Pi-conjugated organic systems have been used as optoelectronic and sensing materials due to their characteristics of efficient light emission or absorption, and p-type charge transport. The hybrid nanostructures of pi-conjugated organic systems with nanoscale metals offer surface plasmon (SP)-enhanced luminescence, which can be applied to organic-based optoelectronics, photonics, and sensing. Various hybrid nanostructures using light-emitting polymers with nanoscale metals have been fabricated and have shown considerable enhancement of photoluminescence efficiency due to energy and charge transfer effects in SP resonance coupling. In this tutorial review, recent conceptual and technological achievements in light-emitting polymers-based hybrid nanostructures are described.
We report on the light-emitting color barcode nanowires (LECB-NWs), which were fabricated by alternating the electrochemical polymerization of light-emitting polymers with various luminescence colors and efficiencies. The nanoscale photoluminescence characteristics of LECB-NWs were investigated using a laser confocal microscope with a high spatial resolution. The alternating light emissions of the LECB-NWs showed orange-yellow, red, and green colors due to the serial combination of poly(3-butylthiophene), poly(3-methylthiophene), and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), respectively, with distinct luminescence intensities. The optical detection sensitivity and stability of LECB-NWs have been enhanced through a nanoscale Cu metal coating onto the NWs, based on surface plasmon resonance coupling and protection against oxidation. The flexibility of the LECB-NWs has been investigated through the folding and unfolding of the NWs by an applied nanotip impetus. The flexible LECB-NWs can be used as highly sensitive optical identification nanosystems for nanoscale or microscale products with complex physical shapes.
Purpose: The goal of this study was to investigate the therapeutic potentials of combining chemotherapy with human papillomavirus (HPV) E7 subunit vaccines in an animal tumor model and to determine the underlying therapeutic mechanisms. Experimental Design: Animals bearing HPV E6/E7^expressing tumors were treated intratumorally with a selected cytotoxic drug, cisplatin, twice at 1-week interval and s.c. with E7 subunit vaccines thrice at 1-week interval. Tumor chemoimmunoresponse was measured by tumor size. Ag-specific CTL activities and tumor histology were checked in mice under treatments. Apoptosis, in vivo T-cell subset depletion, adoptive CTL transfer, and tumor regression were used to determine the mechanisms for antitumor therapeutic effects. Results: Combined therapy using cisplatin plus E7 subunit vaccines improved cure and recurrence rates of tumors and long-term antitumor immunity dramatically more than single therapy alone. In particular, both components of E7 subunit vaccines were required for induction of Ag-specific CTL as well as therapeutic synergy when combined with cisplatin. This therapeutic synergy was abrogated by depletion of CD8 + Tcells in vivo and was concomitant with histologic changes (such as heavy infiltration of lymphocytes and reduced tumor cell density). Finally, the increased sensitivity of cisplatin-treated tumors to CTL-mediated killing was found to be responsible for therapeutic synergy. Conclusions: E7 subunit vaccines plus cisplatin mediate antitumor therapeutic synergy through the increased sensitivity of cisplatin-treated tumors to CTL-mediated killing. Moreover, E7-based therapeutic vaccines have the potential to improve chemotherapy in patients with cervical cancer.Cervical cancer of the uterus is caused mainly by infection with human papillomavirus (HPV; ref. 1). Presently, HPV virus-like particle-based prophylactic vaccination against HPV infection is expected to reduce cervical cancer incidence. In women already infected with HPV, however, therapeutic vaccines are one promising option for control of cervical cancer incidence. To date, HPV E6 and E7 proteins have been a major target for immune-based therapeutic strategies against HPV-derived cervical cancers as they are expressed constantly in cervical cancer cells (2, 3). In particular, a variety of E6-or E7-targeted vaccine types have been tested preclinically and in humans. These include peptide vaccines (4 -6), DNA vaccines (7 -10), recombinant proteins (11 -13), dendritic cell -based vaccines (14 -17), and viral/bacterial delivery of vaccines (18 -20). These studies have shown the importance of T-cell responses, particularly CTL in clearing cervical lesions in humans or tumors in animals. In our recent findings, tumor burden is inversely related to E7 subunit vaccine-induced antitumor therapeutic efficacy (21). For instance, E7 subunit vaccines were able to cure tumors of a smaller size (2 mm in diameter) but not larger tumors (6-8 mm in diameter). This prompted us to evaluate whether E7 subunit vaccines...
Complex nanoparticles (NPs) of poly(2-methoxy-5-(2'-ethylhexyloxy)-p-phenylene vinylene) (MEH-PPV) NP adsorbed with Au NPs (MEH-PPV/Au NPs) were fabricated through a reprecipitation method. The formation of MEH-PPV/Au NP complexes was confirmed through high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared experiments. The laser confocal microscope photoluminescence (PL) efficiency of the complex MEH-PPV/Au single NP dramatically increased compared with that of the MEH-PPV single NP without Au NPs, which was directly confirmed through color charge-coupled device images. The enhanced PL efficiency of the MEH-PPV/Au NP complex might have originated from the energy transfer effect in a surface plasmon resonance coupling between a MEH-PPV NP and Au NPs. The strong local field enhancement due to nanogaps between Au NPs in the background of a light-emitting MEH-PPV NP might be another origin of the PL enhancement of the NP complex, as supported by finite difference time domain calculations. We also observed the blue shift of the PL peaks of the single MEH-PPV and MEH-PPV/Au NP, compared with the solution PL peaks of those NPs.
Early human brain ventricular structures could be evaluated in vivo with 3-dimensional sonography. This presentation shows the timeline of brain development and provides reference images to compare possible anomalies of development.
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