Nanotechnology Commons^™

Bacterial Lps At The Immune Modulating Component In Juzen-Taiho-To, Diego Montenegro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Juzen-taiho-to (JTT) is an immune-boosting herbal formulation with an ideal balance of safety and efficacy. For example, JTT is clinically used in Japan to stimulate the immunological functions of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiation. Although the clinical effects of JTT are recognized, the active compounds and mechanism of action are unknown. The studies conducted previously in our laboratory associated several phytosterols and plant glycolipids with the potent immunostimulatory activity of JTT: namely, β-sitosteryl β-D-glucoside (BSSG), glucocerebroside (GluCer), digalactosyldiacylglycerol (DGDG) and monogalactosyldiacylglycerol (MGDG). However, these compounds, when further purified, exhibited little or no immunostimulatory activity. This suggested that the immunostimulatory …

Mathematical Modeling Of Nanoparticle Biodistribution, Prashant Dogra

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

The prospects of nanoparticle-based drug delivery and imaging have been hindered by insufficient understanding of the effects of nanoparticle physicochemical properties on their in vivo disposition. Here, we present an integrative mathematical modeling and in vivo imaging approach to quantify the relationship between nanoparticle physicochemical properties, namely, size, surface charge, and surface chemistry, on their in vivo disposition kinetics in healthy rats. We developed simple master equations in closed-form to accurately represent the time-dependent concentration of nanoparticles in different regions of the body and obtain functional relationships for predictive purpose to support rational design of nanomedicine. We further used …

Atomic Layer Deposition Prepared Nanostructured Materials For Various Catalytic Reactions, Xiaofeng Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

"Atomic layer deposition (ALD) has been widely used for thin film coating and metal nanoparticles (NPs) preparation. In this report, the applications of ALD prepared nanostructured materials in catalysis were examined.

Highly dispersed Pt monometallic catalysts with different substrates and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) supported Pt-Co bimetallic catalysts were synthesized by ALD for selective hydrogenation of α, β-unsaturated aldehydes to unsaturated alcohols (UA). Pt/MWCNTs showed the highest selectivity of UA in selective hydrogenation of citral, as compared to Pt/SiO₂, Pt/ALD-Al₂O₃, and Pt/γ-Al₂O₃. After adding Co, the highest selectivity was achieved …

Investigating The Role Of Gold Nanoparticle Shape And Size In Their Toxicities To Fungi, Kangze Liu, Zhonglei He, Hugh J. Byrne, James Curtin, Furong Tian

Articles

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) are increasingly being used in a wide range of applications, and such they are being released in greater quantities into the environment. Consequently, the environmental effects of GNPs, especially toxicities to living organisms, have drawn great attention. However, their toxicological characteristics still remain unclear. Fungi, as the decomposers of the ecosystem, interact directly with the environment and critically control the overall health of the biosphere. Thus, their sensitivity to GNP toxicity is particularly important. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of GNP shape and size in their toxicities to fungi, which could help …

Hyperthermia As A Cancer Treatment- From Theory To Practice, Graham Fullerton

CMC Senior Theses

Using iron super-paramagnetic and ferromagnetic nanoparticles composed of Fe₃O₄ molecules, scientists analyze the effectiveness and practicality of this new treatment theory, hyperthermia. The problems of magnetic particle density, isothermal barriers/cellular cooling thresholds, and nanoparticle specific targeting are addressed in this review.

Iron magnetic nanoparticles were chosen due to their relatively low biological reactivates and lack of subsequent cellular toxicity. However, there are significant heating problems associated with these magnetic nanoparticles due to their relative size and short thermal time constants or thermal half-lives. Effectively, these aforementioned issues create a phenomenon where cancerous cells, surrounded by unheated healthy …

Multimodal Noncontact Diffuse Optical Reflectance Imaging Of Blood Flow And Fluorescence Contrasts, Daniel Irwin

Theses and Dissertations--Biomedical Engineering

In this study we design a succession of three increasingly adept diffuse optical devices towards the simultaneous 3D imaging of blood flow and fluorescence contrasts in relatively deep tissues. These metrics together can provide future insights into the relationship between blood flow distributions and fluorescent or fluorescently tagged agents. A noncontact diffuse correlation tomography (ncDCT) device was firstly developed to recover flow by mechanically scanning a lens-based apparatus across the sample. The novel flow reconstruction technique and measuring boundary curvature were advanced in tandem. The establishment of CCD camera detection with a high sampling density and flow recovery by speckle …

Raman Spectroscopic Analysis Of High Molecular Weight Proteins In Solution: Considerations For Sample Analysis And Data Pre-Processing, Drishya Parachalil, Brenda B. Brankin, Jennifer Mcintyre, Hugh J. Byrne

