Sharif Digital Repository

The current article discusses some unprecedented information about the improvement in forward osmosis (FO) performance of polyethersulfone/polyamide (PES/PA) membranes, mainly focused on water flux and selectivity along with resistance to fouling phenomenon; which itself is brought in by the introduction of pre-modified zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 MOF nanoparticles. An investigation has been conducted on ZIF-8 nanoparticles surface with hydrophilicity feature to evaluate their potential for utilization in active polyamide layer of FO membranes for the first time, free from any decrease in water flux value (when hydrophobic ZIF-8 is exploited solely) and selectivity (when mSiO2 with... 

A comparative investigation has been developed for the stability constants of several amino acid complexes with divalent metal ions, which have been determined by potentiometric pH titration. Depending on the metal ion-binding properties, vital differences in the building complexes were observed. The present study indicates that in some M(L) complexes, metal ions are arranged in carboxyl groups, but in other M(L)complexes, some metal ions are able to build chelate over amine groups. The results mentioned-above demonstrate that for some M(L) complexes, the stability constants are also largely determined by the affinity of metal ions for amine group. This leads to a kind of selectivity of... 

Reduced graphene oxide nanomesh (rGONM), as one of the recent structures of graphene with a surprisingly strong near-infrared (NIR) absorption, is used for achieving ultraefficient photothermal therapy. First, by using TiO2 nanoparticles, graphene oxide nanoplatelets (GONPs) are transformed into GONMs through photocatalytic degradation. Then rGONMs functionalized by polyethylene glycol (PEG), arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD)-based peptide, and cyanine 7 (Cy7) are utilized for in vivo tumor targeting and fluorescence imaging of human glioblastoma U87MG tumors having ανβ3 integrin receptors, in mouse models. The rGONM-PEG suspension (1 μg mL -1) exhibits about 4.2- and 22.4-fold higher NIR... 

Reduced graphene oxide nanoribbons functionalized by amphiphilic polyethylene glycol (rGONR-PEG) were applied to attach arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD)-based peptide and cyanine dye 3 (cy3) for targeting ανβ3 integrin receptors on human glioblastoma cell line U87MG and its selective fluorescence imaging, respectively. The rGONR-PEG suspension with a concentration of 100 μg mL -1 showed ∼14 and 2.4-fold higher near infrared (NIR) absorption at 808 nm than GONR (with dimensions of ∼80 nm × 1 μm) and rGO-PEG sheets (with lateral dimensions of ∼2 μm), respectively. The rGONR-PEG-cy3-RGD exhibited highly efficient NIR photothermal therapy performance (concentrations ≥1.0 μg mL-1 resulted in... 

Cell culture feeds optimization is a critical step in process development of pharmaceutical recombinant protein production. Amino acids are the basic supplements of mammalian cell culture feeds with known effect on their growth promotion and productivity. In this study, we reported the implementation of the Plackett-Burman (PB) multifactorial design to screen the effects of amino acids on the growth promotion and productivity of a Chinese hamster ovary DG-44 (CHO-DG44) cell line producing bevacizumab. After this screening, the amino acid combinations were optimized by the response surface methodology (RSM) to determine the most effective concentration in feeds. Through this strategy, the... 

Currently, Alzheimer's disease (AD) accounts for more than half of all dementia cases. Although genetics, age, and environmental factors affect the disease, the cause of AD is not yet fully known. Various drugs have been proposed for the prevention and treatment of AD, but the delivery of these therapeutic agents to the brain is difficult. The blood–brain barrier prevents systemic drugs from accessing the central nervous system and designing a suitable system to overcome this barrier has attracted much attention. The intranasal pathway, given its proximity to the brain, provides a great opportunity for drug delivery. Understanding the physiological characteristics of the nose can be useful... 

In the current study, the prospect improvements on desalination and anti-fouling performance of polyamide (PA)-based TFN membranes modified with MIL-53-NH-Asp have been investigated. MIL-53-NH2 nanoparticles (NPs) have been treated through a single-step post-synthesis modification reaction to enhance the hydrophilicity feature and compatibility with the PA layer. Various concentrations of synthesized NPs were dispersed in an aqueous phase consisting m-phenylenediamine and 2,6-diaminopyridine monomers for incorporation in the PA rejection layer. Analysis data of fabricated membranes provide evidence of changes in their physico-chemical properties after NPs incorporation. In comparison with... 

Sulfur mustard (SM) is a vesication chemical warfare agent for which there is currently no antidote. Despite years of research, there is no common consensus about the pathophysiological basis of chronic pulmonary disease caused by this chemical warfare agent. In this study, we combined chemometric techniques with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to explore the metabolic profile of sera from SM-exposed patients. A total of 29 serum samples obtained from 17 SM-injured patients, and 12 healthy controls were analyzed by Random Forest. Increased concentrations of seven amino acids, glycerol, dimethylamine, ketone bodies, lactate, acetate, citrulline and creatine together with the... 

Acute and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathies (AIDP and CIDP) are two immune-related conditions in the peripheral nervous system. In the current study, we assessed expression levels of Beta-secretase (BACE1), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and their antisense transcripts in the peripheral blood of AIDP and CIDP patients compared with age- and sex-matched controls to assess their potential as biomarkers for these conditions. Expressions of BACE1 and BACE1-AS were down-regulated in CIDP cases compared with controls (Ratios of mean expressions=0.01 and 0.03; P values= 1.07E-08, respectively). On the other hand, expressions of BDNF and BDNF-AS were up-regulated... 

Objective(s): The molecular basis of “metabolically healthy obese” and “metabolically unhealthy non-obese” phenotypes is not fully understood. Our objective was to identify metabolite patterns differing in obese (metabolically healthy vs unhealthy (MHO vs MUHO)) and non-obese (metabolically healthy vs unhealthy (MHNO vs MUHNO)) individuals. Materials and Methods: This case-control study was performed on 86 subjects stratified into four groups using anthropometric and clinical measurements: MHO (21), MUHO (21), MHNO (22), and MUHNO (22). Serum metabolites were profiled using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Multivariate analysis was applied to uncover discriminant metabolites, and enrichment... 

Herbal medicine wastes (HMWs) are byproducts of medicine factories, which are mainly landfilled for their environmental problems. Only bearing in mind the contamination and concerns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and environmental emissions, the worth of herbal medicine wastes management and conversion to green products can be understood. In this work, subcritical water treatment was carried out batch-wise in a stainless tube reactor in the pressure range of 0.792–30.0 MPa, varying the temperature (127–327 °C) and time (1–60 min) of extraction. This resulted in new and green material sources, including organic acids, amino acids, and sugars. Amazingly, at very low extraction times (below 5...