Publications by authors named "Mehdi Shafiee Ardestani"

Lung cancer is the most fatal cancer worldwide. The etiology of lung cancer has yet to be fully characterized. Smoking and air pollution are several risk factors for lung cancer.

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Liver cancer, specifically hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths, following pancreatic cancer. The 5-year overall survival rate for HCC remains relatively low. Currently, there are multiple treatment options available for HCC, including systemic drugs, minimally invasive local therapies such as radiofrequency ablation, transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), and arterial radioembolization (TARE), as well as surgical interventions like liver resection or transplantation.

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  • Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is difficult to treat due to its aggressive characteristics, leading researchers to explore innovative delivery methods for medications.
  • Human serum albumin (HSA) was used to encapsulate Lapatinib (LAP), a drug effective against TNBC, improving its solubility and targeting capabilities in tumor environments.
  • The combination of HSA-LAP with a VEGFR-targeting peptide (VGB3) significantly enhanced anti-cancer effects, including better tumor inhibition and survival rates in animal models, indicating a compelling strategy for TNBC treatment.
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  • Scientists are studying a special tiny delivery system called dendrimers to help get more effective medicine into cells, like curcumin, which can help fight viruses like HIV-1.
  • They created a new type of dendrimer that can make curcumin more dissolvable in water and easier for cells to absorb.
  • The tests showed that this curcumin-dendrimer combination can significantly stop HIV from growing, making it a strong candidate for future treatments.
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  • Multimodal imaging combines several imaging techniques like CT, MRI, SPECT, PET, and optical imaging to enhance understanding of biological processes and improve cancer diagnosis and treatment decisions.
  • The use of nanoparticles to carry radioactive isotopes and contrast agents boosts image sensitivity and contrast, offering a promising path for both preclinical and clinical imaging advancements.
  • This review emphasizes the applications of molecular imaging and nanotechnology in cancer diagnosis, discusses challenges like cytotoxicity and regulatory issues, and explores the future of nanoradiopharmaceuticals in the field.
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  • * Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) is an inflammatory substance that plays a role in these disorders, making its inhibition a relevant target for treatment.
  • * Infliximab, a medication used for inflammatory conditions, has shown promise in improving issues like cognitive dysfunction, depression, and anxiety, suggesting it could be an effective option for treating neuropsychiatric disorders. *
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  • Neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders are major global health issues, creating a demand for new treatment strategies.
  • Fingolimod (FTY720), primarily used for multiple sclerosis, shows potential in treating various neurological conditions by influencing processes like apoptosis, oxidative stress, and neuroinflammation.
  • It helps boost memory and synaptic function by altering glutamate and GABA levels in the brain, suggesting it could be a broad-spectrum neuroprotective agent warranting further research.
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  • Malaria, caused by Plasmodium spp., remains a leading parasitic threat, prompting researchers to explore innovative and safer antimalarial alternatives like nanodrugs due to issues with drug resistance and side effects from conventional treatments.
  • The study focused on a novel treatment, a nonochloroquine-loaded curcumin using dendrimer G2, assessing its effectiveness and safety in BALB/C mice.
  • Results indicated that this new nanocomposite had a significant inhibitory effect on malaria at a dosage of 10 mg/kg, outperforming traditional chloroquine, with no harmful effects reported, suggesting potential for further research and clinical trials.
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Objective: Medical imaging techniques have widely revolutionized the diagnosis and treatment of various health conditions. Among these techniques, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has stood out as a noninvasive and versatile tool. Now, a breakthrough innovation called "manganese-carbon dots" is poised to enhance MRI imaging and provide physicians with even greater insight into the human body.

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  • PEGylation, the process of attaching polyethylene glycol to blood proteins and cells, helps solve issues like short half-life and instability of blood products.
  • Different PEGylation strategies can improve the quality of blood components such as red blood cells, platelets, and albumin by enhancing their stability and preventing unwanted reactions during storage.
  • While PEGylation generally improves stability, the effectiveness can vary; for example, the size of PEG molecules affects how long proteins stay in circulation, and utilizing branched PEG can improve retention for certain antibodies.
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Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen considered a common cause of nosocomial infection with high morbidity and mortality in burn patients. Immunoprophylaxis techniques may lower the mortality rate of patients with burn wounds infected by P. aeruginosa; consequently, this may be an efficient strategy to manage infections caused by this bacterium.

