757 research outputs found
Synthesis, Radiosynthesis and in vitro Studies on Novel Hypoxia PET Tracers Incorporating [18F]FDR
Funding Information: M.M. thanks SULSA for a PhD studentship. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the EPSRC (grant EP/I034793/1).Peer reviewedPostprin
NGR Tumor-Homing Peptides : Structural Requirements for Effective APN (CD13) Targeting
Acknowledgements We thank The Development Trust, University of Aberdeen, for financial support and a fellowship to M.P.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Thermal fluctuations and vortex melting in the classical superconductor Nb3Sn from high-resolution specific-heat measurements
The range of critical thermal fluctuations in classical bulk superconductors
is extremely small and especially in low fields hardly experimentally
inaccessible. With a new type of calorimeter we have been able to resolve a
small lambda anomaly within a narrow temperature range around the Hc2 line. We
show that the evolution of the anomaly as a function of magnetic field follows
scaling laws expected in the presence of critical fluctuations. The lower onset
of the fluctuation regime shows many characteristics of a continuous
solid-to-liquid transition in the vortex matter. It can be driven into a
first-order vortex melting transition by a small AC field which helps the
vortex matter to reach equilibrium.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures new extended version, more figures added, more
detailed discussion about the vortex melting transitio
Phytochemical constituents, antioxidant activity, and toxicity assessment of the aerial part extracts from the infraspecific taxa of Matthiola fruticulosa (Brassicaceae) endemic to Sicily
In a project designed to investigate the specific and infraspecific taxa of Matthiola endemic to Sicily (Italy) as new potential sources of bioactive compounds in this work, the infraspecific taxa of Matthiola fruticulosa were studied, namely, subsp. fruticulosa and subsp. coronopifolia. HPLC-PDA/ESI-MS and SPME-GC/MS analyses of hydroalcoholic extracts obtained from the aerial parts of the two subspecies led to the detection of 51 phenolics and 61 volatile components, highlighting a quite different qualitative-quantitative profile. The antioxidant properties of the extracts were explored through in vitro methods: 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), reducing power and Fe2+ chelating activity assays. The results of the antioxidant tests showed that the extracts possess a different antioxidant ability: Particularly, the extract of M. fruticulosa subsp. fruticulosa exhibited higher radical scavenging activity than that of subsp. coronopifolia (IC50 = 1.25 ± 0.02 mg/mL and 2.86 ± 0.05 mg/mL), which in turn displayed better chelating properties (IC50 = 1.49 ± 0.01 mg/mL and 0.63 ± 0.01 mg/mL). Lastly, Artemia salina lethality bioassay was performed for toxicity assessment. The results of the bioassay showed lack of toxicity against brine shrimp larvae for both extracts. The data presented indicate the infraspecific taxa of M. fruticulosa as new and safe sources of antioxidant compounds
Investigation of dust grains by optical tweezers for space applications
Cosmic dust plays a dominant role in the universe, especially in the
formation of stars and planetary systems. Furthermore, the surface of cosmic
dust grains is the bench-work where molecular hydrogen and simple organic
compounds are formed. We manipulate individual dust particles in water solution
by contactless and non-invasive techniques such as standard and Raman tweezers,
to characterize their response to mechanical effects of light (optical forces
and torques) and to determine their mineral compositions. Moreover, we show
accurate optical force calculations in the T-matrix formalism highlighting the
key role of composition and complex morphology in optical trapping of cosmic
dust particles.This opens perspectives for future applications of optical
tweezers in curation facilities for sample return missions or in
extraterrestrial environments
Highly connected 3D chromatin networks established by an oncogenic fusion protein shape tumor cell identity.
Cell fate transitions observed in embryonic development involve changes in three-dimensional genomic organization that provide proper lineage specification. Whether similar events occur within tumor cells and contribute to cancer evolution remains largely unexplored. We modeled this process in the pediatric cancer Ewing sarcoma and investigated high-resolution looping and large-scale nuclear conformation changes associated with the oncogenic fusion protein EWS-FLI1. We show that chromatin interactions in tumor cells are dominated by highly connected looping hubs centered on EWS-FLI1 binding sites, which directly control the activity of linked enhancers and promoters to establish oncogenic expression programs. Conversely, EWS-FLI1 depletion led to the disassembly of these looping networks and a widespread nuclear reorganization through the establishment of new looping patterns and large-scale compartment configuration matching those observed in mesenchymal stem cells, a candidate Ewing sarcoma progenitor. Our data demonstrate that major architectural features of nuclear organization in cancer cells can depend on single oncogenes and are readily reversed to reestablish latent differentiation programs
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