Articles

This study explores the potential of Raman spectroscopy, coupled with multivariate regression techniques and a protein separation technique (ion exchange chromatography), to quantitatively monitor diagnostically relevant changes in high molecular weight proteins in liquid plasma. Measurement protocols to detect the imbalances in plasma proteins as an indicator of various diseases using Raman spectroscopy are optimised, such that strategic clinical applications for early stage disease diagnostics can be evaluated. In a simulated plasma protein mixture, concentrations of two proteins of identified diagnostic potential (albumin and fibrinogen) were systematically varied within physiologically relevant ranges. Scattering from the poorly soluble fibrinogen fraction is …

Nano-Strategies To Fight Multidrug Resistant Bacteria—“A Battle Of The Titans", Pedro V. Baptista, Matthew P. Mccusker, Andreia Carvalho, Daniela A. Ferreira, Niamh M. Mohan, Marta Martins, Alexandra R. Fernandez

Articles

Infectious diseases remain one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The WHO and CDC have expressed serious concern regarding the continued increase in the development of multidrug resistance among bacteria. Therefore, the antibiotic resistance crisis is one of the most pressing issues in global public health. Associated with the rise in antibiotic resistance is the lack of new antimicrobials. This has triggered initiatives worldwide to develop novel and more effective antimicrobial compounds as well as to develop novel delivery and targeting strategies. Bacteria have developed many ways by which they become resistant to antimicrobials. Among those are …

Size-Dependent Inhibitory Effects Of Antibiotic Drug Nanocarriers Against Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Feng Ding, Preeyaporn Songkiatisak, Pavan Kumar Cherukuri, Tao Huang, Xiao-Hong Nancy Xu

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Multidrug membrane transporters (efflux pumps) are responsible for multidrug resistance (MDR) and the low efficacy of therapeutic drugs. Noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) possess a high surface-area-to-volume ratio and size-dependent plasmonic optical properties, enabling them to serve both as imaging probes to study sized-dependent MDR and as potential drug carriers to circumvent MDR and enhance therapeutic efficacy. To this end, in this study, we synthesized three different sizes of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs), 2.4 ± 0.7, 13.0 ± 3.1, and 92.6 ± 4.4 nm, functionalized their surface with a monolayer of 11-amino-1-undecanethiol (AUT), and covalently conjugated them with antibiotics (ofloxacin, Oflx) …

Facile Synthesis Of Ligand-Free Iridium Nanoparticles And Their In Vitro Biocompatibility, Anna L. Brown, Hayden Winter, Andrea M. Goforth, Gaurav Sahay, Conroy Sun

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

High-density inorganic nanoparticles have shown promise in medical applications that utilize radiation including X-ray imaging and as radiation dose enhancers for radiotherapy. We have developed an aqueous synthetic method to produce small (~ 2 nm) iridium nanoparticles (IrNPs) by reduction of iridium(III) chloride using a borohydride reducing agent. Unlike other solution-based synthesis methods, uniform and monodispersed IrNPs are produced without the use of surfactants or other solubilizing ligands. These nanoparticles are highly crystalline as observed by X-ray diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In vitro metabolic toxicity assays using hepatocyte and macrophage cells demonstrate that both IrNPs and iridium(III) …

The Microvascular And Systemic Effects Of Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticle Exposure: A Physiological Perspective, Alaeddin Bashir Abukabda

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (nano-TiO₂) are one of the most widely used engineered nanomaterials (ENM). Their ubiquitous inclusion warrants a more thorough understanding of their toxicity, particularly in sensitive populations such as pregnant women and the developing fetus.

The aim of the first study was to determine the most sensitive segments of the vasculature to pulmonary ENM exposure. Macrovascular function was investigated in the thoracic aorta, common femoral artery and 3^rd order mesenteric arterioles using wire myography. Microvascular function was assessed in 4^th and 5^th order mesenteric arterioles via pressure myography. Nano-TiO₂ exposure induced impairments …

Hyperpolarized Porous Silicon Nanoparticles: Potential Theragnostic Material For 29si Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Hyeonglim Seo, Ikjang Choi, Nicholas Whiting, Jingzhe Hu, Quy S. Luu, Shivanand Pudakalakatti, Caitlin Mccowan, Yaewon Kim, Niki Zacharias Millward, Seunghyun Lee, Pratip Bhattacharya, Youngbok Lee

Nicholas Whiting

Nanomedicine For Immunosuppressive Therapy: Achievements In Pre-Clinical Research, Hanan Al-Lawati, Hamidreza Montazeri Aliabadi, Behzad Sharif Makhmalzadeh, Afsaneh Lavasanifar

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Introduction: Immunosuppression is the mainstay therapy in organ transplantation and autoimmune diseases. The effective clinical application of immunosuppressive agents has suffered from the emergence of systemic immunosuppression and/or individual drug side effects. Nanotechnology approaches may be used to modify the mentioned shortcomings by enhancing the delivery of immunosuppressants to target cells of the immune system, thus reducing the required dose for function, and/or reducing drug distribution to non-target tissues.

