A comprehensive review of advanced focused ultrasound (FUS) microbubbles-mediated treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by progressive neurodegeneration, memory loss, and cognitive impairment leading to dementia and death. The blood-brain barrier (BBB) prevents the delivery of drugs into the brain, which can limit their therapeutic potential in the treatment of AD. Therefore, there is a need to develop new approaches to bypass the BBB for appropriate treatment of AD.

Preparation and in vitro evaluation of cell adhesion and long-term proliferation of stem cells cultured on silibinin co-embedded PLGA/Collagen electrospun composite nanofibers.

The present research aims to evaluate the efficacy of Silibinin-loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticles (Sil@MSNs) immobilized into polylactic-co-glycolic acid/Collagen (PLGA/Col) nanofibers on the in vitro proliferation of adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) and cellular senescence. Here, the fabricated electrospun PLGA/Col composite scaffolds were coated with Sil@MSNs and their physicochemical properties were examined by FTIR, FE-SEM, and TGA. The growth, viability and proliferation of ASCs were investigated using various biological assays including PicoGreen, MTT, and RT-PCR after 21 days.

The recent insight in the release of anticancer drug loaded into PLGA microspheres.

Cancer is a series of diseases leading to a high rate of death worldwide. Microspheres display specific characteristics that make them appropriate for a variety of biomedical purposes such as cancer therapy. Newly, microspheres have the potentials to be used as controlled drug release carriers.

The recent advancements in the early detection of cancer biomarkers by DNAzyme-assisted aptasensors.

Clinical diagnostics rely heavily on the detection and quantification of cancer biomarkers. The rapid detection of cancer-specific biomarkers is of great importance in the early diagnosis of cancers and plays a crucial role in the subsequent treatments. There are several different detection techniques available today for detecting cancer biomarkers.

Protective effect of miR-34c antagomir against STZ-induced memory impairment by targeting mTOR and PSD-95 in the hippocampus of rats.

After long times of ongoing research, still there is no appropriate cure for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Recently, epigenetic alterations, particularly miRNA, have gotten attention in AD research. Among various miRNA, miR-34c has been addressed to be elevated in the brain of AD patients, however, its exact role and downstream mechanisms have not been elucidated yet.

Analysis of carbapenemases genes of carbapenem-resistant isolated from Tehran heart center.

Background And Objectives: Emerging of carbapenem-resistant (CRKP) is one of the major concerns among healthcare systems. This study aimed to investigate the antibiotic susceptibility pattern and carbapenemase genes of carbapenemase-producing isolates obtained from Iranian hospitalized patients.

Materials And Methods: This study was performed on 71 CRKP strains isolated from different clinical specimens collected in Tehran Heart Center (Tehran, Iran).

Recent progress in the early detection of cancer based on CD44 biomarker; nano-biosensing approaches.

CD44 is a cell matrix adhesion molecule overexpressed on the cell surfaces of the major cancers. CD44 as a cancer-related biomarker has an essential role in the invasion and metastasis of cancer. The detection and quantification of CD44 can provide essential information useful for clinical cancer diagnosis.

Self-assembly of an aptamer-decorated chimeric peptide nanocarrier for targeted cancer gene delivery.

In this study, we developed a peptide-based non-viral carrier decorated with aptamer to overcome the specific gene delivery barriers. The carrier (KLN/Apt) was designed to contain multiple functional segments, including 1) two tandem repeating units of low molecular weight protamine (LMWP) to condense DNA into stable nanosize particles and protect it from enzymatic digestion, 2) AS1411 aptamer as targeting moiety to target nucleolin and promote carrier internalization, 3) a synthetic pH-sensitive fusogenic peptide (KALA) for disrupting endosomal membranes and enhancing cytosol escape of the nanoparticles, and 4) a nuclear localization signal (NLS) for active cytoplasmic trafficking and nuclear delivery of DNA. The obtained results revealed the developed carrier capacity in terms of specific cell targeting, overcoming cellular gene delivery barriers, and mediating efficient gene transfection.

Targeted SPION siderophore conjugate loaded with doxorubicin as a theranostic agent for imaging and treatment of colon carcinoma.

Recently, the siderophores have opened new horizons in nanomedicine. The current study aimed to design a theranostic platform based on superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles-pyoverdine (SPION/PVD) conjugates bound to MUC1 aptamer (MUC1) and loaded with doxorubicin (DOX) as an anti-cancer agent. The SPION/PVD complex was covalently conjugated to MUC1 and loaded with DOX to prepare a targeted drug delivery system (SPION/PVD/MUC1/DOX).

Biosensing of microcystins in water samples; recent advances.

Safety and quality of water are significant matters for agriculture, animals and human health. Microcystins, as secondary metabolite of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) and cyclic heptapeptide cyanotoxin, are one of the main marine toxins in continental aquatic ecosystems. More than 100 microcystins have been identified, of which MC-LR is the most important type due to its high toxicity and common detection in the environment.

Current insights into the metastasis of epithelial ovarian cancer - hopes and hurdles.

