BACKGROUND Thermotherapy has been known to be one of the most effective adjuvants to radiotherapy (RT) in cancer treatment, but it is not widely implemented clinically due to some limitations, such as, inadequate temperature concentrations to the tumor tissue, nonspecific and non-uniform distribution of heat. So we constructed arginine-glycine-aspartate peptides-conjugated gold nanorods (RGD-GN...

BACKGROUND In the field of biomedical engineering, many studies have focused on the possible applications of graphene and related nanomaterials due to their potential for use as scaffolds, coating materials and delivery carriers. On the other hand, electrospun nanofiber matrices composed of diverse biocompatible polymers have attracted tremendous attention for tissue engineering and regenerativ...

Currently, the most efficacious treatment for malignant gliomas is temozolomide; however, gliomas expressing the DNA repair enzyme O(6)-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) are resistant to this drug. Strong clinical evidence shows that gliomas with methylation and subsequent silencing of the MGMT promoter are sensitive to temozolomide. Based on the fact that adenoviral proteins directly ...

BACKGROUND We aimed to investigate structural abnormalities in first-episode remitted geriatric depression (RGD) with optimized voxel-based morphometry (VBM) in closely matched patients and healthy control subjects and examine the relationship of performances on neuropsychological tests with regional gray matter volumes. METHODS Nineteen subjects with first-episode RGD and 16 well-matched hea...

In biomedical applications, there is a need for tissue engineering scaffolds to promote and control cellular behaviors, including adhesion, proliferation and differentiation. In particular, the initial adhesion of cells has a great influence on those cellular behaviors. In this study, we concentrate on developing cell-adhesive substrates applicable for tissue engineering scaffolds. The hybrid n...

Angiogenesis plays a central role in tumor growth and metastasis. Quantification or evaluation of angiogenesis is crucial for antiangiogenic therapeutic strategies. Since integrin alpha(v)beta(3) overexpression appears specific of angiogenesis at the adult stage, it became a target of choice over the past decade, and labeled RGD-based compounds, therefore, constitute promising agents for noninv...

Coating of surfaces by RGD peptides is well-known. Herein we describe the possibility to switch cell adhesion properties by changing the distance and orientation of the RGD peptides to the surface. A set of RGD peptides of the type cyclo(-RGDfK-) was synthesized containing the photoswitchable 4-[(4-aminophenyl)azo]benzocarbonyl central unit as spacer between the acrylamide anchor and the RGD pe...

UNLABELLED Radiolabeled cyclic peptides containing the amino acid sequence arginine-glycine-aspartate (RGD peptides) have successfully been used to image the expression of the alpha(v)beta(3) integrin in malignant tumors. However, the alpha(v)beta(3) integrin also plays an important role in angiogenesis induced by chronic inflammatory processes. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate ...

BACKGROUND Nanotechnology-based near-infrared quantum dots (NIR QDs) have many excellent optical properties, such as high fluorescence intensity, good fluorescence stability, and strong tissue-penetrating ability. Integrin αvβ3 is highly and specifically expressed in tumor angiogenic vessel endothelial cells of almost all carcinomas. Recent studies have shown that NIR QDs linked to peptides con...