A paper-based resonance energy transfer nucleic acid hybridization assay using upconversion nanoparticles as donors and quantum dots as acceptors

Monodisperse aqueous upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) were covalently immobilized on aldehyde modified cellulose paper via reduction amination to develop a luminescence resonance energy transfer (LRET)-based nucleic acid hybridization assay. This first account of covalent immobilization of UCNPs on paper for a bioassay reports an optically responsive method that is sensitive, reproducible and robust. The immobilized UCNPs were decorated with oligonucleotide probes to capture HPRT1 housekeeping gene fragments, which in turn brought reporter conjugated quantum dots (QDs) in close proximity to the UCNPs for LRET. This sandwich assay could detect unlabeled oligonucleotide target, and had a limit of detection of 13 fmol and a dynamic range spanning nearly 3 orders of magnitude. The use of QDs, which are excellent LRET acceptors, demonstrated improved sensitivity, limit of detection, dynamic range and selectivity compared to similar assays that have used molecular fluorophores as acceptors. The selectivity of the assay was attributed to the decoration of the QDs with polyethylene glycol to eliminate non-specific adsorption. The kinetics of hybridization were determined to be diffusion limited and full signal development occurred within 3 min.     

A dried blood spot assay with HPLC–MS/MS for the determination of larotrectinib in mouse blood and its application to a pharmacokinetic study

Larotrectinib is a first-generation tropomyosin kinase inhibitor, approved for the treatment of solid tumors. In this paper, we present a validated dried blood spot (DBS) method for the quantitation of larotrectinib from mouse blood using HPLC–MS/MS, which was operated under multiple reaction monitoring mode. To the DBS disc cards, acidified methanol enriched with internal standard (IS; enasidenib) was added and extracted using tert-butyl methyl ether as an extraction solvent with sonication. Chromatographic separation of larotrectinib and the IS was achieved on an Atlantis dC₁₈ column using 10 mm ammonium formate–acetonitrile (30:70, v/v) delivered at a flow-rate of 0.80 ml/min. Under these optimized conditions, the retention times of larotrectinib and the IS were ~0.93 and 1.37 min, respectively. The total run time was 2.50 min. Larotrectinib and the IS were analyzed using positive ion scan mode and parent–daughter mass to charge ion (m/z) transitions of 429.1 → 342.1 and 474.1 → 267.1, respectively, were used for the quantitation. The calibration range was 1.06–5,080 ng/ml. No matrix effect or carryover was observed. Hematocrit did not influence DBS larotrectinib concentrations. All of the validation parameters met the acceptance criteria. The applicability of the validated method was shown in a mouse pharmacokinetic study.     

Condensation of all-cis-tetraphenylcyclotetrasiloxanetetraol in ammonia: new method for preparation of ladder-like polyphenylsilsesquioxanes

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Sobolev Stability of Plane Wave Solutions to the Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation

This article explores the questions of long time orbital stability in high order Sobolev norms of plane wave solutions to the NLSE in the defocusing case.     

Doxorubicin Encapsulation in Carbon Nanotubes Having Haeckelite or Stone–Wales Defects as Drug Carriers: A Molecular Dynamics Approach

Doxorubicin (DOX), a recognized anticancer drug, forms stable associations with carbon nanotubes (CNTs). CNTs when properly functionalized have the ability to anchor directly in cancerous tumors where the release of the drug occurs thanks to the tumor slightly acidic pH. Herein, we study the armchair and zigzag CNTs with Stone–Wales (SW) defects to rank their ability to encapsulate DOX by determining the DOX-CNT binding free energies using the MM/PBSA and MM/GBSA methods implemented in AMBER16. We investigate also the chiral CNTs with haeckelite defects. Each haeckelite defect consists of a pair of square and octagonal rings. The armchair and zigzag CNT with SW defects and chiral nanotubes with haeckelite defects predict DOX-CNT interactions that depend on the length of the nanotube, the number of present defects and nitrogen doping. Chiral nanotubes having two haeckelite defects reveal a clear dependence on the nitrogen content with DOX-CNT interaction forces decreasing in the order 0N > 4N > 8N. These results contribute to a further understanding of drug-nanotube interactions and to the design of new drug delivery systems based on CNTs.     

Semilinear wave models with friction and viscoelastic damping

In this paper, we study the global (in time) existence of small data solutions to the Cauchy problem for the semilinear wave equation with friction, viscoelastic damping, and a power nonlinearity. We are interested in the connection between regularity assumptions for the data and the admissible range of exponents p in the power nonlinearity.     

Positive ground state solutions for Schrödinger–Poisson system with critical nonlocal term in ℝ3

This paper is dedicated to studying the following Schrödinger–Poisson system $$\left\{\begin{array}{ll}-\mathrm{\Delta }u+V(x)u-K(x)\varphi |u{|}^{3}u=a(x)f(u),& x\in {ℝ}^3,\\ -\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi =K(x)|u{|}^5,& x\in {ℝ}^3.\end{array}\right.$$ Under some different assumptions on functions V(x), K(x), a(x) and f(u), by using the variational approach, we establish the existence of positive ground state solutions.