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Currently, chemotherapy is an important method for the treatment of various cancers. Nevertheless, it has many limitations, such as poor tumour selectivity and multi-drug resistance. It is necessary to improve this treatment method by incorporating a targeted drug delivery system aimed to reduce side effects and drug resistance. The present work aims to develop pH-sensitive nanocarriers containing magnetic mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MMSNs) coated with pH-responsive polymers for tumour-targeted drug delivery via the folate receptor. 2-Diethyl amino ethyl methacrylate (DEAEMA) was successfully grafted on MMSNs via surface initiated ARGET atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), with an average particle size of 180 nm. The end groups of poly (2-(diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDEAEMA) brushes were converted to amines, followed by a covalent bond with folic acid (FA) as a targeting agent. FA conjugated to the nanoparticle surface was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). pH-Responsive behavior of PDEAEMA brushes was investigated by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS). The nanoparticles average diameters ranged from ca. 350 nm in basic media to ca. 650 in acidic solution. Multifunctional pH-sensitive magnetic mesoporous nanoparticles were loaded with an anti-cancer drug (Doxorubicin) to investigate their capacity and long-circulation time. In a cumulative release pattern, doxorubicin (DOX) release from nano-systems was ca. 20% when the particle exposed to acidic media, compared to ca. 5% in basic media. The nano-systems have excellent biocompatibility and are minimally toxic when exposed to MCF-7, and -MCF-7 ADR cells.

Membranes are an efficient way to treat emulsified heavy metal-based wastewater, but they generally come with a trade-off between permeability and selectivity. In this research, the amine and sulphonic groups on the inner and outer surface of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) were first modified by a chemical approach. Then, MSNs with amine and sulphonic groups were utilized as new inorganic nanofiller to fabricate mixed matrix polysulfone (PSU) nanocomposite membranes using the classical phase inversion approach. The resultant nanoparticles and membranes were characterized by their physico-chemical characteristics as well as determination of pure water permeability along with cadmium and zinc ion removal. Embedding nanoparticles resulted in a significant rise in the water permeability as a result of changes in the surface properties and porosity of the membrane. Furthermore, the efficiency of developed membranes to remove cadmium and zinc was significantly improved by more than 90% due to the presence of functional groups on nanoparticles. The functionalized-MSNs/PSU nanocomposite membrane has the potential to be an effective industrial effluent removal membrane.

In this paper, a new pH-responsive nanosystem based on mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) was developed for cancer therapy. Poly(2-(diethylamino) ethyl methacrylate) (PDEAEMA) was grafted on their outer surface and acts as a gatekeeper, followed by subsequent modification of the polymer by cysteine (MSN-PDEAEMA-Cys) and poly(oligo(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate) (MSN-PDEAEMA-Cys-POEGMEMA). The physicochemical properties of these nanocarriers were characterized using scanning and transmission electron microscopies (SEM and TEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The synthesized nanoparticles were well-dispersed with a diameter of ca. 200 nm. The obtained XPS results confirm the successful modification of MSN-PDEAEMA with Cys and POEGMEMA by increasing the peak intensity of C–O and C=O groups at 286.5 and 288.5 eV, respectively. An anti-cancer drug, doxorubicin (DOX), was encapsulated into the fabricated nanoplatform. The DOX release amount at physiological pH of 7.4 was limited (10%), while an accumulation drug release of ca. 35% was accomplished after 30 h in acidic media. The MTT cell line was used to assess the cytotoxicity of the unloaded and DOX-loaded fabricated nanoplatforms. Upon loading of DOX on these nanomaterials, they showed significant toxicity to human liver cancer cells. These results suggest that the prepared nano-structured materials showed good biocompatibility as well, and they can serve as nanocarriers for the delivery of anti-cancer drugs.

