Sharif Digital Repository

New achievements in the realm of nanoscience and innovative techniques of nanomedicine have moved micro/nanoparticles (MNPs) to the point of becoming actually useful for practical applications in the near future. Various differences between the extracellular and intracellular environments of cancerous and normal cells and the particular characteristics of tumors such as physicochemical properties, neovasculature, elasticity, surface electrical charge, and pH have motivated the design and fabrication of inventive "smart" MNPs for stimulus-responsive controlled drug release. These novel MNPs can be tailored to be responsive to pH variations, redox potential, enzymatic activation, thermal... 

Despite the great potential of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in various areas of biomedicine, concerns regarding their carcinogenicity, inefficient dispersion in aqueous solutions and biological activity in vivo still remain. One important and feasible route to overcome these barriers is modification of CNTs with polymers, which are widely studied and play a vital role in biological and biomedical fields, especially in drug delivery. This comprehensive review focuses on the achievements of our and other groups in currently used methods to functionalize the surface of CNTs with polymers to produce anticancer drug delivery systems. We have intensively studied covalent and noncovalent interactions... 

This study aimed to develop a drug carrier based on amine-functionalized mesoporous silica nanoparticles (AAS-MSNPs) for a poorly water-soluble drug, curcumin (CUR), and to study its effects on α-synuclein (α-Syn) fibrillation and cytotoxicity. Here, we show that AAS-MSNPs possess high values of loading efficiency and capacity (33.5% and 0.45 mg drug/mg MSNPs, respectively) for CUR. It is also revealed that α-Syn species interact strongly with the CUR-loaded AAS-MSNPs, leading to a significant inhibition of the fibrillation process. Furthermore, these samples reduce the toxic effects of CUR. However, drug-loaded AAS-MSNPs do not affect the cytotoxic properties of the formed fibrils... 

Chitosan-coated human serum albumin nanoparticles were functionalized by MUC1 aptamer to obtain a selective drug carrier toward cancers overexpressing MUC1. The negative charges of albumin nanoparticles were shifted to positive charges by surface modification with chitosan, and MUC1 was conjugated through an acrylate spacer. The cytotoxicity of targeted nanoparticles was significantly more than non-aptamer nanoparticles, and also the chitosan-coated nanoparticles had more cytotoxic effects than the negatively charged albumin nanoparticles. The IC50 of targeted nanoparticles was 28 and 26% of free paclitaxel in MCF7 and T47D cells at 48 h, respectively. Confocal laser scanning electron... 

Nanotechnology could provide a new complementary approach to treat coronary artery disease (CAD) which is now one of the biggest killers in the Western world. The course of events, which leads to atherosclerosis and CAD, involves many biological factors and cellular disease processes which may be mitigated by therapeutic methods enhanced by nanotechnology. Nanoparticles can provide a variety of delivery systems for cargoes such as drugs and genes that can address many problems within the arteries. In order to improve the performance of current stents, nanotechnology provides different nanomaterial coatings, in addition to controlled-release nanocarriers, to prevent in-stent restenosis.... 

Introduction: Nanotube-based drug delivery systems have received considerable attention because of their large internal volume to encapsulate the drug and the ability to penetrate tissues, cells, and bacteria. In this regard, understanding the interaction between the drug and the nanotube to evaluate the encapsulation behavior of the drug in the nanotube is of crucial importance. Methods: In this work, the encapsulation process of the cationic antimicrobial peptide named cRW3 in the biocompatible boron nitride nanotube (BNNT) was investigated under the Canonical ensemble (NVT) by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Results: The peptide was absorbed into the BNNT by van der Waals (vdW)... 

Targeted delivery by either passive or active targeting of therapeutics to the bone is an attractive treatment for various bone related diseases such as osteoporosis, osteosarcoma, multiple myeloma, and metastatic bone tumors. Engineering novel drug delivery carriers can increase therapeutic efficacy and minimize the risk of side effects. Developmnet of nanocarrier delivery systems is an interesting field of ongoing studies with opportunities to provide more effective therapies. In addition, preclinical nanomedicine research can open new opportunities for preclinical bone-targeted drug delivery; nevertheless, further research is needed to progress these therapies towards clinical... 

A supramolecular linear-dendritic copolymer consisting of a polystyrene backbone and hanging hyperbranched polyglycerols was prepared and characterized. Host-guest interactions between β-cyclodextrin incorporated in the core of polyglycerol as a host and aromatic rings of polystyrene as guests lead to the formation of a supramolecular linear-dendritic copolymer. Supramolecules formed micelles in aqueous solutions which were able to encapsulate and transfer paclitaxel with a high loading capacity  

Spontaneous generation of nanobubbles (NBs) was developed by using a controllable platform of superfast microvortices, based on turbulent jet flows in the presence of graphene oxide (GO) sheets. Very high energy dissipation rates through discharging warm water into cold N2 aqueous solutions resulted in creation of micro/submicro-vortices. Shear stresses in these domains generated gas local supersaturations, leading to the formation of high concentration (∼109 mL−1) of stable NBs. Introducing GO sheets into the microvortex system resulted in effective manipulation of NBs by providing energetically favorable sites for prompt heterogeneous nucleation as well as stronger shear rate fluctuations.... 

