Light-induced photoluminescence enhancement in chiral CdSe quantum dot films.

Chiral quantum dots (QDs) are promising materials applied in many areas, such as chiral molecular recognition and spin selective filter for charge transport, and can be prepared by facile ligand exchange approaches. However, ligand exchange leads to an increase in surface defects and reduces the efficiencies of radiative recombination and charge transport, which restricts further applications. Here, we investigate the light-induced photoluminescence (PL) enhancement in chiral L- and D-cysteine CdSe QD thin films, providing a strategy to increase the PL. The PL intensity of chiral CdSe QD films can be significantly enhanced over 100 times by continuous UV laser irradiation, indicating a strong passivation of surface defects upon laser irradiation. From the comparative measurements of the PL intensity evolutions in vacuum, dry oxygen, air, and humid nitrogen atmospheres, we conclude that the mechanism of PL enhancement is photo-induced surface passivation with the assistance of water molecules.

Distinct doorway states lead to triplet excited state generation in epigenetic RNA nucleosides.

N 6-Hydroxymethyladenosine (hm6A) and N6-formyladenosine (f6A) are two important intermediates during the demethylation process of N6-methyladenosine (m6A), which has been proven to show epigenetic function in mRNA. However, there is no knowledge about how the chemical integrity and stability could be altered when these two nucleosides are exposed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Herein, we report the first study on excited state dynamics of hm6A and f6A in solutions by using femtosecond time-resolved spectroscopy and quantum chemistry calculations. Surprisingly, triplet excited species are clearly identified in both hm6A and f6A after UV excitation, which is in sharp contrast to the 10-3 level triplet yield of adenosine scaffolds. Moreover, the doorway states leading to triplet states are found to be an intramolecular charge transfer state and a lower-lying dark nπ* state in hm6A and f6A, respectively. These discoveries pave the way to further study their effects on RNA strands and provide insight for understanding RNA photochemistry.

Engineering naphthalimide-cyanine integrated near-infrared dye into ROS-responsive nanohybrids for tumor PDT/PTT/chemotherapy.

Photodynamic (PDT) and photothermal therapies (PTT) are emerging treatments for tumour ablation. Organic dyes such as porphyrin, chlorin, phthalocyanine, boron-dipyrromethene and cyanine are the clinically or preclinically used photosensitizer or photothermal agents. Development of structurally diverse near-infrared dyes with long absorption wavelength is of great significance for PDT and PTT. Herein, we report a novel near-infrared dye ML880 with naphthalimide modified cyanine skeleton. The introduction of naphthalimide moiety results in stronger electron delocalization and larger redshift in emission compared with IR820. Furthermore, ML880 is co-loaded with chemotherapeutic drug into ROS-responsive mesoporous organosilica (RMON) to construct nanomedicine NBD&ML@RMON, which exhibits remarkable tumor inhibition effects through PDT/PTT/chemotherapy in vivo.

Excited State Dynamics of Methylated Guanosine Derivatives Revealed by Femtosecond Time-resolved Spectroscopy.

Methylated DNA/RNA nucleobases are important epigenetic marks in living species and play an important role for targeted therapies. Moreover, methylation could bring significant changes to the photo-stability of nucleic acid, leading these sites become mutational hotspots for disease such as skin cancer. While a number of studies have demonstrated the relationship between excited state dynamics and the biological function of methylated cytosine in DNA, investigations aimed at unraveling the excited state dynamics of methylated guanosine in RNA have been largely overlooked. In this work, influence of methylation on the excited state dynamics of guanosine is studied by using femtosecond time-resolved spectroscopy. Our results suggest that the effect of methyl substitution on the photophysical properties of guanosine is position sensitive. N1-methylguanosine shows very similar excited state dynamics as that in guanosine, while almost one order of magnitude longer lifetime of the La state is observed in N2, N2-dimethylguanosine. Notably, N7-methylation can lead to a new minimum on the La state and the excited state lifetime is two orders of magnitude longer than that of guanosine. These findings not only help understanding excited state dynamics of methylated guanosines, but also lay the foundation for further studying DNA/RNA strands incorporated with these bases.

High-Throughput Data of Circular RNA Profiles in Human Temporal Cortex Tissue Reveals Novel Insights into Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a class of long noncoding RNAs with a closed loop structure that regulate gene expression as microRNA sponges. CircRNAs are more enriched in brain tissue, but knowledge of the role of circRNAs in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) has remained limited. This study is the first to identify the global expression profiles and characteristics of circRNAs in human temporal cortex tissue from TLE patients. METHODS: Temporal cortices were collected from 17 TLE patients and 17 non-TLE patients. Total RNA was isolated, and high-throughput sequencing was used to profile the transcriptome of dysregulated circRNAs. Quantitative PCR was performed for the validation of changed circRNAs. RESULTS: In total, 78983 circRNAs, including 15.29% known and 84.71% novel circRNAs, were detected in this study. Intriguingly, 442 circRNAs were differentially expressed between the TLE and non-TLE groups (fold change≥2.0 and FDR≤0.05). Of these circRNAs, 188 were up-regulated, and 254 were down-regulated in the TLE patient group. Eight circRNAs were validated by real-time PCR. Remarkably, circ-EFCAB2 was intensely up-regulated, while circ-DROSHA expression was significantly lower in the TLE group than in the non-TLE group (P<0.05). Bioinformatic analysis revealed that circ-EFCAB2 binds to miR-485-5p to increase the expression level of the ion channel CLCN6, while circ-DROSHA interacts with miR-1252-5p to decrease the expression level of ATP1A2. CONCLUSIONS: The dysregulations of circRNAs may reflect the pathogenesis of TLE and circ-EFCAB2 and circ-DROSHA might be potential therapeutic targets and biomarkers in TLE patients.

