Sharif Digital Repository

Polycitric acid was conjugated onto the surface of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and hybrid nanomaterials containing CNT axis and polycitric acid branches that were highly soluble in aqueous solutions were synthesized. In this work, pristine MWCNTs were opened and functionalized through treatment with acid, then polycitric acid was covalently grafted onto their surface by the "grafting from" approach based on polycondensation of citric acid in the melting state. The chemical structure, morphology, thermal properties and size of MWCNT-g-PCA hybrid materials were investigated by IR, 13C NMR, 1H NMR, TEM, TGA, DSC and DLS. To investigate the biocompatibility of the synthesized hybrid nanomaterials... 

Pseudopolyrotaxanes, Ps-PR, consisting of α-cyclodextrin rings, polyethylene glycol axes and end triazine groups were prepared and then were capped by amino-functionalized quantum dots, NH 2-QDs, to achieve polyrotaxanes. The amino-functionalized QDs stoppers of polyrotaxanes were used as core to synthesize polyamidoamine, PAMAM, dendrons divergently and hybrid nanomaterials were obtained. Synthesized hybrid nanomaterials were characterized by different spectroscopy, microscopy and thermal analysis methods. They were freely soluble in water and their aqueous solutions were stable at room temperature over several months. Due to their biocompatible backbone, high functionality and water... 

Among diverse classes of hybrid nanomaterial-based drug delivery systems (HNDDSs) those based on the carbon nanotubes have attracted particular attention as carriers for the biologically relevant molecules due to their unique properties such as ability to cross the cell membranes and high surface area per unit weight for the high drug loading. Varity of HNDDSs based on the carbon nanotubes have been prepared and tested in vitro and in vivo for delivery of the drugs recently.Poor water solubility and low functionality are two critical factors that influence the performance of the CNTs for biomedical applications. Therefore, in order to make HNDDSs based on CNTs these factors should be... 

Nanotechnology has emerged as a key technology which has opened new vistas to find effective therapies for cancer. Nanomaterials are particularly promising candidates for early diagnosis of cancer cells. Several classes of nanomaterials, including dendritic and supramolecular polymers, carbon nanotubes, graphene and metal nanoparticles, have shown tremendous ability to recognize and destroy cancer cells in vivo. In this book, some of these novel systems and their potential applications in cancer therapy are reviewed  

The increasing importance of nanotechnology in the field of biomedical applications has encouraged the development of new nanomaterials endowed with multiple functions. Novel nanoscale drug delivery systems with diagnostic, imaging and therapeutic properties hold many promises for the treatment of different types of diseases, including cancer, infection and neurodegenerative syndromes. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are both low-dimensional sp2 carbon nanomaterials exhibiting many unique physical and chemical properties that are interesting in a wide range of areas including nanomedicine. Since 2004, CNTs have been extensively explored as drug delivery carriers for the intracellular transport of... 

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes decorated with Fe 3O 4 nanoparticles (Fe 3O 4NPs/MWCNT) were prepared and used to construct a novel biosensor for the simultaneous detection of adenine and guanine. The direct electro-oxidation of adenine and guanine on the modified electrode were investigated by linear sweep voltammetry. The results indicate a remarkable increase in the oxidation peak currents together with negative shift in the oxidation peak potentials for both adenine and guanine, in comparison to the bare glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The surface morphology and nature of the composite film deposited on GCE were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy,... 

Dendrimers are generally described as macromolecules that are characterized by their extensively branched three dimensional structures which provide a high degree of surface functionality and versatility. The unique properties associated with dendrimers such as uniform size, high degree of branching, water solubility, multivalency, well-defined molecular weight and available internal cavities makes them attractive to use in nanomedicine.Nanomedicine is explained as the application of nanotechnology to health. It exploits the improved and frequently novel physical, chemical, and biological properties of materials at the nanometric scale. Nanomedicine has potential impact on the prevention,... 

With the prospect of cancer therapies, gene therapy and innovative new answers for life-threatening diseases and life-science problems, nanomedicine has become a fast-growing field that has an incredible ability to bypass barriers. Due to their ability to cross biological barriers and translocation easily into the cytoplasm or nucleus of a cell through its membrane without generating an immunogenic response and toxic effects, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have became significant tools in nanomedicine, especially in the cancer therapy branch, as therapeutic agents or carriers for therapeutic agents with a high loading capacity. Because functionalized CNTs display low toxicity and are not... 

