Insights into Multifunctional Nanoparticle-Based Drug Delivery Systems for Glioblastoma Treatment

Glioblastoma (GB) is an aggressive cancer with high microvascular proliferation, resulting in accelerated invasion and diffused infiltration into the surrounding brain tissues with very low survival rates. Treatment options are often multimodal, such as surgical resection with concurrent radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The development of resistance of tumor cells to radiation in the areas of hypoxia decreases the efficiency of such treatments. Additionally, the difficulty of ensuring drugs effectively cross the natural blood–brain barrier (BBB) substantially reduces treatment efficiency. These conditions concomitantly limit the efficacy of standard chemotherapeutic agents available for GB. Indeed, there is an urgent need of a multifunctional drug vehicle system that has potential to transport anticancer drugs efficiently to the target and can successfully cross the BBB. In this review, we summarize some nanoparticle (NP)-based therapeutics attached to GB cells with antigens and membrane receptors for site-directed drug targeting. Such multicore drug delivery systems are potentially biodegradable, site-directed, nontoxic to normal cells and offer long-lasting therapeutic effects against brain cancer. These models could have better therapeutic potential for GB as well as efficient drug delivery reaching the tumor milieu. The goal of this article is to provide key considerations and a better understanding of the development of nanotherapeutics with good targetability and better tolerability in the fight against GB.     

Effects of Deacetylasperulosidic Acid on Atopic Dermatitis through Modulating Immune Balance and Skin Barrier Function in HaCaT,HMC-1, and EOL-1 Cells

The medicinal plant noni (Morinda citrifolia) is widely dispersed throughout Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and Australia. We previously reported that fermented Noni could alleviate atopic dermatitis (AD) by recovering Th1/Th2 immune balance and enhancing skin barrier function induced by 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene. Noni has a high deacetylasperulosidic acid (DAA) content, whose concentration further increased in fermented noni as an iridoid constituent. This study aimed to determine the anti-AD effects and mechanisms of DAA on HaCaT, HMC-1, and EOL-1 cells. DAA inhibited the gene expression and secretion of AD-related cytokines and chemokines including interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-25, IL-33, thymic stromal lymphopoietin, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, thymus and activation-regulated chemokine, macrophage-derived chemokine, and regulated upon activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted, in all cells, and inhibited histamine release in HMC-1 cells. DAA controlled mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphorylation levels and the translocation of nuclear factor-kappa light chain enhancer of activated B cells into the nucleus by inhibiting IκBα decomposition in all the cells. Furthermore, DAA increased the expression of proteins involved in skin barrier functions such as filaggrin and involucrin in HaCaT cells. These results confirmed that DAA could relieve AD by controlling immune balance and recovering skin barrier function.     

Enhancement of the Antioxidant and Skin Permeation Properties of Betulin and Its Derivatives

This study investigated the antioxidant activity DPPH, ABTS, and Folin–Ciocalteu methods of betulin (compound 1) and its derivatives (compounds 2–11). Skin permeability and accumulation associated with compounds 1 and 8 were also examined. Identification of the obtained products (compound 2–11) and betulin isolated from plant material was based on the analysis of ¹H- NMR and ¹³C-NMR spectra. The partition coefficient was calculated to determine the lipophilicity of all compounds. In the next stage, the penetration through pig skin and its accumulation in the skin were evaluated of ethanol vehicles containing compound 8 (at a concentration of 0.226 mmol/dm³), which was characterized by the highest antioxidant activity. For comparison, penetration studies of betulin itself were also carried out. Poor solubility and the bioavailability of pure compounds are major constraints in combination therapy. However, we observed that the ethanol vehicle was an enhancer of skin permeation for both the initial betulin and compound 8. The betulin 8 derivative showed increased permeability through biological membranes compared to the parent betulin. The paper presents the transformation of polycyclic compounds to produce novel derivatives with marked antioxidant activities and as valuable intermediates for the pharmaceutical industry. Moreover, the compounds contained in the vehicles, due to their mechanism of action, can have a beneficial effect on the balance between oxidants and antioxidants in the body, minimizing the effects of oxidative stress. The results of this work may contribute to knowledge regarding vehicles with antioxidant potential. The use of vehicles for this type of research is therefore justified.     

电荷耦合效应对高耐压沟槽栅极超势垒整流器击穿电压的影响

通过沟槽结构和可调节的电子势垒,沟槽栅极超势垒整流器可以更为有效地实现通态压降和反向漏电流之间的良好折衷.在高压应用时,电荷耦合效应对于提高该器件的反向承压能力起到了关键作用.本文通过理论模型与器件模拟结果,分析了沟槽深度、栅氧厚度和台面宽度等关键参数对电荷耦合作用下二维电场分布的影响,归纳出了提高该器件击穿电压的思路与方法,为器件设计提供了有意义的指导.在此基础上,提出了阶梯栅氧结构,该结构在维持几乎相同击穿电压的同时,使正向导通压降降低51.49%.     