Temporal lobe epilepsy with amygdala enlargement: a subtype of temporal lobe epilepsy.

BACKGROUND: Some recent studies suggest that some imaging-negative temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) had significant amygdala enlargement (AE). Contradictory data were also reported in previous studies regarding the association between AE and TLE. The present study was to investigate the clinical characters of a group of TLE with AE and compare the amygdala volume of the same patient before and after antiepileptic drugs treatment by a larger sample size. METHODS: This study recruited 33 mesial TLE patients with AE and 35 healthy volunteers. The clinical history, seizure semiology, electroencephalogram (EEG), fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) and amygdala volume were investigated. The amygdala volume were compared between ipsilateral and contralateral sides, TLE patients and 35 healthy controls, and patients at first and follow-up visit by 3.0 T MRI. RESULTS: Average seizure onset age was 42.0 years (SD 14.3). All patients had complex partial seizures, fourteen had occasional generalized tonic-clonic seizures which often happened during sleep. Ninety percent patients suffered from anxiety or depression. Thirty percent patients had memory decline. Interictal epileptiform discharges appeared predominantly in the anterior or inferior temporal area ipsilateral to AE. Interictal FDG-PET showed regional glucose hypometabolism in the ipsilateral temporal lobe. No hippocampal sclerosis (HS) was suspected in all patients. 22 patients demonstrated good seizure control and significantly reduced volume of the enlarged amygdala after treatment (P < 0.01). The other 11 patients showed initial response to treatment, followed by a gradual increase in seizure frequency over time, and no volume change of the enlarged amygdala after treatment. CONCLUSIONS: TLE with AE probably represents a distinct nosological and probably less homogeneous syndrome which is most likely a subtype of TLE without ipsilateral HS. The chronic and long lasting inflammatory processes or focal cortical dysplasia could lead to amygdala enlargement possibly.

Seizure semiology and electroencephalography in young children with lesional temporal lobe epilepsy.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to discuss the clinical features of seizure semiology and electroencephalography (EEG) in young children with lesional temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). METHOD: Children with lesional TLE received presurgical evaluation for intractable epilepsy. They were followed up for more than one year after temporal lobectomy. We reviewed the medical history and video-EEG monitoring of children with TLE to analyze the semiology of seizures and EEG findings and compared the semiology of seizures and EEG findings of childhood TLE and adult TLE. RESULTS: A total of 84 seizures were analyzed in 11 children (aged 23-108 months). The age of seizure onset was from 1 month to 26 months (a mean of 17.6 months). All of the patients exhibited prominent motor manifestations including epileptic spasm, tonic seizure, and unilateral clonic seizure. Seven children manifested behavioral arrest similar to an automotor seizure in adult TLE but with a shorter duration and higher frequency. The automatisms were typically orofacial, whereas manual automatisms were rarely observed. The EEG recordings revealed that diffuse discharge patterns were more common in younger children, whereas focal or unilateral patterns were more typical in older children. All of the patients were seizure-free after temporal lobectomy with more than one-year follow-up. All of the children had a mental development delay or regression; however, there was improvement after surgery, especially in those with surgery performed early. CONCLUSION: In contrast to TLE in adults, young children with lesional TLE probably represent a distinct nosological and probably less homogeneous syndrome. Although they had generalized clinical and electrographic features, resective epilepsy surgery should be considered as early as possible to obtain seizure control and improvement in mental development.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy investigation on human breast cancer cells.

BACKGROUND: Nanoparticles are potentially used for early cancer detection, accurate diagnosis, and cancer treatment. RESULTS: In this paper, the breast cancer cells treated with gold colloidal suspension were carefully studied by surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra. Raman spectroscopy combining with high-resolution electron microscope is employed to investigate the interaction of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) with the intracellular components. The TEM images show that the GNPs are taken into the living cells and enveloped into some vesicles named 'lick up vesicles' in the cytosol. CONCLUSIONS: The SERS spectra and SERS mapping of cells indicate that the major Raman bands are mostly assigned to the vibration characteristics of proteins, and the C-H in-plane bending mode of the substituted benzene in Phenylalanine is remarkably enhanced. Finally, the interaction mechanisms of the GNPs with the intracellular components are further discussed in detail.

