Redistribution of Tb and Eu ions in ZnO films grown on different substrates under thermal annealing and its impact on Tb-Eu energy transfer

International audienc

Interaction of physical fields with nanostructured materials

Research results of several important material systems presented in this collective monograph demonstrate a number of characteristic features and unique effects. The main findings are listed below. 1. The interaction between molecules and semiconductor structures allows a new amplification effect to be registered and studied by utilizing a new parameter – characteristic time constant, which is extremely sensitive for the characterization of biomolecular quantity. 2. The effects of the interaction of magnetic, optical and electromagnetic fields with nanostructured composites, semiconductor structures, anisotropic media, magnetic fluid systems, layered structures, phonons of molecular nanocomplexes and nanoinhomogeneities of rough surfaces were established. 3. The fundamental nature of the interaction effects was found as a result of a careful comparison of modeling results with experimental data. The importance of the studies is underlined by the wide range of potential applications. For the reader’s convenience, the presentation of the material is structured as follows. The general content includes only the names of sections. The full content of each section is listed in the text. For the same reason, the list of references is given at the end of each section. The authors present the material in such a way that the reader can easily view the current state of research in these areas and be able to navigate freely in the text. Section 1 presents a number of effects registered in semiconductor structures with dielectric coatings as surface potential sensors. In particular, the effects of internal amplification in semiconductor (bio)sensors using single trap phenomena are revealed. The noise characteristics of semiconductor nanoscale sensor structures, the effect of γ-radiation on the noise and transport characteristics of the sensors mentioned above were analyzed. It is demonstrated that effects related to single traps can be used for the detection of troponin biomolecules as indicators of [...

A Half-Century History of Applications of Antisense Oligonucleotides in Medicine, Agriculture and Forestry: We Should Continue the Journey

Antisense oligonucleotides (ASO), short single-stranded polymers based on DNA or RNA chemistries and synthesized in vitro, regulate gene expression by binding in a sequence-specific manner to an RNA target. The functional activity and selectivity in the action of ASOs largely depends on the combination of nitrogenous bases in a target sequence. This simple and natural property of nucleic acids provides an attractive route by which scientists can create different ASO-based techniques. Over the last 50 years, planned and realized applications in the field of antisense and nucleic acid nanotechnologies have produced astonishing results and posed new challenges for further developments, exemplifying the essence of the post-genomic era. Today the majority of ASOs are chemically modified and/or incorporated within nanoparticles to enhance their stability and cellular uptake. This review critically analyzes some successful cases using the antisense approach in medicine to address severe diseases, such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy and spinal muscular atrophy, and suggests some prospective directions for future research. We also examine in detail the elaboration of unmodified insect-specific DNA insecticides and RNA preparations in the areas of agriculture and forestry, a relatively new branch of ASO that allows circumvention of the use of non-selective chemical insecticides. When considering the variety of successful ASO modifications with an efficient signal-to-noise ratio of action, coupled with the affordability of in vitro oligonucleotide synthesis and post-synthesis procedures, we predict that the next half-century will produce a fruitful yield of tools created from effective ASO-based end products

RNA Therapeutics: How Far Have We Gone?

In recent years, the RNA molecule became one of the most promising targets for therapeutic intervention. Currently, a large number of RNA-based therapeutics are being investigated both at the basic research level and in late-stage clinical trials. Some of them are even already approved for treatment. RNA-based approaches can act at pre-mRNA level (by splicing modulation/correction using antisense oligonucleotides or U1snRNA vectors), at mRNA level (inhibiting gene expression by siRNAs and antisense oligonucleotides) or at DNA level (by editing mutated sequences through the use of CRISPR/Cas). Other RNA approaches include the delivery of in vitro transcribed (IVT) mRNA or the use of oligonucleotides aptamers. Here we review these approaches and their translation into clinics trying to give a brief overview also on the difficulties to its application as well as the research that is being done to overcome them.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio