22,632 research outputs found
Lactoferrin's anti-cancer properties. Safety, selectivity, and wide range of action
Despite recent advances in cancer therapy, current treatments, including radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy, although beneficial, present attendant side effects and long-term sequelae, usually more or less affecting quality of life of the patients. Indeed, except for most of the immunotherapeutic agents, the complete lack of selectivity between normal and cancer cells for radio- and chemotherapy can make them potential antagonists of the host anti-cancer self-defense over time. Recently, the use of nutraceuticals as natural compounds corroborating anti-cancer standard therapy is emerging as a promising tool for their relative abundance, bioavailability, safety, low-cost effectiveness, and immuno-compatibility with the host. In this review, we outlined the anti-cancer properties of Lactoferrin (Lf), an iron-binding glycoprotein of the innate immune defense. Lf shows high bioavailability after oral administration, high selectivity toward cancer cells, and a wide range of molecular targets controlling tumor proliferation, survival, migration, invasion, and metastasization. Of note, Lf is able to promote or inhibit cell proliferation and migration depending on whether it acts upon normal or cancerous cells, respectively. Importantly, Lf administration is highly tolerated and does not present significant adverse effects. Moreover, Lf can prevent development or inhibit cancer growth by boosting adaptive immune response. Finally, Lf was recently found to be an ideal carrier for chemotherapeutics, even for the treatment of brain tumors due to its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, thus globally appearing as a promising tool for cancer prevention and treatment, especially in combination therapies
Kramers polarization in strongly correlated carbon nanotube quantum dots
Ferromagnetic contacts put in proximity with carbon nanotubes induce spin and
orbital polarizations. These polarizations affect dramatically the Kondo
correlations occurring in quantum dots formed in a carbon nanotube, inducing
effective fields in both spin and orbital sectors. As a consequence, the carbon
nanotube quantum dot spectral density shows a four-fold split SU(4) Kondo
resonance. Furthermore, the presence of spin-orbit interactions leads to the
occurrence of an additional polarization among time-reversal electronic states
(polarization in the time-reversal symmetry or Kramers sector). Here, we
estimate the magnitude for the Kramer polarization in realistic carbon nanotube
samples and find that its contribution is comparable to the spin and orbital
polarizations. The Kramers polarization generates a new type of effective field
that affects only the time-reversal electronic states. We report new splittings
of the Kondo resonance in the dot spectral density which can be understood only
if Kramers polarization is taken into account. Importantly, we predict that the
existence of Kramers polarization can be experimentally detected by performing
nonlinear differential conductance measurements. We also find that, due to the
high symmetry required to build SU(4) Kondo correlations, its restoration by
applying an external field is not possible in contrast to the compensated SU(2)
Kondo state observed in conventional quantum dots.Comment: 8 pages, 4figure
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