Results from this study demonstrate enhanced uptake of 2-DG-labeled gold nanoparticle by cancer cells in vitro and warrant further experiments to study the exact molecular mechanism by which the AuNP-DG is internalized and retained in the tumor cells.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of using a 2-deoxy-d-glucose (2-DG) labeled gold nanoparticle (AuNP-2-DG) as a functionally targeted computed tomography (CT) contrast agent to obtain high-resolution metabolic and anatomic information of tumor in a single CT scan. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were fabricated and were conjugated with 1-DG or 2-DG. 1-DG provides an excellent comparison since it is known to interfere with the ability of the glucose transporter to recognize the sugar moiety. The human alveolar epithelial cancer cell line, A-549, was chosen for the in vitro cellular uptake assay. Three groups of cell samples were incubated with the 1-DG or 2-DG labeled AuNP and the unlabeled AuNP. Following the incubation, the cells were washed with sterile phosphate buffered saline to remove the excess AuNPs and spun using a centrifuge. The cell pellets were imaged using a microCT scanner immediately after the centrifugation. Internalization of AuNP-2-DG is verified using transmission electron microscopy imaging. Significant contrast enhancement in the cell samples incubated with the AuNP-2-DG with respect to the cell samples incubated with the unlabeled AuNP and the AuNP-1-DG was observed in multiple CT slices. Results from our in vitro experiments suggest that the AuNP-2-DG may be used as a functional CT contrast agent to provide high-resolution metabolic and anatomic information in a single CT scan. These results justify further in vitro and in vivo experiments to study the feasibility of using the AuNP-2-DG as a functional CT contrast agent in radiation therapy settings.
Data-intensive applications involving the analysis of large datasets often require large amounts of compute and storage resources, for which data locality can be crucial to high throughput and performance. We propose a "data diffusion" approach that acquires compute and storage resources dynamically, replicates data in response to demand, and schedules computations close to data. As demand increases, more resources are acquired, thus allowing faster response to subsequent requests that refer to the same data; when demand drops, resources are released. This approach can provide the benefits of dedicated hardware without the associated high costs, depending on workload and resource characteristics. To explore the feasibility of data diffusion, we offer both a theoretical and an empirical analysis. We define an abstract model for data diffusion, introduce new scheduling policies with heuristics to optimize real-world performance, and develop a competitive online cache eviction policy. We also offer many empirical experiments to explore the benefits of dynamically expanding and contracting resources based on load, to improve system responsiveness while keeping wasted resources small. We show performance improvements of one to two orders of magnitude across three diverse workloads when compared to the performance of parallel file systems with throughputs approaching 80 Gb/s on a modest cluster of 200 processors. We also compare data diffusion with a best model for active storage, contrasting the difference between a pull-model found in data diffusion and a push-model found in active storage.
Nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) is an increasing health care issue in the United States, significantly affecting quality of life and impacting health care costs. Radiotherapy has a long history in the treatment of NMSC. Shortly after the discovery of X-rays and 226Radium, physicians cured patients with NMSC using these new treatments. Both X-ray therapy and brachytherapy have evolved over the years, ultimately delivering higher cure rates and lower toxicity. Electronic brachytherapy for NMSC is based on the technical and clinical data obtained from radionuclide skin surface brachytherapy and the small skin surface applicators developed over the past 25 years. The purpose of this review is to introduce electronic brachytherapy in the context of the history, data, and utilization of traditional radiotherapy and brachytherapy.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.