This chapter explains biomedical applications of cyclodextrin-polymers. Cyclodextrins (CDs) are a class of natural cyclic oligosaccharides with 6, 7, or 8 D-(+)-glucose units linked by α-1, 4-linkages. The geometry of CDs gives a hydrophobic internal cavity that various organic, inorganic and biological molecules can be fitted in it. Many hydroxyl groups are situated on the outer parts of the rings, which make some of CDs water-soluble. These unique physicochemical properties of CDs make them promising materials to design polymeric systems. In the present chapter, first, the effect of CDs on solubility, stability and bioavailability of drugs is described. Second, polymeric systems based on... 

Background and purpose of the study. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are emerging drug and imaging carrier systems which show significant versatility. One of the extraordinary characteristics of CNTs as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) contrasting agent is the extremely large proton relaxivities when loaded with gadolinium ion (Gdn 3+) clusters. Methods. In this study equated Gdn 3+ clusters were loaded in the sidewall defects of oxidized multiwalled (MW) CNTs. The amount of loaded gadolinium ion into the MWCNTs was quantified by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) method. To improve water solubility and biocompatibility of the system, the complexes were functionalized using diamine-terminated... 

In this research, the characteristics of the prepared samples in epoxy matrix by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), as well as scanning electron microscope (SEM) are evaluated. Meanwhile, the obtained mechanical properties of the specimen are investigated. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is also employed to evaluate the thermal degradation of manufactured nanocomposites. The thermal neutron absorption properties of nanocomposites containing 3 wt% of montmorillonite nanoclay (closite30B) have been studied experimentally, using an Am-Be point source. Mechanical tests reveal that the higher B4C concentrations, the more tensile strengths, but lower... 

In order to improve its biological properties, graphene oxide can be modified with hydrophilic polymers. Therefore, in this study, the surface of graphene oxide was modified with polyethylene glycol and albumin by covalent methods. In the subsequent step, paclitaxel which is a hydrophobic anticancer drug was loaded onto the surface of the functionalized graphene by π-π interactions. The synthesis of the nanocarrier and its interaction with paclitaxel were evaluated by FT-IR, CD, TEM, UV, AFM, DLS and fluorescence experiments. Release of the loaded drug from albumin-graphene conjugate was investigated at pH 5.4, 6.8 and 7.4  

Semiconductor quantum dots are a new class of nanomaterials which have unique optical and electronic properties. Their novel properties promise them as candidates to use in many area of science such as nanomedicine. In this chapter, properties of quantum dots, their synthetic procedures, modification of their surface especially by polymers will be reviewed briefly. Biomedical applications of polymer-quantum dots and their toxicity concerns in biology and also strategies to reduce their toxicity will be discussed  

Citric acid was polymerized onto the surface of functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTCOOH) and MWCNT-graft-poly(citric acid) (MWCNTg-PCA) hybrid materials were obtained. Due to the grafted poly(citric acid) branches, MWCNT-g-PCA hybrid materials not only were soluble in water but also were able to trap water soluble metal ions. Reduction of trapped metal ions in the polymeric shell of MWCNT-g-PCA hybrid materials by reducing agents such as sodium borohydride led to encapsulated metal nanoparticles on the surface of MWCNT. Herein palladium nanoparticles were encapsulated and transported by MWCNT-g-PCA hybrid materials (MWCNT-g-PCA-EPN) and their application as nanocatalyst toward... 

In this work the effect of a conjugated macromolecule on the conformation of CNT was studied. Typically polyglycerol (PG) was covalently grafted onto the surface of multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and MWCNT-graft-PG (MWCNT- g-PG) hybrid materials were obtained. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) experiments showed an average diameter around 100nm for MWCNT- g-PG hybrid materials in water. The difference between this size and the expected size for MWCNT- g-PG hybrid materials (the length of pristine MWCNTs was several micrometers) was assigned to the effect of the grafted PG on the conformation of MWCNT in the solution state. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) evaluations showed a change... 

Visual attributes are great means of describing images or scenes, in a way both humans and computers understand. In order to establish a correspondence between images and to be able to compare the strength of each property between images, relative attributes were introduced. However, since their introduction, hand-crafted and engineered features were used to learn increasingly complex models for the problem of relative attributes. This limits the applicability of those methods for more realistic cases. We introduce a deep neural network architecture for the task of relative attribute prediction. A convolutional neural network (ConvNet) is adopted to learn the features by including an... 

Bacterial infection is one of the biggest challenges in wound healing and imposes enormous burden on patient and medical system. Moreover, multidrug resistant microorganisms (MDR) limit the usage of therapeutic agents including antibiotics for wound treatment. Hydrogels are three-dimensional networks that have emerged as efficient scaffolds for the treatment of infected wounds. In addition to their intrinsic antibacterial activities, hydrogels are able to load and release therapeutic agents to keep the efficient dose during wound healing process. At the same lines, incorporation of metal nanoparticles (NPs) into hydrogels boosts their antibacterial activity. Moreover, photothermal agents...