Nanoparticle Mediated Heating for Non-invasive Thermal Therapies A

PhDNanomaterials have unique physics and chemistry properties compared with their bulk counterparts and have been widely studied in different fields ranging from energy to biomedicines. This thesis investigates controlled synthesis of gold nanomaterials, the heating and interactions of gold nanomaterials with external electromagnetic and ultrasonic fields, and their potential applications in non-invasive heat-related biomedicines. Gold nanomaterials have been synthesised by the citrate reduction method with the aid of ultrasonification. Through ultrasonification, the size of obtained spherical GNPs can be controlled between 10nm and 15nm, and the prepared nanoplates can be controlled between 50 nm to 150 nm. Purification process has been performed through membrane dialysis, in order to obtain pure nanoparticles for investigating the heating behavior of nanoparticle dispersions under EM/ultrasound field and elucidating the impurity effect. Moreover, the purified gold nanoparticles have been characterized by various means, such as FTIR, atomic absorption spectrometer, zetasizer, SEM, TEM and UV-Vis absorption for the purpose of fully understand the properties of gold nanoparticle in terms of purity, concentration, size, morphology and optical properties. The bulk heating effects of low-concentration GNPs have been investigated by using ultrasonic field, electromagnetic (EM) field, and laser irradiation. The results have shown that significant bulk temperature increase can be achieved for the lowconcentration gold nanoparticle dispersions under ultrasonic field, the EM field at 200 kHz and 400 kHz, and laser irradiation. Comparatively, the purified GNPs did not show significant heating effect under the EM fields of 13.56 MHz and 2.45 GHz. 6 Different mechanisms are thereby discussed to explain the heating effects. While some can be explained by established theories, such as the ultrasonic and laser heating, it is still unclear about the heating effect under low frequency EM field. A few possible reasons could be attributed to the changes of the dielectric properties and the electrophoresis effect. In addition, GNP incorporated microcapsules have been fabricated through the layer-bylayer technology, and laser treatments of the microcapsules embedded with different shapes of gold particles have been studied. The results have shown that matching between the laser wavelength and the absorption band of gold nanoparticles, which can be shifted by controlling the morphology of nanoparticles, is a prerequisite to achieve the maximum heating effect to deform the microcapsules and hence to present the microcapsules for biomedical uses. In vitro (B50 cell) and in vivo (fruit fly) studies of the biocompatibilities of our synthesised GNPs have been exanimated. The results demonstrated that the GNPs have high biocompatibility for B50 cells and fruit flies. GNPs assisted laser treatment of B50 cells has shown faster thermal damage to the cells in contrast to the cells without addition of GNPs. Keywords: nanomaterial, gold nanoparticle, capsules, hyperthermia, ablation, electromagnetic, ultraosound, surface Plasmon resonance, biocompatibility

Enhancement of polar phases in PVDF by forming PVDF/SiC nanowire composite

Different contents of silicon carbide (SiC) nanowires were mixed with Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) to facilitate the polar phase crystallization. It was shown that the annealing temperature and SiC content affected on the phase and crystalline structures of PVDF/SiC samples. Furthermore, the addition of SiC nanowire enhanced the transformation of non-polar α phase to polar phases and increased the relative fraction of β phase in PVDF. Due to the nucleating agent mechanism of SiC nanowires, the ion-dipole interaction between the negatively charged surface of SiC nanowires and the positive CH2 groups in PVDF facilitated the formation of polar phases in PVDF

Electromagnetic heating effect of aggregated gold nanoparticle colloids

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have been recently investigated intensively for potential hyperthermia treatment of malignant cancer cells in combination with radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic (EM) fields/waves. However, many controversial results have been reported on whether GNPs can be heated by EM fields. It has been suggested that aggregated GNPs may be heated significantly by a RF field, which however has not been examined experimentally. This work proposes a novel electric treatment of mono-dispersed particles to create aggregated GNPs, and conducts an investigation of their bulk heating behavior under a 655 nm laser and a 13.56 MHz RF electric field. It is revealed that the heating rates of aggregated colloids are significantly higher than those of mono-dispersed GNPs for the 655 nm laser, whereas at 13.56 MHz, the heating effects are barely noticeable for both aggregated and mono-dispersed colloids. Various possible reasons are discussed and the negligible electric field enhancement is believed to be responsible at 13.56 MHz

Association of ORAI1 Haplotypes with the Risk of HLA-B27 Positive Ankylosing Spondylitis

