Additionally, the article shows significant overlap with an article that was simultaneously under consideration with another journal 1. The Editors therefore no longer have confidence in the reliability of the data reported in the article.

The main purpose of this study was to find a simple reaction condition for reproducible synthesis of water-soluble superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) through the co-precipitation method. For this purpose, the effect of alkali solution, working atmosphere and final reaction temperature on type, size and magnetic properties of synthesized particles were examined. The results reveal that from two different tested alkali precipitants including ammonia and 1M NaOH, samples synthesized using ammonia demonstrate proper magnetic properties, while the latter agent leads to production of nonmagnetic brown suspensions in all reaction conditions. UV-Vis and XRD showed the typical magnetite pattern for samples synthesized using ammonia

The design of targeted nanoparticle platforms, which induces cell death by apoptosis, can bypass the resistance mechanisms of cancer cells. In this regard, we have constructed a new cancer targeting peptide functionalized nanoparticle using gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and Thioctic acid-DMPGTVLP peptide conjugate. Morphological analysis of the nanoparticles by TEM displayed average diameters of about 26.2 nm and 3.52 nm for AuNP core and shell, respectively. Stronger affinity toward nucleolin receptors of breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7 and T47D) observed for Thioctic acid-Peptide gold nanoparticles (TAP@AuNPs) based on IC50 values. Furthermore, the nanoparticles showed excellent hemocompatibility. Quantitative results of atomic absorption sh

Absorbable sutures are widely used in surgery. In addition to acceptable mechanical properties, the surgical sutures should exhibit favorable degradability properties. In this research, the mechanical and thermal properties, hydrophilicity, biodegradability, pH changes, and drug release profile of polylactic acid (PLA) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) alloy were examined to fabricate absorbable sutures. The test results for the mechanical properties showed that the strength of the PLA/PEG alloy decreased with increasing PEG content, leading to an increase in elongation. The differential thermal analysis indicated that the resulting material was above its glass transition temperature (Tg) at ambient temperature and was thus flexible enough. Acc

Recognizing proteins that lead to a decreased efficiency of treatment in cancer cells constitutes a main goal for biomedical and biotechnological research and applications. Establishing recombinant cells that overexpress a gene of interest stably is important for treatment studies and drug/compound screening. Survivin is an anti-apoptotic protein which can be a potential candidate for regulating cell death and survival. To investigate the association between survivin increment and apoptosis rate, survivin-reconstituted HEK (HEK-S) cell was developed as in vitro model. RT-PCR and Western blot demonstrated that survivin was constitutively overexpressed in HEK-S cells. Both morphological observation and survival assay showed that HEK-S cells w

Chemoresistance is the leading cause of limiting long-term treatment success in cancer cells. Anticancer drugs usually kill cells through apoptosis induction and defects in this signaling pathway lead to chemoresistance. Apoptotic protease activating factor 1 regulates cellular stress evoked by chemotherapeutic agents through facilitating apoptosome assembling but can be degraded by proteasome. This study examined the role of proteasome inhibitor Bortezomib in the cytotoxic effects of Docetaxel on MCF7 cells response and its correlation with Apaf-1 expression level. MTT assay, caspase 3/7 activity assay, propidium iodide staining, adenosine triphosphate and reactive oxygen species amount measurements were utilized to demonstrate the role of