Assessing the gene silencing potential of AuNP-based approaches on conventional 2D cell culture versus 3D tumor spheroid.

Three-dimensional (3D) cell culture using tumor spheroids provides a crucial platform for replicating tissue microenvironments. However, effective gene modulation via nanoparticle-based transfection remains a challenge, often facing delivery hurdles. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with their tailored synthesis and biocompatibility, have shown promising results in two-dimensional (2D) cultures, nevertheless, they still require a comprehensive evaluation before they can reach its full potential on 3D models.

Epidermal growth factor alters silica nanoparticle uptake and improves gold-nanoparticle-mediated gene silencing in A549 cells.

Introduction: Delivery of therapeutic nanoparticles (NPs) to cancer cells represents a promising approach for biomedical applications. A key challenge for nanotechnology translation from the bench to the bedside is the low amount of administered NPs dose that effectively enters target cells. To improve NPs delivery, several studies proposed NPs conjugation with ligands, which specifically deliver NPs to target cells via receptor binding.

Combining the amplification refractory mutation system and high-resolution melting analysis for KRAS mutation detection in clinical samples.

The success of personalized medicine depends on the discovery of biomarkers that allow oncologists to identify patients that will benefit from a particular targeted drug. Molecular tests are mostly performed using tumor samples, which may not be representative of the tumor's temporal and spatial heterogeneity. Liquid biopsies, and particularly the analysis of circulating tumor DNA, are emerging as an interesting means for diagnosis, prognosis, and predictive biomarker discovery.

Engineering gold nanoparticles for molecular diagnostics and biosensing.

Advances in nanotechnology and medical science have spurred the development of engineered nanomaterials and nanoparticles with particular focus on their applications in biomedicine. In particular, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been the focus of great interest, due to their exquisite intrinsic properties, such as ease of synthesis and surface functionalization, tunable size and shape, lack of acute toxicity and favorable optical, electronic, and physicochemical features, which possess great value for application in biodetection and diagnostics purposes, including molecular sensing, photoimaging, and application under the form of portable and simple biosensors (e.g.

Light Triggered Enhancement of Antibiotic Efficacy in Biofilm Elimination Mediated by Gold-Silver Alloy Nanoparticles.

Bacterial biofilm is a tri-dimensional complex community of cells at different metabolic stages involved in a matrix of self-produced extracellular polymeric substances. Biofilm formation is part of a defense mechanism that allows the bacteria to survive in hostile environments, such as increasing resistance or tolerance to antimicrobial agents, causing persistent infections hard to treat and impair disease eradication. One such example is bovine mastitis associated with subsp.

Liposomal Nanosystems in Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease that affects the joints and results in reduced patient quality of life due to its chronic nature and several comorbidities. RA is also associated with a high socioeconomic burden. Currently, several available therapies minimize symptoms and prevent disease progression.

Drug delivery nanosystems targeted to hepatic ischemia and reperfusion injury.

Hepatic ischemia and reperfusion injury (IRI) is an acute inflammatory process that results from surgical interventions, such as liver resection surgery or transplantation, or hemorrhagic shock. This pathology has become a severe clinical issue, due to the increasing incidence of hepatic cancer and the high number of liver transplants. So far, an effective treatment has not been implemented in the clinic.

Tackling Multidrug Resistance in Streptococci - From Novel Biotherapeutic Strategies to Nanomedicines.

The pyogenic streptococci group includes pathogenic species for humans and other animals and has been associated with enduring morbidity and high mortality. The main reason for the treatment failure of streptococcal infections is the increased resistance to antibiotics. In recent years, infectious diseases caused by pyogenic streptococci resistant to multiple antibiotics have been raising with a significant impact to public health and veterinary industry.

Water safety screening via multiplex LAMP-Au-nanoprobe integrated approach.

Contaminated water resources remain a major global concern regarding public health. The majority of water safety protocols include indicators of microbial contamination to evaluate the potential risk to public health and are key elements of quality guidelines. Among these, markers for total coliforms and fecal coliforms are strong indicators of co-contamination with other pathogens.

Fast Prototyping Microfluidics: Integrating Droplet Digital Lamp for Absolute Quantification of Cancer Biomarkers.

Microfluidic (MF) advancements have been leveraged toward the development of state-of-the-art platforms for molecular diagnostics, where isothermal amplification schemes allow for further simplification of DNA detection and quantification protocols. The MF integration with loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) is today the focus of a new generation of chip-based devices for molecular detection, aiming at fast and automated nucleic acid analysis. Here, we combined MF with droplet digital LAMP (ddLAMP) on an all-in-one device that allows for droplet generation, target amplification, and absolute quantification.

RNA Quantification Using Noble Metal Nanoprobes: Simultaneous Identification of Several Different mRNA Targets Using Color Multiplexing and Application to Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Diagnostics.

Nanotechnology provides new tools for gene expression analysis that allow for sensitive and specific characterization of prognostic signatures related to cancer. Cancer is a complex disease where multiple gene loci contribute to the phenotype. The ability to simultaneously monitor differential expression originating from each locus allows for a more accurate indication into the degree of cancerous activity than either locus alone.

Paper-Based SERS Platform for One-Step Screening of Tetracycline in Milk.

Throughout the last decade, the expansion of food testing has been gradually moving towards ordinary high throughput screening methods performed on-site. The demand for point-of-care testing, able to distinguish molecular signatures with high accuracy, sensitivity and specificity has been significantly increasing. This new requirement relies on the on-site detection and monitorization of molecular signatures suitable for the surveillance of food production and processing.

