Sugar-binding property of magnetite particles modified with dihydroxyborylphenyl groups via graft polymerization of acrylic acid

Polyvalent Folate-Dendrimer-Coated Iron Oxide Theranostic Nanoparticles for Simultaneous Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Precise Cancer Cell Targeting

The low therapeutic index of conventional chemotherapy and poor prognosis of patients diagnosed with metastatic cancers are prompting clinicians to adopt newer strategies to simultaneously detect cancer lesions at an early stage and to precisely deliver anticancer drugs to tumor sites. In this study, we employed a novel strategy to engineer a polyvalent theranostic nanocarrier consisting of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticle core (SPIONs) decorated with folic acid-polyamidoamine dendrimers surface (FA-PAMAM). In addition, a highly potent hydrophobic anticancer agent 3,4-difluorobenzylidene-curcumin (CDF) was coloaded in the FA-PAMAM dendrimer to increase its solubility and assess its therapeutic potentials. The resulting targeted nanoparticles (SPIONs@FA-PAMAM-CDF) exhibited high MR contrast. When tested on folate receptor overexpressing ovarian (SKOV3) and cervical (HeLa) cancer cells, the CDF loaded targeted nanoformulations showed higher accumulation with a better anticancer activity as compared to the nontargeted counterparts, possibly due to multivalent folate receptor binding interaction with cells overexpressing the target. The results were corroborated by observation of a larger population of cells undergoing apoptosis due to upregulation of tumor suppressor phosphatase and tensis homologue (PTEN), caspase 3, and inhibition of NF-κB in groups treated with the targeted formulations, which further confirmed the ability of the multivalent theranostic nanoparticles for simultaneous imaging and therapy of cancers.

Nucleic acid sample preparation for in vitro molecular diagnosis: from conventional techniques to biotechnology

Nucleic acid (DNA and RNA)-based molecular diagnosis is a promising laboratory technique because of its ability to identify disease accurately. However, one of its disadvantages is the inevitable purification and detection of nucleic acids from other contaminated entities. Different nano- and microparticles have been developed for use in an advanced, efficient high-throughput autosystem for the purification and detection of nucleic acid samples for use in molecular diagnoses. In this review, we discuss recent advances in the development of particle-based nucleic acid purification and detection.

Dendrimer modified magnetite nanoparticles for protein immobilization

A cascading polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer was synthesized on the surface of magnetite nanoparticles to allow enhanced immobilization of bovine serum albumin (BSA). Characterization of the synthesis revealed exponential doubling of the surface amine from generations one through four starting with an amino silane initiator. Furthermore, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed clear dispersion of the dendrimer-modified magnetite nanoparticles in methanol solution. The dendrimer-modified magnetite nanoparticles were used to carry out magnetic immobilization of BSA. BSA immobilizing efficiency increased with increasing generation from one to five and BSA binding amount of magnetite nanoparticles modified with G5 dendrimer was 7.7 times as much as that of magnetite nanoparticles modified with only aminosilane. There are two major factors that improve the BSA binding capacity of dendrimer-modified magnetite nanoparticles: one is that the increased surface amine can be conjugated to BSA by a chemical bond through glutaraldehyde; the other is that the available area has increased due to the repulsion of surface positive charge.