Skin Barrier Recovery by Protease-Activated Receptor-2 Antagonist Lobaric Acid.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) results from gene and environment interactions that lead to a range of immunological abnormalities and breakdown of the skin barrier. Protease-activated receptor 2 (PAR2) belongs to a family of G-protein coupled receptors and is expressed in suprabasal layers of the epidermis. PAR2 is activated by both trypsin and a specific agonist peptide, SLIGKV-NH₂ and is involved in both epidermal permeability barrier homeostasis and epithelial inflammation.

Dental optical coherence tomography: new potential diagnostic system for cracked-tooth syndrome.

Purpose: The aim of the present study was to determine the reliability of optical coherence tomography (OCT) in detecting cracked teeth and its relative clinical effectiveness by comparing it with other diagnostic methods including conventional visual inspection, trans-illumination, and micro-computed tomography (micro-CT).

Methods: The reliability of swept source OCT (SS-OCT) was verified by comparing the number of detected crack lines on 109 surfaces of 61 teeth with those detected with other conventional methods.

Results: One to one comparison revealed that crack lines that were invisible with naked eyes could be found in SS-OCT images.

A novel near-infrared fluorescence chemosensor for copper ion detection using click ligation and energy transfer.

A novel near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) copper sensor allows rapid and ultra-sensitive detection of copper ions with excellent selectivity and specificity due to the specificity of click ligation and effective dark-quenching mechanism.

Robust mapping of the myelin water fraction in the presence of noise: synergic combination of anisotropic diffusion filter and spatially regularized nonnegative least squares algorithm.

Purpose: To improve the mapping of myelin water fraction (MWF) despite the presence of measurement noise, and to increase the visibility of fine structures in MWF maps.

Materials And Methods: An anisotropic diffusion filter (ADF) was effectively combined with a spatially regularized nonnegative least squares algorithm (srNNLS) for robust MWF mapping. Synthetic data simulations were performed to assess the effectiveness of this new method.

Real time, high resolution video imaging of apoptosis in single cells with a polymeric nanoprobe.

We report a new apoptosis nanoprobe (Apo-NP) designed on the basis of a polymer nanoparticle platform. This simple one-step technique is capable of boosting fluorescence signals upon apoptosis in living cells, enabling real-time imaging of apoptosis in single cells and in vivo. The Apo-NP efficiently delivers chemically labeled, dual-quenched caspase-3-sensitive fluorogenic peptides into cells, allowing caspase-3-dependent strong fluorescence amplification to be imaged in apoptotic cells in real-time and at high resolution.

Cellular uptake pathway and drug release characteristics of drug-encapsulated glycol chitosan nanoparticles in live cells.

Herein, we evaluated the cellular uptake pathways of hydrophobically modified glycol chitosan (HGC) nanoparticles as nano-sized drug carriers using cellular imaging technology. The endocytic pathway of nanocarriers for intracellular drug delivery is of great interest for the design of high efficacy delivery carriers for therapeutic agents. To evaluate the cellular uptake pathways of HGC nanoparticles, HGC was chemically labeled with near infrared (NIR) fluorescence dye, Cy5.

Tumor-homing glycol chitosan/polyethylenimine nanoparticles for the systemic delivery of siRNA in tumor-bearing mice.

Here, we designed a new nano-sized siRNA carrier system composed of biocompatible/biodegradable glycol chitosan polymer (GC) and strongly positively charged polyethylenimine (PEI) polymers. In order to make a stable and tumor-homing nano-sized carrier, each polymer was modified with hydrophobic 5beta-cholanic acid, and they were simply mixed to form self-assembled GC-PEI nanoparticles (GC-PEI NPs), due to the strong hydrophobic interactions of 5beta-cholanic acids in the polymers. The freshly prepared GC-PEI NPs showed a stable nanoparticle structure (350nm) and they presented a strongly positive-charged surface (zeta potential=23.

Stability and cellular uptake of polymerized siRNA (poly-siRNA)/polyethylenimine (PEI) complexes for efficient gene silencing.

Small interfering RNA (siRNA) is a promising biological strategy for treatment of diverse diseases, but the therapeutic application of siRNA has been limited by its instability and poor cellular uptake efficiency. Although the development of various gene delivery systems has increased the siRNA delivery efficiency, many problems still remain to be resolved before the clinical application of siRNA. In this study, we suggest reducible polymerized siRNA a possible solution for low delivery efficiency of siRNA.

Self-assembled hyaluronic acid nanoparticles for active tumor targeting.

Hyaluronic acid nanoparticles (HA-NPs), which are formed by the self-assembly of hydrophobically modified HA derivatives, were prepared to investigate their physicochemical characteristics and fates in tumor-bearing mice after systemic administration. The particle sizes of HA-NPs were controlled in the range of 237-424 nm by varying the degree of substitution of the hydrophobic moiety. When SCC7 cancer cells over-expressing CD44 (the receptor for HA) were treated with fluorescently labeled Cy5.

Cellular uptake mechanism and intracellular fate of hydrophobically modified glycol chitosan nanoparticles.

Polymeric nanoparticle-based carriers are promising agents for the targeted delivery of therapeutics to the intracellular site of action. To optimize the efficacy in delivery, often the tuning of physicochemical properties (i.e.