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Background: The incidence and mortality of hepatocellular cancer (HCC) complicating alcoholic and non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases (ALD and NAFLD) is rising in western societies. Despite knowing the at risk populations for HCC development, the lack of sensitive and specific means of surveillance hampers disease detection at curable stages. The most widely used serum HCC marker is alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), while PIVKA-II, glypican-3 (GP3) and Squamous Cell Carcinoma Antigen -1 (SCCA-1) have been proposed as new biomarkers. Assessment of these HCC biomarkers has largely been performed in patients with viral hepatitis. We conducted a cross sectional study assessing the value of these serum proteins, as well a novel candidate biomarkerfollistatin -in patients with HCC arising on a background of ALD or NAFLD.

This work develops a rationale for effective sensitization of trivalent lanthanide cation (Ln3+) luminescence in a semiconductor nanoparticle by examining the luminescence characteristics of Ln3+ dopants in titanium dioxide nanoparticles [Ti­(Ln)­O2] [Ln = praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), samarium (Sm), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), holmium (Ho), erbium (Er), thulium (Tm), or ytterbium (Yb)], as a representative model system. For excitation of the TiO2 host at 350 nm the intraconfigurational 4f–4f sharp luminescence bands are observed for the Nd, Sm, Eu, Ho, Er, Tm, and Yb incorporated (doped) nanoparticles, and no such luminescence is observed for the Pr, Gd, Tb, and Dy containing nanoparticles. While host sensitized luminescence of lanthanide ions dominate the emission in the Nd and Sm incorporated nanoparticles, the host sensitization effect is less pronounced for the Eu and Yb containing systems, and for the Ho, Er, and Tm doped nanocrystals only a subset of the dopant ions’ luminescence bands is sensitized. The experimental observations of the host sensitized Ln3+ luminescence properties in the [Ti­(Ln)­O2] nanoparticles can be rationalized by considering that the dopant ions act as charge traps in the host lattice and associated environment induced luminescence quenching effects. Using these results, an energy offset between the trap site and the nanoparticle’s band edge that will generate an optimal host sensitized dopant emission is proposed. The approach presented necessarily improves over a combinatorial approach to select the host and dopant moieties, with the benefit of providing physicochemical insight regarding the nature of photophysical processes in a given host (semiconductor nanoparticle)–guest (Ln3+) composite system.

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Garcinol (GAR) is a naturally occurring polyisoprenylated phenolic compound. It has been recently investigated for its biological activities such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti ulcer, and antiproliferative effect on a wide range of human cancer cell lines. Though the outcomes are very promising, its extreme insolubility in water remains the main obstacle for its clinical application. Herein we report the formulation of GAR entrapped PLGA nanoparticles by nanoprecipitation method using vitamin E TPGS as an emulsifier. The nanoparticles were characterized for size, surface morphology, surface charge, encapsulation efficiency and in vitro drug release kinetics. The MTT assay depicted a high amount of cytotoxicity of GAR-NPs in B16F10, HepG2 and KB cells. A considerable amount of cell apoptosis was observed in B16f10 and KB cell lines. In vivo cellular uptake of fluorescent NPs on B16F10 cells was also investigated. Finally the GAR loaded NPs were radiolabeled with technetium-99m with >95% labeling efficiency and administered to B16F10 melanoma tumor bearing mice to investigate the in vivo deposition at the tumor site by biodistribution and scintigraphic imaging study. In vitro cellular uptake studies and biological evaluation confirm the efficacy of the formulation for cancer treatment.

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Electronic applications of graphene synthesized from graphite electrode of waste dry cell battery.