Areas covered: We provide an overview on the development of nanotechnology products for the most commonly used immunosuppressive agents. At first, the rationale for the use of nanoparticles as …

Enzyme Immobilization On Nanoporous Gold: A Review., Keith Stine

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Fabrication And Modification Of Titania Nanotube Arrays For Harvesting Solar Energy And Drug Delivery Applications, Ahmed El Ruby Abdel Rahman Mohamed

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The fast diminishing of fossil fuels in the near future, as well as the global warming caused by increasing greenhouse gases have motivated the urgent quest to develop advanced materials as cost-effective photoanodes for solar light harvesting and many other photocatalytic applications. Recently, titania nanotube arrays (TNTAs) fabricated by anodization process has attracted great interest due to their excellent properties such as: high surface area, vertically oriented, highly organized, one-dimensional, nanotubular structure, photoactivity, chemical stability and biocompatibility. This unique combination of excellent properties makes TNTAs an excellent photoanode for solar light harvesting. However, the relatively wide band gap energy of …

The Physicochemical Properties And Cellular Toxicity Of Variably Synthesized Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles, Catherine Binns Anders

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Nanotechnology has grown exponentially since its inception in the early 1970’s. Since then, bionanotechnological devices and treatment options have significantly improved disease treatments and patient outcomes; however, this rapid growth in consumer related products has also prompted concern. Zinc oxide nanoparticles (nZnO), known for their inherent toxicity and prevalent global use in consumer products and medical applications, have received much of this attention. Significant research efforts have focused on both toxicity remediation through material property modification and the exploitation of these same factors to create potential cancer therapeutics. There is general agreement that the physicochemical properties of nZnO strongly contribute …

Challenges In Characterizing The Environmental Fate And Effects Of Carbon Nanotubes And Inorganic Nanomaterials In Aquatic Systems, Peter Laux, Christian Riebeling, Andy M. Booth, Joseph D. Brain, Josephine Brunner, Cristina Cerrillo, Otto Creutzenberg, Irina Estrela-Lopis, Thomas Gebel, Gunnar Johanson, Harald Jungnickel, Heiko Kock, Jutta Tentschert, Ahmed Tlili, Andreas Schäffer, Adriënne J. A. M. Sips, Robert A. Yokel, Andreas Luch

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

The current lack of commonly used protocols for dispersion, characterization, and aquatic toxicity testing of nanomaterials (NMs) has resulted in inconsistent results, which make meaningful comparisons difficult. The need for standardized sample preparation procedures that allow the reproducible generation of relevant test conditions remains a key challenge for studies of the environmental fate and aquatic toxicity of NMs. Together with the further development of optimized and cost-effective analytical techniques for physicochemical characterization that depend on reproducible sample preparation, such methods have the potential to overcome the current uncertainties with regard to NM dispersion properties, effective dose, and particle dissolution. In …

Size, Shape, And Sequence-Dependent Immunogenicity Of Rna Nanoparticles, Sijin Guo, Hui Li, Mengshi Ma, Jian Fu, Yizhou Dong, Peixuan Guo

Center for Research on Environmental Disease Faculty Publications

RNA molecules have emerged as promising therapeutics. Like all other drugs, the safety profile and immune response are important criteria for drug evaluation. However, the literature on RNA immunogenicity has been controversial. Here, we used the approach of RNA nanotechnology to demonstrate that the immune response of RNA nanoparticles is size, shape, and sequence dependent. RNA triangle, square, pentagon, and tetrahedron with same shape but different sizes, or same size but different shapes were used as models to investigate the immune response. The levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines induced by these RNA nanoarchitectures were assessed in macrophage-like cells and animals. It …

Robust Biosensors For Healthcare Applications: From High-Content Screening To Point-Of-Care Testing, Ngoc D. B. Le

Doctoral Dissertations

Efficient detection of proteins, mammalian cells, microorganisms and other biological systems in complex mixture is essential in disease diagnosis and environmental health. Therefore, technological platforms that provide sensors of high sensitivity, selectivity and stability are greatly desired. Recently, the ‘chemical-nose’ sensing approach has proved to be an effective strategy for profiling bio-relevant targets in complex mixtures. Detecting analytes in complex mixture is a challenge that conventional specificity-based sensors are still trying to solve due to the requirement of prior knowledge of the analyte, which is unknown in many cases. This thesis focuses on how to develop simple and robust …

Effects Of Carboxylated Nanodiamonds On Macrophages During And After Differentiation, Maisoun E. Bani Hani

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Nanodiamonds (ND) are a carbon-based nanomaterial that are increasingly being proposed for developing novel imaging techniques, as carriers of biomolecules and therapeutic drugs, as coatings for implants, and for other biomedical applications. The exceptional chemical, mechanical, and optical properties of ND make this material suitable in a wide range of fields. The application of ND in the biomedical field is attractive but requires more in-depth investigation into the safety of ND and its interactions with different cells and systems. The effects of ND on the immune system are not fully understood or investigated and there are several controverting reports regarding …