Conformations of poly(propylene imine) dendrimers in an ionic liquid at different pH

Effect of electrostatic repulsion on barrier properties and thermal performance of gelatin films by carboxymethyl starch, and application in food cooking

Carboxymethyl starch (CST) was introduced to improve gelatin films and its practical application as edible high-performance films for food packaging and cooking was also investigated. The gelatin films modified by carboxymethyl starch exhibited the transparent appearance, tensile strength, barrier properties (oxygen, water vapor and UV light), and thermal performance (TGA, thermal shrinkage and heat-sealing strength). Resulting from the effect of electrostatic interaction modes on the properties of films, electrostatic repulsion could surpass electrostatic attraction in improving the tensile strength, oxygen barrier property and thermal stability of the films probably due to extensive physical entanglement without aggregation. Analysis of FTIR, zeta potential, interfacial dilatational rheology, shear rheological properties, XRD, Raman, SEM and AFM suggested that hydrogen bonding and electrostatic repulsion contributed to the excellent performance. The packaged food could also be cooked with the prepared film for porridge; and the film slightly influenced the shear rheological properties of porridge and imposed little effect on the odors (Electronic-Nose) of porridge. Hence, the gelatin films modified by carboxymethyl starch could potentially work as the edible inner packaging or the edible quantitative packaging for food, offer convenience for consumers, reduce the packaging waste and avoid an extra burden on environment.

Engineering of 177Lu-labeled gold encapsulated into dendrimeric nanomaterials for the treatment of lung cancer

As a novel type of theranostic radioactive agents, ¹⁷⁷Lu-labeled nanomaterials conjugated to macromolecules have been described. The study aimed to fabricate PAMAM-G4-(¹⁷⁷Lu-dendrimer)-bombesin-folate in the dendrimeric cavity, assess the radiopharmaceutical ability for specifically targeted radiotherapy and simultaneously detects gastrin-releasing peptide receptors (GRPR) and folate receptors (FRs) overexpressed in lung carcinoma cells, respectively. In an aqueous-basic media, p-SCN-benzyl-DOTA was conjugated to the dendrimer. This dendrimer was formed by activating the carboxylic acid groups of DOTA-folic acid and bombesin with HATU and conjugating them to develop the dendrimer. As part of this process, the conjugate was combined with 1% HAuCl₄, added NaBH₄ and filtered by ultrafiltration. Infrared, UV-Vis, TEM analysis, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and fluorescence spectroscopy were employed to observe the composition of the fabricated sample. Radio-labeled ¹⁷⁷LuCl₃ was used to label the conjugate, which was then evaluated using the radio-HPLC method. Findings demonstrated dendrimeric functionalization with remarkable radiochemical composition purity up to >96%. Because of fluorescence studies, it was determined that the occurrence of AuNMs in the dendrimeric cavities gives beneficial photo-physical characteristics to the radiopharmaceutical for bio-imaging. HEL-299 lung cancer cells exhibited a selective absorption of the drug (%). It might be helpful as nuclear and optical imaging agents for lung cancers that overexpress FRs and GRPR and as a specific target for radiation therapy if combined with folate-bombesin.