Laser-induced disaggregation of TiO2 nanofillers for uniform nanocomposites.

Exploiting the intrinsic photosensitivity of TiO2 nanoparticles, we demonstrated how ultraviolet (UV) pulsed laser irradiation of acrylate polymer nanocomposite solutions can separate the initial clusters of these colloidal semiconductor nanorods into clearly distinct units. From the irradiated solutions, optically clear nanocomposite films are obtained which exhibit enhanced optical properties with respect to the nanocomposites obtained without previous UV treatment.

Inhibiting effect of α(s1)-casein on Aß(1-40) fibrillogenesis.

BACKGROUND: α(s1)-Casein is one of the four types of caseins, the largest protein component of bovine milk. The lack of a compact folded conformation and the capability to form micelles suggest a relationship of α(s1)-casein with the class of the intrinsically disordered (or natively unfolded) proteins. These proteins are known to exert a stabilizing activity on biomolecules through specific interaction with hydrophobic surfaces. In the present work we focused on the effect of α(s1)-casein on the fibrillogenesis of 1-40 ß-amyloid peptide, involved in Alzheimer's disease. METHODS: The aggregation kinetics of ß-peptide in presence and absence of α(s1)-casein was followed under shear at 37°C by recording the Thioflavine fluorescence, usually taken as an indicator of fibers formation. Measurements of Static and Dynamic Light Scattering, Circular Dichroism, and AFM imaging were done to reveal the details of α(s1)-casein-Aß(1-40) interaction. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS: α(s1)-Casein addition sizably increases the lag-time of the nucleation phase and slows down the entire fibrillization process. α(s1)-Casein sequesters the amyloid peptide on its surface thus exerting a chaperone-like activity by means a colloidal inhibition mechanism. GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE: Insights on the working mechanism of natural chaperones in preventing or controlling the amyloid aggregation.

Laser synthesis of ligand-free bimetallic nanoparticles for plasmonic applications.

A picosecond laser ablation approach has been developed for the synthesis of ligand-free AuAg bimetallic NPs where the relative amount of Ag is controlled in situ through a laser shielding effect. Various measurements, such as optical spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy combined with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry, revealed the generation of homogenous 15 nm average size bimetallic NPs with different compositions and tunable localized surface plasmon resonance. Furthermore, ligand-free metallic nanoparticles with respect to chemically synthesized nanoparticles display outstanding properties, i.e. featureless Raman background spectrum, which is a basic requirement in many plasmonic applications such as Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy. Various molecules were chemisorbed on the nanoparticle and SERS investigations were carried out, by varying the laser wavelength. The SERS enhancement factor for AuAg bimetallic NPs shows an enhancement factor of about 5.7 × 10(5) with respect to the flat AuAg surface.

Fluorescence labeling methods influence the aggregation process of α-syn in vitro differently.

In a previous study, the coexistence of different aggregation pathways of insulin and ß-amyloid (Aß) peptides was demonstrated by correlative stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). This had been explained by suboptimal proteins labeling strategies that generate heterogeneous populations of aggregating species. However, because of the limited number of proteins considered, the failure of the fluorescent labeling that occurs in a large portion of the aggregating fibrils observed for insulin and Aß peptides, could not be considered a general phenomenon valid for all molecular systems. Here, we investigated the aggregation process of α-synuclein (α-syn), an amyloidogenic peptide involved in Parkinson's disease, which is significantly larger (MW ∼14 kDa) than insulin and Aß, previously investigated. The results showed that an unspecific labeling procedure, such as that previously adopted for shorter proteins, reproduced the coexistence of labeled/unlabeled fibers. Therefore, a site-specific labeling method was developed to target a domain of the peptide scarcely involved in the aggregation process. Correlative STED-AFM illustrated that all fibrillar aggregates derived from the aggregation of α-syn at the dye-to-protein ratio of 1 : 22 were fluorescent. These results, demonstrated here for the specific case of α-syn, highlight that the labeling artifacts can be avoided by careful designing the labeling strategy for the molecular system under investigation. The use of a label-free correlative microscopy technique would play a crucial role in the control of the setting of these conditions.

Fast scanning STED and two-photon fluorescence excitation microscopy with continuous wave beam.

