Nanotechnology advances towards development of targeted-treatment for obesity

Obesity through its association with type 2 diabetes (T2D), cancer and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), poses a serious health threat, as these diseases contribute to high mortality rates. Pharmacotherapy alone or in combination with either lifestyle modifcation or surgery, is reliable in maintaining a healthy body weight, and preventing progression to obesity-induced diseases. However, the anti-obesity drugs are limited by non-specifcity and unsustainable weight loss efects. As such, novel and improved approaches for treatment of obesity are urgently needed. Nanotechnology-based therapies are investigated as an alternative strategy that can treat obesity and be able to overcome the drawbacks associated with conventional therapies. The review presents three nanotechnology-based anti-obesity strategies that target the white adipose tissues (WATs) and its vasculature for the reversal of obesity. These include inhibition of angiogenesis in the WATs, transformation of WATs to brown adipose tissues (BATs), and photothermal lipolysis of WATs. Compared to conventional therapy, the targeted-nanosystems have high tolerability, reduced side efects, and enhanced efcacy. These efects are reproducible using various nanocarriers (liposomes, polymeric and gold nanoparticles), thus providing a proof of concept that targeted nanotherapy can be a feasible strategy that can combat obesity and prevent its comorbiditie

Assessment of genotypic variation of fruit quality traits in apple breeding families by individual and sensory panel evaluation methods.

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PISA – an experiment for fragment spectroscopy at the Internal Beam of COSY: application of an Axial Ionization Chamber

The Proton-Induced SpAllation (PISA) experiment performed at the internal beam facility of the COSY storage ring in Julich, Germany, which is aimed at the precise measurement of double differential cross-sections over a broad range of energies and angles for spallation reactions induced by protons of 200-2500 MeV energy in various targets, is presented. In this paper the emphasis is put on the design, principles of operation and performance of a Bragg Curve Detector (BCD) optimized for internal beam experiments at storage rings. Very clean and distinct product identification (with Z up to similar to 14) from reactions, in which a Ni target was bombarded with a 1.9 GeV circulating proton beam, is obtained. The individual elements are resolved for emission energies higher than 0.5 MeV/nucleon. Moreover, due to the detector readout achieved by coupling a specially designed current sensitive preamplifier directly to a sampling ADC, the shape analysis of the signals from the BCD allows the isotope identification of light particles with A up to similar to 11. It is also found that the BCD can be used efficiently as a thin DeltaE detector for the telescope consisting of the BCD and a series of silicon detectors. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved