Stage-specific treatment of colorectal cancer: A microRNA-nanocomposite approach.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is among the leading causes of cancer mortality. The lifetime risk of developing CRC is about 5% in adult males and females. CRC is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage, and at this point therapy has a limited impact on cure rates and long-term survival. Novel and/or improved CRC therapeutic options are needed. The involvement of microRNAs (miRNAs) in cancer development has been reported, and their regulation in many oncogenic pathways suggests their potent tumor suppressor action. Although miRNAs provide a promising therapeutic approach for cancer, challenges such as biodegradation, specificity, stability and toxicity, impede their progression into clinical trials. Nanotechnology strategies offer diverse advantages for the use of miRNAs for CRC-targeted delivery and therapy. The merits of using nanocarriers for targeted delivery of miRNA-formulations are presented herein to highlight the role they can play in miRNA-based CRC therapy by targeting different stages of the disease.

Development of a Versatile Half-Strip Lateral Flow Assay toward the Detection of Rift Valley Fever Virus Antibodies.

Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a mosquito-borne zoonotic disease that is caused by the Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV); Bunyaviridae: Phlebovirus. RVF disease can affect several different species, including ruminants, camels and humans and thus present a dual threat to public health and livestock food production in endemic regions. In livestock, the RVFV infection is characterised by an acute hepatitis, abortion and high mortality rates in new-born animals. The current RVF diagnostic techniques have shown good sensitivity. However, they require extensive sample processing and complex instrumentation. Owing to speed, low cost, ease of use, and most importantly, the ability to diagnose diseases at sites where they are managed, lateral flow immunoassays (LFIA) are the most widely used point-of-care (POC) tools for disease diagnosis. In this study, a lateral flow assay (LFA) device that is able to detect antibodies against RVFV, with a minimum detectable concentration of 0.125 mg/mL, was successfully developed. The LFA also successfully detected RVFV antibodies in reference RVFV sera. Protein A (ProA), which has the ability to bind immunoglobulins from different species, was used in the detection probe, giving the developed RVFV LFA potential for multi-species diagnosis.

Novel PVA/MOF Nanofibres: Fabrication, Evaluation and Adsorption of Lead Ions from Aqueous Solution.

Plain polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanofibres and novel polyvinyl alcohol benzene tetracarboxylate nanofibres incorporated with strontium, lanthanum and antimony ((PVA/Sr-TBC), (PVA/La-TBC) and (PVA/Sb-TBC)), respectively, where TBC is benzene 1,2,4,5-tetracarboxylate adsorbents, were fabricated by electrospinning. The as-prepared electrospun nanofibres were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Only plain PVA nanofibres followed the Freundlich isotherm with a correlation coefficient of 0.9814, while novel nanofibres (PVA/Sb-TBC, PVA/Sr-TBC and PVA/La-TBC) followed the Langmuir isotherm with correlation coefficients of 0.9999, 0.9994 and 0.9947, respectively. The sorption process of all nanofibres followed a pseudo second-order kinetic model. Adsorption capacity of novel nanofibres was twofold and more compared to that of plain PVA nanofibres. The thermodynamic studies: apparent enthalpy (ΔH°) and entropy (ΔS°), showed that the adsorption of Pb(II) onto nanofibres was spontaneous and exothermic. The novel nanofibres exhibited higher potential removal of Pb(II) ions than plain PVA nanofibres. Ubiquitous cations adsorption test was also investigated and studied.

Fabrication of a Schottky Device Using CuSe Nanoparticles: Colloidal versus Microwave Digestive Synthesis.

Herein we report on a nearly ideal Schottky diode device fabricated from Cu(2-x)Se nanoparticles synthesized using the microwave digestive method. The thermionic theory using data extracted from the experimental I-V curve resulted in the ideality factor of 4.35 and the barrier height of 0.895 eV whilst the Cheung's method resulted in the ideality factor, barrier height and series resistance of 1.04, 0.00259 eV and 0.870 Ω respectively. The Cheung's method is thought to be the most accurate as it takes into account the series resistance. The obtained values therefore are indicative of good diode behaviour of the device and this is a highly sought after goal in all electronic materials development.