Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Commons^™

Pamam- Cyclodextrin Conjugate Upregulates Brain-Derived Neurotropic Factor In Arpe-19 Cells, Gopika Ashokan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background: Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a major contributor to death and disability due to motorvehicle accidents, sports, physical abuse, and battlefield injuries. The primary insult to the brain leads to inflammation, vascular dysfunction, and oxidative stress in the brain as well as in the eye. This leads to loss of Retinal Ganglion Cells (RGCs) and downregulation of Brain derived Neurotopic Factor (BDNF). BDNF is a neurotrophic factor that binds to Tropomyosin Receptor Kinase B (TrkB) receptor to promote cell growth, survival, and differentiation. Current treatment strategies do not promote neuronal regeneration. Therefore, novel treatments are needed to restore vision …

Synthesis, Characterization, And Application Of Chitosan Nanoparticles For In Vitro Studies On Hela Cancer Cells, Rejeena Jha

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Chitosan is a fibrous substance that is derived from chitin, a natural substance in the shells of crustaceans. It possesses all the necessary qualities for being used as carrier for the transport of drugs and genes into tumor, such as biodegradability, biocompatibility, hydrophilicity, and non-toxicity and cationic in nature. Ionic gelation method was used to synthesize chitosan (CS) nanoparticles (NPs). Ionic gelation is a very benign process chemically that requires mixing a CS aqueous solution with a sodium tripolyphosphate (TPP) aqueous solution at room temperature. In addition, a surfactant polyethylene oxide (PEO) alone and a diblock copolymer of PEO and …

Developing Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticle-Based Stimuli-Responsive Nanocarriers For Delivery Of Small Molecule Therapeutics Against Colon Cancer Cells, Nisitha Lakmal Wellala Wijewantha

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation delves into the innovative application of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) for targeted drug delivery in colorectal cancer (CRC), one of the most prevalent and deadly forms of cancer worldwide. The initial focus of the research is on developing enzyme-responsive MSNs loaded with veratridine (VTD), an alkaloid derived from natural sources that demonstrates potent anticancer activity. The nanoparticles have been engineered to deliver VTD selectively to CRC cells, releasing the payload upon being exposed to specific enzymes primarily secreted by these cells. This strategy has dual advantages of amplifying the anticancer effects while minimizing potential side effects on healthy …

Amphiphilic Block Copolymers And The Applications In Therapeutics Delivery, Jie Dou

Dissertations

Well-defined thermo-responsive triblock copolymers containing polyethylene oxide (PEO) and poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) PNIPAM are synthesized by a type of living controlled polymerization, named iniferter polymerization. The polymers are amphiphilic in nature and are self-assembled into a micelle. Their properties and application are characterized and investigated in this work.

Foremost, the initiator of the polymerization (iniferter) is designed and synthesized by condensation polymerization, where PEO is incorporated into the structure to improve biocompatibility, which has great potential for biological application. Moreover, this iniferter reagent could be applied to more than 70 percent of vinyl monomers.

NIPAM, a commercial vinyl monomer, is chosen …

Enhanced Anticancer Response Of Curcumin- And Piperine-Loaded Lignin-G-P (Nipam-Co-Dmaema) Gold Nanogels Against U-251 Mg Glioblastoma Multiforme, Bilal Javed, Xinyi Zhao, Daxiang Cui, James Curtin, Furong Tian

Articles

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most aggressive and commonly diagnosed brain cancer and is highly resistant to routine chemotherapeutic drugs. The present study involves the synthesis of Lignin-g-p (NIPAM-co-DMAEMA) gold nanogel, loaded with curcumin and piperine, to treat GBM. The ongoing study has the application potential to (1) overcome the limitations of drugs biodistribution, (2) enhance the toxicity of anticancer drugs against GBM, and (3) identify the drugs uptake pathway. Atom transfer radical polymerization was used to synthesize the Lignin-g-PNIPAM network, crosslinked with the gold nanoparticles (GNPs) to self-assemble into nanogels. The size distribution and morphological analysis confirmed that the …

