Sharif Digital Repository

Development of predictive multi-organ models before implementing costly clinical trials is central for screening the toxicity, efficacy, and side effects of new therapeutic agents. Despite significant efforts that have been recently made to develop biomimetic in vitro tissue models, the clinical application of such platforms is still far from reality. Recent advances in physiologically-based pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic (PBPK-PD) modeling, micro- and nanotechnology, and in silico modeling have enabled single- and multi-organ platforms for investigation of new chemical agents and tissue-tissue interactions. This review provides an overview of the principles of designing... 

In this research, we report a magnetic pH-sensitive polymeric micelle designed for hydrophobic drug carrier in cancer treatment. This carrier was prepared by self-assembly of biodegradable triblock copolymer PEG-PCL-PEG coated on oleate-modified magnetic nanoparticles. The amphiphilic triblock copolymer was synthesized via reaction between the aldehyde group from the hydrophilic component with the amine group of the hydrophobic component. The resulting Schiff base linkage was sensitive to pH. The structure of nanocarrier was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-NMR). Morphology and size of the magnetic... 

In this study synthesis of a drug delivery system (DDS) is described which has several merits over its counterparts. In order to synthesize this nano-carrier, graphene oxide nano-sheets are used to accommodate MCM-41 nanoparticles. Furthermore Fe3O4 nanoparticles are introduced to this nano-material to produce a traceable nanoparticle. Since cancerous tissues have lower pH than healthy tissues, pH-sensitive oligomers are attached to this nano-material. Finally the nano-carrier is wrapped by a biocompatible shell (PEGylated sodium alginate); this polymeric shell makes the DDS capable of a more controllable drug release. By measuring in vitro situation, ‘loading content%’... 

Arrayed Ti6Al4V nanotubes (TNT) coated with hydroxyapatite (HA) were synthesized via electrochemical anodization method. Paracetamol was loaded onto TNT-HA electrode. Effects of anodization, nanotube formation and hydroxyapatite deposition on sorption and release of the drug were investigated. Saturation time of paracetamol on the anodized samples was 30% shorter than the hydroxyapatite-coated samples. Release behavior of the loaded drug was studied by (a) plunging the probe into phosphate buffered saline (PBS), (b) sampling the drug-loaded PBS at different times and (c) analyzing the solution via ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy. Results showed that HA electrodes hold higher... 

In the current study, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were prepared using the green synthesis method using Artemisia annua extract, loaded into niosomes, and investigated their cytotoxicity and apoptotic effects. To optimize the niosomal formulation containing AuNPs, the effects of surfactants: cholesterol molar ratio, Span 60: Tween 60 M ratio, and AuNP concentration (µg/mL) were investigated. After examining the drug release profile, mathematical models were assessed to predict release kinetic. The cytotoxicity of noisome encapsulated AuNPs and free AuNPs was evaluated against human ovarian cancer cell line (A2780) by MTT assay. The apoptotic/necrosis ratio was studied using flow cytometry as... 

In this study, a folic acid-functionalized niosome was formulated and loaded with letrozole and curcumin as a promising drug carrier system for chemotherapy of the breast cancer cells. The formulation process was optimized by varying the type of Span 80 and total lipid to drug ratio, where Span 80 and lipid to drug molar ratio of 10 resulted in the niosomes with maximum encapsulation of both drugs but minimum size. The developed niosomal formulation showed a great storage stability up to one month with the small changes in drug encapsulation efficiency and size during the storage. In addition, they showed a pH-dependent release behaviour with slow drug release at physiological pH (7.4) while... 

In the present study, polylactic acid (PLA)/polyethylene glycol (PEG)/multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds were prepared via electrospinning process and their applications for the anticancer drug delivery system were investigated. A response surface methodology based on Box-Behnken design (BBD) was used to evaluate the effect of key parameters of electrospinning process including solution concentration, feeding rate, tip-collector distance (TCD) and applied voltage on the morphology of PLA/PEG/MWCNT nanofibrous scaffolds. In optimum conditions (concentration of 8.15%, feeding rate of 0.2 mL/h, voltage of 18.50 kV and TCD of 13.0 cm), the minimum experimental... 

