Poly(1-vinylimidazole) polyplexes as novel therapeutic gene carriers for lung cancer therapy

• Gayathri Kandasamy,
• Elena N. Danilovtseva,
• Vadim V. Annenkov and
• Uma Maheswari Krishnan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 354–369, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.26

• cells were stained with Hoechst 33258 and imaged with laser scanning confocal microscopy (Olympus FV1000, Tokyo, Japan). Gene expression analysis: VEGF gene silencing was determined using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR, AG22331, Eppendorf, Germany). About 3 × 105 A549 cells were

• absence of free siRNA in the polyplex lanes treated with heparin shows the stability of the complex formed. (A) Intracellular uptake of the polyplex monitored by using laser scanning confocal microscopy after 4 h of treatment with Cy3-labeled anti-VEGF siRNA (emission wavelength = 568 nm) at a final siRNA

Rational design of block copolymer self-assemblies in photodynamic therapy

• Maxime Demazeau,
• Laure Gibot,
• Anne-Françoise Mingotaud,
• Patricia Vicendo,
• Clément Roux and
• Barbara Lonetti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 180–212, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.15

Molecular architectonics of DNA for functional nanoarchitectures

• Debasis Ghosh,
• Lakshmi P. Datta and
• Thimmaiah Govindaraju

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 124–140, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.11

• data (Figure 8c) showed the movement of ions through the lipid–nanopore interface via the formation of a toroidal pore. The binding of porphyrin-tethered nanopores with giant unilamellar vesicles was analyzed by confocal microscopy (Figure 8d). The inherent fluorescent signal of porphyrin showed their

Internalization mechanisms of cell-penetrating peptides

• Ivana Ruseska and
• Andreas Zimmer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 101–123, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.10

• observed using confocal microscopy [39][40]. It is assumed that the punctate staining indicates endocytic uptake, while the diffuse staining is correlated with direct translocation. The switch between different uptake mechanisms might be concentration-dependent. It has been shown that at low concentration

Small protein sequences can induce cellular uptake of complex nanohybrids

• Jan-Philip Merkl,
• Malak Safi,
• Christian Schmidtke,
• Fadi Aldeek,
• Johannes Ostermann,
• Tatiana Domitrovic,
• Sebastian Gärtner,
• John E. Johnson,
• Horst Weller and
• Hedi Mattoussi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2477–2482, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.238

• -γ loading of per nano-assembly, using confocal microscopy (Figure 1E). A close examination of the images allows us to distinguish three different colour distributions: the cell nuclei shown in blue (stained with DAPI), the endosomal compartments counterstained in red (labelled with Cy5-transferin

• cellular fate of these structures rather than appearance in solution. The confocal microscopy data were further exploited to generate a z-stack, to visualize the fluorescence distribution of the nanocomposites side-by-side with that of the Cy5 dye and cell nuclei. The 3D-stack, shown in Figure 2A, confirms

• and 14 His6-MBP-γ equiv/AuNP, scale bar = 50 µm. (E) Confocal microscopy images of HeLa cells incubated with nanohybrids for 1 h; c(QD) = 50 nM and 7 His6-MBP-γ equiv/AuNP. 60× magnification was used. Scale bar = 20 µm. (Top panels) data correspond to nanohybrids containing His6-MBP (no γ-peptide

pH-Controlled fluorescence switching in water-dispersed polymer brushes grafted to modified boron nitride nanotubes for cellular imaging

• Saban Kalay,
• Yurij Stetsyshyn,
• Volodymyr Donchak,
• Khrystyna Harhay,
• Ostap Lishchynskyi,
• Halyna Ohar,
• Yuriy Panchenko,
• Stanislav Voronov and
• Mustafa Çulha

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2428–2439, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.233

• thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), dynamic light scattering (DLS), ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometry (UV–vis), laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The DLS results demonstrated that P(AA-co-FA)-functionalized BNNTs

