Counterion-insulated near-infrared dyes in biodegradable polymer nanoparticles for imaging.

Polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) are highly attractive for biomedical applications due to their potential biodegradability and capacity to encapsulate different loads, notably drugs and contrast agents. For optical bioimaging, NPs should operate in the near-infrared region (NIR) and exhibit stealth properties. In the present work, we applied the approach of ionic dye insulation with bulky hydrophobic counterions for encapsulation of near-infrared cyanine dyes (Cy5.

Plasma induced acceleration and selectivity in strain-promoted azide-alkyne cycloadditions.

Strain-promoted azide-alkyne cycloaddition (SPAAC) is an important member of the bioorthogonal reaction family. Over the past decade, much work has been dedicated to the generation of new strained alkynes with improved reactivity. While kinetics studies of SPAAC are often conducted in organic solvents, buffered solutions or mixtures, these media do not reflect the complexity of in vivo systems.

Gold Nanoclusters Display Low Immunogenic Effect in Microglia Cells.

Gold nanoparticles hold a great promise for both clinical and preclinical applications. The major factors impeding such applications are toxicity of new nanomaterials including e.g.

Distinct retinoic acid receptor (RAR) isotypes control differentiation of embryonal carcinoma cells to dopaminergic or striatopallidal medium spiny neurons.

Embryonal carcinoma (EC) cells are pluripotent stem cells extensively used for studies of cell differentiation. Although retinoic acid (RA) is a powerful inducer of neurogenesis in EC cells, it is not clear what specific neuronal subtypes are generated and whether different RAR isotypes may contribute to such neuronal diversification. Here we show that RA treatment during EC embryoid body formation is a highly robust protocol for generation of striatal-like GABAergic neurons which display molecular characteristics of striatopallidal medium spiny neurons (MSNs), including expression of functional dopamine D2 receptor.