Sharif Digital Repository

In this work, the synthesized graphene oxide/TiO2/doxorubicin (GO/TiO2/DOX) composites were loaded into the chitosan/poly(lactic acid) (PLA) solutions to fabricate the electrospun chitosan/PLA/GO/TiO2/DOX nanofibrous scaffolds via electrospinning process. The synthesized composites and nanofibers were characterized using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis. Three-factor three-level central composite design was used to determine the influence of PLA to chitosan ratio, TiO2/DOX content and GO/TiO2/DOX content on the release of DOX from nanofibrous scaffolds. Drug loading efficiency and drug release behavior from... 

Nanoscaled quantum dots (QDs), with unique optical properties have been used for the development of theranostics. Here, InP/ZnS QDs were synthesised and functionalised with folate (QD-FA), D-glucosamine (QD-GA) or both (QD-FA-GA). The bi-functionalised QDs were further conjugated with doxorubicin (QD-FA-GA-DOX). Optimum Indium to fatty acid (In:MA) ratio was 1:3.5. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) micrographs revealed spherical morphology for the QDs (11 nm). Energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) spectrum confirmed the chemical composition of the QDs. MTT analysis in the OVCAR-3 cells treated with bare QDs, QD-FA, QD-GA, QD-FA-GA and QD-FA-GA-DOX (0.2 mg/mL of QDs) after 24 h indicated... 

Background MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are frequently deregulated in various types of cancer. While antisense oligonucleotides are used to block oncomiRs, delivery of tumour-suppressive miRNAs holds great potential as a potent anti-cancer strategy. Here, we aim to determine, and functionally analyse, miRNAs that are lowly expressed in various types of tumour but abundantly expressed in multiple normal tissues. Methods The miRNA sequencing data of 14 cancer types were downloaded from the TCGA dataset. Significant differences in miRNA expression between tumor and normal samples were calculated using limma package (R programming). An adjusted p value < 0.05 was used to compare normal versus tumor miRNA... 

This paper reports the fabrication of electrospun polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membranes/scaffolds that are suitable for three-dimensional (3D) cell culture. Through modification the ratio between PDMS and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) as carrier polymer, we report the possibility of increasing PDMS weight ratio of up to 6 for electrospinning. Increasing the PDMS content increases the fiber diameter, the pore size, and the hydrophobicity. To our best knowledge, this is the first report describing beads-free, durable and portable electrospun membrane with maximum content of PDMS suitable for cell culture applications. To show the proof-of-concept, we successfully cultured epithelial lung... 

Micro and nanotechnology can potentially revolutionize drug delivery systems. Novel microfluidic systems have been employed for the cell culture applications and drug delivery by micro and nanocarriers. Cells in the microchannels are under static and dynamic flow perfusion of culture media that provides nutrition and removes waste from the cells. This exerts hydrostatic and hydrodynamic forces on the cells. These forces can considerably affect the functions of the living cells. In this paper, we simulated the flow of air, culture medium, and the particle transport and deposition in the microchannels under different angles of connection inlet. It was found that the shear stress induced by the... 

Keratinocyte Growth Factor (KGF) is a paracrine-acting, epithelial mitogen that plays a prominent role in the regeneration of damaged epithelial tissues. In spite of different attempts to produce recombinant human KGF in many organisms, including bacteria, mammalian cells, plant cells and insect cells; production of recombinant form suffers from lower yields and recovery relative to other recombinant proteins of similar size and properties. Due to many advantages of Pichia pastoris expression systems for producing industrial enzymes and pharmaceutical proteins, in this study P. pastoris was chosen as a host for KGF expression. For preparing human KGF coding sequence, MCF-7 cell line was... 

Purpose: To evaluate the phytochemical profile of methanol extract of Ephedra foeminea and assess its anti-carcer effect on a large set of normal and cancerous cell lines Methods: Extraction of air-dried powder of aerial parts of E. foeminea was carried out with methanol. The bioactive compounds in the extract were determined using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The anti-cancer effect of the extract was determined by 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay against various types of normal and cancer cell lines. Serial concentrations of plant extract were used, ranging from 7.812 to1000 μg/mL. Doxorubicin (DOX) served as standard drug. The...