Development Of Dual Functional Dna/Rna Nanostructures For Drug Delivery, Vibhav Amit Valsangkar

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In addition to the traditional biochemical functions, DNA and RNA have been increasingly studied as building blocks for the formation of various 2D and 3D nanostructures. DNA has emerged as a versatile building block for programmable self-assembly. DNA-based nanostructures have been widely applied in biosensing, bioimaging, drug delivery, molecular computation and macromolecular scaffolding. A variety of strategies have been developed to functionalize these nanostructures. The major advantage is that DNA is a very stable molecule and its base-pairing properties can be easily utilized to control and program the formation of desired nanostructures. In addition, some of these DNA/RNA nanostructures have …

Electrospun Thymosin Beta-4 Loaded Plga/Pla Nanofiber/ Microfiber Hybrid Yarns For Tendon Tissue Engineering Application, Shaohua Wu, Rong Zhou, Fang Zhou, Philipp N. Streubel, Shaojuan Chen, Bin Duan

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Microfiber yarns (MY) have been widely employed to construct tendon tissue grafts. However, suboptimal ultrastructure and inappropriate environments for cell interactions limit their clinical application. Herein, we designed a modified electrospinning device to coat poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) PLGA nanofibers onto polylactic acid (PLA) MY to generate PLGA/PLA hybrid yarns (HY), which had a well-aligned nanofibrous structure, resembling the ultrastructure of native tendon tissues and showed enhanced failure load compared to PLA MY. PLGA/PLA HY significantly improved the growth, proliferation, and tendon-specific gene expressions of human adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells (HADMSC) compared to PLA MY. Moreover, thymosin beta-4 (Tβ4) loaded PLGA/PLA …

Iron-Containing Nanoparticles For The Treatment Of Chrionic Biofilm Infections In Cystic Fibrosis, Leisha M. A. Martin

Nanoscience and Microsystems ETDs

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common genetic disease resulting in the morbidity and mortality of Caucasian children and adults worldwide. Due to a genetic mutation resulting in malfunction of the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) protein, CF patients produce highly viscous mucus in their respiratory tract. This leads to impairment of the mucociliary clearance of inhaled microbes. In addition to reduced microbial clearance, anoxic environmental conditions in the lungs promote biofilm-mode growth of the pathogenic bacterial species Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Chronic infections of P. aeruginosa begin in early childhood and typically persist until respiratory failure and death result. The …

Development And Evaluation Of Biocompatible Engineered Nanoparticles For Use In Ophthalmology, Bedia Begum Karakocak

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The synthesis and design of biocompatible nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery and bioimaging requires knowledge of both their potential toxicity and their transport. For both practical and ethical reasons, evaluating exposure via cell studies is a logical precursor to in vivo tests. As a step towards clinical trials, this work extensively investigated the toxicity of gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) and carbon dot (CD) nanoparticles as a prelude to their in vivo application, focusing specifically on ocular cells. As a further step, it also evaluated their whole-body transport in mice. The research pursued two approaches in assessing the toxicity of engineered …

Nanoparticle Orientation To Control Rna Loading And Ligand Display On Extracellular Vesicles For Cancer Regression, Fengmei Pi, Daniel W. Binzel, Tae Jin Lee, Zhefeng Li, Meiyan Sun, Piotr G. Rychahou, Hui Li, Farzin Haque, Shaoying Wang, Carlo M. Croce, Bin Guo, B. Mark Evers, Peixuan Guo

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Nanotechnology offers many benefits, and here we report an advantage of applying RNA nanotechnology for directional control. The orientation of arrow-shaped RNA was altered to control ligand display on extracellular vesicle membranes for specific cell targeting, or to regulate intracellular trafficking of small interfering RNA (siRNA) or microRNA (miRNA). Placing membrane-anchoring cholesterol at the tail of the arrow results in display of RNA aptamer or folate on the outer surface of the extracellular vesicle. In contrast, placing the cholesterol at the arrowhead results in partial loading of RNA nanoparticles into the extracellular vesicles. Taking advantage of the RNA ligand for …

