Extracellular biosynthesis of gadolinium oxide (Gd₂O₃) nanoparticles, their biodistribution and bioconjugation with the chemically modified anticancer drug taxol

• Shadab Ali Khan,
• Sanjay Gambhir and
• Absar Ahmad

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 249–257, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.27

• in 50 mM MES/HEPES buffer (75:25 v/v) pH 6.0, 50 mM EDC and 30 mM NTEE was incubated at 30 °C for 45 min. Subsequently, the reaction was terminated with the addition of 1 mL of 10% TCA, and the precipitated Gd-peptide complex was collected by centrifugation, washed extensively with chilled acetone

Oriented attachment explains cobalt ferrite nanoparticle growth in bioinspired syntheses

• Annalena Wolff,
• Walid Hetaba,
• Marco Wißbrock,
• Stefan Löffler,
• Nadine Mill,
• Katrin Eckstädt,
• Axel Dreyer,
• Inga Ennen,
• Norbert Sewald,
• Peter Schattschneider and
• Andreas Hütten

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 210–218, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.23

• . The change in surface energy can be explained if c25-mms6 interacts with the crystallites in such a way that growth in which the (111) final crystal face forms is favoured. Growth modification by peptide adsorption has previously been reported [9][21][22]. The polypeptide-stabilized crystallites

• ]. However, this mechanism has not been verified yet and another interaction mechanism based on face-specific peptide adsorption is also possible and should be investigated. The fate of c25-mms6 during the fusion of the pbb cannot be deduced from the results. Whether the polypeptide is released from the pbb

Controlled synthesis and tunable properties of ultrathin silica nanotubes through spontaneous polycondensation on polyamine fibrils

• Jian-Jun Yuan,
• Pei-Xin Zhu,
• Daisuke Noda and
• Ren-Hua Jin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 793–804, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.90

• ][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] or amine-modified polysaccharides [30] have been used as template for the formation of silica nanotubes. For example, Yuwono et al. [23] reported the use of peptide-amphiphile nanofiber templates in order to direct the synthesis of hollow silica nanotubes with outer

Molecular dynamics simulations of mechanical failure in polymorphic arrangements of amyloid fibrils containing structural defects

• Hlengisizwe Ndlovu,
• Alison E. Ashcroft,
• Sheena E. Radford and
• Sarah A. Harris

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 429–440, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.50

• by protein or peptide self-assembly depends on the environmental growth conditions such as pH, temperature, salt concentration and mechanical agitation [10]. Since amyloid polymorphs have been observed with drastically different morphologies [11] and chemical properties [12], it is important to

• ], investigated fibril failure under tensile loading [21], revealed that geometrical confinement of β-sheets in spider silk leads to mechanical enhancement [22], and highlighted the role played by the peptide sequence on the mechanical resistance of amylin-derived fibrils [23]. In this work, three polymorphs of

• steric arrangements found in the three different polymorph symmetry classes influence fibril mechanical behaviour. The fibrils are probed from different directions, using distinct pulling geometries that we developed previously to study the role of the peptide sequence in modulating amyloid mechanical

Controlled deposition and combing of DNA across lithographically defined patterns on silicon

• Zeinab Esmail Nazari and
• Leonid Gurevich

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 72–76, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.8

• DNA–peptide conjugates. We suggest this method as a simple yet reliable technique for depositing and aligning DNA and DNA derivatives across nanofabricated patterns. Keywords: AFM; DNA molecular combing; DNA–peptide complexes; molecular electronics; surface modification; Introduction DNA is the

• stretching of various DNA–peptide conjugates. These nanomaterials have been recently prepared by our team and are composed of a dsDNA core and peripheral coating layer of self-assembled cationic peptides [21][22]. Results and Discussion As was mentioned above, DNA molecules acquire a relatively compact

• –peptide conjugates, while the original recipe was proven to be ineffective for combing these materials [11]. Figure 3 represents the topography of combed dsDNA conjugated with various peptides. Combing across nanoelectrodes was also possible for DNA–peptide conjugates (Figure 3e). The gas-phase deposition

Magnetic-Fe/Fe₃O₄-nanoparticle-bound SN38 as carboxylesterase-cleavable prodrug for the delivery to tumors within monocytes/macrophages

• Hongwang Wang,
• Tej B. Shrestha,
• Matthew T. Basel,
• Raj K. Dani,
• Gwi-Moon Seo,
• Sivasai Balivada,
• Marla M. Pyle,
• Heidy Prock,
• Olga B. Koper,
• Prem S. Thapa,
• David Moore,
• Ping Li,
• Viktor Chikan,
• Deryl L. Troyer and
• Stefan H. Bossmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 444–455, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.51

• [17][18][19]. SN38 conjugated to a cationic peptide (Vectocell) by an esterase cleavable linker has been reported. The conjugate (DTS-108) is highly soluble in water and liberated significantly higher levels of free SN38 than CPT-11 did in a dog model [20]. An alternate strategy is to use delivery

Distribution of functional groups in periodic mesoporous organosilica materials studied by small-angle neutron scattering with in situ adsorption of nitrogen

• Monir Sharifi,
• Dirk Wallacher and
• Michael Wark

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 428–437, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.49

• conductivities compared to grafted samples [25]. To the best of our knowledge there is only one report in the literature, by Mascotto et al., in which peptide-functionalized benzoic acid PMO materials were investigated by SAXS/SANS with in situ gas adsorption. The authors observed a complete contrast matching

Self-organizing bioinspired oligothiophene–oligopeptide hybrids

• Alexey K. Shaytan,
• Eva-Kathrin Schillinger,
• Elena Mena-Osteritz,
• Sylvia Schmid,
• Pavel G. Khalatur,
• Peter Bäuerle and
• Alexei R. Khokhlov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 525–544, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.57

• self-assembly and stimuli-responsive properties, provided by the peptide moieties combined with the semiconducting properties of the thiophene blocks, can result in novel opportunities for the design of advanced smart materials. These bio-inspired molecular hybrids are experimentally shown to form

• applications as building blocks in nano- and biotechnology. Understanding the molecular details of peptide self-assembly into fibrillar aggregates has been a challenge owing to the large size, low solubility, and the noncrystalline and heterogeneous nature of the fibrils. During the last decade, considerable

• progress in our understanding of the principles of fibril formation has been made owing to numerous experimental and theoretical studies and, importantly, the resolution of peptide arrangements at the atomistic level by means of X-ray crystallography and solid-state NMR [4][5][6]. The outstanding ability

Magnetic nanoparticles for biomedical NMR-based diagnostics

• Huilin Shao,
• Tae-Jong Yoon,
• Monty Liong,
• Ralph Weissleder and
• Hakho Lee

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2010, 1, 142–154, doi:10.3762/bjnano.1.17

• ], endonucleases and methylases [39]. In these assays, the enzyme activity disassembles pre-formed clusters of MNPs; this disintegration translates the enzymatic activity into a detectable T2 signal. In the first demonstration of this strategy, MNP aggregates were formed with the peptide sequence biotin-GDEVDGC

• . This sequence served as a linker, binding both an avidin-conjugated CLIO population (via the biotin/avidin interaction) as well as a second CLIO population (via the thiol provided by the terminal cysteine on the peptide) [13]. The subsequent addition of caspase-3 disassembled the aggregates by cleaving

• caspase-3. MNPs were clustered with a peptide linker containing the sequence DEVD and were rapidly dissociated upon the activity of caspase-3. This dissociation was not observed when a specific caspase-3 inhibitor was added. The enzyme-dependent disassembly of the MNP clusters resulted in an increase in