Theranostics, which is the combination of both therapeutic and diagnostic capacities in one dose, is a promising tool for both clinical application and research. Although there are many chromophores available for optical imaging, their applications are limited due to the photobleaching property or intrinsic toxicity. Curcumin, a natural compound extracted from the rhizome of curcuma longa, is well known thanks to its bio-pharmaceutical activities and strong fluorescence as biocompatible probe for bio-imaging. In this study, we aimed to fabricate a system with dual functions: diagnostic and therapeutic, based on poly(lactide)-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol succinate (PLA-TPGS) micelles co-loaded curcumin (Cur) and paclitaxel (PTX). Two kinds of curcumin nanoparticle (NP) were fabricated and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering methods. The cellular uptake and fluorescent activities of curcumin in these systems were also tested by bioassay studies, and were compared with paclitaxe-oregon. The results showed that (Cur + PTX)-PLA-TPGS NPs is a potential system for cancer theranostics.

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Silver nanoparticle (AgNP) has a wide range antibacterial effect and is extensively used in different aspects of medicine, food storage, household products, disinfectants, biomonitoring and environmental remediation etc. In the present study, we examined the growth inhibition effect of engineered silver nanoparticles against bloom forming cyanobacterial M. aeruginosa strain. AgNPs were synthesized by a chemical reduction method at room temperature and UV-Vis spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM) showed that they presented a maximum absorption at 410 nm and size range between 10 and 18 nm. M. aeruginosa cells exposed during 10 d to AgNPs to a range of concentrations from 0 to 1 mg l −1 . The changes in cell density and morphology were used to measure the responses of the M. aeruginosa to AgNPs. The control and treatment units had a significant difference in terms of cell density and growth inhibition (p<0.05). Increasing the concentration of AgNPs, a reduction of the cell growths in all treatment was observed. The inhibition efficiency was reached 98.7% at higher concentration of AgNPs nanoparticles. The term half maximal effective concentration (EC50) based on the cell growth measured by absorbance at 680 nm (A680) was 0.0075 mg l −1 . The inhibition efficiency was 98.7% at high concentration of AgNPs (1 mg l −1 ). Image of SEM and TEM reflected a shrunk and damaged cell wall indicating toxicity of silver nanoparticles toward M. aeruginosa.

Curcumin is a natural substance that exhibits the ability to inhibit and/or treat carcinogenesis in a variety of cell lines, but because of its poor solubility in water the treatment efficacy is limited. In this paper we report on the fabrication of self-assembled micelle nanoparticles loaded with a curcumin drug by use of a biocompatible copolymer of PLA-TPGS (d-a-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate—vitamin E TPGS) conjugate. The polylactide (PLA)-TPGS copolymer synthesized by ring-opening polymerization was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance (1 H NMR) techniques. The surface morphology of PLA-TPGS and curcumin loaded PLA-TPGS was determined by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The absorption and fluorescence examinations indicated that due to micellar capsulation the intensity of both types of spectra increased by about 4 times in comparison with those of the free curcumin sample.