Current Nanoscience - Volume 5, Issue 4, 2009

Nanotechnology is proving to play a major role in the future of biomedical applications such as drug delivery, gene therapy and cell imaging/tracking, in particular the use of nanoparticles is regularly highlighted. However with regards to nanoparticles, direct intracellular and intranuclear delivery has, until recently, been difficult to achieve due to the impermeable nature of the plasma and nuclear membranes. Read More

The neglected diseases have not received any especial public and private attention in the last years, as for example, some parasitic diseases. Considerable amounts of private and public money are needed to apply nanobiotechnology for the treatment of neglected diseases. This review focuses on malaria, leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis, trypanosomiasis, tuberculosis, leprosy and filiarasis, and onchocerciasis where liposo Read More

The objective of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of insulin loaded polymerosomes in diabetic rat model. To achieve the purpose, amphiphilic triblock co-polymers of the class poly(caprolactone)-poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(caprolactone), CEC were synthesized by ring-opening polymerization and characterized. Polymerosomes were prepared by double emulsion method in the size range of 75-130 nm at 25 °C as measured by Read More

Nanosuspensions have attracted much interest of many scientists as a new approach to deliver poorly soluble drugs because of their process flexibility and special advantages such as improved oral bioavailability, high drug loading, targeting capabilities and so on. Recently, the manufacture processes of nanosuspensions have developed quickly, and some new methods have emerged, for example, controlled pr Read More

The aim of present investigation was to develop novel oil-in-water (o/w) nanoemulsion based formulation containing atorvastatin for enhancing its oral bioavailability. Solubility of atorvastatin in oil, surfactant and co-surfactant was determined to select the formulation ingredients. Pseudo ternary phase diagrams were constructed by aqueous titration technique and various nanoemulsion formulations were prepared. Formu Read More

The drug development for neurodegenerative disorders are the major challenge to the science in 21st century. Many FDA approved drugs currently available in the market have limitations in crossing the blood brain barrier (BBB) owing to its complicated vasculature posed by the presence of specialized cells. Nanotechnology is an emerging interdisciplinary area, which have many applications including drug delivery. Nanocarri Read More

The present study was aimed at preparation and performance evaluation of pH-sensitive cyclosporine A (CyA) nanoparticles (CyA-NPs) to improve the poor bioavailability of lipophilic CyA. CyA-NPs were prepared with two types of Eudragit® copolymers (Eudragit ® S100 and Eudragit® L100) by a quasi-emulsion solvent diffusion technique. Freeze-dried formulations (Lac-CyA-S100-NP and Lac-CyA-L100-NP) were also prepared. T Read More

Spider silk is intriguing because of its unique structure and high-performance mechanical properties. However, few studies have presented data characterizing the conserved motifs found in the silk protein as an oligopeptide. In this report a designed peptide that mimics the repetitive GGX motif in the silk spidroin was investigated. The peptide undergoes a ‘bottom-up’ self-assembly which was simply manipulated by metal io Read More

The investigation of nano-mechanical properties and nano-architectures of CD8 + T cells activated in vitro will help further interpret the immune response/recognition of these cells at nanoscale resolution. In this work, the local biophysical properties of human peripheral blood CD8 + T cells were obtained, revealing the adhesion force of membrane was increased after CD8 + T cells were stimulated with phorbol dibutyrate pl Read More

Zinc metagermanate nanorods have been synthesized by a directly hydrothermal deposition process. The analyses of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) indicate that the products are mainly composed of ternary mixed oxide ZnGeO3 with multi-crystalline rhombohedral phase and porous structure. The observation from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission Read More

Flower-like ZnO nanostructures had been successfully synthesized by solvothermal treatment of a precursor 4,5-diphenyloxazole- 2-propanoic acid-zinc (abbreviated as oxaprozin-Zn) complex without using any surfactants. The influence of basicity, temperature, and reaction time on the formation of such structures was investigated. Room-temperature photoluminescence spectrum of welldefined uniform ZnO nanoflower Read More

A double-tube vapor phase transport system has been used to grow ZnO nanostructures. Nanopillars, nanorods and nanowires of zinc oxide were synthesized on Au nanoparticle catalyst depending on source-substrate distance and temperature gradient in the quartz tube. In addition, influence of growth time and substrate temperature on the morphology of the nanorods and nanowires were also investigated. The scanning elec Read More

Nanoporous Fe3O4 magnetic microspheres have been successfully synthesized by the way of microwave heating. The experimental process is expeditious, simple and environmentally friendly. The obtained sample is characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis (BET), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRT Read More

In this research fabrication of crystalline PbZrO3 (PZ) nanoparticles and their phase transformation behavior is investigated. A novel sol-gel method was used for the synthesis of air-stable and precipitate-free diol-based sol of PZ, which was dried at 150 °C and then calcined at 300-700°C for 1 h. The morphology, crystallinity and phase formation of as synthesized nanoparticles were studied by the selected-area electron diffraction Read More

In order to improve the wear resistance and oxidation behaviors of Ti-6Al-4V alloy, the sputter-deposited nanocrystalline Cr3Si film was prepared on Ti-6Al-4V alloy substrate by double cathode glow discharge. The nanocrystalline film was characterized by using a variety of analytical techniques, such as XRD, SEM, TEM, scratch tester, nanoindentation and Vickers microhardness tester. The phase analysis results showed that the s Read More

Small carbon nanocrystal particle (C20, C24, C26) series, synthesized in an ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene target by C2 + ion beam irradiation, were studied with respect to their micro structures and sequential growth features. As the samples were examined by laser desorption Time-of-flight mass spectroscopy, relative intensive peaks in the spectrum indicated the presence of C20, C24, C26 carbon clusters. Hig Read More

Novel conducting nanostructured carbonaceous materials of various microstructures have been successfully prepared from nanocomposites containing polyacrylonitrile (PAN) inside the nanosized pores of imogolite, sepiolite and porous alumina membrane templates. The synthesis and electrochemical characterization of the PAN-inorganic porous solid nanocomposites, as well as their carbonaceous derivatives produced Read More

Chemical compounds are often modeled as polygonal shapes, where a vertex represents an atom and an edge symbolizes a bond. Topological properties of molecular graphs of chemical compounds can be correlated to their chemical properties and biological activities. Topological indices are the oldest and the most widely used to describing these activity relationships. Many topological indices can be expressed in terms of Read More

Nanoliter droplet formation in a confined T-shaped junction is analyzed in detail in virtue of an experimental visualization system with a high speed camera. The movement of the back interface of the tip of disperse phase penetrated into the continuous phase plays an important role in determining droplet formation time and droplet volume. A simple model of droplet formation time based on the analysis of droplet form Read More

We present the experimental evidence of substantial increases in fluid thermal conductivity (up to 139%) by adding some fluids even with lower conductivity. This leads to a new type of thermal-wave fluids that could serve as heat transfer fluid of the future much better than recently-proposed nanofluids.