Melanin-based nanoparticles in biomedical applications: From molecular imaging to treatment of diseases

The melanin-based nanoparticles preparation methods were summarized here. Biomedical applications of melanin-based nanoparticles were also reviewed, including molecular imaging (magnetic resonance, positron emission tomography, and photoacoustic imaging) and treatment of diseases (drug delivery, photothermal therapy, antioxidant therapy, and iron overload therapy).     

离子选择电极的进展

本文是有关离子选择电极发展近况的综述。Arnold和Solsky于1986年发表了一篇关于离子选择电极(ISE)的综述,全面介绍了自1983年至1985年有关这方面的工作。本文根据1988年底以前的文献,突出一些有代表性的文章,着重介绍了中性载体膜电极、敏化电极、生物电极和ISE在流动注射分析(FIA)和生物医学分析中的应用。     

聚异丁烯基生物惰性弹性体的研究进展

聚异丁烯由于其全饱和结构,有且仅存在碳氢键,所以聚异丁烯基材料大多具有良好的生物稳定性和相容性。近年来关于聚异丁烯基生物惰性弹性体的研究取得了许多的进展,包括PIB-poly(methyl methacrylate)(PMMA)用于骨关节粘合剂、PIB-cyanoacrylate(CA)用于腰椎间盘替换、基于PIB的两亲网络(APNs)用于免疫隔离膜、聚异丁烯基聚氨酯(PU)及聚脲的发展。另外,在poly(styrene-b-isobutylene-b-styrene)(SIBS)生物医用材料方面也取得了重要进展,其中包括SIBS应用于药物释放载体、青光眼导流管、心脏瓣膜以及人工血管等方面。最后,本文也对聚异丁烯基生物惰性弹性体的未来发展进行了展望。     

A review of multivariate calibration methods applied to biomedical analysis

The determination of the contents of therapeutic drugs, metabolites and other important biomedical analytes in biological samples is usually performed by using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Modern multivariate calibration methods constitute an attractive alternative, even when they are applied to intrinsically unselective spectroscopic or electrochemical signals. First-order (i.e., vectorized) data are conveniently analyzed with classical chemometric tools such as partial least-squares (PLS). Certain analytical problems require more sophisticated models, such as artificial neural networks (ANNs), which are especially able to cope with non-linearities in the data structure. Finally, models based on the acquisition and processing of second- or higher-order data (i.e., matrices or higher dimensional data arrays) present the phenomenon known as “second-order advantage”, which permits quantitation of calibrated analytes in the presence of interferents. The latter models show immense potentialities in the field of biomedical analysis. Pertinent literature examples are reviewed.     

Structural and optical characterization of type II In0.14Ga0.86As0.13Sb0.87/GaSb heterostructure doped with zinc grown by liquid phase epitaxy

In_0.14Ga_0.86As_0.13Sb_0.87 quaternary solid solutions lattice-matched to GaSb (0 0 1) substrates were grown by liquid phase epitaxy, which were intentionally doped with Zn in a wide range. Two main vibrational bands are observed in their Raman spectra over the doping range investigated. The assignment of the observed modes to GaAs-like and (GaSb + InAs)-like mixture modes is discussed. The comparison of the experimental results with obtained ones by the modified random-element isodisplacement (MREI) model allows to confirm that the bands correspond to the vibrational modes associated with longitudinal- and transverse-optical (LO and TO) modes of the binary compounds GaAs and (GaSb + InAs). The low-temperature photoluminescence (LT-PL) of p-type In_xGa_1−xAs_ySb_1−y was studied as a function of zinc concentration added to the melt solution. Low temperature photoluminescence spectra show the presence of an emission band that has been related to radiative emission involving Zn-acceptors. For low carrier concentration, the photoluminescence line shape could be explained in terms of a direct transition following a simple k-selection rule. For degenerate concentrations, however, it is properly interpreted in terms of non-k-conserving transitions which arise from indirect recombination of holes in a highly filled valence band.     

Synthesis and characterization of biocompatible magnetic glyconanoparticles

Magnetic glyconanoparticles were synthesized via the co-precipitation method. Iron (II) and iron (III) chloride were co-precipitated out of solution by the addition of ammonium hydroxide in an aqueous solution containing carbohydrate stabilizers such as d-gluconic acid, lactobionic acid and Ficoll^® at 75-80 °C. Stable magnetic glyconanoparticles were formed in a simple and direct process. Dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy were used to characterize the surface-coated magnetic nanoparticles. In vitro cell viability studies of the glyconanoparticles were conducted with the mouse fibroblast cell lines. The magnetic glyconanoparticles revealed to be non-toxic at a concentration as high as 0.1 mg/mL.     

