Nanofabrication techniques for controlled drug-release devices

Modulation of immune-inflammatory responses through surface modifications of biomaterials to promote bone healing and regeneration

Control of inflammation is indispensable for optimal oral wound healing and tissue regeneration. Several biomaterials have been used to enhance the regenerative outcomes; however, the biomaterial implantation can ensure an immune-inflammatory response. The interface between the cells and the biomaterial surface plays a critical role in determining the success of soft and hard tissue regeneration. The initial inflammatory response upon biomaterial implantation helps in tissue repair and regeneration, however, persistant inflammation impairs the wound healing response. The cells interact with the biomaterials through extracellular matrix proteins leading to protein adsorption followed by recruitment, attachment, migration, and proliferation of several immune-inflammatory cells. Physical nanotopography of biomaterials, such as surface proteins, roughness, and porosity, is crucial for driving cellular attachment and migration. Similarly, modification of scaffold surface chemistry by adapting hydrophilicity, surface charge, surface coatings, can down-regulate the initiation of pro-inflammatory cascades. Besides, functionalization of scaffold surfaces with active biological molecules can down-regulate pro-inflammatory and pro-resorptive mediators' release as well as actively up-regulate anti-inflammatory markers. This review encompasses various strategies for the optimization of physical, chemical, and biological properties of biomaterial and the underlying mechanisms to modulate the immune-inflammatory response, thereby, promoting the tissue integration and subsequent soft and hard tissue regeneration potential of the administered biomaterial.

Benzodifurans for biomedical applications: BZ4, a selective anti-proliferative and anti-amyloid lead compound

AIM

Our goal is to evaluate benzodifuran-based scaffolds for biomedical applications.

METHODOLOGY

We here explored the anticancer and anti-amyloid activities of a novel compound (BZ4) in comparison with other known benzodifuran analogs, previously studied in our group, and we have explored its ability to interact with different DNA model systems.

RESULTS

BZ4 shows antiproliferative activity on different cancer cells; does not affect noncancerous control cells and alters the aggregation properties of β-amyloid, as ascertained by circular dichroism, fluorescence spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy analysis. An overall, qualitative picture on the mechanistic aspects related to the biological activities is discussed in light of the dynamic light scattering, UV, circular dichroism and fluorescence data, as well as of the metal ion-binding properties of BZ4.

In vivo delivery, pharmacokinetics, biodistribution and toxicity of iron oxide nanoparticles

Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) have been extensively used during the last two decades, either as effective bio-imaging contrast agents or as carriers of biomolecules such as drugs, nucleic acids and peptides for controlled delivery to specific organs and tissues. Most of these novel applications require elaborate tuning of the physiochemical and surface properties of the IONPs. As new IONPs designs are envisioned, synergistic consideration of the body's innate biological barriers against the administered nanoparticles and the short and long-term side effects of the IONPs become even more essential. There are several important criteria (e.g. size and size-distribution, charge, coating molecules, and plasma protein adsorption) that can be effectively tuned to control the in vivo pharmacokinetics and biodistribution of the IONPs. This paper reviews these crucial parameters, in light of biological barriers in the body, and the latest IONPs design strategies used to overcome them. A careful review of the long-term biodistribution and side effects of the IONPs in relation to nanoparticle design is also given. While the discussions presented in this review are specific to IONPs, some of the information can be readily applied to other nanoparticle systems, such as gold, silver, silica, calcium phosphates and various polymers.

Amyloid transition of ubiquitin on silver nanoparticles produced by pulsed laser ablation in liquid as a function of stabilizer and single-point mutations

The interaction of nanoparticles with proteins has emerged as a key issue in addressing the problem of nanotoxicity. We investigated the interaction of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), produced by laser ablation with human ubiquitin (Ub), a protein essential for degradative processes in cells. The surface plasmon resonance peak of AgNPs indicates that Ub is rapidly adsorbed on the AgNP surface yielding a protein corona; the Ub-coated AgNPs then evolve into clusters held together by an amyloid form of the protein, as revealed by binding of thioflavin T fluorescent dye. Transthyretin, an inhibitor of amyloid-type aggregation, impedes aggregate formation and disrupts preformed AgNP clusters. In the presence of sodium citrate, a common stabilizer that confers an overall negative charge to the NPs, Ub is still adsorbed on the AgNP surface, but no clustering is observed. Ub mutants bearing a single mutation at one edge β strand (i.e. Glu16Val) or in loop (Glu18Val) behave in a radically different manner.

