2,110 research outputs found
Lipid-coated zinc oxide nanocrystals as innovative ROS-generators for photodynamic therapy
Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) is a medical treatment that combines the administration of a nontoxic drug, called photosensitizer (PS), with light irradiation of the targeted region. It has been proposed as a new cancer therapy, promising better selectivity and fewer side-effects compared to traditional chemo- and radio-therapies. PSs indeed can accumulate specifically within the region of interest so that when the light is directly focused only in that region the therapeutic effect is highly localized.
Traditional PSs, like chlorins and porphyrins, suffer from several drawbacks such as aggregation in biological media and poor biocompatibility. Thus, the development of innovative photosensitizers able to overcome these issues is crucial to the therapeutic action of PDT. Among the others, nanostructured Zinc Oxide (ZnO) has been recently proposed as new therapeutic agent and PS thanks to its semiconducting properties, biocompatible features, and ease of functionalization [1]. Nevertheless, further efforts are needed in order to improve its colloidal stability in biological media and to unravel the effective therapeutic mechanism.
Here, we propose the synthesis and characterization of lipid-coated ZnO nanoparticles as new photosensitizer for cancer PDT [2]. First, by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) experiments, we show that the lipid-coating increases the colloidal stability of the ZnO NPs in Phosphate buffered saline (PBS). Then, using Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) coupled with the spin-trapping technique, we demonstrate and characterize the ability of bare and lipid-coated ZnO NPs to generate Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) in water only when remotely actuated via light irradiation. Interestingly, our results aware that the surface chemistry of the NPs greatly influence the type of photo-generated ROS. Finally, we show that our NPs are effectively internalized inside human epithelial carcinoma cells (HeLa) via a lysosomal pathway and that they are able to generate ROS inside cancer cells.
[1] B. Dumontel, M. Canta, H. Engelke, A. Chiodoni, L. Racca, A. Ancona, T. Limongi, G. Canavese and V. Cauda, âJ. Mater. Chem. B. under revision.
[2] A. Ancona, H. Engelke, N. Garino, B. Dumontel, W.Fazzini and V. Cauda, to be submitted.
The support from ERC Starting Grant â Project N. 678151 âTrojananohorseâ is gratefully acknowledged
Failure Processes in Elastic Fiber Bundles
The fiber bundle model describes a collection of elastic fibers under load.
the fibers fail successively and for each failure, the load distribution among
the surviving fibers change. Even though very simple, the model captures the
essentials of failure processes in a large number of materials and settings. We
present here a review of fiber bundle model with different load redistribution
mechanism from the point of view of statistics and statistical physics rather
than materials science, with a focus on concepts such as criticality,
universality and fluctuations. We discuss the fiber bundle model as a tool for
understanding phenomena such as creep, and fatigue, how it is used to describe
the behavior of fiber reinforced composites as well as modelling e.g. network
failure, traffic jams and earthquake dynamics.Comment: This article has been Editorially approved for publication in Reviews
of Modern Physic
On the alpha activity of natural tungsten isotopes
The indication for the alpha decay of 180-W with a half-life
T1/2=1.1+0.8-0.4(stat)+-0.3(syst)x10^18 yr has been observed for the first time
with the help of the super-low background 116-CdWO_4 crystal scintillators. In
conservative approach the lower limit on half-life of 180-W has been
established as T1/2>0.7x10^18 yr at 90% C.L. Besides, new T1/2 bounds were set
for alpha decay of 182-W, 183-W, 184-W and 186-W at the level of 10^20 yr.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, accepted in Phys. Rev.
Investigating particle acceleration dynamics in interpenetrating magnetized collisionless super-critical shocks
Colliding collisionless shocks appear in a great variety of astrophysical
phenomena and are thought to be possible sources of particle acceleration in
the Universe. We have previously investigated particle acceleration induced by
single super-critical shocks (whose magnetosonic Mach number is higher than the
critical value of 2.7) (Yao et al. 2021, 2022), as well as the collision of two
sub-critical shocks (Fazzini et al. 2022). Here, we propose to make
measurements of accelerated particles from interpenetrating super-critical
shocks to observe the ''phase-locking effect'' (Fazzini et al. 2022) from such
an event. This effect is predicted to significantly boost the energy spectrum
of the energized ions compared to a single supercritical collisionless shock.
