Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles makes use of plant constituents, like carbohydrates, fats, enzymes, flavonoids, terpenoids, polyphenols, and alkaloids, as reducing agents to synthesize silver nanoparticles. The present study for the first time utilized seed extract of Tectona grandis (teak) for reduction of 1 mM silver nitrate solution to silver nanoparticles. The method proved to be very simple, cost-efficient, and convenient. Synthesis of nanoparticles was confirmed by visual detection in which the colorless solution gets changed to a brown-colored solution. Further characterization was done by UV-visible spectroscopy, XRD, FTIR analysis, SEM/EDS, FESEM, and TEM. Size of silver nanoparticles was found to be 10-30 nm approximately as determined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Energy-dispersive spectra (EDS) revealed that nanoparticles contain silver in its pure form. Well diffusion method showed the antimicrobial effect of AgNPs on different microorganisms with the zone of inhibition of 16 mm for Staphylococcus aureus, 12 mm for Bacillus cereus, and 17 mm for E. coli when 50 μg of AgNPs was used. Minimum inhibitory concentration was found to be 5.2, 2.6, and 2.0 μg/ml for Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, and E. coli respectively. Mode of action of antimicrobial activity of nanoparticles was investigated by determining leakage of reducing sugars and proteins, suggesting that AgNPs were able to destroy membrane permeability.

The effect of nonadiabaticity of dust charge variation arising due to small nonzero values of tau(ch)/tau(d) has been studied where tau(ch) and tau(d) are the dust charging and dust hydrodynamical time scales on the nonlinear propagation of dust acoustic waves. Analytical investigation shows that the propagation of a small amplitude wave is governed by a Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) Burger equation. Notwithstanding the soliton decay, the "soliton mass" is conserved, but the dissipative term leads to the development of a noise tail. Nonadiabaticity generated dissipative effect causes the generation of a dust acoustic shock wave having oscillatory behavior on the downstream side. Numerical investigations reveal that the propagation of a large amplitude dust acoustic shock wave with dust density enhancement may occur only for Mach numbers lying between a minimum and a maximum value whose dependence on the dusty plasma parameters is presented.

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.

No abstract

Current therapies are insufficient to prevent recurrent fungal infection especially in the lower part of the lung. A careful and systematic understanding of the properties of nanoparticles plays a significant role in the design, development, optimization, and in vivo performances of the nanoparticles. In the present study, PLGA nanoparticles containing the antifungal drug voriconazole was prepared and two best formulations were selected for further characterization and in vivo studies. The nanoparticles and the free drug were radiolabeled with technetium-99m with 90% labeling efficiency, and the radiolabeled particles were administered to investigate the effect on their blood clearance, biodistribution, and in vivo gamma imaging. In vivo deposition of the drug in the lobes of the lung was studied by LC-MS/MS study. The particles were found to be spherical and had an average hydrodynamic diameter of 300 nm with a smooth surface. The radiolabeled particles and the free drug were found to accumulate in various major organs. Drug accumulation was more pronounced in the lung in the case of administration of the nanoparticles than that of the free drug. The free drug was found to be excreted more rapidly than the nanoparticle containing drug following the inhalation route as assessed by gamma scintigraphy study. Thus, the study reveals that pulmonary administration of nanoparticles containing voriconazole could be a better therapeutic choice even as compared to the iv route of administration of the free drug and/or the drug loaded nanoparticles.

Technetium-99m labeled DNL-PE effectively crossed blood–brain barrier and showed a time dependant accumulation in rat brain.

No abstract

The generation and study of metal-hydroperoxo/metal-peroxo (LCu(II)-OOH or LCu(II)-OO˙) complexes is a fascinating area of research of many chemical and biochemical researchers, because of their involvement as active intermediates in many biological and industrial catalytic oxidation processes. For this purpose we have designed a bulky hexa-coordinating ligand with potential N4O2 donor atoms which could provide an opportunity to synthesize a mononuclear Cu(II) complex with an aim to utilize it in the catalytic oxidation of aromatic hydrocarbons by an environmentally benign oxidant, H2O2. The Cu(II) complex (1) was structurally characterized and found to have square-planar geometry with the two pyrazolyl groups remaining in dangling mode. A novel mononuclear complex [Et3NH][LCu(II)-OOH] (2) was found to form in the reaction between 1 and H2O2 in the presence of Et3N. The presence of this dangling groups favours the stability of hydroperoxo species, [LCu-OOH](-) (2) through H-bonding with the coordinated phenoxo oxygen atom, which was confirmed by ESI-MS(+) and MS(-) (m/z) mass analysis and DFT calculations. This complex was found to be thermally stable at room temperature [k(d) = (5.67 ± 0.03) × 10(-5) s(-1) at 25 °C] and may be due to the formation of O-O-H···O(phenoxo) H-bonding as delineated by the DFT calculations. Complex 1 was found to be an efficient catalyst for the oxidation of aromatic hydrocarbons to the corresponding aldehyde and alcohol in 2:1 mole ratio with TON ~300.