87,076 research outputs found
Method and system for fetal weight evaluation
No full textA method for fetal weight estimation, comprising the following steps: a) ultrasonically measuring fetal biometric parameters; b) determing further physiological and phenomenological pregnancy parameters; c) determing the fetal weight by precision weighting at birth; d) creating a database of known sample cases; e) generating mathematical prediction models from the database of known cases; f) ultrasonically measuring the fetal biometric parameters; g) determing further physiological and phenomenological pregnancy parameters; and predicting the fetal weight of the cases under examination by using a mathematical prediction model, characterizedin that a multinormal probabilistic model is used as a mathematical model
Tools and Avenues for Nanotechnology-based Vectors Exploitation for Biomarker Signature and Therapeutical Drug Delivery
No full textNanomedicine main goal is to ameliorate biodistribution and side effects of therapeutics. Proper Micro (MP) and Nanoparticles (NP) can i) protect therapeutic molecules from reticuloendothelial clearance, ii) transport them to the site of action minimizing their influence on normal tissues and iii) enhance drug concentration and effects in target tissues and cells, allowing the use of lower doses. However a single component nanovector cannot accomplish all those duties; therefore, our efforts are focused on the optimization and performance evaluation of multi-component drug-delivering nanosystems, made of silica, silicon, polymers, lipids and proteins from synthetic and biological sources. In recent years, the groups in Naples and in Houston in cooperation have studied many different strategies which permit MP and NP to overcome one or more biological barriers (BB) that hamper the delivery of therapeutics to the desired site of action. The two research groups have produced a series of results which will be briefly summarized in this report and then discussed in greater detail in the talk.
1) Diverse types of Multistage vector (MSV) were produced and used to enhance the delivery of free and encapsulated drugs in cellular and mice models of cancer. MSV is constituted by a silicon mesoporous microparticle which protect nanoparticles or free drugs from reticuloendothelial clearance, superbly marginates toward vessel walls and preferentially accumulates on inflamed endothelium [1-3].
2) A Biomimetic drug delivery platform was produced with a nanoporous silicon core and and a shell derived from the leukocyte cell membrane. This Leukolike vector (LLV) and it’s therapeutic potentialities were extensively investigated in vitro and in vivo, from a biological and biochemical point of view. LLV shows the ability to: 1) evade the immune system; 2) circulate longer in the blood stream; 3) communicate with endothelial cells through receptor–ligand interactions increasing endothelium permeability; 4) transport and release a payload across inflamed endothelium; 5) accumulate in a tumour [4-7].
3) Innovative microfluidic systems were developed to mimick blood capillary circulation, in order to study and to predict the in flow dynamics and the margination tendency of different types of MP, also in presence of blood cells, using real human blood as circulating solution [8].
4) Enzyme-functionalized silica NPs were conceived and produced to digest tumor extracellular matrix, in vitro and in vivo achieving a better penetration in the tumoral tissue [9].
5) pH-responsive hybrid nanoparticles (HNP) were conceived, produced, characterized and successfully used to achieve efficient siRNA delivery in cell culture and in mice models of human breast cancer. HNP are constituted by a shell of cationic hydrogel able to electrostatically bind siRNA and by a supporting nanostructured core of silica that provides mechanical stability to the system. HNP are able to escape from endolysosomal compartment through a proton sponge effect [5,10].
In the light of what has been briefly outlined, the following avenues will be pursued in the near future and will be discussed:
(i) Production and evaluation of different types of MSV for cancer therapy
(ii) Protein and peptide functionalization of NPs to enhance tumor recognition and penetration
(iii) Production and evaluation of different types of NP for siRNA delivery
(iv) Production of Organ-on-chip microfluidic devices able to study and predict the fluidic and biological performance of MP and NP.
(v) Characterization of plasma Protein Corona (PC) [11] of MP and NP by proteomic approaches and correlations between PC composition and targeting of specific tissues.
References
[1] Tasciotti E, Liu X, Bhavane R, Plant K, Leonard AD, Price BK, Cheng MM, Decuzzi P, Tour JM, Robertson F, Ferrari M. Mesoporous silicon particles as a multistage delivery system for imaging and therapeutic applications. Nat Nanotechnol 3, 151-7 (2008).
[2] Martinez JO, Evangelopoulos M, Karun V, Shegog E, Wang JA, Boada C, Liu X, Ferrari M, Tasciotti E. The effect of multistage nanovector targeting of VEGFR2 positive tumor endothelia on cell adhesion and local payload accumulation. Biomaterials 35, 9824-32 (2014).
