Gold-Speckled SPION@SiO Nanoparticles Decorated with Thiocarbohydrates for ASGPR1 Targeting: Towards HCC Dual Mode Imaging Potential Applications.

Efforts are made to perform an early and accurate detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by simultaneous exploiting multiple clinically non-invasive imaging modalities. Original nanostructures derived from the combination of different inorganic domains can be used as efficient contrast agents in multimodal imaging. Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) and Au nanoparticles (NPs) possess well-established contrasting features in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and X-ray computed tomography (CT), respectively.

PbS Quantum Dots Decorating TiO Nanocrystals: Synthesis, Topology, and Optical Properties of the Colloidal Hybrid Architecture.

Fabrication of heterostructures by merging two or more materials in a single object. The domains at the nanoscale represent a viable strategy to purposely address materials' properties for applications in several fields such as catalysis, biomedicine, and energy conversion. In this case, solution-phase seeded growth and the hot-injection method are ingeniously combined to fabricate TiO/PbS heterostructures.

Deficiency of Mitochondrial Aspartate-Glutamate Carrier 1 Leads to Oligodendrocyte Precursor Cell Proliferation Defects Both In Vitro and In Vivo.

Aspartate-Glutamate Carrier 1 (AGC1) deficiency is a rare neurological disease caused by mutations in the solute carrier family 25, member 12 () gene, encoding for the mitochondrial aspartate-glutamate carrier isoform 1 (AGC1), a component of the malate-aspartate NADH shuttle (MAS), expressed in excitable tissues only. AGC1 deficiency patients are children showing severe hypotonia, arrested psychomotor development, seizures and global hypomyelination. While the effect of AGC1 deficiency in neurons and neuronal function has been deeply studied, little is known about oligodendrocytes and their precursors, the brain cells involved in myelination.

Au nanoparticle in situ decorated RGO nanocomposites for highly sensitive electrochemical genosensors.

A novel hybrid nanocomposite formed by RGO flakes, surface functionalized by 1-pyrene carboxylic acid (PCA), densely and uniformly in situ decorated by Au NPs, that are concomitantly coordinated by the PCA carboxylic group, and by an aromatic thiol used as the reducing agent in the synthesis, both ensuring, at the same time, a stable non-covalent NPs anchorage to the RGO flakes, and an efficient interparticle electron coupling along the NP network onto the RGO, is reported. The obtained solution processable hybrid material is used to modify Screen-Printed Carbon Electrodes (SPCEs). The hybrid modified SPCEs, functionalized with a thiolated DNA capture probe, are tested in a streptavidin-alkaline-phosphatase catalyzed assay, for the detection of the biotinylated miRNA-221, and for its determination in spiked human blood serum samples.

Akt-mediated phosphorylation of MICU1 regulates mitochondrial Ca levels and tumor growth.

Although mitochondria play a multifunctional role in cancer progression and Ca signaling is remodeled in a wide variety of tumors, the underlying mechanisms that link mitochondrial Ca homeostasis with malignant tumor formation and growth remain elusive. Here, we show that phosphorylation at the N-terminal region of the mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU) regulatory subunit MICU1 leads to a notable increase in the basal mitochondrial Ca levels. A pool of active Akt in the mitochondria is responsible for MICU1 phosphorylation, and mitochondrion-targeted Akt strongly regulates the mitochondrial Ca content.