The synthesis of amoxicillin with immobilized penicillin G acylase (PGA) in aqueous medium was investigated. The parameters studied were: time course of amoxicillin production, concentration of substrates: hydroxyphenylglycine methyl ester (HPGM) and 6-aminopeicillanic acid (6-APA) and the. effect of enzyme (PGA) content and pH, under variable and constant conditions and temperature variations. In the study of two substrate concentration on amoxicillin production, impressive results were obtained for a 1/3 ratio of 6-amino penicillanic acid (6-APA) and hydroxyl-phenylglycine methyl ester (HPGM). The. synthesis of amoxicillin was preferable at constant pH rather than a variable one. Other... 

A thin film microextraction method using elecrospun magnetic polybutylene terephthalate nanofibers is developed and implemented to isolate some selected triazines. Due to the high mechanical stability of these nanofibers, they are repeatedly used under harsh magnetic stirring and ultrasonic conditions without any damage and structure degradation. The presence of magnetic nanoparticles within the nanofiber structure increases the extraction efficiency while the fibers could be collected by an external magnet. The synthesized nanocomposite showed strong affinity toward the selected analytes. Apart from the concentration of magnetic nanoparticles within the nanocomposite network, the effect of... 

Electro-oxidation of dopamine at a glassy carbon electrode was investigated in the presence of some biologically important thiols (R-SH), e.g. cysteine and penicillamine. Results of cyclic voltammetric studies together with the spectrophotometric foundations via Ellman's test during the controlled-potential coulometry show a nucleophilic addition/reduction of thiol to the electrochemically generated dopaminoquinone by a 1 + 4 Michael addition. The resulting ring substituted substrate (as RS-form) is more easily oxidized leading to an increase in the anodic current of dopamine, which is proportional to the concentration of thiol. The square-wave voltammetry (SWV) were applied as a very... 

A new sensitive and selective electrochemical sensor was developed for determination of naltrexone (NAL) in pharmaceutical dosage form and human plasma. Naltrexone is an opioid antagonist which is commonly used for the treatment of narcotic addiction and alcohol dependence. A voltammetric study of naltrexone has been carried out at the surface of glassy carbon electrode (GCE) modified with Nafion-doped carbon nanoparticles (CNPs). The electrochemical oxidation of naltrexone was investigated by cyclic and differential pulse voltammetric techniques. The dependence of peak currents and potentials on pH, concentration and the potential scan rate was investigated. The electrode characterization... 

E.coli was immobilized by entrapment within calcium alginate beads using cell suspensions of different concentrations. The immobilization procedure resulted in beads with a homogeneous cell distribution, referred to as a Non-overlapping Cell (NC) configuration. If cells within the beads were allowed to grow, the NC configuration would transform into a Clustered Cell (CC) configuration as a, result of cell growth. Enzyme activity and substrate conversion were obtained for NC and CC configurations of different cell density, using penicillin G acylation by penicillin G acylase, to produce. 6-amino penicillanic acid. Enzyme activity and conversion were found to depend on both cell concentration... 

A new mathematical model was developed and an exact analytical solution without approximations of previous work was derived for the description of the kinetics and equilibrium characteristics of drug loading from a finite external solution onto ion-exchange microspheres. The influence of important parameters pertinent to material properties and loading conditions on the kinetics, efficiency, and equilibrium of drug loading was analyzed using the developed model and equations. The numerical results showed that the rate of drug loading increased with increasing initial drug concentration in the solution or with the relative volume of the external solution and the microsphere. The maximum... 