We thus anticipate that the results obtained in the proposed experiment could
have a significant impact on our understanding of one type of primary source
(acceleration of thermal ions as opposed to secondary acceleration mechanisms
of already energetic ions) of ion energization of particles in the Universe
Assessment of digital image correlation measurement errors: methodology and results
Optical full-field measurement methods such as Digital Image Correlation (DIC) are increasingly used in the field of experimental mechanics, but they still suffer from a lack of information about their metrological performances. To assess the performance of DIC techniques and give some practical rules for users, a collaborative work has been carried out by the Workgroup âMetrologyâ of the French CNRS research network 2519 âMCIMS (Mesures de Champs et Identification en MĂ©canique des Solides / Full-field measurement and identification in solid mechanics, http://www.ifma.fr/lami/gdr2519)â. A methodology is proposed to assess the metrological performances of the image processing algorithms that constitute their main component, the knowledge of which being required for a global assessment of the whole measurement system. The study is based on displacement error assessment from synthetic speckle images. Series of synthetic reference and deformed images with random patterns have been generated, assuming a sinusoidal displacement field with various frequencies and amplitudes. Displacements are evaluated by several DIC packages based on various formulations and used in the French community. Evaluated displacements are compared with the exact imposed values and errors are statistically analyzed. Results show general trends rather independent of the implementations but strongly correlated with the assumptions of the underlying algorithms. Various error regimes are identified, for which the dependence of the uncertainty with the parameters of the algorithms, such as subset size, gray level interpolation or shape functions, is discussed
Laboratory evidence for proton energization by collisionless shock surfing
Charged particles can be accelerated to high energies by collisionless shock waves in astrophysical environments, such as supernova remnants. By interacting with the magnetized ambient medium, these shocks can transfer energy to particles. Despite increasing efforts in the characterization of these shocks from satellite measurements at Earthâs bow shock as well as powerful numerical simulations, the underlying acceleration mechanism or a combination thereof is still widely debated. Here we show that astrophysically relevant super-critical quasi-perpendicular magnetized collisionless shocks can be produced and characterized in the laboratory. We observe the characteristics of super-criticality in the shock profile as well as the energization of protons picked up from the ambient gas to hundreds of kiloelectronvolts. Kinetic simulations modelling the laboratory experiment identified shock surfing as the proton acceleration mechanism. Our observations not only provide direct evidence of early-stage ion energization by collisionless shocks but also highlight the role played by this particular mechanism in energizing ambient ions to feed further stages of acceleration. Furthermore, our results open the door to future laboratory experiments investigating the possible transition to other mechanisms, when increasing the magnetic field strength, or the effect that induced shock front ripples could have on acceleration processes
Detailed characterization of a laboratory magnetized supercritical collisionless shock and of the associated proton energization
Collisionless shocks are ubiquitous in the Universe and are held responsible for the production of nonthermal particles and high-energy radiation. In the absence of particle collisions in the system, theory shows that the interaction of an expanding plasma with a pre-existing electromagnetic structure (as in our case) is able to induce energy dissipation and allow shock formation. Shock formation can alternatively take place when two plasmas interact, through microscopic instabilities inducing electromagnetic fields that are able in turn to mediate energy dissipation and shock formation. Using our platform in which we couple a rapidly expanding plasma induced by high-power lasers (JLF/Titan at LLNL and LULI2000) with high-strength magnetic fields, we have investigated the generation of a magnetized collisionless shock and the associated particle energization. We have characterized the shock as being collisionless and supercritical. We report here on measurements of the plasma density and temperature, the electromagnetic field structures, and the particle energization in the experiments, under various conditions of ambient plasma and magnetic field. We have also modeled the formation of the shocks using macroscopic hydrodynamic simulations and the associated particle acceleration using kinetic particle-in-cell simulations. As a companion paper to Yao et al. [Nat. Phys. 17, 1177-1182 (2021)], here we show additional results of the experiments and simulations, providing more information to allow their reproduction and to demonstrate the robustness of our interpretation of the proton energization mechanism as being shock surfing acceleration
Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans secretome containing a newly described lipoprotein Licanantase enhances chalcopyrite bioleaching rate
The nature of the mineralâbacteria interphase where electron and mass transfer processes occur is a key element of the bioleaching processes of sulfide minerals. This interphase is composed of proteins, metabolites, and other compounds embedded in extracellular polymeric substances mainly consisting of sugars and lipids (Gehrke et al., Appl Environ Microbiol 64(7):2743â2747, 1998). On this respect, despite Acidithiobacilliâa ubiquitous bacterial genera in bioleaching processes (Rawlings, Microb Cell Fact 4(1):13, 2005)âhas long been recognized as secreting bacteria (Jones and Starkey, J Bacteriol 82:788â789, 1961; Schaeffer and Umbreit, J Bacteriol 85:492â493, 1963), few studies have been carried out in order to clarify the nature and the role of the secreted protein component: the secretome. This work characterizes for the first time the sulfur (meta)secretome of Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans strain DSM 17318 in pure and mixed cultures with Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans DSM 16786, identifying the major component of these secreted fractions as a single lipoprotein named here as Licanantase. Bioleaching assays with the addition of Licanantase-enriched concentrated secretome fractions show that this newly found lipoprotein as an active protein additive exerts an increasing effect on chalcopyrite bioleaching rate
Observation of an Excited Bc+ State
Using pp collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 8.5 fb-1 recorded by the LHCb experiment at center-of-mass energies of s=7, 8, and 13 TeV, the observation of an excited Bc+ state in the Bc+Ï+Ï- invariant-mass spectrum is reported. The observed peak has a mass of 6841.2±0.6(stat)±0.1(syst)±0.8(Bc+) MeV/c2, where the last uncertainty is due to the limited knowledge of the Bc+ mass. It is consistent with expectations of the Bcâ(2S31)+ state reconstructed without the low-energy photon from the Bcâ(1S31)+âBc+Îł decay following Bcâ(2S31)+âBcâ(1S31)+Ï+Ï-. A second state is seen with a global (local) statistical significance of 2.2Ï (3.2Ï) and a mass of 6872.1±1.3(stat)±0.1(syst)±0.8(Bc+) MeV/c2, and is consistent with the Bc(2S10)+ state. These mass measurements are the most precise to date
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