DRUG DELIVERY STUDY OF SINGLE-WALL CARBON NANOTUBES COVALENT FUNCTIONALIZED WITH CISPLATIN

Carbon nanotubes are widely studied components for drug delivery systems due to their high surface area and low chemical reactivity. The research presented in this paper deals with the synthesis of drug delivery systems based on single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and the well-known cancer treatment drug Cisplatin. The new nanomaterials obtained through covalent bonding between carboxyl groups from the SWCNTs surface and amino groups from the Cisplatin structure were characterized from structural point of view. To evaluate the content of drug released the Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) was employed. The releasing profile shows a slow rate in the beginning followed by a spectacular increase after 180 minutes which means that this type of system could be used for prolonged release

A Unified Functional Network Target for Deep Brain Stimulation in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

BACKGROUND: Multiple deep brain stimulation (DBS) targets have been proposed for treating intractable obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Here, we investigated whether stimulation effects of different target sites would be mediated by one common or several segregated functional brain networks. METHODS: First, seeding from active electrodes of 4 OCD patient cohorts (N = 50) receiving DBS to anterior limb of the internal capsule or subthalamic nucleus zones, optimal functional connectivity profiles for maximal Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale improvements were calculated and cross-validated in leave-one-cohort-out and leave-one-patient-out designs. Second, we derived optimal target-specific connectivity patterns to determine brain regions mutually predictive of clinical outcome for both targets and others predictive for either target alone. Functional connectivity was defined using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data acquired in 1000 healthy participants. RESULTS: While optimal functional connectivity profiles showed both commonalities and differences between target sites, robust cross-predictions of clinical improvements across OCD cohorts and targets suggested a shared network. Connectivity to the anterior cingulate cortex, insula, and precuneus, among other regions, was predictive regardless of stimulation target. Regions with maximal connectivity to these commonly predictive areas included the insula, superior frontal gyrus, anterior cingulate cortex, and anterior thalamus, as well as the original stereotactic targets. CONCLUSIONS: Pinpointing the network modulated by DBS for OCD from different target sites identified a set of brain regions to which DBS electrodes associated with optimal outcomes were functionally connected-regardless of target choice. On these grounds, we establish potential brain areas that could prospectively inform additional or alternative neuromodulation targets for obsessive-compulsive disorder

HIGH-DENSITY GREEN PHOTONS EFFECTS ON NaCl SOLUTIONS DETECTED BY RED BLOOD CELLS MEMBRANES

This paper presents a new technique for investigating the modifications induced by highdensity green light [GL] on water in NaCl solutions. Solutions of 0,45 g% and 0,9 g%, irradiated with green light (λ=527 nm, intensity 3·10 5 Lx) were used. As a receptor for measuring the irradiation effect we used red blood cell (RBC) permeability in hypotonic media, the so-called osmotic shock. After RBC lysis in hypotonic medium, the released hemoglobin was spectrophotometrically determined at λ=550 nm. The values of the osmotic shock for the samples obtained with GL-irradiated NaCl solutions were significantly lower than the values obtained with non-irradiated controls. This may indicate that the penetration of water inside the membranes canaliculi is hindered. This new type of result was complemented by chronoamperometry and impedance spectroscopy determinations. The current density of the irradiated solution decreases from the value of 29.5 µA·cm -2 in the control to 17.74 µA·cm -2 in the irradiated sample with a corresponding decrease of ionic mobility. The impedance value of the GL irradiated NaCl solutions were significantly lower than the control values, thus correlating well with the data recorded by chronoamperometry. All these data may indicate large water cluster formation through GL irradiation which are beyond the cellular aquaporine channels capacity. A similar process is identified by using red light, as well as blue light, though with a much smaller output

What we learn about bipolar disorder from large-scale neuroimaging: Findings and future directions from theENIGMABipolar Disorder Working Group

MRI‐derived brain measures offer a link between genes, the environment and behavior and have been widely studied in bipolar disorder (BD). However, many neuroimaging studies of BD have been underpowered, leading to varied results and uncertainty regarding effects. The Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta‐Analysis (ENIGMA) Bipolar Disorder Working Group was formed in 2012 to empower discoveries, generate consensus findings and inform future hypothesis‐driven studies of BD. Through this effort, over 150 researchers from 20 countries and 55 institutions pool data and resources to produce the largest neuroimaging studies of BD ever conducted. The ENIGMA Bipolar Disorder Working Group applies standardized processing and analysis techniques to empower large‐scale meta‐ and mega‐analyses of multimodal brain MRI and improve the replicability of studies relating brain variation to clinical and genetic data. Initial BD Working Group studies reveal widespread patterns of lower cortical thickness, subcortical volume and disrupted white matter integrity associated with BD. Findings also include mapping brain alterations of common medications like lithium, symptom patterns and clinical risk profiles and have provided further insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms of BD. Here we discuss key findings from the BD working group, its ongoing projects and future directions for large‐scale, collaborative studies of mental illness

Widespread white matter microstructural abnormalities in bipolar disorder: evidence from mega- and meta-analyses across 3033 individuals

Fronto-limbic white matter (WM) abnormalities are assumed to lie at the heart of the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder (BD); however, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies have reported heterogeneous results and it is not clear how the clinical heterogeneity is related to the observed differences. This study aimed to identify WM abnormalities that differentiate patients with BD from healthy controls (HC) in the largest DTI dataset of patients with BD to date, collected via the ENIGMA network. We gathered individual tensor-derived regional metrics from 26 cohorts leading to a sample size of N = 3033 (1482 BD and 1551 HC). Mean fractional anisotropy (FA) from 43 regions of interest (ROI) and average whole-brain FA were entered into univariate mega- and meta-analyses to differentiate patients with BD from HC. Mega-analysis revealed significantly lower FA in patients with BD compared with HC in 29 regions, with the highest effect sizes observed within the corpus callosum (R2 = 0.041, Pcorr < 0.001) and cingulum (right: R2 = 0.041, left: R2 = 0.040, Pcorr < 0.001). Lithium medication, later onset and short disease duration were related to higher FA along multiple ROIs. Results of the meta-analysis showed similar effects. We demonstrated widespread WM abnormalities in BD and highlighted that altered WM connectivity within the corpus callosum and the cingulum are strongly associated with BD. These brain abnormalities could represent a biomarker for use in the diagnosis of BD. Interactive three-dimensional visualization of the results is available at www.enigma-viewer.org

Photoluminescence of Ho3+ :YVO4 crystals

Emission spectra of Ho3+-doped YVO4 crystals are studied in the visible and infrared spectral regions. Be3+ sides the emission bands at 544 nm and at about 1950 and 2017 nm due to Ho, we observed a broad emission band at 6 10 nm at low temperatures like 15 K in the highly doped crystals with the Ho3+ concentrations of more than 0.5 mol %. The excitation band for this broad emission is located at 390 nm which is near the edge of band gap of the crystal. It is suggested that the 610 nm band is attributed to defects related to oxygen vacancies around V4+ ions. (c) 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim