Gold-silver bimetallic nanoparticles (including alloy, core-shell and nanocage structure) are good noble metal nanomaterials with unique properties which have widespread applications in electronic, photonic, chemical and biological fields. Especially in recent years, more and more investigators are motivating this advanced material rapidly towards surface-enhanced raman scattering (SERS) and high catalytic activity of carbon monoxide oxidation at room temperature. Herein, we outlined the current research advances of gold-silver bimetallic nanoparticles in synthesis, optical properties, surfaceenhanced raman scattering application and catalytic activity, with the aim of stimulating more research to achieve more useful application as soon as possible.

Attaching DNA binding fluorochromes to nanoparticles (NPs) provides a way of obtaining NPs that bind to DNA through fluorochrome mediated interactions. To obtain a nanoparticle (NP) that bound to the DNA in biological systems, we attached the DNA binding fluorochrome, TO-PRO 1 (TO), to the surface of the Feraheme (FH) NP, to obtain a fluorochrome-functionalized NP denoted TO-FH. When reacted with DNA in vitro, TO-FH formed microaggregates that were characterized by fluorescence, light scattering, and T2 changes. The formation of DNA/TO-FH microaggregates was also characterized by AFM, with microaggregates exhibiting a median size of 200 nm, and consisting of DNA and multiple TO-FH NPs whose individual diameters were only 25–35 nm. TO-FH failed to bind normal cells in culture, but treatment with chemotherapeutic agents or detergents yielded necrotic cells that bound TO-FH and vital fluorochromes similarly. The uptake of TO-FH by HT-29 xenografts (treated with 5-FU and oxaliplatin) was evident by surface fluorescence and MRI. Attaching multiple DNA binding fluorochromes to magnetic nanoparticles provides a way of generating DNA binding NPs that can be used to detect DNA detection by microaggregate formation in vitro, for imaging the DNA of necrotic cells in culture, and for imaging the DNA of a tumor treated with a chemotherapeutic agent. Fluorochrome functionalized NPs are a multimodal (magnetic and fluorescent), highly multivalent (n ≈ 10 fluorochromes/NP) nanomaterials useful for imaging the DNA of biological systems.

Melanoma is known to be radioresistant and traditional treatments have been intractable, and therefore, novel approaches are required to improve therapeutic efficacy. Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have been explored as radiosensitizers, while most of the research in the area has focused on the enhancement occurred in the kilovoltage (kV ) range. The present study investigated the possible application and biological mechanism of gold nanorods (GNRs) for sensitization at clinically relevant MV X-ray energies. A375 melanoma cells were treated by gold nanorods (GNRs) with or without irradiation. The anti-proliferative impacts of the treatments were measured by MTT assay. The cellular uptake and intracellular localization were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy. Radiosensitizing effects were determined by a colony formation assay. Apoptosis and cell cycle data were measured by flow cytometry. DNA damage was estimated by γ-H2AX expression measured with immunofluorescent staining.Results showed that the addition of GNRs enhanced the radiosensitivity of A375 cells with a dose-modifying factor (DMFSF2) of 1.14, increasing more radiation-induced DNA double-strand breaks and apoptosis. DNA flow cytometric analysis indicated that GNRs plus irradiation significantly induced G2/M phase arrest in A375 cells.In Conclusions: GNRs could sensitize melanoma A375 cells to 6 MV X-ray irradiation, and this was mainly through increasing the DNA doublestrand breaks, in addition to the induction of a higher proportion of cells within the G2/M phase. The interaction of GNRs and high energy commonly used in the clinic may provides another rational for the potential application of GNRs in the treatment of cancer.. Citation: W. Xu, et al. The radiosensitization of melanoma cells by gold nanorods irradiated with MV X-ray .

We report a 44-year-old male with generalized progressive scleromyxoedema treated by total skin electron beam therapy (TSEBT) which produced a marked improvement in the skin lesion. TSEBT can provide effective treatment for patients with widespread skin involvement in scleromyxoedema.

The optimized technique has a good reproducibility and a high entrapment efficiency, so it could be used to prepare 5-fluorouracil-loaded chitosan microspheres for the intranasal administration.Chitosan is a good material for nasal preparation and has prospective development in the pharmaceutical field.