Search

Inflammatory breast carcinoma (IBC) is one of the most lethal forms of human breast cancer, and effective treatment for IBC is an unmet clinical need in contemporary oncology. Tumor-targeted theranostic approaches are emerging in precision medicine, but only a few specific biomarkers are available. Here we report up-regulation of the 78-kDa glucose-regulated protein (GRP78) in two independent discovery and validation sets of specimens derived from IBC patients, suggesting translational promise for clinical applications. We show that a GRP78-binding motif displayed on either bacteriophage or adeno-associated virus/phage (AAVP) particles or loop-grafted onto a human antibody fragment specifically targets orthotopic IBC and other aggressive breast cancer models in vivo. To evaluate the theranostic value, we used GRP78-targeting AAVP particles to deliver the human Herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase type-1 (HSVtk) transgene, obtaining simultaneous in vivo diagnosis through PET imaging and tumor treatment by selective activation of the prodrug ganciclovir at tumor sites. Translation of this AAVP system is expected simultaneously to image, monitor, and treat the IBC phenotype and possibly other aggressive (e.g., invasive and/or metastatic) subtypes of breast cancer, based on the inducible cell-surface expression of the stress-response chaperone GRP78, and possibly other cell-surface receptors in human tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated top and bottom exchange biased perpendicularly magnetized magnetic tunnel junctions (pMTJs) with IrMn and the effects of the multilayer structure on the magnetoresistance and perpendicular exchange bias. The TMR ratio of the top exchange biased (TEB)-pMTJ was significantly deteriorated compared with that of the pseudo-pMTJ, due to the high junction resistance and the in-plane anisotropy induced in the Co/IrMn interface. The TMR ratio and perpendicular exchange bias were improved in the bottom exchange biased (BEB)-pMTJ as compared with those of the TEB-pMTJ. Perpendicularly magnetized buffer layers, such as (Pd/Co)11, should be used to induce perpendicular exchange coupling with antiferromagnets such as IrMn in BEB-pMTJs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a ferro-actuator using a porous polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membrane. In detail, we fabricated the silica-embedded PVDF membrane using a sol-gel process with PVDF solution and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) solution, where the size of the silica was determined by the ratio of the PVDF and TEOS solutions. Using hydrofluoric acid (HF) etching, the silica were removed from the silica-embedded PVDF membrane, and porous PVDF membranes with different porosities were obtained. Finally, through absorption of a ferrofluid on the porous PVDF membrane, the proposed ferro-actuator using porous PVDF membranes with different porosities was fabricated. We executed the characterization and actuation test as follows. First, the silica size of the silica-embedded PVDF membrane and the pore size of the porous PVDF membrane were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging. Second, energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy analysis showed that the silica had clearly been removed from the silica-embedded PVDF membrane by HF etching. Third, through x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) of the ferro-actuators, we found that more ferrofluids were absorbed by the porous PVDF membrane when the pore of the membrane was smaller and uniformly distributed. Finally, we executed tip displacement and a blocking force test of the proposed ferro-actuator using the porous PVDF membrane. Similar to the VSM result, the ferro-actuator that used a porous PVDF membrane with smaller pores exhibited better actuation performance. The ferro-actuator that used a porous PVDF membrane displayed a tip displacement that was about 7.2-fold better and a blocking force that was about 6.5-fold better than the ferro-actuator that used a pure PVDF membrane. Thus, we controlled the pore size of the porous PVDF membrane and enhanced the actuation performance of the ferro-actuator using a porous PVDF membrane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]