Design and simulation of AlN-based vertical Schottky barrier diodes

The key parameters of vertical AlN Schottky barrier diodes(SBDs) with variable drift layer thickness(DLT) and drift layer concentration(DLC) are investigated. The specific on-resistance(R_(on,sp)) decreased to 0.5 m? · cm~2 and the breakdown voltage(V_(BR)) decreased from 3.4 kV to 1.1 kV by changing the DLC from 10~(15) cm~(-3) to 3×10~(16) cm~(-3). The VBRincreases from 1.5 kV to 3.4 kV and the Ron,sp also increases to 12.64 m? · cm~2 by increasing DLT from 4-μm to 11-μm. The VBRenhancement results from the increase of depletion region extension. The Baliga's figure of merit(BFOM) of3.8 GW/cm~2 was obtained in the structure of 11-μm DLT and 10~(16) cm~(-3) DLC without FP. When DLT or DLC is variable,the consideration of the value of BFOM is essential. In this paper, we also present the vertical AlN SBD with a field plate(FP), which decreases the crowding of electric field in electrode edge. All the key parameters were optimized by simulating based on Silvaco-ATLAS.     

Fe/MCSAC catalysts surface modified with nitrogen DBD non‐thermal plasma for carbonyl sulfide catalytic hydrolysis activity enhancement

The removal of carbonyl sulfide (COS or S=C=O) from gas streams over Fe/microwave coconut‐shell activated carbon (MCSAC) catalysts modified by dielectric barrier discharge non‐thermal plasma (NTP) were investigated. The properties of Fe/MCSAC catalysts modified by NTP in different conditions, included kinds of reactors, treatment times and input voltages. The surface properties were evaluated by means of energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectrometry, Brunauer Emmett Teller, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy methods and theoretical calculation, which could help us understand the effects of the plasma treatment. The experiments results showed that the COS hydrolysis activities of Fe/MCSAC catalysts were largely enhanced after NTP modification. And the optimal reactor type, treatment time and input voltage were plate‐plate type, 10 min and 35 V, respectively. The catalytic activity enhanced effectually due to the improvement of active component's dispersion after NTP modification. In addition, the extended oxygen functional groups on NTP‐modified catalyst's surface could contribute to a higher activity for COS catalytic hydrolysis at low temperature. The investigation results indicate that non‐thermal plasma treatment is an effective way to manipulate catalyst surface properties for COS catalytic hydrolysis reaction. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

非通孔多孔氧化铝基底上原位生成Pd纳米材料的制备及应用

以非双通的多孔氧化铝(AAO)(Al基底为支撑体)为模板,基底Al作为还原剂,在AAO孔道内原位合成了Pd单质(Pd/AAO)。本文详细研究了AAO阻挡层的去除以及Pd/AAO的酸腐蚀处理后的情况。采用扫描电子显微镜观察了不同条件下形成的形貌,提出了一个近似合理的生成Pd单质的机理。评价了其对苯硼酸和对溴苯甲醛Suzuki反应的活性。摩尔分数0.06%Pd催化剂在温和的实验条件下可以高效催化Suzuki反应,产率达到99.8%。Pd/AAO固体片状结构在液相反应中直接从溶液中取出即可进行下一次反应,易于分离和回收,可使用性强。此研究为有机反应异相催化剂的设计提供了一个有效的思路,在实际应用中具有一定的指导意义。     

Random points in halfspheres

A random spherical polytope P_n in a spherically convex set as considered here is the spherical convex hull of n independent, uniformly distributed random points in K. The behaviour of P_n for a spherically convex set K contained in an open halfsphere is quite similar to that of a similarly generated random convex polytope in a Euclidean space, but the case when K is a halfsphere is different. This is what we investigate here, establishing the asymptotic behaviour, as n tends to infinity, of the expectation of several characteristics of P_n, such as facet and vertex number, volume and surface area. For the Hausdorff distance from the halfsphere, we obtain also some almost sure asymptotic estimates. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 50, 3–22, 2017     

Robust barrier option pricing by frame projection under exponential Lévy dynamics

We present an efficient method for robustly pricing discretely monitored barrier and occupation time derivatives under exponential Lévy models. This includes ordinary barrier options, as well as (resetting) Parisian options, delayed barrier options (also known as cumulative Parisian or Parasian options), fader options and step options (soft-barriers), all with single and double barriers, which have yet to be priced with more general Lévy processes, including KoBoL (CGMY), Merton’s jump diffusion and NIG. The method’s efficiency is derived in part from the use of frame-projected transition densities, which transform the problem into the Fourier domain and accelerate the convergence of intermediate expectations. Moreover, these expectations are approximated by Toeplitz matrix-vector multiplications, resulting in a fast implementation. We devise an augmentation approach that contributes to the method’s robustness, adding protection against mis-specifying a proper truncation support of the transition density. Theoretical convergence is verified by a series of numerical experiments which demonstrate the method’s efficiency and accuracy.