Tumor transfection after systemic injection of DNA lipid nanocapsules

With the goal of generating an efficient vector for systemic gene delivery, a new kind of nanocarrier consisting of lipid nanocapsules encapsulating DOTAP/DOPE lipoplexes (DNA LNCs) was pegylated by the post-insertion of amphiphilic and flexible polymers. The aim of this surface modification was to create a long-circulating vector, able to circulate in the blood stream and efficient in transfecting tumoral cells after passive targeting by enhanced permeability and retention effect (EPR effect). PEG conformation, electrostatic features, and hydrophylicity are known to be important factors able to influence the pharmacokinetic behaviour of vectors. In this context, the surface structure characteristics of the newly pegylated DNA LNCs were studied by measuring electrophoretic mobility as a function of ionic strength in order to establish a correlation between surface properties and in vivo performance of the vector. Finally, thanks to this PEGylation, gene expression was measured up to 84-fold higher in tumor compared to other tested organs after intravenous injection. The present results indicate that PEGylated DNA LNCs are promising carriers for an efficient cancer gene therapy

Análisis de los Másteres universitarios españoles relacionados con las ciencias del deporte

La finalidad del presente estudio es aportar una visión global del estado de los Másteres españoles relacionados con las ciencias del deporte, conseguir conocerlos en profundidad, para poder establecer marcadores de calidad, que permita obtener de forma rápida y sencilla una valoración general de cada uno de ellos. Los objetivos del presente estudio son: a) analizar la Estructura Académica de los Másteres oficiales universitarios españoles relacionados con las ciencias del deporte; b) analizar las Características del profesorado que imparte su docencia; y c) analizar el Tipo de Evaluación de las asignaturas que lo componen. Para ello, se estudiaron cuarenta y cuatro Másteres localizados en la Agencia Nacional de Evaluación de la Calidad y Acreditación (ANECA), a través de sus páginas webs oficiales. En cuestiones relacionadas con el profesorado, se utilizó también la base de datos de Tesis Doctorales (TESEO). Los resultados que arroja el estudio señalan que: a) la totalidad de los másteres estudiados son de temática general y gestión, de un año de duración, presenciales, con horario mayoritario de tarde, o mañana/tarde, se desarrollan a lo largo de la semana, y el criterio principal de acceso es el expediente académico; b) la mayoría de los másteres universitarios analizados, no presentan objetivos, ni competencias, ni definen salidas profesionales, ni ofrecen prácticas externas; c) su precio medio es de 5151€, con 34 plazas ofertadas, y ajustados al EESS en cuanto a sus créditos; d) El número de tesis medio por profesor es de dos, con mayoría de hombres en los equipos docentes; y e) en cuanto a las características de las asignaturas, no suelen ser reflejadas en sus guías docentes. Como conclusión se puede señalar que es necesario ajustar estos aspectos para ofrecer un servicio de mayor calidad

Conventional versus stealth lipid nanocapsules : in vivo fate prediction through FRET monitoring

National audienc

Extended Fermi coordinates

We extend the notion of Fermi coordinates to a generalized definition in which the highest orders are described by arbitrary functions. From this definition rises a formalism that naturally gives coordinate transformation formulae. Some examples are developped in which the extended Fermi coordinates simplify the metric components.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figur

Self-assembled biotransesterified cyclodextrins as potential Artemisinin nanocarriers. II: In vitro behavior toward the immune system and in vivo biodistribution assessment of unloaded nanoparticles.

In a previous study, we reported on the formulation of Artemisinin-loaded surface-decorated nanoparticles (nanospheres and nanoreservoirs) by co-nanoprecipitation of PEG derivatives (PEG1500 and PEG4000-stearate, polysorbate 80) and biosynthesized γ-CD fatty esters. In the present study, the co-nanoprecipitation was extended to the use of a PEGylated phospholipid, namely DMPE-PEG2000. As our goal was to prepare long-circulating nanocarriers for further systemic delivery of Artemisinin (ART), here, we have investigated, on the one hand, the in vitro behavior of these surface-modified γ-CD-C10 particles toward the immune system (complement activation and macrophage uptake assays) and, on the other hand, their biodistribution features in mice. These experiments showed that the in vitro plasma protein adsorption and phagocytosis by macrophage cells triggered by γ-CD-C10 nanoparticles were significantly reduced when their surface was decorated with amphiphilic PEGylated molecules, in particular PEG1500-stearate, DMPE-mPEG2000 or polysorbate 80. The prolonged blood circulation time assessed by fluorescence imaging was demonstrated for unloaded γ-CD-C10-based nanospheres and nanoreservoir particles containing DMPE-PEG2000 and polysorbate80, respectively. These nanoparticles also proved to be non-hemolytic at the concentration range used in vivo. Within the limits of the conducted experiments, the co-nanoprecipitation technique may be considered as an alternative for surface modification of amphiphilic CD-based drug delivery systems and may be applied to the systemic delivery of ART