Formation and properties of magnetic chains for 100 nm nanoparticles used in separations of molecules and cells

Optical observations of 100 nm metallic magnetic nanoparticles are used to study their magnetic field induced self assembly. Chains with lengths of tens of microns are observed to form within minutes at nanoparticle concentrations 10¹⁰/mL. Chain rotation and magnetophoresis are readily observed, and SEM reveals that long chains are not simple single particle filaments. Similar chains are detected for several 100 nm commercial bio-separation nanoparticles. We demonstrate the staged magnetic condensation of different types of nanoparticles into composite structures and show that magnetic chains bind to immuno-magnetically labeled cells, serving as temporary handles which allow novel magnetic cell manipulations.     

Fabricating hierarchical ZSM-5 to induct long chain antioxidant coenzyme Q10 for biomedical application

The study investigates the hydrophobic antioxidant Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) adsorption over industrially relevant hierarchical ZSM-5 for potential therapeutic applications. The designing of hierarchical nanocomposites was optimized with two different NaOH/CTAB ratios (0.18 and 0.62) over ZSM-5 (SiO₂/Al₂O₃ = 22–27) of different crystal sizes (0.5 µm, 2.0 µm and 3.0 µm) and different SiO₂/Al₂O₃ ratios (23, 80, 280 and 1500) through top-down approach. Hydrothermal stability of samples was studied using 100% water steam at 700 °C and 750 °C for 2 h, respectively. Reassembling nano ZSM-5 into hierarchical composite was found to exhibit ordered/disordered hexagonal mesophase depending on alkaline treated ZSM-5 crystal sizes and silica to alumina ratios. The phase changes were analyzed using different textural characterizations such as X-ray diffraction, BET surface area, ammonia desorption technique, ²⁷Al MAS NMR, thermogravimetric analysis and transmission electron microscope. 21 different nanoformulations were screened for CoQ10 adsorption and subsequently selected samples were applied for curcumin and ascorbic acid adsorption. Hierarchical ZSM-5 with SiO₂/Al₂O₃ ratio 80 (ZSM-5-80 (0.62)) was found to be steam stable and optimum with highest Q10 adsorption (55%). The adsorption influence over different crystal size and silica to alumina ratios, clearly showed the dependency over synergistic action of textural characteristics such as external surface area, pore volume, and weak acidity. The structured nanosupports with pore sizes between 3 and 4.0 nm were found to exhibit highest CoQ10 adsorption.     

CE‐MS for metabolomics: Developments and applications in the period 2016–2018

In the field of metabolomics, CE‐MS is now recognized as a strong analytical technique for the analysis of (highly) polar and charged metabolites in a wide range of biological samples. Over the past few years, significant attention has been paid to the design and improvement of CE‐MS approaches for (large‐scale) metabolic profiling studies and for establishing protocols in order to further expand the role of CE‐MS in metabolomics. In this paper, which is a follow‐up of a previous review paper covering the years 2014–2016 (Electrophoresis 2017, 38, 190–202), main advances in CE‐MS approaches for metabolomics studies are outlined covering the literature from July 2016 to June 2018. Aspects like developments in interfacing designs and data analysis tools for improving the performance of CE‐MS for metabolomics are discussed. Representative examples highlight the utility of CE‐MS in the fields of biomedical, clinical, microbial, and plant metabolomics. A complete overview of recent CE‐MS‐based metabolomics studies is given in a table, which provides information on sample type and pretreatment, capillary coatings and MS detection mode. Finally, some general conclusions and perspectives are given.     

Modeling the Ultrafast Response of Two‐Magnon Raman Excitations in Antiferromagnets on the Femtosecond Timescale

Illuminating a magnetic material with femtosecond laser pulses induces complex ultrafast dynamical processes. The resulting optically detectable response usually contains contributions from both the optical properties and the magnetic degrees of freedom. Disentangling all the different components concurring to the generation of the total signal is a major challenge of contemporary experimental solid‐state physics. Here, this problem is tackled, addressing the purely optical, nonmagnetic artifacts on the time resolved two‐magnon stimulated Raman spectrum of an antiferromagnet, rationalizing the recent observation on the exchange energy modification upon photo‐excitation. It is demonstrated how the genuine dynamics of the magnetic eigenmode can be disentangled from the nonlinear optical effects, generated by cross phase modulation, on the femtosecond timescale. The introduced approach can be extended for the investigation of <100 fs dynamic processes by means of coherent Raman scattering.