Phase change materials for life science applications

Phase change materials (PCMs) are a class of thermo-responsive materials that can be utilized to trigger a phase transition which gives them thermal energy storage capacity. Any material with a high heat of fusion is referred to as a PCM that is able to provide cutting-edge thermal storage. PCMs are commercially used in many applications like textile industry, coating, and cold storage typically for heat control. These intriguing substances have recently been rediscovered and employed in a broad range of life science applications, including biological, human body, biomedical, pharmaceutical, food, and agricultural applications. Benefiting from the changes in physicochemical properties during the phase transition makes PCMs also functional for barcoding, detection, and storage. Paraffin wax and polyethylene glycol are the most commonly studied PCMs due to their low toxicity, biocompatibility, high thermal stability, high latent enthalpy, relatively wide transition temperature range, and ease of chemical modification. Current challenges in employing PCMs for life science applications include biosafety and/or engineering difficulties. The focus of this review article is on the life science applications, evaluation, and safety aspects of PCMs. Herein, the advances and the potential of employing PCMs as a versatile platform for various types of life science applications are highlighted.Peer reviewe

Intelligent hydrogels and their biomedical applications

Intelligent biomaterials can modify their properties in response to physical, chemical, and biological stimuli. These smart characteristics drive the innovation of biomaterials in therapy and diagnostics for detecting diseases and providing treatment at early stages. Mainly, hydrogels have gained significant interest in developing smart materials due to their excellent biocompatibility and ability to interact with body fluids that host condition-specific stimuli. Temperature, pressure, pH, light, ROS, cell metabolites, and other physicochemical factors specific to specific disease conditions were studied as major stimuli for designing intelligent biomaterials. The stimuli-responsive characteristic mainly depends on the sensitivity of the biomaterial to the stimuli factor and the tunable macromolecular structure of the materials. The method of biomaterial fabrication is critical in determining the physical and chemical properties of the biomaterial. Surface functionalisation, material blending, and crosslinking are commonly used to synthesise intelligent hydrogels to change the macromolecular structure. The impact and mechanism of these fabrication methods on the macromolecular structure and stimuli responsiveness of intelligent materials remain unidentified. This review focuses on strategies for transforming conventional hydrogels into intelligent hydrogels, their concerning mechanisms of stimuli-responsiveness and their biomedical applications.Peer reviewe

Effects of Administration of Perinatal Bupropion on the Population Spike Amplitude in Neonatal Rat Hippocampal Slice

Objective(s)Bupropion is an atypical antidepressant that is widely used in smoke cessation under FDA approval. The study of synaptic effects of bupropion can help to finding out its mechanism(s) for stopping nicotine dependence. In this study the effects of perinatal bupropion on the population spike (PS) amplitude of neonates were investigated. Materials and Methods Hippocampal slices were prepared from 18-25 days old rat pups. The experimental groups included control and bupropion-treated. Bupropion (40 mg/Kg, i.p.) was applied daily in perinatal period as pre-treatment. Due to the studying acute effects, bupropion was also added to the perfusion medium (10, 50, 200 μM for 30 min). The evoked PS was recorded from pyramidal layer of CA1 area, following stimulation of Schaffer collaterals. ResultsA concentration of 10 μM bupropion had no significant effects on the PS amplitude. The 50 μM concentration of bupropion reduced the amplitude of responses in 50% of the studied cases. At a concentration of 200 μM, the recorded PS amplitudes were reduced in all slices (n= 22). Amplitude was completely abolished in 8 out of the 22 slices. The decrease of the PS amplitude was found to be more in the non-pre-treated slices than in the pre-treated slices when both were perfused with 200 μM bupropion.Conclusion The results showed the perinatal exposure to bupropion and its acute effects while indicating that at concentrations of 50 and 200 μM bupropion reduced the PS amplitude. It was also found that there was evidence of synaptic adaptation in comparison of bupropion-treated and non-treated slices whereas they were both perfused with 200 µM

The Mediating Role of Perceived Social Support in the Relationship between Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies and Corona Disease Anxiety

