Illuminating and Radiosensitizing Tumors with 2DG-Bound Gold-Based Nanomedicine for Targeted CT Imaging and Therapy.

Although radiotherapy is one of the most important curative treatments for cancer, its clinical application is associated with undesired therapeutic effects on normal or healthy tissues. The use of targeted agents that can simultaneously achieve therapeutic and imaging functions could constitute a potential solution. Herein, we developed 2-deoxy-d-glucose (2DG)-labeled poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) gold nanodots (2DG-PEG-AuD) as a tumor-targeted computed tomography (CT) contrast agent and radiosensitizer.

Pollen-Structured Gold Nanoclusters for X-ray Induced Photodynamic Therapy.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a cancer treatment that employs the production of cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS), subsequently triggering tumor apoptosis and tumor size reduction. However, this approach suffers from insufficient light penetration depth. In order to mitigate this issue, pollen-structured gold clusters (PSGCs) were designed for mediating X-ray-induced PDT for radiotherapy enhancement.

Grafting Behavior for the Resonating Variants of Ethynylaniline on Hydrogenated Silicon (100) Surfaces under Thermal Hydrosilylation.

This work reports the outcome of thermal grafting of 2-ethynylaniline, 3-ethynylaniline, and 4-ethynylaniline on a hydrogenated Si(100) surface. Using high-resolution XPS and AFM, it was found that the grafting of these compounds could be attributed to resonating structures that arise from the position of an electron-donating NH group and an electron-withdrawing acetylene group. For the ortho- and para-positioned acetylene group, surface reactions were observed to proceed predominantly via the acetylene to form a Si-C bond, whereas the meta-positioned acetylene group was found to have undergone nucleophilic grafting through the NH group onto the silicon surface to form a Si-N bond.

A novel 4-arm DNA/RNA Nanoconstruct triggering Rapid Apoptosis of Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells within 24 hours.

Measuring at ~30 nm, a fully customizable holliday junction DNA nanoconstruct, was designed to simultaneously carry three unmodified SiRNA strands for apoptosis gene knockout in cancer cells without any assistance from commercial transfection kits. In brief, a holliday junction structure was intelligently designed to present one arm with a cell targeting aptamer (AS1411) while the remaining three arms to carry different SiRNA strands by means of DNA/RNA duplex for inducing apoptosis in cancer cells. By carrying the three SiRNA strands (AKT, MDM2 and Survivin) into triple negative breast MDA-MB-231 cancer cells, cell number had reduced by up to ~82% within 24 hours solely from one single administration of 32 picomoles.

Isolation, Antimicrobial Susceptibility Profile and Detection of 1, TEM, and SHV in Amoxicillin-Clavulanate-Resistant Bacteria Isolated From Retail Sausages in Kampar, Malaysia.

Background: Due to the overuse of antibiotics in livestock as a growth-promoting agent, the emergence of multi-antibiotic resistant bacteria is becoming a concern.

Objectives: In this study, we aimed to detect the presence and discover the molecular determinants of foodborne bacteria in retail sausages resistant towards the antibacterial agent amoxicillin-clavulanate.

Methods: Two grams of sausages were chopped into small pieces and transferred into sterile Luria-Bertani (LB) enrichment broths overnight before they were plated on MacConkey agar petri dishes.