A small-scale anatomical dosimetry model of the liver

Radionuclide therapy is a growing and promising approach for treating and prolonging the lives of patients with cancer. For therapies where high activities are administered, the liver can become a dose-limiting organ; often with a complex, non-uniform activity distribution and resulting non-uniform absorbed-dose distribution. This paper therefore presents a small-scale dosimetry model for various source-target combinations within the human liver microarchitecture. Using Monte Carlo simulations, Medical Internal Radiation Dose formalism-compatible specific absorbed fractions were calculated for monoenergetic electrons; photons; alpha particles; and (125)I, (90)Y, (211)At, (99m)Tc, (111)In, (177)Lu, (131)I and (18)F. S values and the ratio of local absorbed dose to the whole-organ average absorbed dose was calculated, enabling a transformation of dosimetry calculations from macro- to microstructure level. For heterogeneous activity distributions, for example uptake in Kupffer cells of radionuclides emitting low-energy electrons ((125)I) or high-LET alpha particles ((211)At) the target absorbed dose for the part of the space of Disse, closest to the source, was more than eight- and five-fold the average absorbed dose to the liver, respectively. With the increasing interest in radionuclide therapy of the liver, the presented model is an applicable tool for small-scale liver dosimetry in order to study detailed dose-effect relationships in the liver.

Nanomaterials for reducing amyloid cytotoxicity

This review is intended to reflect the recent progress on therapeutic applications of nanomaterials in amyloid diseases. The progress on anti-amyloid functions of various nanomaterials including inorganic nanoparticles, polymeric nanoparticles, carbon nanomaterials and biomolecular aggregates, is reviewed and discussed. The main functionalization strategies for general nanoparticle modifications are reviewed for potential applications of targeted therapeutics. The interaction mechanisms between amyloid peptides and nanomaterials are discussed from the perspectives of dominant interactions and kinetics. The encapsulation of anti-amyloid drugs, targeted drug delivery, controlled drug release and drug delivery crossing blood brain barrier by application of nanomaterials would also improve the therapeutics of amyloid diseases.

Rapid detection of Aβ aggregation and inhibition by dual functions of gold nanoplasmic particles: catalytic activator and optical reporter

One of the primary pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's diseases (AD) is amyloid-β (Aβ) aggregation and its extracellular accumulation. However, current in vitro Aβ aggregation assays require time-consuming and labor-intensive steps, which delay the process of drug discovery and understanding the mechanism of Aβ induced neurotoxicity. Here, we propose a rapid detection method for studying Aβ aggregation and inhibition under an optimized acidic perturbation condition by dual functions of gold nanoplasmonic particles (GNPs): (1) catalytic activator and (2) optical reporter. Because of roles of GNPs as effective nucleation sites for fast-catalyzing Aβ aggregation and colorimetric optical reporters for tracking Aβ aggregation, we accomplished the fast aggregation assay in less than 1 min by the naked eyes. Our detection method is based on spontaneous clustering of unconjugated (unmodified) GNPs along with the aggregated Aβ network under an aggregation-promoting condition. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, we employed the acidic perturbation permitting rapid cooperative assemblies of GNPs and Aβ peptides via their surface charge modulation. Under the optimized acidic perturbation condition around pH 2 to 3, we characterized the concentration-dependent colorimetric responses for aggregation at physiologically relevant Aβ concentration levels (from 100 μM to 10 nM). We also demonstrated the GNP/acidic condition-based rapid inhibition assay of Aβ aggregation by using well-known binding reagents such as antibody and serum albumin. The proposed methodology can be a powerful alternative method for screening drugs for AD as well as studying molecular biophysics of protein aggregations, and further extended to explore other protein conformational diseases such as neurodegenerative disease.

