Browsing by Subject "Surface Plasmon Resonance"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7

Open Access
Far-field analysis of axially symmetric three-dimensional directional cloaks.
(Opt Express, 2013-04-22) Ciracì, Cristian; Urzhumov, Yaroslav; Smith, David R
Axisymmetric radiating and scattering structures whose rotational invariance is broken by non-axisymmetric excitations present an important class of problems in electromagnetics. For such problems, a cylindrical wave decomposition formalism can be used to efficiently obtain numerical solutions to the full-wave frequency-domain problem. Often, the far-field, or Fraunhofer region is of particular interest in scattering cross-section and radiation pattern calculations; yet, it is usually impractical to compute full-wave solutions for this region. Here, we propose a generalization of the Stratton-Chu far-field integral adapted for 2.5D formalism. The integration over a closed, axially symmetric surface is analytically reduced to a line integral on a meridional plane. We benchmark this computational technique by comparing it with analytical Mie solutions for a plasmonic nanoparticle, and apply it to the design of a three-dimensional polarization-insensitive cloak.
Open Access
H3N2 influenza infection elicits more cross-reactive and less clonally expanded anti-hemagglutinin antibodies than influenza vaccination.
(PloS one, 2011-01) Moody, M Anthony; Zhang, Ruijun; Walter, Emmanuel B; Woods, Christopher W; Ginsburg, Geoffrey S; McClain, Micah T; Denny, Thomas N; Chen, Xi; Munshaw, Supriya; Marshall, Dawn J; Whitesides, John F; Drinker, Mark S; Amos, Joshua D; Gurley, Thaddeus C; Eudailey, Joshua A; Foulger, Andrew; DeRosa, Katherine R; Parks, Robert; Meyerhoff, R Ryan; Yu, Jae-Sung; Kozink, Daniel M; Barefoot, Brice E; Ramsburg, Elizabeth A; Khurana, Surender; Golding, Hana; Vandergrift, Nathan A; Alam, S Munir; Tomaras, Georgia D; Kepler, Thomas B; Kelsoe, Garnett; Liao, Hua-Xin; Haynes, Barton F
During the recent H1N1 influenza pandemic, excess morbidity and mortality was seen in young but not older adults suggesting that prior infection with influenza strains may have protected older subjects. In contrast, a history of recent seasonal trivalent vaccine in younger adults was not associated with protection.To study hemagglutinin (HA) antibody responses in influenza immunization and infection, we have studied the day 7 plasma cell repertoires of subjects immunized with seasonal trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (TIV) and compared them to the plasma cell repertoires of subjects experimentally infected (EI) with influenza H3N2 A/Wisconsin/67/2005. The majority of circulating plasma cells after TIV produced influenza-specific antibodies, while most plasma cells after EI produced antibodies that did not react with influenza HA. While anti-HA antibodies from TIV subjects were primarily reactive with single or few HA strains, anti-HA antibodies from EI subjects were isolated that reacted with multiple HA strains. Plasma cell-derived anti-HA antibodies from TIV subjects showed more evidence of clonal expansion compared with antibodies from EI subjects. From an H3N2-infected subject, we isolated a 4-member clonal lineage of broadly cross-reactive antibodies that bound to multiple HA subtypes and neutralized both H1N1 and H3N2 viruses. This broad reactivity was not detected in post-infection plasma suggesting this broadly reactive clonal lineage was not immunodominant in this subject.The presence of broadly reactive subdominant antibody responses in some EI subjects suggests that improved vaccine designs that make broadly reactive antibody responses immunodominant could protect against novel influenza strains.
Open Access
Human Non-neutralizing HIV-1 Envelope Monoclonal Antibodies Limit the Number of Founder Viruses during SHIV Mucosal Infection in Rhesus Macaques.
