We have developed a novel, light activated drug delivery containers, based on spiropyran doped liquid crystal micro spheres. Upon exposure to UV/violet light, the spiropyran molecules entrapped inside the nematic liquid crystal micro spheres, interconvert from the hydrophobic, oil soluble form, to the hydrophilic, water soluble merocyanine one, which stimulates the translocation of the merocyanine molecules across the nematic liquid crystal-water barrier and results their homogeneous distribution throughout in an aqueous environment. Light controllable switching property and extremely high solubility of spiropyran in the nematic liquid crystal, promise to elaborate a novel and reliable vehicles for the drug delivery systems.
We
have prepared the liquid crystal blue phase (BP) microdroplets
emulsified in the glycerol environment and investigated their electro-optical
properties upon the applied electric field. We showed that the lasing
from the supercooled luminescent dye-doped BPI microdroplets can be
controlled electrically. When the electric field intensity is increased,
the lasing intensity is increased too along with the linewidth that
decreases from 6 to 2.5 nm. Besides, the laser lines were shifted
toward the shorter wavelength by 11 nm. All effects were achieved
via electric field-stimulated structural and symmetrical modification
of BPI microdroplets, resulting in their optical anisotropy and birefringence.
Luminescent dye-doped liquid crystal blue phase-based microdroplets
can find applications as electrically controlled microlaser sources
for microphotonics and environmental sensing.
We have experimentally demonstrated that the emission of visible light from the polymer matrix doped with luminescent dye and gold nanoparticles (GNPs) can be enhanced with the use of surface plasmon coupling. GNPs can enhance the luminescence intensity of nearby luminescent dye because of the interactions between the dipole moments of the dye and the surface plasmon field of the GNPs. The electric charge on the GNPs and the distance between GNPs and luminescent dye molecules have a significant effect on the luminescence intensity, and this enhancement depends strongly upon the excitation wavelength of the pumping laser source. In particular, by matching the plasmon frequency of GNPs to the frequency of the laser light source we have observed a strong luminescence enhancement of the nanocomposite consisting of GNPs coupled with luminescent dye Nile blue 690 perchlorate. This ability of controlling luminescence can be beneficially used in developing contrast agents for highly sensitive and specific optical sensing and imaging. This opens new possibilities for plasmonic applications in the solar energy field.
Background: Imaging plays a crucial role in the identification, localization and grading of prostate carcinoma. However current imaging methods for the prostate cancer diagnosis are complicated and partially invasive. The drawback of existent imaging method is that they cannot detect prostate carcinoma at early stage of development. Therefore, a key challenge for prostate cancer detection is to use a simple and noninvasive method which will able to detect the cancer with very small dimensions. Correspondingly, the aim of present work was to demonstrate the possibility of using a near infrared light for the prostate cancer detection in vitro. Methods: Experiments were carried out on prostates obtained after radical prostatectomy. Infrared light emitted diodes were used as illumination sources. Infrared light passing through the prostate was caught by charge-coupled device connected to computer and prostate infrared transillumination images were obtained. Results: Intensity of near infrared light passing through the noncancerous prostate tissue is nearly homogeneous. Intensity of near infrared light passing through the cancerous outgrowth is lower than the intensity passing through the non-cancerous tissue of the same prostate, thereby cancerous formations are differentiated as the dark areas on the relatively white background. Specially developed software analyzes and processes distribution of intensities of the grayscale images, measures the ratio of their strength, and determines the rate of prostate malignancy. Conclusions: Obtained results may hold some promise to make an important contribution to the diagnosis of prostate cancer in early stage of its development.
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