Perla E. García Casillas

Infrared Spectroscopy of Functionalized Magnetic Nanoparticles

Nanotechnology development has allowed that nanomaterials can be used in biomedical applications, and nanometer sized objects can interact with biological entities like cells, virus, protein, enzyme, etc. For this reason, many research projects has been focused in the development of nanosystems, nanoparticles and nanodevices for this applications. This area is relatively new, according to the ISI web of knowledge, the publications of the nanoparticles for biomedical applications started on 2000 year, and since that time they have increased exponentially (Figure 1). The nanoparticles (NPs) used for biomedical purposes generally include zero-dimensional nanospheres and one-dimensional nanowires and nanotubes.

Effect of the polymeric coating over Fe3O4 particles used for magnetic separation

AbstractIn this work, the synthesis of magnetite nanoparticles by two variant chemical coprecipitation methods that involve reflux and aging conditions was investigated. The influence of the synthesis conditions on particle size, morphology, magnetic properties and protein adsorption were studied. The synthesized magnetite nanoparticles showed a spherical shape with an average particle size directly influenced by the synthesis technique. Particles of average size 27 nm and 200 nm were obtained. When the coprecipitation method was used without reflux and aging, the smallest particles were obtained. Magnetite nanoparticles obtained from both methods exhibited a superparamagnetic behavior and their saturation magnetization was particle size dependent. Values of 67 and 78 emu g−1 were obtained for the 27 nm and 200 nm magnetite particles, respectively. The nanoparticles were coated with silica, aminosilane, and silica-aminosilane shell. The influence of the coating on protein absorption was studied using Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) protein.

Synthesis of Hydroxyapatite Nanoparticles in Presence of a Linear Polysaccharide

Hydroxyapatite nanoparticles compounds were synthesized. Natural hydroxyapatite and a linear polysaccharide (1–3 linked   β-D galactopyranose and 1,4 linked 3,6 anhydro-α-L-galactopyranose) were used as a precursor in its formation. Our purpose was to produce nanoparticles in the presence of a linear polysaccharide with the use of a gelification method. The powder sample was evaluated by scanning tunneling microscope (STM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis, X-ray diffraction pattern (XRD), differential thermal analysis (DTA), infrared (IR) analysis, and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). According to the results, it was found that these nanoparticles can successfully be synthesized using a polysaccharide in a solution. On the other hand, the XRD peak intensity corresponds to hydroxyapatite structure in the range of temperature of 810°C. The influence of the polysaccharide on the evolution of the nanoparticles has been demonstrated. This observation opens up new routes for the fabrication of nanoparticles using polysaccharides network. The synthesized nanoparticles have diameters ranging from 10 nm to 11 nm approximately. The elaboration conditions such as pH and concentration were optimized in this solution.

Nanoparticles for death‑induced gene therapy in cancer (Review)

Due to the high toxicity and side effects of the use of traditional chemotherapy in cancer, scientists are working on the development of alternative therapeutic technologies. An example of this is the use of death‑induced gene therapy. This therapy consists of the killing of tumor cells via transfection with plasmid DNA (pDNA) that contains a gene which produces a protein that results in the apoptosis of cancerous cells. The cell death is caused by the direct activation of apoptosis (apoptosis‑induced gene therapy) or by the protein toxic effects (toxin‑induced gene therapy). The introduction of pDNA into the tumor cells has been a challenge for the development of this therapy. The most recent implementation of gene vectors is the use of polymeric or inorganic nanoparticles, which have biological and physicochemical properties (shape, size, surface charge, water interaction and biodegradation rate) that allow them to carry the pDNA into the tumor cell. Furthermore, nanoparticles may be functionalized with specific molecules for the recognition of molecular markers on the surface of tumor cells. The binding between the nanoparticle and the tumor cell induces specific endocytosis, avoiding toxicity in healthy cells. Currently, there are no clinical protocols approved for the use of nanoparticles in death‑induced gene therapy. There are still various challenges in the design of the perfect transfection vector, however nanoparticles have been demonstrated to be a suitable candidate. This review describes the role of nanoparticles used for pDNA transfection and key aspects for their use in death‑induced gene therapy.

Characterization of Magnetic Particles Using a Wavelet Function

The second derivative of the remission function of several magnetic materials is calculated for the parameterization of the position and intensity of the absorption bands of diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The reflectance spectra are obtained by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-VIS) from 400 to 1100 nm at increments of 1nm. The noise of the remission function results on errors after calculating the second derivative. Therefore, filtering of the remission function is needed before taking any action on this signal. Several methods are tested in order to calculate the second derivative. The best polynomial resulted on a second order wavelet function which is applied to the filtered remission function. Light scattering Mie theory is used to prove the behaviour of the reflected light. This research provides a method to identify and quantify magnetic particles, as well as the crystal size.

Preparación y caracterización de un material compuesto poli(uretano)/hidroxiapatita mediante separación de fases

Recientemente se han utilizado materiales porosos para la regeneracion del tejido oseo, uno de los aspectos mas importantes es contar con una morfologia controlada la cual sirva como base y guia para el crecimiento del tejido. En este trabajo se han preparado poliuretanos y compositos poliuretano/hidroxiapatita por una separacion de fase inducida termicamente; por medio de la cual se pudieron producir materiales porosos con una morfologia controlada y reproducible. La microestructura fue controlada por la variacion en la concentracion del polimero, temperatura de congelamiento, relacion solvente/no solvente y co-solvente utilizado. Usando esta tecnica se pueden obtener materiales con un tamano de poros desde unas cuantas micras hasta 200 mm. Debido a la porosidad interconectada y a la bioactividad que proporciona la hidroxiapatita pueden ser una alternativa para la regeneracion del tejido oseo.