Search results for "Nanoparticle"
showing 10 items of 2198 documents
Zinc oxide nanoparticles for therapeutic purposes in cancer medicine.
2020
The importance of zinc as a trace metal in the human body has long been overlooked. We now gradually discover that the impact of zinc on the health of our body might be as far-reaching as that of iron. Concurrently, nanomaterials containing zinc, in particular zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs), are becoming increasingly attractive as innovative agents for medical applications. Zinc oxide is characterized by a good biocompatibility which allows the exploitation of its antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and anti-cancer qualities in a therapeutic setting. This perspective outlines the current state of knowledge concerning the interaction of zinc oxide nanoparticles with eukaryotic cells an…
Plant extracts as green reductants for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles: lessons from chemical synthesis.
2018
The increasing use of silver (Ag) nanoparticles (NPs) in daily-life applications, electronics, or catalysis calls for green and cost-efficient synthetic methods. Ag NPs are used especially in biomedicine because of their antibacterial, antifungal, or anticancer properties. Chemical synthesis allows tuning the particle morphology, size, and crystallinity, but requires toxic and hazardous chemicals. Bioinspired synthetic protocols have shown promise to minimize environmental impact, but biological protocols for the synthesis of Ag NPs lack control on the morphology and crystallinity. This review briefly compiles the chemical synthesis of Ag NPs and contrasts it with "green" protocols based on…
Ag+ Complexes as Potential Therapeutic Agents in Medicine and Pharmacy
2019
Silver is a non-essential element with promising antimicrobial and anticancer properties. This work is a detailed summary of the newest findings on the bioinorganic chemistry of silver, with a special focus on the applications of Ag+ complexes and nanoparticles. The coordination chemistry of silver is given a reasonable amount of attention, summarizing the most common silver binding sites and giving examples of such binding motifs in biologically important proteins. Possible applications of this metal and its complexes in medicine, particularly as antibacterial and antifungal agents and in cancer therapy, are discussed in detail. The most recent data on silver nanoparticles are also summari…
Increase in stability and change in supramolecular structure of β-carotene through encapsulation into polylactic acid nanoparticles
2011
International audience; β-Carotene (BC) exhibits controversial antioxidant properties as it may act also as a prooxidant. Its stability toward oxidation depends on its dispersion form and can be increased through encapsulation. In this study, oxidation of BC from synthetic and natural origins was investigated after dispersion in Tween micelles or poly lactic acid (PLA) particles. Two oxidation systems were used: autooxidation and oxidation by xanthine oxidase-generated-reactive oxygen species. Results showed that synthetic BC formed nanometric negatively-charged particles in both Tween micelle and PLA systems, whereas the natural BC sample used was shown to be already pre-oxidised, forming …
Alteration of the Mitochondrial Effects of Ceria Nanoparticles by Gold: An Approach for the Mitochondrial Modulation of Cells Based on Nanomedicine
2020
Ceria nanoparticles are cell compatible antioxidants whose activity can be enhanced by gold deposition and by surface functionalization with positive triphenylphosphonium units to selectively target the mitochondria. The antioxidant properties of these nanoparticles can serve as the basis of a new strategy for the treatment of several disorders exhibiting oxidative stress, such as cancer, diabetes or Alzheimer&rsquo
Uptake mechanism of ApoE-modified nanoparticles on brain capillary endothelial cells as a blood-brain barrier model.
2012
Background The blood-brain barrier (BBB) represents an insurmountable obstacle for most drugs thus obstructing an effective treatment of many brain diseases. One solution for overcoming this barrier is a transport by binding of these drugs to surface-modified nanoparticles. Especially apolipoprotein E (ApoE) appears to play a major role in the nanoparticle-mediated drug transport across the BBB. However, at present the underlying mechanism is incompletely understood. Methodology/Principal Findings In this study, the uptake of the ApoE-modified nanoparticles into the brain capillary endothelial cells was investigated to differentiate between active and passive uptake mechanism by flow cytome…
Temperature‐Responsive Nanoparticles Enable Specific Binding of Apolipoproteins from Human Plasma
2021
Apolipoproteins are an important class of proteins because they provide a so-called stealth effect to nanoparticles. The stealth effect on nanocarriers leads to a reduced unspecific uptake into immune cells and thereby to a prolonged blood circulation time. Herein, a novel strategy to bind apolipoproteins specifically on nanoparticles by adjusting the temperature during their incubation in human plasma is presented. This specific binding, in turn, allows a control of the stealth behavior of the nanoparticles. Nanoparticles with a well-defined poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) shell are prepared, displaying a reversible change of hydrophobicity at a temperature around 32 °C. It is shown by label-f…
Concurrent removal of Cr(III), Cu(II), and Pb(II) ions from water by multifunctional TiO2/Alg/FeNPs beads
2019
Abstract The use of multifunctional materials for water remediation is a modern approach where adsorption phenomena and heterogeneous photocatalysis can be applied for the removal of pollutants. Since the ideal remediation system should be able to remove both organic and inorganic pollutants, a crucial aspect to consider is the knowledge of operational parameters affecting the removal process, especially when heavy metal ions are present in concoction as in real systems. Given the proven efficiency of multifunctional TiO2/Alg/FeNPs magnetic beads for the removal of model organic pollutants, this study investigated the possibility to exploit such system also for the removal of mixed heavy me…
Symbiosis between photoactive nanoparticles and their organic ligands.
2013
Photoactive spherical metal and semiconductor nanoparticles (NPs) are smart systems that exhibit unique properties, such as a high surface-to-volume ratio, a broad absorption spectrum and size-dependent properties. They are capped with a considerable number of ligands required to give rise to stable organic and aqueous NP colloidal solutions. In addition, the ligands can also be used to introduce functionality at the NP periphery. In this case, the NP could act as a 3D-scaffold, which would make a high local concentration of a functional moiety at the NP periphery possible, moreover, the photophysical properties of the NP could be tuned. The combined action of the organic capping and the in…
Influence of temperature on the synthesis of thiol-stabilized CdTe nanoparticles in aqueous solutions
2010
We have investigated the evolution of thiol-capped cadmium telluride nanocrystals prepared in aqueous solutions at low and room temperature followed by heating at 50–100 °C. The UV–visible absorption spectra, as well as transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and dynamic light scattering observations made it possible to reveal differences in size and structure originating from different heating temperatures. It was shown that minimization of the nucleation process temperature provided formation of larger nanoparticles than at higher temperatures.