Magnetic Field-Induced Intramolecular Cyclization As A Trigger For Nanoparticle-Based Delivery Systems., Sara Katherine Biladeau

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are used in a variety of applications, including as agents for magnetic resonance imaging, generation of local hyperthermia, and as platforms for drug delivery. Iron-based MNPs are often coated with a shell, such as silica or gold, to increase biocompatibility for drug delivery applications. Many MNPs used for cancer therapy rely on either an internal trigger, such as a difference in pH, or an external trigger, such as light or an alternating magnetic field (AMF), to cause release of a payload, typically a chemotherapeutic drug. Internal triggers are appealing because drug release can be targeted to a …

Calcium Phosphate As A Key Material For Socially Responsible Tissue Engineering, Vuk Uskoković, Victoria M. Wu

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Socially responsible technologies are designed while taking into consideration the socioeconomic, geopolitical and environmental limitations of regions in which they will be implemented. In the medical context, this involves making therapeutic platforms more accessible and affordable to patients in poor regions of the world wherein a given disease is endemic. This often necessitates going against the reigning trend of making therapeutic nanoparticles ever more structurally complex and expensive. However, studies aimed at simplifying materials and formulations while maintaining the functionality and therapeutic response of their more complex counterparts seldom provoke a significant interest in the scientific community. In this review …

Biomimetic Oral Mucin From Polymer Micelle Networks, Sundar Prasanth Authimoolam

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Mucin networks are formed by the complexation of bottlebrush-like mucin glycoprotein with other small molecule glycoproteins. These glycoproteins create nanoscale strands that then arrange into a nanoporous mesh. These networks play an important role in ensuring surface hydration, lubricity and barrier protection. In order to understand the functional behavior in mucin networks, it is important to decouple their chemical and physical effects responsible for generating the fundamental property-function relationship. To achieve this goal, we propose to develop a synthetic biomimetic mucin using a layer-by-layer (LBL) deposition approach. In this work, a hierarchical 3-dimensional structures resembling natural mucin networks was generated …

Low Molecular Weight Glucosamine/L-Lactide Copolymers As Potential Carriers For The Development Of A Sustained Rifampicin Release System: Mycobacterium Smegmatis As A Tuberculosis Model, Jorge Ragusa

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Tuberculosis, a highly contagious disease, ranks as the second leading cause of death from an infectious disease, and remains a major global health problem. In 2013, 9 million new cases were diagnosed and 1.5 million people died worldwide from tuberculosis. This dissertation aims at developing a new, ultrafine particle-based efficient antibiotic delivery system for the treatment of tuberculosis. The carrier material to make the rifampicin (RIF)-loaded particles is a low molecular weight star-shaped polymer produced from glucosamine (molecular core building unit) and L-lactide (GluN-LLA). Stable particles with a very high 50% drug loading capacity were made via electrohydrodynamic atomization. Prolonged …

Anti-Gd2 Etoposide-Loaded Immunoliposomes For The Treatment Of Gd2 Positive Tumors, Brandon S. Brown

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Systemic chemotherapeutics remain the standard of care for most malignancies even though they frequently suffer from narrow therapeutic index, poor serum solubility, and off-target effects. Monoclonal antibodies that specifically bind antigens overexpressed on many tumors such as the ganglioside, GD2, can be conjugated to drug-loaded liposomes to create a targeted drug delivery system. In this study, we have encapsulated etoposide, a topoisomerase inhibitor effective against a wide range of cancers, in surface modified liposomes decorated with anti-GD2 antibodies. We characterized the properties of the liposomes using a variety of methods including dynamic light scattering, electron microscopy, and Fourier transformed infrared …

Development And Application Of Biomimetic Electrospun Nanofibers In Total Joint Replacement, Wei Song

