Optical clearing and testing of lung tissue using inhalation aerosols: prospects for monitoring the action of viral infections.

Optical clearing of the lung tissue aims to make it more transparent to light by minimizing light scattering, thus allowing reconstruction of the three-dimensional structure of the tissue with a much better resolution. This is of great importance for monitoring of viral infection impact on the alveolar structure of the tissue and oxygen transport. Optical clearing agents (OCAs) can provide not only lesser light scattering of tissue components but also may influence the molecular transport function of the alveolar membrane.

Optical clearing of tissues: Issues of antimicrobial phototherapy and drug delivery.

This review presents principles and novelties in the field of tissue optical clearing (TOC) technology, as well as application for optical monitoring of drug delivery and effective antimicrobial phototherapy. TOC is based on altering the optical properties of tissue through the introduction of immersion optical cleaning agents (OCA), which impregnate the tissue of interest. We also analyze various methods and kinetics of delivery of photodynamic agents, nanoantibiotics and their mixtures with OCAs into the tissue depth in the context of antimicrobial and antifungal phototherapy.

Titania nanofibers in gypsum composites: an antibacterial and cytotoxicology study.

Further developments of antibacterial coatings based on photocatalytic nanomaterials could be a promising route towards potential environmentally friendly applications in households, public buildings and health care facilities. Hereby we describe a simple chemical approach to synthesize photocatalytic nanomaterial-embedded coatings using gypsum as a binder. Various types of TiO nanofiber-based photocatalytic materials (nitrogen-doped and/or palladium nanoparticle decorated) and their composites with gypsum were characterized by means of scanning (SEM) and transmission (TEM) electron microscopy as well as electron and X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) techniques.

Photocatalytic activity of TiO2 nanoparticles: effect of thermal annealing under various gaseous atmospheres.

The structure, composition and photocatalytic activity of TiO(2) nanoparticles annealed in various gas atmospheres (N(2), NH(3) and H(2)) were studied in this work. The effect of treatment on crystal structure, particle size, chemical composition and optical absorbance were assessed by means of x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and diffuse optical reflectance/transmittance measurements, respectively. Photocatalytic properties of the materials were evaluated by three different methods: degradation of methyl orange in water, killing of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria and photogeneration of radicals in the presence of 3-carboxy-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl pyrrolidine-1-oxyl (PCA) marker molecules.

Enhanced photoinactivation of Staphylococcus aureus with nanocomposites containing plasmonic particles and hematoporphyrin.

We fabricated composite nanoparticles consisting of a plasmonic core (gold nanorods or gold-silver nanocages) and a hematoporphyrin-doped silica shell. The dual photodynamic and photothermal activities of such nanoparticles against Staphylococcus aureus 209 P were studied and compared with the activities of reference solutions (hematoporphyrin or silica-coated plasmonic nanoparticles). Bacteria were incubated with nanocomposites or with the reference solutions for 15 min, which was followed by CW light irradiation with a few exposures of 5 to 30 min.