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Additional file 1 : Table S1. Primers for QRDR amplified in this study. Table S2. Primers used for real-time PCR in this study [3].

Wei Jiang,*,1Huiying Fang,*,2Fengqiu Liu,3 Xue Zhou,1 Hongyun Zhao,4 Xiaojing He,1 Dajing Guo11Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400010, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Breast Diseases, Chongqing University Cancer Hospital, Chongqing Cancer Institute and Chongqing Cancer Hospital, Chongqing 400030, People’s Republic of China; 3Institute of Ultrasound Imaging, Department of Ultrasound, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400010, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400010, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workBackground: Multimodal imaging probes have become a powerful tool for improving detection sensitivity and accuracy, which are important in disease diagnosis and treatment.Methods: In this study, novel bifunctional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)/fluorescence probes were prepared by loading gadodiamide into fluorescent silica nanoparticles (NPs) (Gd@Cy5.5@SiO2-PEG-Ab NPs) for targeting of prostate cancer (PCa). The physicochemical characteristics, biosafety and PCa cell targeting ability of the Gd@Cy5.5@SiO2-PEG-Ab NPs were studied in vitro and in vivo.Results: The Gd@Cy5.5@SiO2-PEG-Ab NPs had a spherical morphology with a relatively uniform size distribution and demonstrated high efficiency for Gd loading. In vitro and in vivo cell-targeting experiments demonstrated a high potential for the synthesized NPs to target prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) receptor-positive PCa cells, enabling MRI and fluorescence imaging. In vitro cytotoxicity assays and in vivo hematological and pathological assays showed that the prepared NPs exhibited good biological safety.Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that the synthesized Gd@Cy5.5@SiO2-PEG-Ab NPs have great potential as MRI/fluorescence contrast agents for specific identification of PSMA receptor-positive PCa cells.Keywords: silica nanoparticles, prostate cancer, magnetic resonance imaging, fluorescence imaging, targeting

Density functional theory (DFT) based ab-initio calculations were used to study the adsorption of CH2O molecule on the intrinsic and vacancy, -OH, -CHO or -COOH group modified graphene. The result indicated that in the optimized structural models of modified graphene, the C-C bond length around the vacancy, -OH, -CHO or -COOH group were compressed or stretched; The CH2O molecule weakly binds to the intrinsic graphene with the binding energy -0.228eV. The binding energy between CH2O and -COOH or -OH group modified graphene were -0.538eV and -0.474eV, which indicates that -COOH and -OH group modified graphene is most suitable for CH2O adsorption; Moreover, the isosurface of the total electron density and the electron density difference between the modified graphene and CH2O molecule were calculated, which illustrated the electron changes and distributions.

A new method for preparation of metal ion imprinted chitosan resin, which can considerably enhance the adsorption capacity and selectivity of the metal ion is presented in this paper. The conditions influencing the preparation of chitosan imprinted resin such as the cross-linking agent, epichlororohydrin and ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether, and metal ion concentration are optimized. The chemical and the physical stability are also discussed and the imprinted chitosan resin can be used many times without losing adsorption capacity. The adsorption isotherms were studied and a new model was suggested to correlate the relationship of adsorption with pH and metal ion concentration. © 2001 Society of Chemical Industry

Previous studies have shown that nicotine increases endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) numbers and functional activity. However, the mechanisms by which nicotine increases EPC numbers and activity remain to be determined. Recent studies have demonstrated that EPC numbers and activity are associated with EPC senescence, which involves telomerase activity. Therefore, we investigated whether nicotine might be able to prevent senescence of EPC through telomerase activation, leading to the potentiation of cellular function.After prolonged in vitro cultivation, EPC were incubated with or without nicotine. The senescence of EPC was determined by acidic beta-galactosidase staining. The bromo-deoxyuridine incorporation assay and colony assay were employed to assess proliferative capacity and clonal expansion potential, respectively. To examine further the underlying mechanisms of these effects, we measured telomerase activity and the phosphorylation of Akt by Western blotting.Nicotine dose-dependently prevented the onset of EPC senescence in culture. Moreover, nicotine increased the proliferation of EPC and colony-forming capacity. Nicotine significantly increased telomerase activity and phosphorylation of Akt, a downstream effector of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K). Moreover, pre-treatment with PI3K blockers, either wortmannin or LY294002, significantly attenuated the nicotine-induced telomerase activity. In addition, mecamylamine, a non-selective antagonist of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAchR), abrogated the effects of nicotine on EPC.The results of the present study indicate that nicotine delays the onset of EPC senescence, which might be related to activation of telomerase through the PI3K/Akt pathway. In addition, the effects of nicotine might be specifically mediated by nAchR activation.