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic inflammation of the sacroiliac joints, spine and peripheral joints. The aetiology of ankylosing spondylitis is still unclear. Previous studies have indicated that genetics factors such as human leukocyte antigen HLA-B27 associates to AS susceptibility. We carried out a case-control study to determine whether the genetic polymorphisms of ORAI1 gene, a major component of store-operated calcium channels that involved the regulation of immune system, is a susceptibility factor to AS in a Taiwanese population. We enrolled 361 AS patients fulfilled the modified New York criteria and 379 controls from community. Five tagging single nucleotides polymorphisms (tSNPs) at ORAI1 were selected from the data of Han Chinese population in HapMap project. Clinical statuses of AS were assessed by the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI), Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index (BASFI), and Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Global Index (BAS-G). Our results indicated that subjects carrying the minor allele homozygote (CC) of the promoter SNP rs12313273 or TT homozygote of the SNP rs7135617 had an increased risk of HLA-B27 positive AS. The minor allele C of 3′UTR SNP rs712853 exerted a protective effect to HLA-B27 positive AS. Furthermore, the rs12313273/rs7135617 pairwise allele analysis found that C-G (OR 1.69, 95% CI 1.27, 2.25; p = 0.0003) and T-T (OR 1.75, 95% CI 1.36, 2.27; p<0.0001) haplotypes had a significantly association with the risk of HLA-B27-positive AS in comparison with the T-G carriers. This is the first study that indicate haplotypes of ORAI1 (rs12313273 and rs7135617) are associated with the risk of HLA-B27 positive AS

Ultrasonic-aided fabrication of gold nanofluids

A novel ultrasonic-aided one-step method for the fabrication of gold nanofluids is proposed in this study. Both spherical- and plate-shaped gold nanoparticles (GNPs) in the size range of 10-300 nm are synthesized. Subsequent purification produces well-controlled nanofluids with known solid and liquid contents. The morphology and properties of the nanoparticle and nanofluids are characterized by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscope, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, and dynamic light scattering, as well as effective thermal conductivities. The ultrasonication technique is found to be a very powerful tool in engineering the size and shape of GNPs. Subsequent property measurement shows that both particle size and particle shape play significant roles in determining the effective thermal conductivity. A large increase in effective thermal conductivity can be achieved (approximately 65%) for gold nanofluids using plate-shaped particles under low particle concentrations (i.e.764 μM/L)

Neurotrophic Effect of Citrus 5-Hydroxy-3,6,7,8,3′,4′-Hexamethoxyflavone: Promotion of Neurite Outgrowth via cAMP/PKA/CREB Pathway in PC12 Cells

5-Hydroxy-3,6,7,8,3′,4′-hexamethoxyflavone (5-OH-HxMF), a hydroxylated polymethoxyflavone, is found exclusively in the Citrus genus, particularly in the peels of sweet orange. In this research, we report the first investigation of the neurotrophic effects and mechanism of 5-OH-HxMF in PC12 pheochromocytoma cells. We found that 5-OH-HxMF can effectively induce PC12 neurite outgrowth accompanied with the expression of neuronal differentiation marker protein growth-associated protein-43(GAP-43). 5-OH-HxMF caused the enhancement of cyclic AMP response element binding protein (CREB) phosphorylation, c-fos gene expression and CRE-mediated transcription, which was inhibited by 2-naphthol AS-E phosphate (KG-501), a specific antagonist for the CREB-CBP complex formation. Moreover, 5-OH-HxMF-induced both CRE transcription activity and neurite outgrowth were inhibited by adenylate cyclase and protein kinase A (PKA) inhibitor, but not MEK1/2, protein kinase C (PKC), phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) or calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (CaMK) inhibitor. Consistently, 5-OH-HxMF treatment increased the intracellular cAMP level and downstream component, PKA activity. We also found that addition of K252a, a TrKA antagonist, significantly inhibited NGF- but not 5-OH-HxMF-induced neurite outgrowth. These results reveal for the first time that 5-OH-HxMF is an effective neurotrophic agent and its effect is mainly through a cAMP/PKA-dependent, but TrKA-independent, signaling pathway coupling with CRE-mediated gene transcription. A PKC-dependent and CREB-independent pathway was also involved in its neurotrophic action

Ultrasonic-aided fabrication of gold nanofluids

<p>Abstract</p> <p>A novel ultrasonic-aided one-step method for the fabrication of gold nanofluids is proposed in this study. Both spherical- and plate-shaped gold nanoparticles (GNPs) in the size range of 10-300 nm are synthesized. Subsequent purification produces well-controlled nanofluids with known solid and liquid contents. The morphology and properties of the nanoparticle and nanofluids are characterized by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscope, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, and dynamic light scattering, as well as effective thermal conductivities. The ultrasonication technique is found to be a very powerful tool in engineering the size and shape of GNPs. Subsequent property measurement shows that both particle size and particle shape play significant roles in determining the effective thermal conductivity. A large increase in effective thermal conductivity can be achieved (approximately 65%) for gold nanofluids using plate-shaped particles under low particle concentrations (i.e.764 &#956;M/L).</p