Novel Pyropheophorbide Phosphatydic Acids Photosensitizer Combined EGFR siRNA Gene Therapy for Head and Neck Cancer Treatment.

This study combined two novel nanomedicines, a novel LCP Pyro PA photodynamic therapy (PDT) and LCP EGFR siRNA gene therapy, to treat head and neck cancer. A novel photosensitizer, pyropheophorbide phosphatydic acids (Pyro PA), was first modified into Lipid-Calcium phosphate nanoparticles named LCP Pyro PA NPs, and targeted with aminoethylanisamide as a novel PDT photosensitizer. EGFR siRNA was encapsulated into LCP NPs to silence EGFR expression.

Optimization of an optical inspection system based on the Taguchi method for quantitative analysis of point-of-care testing.

This study presents an optical inspection system for detecting a commercial point-of-care testing product and a new detection model covering from qualitative to quantitative analysis. Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) strips (cut-off value of the hCG commercial product is 25 mIU/mL) were the detection target in our study. We used a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor to detect the colors of the test line and control line in the specific strips and to reduce the observation errors by the naked eye.

Using a co-culture microsystem for cell migration under fluid shear stress.

We have successfully developed a microsystem to co-cultivate two types of cells with a minimum defined gap of 50 μm, and to quantitatively study the impact of fluid shear stress on the mutual influence of cell migration velocity and distance. We used the hydrostatic pressure to seed two different cells, endothelial cells (ECs) and smooth muscle cells (SMCs), on opposite sides of various gap sizes (500 μm, 200 μm, 100 μm, and 50 μm). After cultivating the cells for 12 h and peeling the co-culture microchip from the culture dish, we studied the impacts of gap size on the migration of either cell type in the absence or presence of fluid shear stress (7 dyne cm(-2) and 12 dyne cm(-2)) influence.

A newly developed immunoassay method based on optical measurement for Protein A detection.

We describe the development of an immunoassay using an antibody-silver nanoparticle (Ab-AgNP) conjugate as a catalyst for the silver enhancement reaction. The immuno-reaction signals that were magnified by silver metal precipitation were quantified using a commercial flatbed scanner. Protein A from Staphylococcus aureus (S.

Electro-microchip DNA-biosensor for bacteria detection.

This paper presents a bacteria biosensor based on DNA hybridization detection with an electro-microchip transducer. Acinetobacter baumannii was chosen as DNA sample source, because the occurrence of bacteremia caused by Acinetobacter baumannii is high in hospitals worldwide. Our strategy is based on DNA hybridization of PCR amplified bacteria DNA with biotin labelled primers and detection enhancement using gold-streptavidin nanoparticles and Ag(+)-hydroquinone solution.

Using an electro-microchip, a nanogold probe, and silver enhancement in an immunoassay.

This paper presents a novel immunoassay that uses an electro-microchip to detect the immuno-reaction signal, gold nanoparticles (ANPs) as a label of antigen or antibody and as a catalyst for silver precipitation, and the silver enhancement reaction to magnify the detection signal. This study is based on the direct immunoassay (two-layer format) and the sandwich immunoassay (three-layer format). The ANPs were introduced into the electro-microchip by the specific binding of the antibodies-ANPs conjugates and then were coupled with silver enhancement to produce black spots of silver metal.