This work presents the synthesis of pH-responsive poly(2-(diethylamino) ethyl methacrylate) (PDEAEMA) brushes anchored on hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles (HMSN-PDEAEMA) via a surface-initiated ARGET ATRP technique. The average size of HMSNs was ca. 340 nm, with a 90 nm mesoporous silica shell. The dry thickness of grafted PDEAEMA brushes was estimated to be ca 30 nm, as estimated by SEM and TEM. The halogen group on the surface of PDEAMA brushes was successfully derivatized with glucosamine, as confirmed by XPS. The effect of pH on the size of the hybrid nanoparticles was investigated by DLS. The size of fabricated nanoparticle decreased from ca. 950 nm in acidic media to ca. 500 nm in basic media due to the deprotonation of tertiary amine in the PDEAEMA. The PDEAEMA modified HMSNs nanocarrier was efficiently loaded with doxorubicin (DOX) with a loading capacity of ca. 64%. DOX was released in a relatively controlled pH-triggered manner from hybrid nanoparticles. The cytotoxicity studies demonstrated that DOX@HMSN-PDEAEMA-Glucosamine showed a strong ability to kill breast cancer cells (MCF-7 and MCF-7/ADR) at low drug concentrations, in comparison to free DOX.

Colorimetric aptasensors based on gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) commonly feature ssDNA probes nonspecifically adsorbed to surface gold particles. A major limitation of this versatile method is the incomplete dissociation of the adsorbed nontarget binding segments of the aptamer sequence upon target binding. This results in weak or nonexistent sensor performance by preventing the particles from aggregating when the optimized salt concentration is added. Rather than removing the nonbinding nucleotides flanking the binding region of the aptamer, proposed herein is an alternative strategy, simply introducing a centrifugation and resuspension step after target recognition that eliminates residual binding between the aptamer and the surface of the particles. The performance of two different vitamin D3 (VTD3) aptamers were tested. The method enhanced the performance of the sensor that used the higher detection limit (1 µM) aptamer by fourfold. The superiority of the proposed method became apparent in a nonworking colorimetric sensor became a highly sensitive sensor with a one nanomolar detection level and excellent discrimination against potential interfering molecules including VTD2 when the centrifugation and resuspension process was implemented. The level of VTD3 in human blood was determined colorimetrically after extraction with n-hexane. The results were in agreement with those obtained by HPLC. The proposed method could be applied to aptamers targeting small molecules with no need to reprocess the SELEX-isolated sequence by knowing the binding region and removing the flanking primers.

This paper introduces the synthesis of well-defined 2-(tert-butylamino)ethyl methacrylate-b-poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate diblock copolymer, which has been grafted onto mesoporous silica nanoparticles (PTBAEMA-b-PEGMEMA-MSNs) via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The ATRP initiators were first attached to the MSN surfaces, followed by the ATRP of 2-(tert-butylamino)ethyl methacrylate (PTBAEMA). CuBr2/bipy and ascorbic acid were employed as the catalyst and reducing agent, respectively, to grow a second polymer, poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (PEGMEMA). The surface structures of these fabricated nanomaterials were then analyzed using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The results of Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) show that ATRP could provide a high surface grafting density for polymers. Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) was conducted to investigate the pH-responsive behavior of the diblock copolymer chains on the nanoparticle surface. In addition, multifunctional pH-sensitive PTBAEMA-b-PEGMEMA-MSNs were loaded with doxycycline (Doxy) to study their capacities and long-circulation time.

The aim of this study is to compare the creep/recovery behavior of bulk-fill dental composites after storage in various food simulating organic solvents. For this purpose, five different resin-composites (four bulk-fills and one conventional) were used. A total of 20 rectangular specimens (14 mm &times, 3 mm &times, 0.7 mm) were prepared by filling the resin-composites in Teflon mold. All of the specimens for each material (n = 5) were divided into four groups namely dry (control), distilled water (DW), artificial saliva, and absolute ethanol. The specimens were subjected to three-point bending creep test during immersion directly. A constant load of 2 N was used for each specimen with loading and unloading time 2 h each. Results: SF2 and XF showed a lower creep strain % after immersion, ranging from 0.44 (dry) to 0.75 (saliva) and 0.43 (dry) to 0.80 (ethanol), respectively. TNC BF depicts the maximum creep strain % ranging from 1.24% (dry) to 2.87% (ethanol) followed by FBF ranging from 1.17 (dry) to 2.59 (ethanol). However, the conventional material (GR) showed lower creep strain after immersion ranging from 0.28 to 0.54. Moreover, SF2 resulted in the highest creep recovery in all of the composites groups, as well as conventional material. The other composite groups showed lower creep recovery as compared to the conventional material (GR). The creep strain % for all the bulk-fill composites materials were increased during immersion in the liquids. However, for the conventional material, the creep deformation is decreased after immersion. SF2 showed the highest percentage of creep recovery among the bulk-fill composites, followed by XF.