United States Department of Energy

About: United States Department of Energy is a government organization based out in Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Coal & Catalysis. The organization has 13656 authors who have published 14177 publications receiving 556962 citations. The organization is also known as: DOE & Department of Energy.

Designing adsorbents for CO2 capture from flue gas-hyperbranched aminosilicas capable of capturing CO2 reversibly.

Abstract: Carbon dioxide adsorption from a simulated flue gas stream was successfully performed with a hyperbranched aminosilica (HAS) material. The HAS was synthesized by a one-step reaction, spontaneous aziridine ring-opening polymerization off of surface silanols, to form a 32 wt % organic/inorganic hybrid material. The adsorption measurements were performed in a fixed-bed flow reactor using humidified CO2. The advantage of this adsorbent over previously reported adsorbents is the stability of the organic groups covalently bound to the silica support compared to those made by physisorbed methods. Furthermore, a large CO2 capacity (∼3 mmol CO2/g adsorbent) associated with the high loading of amines was observed.

Dicer, Drosha, and outcomes in patients with ovarian cancer

Abstract: BACKGROUND We studied Dicer and Drosha, components of the RNA-interference machinery, in ovarian cancer. METHODS We measured messenger RNA (mRNA) levels of Dicer and Drosha in specimens of invasive epithelial ovarian cancer from 111 patients, using a quantitative reverse-transcriptase-polymerase-chain-reaction assay, and compared the results with clinical outcomes. Validation was performed with the use of published microarray data from cohorts of patients with ovarian, breast, and lung cancer. Mutational analyses of genomic DNA from the Dicer and Drosha genes were performed in a subgroup of ovarian-cancer specimens. Dicer-dependent functional assays were performed by means of in vitro transfection with small interfering RNA (siRNA) and short hairpin RNA (shRNA). RESULTS Levels of Dicer and Drosha mRNA correlated with the levels of expression of the corresponding protein and were decreased in 60% and 51% of ovarian-cancer specimens, respectively. Low Dicer expression was significantly associated with advanced tumor stage (P=0.007), and low Drosha expression with suboptimal surgical cytoreduction (P=0.02). Cancer specimens with both high Dicer expression and high Drosha expression were associated with increased median survival (>11 years, vs. 2.66 years for other subgroups; P<0.001). We found three independent predictors of reduced disease-specific survival in multivariate analyses: low Dicer expression (hazard ratio, 2.10; P=0.02), high-grade histologic features (hazard ratio, 2.46; P=0.03), and poor response to chemotherapy (hazard ratio, 3.95; P<0.001). Poor clinical outcomes among patients with low Dicer expression were validated in additional cohorts of patients. Rare missense mutations were found in the Dicer and Drosha genes, but their presence or absence did not correlate with the level of expression. Functional assays indicated that gene silencing with shRNA, but not siRNA, may be impaired in cells with low Dicer expression. CONCLUSIONS Our findings indicate that levels of Dicer and Drosha mRNA in ovarian-cancer cells have associations with outcomes in patients with ovarian cancer.

Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticle-Based Double Drug Delivery System for Glucose-Responsive Controlled Release of Insulin and Cyclic AMP

Abstract: A boronic acid-functionalized mesoporous silica nanoparticle-based drug delivery system (BA-MSN) for glucose-responsive controlled release of both insulin and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) was synthesized Fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled, gluconic acid-modified insulin (FITC-G-Ins) proteins were immobilized on the exterior surface of BA-MSN and also served as caps to encapsulate cAMP molecules inside the mesopores of BA-MSN The release of both G-Ins and cAMP was triggered by the introduction of saccharides The selectivity of FITC-G-Ins release toward a series of carbohydrate triggers was determined to be fructose > glucose > other saccharides The unique feature of this double-release system is that the decrease of FITC-G-Ins release with cycles can be balanced by the release of cAMP from mesopores of MSN, which is regulated by the gatekeeper effect of FITC-G-Ins In vitro controlled release of cAMP was studied at two pH conditions (pH 74 and 85) Furthermore, the cytotoxicity of cAMP-loade