• mixed with KBr to form a pellet. The spectra in the range of 7800–350 cm−1 with a 5 cm−1 step were collected in reflection or in transmission mode. Laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) P(AA-co-FA)-functionalized BNNTs were imaged with a Zeiss Axio Imager M2 laser scanning confocal microscope (Carl

• are revealed by the stretching vibrations at 1120 and 1050 cm−1. All of this spectral information confirms the successful fabrication of grafted P(AA-co-FA) brushes on oligoperoxide-functionalized BNNTs. The optical properties of P(AA-co-FA)-functionalized BNNTs were studied by absorption and confocal

Deterministic placement of ultra-bright near-infrared color centers in arrays of silicon carbide micropillars

• Stefania Castelletto,
• Abdul Salam Al Atem,
• Faraz Ahmed Inam,
• Hans Jürgen von Bardeleben,
• Sophie Hameau,
• Ahmed Fahad Almutairi,
• Gérard Guillot,
• Shin-ichiro Sato,
• Alberto Boretti and
• Jean Marie Bluet

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2383–2395, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.229

• emission of at least a factor of 6 using micro-photoluminescence systems. Using custom confocal microscopy setups, we characterized the emission of VSi measuring an enhancement by up to a factor of 20, and of NCVSi with an enhancement up to a factor of 7. The experimental results are supported by finite

• the VSiVC and NCVSi. A detailed confocal microscopy study of NCVSi in the pillars is given in the next section. A summary of the PL-measured color centers in each sample is reported in Table 1. Confocal microscopy Confocal fluorescence scanning microscopy was performed using two custom-built systems

• , and dead time set at 2 μs) to measure the NCVSi emission (Figure 4). In the first confocal microscopy setup a variable wavelength super continuum NKT Photonics, Fianium WhiteLase pulsed laser was used for sample illumination at 730 nm. The laser has a pulse width of 30 ps and a repetition rate

Atomic force acoustic microscopy reveals the influence of substrate stiffness and topography on cell behavior

• Yan Liu,
• Li Li,
• Xing Chen,
• Ying Wang,
• Meng-Nan Liu,
• Jin Yan,
• Liang Cao,
• Lu Wang and
• Zuo-Bin Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2329–2337, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.223

• ], confocal microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) [12] and atomic force microscopy (AFM) [16][17] have been employed to investigate cell–substrate interactions. Fluorescence and confocal microscopy are traditional techniques to investigate the intra- and intercellular processes in biological studies

Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond for nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging applications

• Alberto Boretti,
• Lorenzo Rosa,
• Jonathan Blackledge and
• Stefania Castelletto

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2128–2151, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.207

Gold-coated plant virus as computed tomography imaging contrast agent

• Alaa A. A. Aljabali,
• Mazhar S. Al Zoubi,
• Khalid M. Al-Batanyeh,
• Ali Al-Radaideh,
• Mohammad A. Obeid,
• Abeer Al Sharabi,
• Walhan Alshaer,
• Bayan AbuFares,
• Tasnim Al-Zanati,
• Murtaza M. Tambuwala,
• Naveed Akbar and
• David J. Evans

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1983–1993, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.195

• . Fluorescence microscopy confirmed that the VCAM1-PEG5000Au-CPMV can selectively bind to their target, whereas, the IgG-PEG5000Au-CPMV control did not show any fluorescence signal, which is indicative that no binding to the surface of the cells occurred (Figure 4A). The merged confocal microscopy image in

• of growth surface and were used between passages 2 and 3. Subculture occurred after 60–70% confluence after trypsinization (0.025% trypsin, 0.5 mM EDTA, 10 mM HEPES buffer pH 6.5). RAW264.7 cell labeling and confocal microscopy: Cells of a murine endothelial line (100 μL of 1 × 106 cells/mL, RAW264.7

Engineered superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) for dual-modality imaging of intracranial glioblastoma via EGFRvIII targeting

• Xianping Liu,
• Chengjuan Du,
• Haichun Li,
• Ting Jiang,
• Zimiao Luo,
• Zhiqing Pang,
• Daoying Geng and
• Jun Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1860–1872, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.181

