Biodegradable nano-polymers as delivery vehicles for therapeutic small non-coding ribonucleic acids.
Nowadays, small non-coding Ribo Nucleic Acids (sncRNAs) such as siRNA, miRNA and shRNA are extremely serving to gene regulation. They are involved in many biological processes and in an increasing number of studies regarding a variety of application of sncRNAs toward human health and relieving diseases ranging from metabolic disorders to those involving various organ systems as well as different types of cancer. One of the most severe limitations for applying RNA interference technology is the absence of safe and effective carriers for in vivo delivery, including localizing the molecules to a specific site of interest and sustaining the presentation of the payloads for a controlled period o…
Aptamers as smart ligands for nano-carriers targeting
The development of enhanced drug delivery systems is one of the most attractive fields of pharmaceutical sciences, as some of the highly effective chemo/biotherapeutics for cancer treatment can not be administrated due to their high toxicities for normal cells or low stability in physiological media. However, drugs that are currently not administrable will become valuable if specific cell-targeted drug carriers can protect the normal cells from adverse effects and also improve drug pharmacokinetics. Aptamers are attractive and promising biomaterials developed with high affinity and specificity against numerous valuable targets. They could act similar to monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), and off…
Structure elucidation of new oleanane-type glycosides from three species of Acanthophyllum
From the roots of three species of Acanthophyllum (Caryophyllaceae), two new gypsogenic acid glycosides, 1 and 2, were isolated, 1 from A. sordidum and A. lilacinum, 2 from A. elatius and A. lilacinum, together with three known saponins, glandulosides B and C, and SAPO50. The structures of 1 and 2 were established mainly by 2D NMR techniques as 23-O-β-D-galactopyranosylgypsogenic acid-28-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(13)-[β-D-glucopyranosyl-(16)]-β-D-galactopyranoside (1) and gypsogenic acid-28-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(13)-[β-D-glucopyranosyl-(16)]-β-D-galactopyranoside (2). The cytotoxicity of several of these saponins was evaluated against two human colon cancer cell lines (HT-29 and HCT 116). Copyr…
Glandulosides A-D, triterpene saponins from Acanthophyllum glandulosum.
Four novel triterpenoid saponins, glandulosides A (1), B (2), C (3), and D (4), together with two known saponins (5 and 6) have been isolated from the roots of Acanthophyllum glandulosum. Their structures were elucidated using a combination of homo- and heteronuclear 2D NMR techniques (COSY, TOCSY, NOESY, HSQC, and HMBC) and by FABMS. The new compounds were characterized as 23-O-beta-D-galactopyranosylgypsogenic acid-28-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-->3)-[beta-d-galactopyranosyl-(1-->6)]-beta-D-galactopyranoside (1), 3-O-beta-D-galactopyranosyl-(1-->2)-[beta-D-xylopyranosyl-(1-->3)]-beta-D-glucuronopyranosylgypsogenin-28-O-beta-D-xylopyranosyl-(1-->3)-beta-D-xylopyranosyl-(1-->4)-alpha-l-rhamn…
New Triterpene Saponins fromAcanthophyllum pachystegium
Four new triterpenoid saponins, pachystegiosides A (1), B (2), C (3), and D (4), were isolated from the roots of Acanthophyllum pachystegium K. H. Their structures were elucidated by means of a combination of homo- and heteronuclear 2D-NMR techniques (COSY, TOCSY, NOESY, HSQC, and HMBC) and by FAB-MS. The new compounds were characterized as 3-O-{O-β-D-galactopyranosyl-(12)-O-[β-D-xylopyranosyl-(13)]-β-D-glucuronopyranosyl}quillaic acid 28-{O-β-D-xylopyranosyl-(13)-O-β-D-xylopyranosyl-(14)-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(12)-O-[3,4-di-O-acetyl-β-D-quinovopyranosyl-(14)]-β-D-fucopyranosyl}ester (1), 3-O-{O-β-D-galactopyranosyl-(12)-O-[β-D-xylopyranosyl-(13)]-β-D-glucuronopyranosyl}quillaic acid 28-{O-…
Nanomaterial-based cocaine aptasensors.
Up to now, many different methods have been developed for detection of cocaine, but most of these methods are usually time-consuming, tedious and require special or expensive equipment. Therefore, the development of simple, sensitive and rapid detection methods is necessary. In the last decade, aptamers have been used as a new biosensor platform for detection of cocaine in different samples. Aptamers are artificial single-stranded DNA or RNA oligonucleotides capable of binding to specific molecular targets with high affinity and if integrated to nanomaterials, it may lead in precise methods for cocaine detection in the common laboratories. In this review, recent advances and applications of…
Controlling Exciton Propagation in Organic Crystals through Strong Coupling to Plasmonic Nanoparticle Arrays.
Exciton transport in most organic materials is based on an incoherent hopping process between neighboring molecules. This process is very slow, setting a limit to the performance of organic optoelectronic devices. In this Article, we overcome the incoherent exciton transport by strongly coupling localized singlet excitations in a tetracene crystal to confined light modes in an array of plasmonic nanoparticles. We image the transport of the resulting exciton–polaritons in Fourier space at various distances from the excitation to directly probe their propagation length as a function of the exciton to photon fraction. Exciton–polaritons with an exciton fraction of 50% show a propagation length…