Innovative Nanotechnological Formulations to Reach the Hepatic Stellate Cell

Purpose of Review: Treatment of liver fibrosis benefits from hepatic stellate cell (HSC)-specific delivery. Since the description of first carrier to HSC, many developments have taken place in this area. The purpose is to give an overview of the different carriers and homing moieties that are available for HSC targeting and illustrate the opportunities and hurdles they provide.Recent Findings: There is a growing number of homing devices to deliver drugs to HSC, and options to deliver siRNA to HSC have emerged. Other developments include controlling corona formation, development of linker technology, and design of theranostic approaches. We are on the eve of reaching the clinic with innovative HSC-specific compounds.Summary: An overview of different core molecules is presented together with an overview of targeting strategies toward different receptors on HSC, providing a versatile toolbox. Many therapeutics, ranging from small chemical entities and proteins to RNA- or DNA-modulating substances, have already been incorporated in these constructs in the recent years

Dimension reduction for elastoplastic rods and homogenization of elastoplastic lattices

We derive effective equations for periodic lattices of linearly elastoplastic rods in the limit of both infinitesimal periodicity and infinitesimal relative width of the rods. For this derivation we use the method of evolutionary Γ-convergence for quadratic rate-independent systems. As a first step towards this goal we derive effective equations for a single rod. After introducing appropriate scalings, the main difficulty lies in the proof of Γ-convergence for the stored energy. For the study of periodic lattices we then introduce the notion of periodic graph frameworks, discuss infinitesimal rigidity properties of such frameworks and define a notion of two-scale convergence. The stored energy of a lattice of rods ist just the sum of the energies of the individual rods, coupled by boundary conditions at the nodes. For this energy we again prove Γ-convergence. In the presence of volume loads we observe qualitatively different behaviour depending on the relative rate of convergence of the periodicity parameter and the thickness parameter

Glomerular adenine nucleotidases:a study into the anti-thrombotic and anti-inflammatory activity of the rat kidney

In de nier vindt de filtratie van het bloed plaats. Afvalstoffen worden van het bloed gescheiden en via een netwerk van buisjes uiteindelijk in de urine afgevoerd. Filtratie gebeurt door het bloed te verdelen over een fijnmazig vaatstelsel en het langs een filter te laten stromen. Het bloedvat kluwentje waar de filtratie plaatsvindt heet een glomerulus en het filter noemt men een basaal membraan. Deze basaal membraan vormt samen met verschillende cellen de filtratie barriere. In deze filtratie barxiere is enige jaren geleden een hoge ADP en ATP afbrekende activiteit aangetroffen. ATP, dat in de cel uit ADP gemaakt wordt, is de stof die in cellen de energie levert om de cel in leven te houden (zoals benzine in een auto energie levert), en het was dus verbazingwekkend dat buiten de cel dit ATP en ADP zomaar werd afgebroken (alsof je oliebronnen in brand steekt). Wij waren dus bijzonder nieuwsgierig naar de functie van de eiwitten die het ATP en ADP afbreken, het z.g. ATPase en ADPase

A data driven framework for evolutionary problems in solid mechanics

Data driven schemes introduced a new perspective in elasticity: While certain physical principles are regarded as invariable, material models for the relation between strain and stress are replaced by data clouds of admissible pairs of these variables. A data driven approach is of particular interest for plasticity problems, since the material modelling is even more unclear in this field. Unfortunately, so far, data driven approaches to evolutionary problems are much less understood. We try to contribute in this area and propose an evolutionary data driven scheme. We presenta first analysis of the scheme regarding existence and data convergence. Encouraging numerical tests are also included

A data-driven framework for evolutionary problems in solid mechanics

Data-driven schemes introduced a new perspective in elasticity: While certain physical principles are regarded as invariable, material models for the relation between strain and stress are replaced by data clouds of admissible pairs of these variables. A data-driven approach is of particular interest for plasticity problems, since the material modeling is even more unclear in this field. Unfortunately, so far, data-driven approaches to evolutionary problems are much less understood. We try to contribute in this area and propose an evolutionary data-driven scheme. We present a first analysis of the scheme regarding existence and data convergence. Encouraging numerical tests are also included

Targeting tumor stromal cells through a PDGF-beta receptor binding carrier

Tumor stromal cells significantly contribute to tumor growth and abundantly express platelet-derived growth factor-beta receptor (PDGF-βR). In this study, we targeted stromal as well as tumor cells using our PDGF-βR binding carrier (pPB-HSA). pPB-HSA showed PDGF-βR-specific binding in-vitro and, in-vivo it rapidly accumulated in C26 tumors in mice after i.v. injection. We conjugated doxorubicin to pPB-HSA and, the conjugate showed antitumor effects in-vitro in tumor and stromal cells and in-vivo in C26-tumor bearing mice