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between cognitive emotion regulation strategies and Corona disease anxiety mediated by social support. The research design was descriptive - correlational and the statistical population included all students studying at Shiraz University in the academic year 1399-1400, of which 293 were selected by convenience sampling. They responded to Alipour et al.'s Corona Disease Anxiety Scale, Zimet et al.'s Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale and the short form of Garnefski and Kraaij 's Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. The results showed that there was a significant negative correlation between adaptive strategies of cognitive emotion regulation with corona disease anxiety and a significant positive correlation between maladaptive strategies of cognitive emotion regulation and corona disease anxiety. Also, cognitive emotion regulation strategies had a significant relationship with corona anxiety both directly and indirectly through social support. The goodness-of-fit indices also indicated the good fit of the proposed model. These results, in addition to explaining the role of cognitive emotion regulation strategies in the occurrence of anxiety, emphasize the importance of paying attention to these strategies, especially strengthening adaptive strategies along with providing social support

Correction: Zare et al. Encapsulation of miRNA and siRNA into Nanomaterials for Cancer Therapeutics. Pharmaceutics 2022, 14, 1620

In the original publication [...

Correction: Zare et al. Encapsulation of miRNA and siRNA into Nanomaterials for Cancer Therapeutics. Pharmaceutics 2022, 14, 1620

In the original publication [...

Encapsulation of miRNA and siRNA into Nanomaterials for Cancer Therapeutics

Peer reviewe

Evaluation Design of Banks: Development and Validation of a Comprehensive Assessment Tool Based on Principles

Background: Universal Design (UD) means designing the products and environments everyone can use as far as possible without requiring specialized compatibility or design. The present study aimed to design and develop a comprehensive and valid checklist to evaluate the design of banks based on UD principles and implement it in Iranian banks.Methods: Based on the seven UD principles and using a mixed methods sequential exploratory design, an initial checklist with 61 items was developed. Then, its psychometric properties were evaluated based on face and content validity and inter-rater agreement. The final checklist was prepared based on the results of this stage and used in the next stage to evaluate the design of 17 banks.Results: The final checklist consisted of 10 areas (as per the seven UD principles). The Content Validity Ratio (CVR) and Content Validity Index (CVI) were calculated as 0.91 and 0.93, respectively. Based on areas of the checklist, all the evaluated banks showed many problems, the most significant of which were related to the areas of equal use by different groups, flexibility in use, and the size and space of access and use.Conclusion: The present study’s findings led to the design of a comprehensive and standard checklist to evaluate the design of banks in terms of UD principles. The results indicated that the UD principles were not observed in most studied banks, and they need to implement targeted design interventions

ZSCAN10 deficiency causes a neurodevelopmental disorder with characteristic oto-facial malformations

Neurodevelopmental disorders are major indications for genetic referral and have been linked to more than 1500 loci including genes encoding transcriptional regulators. The dysfunction of transcription factors often results in characteristic syndromic presentations; however, at least half of these patients lack a genetic diagnosis. The implementation of machine learning approaches has the potential to aid in the identification of new disease genes and delineate associated phenotypes. Next generation sequencing was performed in seven affected individuals with neurodevelopmental delay and dysmorphic features. Clinical characterization included reanalysis of available neuroimaging datasets and 2D portrait image analysis with GestaltMatcher. The functional consequences of ZSCAN10 loss were modelled in mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs), including a knockout and a representative ZSCAN10 protein truncating variant. These models were characterized by gene expression and western blot analyses, chromatin immunoprecipitation and quantitative PCR (ChIP-qPCR) and immunofluorescence staining. Zscan10 knockout mouse embryos were generated and phenotyped. We prioritized bi-allelic ZSCAN10 loss-of-function variants in seven affected individuals from five unrelated families as the underlying molecular cause. RNA-sequencing analyses in Zscan10−/− mESCs indicated dysregulation of genes related to stem cell pluripotency. In addition, we established in mESCs the loss-of-function mechanism for a representative human ZSCAN10 protein truncating variant by showing alteration of its expression levels and subcellular localization, interfering with its binding to DNA enhancer targets. Deep phenotyping revealed global developmental delay, facial asymmetry and malformations of the outer ear as consistent clinical features. Cerebral MRI showed dysplasia of the semicircular canals as an anatomical correlate of sensorineural hearing loss. Facial asymmetry was confirmed as a clinical feature by GestaltMatcher and was recapitulated in the Zscan10 mouse model along with inner and outer ear malformations. Our findings provide evidence of a novel syndromic neurodevelopmental disorder caused by bi-allelic loss-of-function variants in ZSCAN10