Recent advances in the management of diabetic retinopathy.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a microvascular complication of diabetes and is the leading cause of vision loss in people with diabetes. The current treatments do not target early stages of disease or impede disease progression. Therefore, the identification of new therapeutic targets, the development of novel therapies targeting early stages of the disease and accurate models that simulate pathological characteristics of this disorder are crucial.

Parotid gland swelling after upper gastrointestinal endoscopy.

Upper gastrointestinal (UGI) endoscopy is a routine procedure done in field of gastroenterology. It is a safe procedure which can be done with or without sedation with rare post procedure complications. Our case illustrates that parotid gland swelling is a uncommon event post upper g.

Release kinetics of somatostatin from self-assembled nanostructured hydrogels.

Somatostatin-14 is a native neuropeptide with widespread functions in the body. Self-assembly of somatostatin-14 into amyloid-like nanofibrils has been previously demonstrated in aqueous media. We here hypothesize that the somatostatin nanofibrils can form a stable depot that release monomers in a controlled manner.

Therapeutic uses of somatostatin and its analogues: Current view and potential applications.

Somatostatin is an endogeneous cyclic tetradecapeptide hormone that exerts multiple biological activities via five ubiquitously distributed receptor subtypes. Classified as a broad inhibitory neuropeptide, somatostatin has anti-secretory, anti-proliferative and anti-angiogenic effects. The clinical use of native somatostatin is limited by a very short half-life (1 to 3min) and the broad spectrum of biological responses.

The suprachoroidal pathway: a new drug delivery route to the back of the eye.

The development of safe and convenient drug delivery strategies for treatment of posterior segment eye diseases is challenging. Although intravitreal injection has wide acceptance amongst clinicians, its use is associated with serious side-effects. Recently, the suprachoroidal space (SCS) has attracted the attention of ophthalmologists and pharmaceutical formulators as a potential site for drug administration and delivery to the posterior segment of the eye.

Challenge in Understanding Size and Shape Dependent Toxicity of Gold Nanomaterials in Human Skin Keratinocytes.

As the nanotechnology field continues to develop, assessing nanoparticle toxicity is very important for advancing nanoparticles for biomedical application. Here we report cytotoxicity of gold nanomaterial of different size and shape using MTT test, absorption spectroscopy and TEM. Spherical gold nanoparticles with different sizes are not inherently toxic to human skin cells, but gold nanorods are highly toxic due to the presence of CTAB as coating material.

Gold Nanoparticle Based Surface Enhanced Fluorescence For Detection of Organophosphorus Agents.

Organophosphorus agents (OPA) represent a serious concern to public safety as nerve agents and pesticides. Here we report the development of gold nanoparticle based surface enhanced fluorescence (NSEF) spectroscopy for rapid and sensitive screening of organophosphorus agents. Fluorescent from Eu ions that are bound within the electromagnetic field of gold nanoparticles exhibit a strong enhancement.

Selective detection of mercury (II) ion using nonlinear optical properties of gold nanoparticles.

Contamination of the environment with heavy metal ions has been an important concern throughout the world for decades. Driven by the need to detect trace amounts of mercury in environmental samples, this article demonstrates for the first time that nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of MPA-HCys-PDCA-modified gold nanoparticles can be used for rapid, easy and reliable screening of Hg(II) ions in aqueous solution, with high sensitivity (5 ppb) and selectivity over competing analytes. The hyper Rayleigh scattering (HRS) intensity increases 10 times after the addition of 20 ppm Hg(2+) ions to modified gold nanoparticle solution.

Gold-nanorod-based sensing of sequence specific HIV-1 virus DNA by using hyper-Rayleigh scattering spectroscopy.

Infectious diseases caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) remain the leading killers of human beings worldwide, and function to destabilize societies in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Driven by the need to detect the presence of HIV viral sequence, here we demonstrate that the second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of gold nanorods can be used for screening HIV-1 viral DNA sequence without any modification, with good sensitivity (100 pico-molar) and selectivity (single base-pair mismatch). The hyper-Rayleigh scattering (HRS) intensity increases 45 times when a label-free 145-mer, ss-gag gene DNA, was hybridized with 100 pM target DNA.