Physics demos for all UVEG degrees: a unique project in Spain

The Physics Demo Project at the University of Valencia (www.uv.es/fisicademos) has developed a collection of physics demonstrations to be used during lectures. It consists of more than 130 experimental demos about different physics topics. More than 30 professors borrow them whenever they lecture on physics in any of our 40 courses in 17 different science or technical degrees, involving 246 ECTS and more than 3500 students. Each demo kit with a simple experimental set displays a particular physics phenomenon. An on-line user guide highlights the main physics principles involved, instructions on how to use it and advices of how to link it to the theoretical concepts or to technical applications. Demo lectures (and collections) are a usual and widespread practice in many countries but not in Spain. This unique initiative aims at the recovery of this practice by involving a growing collaborative team of users and with the aid of educational innovation projects. Here we explain the project content, organization and recent developments. Our experience, together with the positive students comments, allows us to draw the following conclusions: demos introduce the real sensible world in the lecture hall, providing the necessary link between concepts and everyday life, and becoming, again, something more than "chalk and talk"

Стратегічне планування як основний інструмент ефективності підприємства

Наук. кер.: А.Ю. Жулавськи

Deriving the mass of particles from Extended Theories of Gravity in LHC era

We derive a geometrical approach to produce the mass of particles that could be suitably tested at LHC. Starting from a 5D unification scheme, we show that all the known interactions could be suitably deduced as an induced symmetry breaking of the non-unitary GL(4)-group of diffeomorphisms. The deformations inducing such a breaking act as vector bosons that, depending on the gravitational mass states, can assume the role of interaction bosons like gluons, electroweak bosons or photon. The further gravitational degrees of freedom, emerging from the reduction mechanism in 4D, eliminate the hierarchy problem since generate a cut-off comparable with electroweak one at TeV scales. In this "economic" scheme, gravity should induce the other interactions in a non-perturbative way.Comment: 30 pages, 1 figur

An MRI-based classification scheme to predict passive access of 5 to 50-nm large nanoparticles to tumors

Nanoparticles are useful tools in oncology because of their capacity to passively accumulate in tumors in particular via the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect. However, the importance and reliability of this effect remains controversial and quite often unpredictable. In this preclinical study, we used optical imaging to detect the accumulation of three types of fluorescent nanoparticles in eight different subcutaneous and orthotopic tumor models, and dynamic contrast-enhanced and vessel size index Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to measure the functional parameters of these tumors. The results demonstrate that the permeability and blood volume fraction determined by MRI are useful parameters for predicting the capacity of a tumor to accumulate nanoparticles. Translated to a clinical situation, this strategy could help anticipate the EPR effect of a particular tumor and thus its accessibility to nanomedicines

Ecological indicators to capture the effects of fishing on biodiversityand conservation status of marine ecosystems

IndiSeas (“Indicators for the Seas”) is a collaborative international working group that was established in2005 to evaluate the status of exploited marine ecosystems using a suite of indicators in a comparative framework. An initial shortlist of seven ecological indicators was selected to quantify the effects of fishing on the broader ecosystem using several criteria (i.e., ecological meaning, sensitivity to fishing, data avail-ability, management objectives and public awareness). The suite comprised: (i) the inverse coefficient of variation of total biomass of surveyed species, (ii) mean fish length in the surveyed community, (iii)mean maximum life span of surveyed fish species, (iv) proportion of predatory fish in the surveyed community, (v) proportion of under and moderately exploited stocks, (vi) total biomass of surveyed species,and (vii) mean trophic level of the landed catch. In line with the Nagoya Strategic Plan of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2011–2020), we extended this suite to emphasize the broader biodiversity and conservation risks in exploited marine ecosystems. We selected a subset of indicators from a list of empirically based candidate biodiversity indicators initially established based on ecological significance to complement the original IndiSeas indicators. The additional selected indicators were: (viii) mean intrinsic vulnerability index of the fish landed catch, (ix) proportion of non-declining exploited species in the surveyed community, (x) catch-based marine trophic index, and (xi) mean trophic level of the surveyed community. Despite the lack of data in some ecosystems, we also selected (xii) mean trophic level of the modelled community, and (xiii) proportion of discards in the fishery as extra indicators. These additional indicators were examined, along with the initial set of IndiSeas ecological indicators, to evaluate whether adding new biodiversity indicators provided useful additional information to refine our under-standing of the status evaluation of 29 exploited marine ecosystems. We used state and trend analyses,and we performed correlation, redundancy and multivariate tests. Existing developments in ecosystem-based fisheries management have largely focused on exploited species. Our study, using mostly fisheries independent survey-based indicators, highlights that biodiversity and conservation-based indicators are complementary to ecological indicators of fishing pressure. Thus, they should be used to provide additional information to evaluate the overall impact of fishing on exploited marine ecosystems