Wayne State University Dissertations

Failure of osseointegration (direct anchorage of an implant by bone formation at the bone-implant surface) and implant infection (such as that caused by Staphylococcus aureus, S. aureus) are the two main causes of implant failure and loosening. There is a critical need for orthopedic implants that promote rapid osseointegration and prevent bacterial colonization, particularly when placed in bone compromised by disease or physiology of the patients. A better understanding of the key factors that influence cell fate decisions at the bone-implant interface is required. Our study is to develop a class of "bone-like" nanofibers (NFs) that promote osseointegration while preventing …

Theranostic Nanoparticles For The Treatment Of Cancer, Thomas Moore

All Dissertations

The main focus of this research was to evaluate the ability of a novel multifunctional nanoparticle to mediate drug delivery and enable a non-invasive approach to measure drug release kinetics in situ for the treatment of cancer. These goals were approached by developing a nanoparticle consisting of an inorganic core (i.e. gadolinium sulfoxide doped with europium ions or carbon nanotubes). This was coated with an external amphiphilic polymer shell comprised of a biodegradable polyester (i.e. poly(lactide) or poly(glycolide)), and poly(ethylene glycol) block copolymer. In this system, the inorganic core mediates the imaging aspect, the relatively hydrophobic polyester encapsulates hydrophobic anti-cancer …

Nanomaterials For Biological Applications: Drug Delivery And Bio-Sensing, Hui Ma

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The idea of utilizing nanomaterials in bio-related applications has been extensively practiced during the recent decades. Magnetic nanoparticles (MPs), especially superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles have been demonstrated as promising candidates for biomedicine. A protective coating process with biocompatible materials is commonly performed on MPs to further enhance their colloidal and chemical stability in the physiological environment. Mesoporous hollow silica is another class of important nanomaterials that are extensively studied in drug delivery area for their ability to carry significant amount of guest molecules and release in a controlled manner.

In this study, different synthetic approaches that are able to produce …

Folate Nanoparticle Conjugates, Safwat A. Masood

All Capstone Projects

The folate receptor is overexpressed on the surface of numerous cancer cell types including those of the breast, lung, kidney, ovary, and brain. Recent interest has exploded in the use of folate to deliver payloads and imaging agents to folate receptor positive cancer cells based on several positive clinical trials including phase III trials of EC-145, which is poised to become the first folate targeted, FDA approved drug. Given the success of EC-145 and numerous other agents in the pharmaceutical pipeline, there remains a great interest in the exploitation of this technology in the delivery of nanoscale agents to folate …

Nanocrystals Of Chemotherapeutic Agents For Cancer Theranostics: Development And In Vitro And In Vivo Evaluation, Christin P. Hollis

Theses and Dissertations--Pharmacy

The majority of pharmacologically active chemotherapeutics are poorly water soluble. Solubilization enhancement by the utilization of organic solvents often leads to adverse side effects. Nanoparticle-based cancer therapy, which is passively targeted to the tumor tissue via the enhanced permeation and retention effect, has been vastly developed in recent years. Nanocrystals, which exist as crystalline and carry nearly 100% drug loading, has been explored for delivering antineoplastic agents. Additionally, the hybrid nanocrystal concept offers a novel and simple way to integrate imaging agents into the drug crystals, enabling the achievement of theranostics. The overall objective of this dissertation is to formulate …

Nanofabrication Of Halloysite-Pcl Composite Scaffolds And Functionalization Of Titanium For Tissue Regeneration, Shraddha Parshottambhai Patel

Doctoral Dissertations

Major medical needs may be achieved through regenerative medicine. Nanotechnology has triggered a research revolution in many important areas such as the biomedical sciences and bioengineering at the molecular level which has grown significantly due to the availability of new analytical applications and tools based on nanotechnology. Clinical conditions and diseases being targeted by nanotechnology research include burns, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, implant failure, improved wound healing, birth defects, osteoporosis and congestive heart defects. Therapeutic use of growth factors and drugs to stimulate the production and/or function of endogenous cells represents a key area of regenerative medicine. The development of …