https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=covid19

SARS-CoV-2

Effects of micro-sized and nano-sized WO3 on mass attenauation coefficients of concrete by using MCNPX code.

The gamma photon and neutron shielding effectiveness of borosilicate glasses with alumina in the chemical structure 40SiO2.10B2O3.xBaO.(45 − x)CaO.5Al2O3.yZnO.zMgO glasses (20 ≤ x ≤ 40 mol% and y =...

Nuclear radiation shielding competences of barium-reinforced borosilicate glasses

Comparative spectroscopic studies on drug binding characteristics and protein surface hydrophobicity of native and modified forms of bovine serum albumin: possible relevance to change in protein structure/function upon non-enzymatic glycation.

Bioactive glasses and direct effect of increased K2O additive for nuclear shielding performance: A comparative investigation

In this paper, the complex formation of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and polyacrylic acid (PAA) in the presence metal ions at pH = 7 has been examined by using fluorescence and dynamic light scattering measurements. It has been observed that the most stable complexes of polyacrylic acid and bovine serum albumin have occurred in the presence of copper(II) ions. The other ions have the ability to form weak complexes between polyions and bovine serum albumin. To prior characterizing the interaction between bovine serum albumin and polyacrylic acid, the dynamic light scattering technique have been applied to determine the intensity-size distributions of the solutions of bovine serum albumin, polyacrylic acid, and ternary mixtures containing various molar ratios of bovine serum albumin to polyacrylic acid (the molar ratios of bovine serum albumin to polyacrylic acid has been taken equal to 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5) prepared at different molar ratios of copper(II) ions/acrylic acid unit. When the molar ratio of copper(II) ions to acrylic acid in the ternary mixtures has been lower than and equals to 0.3, two peaks have been observed in the curves of the intensity-size distributions due to contents of free bovine serum albumin and ternary complexes of polyacrylic acid-copper(II)-bovine serum albumin whereas when the molar ratio of copper(II) ions to acrylic acid equals to 0.4, the hydrodynamic diameter has pointed out only one peak. This result indicates that soluble and stable ternary complexes has occurred when the molar ratio of copper(II) ions to acrylic acid has been taken equal to 0.4.

Investigation of ternary complex formations of polyacrylic acid with bovine serum albumin in the presence of metal ions by fluorescence and dynamic light scattering measurements.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2057-1976/aad297/pdf

Calculation of gamma-ray attenuation properties of some antioxidants using Monte Carlo simulation method

Poly(maleic anhydride-co-styrene) (MAST) was synthesized by a free-radical polymerization reaction. A bioactive molecule, procainamide hydrochloride (PH), was then conjugated to MAST. The conjugation product was named as MAST/PH. Structural characterization of MAST and MAST/PH was carried out by Fourier Transform Infrared and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy. Their molecular weights were determined by size-exclusion chromatography. A mechanism was then suggested for the conjugation reaction. The results of the cytotoxicity assay, employing a mouse fibroblast cell line (L929), indicated that MAST/PH had no cytotoxicity at concentrations 62 μg mL−1 (p > 0.05). Antiproliferative activities of MAST/PH and PH were determined by the BrdU cell proliferation ELISA assay, using C6 and HeLa cell lines. In the experiment, two anticancer chemotherapy drugs, cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil, were included as positive control. Antiproliferative activity results demonstrated that MAST/PH yielded the highest suppressi...

Synthesis, characterization, and assessment of cytotoxic, antiproliferative, and antiangiogenic effects of a novel procainamide hydrochloride-poly(maleic anhydride-co-styrene) conjugate

Conventional vaccines have saved millions of lives, and new vaccines have also been developed; however, an urgent need for an efficient vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 showed us that vaccine development technologies should be improved more to obtain prophylactic agents rapidly during pandemic diseases One of the next-generation vaccine technologies is utilization of mRNA molecules encoding antigens The mRNA vaccines offer many advantages compared to conventional and other subunit vaccines For instance, mRNA vaccines are relatively safe since they do not cause disease and mRNA does not integrate into the genome mRNA vaccines also provide diverse types of immune responses resulting in the activation of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells However, utilization of mRNA molecules also has some drawbacks such as degradation by ubiquitous nucleases in vivo Nanoparticles (NPs) are delivery platforms that carry the desired molecule, a drug or a vaccine agent, to the target cell such as antigen presenting cells in the case of vaccine development NP platforms also protect mRNA molecules from the degradation by nucleases Therefore, efficient mRNA vaccines can be obtained via utilization of NPs in the formulation Although lipid-based NPs are widely preferred in vaccine development due to the nature of cell membrane, there are various types of other NPs used in vaccine formulations, such as virus-like particles (VLPs), polymers, polypeptides, dendrimers or gold NPs Improvements in the NP delivery technologies will contribute to the development of mRNA vaccines with higher efficiency

Nanoparticle-based delivery platforms for mRNA vaccine development

Brucellosis is primarily a zoonotic disease caused by members of the Brucella genus which consists of 11 recognized species based on pathogenicity and host preferences. Peptide vaccines are an alternative strategy to conventional vaccines based on the use of short peptide sequences and engineered to induce highly targeted immune responses, avoiding allergenic and/or reactogenic sequences. In this study, antigenic peptide sequence of Brucella abortus, WLAEIKQRSLMVHG, was chemically synthesized by adding tryptophan to the N-terminus of sequence, purified and characterized for the first time in the literature. Molecular weight of the peptide was determined by using LC–MS. A linear response (R2 > 0.998) is observed for peptide in the range of 2–250 µg/mL. The LOD and LOQ values are 0.08 and 0.27 µg/kg respectively. Precision and accuracy ranges were found to be %RSD < 0.2 and 57.3–103.2%, respectively. Fluorescence property of the peptide was shown via fluorescence spectroscopy measurement. The 3D de novo structure of the peptide was predicted with PEP-FOLD server. According to the data obtained from the lipophilicity study (LogD7.4 = − 3.093 ± 0.195), the peptide can not cross the blood–brain barrier if applied via intravenously. This has shown us that peptide can be used as a peptide candidate at the vaccine studies. The production of antigenic peptides as in this study is the main component of the preparation of synthetic vaccine systems.

Synthesis, Characterization and Lipophilicity Study of Brucella abortus ’ Immunogenic Peptide Sequence That Can Be Used in the Future Vaccination Studies

Mesut Karahan

Papers

Investigation of ternary complex formations of polyacrylic acid with bovine serum albumin in the presence of metal ions by fluorescence and dynamic light scattering measurements.

Calculation of gamma-ray attenuation properties of some antioxidants using Monte Carlo simulation method

Synthesis, characterization, and assessment of cytotoxic, antiproliferative, and antiangiogenic effects of a novel procainamide hydrochloride-poly(maleic anhydride-co-styrene) conjugate

Nanoparticle-based delivery platforms for mRNA vaccine development

Synthesis, Characterization and Lipophilicity Study of Brucella abortus ’ Immunogenic Peptide Sequence That Can Be Used in the Future Vaccination Studies