Temporal and spatial molecular imaging of disease biomarkers using non-invasive MRI with high resolution is largely limited by lack of MRI contrast agents with high sensitivity, high specificity, optimized biodistribution and pharmacokinetics. In this dissertation, I report my Ph. D. work on the development of protein-based MRI contrast agents (ProCAs) specifically targeting different cancer bi...

MgO is an important inorganic material, which can be used in many aspects, such as catalyst, toxic-waste remediation agent, adsorbent, and others. In order to make use of MgO, nano-MgO was prepared by ultrasonic method using Mg (CH3COO)2.2H2O as precursor, NaOH aqueous solution as precipitant in this paper. Effect factors on MgO nano-particle size were investigated. Characteristics of samples w...

zinc oxide nano-particles with the average diameter of about 25 nm were modified with different mole ratios of trimetoxyvinyl silane (tmvs) and oleic acid, as coupling agents, in order to modify their surface properties and render them more hydrophobic. then, dispersibility of the surface modified nano-particles was examined in some monomers with different levels of hydrophobicity, including me...

The prototype taxane antineoplastic agent paclitaxel, was first isolated from the bark of the Western yew tree in 1971. It and its congener, the semisynthetic derivative docetaxel, display unique pharmacodynamics as mitotic spindle poisons, differing from the vinca alkaloids and colchicine derivatives in that they bind to a distinct site on β-tubulin and promote rather than inhibit microtubule ...

BACKGROUND Curcumin (diferuloylmethane) shows significant activity across a wide spectrum of conditions, but its usefulness is rather limited because of its low bioavailability. Use of nanoparticle formulations to enhance curcumin bioavailability is an emerging area of research. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS In the present study, curcumin-loaded apotransferrin nanoparticles (nano-curcumin) p...

BACKGROUND Drug delivery in polymeric micelles combined with tumor irradiation by ultrasound results in effective drug targeting, but this technique requires prior tumor imaging. A technology that combined ultrasound imaging with ultrasound-mediated nanoparticle-based targeted chemotherapy could therefore have important applications in cancer treatment. METHODS Mixtures of drug-loaded polymer...

The emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants made the COVID-19 infection pandemic and/or endemic more severe and life-threatening due to ease transmission, rapid infection, high mortality, capacity neutralize therapeutic ability developed vaccines. These consequences raise questions on established management strategies based nano-assisted approaches, including diagnostics, therapeutics, efficient t...

INTRODUCTION MR cellular imaging using iron-oxide-based contrast agents is an attractive technique in cell tracking and monitoring cell therapies. However, one major obstacle of the widespread application of this technique in clinics is the low sensitivity inherently associated with MRI. Therefore, there are a lot of efforts aimed at enhancing the susceptibility effect induced by the iron-oxide...

A novel interfacial structure consisting of long (up to 5 μm), thin (about 300 nm), highly-ordered, free-standing, highly-reproducible aluminum oxide nanobottles and long tubular nanocapsules attached to a rigid, thin (less than 1 μm) nanoporous anodic alumina membrane is fabricated by simple, fast, catalyst-free, environmentally friendly voltage-pulse anodization. A growth mechanism is propose...

background :inversion recovery (ir) pulse sequences can generate t1-weighted images with a different range of inversion time (ti) to suppress or null the signal intensity (si) for a specified tissue. in this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of ti values on the concentration of the contrast agent, which leads to a minimum signal intensity, using an inversion recovery t1-weighted 3-dimen...