Sharif Digital Repository

Super-paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) are recognized as powerful biocompatible materials for use in various biomedical applications, such as drug delivery, magnetic-resonance imaging, cell/protein separation, hyperthermia and transfection. This study investigates the impact of high concentrations of SPIONs on cytotoxicity and cell-cycle effects. The interactions of surfacesaturated (via interactions with cell medium) bare SPIONs and those coated with poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) with adhesive mouse fibroblast cells (L929) are investigated using an MTT assay. The two SPION formulations are synthesized using a co-precipitation method. The bare and coated magnetic nanoparticles with... 

Hydrogen bonds are the dominant motif for organizing the three-dimensional structures of biomolecules such as carbohydrates, nucleic acids, and proteins, and serve as templates for proton transfer reactions. Computations, gas-phase acidity measurements, and pKa determinations in dimethyl sulfoxide on a series of polyols indicate that multiple hydrogen bonds to a single charged center lead to greatly enhanced acidities. A new class of Brønsted acids, consequently, is proposed. © 2009 American Chemical Society  

In this study, a simple route to the formation of DNA-gold complex has been reported, using immobilized DNA as a template. The nanoporous gold films have been prepared by the electrostatic self assembly of gold nanoparticles capped with tryptophan. Tryptophan would improve surface properties of gold nanoparticles for strongly attaching to DNA. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed that gold nanoparticles have been capped by tryptophan. Also measured zeta potential shows that there are positive charges on the surface of gold nanoparticles. Investigations by atomic force microscopy substantially confirm that tryptophan-capped gold nanoparticles can be bonded to DNA template... 

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed at the B3LYP level with a 6-311++G(d,p) basis set to systematically explore the geometrical multiplicity and binding strength for complexes formed by Li+, Na+, and K+ with cytidine and 2′-deoxycytidine. All computational studies indicate that the metal ion affinity (MIA) decreases from Li+ to Na+ and K+ for cytosine nucleosides. For example, for cytidine the affinity for the above metal ions are 79.5, 55.2, and 41.8 and for 2′-deoxycytidine, 82.8, 57.4, and 42.2 kcal/mol, respectively. It is also interesting to mention that linear correlations between calculated MIA values and the atomic numbers (Z) of the above metal ions were... 

In this paper we consider the anharmonic corrections to the anisotropic elastic rod model for DNA. Our model accounts for the difference between the bending energies of positive and negative rolls, which comes from the asymmetric structure of the DNA molecule. We will show that the model can explain the high flexibility of DNA at small length scales, as well as kink formation at high deformation limit. © 2009 The American Physical Society  

In this study, synthesis of conductive metal nanowires by using aligned and immobilised DNA strand on solid substrate is reported. The nanoporous gold film was prepared by electrostatic self assembly of gold nanoparticles capped with tryptophan. Tryptophan would improve surface properties of gold nanoparticles for strongly attaching to DNA. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy confirmed that gold nanoparticles have been capped by tryptophan. Also measured zeta potential shows that there are positive charges on the surface of gold nanoparticles. Investigations by AFM observati on substantially confirm that tryptophan-capped gold nanoparticles can be bonded to DNA template... 

Interaction of the DNA thymine base with Cu+ and Zn3+ was studied to explore: a) The metal binding energy (MIA) of thymine with Cu+ and Zn2+ and b) The possible correlation between charge transfer and MIAs. The gas-phase Cu+ and Zn2+ affinities of thymine, as well as the Mulliken charges, on the complexed metal cations were both determined at the same computational level, including the density functional level and employing the hybrid B3LYP exchange correlation potential in connection with the 6-311++G (d,p) basis set. All the molecular complexes were obtained by interaction between the most stable tautomer of thymine and two transition mono and divalent (Cu+, Zn2+) metal ions. To probe all... 

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) are being increasingly used in various biomedical applications such as hyperthermia, cell and protein separation, enhancing resolution of magnetic resonance imaging, and drug delivery. However, the toxicity data for SPION are limited. In this study, uncoated and single polyvinyl alcohol coated SPION with high chemical reactivity (due to the bigger surface area) were synthesized using a coprecipitation method. Cytotoxicity of these magnetic nanoparticles and their ability to cause arrest in cell life-cycles was investigated. Interaction of these nanoparticles with adhesive mouse fibroblast cell line (L929) was probed using MTT assay. High... 

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles with proper surface coatings are increasingly being evaluated for clinical applications such as hyperthermia, drug delivery, magnetic resonance imaging, transfection, and cell/protein separation. To enhance the applicability of magnetic nanoparticles, two main problems must be overcome. First, as the drug coats the particle surface, a significant portion of it is quickly released upon injection (burst effect). Therefore, only small amounts of the drug reach the specific site after, for example, magnetic drug targeting. Second, once the surface-derivatized nanoparticles are inside the cells, the coating is likely digested, leaving the bare particles... 

Haplotype information has become increasingly important in analyzing fine-scale molecular genetics data, Due to the mutated form in human genome; SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) are responsible for some genetic diseases. As a consequence, obtaining all SNPs from human populations is one of the primary goals of studies in human genomics. In this paper, a data fusion method based on multiple parallel classifiers for reconstruction of haplotypes from a given sample Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) is proposed. First, we design a single greedy algorithm for solving haplotype reconstructions. [2] is used as an efficient approach to be combined with first classification method. The... 

Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs), a single DNA base varying from one individual to another, are believed to be the most frequent form responsible for genetic differences. Genotype is the conflated information of a pair of haplotypes on homologous chromosomes. Although haplotypes have more information for disease associating than individual SNPs and genotype, it is substantially more difficult to determine haplotypes through experiments. Hence, computational methods which can reduce the cost of determining haplotypes become attractive alternatives. MEC, as a standard model for haplotype reconstruction, is fed by fragments as input to infer the best pair of haplotypes with minimum error... 

Aims: Our goal was the characterization of a new moderate thermophilic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-utilizing Nocardia strain. Methods and Results: A thermophilic bacterium, strain TSH1, was isolated from a contaminated soil. The macroscopic and microscopic features fit well with the description of Nocardia species. The results of 16S rRNA gene analysis showed 100% match to the type strain of N. otitidiscaviarum DSM 43242T. Strain TSH1 showed the same mycolic acid pattern as the type strain of N. otitidiscaviarum but its fatty acid profile did not permit identification to the species level. The carbon utilization profile of strain TSH1 was different from N. otitidiscaviarum. The... 

The dependence of the mobility of DNA molecules through an hexagonal array of micropillars on their length and the applied electric field was investigated and it was found that mobility is a nonmonotonic function of their length. Results also revealed that the size dependence of the DNA mobility depends on the applied electric field and there is a crossover around E ≈ 25 V/cm for the mobility of λ-DNA and T4-DNA. These observations are explained in terms of the diffusion process inside the structure affected by the solvent and are modeled using the Langevin and its corresponding Fokker-Planck equations. The phenomenon is generalized under three regimes in a phase diagram relating the...