ROS), and surprisingly a strong degradation of MB was also observed when it was combined with H₂O₂. The intracellular ROS production was qualitatively corroborated using the HT-29 human cell line, by detecting the fluorescent rise induced in 2,7-dichlorofluorescein diacetate. In other experiments, cell metabolic activity was measured, and no toxicity was observed, even with concentrations of up to 4 mg/mL of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). When the cells were treated with magnetic hyperthermia, 80% of cells were dead at 43 °C using 3 mg/mL of MNPs and applying a magnetic field of 530 kHz with 20 kA/m amplitude.     

Solution of the Dirac Equation on the Bertotti–Robinson Metric

It is shown that each component of the Dirac field satisfies a decoupled equation, which admits separable solutions, when the background spacetime is the Bertotti–Robinson metric, which is a solution of the Einstein vacuum field equations with a cosmological constant. Furthermore, the seperated functions appearing in the solutions are shown to obey identities of the Teukolsky–Starobinsky type and the separable solutions are shown to be eigenfunctions of a certain differential operator.