• confocal microscopy (Figure 3a). Subsequently, the targeting capability of the PEPHC1 peptide to U87MG-EGFRvIII cells was identified. After incubation with the peptide PEPHC1, U87MG-EGFRvIII cells demonstrated significantly higher fluorescence intensity than U87MG (Figure 3c). A further FACS assay revealed

• that the binding of PEPHC1 peptide with U87MG-EGFRvIII cells was 6.5-fold that of U87MG (Figure 3d), which agreed well with the results observed by confocal microscopy (Figure 3c). These results indicated that U87MG-EGFRvIII cells overexpressed EGFRvIII and PEPHC1 peptide had special targeting to U87MG

Nanoarchitectonics meets cell surface engineering: shape recognition of human cells by halloysite-doped silica cell imprints

• Elvira Rozhina,
• Ilnur Ishmukhametov,
• Svetlana Batasheva,
• Farida Akhatova and
• Rawil Fakhrullin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1818–1825, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.176

• Milli-Q, and studied with AFM and SEM. Cells recognition by imprints The recognition of HeLa cells with imprints was visualised using bright-field optical microscopy (Axio Imager Z2, Carl Zeiss), and laser confocal microscopy (LSM 780: 405 nm and 633 nm lasers). For fluorescence microscopy imaging

• /halloysite imprints templated on HeLa cells; (D) EDX spectrum taken from the sample shown in (C), demonstrating the typical silica and halloysite elemental distribution; (E) optical and (F) confocal microscopy images demonstrating the recognition of HeLa cells with cell-templated imprints (cell nuclei

The nanoscaled metal-organic framework ICR-2 as a carrier of porphyrins for photodynamic therapy

• Jan Hynek,
• Sebastian Jurík,
• Martina Koncošová,
• Jaroslav Zelenka,
• Ivana Křížová,
• Tomáš Ruml,
• Kaplan Kirakci,
• Ivo Jakubec,
• František Kovanda,
• Kamil Lang and
• Jan Demel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2960–2967, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.275

• using confocal microscopy. Figure 7 clearly shows that the nanoparticles accumulate in intracellular vesicles, which strongly co-localize with the fluorescent marker of lysosomes. This is similar to the results of a previous study performed with PCN-222 nanoparticles [22]. Toxicity and phototoxicity

• resazurin assay (Sigma-Aldrich). Dark toxicity experiments were performed in the same way in the dark. Confocal microscopy: HeLa cells were seeded onto dishes with a glass bottom (MatTek) in full culture medium. After 24 h, the cells received fresh medium without serum and phenol red, and were mixed with

• were 405 nm and 488 nm, respectively. During the confocal microscopy, the cells were maintained at 37 °C and 5% CO2 atmosphere. Flow cytometry: The cells were plated onto 6-well plates in full culture medium. The next day, they were treated with indicated amount of nanoparticles for the indicated

Fabrication of photothermally active poly(vinyl alcohol) films with gold nanostars for antibacterial applications

• Mykola Borzenkov,
• Maria Moros,
• Claudia Tortiglione,
• Serena Bertoldi,
• Nicola Contessi,
• Silvia Faré,
• Angelo Taglietti,
• Agnese D’Agostino,
• Piersandro Pallavicini,
• Maddalena Collini and
• Giuseppe Chirico

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2040–2048, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.193

• (Figure S2). We studied the distribution of the GNSs within the PVA films by means of reflection confocal microscopy (Figure 2). By acquiring z-stacks (20 planes, 1 μm spacing) on a 25.8 μm field of view, it was possible to estimate the density of particles in the film with 20% accuracy (see Experimental

Photoluminescence of CdSe/ZnS quantum dots in nematic liquid crystals in electric fields

• Margarita A. Kurochkina,
• Elena A. Konshina and
• Daria Khmelevskaia

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1544–1549, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.145

• . Figure 3 shows confocal microscopy images of QDs and their aggregates in the active (a, b, c) and the passive (d, e) LC matrix. We have obtained the images in Figure 3a,d after filling the LC cells without the application of an electric field. The images in Figure 3b,e correspond to the maximal PL of QDs