In this study, we have proposed a novel method investigates MR-Images for normal and abnormal brains which effected by Alzheimer's Disease (AD) to extract 336 number of different features based on texture analysis. Before applying this algorithm, we have to use a registration method because of variety in size of normal and abnormal images. Consequently, the output of Texture Analysis System (TAS) is a vector containing 336 elements that are features extracted from texture. This vector is considered as the input of the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) which is feed-forward one. The features extracted from the Gray-level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) have been interpreted and compared with normal... 

In this research, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were modified by dendritic macromonomer. Herein, polyamidoamine with acrylamide end groups was incorporated on MWCNTs. Afterwards, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), (PNIPAM), was grafted on polyamidoamine in a facile synthesis. Then, doxorubicin as anticancer drug was loaded on this nanocarrier. The drug release was studied at below and above the lower critical solution temperature of PNIPAM, (LCST 32 °C), 27 °C and 37 °C, respectively. At 37 °C (body temperature) the polymer shell dehydrated and the drug release increased. The profile of drug release was expressed by Higuchi's equation which indicated that the drug release mechanism was... 

Since most of the anticancer drugs have low solubility in water, the clinical use of them is limited unless by some modification the solubility increases or the drug is carried with a soluble compartment. To solve this problem, we prepared a magnetic nanocarrier with a hydrophobic surface based on oleic acid chains in which hydrophobic drug molecules such as doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) and paclitaxel (PTX) are easily adsorbed onto the surface. Since the drug molecules are physically adsorbed on the surface, large amounts of DOX (282 mg·g-1) and PTX (316 mg·g-1) were immobilized onto the nanocarrier. Then, the surface of the drug loaded magnetic core was covered by a smart pH-sensitive... 

Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is a biocompatible polymer which can be physically crosslinked by Borax to form hydrogel. PVA-Borax (PB) hydrogel is a promising candidate for drug delivery system. Therefore, it is necessary to find the quantitative relationship between drug release rate and network structure of PB hydrogels to predict and control drug release rate. In this work, at first step the optimum ratio of Borax: PVA was determined by studying the interactions between PVA chains and Borax molecules by means of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, while viscoelastic properties of prepared PB hydrogels were measured in the oscillatory shear flow field. In the following, curcumin as a... 

In the present work, a new micro-solid phase extraction (μ-SPE) sorbent as an extracting medium based on core-shell nanofibers was synthesized by electrospinning. The core-shell nanofibers of polyvinylpyrrolidone-Polybutylene terephthalate/polypyrrole (PVP-PBT/PPy) were electrospun and subsequently, modified hollow nanofibers were prepared by removing the central PVP moiety. Moreover, conventional PBT/PPy was also prepared for the comparison purposes. The homogeneity and the porous surface structure of the core-shell nanofibers were confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The applicability of the fabricated nanofibers-coating was examined by immersed μ-SPE of some selected triazine... 

Coaxial electrospinning with the ability to use simultaneously two separate solvents provides a promising strategy for drug delivery. Nevertheless, controlled release of hydrophilic and sensitive therapeutics from slow biodegradable polymers is still challenging. To address this gap, we fabricated core-sheath fibers for dual delivery of lysozyme, as a model protein, and phenytoin sodium as a small therapeutic molecule. The sheath was processed by a gelatin solution while the core fibers were fabricated from an aqueous gelatin/PVA solution. Microstructural studies by transmission and scanning electron microscopy reveal the formation of homogeneous core-sheath nanofibers with an outer and... 

The electrochemical behavior of captopril at the surface of a carbon-paste electrode (CPE) modified with cobalt-5-nitrolsalophen (CoNSal) is described. The prepared electrode shows an excellent electrocatalytic activity toward the oxidation of captopril, which is leading to marked lowering in the anodic overpotential and considerable improvement of sensitivity (anodic current). Whereas at the surface of unmodified electrode an electrochemical activity for captopril cannot be observed, a very sharp anodic wave with an anodic peak potential about 650 mV (versus Ag/AgCl) is obtained using the prepared modified electrode. This catalytic wave is assigned to mediating of Co(III)/Co(II) redox...