[Application of intracranial electrode for locating epileptogenic zone for temporal lobe epilepsy surgery].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the application of intracranial electrodes (IE) for temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) surgery and assess the clinical utility of intracranial video electroencephalography (IVEEG). METHODS: The clinical data of 60 TLE patients undergoing implantation of IE were reviewed retrospectively. Cortical subdural strip, grids and depth electrodes were implanted by sphenotresia, bone disc craniotomy or stereotactic technology. RESULTS: The implanted electrodes were as follows: frontal-temporal lobe cortical strip (n = 34), frontal-anterior temporal-occipitotemporal lobe cortical strip (n = 7), bilateral temporal lobe cortical strip (n = 7), combined temporal lobe strip & depth (n = 7), anterior temporal-occipitotemporal junction cortical strip (n = 3) and combined strip & grid (n = 2). The following procedures were performed: anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) (n = 50), combined ATL & frontal focal cortical resection (n = 7), combined ATL & callosotomy (n = 1) and combined neocortex epileptogenic focus resection & amygdalohippocampectomy (n = 2). CONCLUSION: IVEEG is effective and important for the localization of epileptogenic focus in patients with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy.

Raman spectroscopic investigation on the interaction of malignant hepatocytes with doxorubicin.

Raman spectroscopy has proven to be a very powerful technique and is currently experiencing a renaissance. In this paper, it is used to explore the interaction between doxorubicin and malignant hepatocytes in vitro. For the addition of doxorubicin, the band intensity at 1609 cm-1, mainly assigned to C=C in-plane bending mode of phenylalanine and/or tyrosine residues, increases significantly, and the intensities of the bands at 1585 and 1313 cm-1, mainly due to the guanine bases, decrease greatly. In addition, Raman spectra are investigated at different doxorubicin concentrations, and the mean areas ratios of the band at 1450 to that at 1003 cm-1, A1450/A1003, fluctuate according to the doxorubicin concentration increasing, which suggests that doxorubicin affects the relative content of lipid in cells.

[Raman spectroscopic investigation on the interactions between liver Cancer cells (SMMC-7721) and fufang Luxiancao particles].

Luxiancao is a new medicine for liver cancer, and is purely natural botanical It has good curative effects and few side effects. The curative mechanism of Luxiancao is unknown. In the present paper, the authors used a 514. 5 nm laser to measure the changes in the Raman spectrum of liver cancer cells (SMMC-7721) treated by Luxiancao at different concentrations. The study can help us know more about the mechanism, efficiency and side effects of Luxiancao. The results show that significant changes were observed in the cells' Raman spectra after reacting with Luxiancao. The intensities at 785 and 1 092 cm(-1), corresponding to DNA phosphate backbone vibration, were reduced; and the Raman bands for the bases A and G at 1 312 and 1585 cm(-1) also decreased, indicating that Luxiancao may be inserted in DNA bases and influence the DNA replications, resulting in the reduction in DNA content and breaking of the DNA strands. Besides, the intensity of 1 360 cm(-1), belonging to Trp, decreased gradually and disappeared in the end, indicating the Trp of cancer cells began to be exposed when adding in Luxiancao. The bands at 1 004 cm(-1) for Phe and 1 656 cm(-1) for proteins alpha-helix also decreased, suggesting that there were changes in the structure of protein and circumstance of amino acid. Moreover, the effects on cancer cells were enhanced gradually with the HCPT concentration increasing. Since a Raman spectrum is a chemical fingerprint of a sample, the different concentration dependent changes in the Raman spectra of individual cells due to reacting with Luxiancao can overcome the limitations of other detection systems used for quantitative and qualitative analysis of the drug.

[Clinical feature of hippocampal lesion: report of 21 cases].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the clinical features of hippocampal lesions. METHODS: the clinical data of 21 patients with hippocampal lesions, 15 males and 6 females, aged 19 (8-42), with a duration of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE), underwent resection of the anterior temporal lobe, amygdaloid nucleus, and hippocampus. The resected hippocampal tissues were examined pathologically. Before the operation 24-hour EEG and MRI scan were performed. The patients were followed up for 1-2 years. RESULTS: The clinical manifestations included complex partial seizure (11 cases), absence seizure (5 cases), tonic-clonic seizure (4 cases), and simple partial seizure (1 case). EEG showed spike waves in 18 patients. MRI scan showed full hippocampus and long T2 signal in 10 cases, enlarged temporal horn, hyperintense signal in T2, and decreased volume of hippocampus in 8 cases, long T1 and T2 signals and obvious space-occupying lesion in hippocampus in one case, and normal images in 2 cases. Pathological examination revealed sclerosis of hippocampus in 11 cases, astrocytoma in 6 cases, paraganglioma in 1 case, embryonic tumor of neuroepithelial tissue in 1 case, atypical hyperplasia in 1 case, and radiation necrosis in 1 case. Sixteen of the eighteen followed-up patients remained seizure-free. Statistical analysis demonstrated significant difference in MRI between hippocampal tumor and hippocampal sclerosis. CONCLUSION: MTLE patients with T2 signal and hippocampus larger than that of the contralateral side should be considered as with hippocampal tumor and as indication of operation.