3D-bioimplants mimicking the structure and function of spine units for the treatment of spinal tuberculosis.

Approximately 1-2% of the reported tuberculosis (TB) cases have skeletal system problems, particularly spinal TB. The complications of spinal TB involve the destruction of vertebral body (VB) and intervertebral disc (IVD) which consequently leads to kyphosis. This work aimed at utilizing different technologies to develop, for the first time, a functional spine unit (FSU) replacement to mimic the structure and function of the VB and IVD along with a good ability to treat spinal TB.

An quantitative investigation on the synergistic effect of capsaicin and 5-fluorouracil encapsulated into lipid nanocapsules to treat breast cancer.

Background: Breast cancer conventional therapeutics are effective; however, they encounter some limitations including multidrug resistance, the presence of pharmacological barriers, and non-selectivity which hinder their optimal therapeutic efficacy.

Aim: Overcoming such drawbacks necessitates the development of efficient drug vehicles including lipid-based nanoparticles. This study aimed to quantitatively investigate the synergistic therapeutic effect of the novel combination of capsaicin and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) encapsulated in lipid nanocapsules (LNCs).

Dual antituberculosis drugs-loaded gelatin hydrogel bioimplant for treating spinal tuberculosis.

Spinal tuberculosis (TB) represents around 1% of the recorded TB with a high mortality rate due to neurological complications and kyphosis. The current work aimed to develop a bioimplant scaffold to treat spinal TB disease. The scaffold is composed of a biocompatible semi-interpenetrating (semi-IPN) gelatin-based hydrogel incorporating mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MPS-NPs) loaded with rifampicin (RIF) and levofloxacin (LEV) to treat TB.

Layer-by-layer development of chitosan/alginate-based platelet-mimicking nanocapsules for augmenting doxorubicin cytotoxicity against breast cancer.

Breast carcinoma is considered one of the most invasive and life-threatening malignancies in females. Mastectomy, radiation therapy, hormone therapy and chemotherapy are the most common treatment choices for breast cancer. Doxorubicin (DOX) is one of the most regularly utilized medications in breast cancer protocols.

Fortified gelatin-based hydrogel scaffold with simvastatin-mixed nanomicelles and platelet rich plasma as a promising bioimplant for tissue regeneration.

Treatment of intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration includes conservative and surgical strategies that have a high risk of recurrence. Consequently, tissue engineering represents a promising alternative treatment. This study aimed at healing damaged IVD with a bioimplant that can maintain the function of defected IVD.

Greatly Enhanced Emission from Spin Defects in Hexagonal Boron Nitride Enabled by a Low-Loss Plasmonic Nanocavity.

The negatively charged boron vacancy (V) defect in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) with optically addressable spin states has emerged due to its potential use in quantum sensing. Remarkably, V preserves its spin coherence when it is implanted at nanometer-scale distances from the hBN surface, potentially enabling ultrathin quantum sensors. However, its low quantum efficiency hinders its practical applications.

Nuclear spin polarization and control in hexagonal boron nitride.

Electron spins in van der Waals materials are playing a crucial role in recent advances in condensed-matter physics and spintronics. However, nuclear spins in van der Waals materials remain an unexplored quantum resource. Here we report optical polarization and coherent control of nuclear spins in a van der Waals material at room temperature.

Development and Evaluation of Core-Shell Nanocarrier System for Enhancing the Cytotoxicity of Doxorubicin/Metformin Combination Against Breast Cancer Cell Line.

Breast cancer is the most invasive and life-threatening cancer in women. The treatment options are usually a combination of mastectomy, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy and chemotherapy. As a standard practice, doxorubicin (DOX) is one of the commonly used drugs for breast cancer treatment.

Novel doxorubicin / folate-targeted trans-ferulic acid-loaded PLGA nanoparticles combination: In-vivo superiority over standard chemotherapeutic regimen for breast cancer treatment.

Aim: Doxorubicin/Cyclophosphamide (AC) is one of the standard adjuvant anthracycline-containing regimens that is still in use for breast cancer treatment. Cancer cell resistance and AC-induced side effects make treatment suboptimal and worsen patients' quality of life. This study aimed to improve trans-ferulic acid's (TFA) efficiency via loading into folate-receptor-targeted-poly lactic-co-glycolic acid nanoparticles (FA-PLGA-TFA NPs).

A Josephson junction with-BN tunnel barrier: observation of low critical current noise.

Decoherence in quantum bits (qubits) is a major challenge for realizing scalable quantum computing. One of the primary causes of decoherence in qubits and quantum circuits based on superconducting Josephson junctions is the critical current fluctuation. Many efforts have been devoted to suppressing the critical current fluctuation in Josephson junctions.

Inhibition of Respiration of Candida albicans by Small Molecules Increases Phagocytosis Efficacy by Macrophages.

adapts to various conditions in different body niches by regulating gene expression, protein synthesis, and metabolic pathways. These adaptive reactions not only allow survival but also influence the interaction with host cells, which is governed by the composition and structure of the fungal cell wall. Numerous studies had shown linkages between mitochondrial functionality, cell wall integrity and structure, and pathogenicity.

Tuning Insulator-Semimetal Transitions in 3D Topological Insulator thin Films by Intersurface Hybridization and In-Plane Magnetic Fields.