Salicylic acid-beeswax microspheres were prepared by melt dispersion technique. The effects of formulation parameters on the microscopic characteristic, drug loading and cumulative amount of released drug were investigated by experimental design. Results showed that all of the microparticles were spherical with porous surfaces. The average size of microspheres was 2448 m, the drug content was in the range of 2245 and the encapsulation efficiency was 4693. Drug loading was influenced by emulsification speed as a main factor. All the microspheres had a burst release initially. The emulsifier concentration did not have a significant effect on drug release. The release behaviour of microspheres... 

A novel magnetic nanocarrier with long spacer length and high colloidal stability has been prepared for effective delivery of doxorubicin (DOX). First, poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimer was grown up onto the surface of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles to increase the loading amount of amine groups. Then, terminal amine groups were functionalized by polyethylene glycol dimethylester to increase the spacer length. Then anticancer drug DOX was covalently attached onto the system by hydrazone bond to forms a pH-sensitive nanocarrier. This system is designed to combine the advantage of magnetic targeting, high drug loading capacity, and controlled release  

Platelet lysate (PL), a blood product that contains high concentrations of growth factors (GFs), can be considered as a cost-effective source of multiple GFs. In this study, hyaluronic acid (HA) based microgels were developed for delivery of PL proteins. Spherical microgel were prepared using a water in oil emulsion method. First, hyaluronic acid was grafted with tyramine groups, after which prepared microdroplets were crosslinked via an enzymatic reaction in the presence of hydrogen peroxide and horseradish peroxidase. Because of electrostatic interactions, these microgels are promising carriers for positively charged proteins entrapment like most of the GFs. When microgels are incubated in... 

Designing multifunctional surfaces is key to develop advanced materials for orthopedic applications. In this study, we design a double-layer coating, assembled onto the completely regular titania nanotubes (cRTNT) array. Benefiting from the biological and topological characteristics of chitosan nanofibers (CH) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) through a unique assembly, the designed material features promoted osteoblast cell viability, prolonged antibiotic release profile, as well as inhibited bacterial biofilm formation. The synergistic effect of RGO and CH on the biological performance of the surface is investigatSed. The unique morphology of the nanofibers leads to the partial coverage of... 

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the prevalent reason of mortality all around the world. Targeting CAD, specifically atherosclerosis, with controlled delivery of micro and nanoparticles, as drug carriers, is a very proficient approach. In this work, a patient-specific and realistic model of an atherosclerotic plaque in the left anterior descending (LAD) artery was created by image-processing of CT-scan images and implementing a finite-element mesh. Next, a fluid-solid interaction simulation considering the physiological boundary conditions was conducted. By considering the simulated force fields and particle-particle interactions, the correlation between injected particles at each cardiac... 

Graphene/cobalt nanocomposites are promising materials for theranostic nanomedicine applications, which are defined as the ability to diagnose, provide targeted therapy and monitor the response to the therapy. In this study, the composites were synthesized via chemical method, using graphene oxide as the source material and assembling cobalt nanoparticles of 15 nm over the surface of graphene sheets. Various characterization techniques were then employed to reveal the morphology, size and structure of the nanocomposites, such as X-ray diffraction analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy and... 

Herein, a facile and versatile method for the synthesis of a novel magnetic nanocarrier via surface- initiated reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization is introduced. At first, RAFT agent was successfully attached to the surface of Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles and, then, poly (glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) chains were grown and anchored onto the surface of Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles. At the end, hydrazine (Hy) groups were introduced to the PGMA chains via reaction between epoxy rings and hydrazine molecules. Doxorubicin (DOX) was covalently conjugated to the prepared nanocarrier (Fe 3 O 4 @PGMA@Hy) through a hydrazone linkage. The in vitro drug release of Fe 3 O 4... 

Adsorption of human serum proteins (Albumin and total protein) onto high purity synthesis nano-hydroxyapatite (HA), Ca 10(PO 4) 6(OH) 2, has been studied in a wide temperature range by UV-visible spectrophotometer. Adsorption isotherm is basically important to describe how solutes interact with adsorbent, andiscriticalinoptimizing the use of adsorbent. Inthe present study, the experimental results werefitted tothe Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich (DR) models to obtain the characteristic parameters of each model and square of the correlation coefficients (R 2). According to the results, the DR isotherm model had the best agreement with the experimental data. The effect of... 

A highly swelling nanoporous hydrogel (NPH) was synthesized via UV-irradiation graft copolymerization of acrylic acid (AA) onto salep backbone and its application as a carrier matrix for colonic delivery of tetracycline hydrochloride (TH) was investigated. Optimized synthesis of the hydrogel was performed by the classic method. The swelling behavior of optimum hydrogel was measured in different media. The hydrogel formation was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA/DTG/DTA). The study of the surface morphology of hydrogels using SEM showed a nanoporous (average pore size: about 350 nm) structure for the sample obtained under...