Optical near-field mapping of plasmonic nanostructures prepared by nanosphere lithography

• Gitanjali Kolhatkar,
• Alexandre Merlen,
• Jiawei Zhang,
• Chahinez Dab,
• Gregory Q. Wallace,
• François Lagugné-Labarthet and
• Andreas Ruediger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1536–1543, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.144

• spots due to higher and localized enhancement. Nevertheless, this technique is diffraction limited to a few hundred of nanometers as it is based on confocal microscopy measurements. Galarreta et al. [26] coated such triangular structures with an azopolymer thin film sensitive to laser irradiation and

Room-temperature single-photon emitters in titanium dioxide optical defects

• Kelvin Chung,
• Yu H. Leung,
• Chap H. To,
• Aleksandra B. Djurišić and
• Snjezana Tomljenovic-Hanic

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1085–1094, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.100

• section “Results and Discussion”, it is preferable to obtain a clear indication of deposited nanopowder on the substrate. Confocal microscopy Figure 1 is a schematic of the scanning confocal microscope used to investigate the TiO2 defects. The samples were illuminated by a frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser

• Confocal microscopy of various TiO2 morphologies The various TiO2 samples were investigated at room temperature using scanning confocal microscopy. This form of microscopy allows for high-resolution images that resolve fluorescence signals from individual defects. The motivation in exploring different TiO2

• signals in the emission peaks by suppressing the contributions due to phonon sidebands. Conclusion This study investigated thin films, single crystals and nanopowders of TiO2 via confocal microscopy. For the first time, it has been observed that TiO2 defects exhibit antibunching behaviour within thin

Green synthesis of fluorescent carbon dots from spices for in vitro imaging and tumour cell growth inhibition

• Nagamalai Vasimalai,
• Vânia Vilas-Boas,
• Juan Gallo,
• María de Fátima Cerqueira,
• Mario Menéndez-Miranda,
• José Manuel Costa-Fernández,
• Lorena Diéguez,
• Begoña Espiña and
• María Teresa Fernández-Argüelles

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 530–544, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.51

• unequivocally affirm that the C-dots synthesized here have a strong potential for bioanalytical and clinical applications. First, results obtained from fluorescence confocal microscopy studies have demonstrated that the C-dots from spices can be easily tracked when incorporated into cells, because their self

Temperature-tunable lasing from dye-doped chiral microdroplets encapsulated in a thin polymeric film

• Gia Petriashvili,
• Mauro Daniel Luigi Bruno,
• Maria Penelope De Santo and
• Riccardo Barberi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 379–383, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.37

• water evaporation, the formed thin film can be easily detached from the glass (Figure 4). In Figure 5, a picture of the microdroplets obtained through confocal microscopy (Leica,DM6000 TCS SP8) is shown, which confirms the stabilization through PVA by preventing the coalescence of droplets during the

Nanoparticle delivery to metastatic breast cancer cells by nanoengineered mesenchymal stem cells

• Liga Saulite,
• Karlis Pleiko,
• Ineta Popena,
• Dominyka Dapkute,
• Ricardas Rotomskis and
• Una Riekstina

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 321–332, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.32

• . Endocytosis inhibitor assay; QD endocytic pathway analysis in MSCs, MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cells; Confocal microscopy z-sections of MSC and breast cancer cell co-culture spheroids; EpCAM expression in MSCs and breast cancer cells MCF7 and MDA-MB-231; QD transfer from nanoengineered MSCs to MCF7 cells using EpCAM

Carbon nano-onions as fluorescent on/off modulated nanoprobes for diagnostics

• Stefania Lettieri,
• Marta d’Amora,
• Adalberto Camisasca,
• Alberto Diaspro and
• Silvia Giordani

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1878–1888, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.188