(PLoS Pathog, 2015-08) Santra, Sampa; Tomaras, Georgia D; Warrier, Ranjit; Nicely, Nathan I; Liao, Hua-Xin; Pollara, Justin; Liu, Pinghuang; Alam, S Munir; Zhang, Ruijun; Cocklin, Sarah L; Shen, Xiaoying; Duffy, Ryan; Xia, Shi-Mao; Schutte, Robert J; Pemble Iv, Charles W; Dennison, S Moses; Li, Hui; Chao, Andrew; Vidnovic, Kora; Evans, Abbey; Klein, Katja; Kumar, Amit; Robinson, James; Landucci, Gary; Forthal, Donald N; Montefiori, David C; Kaewkungwal, Jaranit; Nitayaphan, Sorachai; Pitisuttithum, Punnee; Rerks-Ngarm, Supachai; Robb, Merlin L; Michael, Nelson L; Kim, Jerome H; Soderberg, Kelly A; Giorgi, Elena E; Blair, Lily; Korber, Bette T; Moog, Christiane; Shattock, Robin J; Letvin, Norman L; Schmitz, Joern E; Moody, MA; Gao, Feng; Ferrari, Guido; Shaw, George M; Haynes, Barton F
HIV-1 mucosal transmission begins with virus or virus-infected cells moving through mucus across mucosal epithelium to infect CD4+ T cells. Although broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) are the type of HIV-1 antibodies that are most likely protective, they are not induced with current vaccine candidates. In contrast, antibodies that do not neutralize primary HIV-1 strains in the TZM-bl infection assay are readily induced by current vaccine candidates and have also been implicated as secondary correlates of decreased HIV-1 risk in the RV144 vaccine efficacy trial. Here, we have studied the capacity of anti-Env monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against either the immunodominant region of gp41 (7B2 IgG1), the first constant region of gp120 (A32 IgG1), or the third variable loop (V3) of gp120 (CH22 IgG1) to modulate in vivo rectal mucosal transmission of a high-dose simian-human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV-BaL) in rhesus macaques. 7B2 IgG1 or A32 IgG1, each containing mutations to enhance Fc function, was administered passively to rhesus macaques but afforded no protection against productive clinical infection while the positive control antibody CH22 IgG1 prevented infection in 4 of 6 animals. Enumeration of transmitted/founder (T/F) viruses revealed that passive infusion of each of the three antibodies significantly reduced the number of T/F genomes. Thus, some antibodies that bind HIV-1 Env but fail to neutralize virus in traditional neutralization assays may limit the number of T/F viruses involved in transmission without leading to enhancement of viral infection. For one of these mAbs, gp41 mAb 7B2, we provide the first co-crystal structure in complex with a common cyclical loop motif demonstrated to be critical for infection by other retroviruses.
Open Access
Measuring morphological features using light-scattering spectroscopy and Fourier-domain low-coherence interferometry.
(Opt Lett, 2010-02-01) Robles, Francisco E; Wax, Adam
We present measurements of morphological features in a thick turbid sample using light-scattering spectroscopy (LSS) and Fourier-domain low-coherence interferometry (fLCI) by processing with the dual-window (DW) method. A parallel frequency domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) system with a white-light source is used to image a two-layer phantom containing polystyrene beads of diameters 4.00 and 6.98 mum on the top and bottom layers, respectively. The DW method decomposes each OCT A-scan into a time-frequency distribution with simultaneously high spectral and spatial resolution. The spectral information from localized regions in the sample is used to determine scatterer structure. The results show that the two scatterer populations can be differentiated using LSS and fLCI.
Open Access
Multivalent benzoboroxole functionalized polymers as gp120 glycan targeted microbicide entry inhibitors.