In this paper we report stimulated emission depletion (STED) and two-photon excitation (2PE) fluorescence microscopy with continuous wave (CW) laser beam using a new generation laser scanning confocal microscope equipped for STED-CW (TCS STED-CW, Leica Microsystems, Mannheim, Germany). We show the possibility to achieve CW-2PE with the very same beam used for STED-CW. This feature extends the performance of the microscope allowing multimodal imaging (CW-2PE, STED-CW, confocal).

Gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA) release in the ciliated protozoon Paramecium occurs by neuronal-like exocytosis.

Paramecium primaurelia expresses a significant amount of gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA). Paramecia possess both glutamate decarboxylase (GAD)-like and vesicular GABA transporter (vGAT)-like proteins, indicating the ability to synthesize GABA from glutamate and to transport GABA into vesicles. Using antibodies raised against mammalian GAD and vGAT, bands with an apparent molecular weight of about 67 kDa and 57 kDa were detected. The presence of these bands indicated a similarity between the proteins in Paramecium and in mammals. VAMP, syntaxin and SNAP, putative proteins of the release machinery that form the so-called SNARE complex, are present in Paramecium. Most VAMP, syntaxin and SNAP fluorescence is localized in spots that vary in size and density and are primarily distributed near the plasma membrane. Antibodies raised against mammal VAMP-3, sintaxin-1 or SNAP-25 revealed protein immunoblot bands having molecular weights consistent with those observed in mammals. Moreover, P. primaurelia spontaneously releases GABA into the environment, and this neurotransmitter release significantly increases after membrane depolarization. The depolarization-induced GABA release was strongly reduced not only in the absence of extracellular Ca(2+) but also by pre-incubation with bafilomycin A1 or with botulinum toxin C1 serotype. It can be concluded that GABA occurs in Paramecium, where it is probably stored in vesicles capable of fusion with the cell membrane; accordingly, GABA can be released from Paramecium by stimulus-induced, neuronal-like exocytotic mechanisms.

Understanding biological dynamics: following cells and molecules to track functions and mechanisms.

The dissection of the molecular circuitries at the base of cell life and the identification of their abnormal transformation during carcinogenesis rely on the characterization of biological phenotypes generated by targeted overexpression or deletion of gene products through genetic manipulation. Fluorescence microscopy provides a wide variety of tools to monitor cell life with minimal perturbations. The observation of living cells requires the selection of a correct balance between temporal, spatial and "statistical" resolution according to the process to be analyzed. In the following paper ad hoc developed optical tools for dynamical tracking from cellular to molecular resolution will be presented. Particular emphasis will be devoted to discuss how to exploit light-matter interaction to selectively target specific molecular species, understanding the relationships between their intracellular compartmentalization and function.

Application of the split-gradient method to 3D image deconvolution in fluorescence microscopy.

The methods of image deconvolution are important for improving the quality of the detected images in the different modalities of fluorescence microscopy such as wide-field, confocal, two-photon excitation and 4Pi. Because deconvolution is an ill-posed problem, it is, in general, reformulated in a statistical framework such as maximum likelihood or Bayes and reduced to the minimization of a suitable functional, more precisely, to a constrained minimization, because non-negativity of the solution is an important requirement. Next, iterative methods are designed for approximating such a solution. In this paper, we consider the Bayesian approach based on the assumption that the noise is dominated by photon counting, so the likelihood is of the Poisson-type, and that the prior is edge-preserving, as derived from a simple Markov random field model. By considering the negative logarithm of the a posteriori probability distribution, the computation of the maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimate is reduced to the constrained minimization of a functional that is the sum of the Csiszár I-divergence and a regularization term. For the solution of this problem, we propose an iterative algorithm derived from a general approach known as split-gradient method (SGM) and based on a suitable decomposition of the gradient of the functional into a negative and positive part. The result is a simple modification of the standard Richardson-Lucy algorithm, very easily implementable and assuring automatically the non-negativity of the iterates. Next, we apply this method to the particular case of confocal microscopy for investigating the effect of several edge-preserving priors proposed in the literature using both synthetic and real confocal images. The quality of the restoration is estimated both by computation of the Kullback-Leibler divergence of the restored image from the detected one and by visual inspection. It is observed that the noise artefacts are considerably reduced and desired characteristics (edges and minute features as islets) are retained in the restored images. The algorithm is stable, robust and tolerant at various noise (Poisson) levels. Finally, by remarking that the proposed method is essentially a scaled gradient method, a possible modification of the algorithm is briefly discussed in view of obtaining fast convergence and reduction in computational time.