A pair of Dirac points (analogous to a vortex-antivortex pair) associated with opposite topological numbers (with ±π Berry phases) can be merged together through parameter tuning and annihilated to gap the Dirac spectrum, offering a canonical example of a topological phase transition. Here, we report transport studies on thin films of BiSbTeSe_{2}, which is a 3D topological insulator that hosts spin-helical gapless (semimetallic) Dirac fermion surface states for sufficiently thick samples, with an observed resistivity close to h/4e^{2} at the charge neutral point. When the sample thickness is reduced to below ∼10  nm thick, we observe a transition from metallic to insulating behavior, consistent with the expectation that the Dirac cones from the top and bottom surfaces hybridize (analogous to a "merging" in the real space) to give a trivial gapped insulator.

A first principle comparative study of the ionic diffusivity in LiAlO and NaAlO polymorphs for solid-state battery applications.

Lithium aluminates are attracting increasing attention as battery materials. They are typically used for the coating of electrodes. The diffusive properties of the equilibrium tetragonal phase (γ) are well understood from both an experimental and a theoretical perspective, and the major diffusive mechanism is recognised to be vacancy hopping between neighbouring sites.

Transformation of Coiled α-Helices into Cross-β-Sheets Superstructure.

The fibrous silk produced by bees, wasps, ants, or hornets is known to form a four-strand α-helical coiled coil superstructure. We have succeeded in showing the formation of this coiled coil structure not only in natural fibers, but also in artificial films made of regenerated silk of the hornet Vespa simillima xanthoptera using wide- and small-angle X-ray scatterings and polarized Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. On the basis of time-resolved simultaneous synchrotron X-ray scattering observations for in situ monitoring of the structural changes in regenerated silk material during tensile deformation, we have shown that the application of tensile force under appropriate conditions induces a transition from the coiled α-helices to a cross-β-sheet superstructure.

Formulation of liposomes functionalized with Lotus lectin and effective in targeting highly proliferative cells.

Background: Liposomes, used to improve the therapeutic index of new and established drugs, have advanced with the insertion of active targeting. The lectin from Lotus tetragonolobus (LTL), which binds glycans containing alpha-1,2-linked fucose, reveals surface regionalized glycoepitopes in highly proliferative cells not detectable in normally growing cells. In contrast, other lectins localize the corresponding glycoepitopes all over the cell surface.

Evidence of α-helical coiled coils and β-sheets in hornet silk.

α-Helical coiled coil and β-sheet complexes are essential structural building elements of silk proteins produced by different species of the Hymenoptera. Beside X-ray scattering at wide and small angles we applied cryo-electron diffraction and microscopy to demonstrate the presence and the details of such structures in silk of the giant hornet Vespa mandarinia japonica. Our studies on the assembly of the fibrous silk proteins and their internal organization in relation to the primary chain structure suggest a 172 Å pitch supercoil consisting of four intertwined alanine-rich α-helical strands.

Structural investigation and thermodynamical properties of alkali calcium trihydrides.

The ground-state structure, equilibrium structural parameters, electronic structure, and thermodynamical properties of MCaH(3) (M=Li, Na, K, Rb, and Cs) phases have been investigated. From the 104 structural models used as inputs for structural optimization calculations, the ground-state crystal structures of MCaH(3) phases have been predicted. At ambient condition, LiCaH(3), NaCaH(3), and KCaH(3) crystallize in hexagonal, monoclinic, and orthorhombic structures, respectively.

Structural phase stability studies on MBeH3 (M = Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs) from density functional calculations.

Density functional theory calculations within the generalized-gradient approximation are used to establish the ground-state structure, equilibrium structural parameters, and electronic structure for MBeH(3) phases. From the 24 structural arrangements used as inputs for structural optimization calculations, the ground-state crystal structures of MBeH(3) phases have been predicted. At ambient conditions, LiBeH(3) and NaBeH(3) crystallize with perovskite-related orthorhombic and cubic structures, respectively.

Quantized Transport in Graphene p-n Junctions in a Magnetic Field.

Recent experimental work on locally gated graphene layers resulting in p-n junctions has revealed the quantum Hall effect in their transport behavior. We explain the observed conductance quantization, which is fractional in the bipolar regime and an integer in the unipolar regime, in terms of quantum Hall edge modes propagating along and across the p-n interface. In the bipolar regime, the electron and hole modes can mix at the p-n boundary, leading to current partition and quantized shot-noise plateaus similar to those of conductance, whereas in the unipolar regime transport is noiseless.

Quasielastic light scattering for protein assembly studies.

Quasielastic light scattering (QLS) spectroscopy is an optical method for the determination of diffusion coefficients of particles in solution. In this chapter, we discuss the principles and practice of QLS with respect to protein assembly reactions. Particles undergoing Brownian motion produce fluctuations in scattered light intensity.

Fermi-edge resonance and tunneling in nonequilibrium electron gas.

Fermi-edge singularity changes in a nonequilibrium system, acquiring features that reflect the structure of energy distribution. In particular, it splits into several components if the energy distribution exhibits multiple steps. While conventional approaches, such as bosonization, fail to describe the nonequilibrium problem, an exact solution for a generic energy distribution can be obtained with the help of the method of functional determinants.