(Mol Pharm, 2010-02-01) Jay, Julie I; Lai, Bonnie E; Myszka, David G; Mahalingam, Alamelu; Langheinrich, Kris; Katz, David F; Kiser, Patrick F
Microbicides are women-controlled prophylactics for sexually transmitted infections. The most important class of microbicides target HIV-1 and contain antiviral agents formulated for topical vaginal delivery. Identification of new viral entry inhibitors that target the HIV-1 envelope is important because they can inactivate HIV-1 in the vaginal lumen before virions can come in contact with CD4+ cells in the vaginal mucosa. Carbohydrate binding agents (CBAs) demonstrate the ability to act as entry inhibitors due to their ability to bind to glycans and prevent gp120 binding to CD4+ cells. However, as proteins they present significant challenges in regard to economical production and formulation for resource-poor environments. We have synthesized water-soluble polymer CBAs that contain multiple benzoboroxole moieties. A benzoboroxole-functionalized monomer was synthesized and incorporated into linear oligomers with 2-hydroxypropylmethacrylamide (HPMAm) at different feed ratios using free radical polymerization. The benzoboroxole small molecule analogue demonstrated weak affinity for HIV-1BaL gp120 by SPR; however, the 25 mol % functionalized benzoboroxole oligomer demonstrated a 10-fold decrease in the K(D) for gp120, suggesting an increased avidity for the multivalent polymer construct. High molecular weight polymers functionalized with 25, 50, and 75 mol % benzoboroxole were synthesized and tested for their ability to neutralize HIV-1 entry for two HIV-1 clades and both R5 and X4 coreceptor tropism. All three polymers demonstrated activity against all viral strains tested with EC(50)s that decrease from 15000 nM (1500 microg mL(-1)) for the 25 mol % functionalized polymers to 11 nM (1 microg mL(-1)) for the 75 mol % benzoboroxole-functionalized polymers. These polymers exhibited minimal cytotoxicity after 24 h exposure to a human vaginal cell line.
Open Access
Probing the ultimate limits of plasmonic enhancement.
(Science, 2012-08-31) Ciracì, C; Hill, RT; Mock, JJ; Urzhumov, Y; Fernández-Domínguez, AI; Maier, SA; Pendry, JB; Chilkoti, A; Smith, DR
Metals support surface plasmons at optical wavelengths and have the ability to localize light to subwavelength regions. The field enhancements that occur in these regions set the ultimate limitations on a wide range of nonlinear and quantum optical phenomena. We found that the dominant limiting factor is not the resistive loss of the metal, but rather the intrinsic nonlocality of its dielectric response. A semiclassical model of the electronic response of a metal places strict bounds on the ultimate field enhancement. To demonstrate the accuracy of this model, we studied optical scattering from gold nanoparticles spaced a few angstroms from a gold film. The bounds derived from the models and experiments impose limitations on all nanophotonic systems.
Open Access
Sequence-Defined Heteromultivalent Precision Glycomacromolecules Bearing Sulfonated/Sulfated Nonglycosidic Moieties Preferentially Bind Galectin-3 and Delay Wound Healing of a Galectin-3 Positive Tumor Cell Line in an In Vitro Wound Scratch Assay.
(Macromolecular bioscience, 2020-09) Freichel, Tanja; Heine, Viktoria; Laaf, Dominic; Mackintosh, Eleanor E; Sarafova, Sophia; Elling, Lothar; Snyder, Nicole L; Hartmann, Laura
Within this work, a new class of sequence-defined heteromultivalent glycomacromolecules bearing lactose residues and nonglycosidic motifs for probing glycoconjugate recognition in carbohydrate recognition domain (CRD) of galectin-3 is presented. Galectins, a family of β-galactoside-binding proteins, are known to play crucial roles in different signaling pathways involved in tumor biology. Thus, research has focused on the design and synthesis of galectin-targeting ligands for use as diagnostic markers or potential therapeutics. Heteromultivalent precision glycomacromolecules have the potential to serve as ligands for galectins. In this work, multivalency and the introduction of nonglycosidic motifs bearing either neutral, amine, or sulfonated/sulfated groups are used to better understand binding in the galectin-3 CRD. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and surface plasmon resonance studies are performed, revealing a positive impact of the sulfonated/sulfated nonglycosidic motifs on galectin-3 binding but not on galectin-1 binding. Selected compounds are then tested with galectin-3 positive MCF 7 breast cancer cells using an in vitro would scratch assay. Preliminary results demonstrate a differential biological effect on MCF 7 cells with high galectin-3 expression in comparison to an HEK 293 control with low galectin-3 expression, indicating the potential for sulfonated/sulfated heteromultivalent glycomacromolecules to serve as preferential ligands for galectin-3 targeting.