Spatial control of pa-GFP photoactivation in living cells.

Photoactivatable green fluorescent protein (paGFP) exhibits peculiar photo-physical properties making it an invaluable tool for protein/cell tracking in living cells/organisms. paGFP is normally excited in the violet range (405 nm), with an emission peak centred at 520 nm. Absorption cross-section at 488 nm is low in the not-activated form. However, when irradiated with high-energy fluxes at 405 nm, the protein shows a dramatic change in its absorption spectra becoming efficiently excitable at 488 nm. Confocal microscopes allow to control activation in the focal plane. Unfortunately, irradiation extends to the entire illumination volume, making impracticable to limit the process in the 3D (three-dimensional) space. In order to confine the process, we used two advanced intrinsically 3D confined optical methods, namely: total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) and two-photon excitation fluorescence (2PE) microscopy. TIRF allows for spatially selected excitation of fluorescent molecules within a thin region at interfaces, i.e. cellular membranes. Optimization of the TIRF optical set-up allowed us to demonstrate photoactivation of paGFP fused to different membrane localizing proteins. Exploitation of the penetration depth showed that activation is efficiently 3D confined even if limited at the interface. 2PE microscopy overcomes both the extended excitation volume of the confocal case and the TIRF constraint of operating at interfaces, providing optical confinement at any focal plane in the specimen within subfemtoliter volumes. The presented results emphasize how photoactivation by non-linear excitation can provide a tool to increase contrast in widefield and confocal cellular imaging.

Comprehensive correlation analysis for super-resolution dynamic fingerprinting of cellular compartments using the Zeiss Airyscan detector.

The availability of the Airyscan detector in the Zeiss LSM 880 has made possible the development of a new concept in fluctuation correlation spectroscopy using super-resolution. The Airyscan unit acquires data simultaneously on 32 detectors arranged in a hexagonal array. This detector opens up the possibility to use fluctuation methods based on time correlation at single points or at a number of points simultaneously, as well as methods based on spatial correlation in the area covered by the detector. Given the frame rate of this detector, millions of frames can be acquired in seconds, providing a robust statistical basis for fluctuation data. We apply the comprehensive analysis to the molecular fluctuations of free GFP diffusing in live cells at different subcellular compartments to show that at the nanoscale different cell environments can be distinguished by the comprehensive fluctuation analysis.

FRET measurements on fuzzy fluorescent nanostructures.

In the last decade, fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) has become a useful technique for studying intermolecular interactions applied to the analysis of biological systems. Although FRET measurements may be very helpful in the comprehension of different cellular processes, it can be difficult to obtain quantitative results, hence the necessity of studying FRET on controllable systems. Here, a fuzzy nanostructured system called a nanocapsule is presented as a nanometric-device allowing distance modulation, thus preserving photophysical properties of fluorescent dyes and exhibiting good potential features for improving quantitative FRET analysis. We evaluated the behavior of such a sample using four FRET methods (three of them based on steady-state fluorescence and one using lifetime measurements). Within some limitations that can be overcome, these nanodevices have the potential to serve as a benchmark system for characterizing new FRET couples and to develop quantitative approaches for FRET analysis.

Morphology, mechanical properties and viability of encapsulated cells.

The morphological and mechanical properties of encapsulated yeast cells (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) have been investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Single living cells have been coated through the alternate deposition of oppositely charged polyelectrolyte (PE) layers. The properties of cells coated by different numbers of PE layers and from PE solutions of different ionic strength have been investigated. AFM imaging indicates an increase in PE coating stability when decreasing the solution ionic strength. The Young's moduli of the different examined systems have been evaluated through a quantitative analysis of force-distance curves by using the Hertz-Sneddon model. The analysis indicates an increase in hybrid system stiffness when lowering the ionic strength of the PE solution. An evaluation of the viability of encapsulated cells was obtained by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) measurements. CLSM analysis indicates that cells preserve their subcellular structure and duplication capability after encapsulation. By coupling AFM and CLSM data, a correlation between local stiffness and duplication rate was obtained.

Removal of anti-Stokes emission background in STED microscopy by FPGA-based synchronous detection.

In stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy, the role of the STED beam is to de-excite, via stimulated emission, the fluorophores that have been previously excited by the excitation beam. This condition, together with specific beam intensity distributions, allows obtaining true sub-diffraction spatial resolution images. However, if the STED beam has a non-negligible probability to excite the fluorophores, a strong fluorescent background signal (anti-Stokes emission) reduces the effective resolution. For STED scanning microscopy, different synchronous detection methods have been proposed to remove this anti-Stokes emission background and recover the resolution. However, every method works only for a specific STED microscopy implementation. Here we present a user-friendly synchronous detection method compatible with any STED scanning microscope. It exploits a data acquisition (DAQ) card based on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), which is progressively used in STED microscopy. In essence, the FPGA-based DAQ card synchronizes the fluorescent signal registration, the beam deflection, and the excitation beam interruption, providing a fully automatic pixel-by-pixel synchronous detection method. We validate the proposed method in both continuous wave and pulsed STED microscope systems.

Aloe-emodin is a new type of anticancer agent with selective activity against neuroectodermal tumors.

Here we report that aloe-emodin (AE), a hydroxyanthraquinone present in Aloe vera leaves, has a specific in vitro and in vivo antineuroectodermal tumor activity. The growth of human neuroectodermal tumors is inhibited in mice with severe combined immunodeficiency without any appreciable toxic effects on the animals. The compound does not inhibit the proliferation of normal fibroblasts nor that of hemopoietic progenitor cells. The cytotoxicity mechanism consists of the induction of apoptosis, whereas the selectivity against neuroectodermal tumor cells is founded on a specific energy-dependent pathway of drug incorporation. Taking into account its unique cytotoxicity profile and mode of action, AE might represent a conceptually new lead antitumor drug.

Confocal microscopic study of GABA(A) receptors in Xenopus oocytes after rat brain mRNA injection: modulation by tyrosine kinase activity.

The expression of GABA(A) receptors in Xenopus oocytes injected with rat brain mRNA was studied by immunocytochemistry and evaluation of the distribution of fluorescent probes at the confocal microscope. The beta(2/3) subunit distributed exclusively on the membrane at the animal pole of the oocytes. Treatment of oocytes for 20 min with the protein tyrosine kinase inhibitor genistein, 200 microM, resulted in a lower presence of GABA(A) receptors on the membrane. The inactive genistein analogue daidzein, 200 microM, had no effect even with a 30 min treatment. Alkaline phosphatase but not a protein tyrosine phosphatase, when injected into oocytes, reduced GABA(A) receptor membrane expression. The data indicate that protein tyrosine phosphorylation modulates the expression on the plasma membrane of presynthesized GABA(A) receptors.

Fast and cost-effective fabrication of large-area plasmonic transparent biosensor array.

Surface enhanced Raman-based sensors are widely used for chemical and biological species analysis; but to date the high cost, long production time, hazardous, and toxic content as well as small sensing area and opacity are limiting their capabilities for widespread applications in the medical and environmental fields. We present a novel cost-effective method for fast laser-based fabrication of affordable large-area and transparent periodic arrays of ligand-free metallic nanoparticles, offering a maximum possibility for the adsorption/immobilization of molecules and labeling. Further, we demonstrate a remarkable detection limit in the picomolar range by means of Raman scattering, thus evidencing a superior signal-to-noise ratio compared to other sensor substrates. The high sensitivity performance along with a fast and cheap fabrication procedure of reusable large-area transparent plasmonic devices opens the route for direct, in situ multimodal optical analysis with broad applications in the biomedical/analytical fields.

Induced growth of dendrite gold nanostructure by controlling self-assembly aggregation dynamics.

Self-assembly of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) is an important growth mode for fabricating functional materials. In this work we report a dendrite structure formed by slowing down the aggregation dynamics of AuNPs self-assembly. The obtained results show that the aggregation dynamics is dominated by the Reaction Limited Aggregation Model (RLA) more than the Diffusion Limited Aggregation Model (DLA). In which the repulsion due to electrostatic forces is dominant by the Van Der Walls attraction forces, and low sticking probability of nanoparticles. The aggregation dynamics of AuNPs can be slowed down if the water evaporation of the drop casted colloidal AuNPs on a quartz substrate is slowed. Slowing down the evaporation allows electrostatic repulsion forces to decrease gradually. At certain point, the attraction forces become higher than the electrostatic repulsion and hence cluster aggregation take place slowly. The slow aggregation dynamics allows the nanoparticles to sample all possible orientation in the sticking site, searching for the lowest energy configuration. The size distribution of the nanoparticles in liquid is confirmed using dynamic light scattering based on Stokes-Einstein equation for diffusion coefficient in water. X-ray and photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the sample after aggregation showed a shift which is related to the aggregation compared with non-aggregated colloidal nanoparticles in the solution. The study shows that dendrite self similar structure can be formed by slowing down the aggregation dynamics of nanoparticles as a result of minimizing the Helmholtz free surface energy of the system.