Antibody modified gold nanoparticles for fast colorimetric screening of rheumatoid arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by chronic joint inflammation and one of the main causes of chronic disability worldwide with high prevalence in the ageing population. RA is characterized by autoantibody production, synovial inflammation and bone destruction, and the most accepted biomarker is rheumatoid factor (RF) autoantibodies. In this work, we developed a low-cost approach for the detection and quantification of the RF marker.

A novel mutation in a patient with Philadelphia chromosome-positive B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph+ ALL) represents the most common genetic subtype of adult ALL (20%-30%) and accounts for approximately 50% of all cases in the elderly. It has been considered the subgroup of ALL with the worst outcome. The introduction of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) allows complete hematologic remission virtually in all patients, with improved disease-free survival and overall survival.

Multifunctional microfluidic chip for optical nanoprobe based RNA detection - application to Chronic Myeloid Leukemia.

Many diseases have their treatment options narrowed and end up being fatal if detected during later stages. As a consequence, point-of-care devices have an increasing importance for routine screening applications in the health sector due to their portability, fast analyses and decreased cost. For that purpose, a multifunctional chip was developed and tested using gold nanoprobes to perform RNA optical detection inside a microfluidic chip without the need of molecular amplification steps.

A Digital Microfluidics Platform for Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Detection.

Digital microfluidics (DMF) arises as the next step in the fast-evolving field of operation platforms for molecular diagnostics. Moreover, isothermal schemes, such as loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), allow for further simplification of amplification protocols. Integrating DMF with LAMP will be at the core of a new generation of detection devices for effective molecular diagnostics at point-of-care (POC), providing simple, fast, and automated nucleic acid amplification with exceptional integration capabilities.

Quantitative real-time monitoring of RCA amplification of cancer biomarkers mediated by a flexible ion sensitive platform.

Ion sensitive field-effect transistors (ISFET) are the basis of radical new sensing approaches. Reliable molecular characterization of specific detection of DNA and/or RNA is vital for disease diagnostics and to follow up alterations in gene expression profiles. Devices and strategies for biomolecular recognition and detection should be developed into reliable and inexpensive platforms.

Gold Nanoparticles for Diagnostics: Advances towards Points of Care.

The remarkable physicochemical properties of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have prompted developments in the exploration of biomolecular interactions with AuNP-containing systems, in particular for biomedical applications in diagnostics. These systems show great promise in improving sensitivity, ease of operation and portability. Despite this endeavor, most platforms have yet to reach maturity and make their way into clinics or points of care (POC).

Liposomes as Delivery System of a Sn(IV) Complex for Cancer Therapy.

Propose: Tin complexes demonstrate antiproliferative activities in some case higher than cisplatin, with IC50 at the low micromolar range. We have previously showed that the cyclic trinuclear complex of Sn(IV) bearing an aromatic oximehydroxamic acid group [nBu2Sn(L)]3 (L=N,2-dihydroxy-5-[N-hydroxyethanimidoyl]benzamide) (MG85) shows high anti-proliferative activity, induces apoptosis and oxidative stress, and causes destabilization of tubulin microtubules, particularly in colorectal carcinoma cells. Despite the great efficacy towards cancer cells, this complex still shows some cytotoxicity to healthy cells.

Synthesis, characterization, thermal properties and antiproliferative potential of copper(II) 4'-phenyl-terpyridine compounds.

Reactions between 4'-phenyl-terpyridine (L) and several Cu(II) salts (p-toluenesulfonate, benzoate and o-, m- or p-hydroxybenzoate) led to the formation of [Cu(p-SO3C6H4CH3)L(H2O)2](p-SO3C6H4CH3) (1), [Cu(OCOPh)2L] (2), [Cu(o-OCOC6H4OH)2L] (3), [Cu(m-OCOC6H4OH)2L]4·MeOH (·MeOH) and [Cu(p-OCOC6H4OH)2L]5·2H2O (·2H2O), which were characterized by elemental and TG-DTA analyses, ESI-MS, IR spectroscopy and single crystal X-ray diffraction, as well as by conductivimetry. In all structures the Cu atoms present N3O3 octahedral coordination geometries, which, in 2-5, are highly distorted as a result of the chelating-bidentate mode of one of the carboxylate ligands. Intermolecular π···π stacking interactions could also be found in 2-5 (in the 3.

Infection of human keratinocytes by Streptococcus dysgalactiae subspecies dysgalactiae isolated from milk of the bovine udder.

Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp. dysgalactiae (SDSD) are considered exclusive animal pathogens; however, a putative zoonotic upper limb cellulitis, a prosthetic joint infection and an infective endocarditis were described in humans. To unravel if bovine SDSD isolates are able to infect human cells, the adherence and internalization to human primary keratinocytes of two bovine SDSD strains isolated from milk collected from udder were analyzed.

Heterocyclic Anticancer Compounds: Recent Advances and the Paradigm Shift towards the Use of Nanomedicine's Tool Box.

The majority of heterocycle compounds and typically common heterocycle fragments present in most pharmaceuticals currently marketed, alongside with their intrinsic versatility and unique physicochemical properties, have poised them as true cornerstones of medicinal chemistry. Apart from the already marketed drugs, there are many other being investigated for their promising activity against several malignancies. In particular, anticancer research has been capitalizing on the intrinsic versatility and dynamic core scaffold of these compounds.

Single nucleotide polymorphism detection using gold nanoprobes and bio-microfluidic platform with embedded microlenses.

The use of microfluidics platforms combined with the optimal optical properties of gold nanoparticles has found plenty of application in molecular biosensing. This paper describes a bio-microfluidic platform coupled to a non-cross-linking colorimetric gold nanoprobe assay to detect a single nucleotide polymorphism associated with increased risk of obesity fat-mass and obesity-associated (FTO) rs9939609 (Carlos et al., 2014).