Wastewater Treatment Using Imprinted Polymeric Adsorbents

In twenty-first century, numbers of synthetic dyes are used in many industries, for example paper, textile, cosmetic, leather for coloring, vs. The dyeing industries wastes is the most found contaminant to be recognized in wastewater. There are various treatment methods including oxidation processes, biological degradation, membrane filtration and coagulation/flocculation have been studied to treat dyeing wastewater. Unfortunately, these methods are high operational costs, complicated operations and possibility of producing more toxic products. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are interesting and alternative polymeric adsorbents that can be applied in wastewater treatment for sample preparation and for the quantification of dyes present in wastewater. Molecular imprinting is a process in which functional and crosslinking monomers are co-polymerized in the presence of the target analyte, the imprint molecule. Initially, the functional monomer forms a complex and, after polymerization, their functional groups are held by the highly crosslinking polymeric structure. Upon leaching of the imprint molecule from the polymer matrix, a polymer with binding sites complementary in size and shape to the imprint molecule is created. MIPs can function under extreme conditions of pH, temperature and complex environment. Also, MIPs present wide recognition due to their stability, ease of production and low-cost potential

Therapeutic Effects of AICAR and DOX Conjugated Multifunctional Nanoparticles in Sensitization and Elimination of Cancer Cells via Survivin Targeting

WOS: 000391431900015PubMed ID: 27783307Resistance to chemotherapy is one of the major problems facing current cancer research. Enhancing tumor cell response to anticancer agents increases chemotherapeutic effectiveness. We have recently addressed this issue and reported on producing multifunctional nanoparticles (Fe3O4@SiO2(FITC)-FA/AICAR/DOX) aiming to overcome chemoresistance with synergetic effect of AICAR and DOX. In the present study, we demonstrated that these nanoparticles not only show enhanced cellular uptake and cytotoxic effect but can also show enhanced pro-apoptotic and anti-proliferative effects in five different tumor-derived cell lines (A549, HCT-116, HeLa, Jurkat and MIA PaCa-2). The nanoparticles were examined by using flow cytometric analyses of apoptosis and cell cycle. In addition, we performed caspase-3 activity assay, which supported our flow cytometric data. Furthermore, we demonstrated the applicability of this approach in a variety of cancer types confirming the potential widespread utility of this approach. With the concept of co-delivery of AICAR and DOX in the nanoparticle formulation, the use of AICAR against survivin (BIRC5) sensitized cancer cells to DOX chemotherapy which resulted in effective cancer cell elimination. These result showed that combination therapy involving both a molecularly targeted therapy and chemotherapeutic agent has the ability to retain and enhance therapeutic efficacy. Fe3O4@SiO2(FITC)-FA/AICAR/DOX nanoparticles is superior to monotherapy via the synergetic effect of AICAR and DOX and also the nanoparticle formulation could overcome issues of toxicity with targeted therapy while maintaining the potent anticancer effects of AICAR and DOX

Synthesis and characterization of AICAR and DOX conjugated multifunctional nanoparticles as a platform for synergistic inhibition of cancer cell growth

The success of cancer treatment depends on the response to chemotherapeutic agents. However, malignancies often acquire resistance to drugs if they are used frequently. Combination therapy involving both a chemotherapeutic agent and molecularly targeted therapy may have the ability to retain and enhance therapeutic efficacy. Here, we addressed this issue by examining the efficacy of a novel therapeutic strategy that combines AICAR and DOX within a multifunctional platform. In this context, we reported the bottom-up synthesis of Fe3O4@SiO2(FITC)-FA/AICAR/DOX multifunctional nanoparticles aiming to neutralize survivin (BIRC5) to potentiate the efficacy of DOX against chemoresistance. The structure of nanoparticles was characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS), zeta-potential measurement, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and electron microscopy (SEM and STEM with EDX) techniques. Cellular uptake and cytotoxicity experiments demonstrated preferentially targeted delivery of nanoparticles and an efficient reduction of cancer cell viability in five different tumor-derived cell lines (A549, HCT-116, HeLa, Jurkat, and MIA PaCa-2). These results indicate that the multifunctional nanoparticle system possesses high inhibitory drug association and sustained cytotoxic effect with good biocompatibility. This novel approach which combines AICAR and DOX within a single platform might be promising as an antitumor treatment for cancer

Reverse-Transcriptase Polimerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) and Its Applications

RT-PCR is the most powerful tool to detect and quantity of mRNA. This assay is more sensitive, rapid and easier than other RNA related techniques. Competitive and Real-time PCR can quantities mRNA which is isolated from blood, serum, cell lines and bacterial culture. The studies that takes place at Human Genome Project, RACE will assist in important information. [Archives Medical Review Journal 2003; 12(2.000): 138-148