[3] Martinez JO, Evangelopoulos M, Bhavane R, Acciardo S, Salvatore F, Liu X, Ferrari M, Tasciotti E. Multistage Nanovectors Enhance the Delivery of Free and Encapsulated Drugs. Drug Targets [Epub ahead of print] (2014).
[4] Parodi A, Quattrocchi N, van de Ven AL, Chiappini C, Evangelopoulos M, Martinez JO, Brown BS, Khaled SZ, Yazdi IK, Enzo MV, Isenhart L, Ferrari M, Tasciotti E. Synthetic nanoparticles functionalized with biomimetic leukocyte membranes possess cell-like functions. Nat Nanotechnol 8,61-8 (2013).
[5] Parodi A, Corbo C, Cevenini A, Molinaro R, Palomba R, Pandolfi L, Agostini M, Salvatore F, Tasciotti E. Enabling cytoplasmic delivery and organelle targeting by surface modification of nanocarriers. Nanomedicine UK 10,1923-40 (2015).
[6] Corbo C, Parodi A, Evangelopoulos M, Engler DA, Matsunami RK, Engler AC, Molinaro R, Scaria S, Salvatore F, Tasciotti E. Proteomic profiling of a biomimetic drug delivery platform. Curr Drug Targets [Epub ahead of print] (2014).
[7] Palomba R, Parodi A, Evangelopoulos M, Acciardo S, Corbo C, De Rosa E, Yazdi I, Scaria S, Salvatore F, Tasciotti E. A leukolike vector increase the permeability of tumor vasculature. Submitted.
[8] D'Apolito R, Tomaiuolo G, Taraballi F, Minardi S, Kirui D, Liu X, Cevenini A, Palomba R, Ferrari M, Salvatore F, Tasciotti E, Guido S. Red blood cells affect the margination of microparticles in synthetic microcapillaries and intravital microcirculation as a function of their size and shape. J Control Release [Epub ahead of print] (2015).
[9] Parodi A, Haddix SG, Taghipour N, Scaria S, Taraballi F, Cevenini A, Yazdi IK, Corbo C, Palomba R, Khaled SZ, Martinez JO, Brown BS, Isenhart L, Tasciotti E. Bromelain surface modification increases the diffusion of silica nanoparticles in the tumor extracellular matrix. ACS Nano 8,9874-83 (2014).
[10] Khaled SZ, Cevenini A, Yazdi IK, Parodi A, Evangelopoulos M, Corbo C, Scaria S, Hu Y, Chiappini C, Haddix SG, Corradetti B, Salvatore F, Tasciotti E. One-pot synthesis of pH-responsive hybrid nanogel particles for the intracellular delivery of small interfering RNA. Under review for pubblication in Biomaterials.
[11] Corbo C, Molinaro R, Parodi A, Toldeno Furman NE, Salvatore F, Tasciotti E. The impact of the protein corona on nanoparticles and implications for toxicity, immunotoxicity and target drug delivery. Under review for publication in Nanomedicine UK
Method and system for fetal weight estimation
No full textA method for fetal weight estimation wherein fetal biometric parameters are ultrasonically measured and further physiological and phenomenological pregnancy parameters are determined for a plurality of sample cases. The fetal weight for each of the sample cases is then determined by precision weighing at birth. A database is then created based on the known sample cases and mathematical prediction models are generated from the database. For the case under examination for which fetal weight is to be predicted, the fetal biometric parameters are ultrasonically measured and further physiological and phenomenological pregnancy parameters are determined. The fetal weight of the case under examination is predicted by using a mathematical prediction model and a multinormal probabilistic model is used as a mathematical model
High-Speed, Fixed-Latency Serial Links With FPGAs for Synchronous Transfers
No full textFixed-latency serial links find application in trigger and data acquisition systems of High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments requiring a predictable data transfer timing. In some architectures, there is the need to clock the data in and out from the link synchronously with a system clock (i.e., synchronous transfers) instead of using the clock recovered from the serial stream. In this work, we present a synchronous link architecture based on high-speed transceivers embedded in latest generation Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). These transceivers are typically designed for applications that tolerate latency variations. However, we have developed two configurations and a clocking scheme to implement ixed-latency operation. The latency is constant during the transfer, after a loss of lock or a power cycle. Once locked, the link can be considered as a synchronous pipeline. The configurations do not depend on a particular serial encoding, the encoder/decoder being external to the transceiver. We discuss the latency performance for each configuration and show an implementation of the architecture we propose. We also present experimental results showing the stability of the latency of the link © 2009 IEEE
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