Background: Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic cancer and the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality in women worldwide. Despite various attempts to improve the diagnosis and therapy of ovarian cancer patients, the survival rate for these patients is still dismal, mainly because most of them are diagnosed at a late stage. Up to 90% of ovarian cancers arise from neoplastic transformation of ovarian surface epithelial cells, and are usually referred to as epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC).

Zinc solubilization characteristics of efficient siderophore-producing soil bacteria.

Background And Objectives: Iron and zinc are two essential micro-nutrients for plant growth and development. Therefore, isolation of siderophores-producing and zinc-solubilizing rhizobacteria involved in bio-availability of these elements is of great interest.

Materials And Methods: In this study, soil samples collected from slightly alkaline soil types were screened for high levels of siderophore secretion and zinc solubilization.

Optical and electrochemical-based nano-aptasensing approaches for the detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs).

More recently, detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) has been considered as an appealing prognostic and diagnostic approach for cancer patients. CTCs as a type of tumor-derived cells are secreted by the tumor and released into the blood circulation. Since the migration of CTCs is an early event in cancer progression, patients who still have tumor-free lymph nodes have to be well examined for the CTCs presence in their blood circulation.

Electrochemical-based biosensors for detection of and tuberculosis biomarkers.

Early detection of tuberculosis (TB) reduces the interval between infection and the beginning of treatment. However, commercially available tests cannot discriminate between BCG-vaccinated healthy persons and patients. Also, they are not suitable to be used for immunocompromised persons.

Aptasensors as a new sensing technology developed for the detection of MUC1 mucin: A review.

Mucin 1 protein (MUC1) is a membrane-associated glycoprotein overexpressed in the majority of human malignancies and considered as a predominant protein biomarker in cancers. Owing to the crucial role of MUC1 in cancer dissemination and metastasis, detection and quantification of this biomarker is of great importance in clinical diagnostics. Today, there exist a wide variety of strategies for the determination of various types of disease biomarkers, especially MUC1.

SELEX methods on the road to protein targeting with nucleic acid aptamers.

Systematic evolution of ligand by exponential enrichment (SELEX) is an efficient method used to isolate high-affinity single stranded oligonucleotides from a large random sequence pool. These SELEX-derived oligonucleotides named aptamer, can be selected against a broad spectrum of target molecules including proteins, cells, microorganisms and chemical compounds. Like antibodies, aptamers have a great potential in interacting with and binding to their targets through structural recognition and are therefore called "chemical antibodies".

Nanomaterial-based biosensors and immunosensors for quantitative determination of cardiac troponins.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the most frequent mortality cause in many countries. The acute myocardial infraction (AMI) is one of the most common types of CVDs. Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and cardiac troponin T (cTnT) as predominant cardiac infarction biomarkers considered as "gold standard" for diagnosis of acute myocardial infraction (AMI).

Screening and characterization of probiotic criteria of and strains.

Background And Objectives: Probiotics are defined as live micro-organisms conferring a health benefit on the host. Although most probiotics are bacteria, some yeasts such as and , has been found to have effective probiotic properties. The objective of this study was to isolate and identify indigenous and yeast strains and to compare some probiotic characteristics between these two strains .

Nano-biosensing approaches on tuberculosis: Defy of aptamers.

Tuberculosis is a major global health problem caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) complex. According to WHO reports, 53 million TB patients died from 2000 to 2016. Therefore, early diagnosis of the disease is of great importance for global health care programs.

Siderophore-based biosensors and nanosensors; new approach on the development of diagnostic systems.

Siderophores are small organic compounds secreted by microorganisms under iron-depleted conditions which enhance the uptake of iron. Siderophores can play vital roles in ecology, agriculture, bioremediation, biosensor, and medicine. In recent years, the concept of siderophore-based biosensing devices has opened new horizons in high precision detection of various metal ions especially the iron, microorganisms, phosphopeptides, antibiotics as well pesticides.

Label-free nano-biosensing on the road to tuberculosis detection.

Tuberculosis, an ailment caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) complex, is one of the catastrophic transmittable diseases that affect human. Reports published by WHO indicate that in 2017 about 6.3 million people progressed to TB and 53 million TB patients died from 2000 to 2016.

Aptamer-based biosensors and nanosensors for the detection of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF): A review.

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a key regulator of vascular formation and a predominant protein biomarker in cancer angiogenesis. Owing to its crucial roles in the cancer metastasis, VEGF detection and quantification is of great importance in clinical diagnostics. Today, there exist a wide variety of detection strategies for identifying many types of disease biomarkers, especially for VEGF.

Organ-specific metastasis of breast cancer: molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying lung metastasis.

Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the most common type of cancer in women and the second cause of cancer-related mortality world-wide. The majority of BC-related deaths is due to metastasis. Bone, lung, brain and liver are the primary target sites of BC metastasis.

Lung cancer-associated brain metastasis: Molecular mechanisms and therapeutic options.

Background: Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related mortality in humans. There are several reasons for this high rate of mortality, including metastasis to several organs, especially the brain. In fact, lung cancer is responsible for approximately 50% of all brain metastases, which are very difficult to manage.