Browsing by Author "Kappo, Abidemi Paul"

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    Molecular application of aptamers in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and communicable diseases
    (MDPI, 2018) Molefe, Philisiwe Fortunate; Masamba, Priscilla; Oyinloye, Babatunji Emmanuel; Mbatha, Londiwe Simphiwe; Meyer, Mervin; Kappo, Abidemi Paul
    Cancer and infectious diseases such as Ebola, HIV, tuberculosis, Zika, hepatitis, measles and human schistosomiasis are serious global health hazards. The increasing annual morbidities and mortalities of these diseases have been blamed on drug resistance and the inefficacy of available diagnostic tools, particularly those which are immunologically-based. Antibody-based tools rely solely on antibody production for diagnosis and for this reason they are the major cause of diagnostic delays. Unfortunately, the control of these diseases depends on early detection and administration of effective treatment therefore any diagnostic delay is a huge challenge to curbing these diseases. Hence, there is a need for alternative diagnostic tools, discovery and development of novel therapeutic agents. Studies have demonstrated that aptamers could potentially offer one of the best solutions to these problems. Aptamers are short sequences of either DNA or RNA molecules, which are identified in vitro through a SELEX process. They are sensitive and bind specifically to target molecules. Their promising features suggest they may serve as better diagnostic agents and can be used as drug carriers for therapeutic purposes. In this article, we review the applications of aptamers in the theranostics of cancer and some infectious diseases.
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    Synthesis and cytotoxic evaluation of gum arabic surface modified cadmium telluride quantum dots
    (American Scientific Publishers, 2020) Edwina, Uzunuigbe O; Kiplagat, Ayabei; Sibuyi, Nicole R. S.; Meyer, Mervin; Kappo, Abidemi Paul; Onani, Martin O
    Water-soluble cadmium telluride (CdTe) quantum dots (QDs) were capped with gum Arabic (GA) is a non-toxic, water-soluble glycoprotein polymer commonly used in the food and pharmaceutical industries. The GA was used to stabilise cadmium telluride quantum dots (GA-QDs) and provides functional groups for other molecules such as nucleic acids, peptides and antibodies to be attached to the QDs for biological and biomedical applications. In this study, the GA was used to cap and stabilise QDs using two different methods. These QDs were characterised using Ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) and Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, X-powder ray diffraction (XRD), High-resolution transmission electron microscopy, zeta potential and particle size distributions. Cytotoxicity of these QDs was also investigated using four different human cell lines; HeLa, MCF-7, PC-3 and U87 cancer cells.