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  • Breast cancer is a leading cause of death among women, making early diagnosis crucial to prevent cancer spread; VEGF is a key growth factor involved in this process.
  • Researchers created a citric acid dendrimer linked with a VEGF antagonist peptide, which showed no harm to normal cells but was toxic to cancer cells in lab tests.
  • SPECT imaging demonstrated that this dendrimer-anti-VEGF molecule accumulates significantly in tumors, supporting its potential as an effective tool for cancer diagnosis.
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  • Hepatitis is a viral disease causing liver inflammation, and using nanoparticles (NPs) for diagnosis and treatment presents a promising solution.
  • A literature review from 2011 to 2021 was conducted to identify effective NPs for hepatitis, searching databases like PubMed and Scopus with relevant keywords.
  • The findings highlighted gold nanoparticles as the most effective for detection, chitosan nanoparticles for drug delivery and vaccination, and carbon dots for biosensing, suggesting more research should be done on these NPs for hepatitis and other viral diseases.
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  • Researchers created a series of coumarin-pyridine compounds as potential multi-functional drugs for Alzheimer's disease (AD) treatment.
  • These compounds demonstrated strong inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE), with some outperforming the standard drug donepezil.
  • The most effective compound not only inhibited key enzymes but also protected nerve cells from toxic effects and reduced harmful protein aggregation, indicating it could be a promising candidate for AD therapy.
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The failure of a long-lasting curative therapeutic benefit of currently applied chemotherapies against malignant cancers is suggested to be caused by the ineffectiveness of such interventions on cancer stem cells (CSCs). CD133/AC133 is a cell surface protein previously shown to have potential to identify CSCs in various tumors, including brain tumors. Moreover, an increase in the rate of cellular metabolism of glutamine and glucose are contributors to the fast cellular proliferation of some high-grade malignancies.

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  • - Multifunctional nanocarriers, targeting tumors with the help of tryptophan (TRP), were developed to improve cancer therapy by creating a smart drug delivery system (DDS) using two synthesis methods, one being a two-step process and the other a one-step method.
  • - The two-step method showed a 7% higher synthesis yield and a 50% better loading efficiency for the chemotherapy drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) compared to the one-step method, with a pH-sensitive release profile indicating more drug release in acidic conditions.
  • - Experiments using breast cancer (MCF-7) and kidney (HEK293) cell lines indicated that TRP enhances cellular
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Purpose: To obtain safe and qualified blood products (e.g., platelets, plasma, and red blood cells), various limitations such as limited shelf life (especially for platelets) and stability must be addressed.

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Hybridimagingtechnology has the potential to provide reliable imagingand accurate detection of cancer cells by combining the advantages and overcoming the shortages of various clinical imaging tools. Nanomaterials with unique targeting properties and their small size have improved biomedical imaging. Indeed, their small size determines local contrast agent concentrations in tumors by enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect.

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  • Conventional blood product preservation methods lack stability, prompting exploration of non-metal nanoparticles for improvements.
  • Graphene quantum dots and nanodiamonds enhance red blood cell stability, while silica nanoparticles help maintain platelet function and graphene is beneficial for platelets too.
  • Graphene oxide protects plasma proteins from thermal shocks, and various nanoparticles show promise for increasing the stability of Factor VIII and immunoglobulins, leading to a call for more research in this area.
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  • Dopamine is a key neurotransmitter linked to various neurological and mental health issues, where its release and function can be disrupted.
  • The study utilized dendrimer-conjugated dopamine to track its distribution in the body using SPECT imaging while ensuring the compound was non-toxic to human kidney cells.
  • Results indicated that dopamine D1 receptors concentrated significantly in the liver, maintaining specificity for the targeted organ.
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New strategies to increase the immune response to HIV-1 vaccine using immunological adjuvants such as Toll-like receptor agonists are needed. In this study, HIV-1 p24-Nef and conjugated form of the vaccine candidate to type-A flagellin (FLA) were injected in the BALB/c mice in different routes. Two weeks after the last immunization, lymphocyte proliferation was measured by the BrdU method.

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  • A new series of coumarin derivatives linked to benzyl triazole was synthesized and tested for their effectiveness against enzymes related to Alzheimer's disease, specifically 15-lipoxygenase and cholinesterases.
  • While most of these compounds showed only weak to moderate effects, some standouts exhibited strong neuroprotective properties, outperforming the standard drug quercetin in cell models.
  • Further studies, including docking and kinetic analysis, indicated that the top-performing compounds could be promising candidates for future development in treating Alzheimer's disease, due to their solid inhibition of targeted enzymes and prevention of amyloid aggregation.
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  • Targeting both VEGFR-1 and VEGFR-2 with the antagonist peptide VGB3 effectively inhibits tumor growth and angiogenesis, but requires improvement for clinical use.
  • Conjugating VGB3 to gold nanoparticles (GNPs) enhances its effectiveness, leading to greater tumor cell death and reduced proliferation compared to VGB3 alone.
  • The GNP-VGB3 combination shows significant advantages in a murine tumor model, promoting longer intervals between treatments without side effects, indicating strong potential for future clinical applications.
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  • HIV-1 infections lead to serious health issues globally, highlighting the need for innovative drug delivery systems using nanotechnology.
  • Researchers developed a new negatively charged G2 dendrimer nano-biopolymer that was conjugated with anti-HIV drugs lamivudine and efavirenz, utilizing various analytical methods for characterization.
  • In tests on HIV-infected cells, lamivudine showed a significant reduction in viral activity without harming cells, while efavirenz also demonstrated effectiveness, suggesting these nano-constructs are promising for future anti-HIV research.
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