Trichocyst membrane fate in living Paramecium primaurelia visualized by multimodal confocal imaging.

Trichocysts are secretory organelles located at the surface of several ciliates, docked at the plasma membrane. Their secretion is similar to other exocytic processes: the trichocyst membrane fuses with the plasma membrane, its content is released outside the cell, and the membrane is retrieved back into the cell. The fate of the trichocyst membrane in living Paramecium primaurelia was investigated by inducing massive synchronous exocytosis in the presence of fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated lectins or of cationized ferritin. The marker is trapped within the retrieved trichocyst membrane sac, and many regularly spaced, fluorescent ghosts are formed. As time proceeds, the number of labeled ghosts decreases, and few fluorescent vacuoles appear within the cell. The relationship between trichocyst ghosts and the vesicles of the phagosome-lysosome system was examined by labeling cells with Texas Red-conjugated bovine serum albumin, a fluorescent marker for phagocytosis. Starting from two confocal images of the same cell labeled with the two fluorescent probes, a new single image was generated by associating each image with a different red or green value. This multimodal analysis showed that trichocyst ghosts fuse with secondary lysosomes or are incorporated into digestive vacuoles. The vacuolar content is degraded and fluorescence is then found in the vesicles of the phagosome-lysosome system, and, at last, in small weakly labeled vesicles located on the cell surface.

Single-pinhole confocal imaging of sub-resolution sparse objects using experimental point spread function and image restoration.

Sparse fluorescent pointlike subresolution objects have been imaged using a diffraction limited single-pinhole confocal fluorescence microscope. A Maximum likelihood image restoration algorithm has been used in conjunction with a measure of the experimental point spread function for improving the three-dimensional imaging of subresolution sparse objects. The experimental point-spread-function profiles have been improved by a factor of 1.95 in lateral direction and 3.75 in axial direction resulting in full-width half maximum (FWHM) values of 91 +/- 11 nm and 160 +/- 26 nm. This amounts to 1. 43 and 2.15 in optical units, respectively. The lateral and axial FWHM of the sparse pointlike subresolution objects is about 5 and 3 times smaller than the wavelength. This result points to the attractive possibility of utilising a compact confocal architecture for localising punctuate fluorescent objects having subresolution dimensions. The key resides in the utilisation of the measured point spread function coupled to an appropriate image restoration approach, and, of course, in the stability of the confocal system being used.

Time-variant analysis of organelle and vesicle movement during phagocytosis in Paramecium primaurelia by means of fluorescence confocal laser scanning microscopy.

Vital fluorescent dyes (FITC-albumin, Texas Red-albumin, and acridine orange) were used together with a confocal laser scanning optical microscope (CLSM) to display and analyze formation, movement, and fusion of vesicles during the phagocytosis of Paramecium primaurelia, in the x-y-z-t space. By immobilizing living cells pulsed with a food vacuole marker at successive times after chasing in unlabeled medium, the intracellular movement of food vacuoles from their formation at the cytostome to their egestion at the cytoproct was visualized, and food vacuoles were selected in a specific digestion stage. Small pinocytic vesicles are shown to evaginate from the vacuoles and move in the cytoplasm. These vesicles are transported toward the cytopharynx where they enlarge the membrane of the nascent food vacuoles or fuse with stage II food vacuoles, when the vacuoles of stage II increase their size, changing from an acidic to an alkaline status. A multimodal analysis of confocal fluorescence images and the false-color technique were used to visualize vesicle movement vs. time. Starting from three images of the same cell at succeeding time points, a composite image was generated by associating with each originally acquired image a different color corresponding to each sampling point in time. The composite image shows that vesicles move away from the food vacuole in a scattered manner exhibiting changes in direction.