• -CNOs as pH-activated fluorescent probes. HeLa cells were incubated with fluo-CNOs (20 µg mL−1) and observed by confocal microscopy at different pH values in PBS to demonstrate the activation of the fluorescent emission in acidic environment. After the fixation, the nuclei were stained with a blue

• confocal microscopy of cells incubated for 12 h with 20 µg mL−1 of fluo-CNOs in DMEM, and then for 1 h in acidic PBS (pH 4.5) and stained with Hoechst 33342. Synthesis of BODIPY derivatives 2 and 3. i) 2,4-dimethylpyrrole, TFA, DCM, DIPEA, BF3OEt2; ii) 4-(N,N-dimethylamino)benzaldehyde, toluene, piperidine

Optical techniques for cervical neoplasia detection

• Tatiana Novikova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1844–1862, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.186

• biochemical properties of tissues. The different methods, including spectroscopic (diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, induced fluorescence and autofluorescence spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy) and imaging techniques (confocal microscopy, optical coherence tomography, Mueller matrix imaging polarimetry

• such as diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, in vivo confocal microscopy, optical coherence tomography and multi-wavelength imaging Mueller polarimetry, as well as the combination of different techniques have been explored to improve the detection of cervical

• diagnostics can be significantly improved by the high-resolution optical imaging technologies that image subcellular structures in vivo, thus, replacing tissue removal, processing, and examination by pathologists [67]. In vivo confocal microscopy is an optical technology that can non-invasively reconstruct

Synthesis and functionalization of NaGdF₄:Yb,Er@NaGdF₄ core–shell nanoparticles for possible application as multimodal contrast agents

• Dovile Baziulyte-Paulaviciene,
• Vitalijus Karabanovas,
• Marius Stasys,
• Greta Jarockyte,
• Vilius Poderys,
• Simas Sakirzanovas and
• Ricardas Rotomskis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1815–1824, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.183

• treated with 10 µg/mL of Tween 80-coated core–shell UCNPs for 24 h. Then the cells were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde and stained with DAPI. The high-resolution imaging system for UCNP imaging was based on a confocal microscopy system Nikon C1si (Japan). A 980 nm continuous wave laser with an intensity

• control module was introduced into the confocal microscopy system for excitation of samples in the NIR spectral region. 450/35 nm, 515/30 nm and 605/75 nm band pass filters (where the first value is the center/peak wavelength and the second refers to the bandwidth of the filter) were used to block

Air–water interface of submerged superhydrophobic surfaces imaged by atomic force microscopy

• Markus Moosmann,
• Thomas Schimmel,
• Wilhelm Barthlott and
• Matthias Mail

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1671–1679, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.167

• the stability and the persistence of air layers [6]. Air–water interfaces are very sensitive and vulnerable to almost any kind of disturbance. For this reason, several methods have been developed to allow for imaging of the interface, for example, by using confocal microscopy [7] or freezing

A biofunctionalizable ink platform composed of catechol-modified chitosan and reduced graphene oxide/platinum nanocomposite

• Peter Sobolewski,
• Agata Goszczyńska,
• Małgorzata Aleksandrzak,
• Karolina Urbaś,
• Joanna Derkowska,
• Agnieszka Bartoszewska,
• Jacek Podolski,
• Ewa Mijowska and
• Mirosława El Fray

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1508–1514, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.151

• microplotter (Sonoplot GIX Microplotter Desktop). As a proof of concept, printed patterns were biofunctionalized with DNA oligonucleotide probes for Streptococcus agalactiae (Group B streptococcus) using glutaraldehyde as a linker. Confocal microscopy revealed the successful hybridization of complementary

• B streptococcus, GBS) and visualize the hybridization of fluorescently-labeled complementary polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplicons using confocal microscopy. Results and Discussion rGO–Pt Dispersions Our ink system is composed of two components: the rGO–Pt dispersion and the polymer solution

• use in non-viral gene delivery [16]. As this is a proof-of-concept study, we utilized confocal microscopy in order to assess the hybridization of Cy3 fluorescence-labeled complementary PCR product (Figure 4). This method, while not practical for real-world biosensing applications, allowed us to