Current perspectives on the US FDA regulatory framework for intelligent drug-delivery systems

The US FDA is the US agency responsible for regulating intelligent drug-delivery systems (IDDS). IDDS can be classified as a device, drug, biologic or combination product. In this perspective, the current regulatory framework for IDDS and future perspectives on how the field is expected to evolve from a regulatory standpoint is discussed.

Local drug delivery to the bone by drug-releasing implants: perspectives of nano-engineered titania nanotube arrays

Titania nanotube (TNT) arrays fabricated by electrochemical anodization of titanium are currently one of the most attractive nanomaterials due to their remarkable properties. In this review, we highlight recent research activities that are focused on the application of the TNT arrays for local drug delivery, specifically for addressing problems associated with orthopedic implants. The advantages of drug-releasing implants based on TNT arrays for local delivery of therapeutics in bone related to these challenging problems including inflammation, infection and osseointegration are discussed. An overview of recent research to advance the drug-releasing performance of TNT arrays and the potential of their future applications and development are presented.

Gold nanoparticle trapping and delivery for therapeutic applications

A new optical trapping design to transport gold nanoparticles using a PANDA ring resonator system is proposed. Intense optical fields in the form of dark solitons controlled by Gaussian pulses are used to trap and transport nanoscopic volumes of matter to the desired destination via an optical waveguide. Theoretically, the gradient and scattering forces are responsible for this trapping phenomenon, where in practice such systems can be fabricated and a thin-film device formed on the specific artificial medical materials, for instance, an artificial bone. The dynamic behavior of the tweezers can be tuned by controlling the optical pulse input power and parameters of the ring resonator system. Different trap sizes can be generated to trap different gold nanoparticles sizes, which is useful for gold nanoparticle therapy. In this paper, we have shown the utility of gold nanoparticle trapping and delivery for therapy, which may be useful for cosmetic therapy and related applications.

BRCAA1 monoclonal antibody conjugated fluorescent magnetic nanoparticles for in vivo targeted magnetofluorescent imaging of gastric cancer

BACKGROUND

Gastric cancer is 2th most common cancer in China, and is still the second most common cause of cancer-related death in the world. How to recognize early gastric cancer cells is still a great challenge for early diagnosis and therapy of patients with gastric cancer. This study is aimed to develop one kind of multifunctional nanoprobes for in vivo targeted magnetofluorescent imaging of gastric cancer.

METHODS

BRCAA1 monoclonal antibody was prepared, was used as first antibody to stain 50 pairs of specimens of gastric cancer and control normal gastric mucous tissues, and conjugated with fluorescent magnetic nanoparticles with 50 nm in diameter, the resultant BRCAA1-conjugated fluorescent magnetic nanoprobes were characterized by transmission electron microscopy and photoluminescence spectrometry, as-prepared nanoprobes were incubated with gastric cancer MGC803 cells, and were injected into mice model loaded with gastric cancer of 5 mm in diameter via tail vein, and then were imaged by fluorescence optical imaging and magnetic resonance imaging, their biodistribution was investigated. The tissue slices were observed by fluorescent microscopy, and the important organs such as heart, lung, kidney, brain and liver were analyzed by hematoxylin and eosin (HE) stain method.

RESULTS

BRCAA1 monoclonal antibody was successfully prepared, BRCAA1 protein exhibited over-expression in 64% gastric cancer tissues, no expression in control normal gastric mucous tissues, there exists statistical difference between two groups (P < 0.01). The BRCAA1-conjugated fluorescent magnetic nanoprobes exhibit very low-toxicity, lower magnetic intensity and lower fluorescent intensity with peak-blue-shift than pure FMNPs, could be endocytosed by gastric cancer MGC803 cells, could target in vivo gastric cancer tissues loaded by mice, and could be used to image gastric cancer tissues by fluorescent imaging and magnetic resonance imaging, and mainly distributed in local gastric cancer tissues within 12 h post-injection. HE stain analysis showed that no obvious damages were observed in important organs.

CONCLUSIONS

The high-performance BRCAA1 monoclonal antibody-conjugated fluorescent magnetic nanoparticles can target in vivo gastric cancer cells, can be used for simultaneous magnetofluorescent imaging, and may have great potential in applications such as dual-model imaging and local thermal therapy of early gastric cancer in near future.