This paper reports the synthesis and the physicochemical, functional and biological characterisat... more This paper reports the synthesis and the physicochemical, functional and biological characterisations of nanocarriers made of a novel di-block biodegradable poly(ether-ester) copolymer. This material presents tunable, fast biodegradation rates, but its products are less acidic than those of other biosorbable polymers like PLGA, thus presenting a better biocompatibility profile and the possibility to carry pH-sensitive payloads. A method for the production of monodisperse and spherical nanoparticles is proposed; drug delivery kinetics and blood protein adsorption were measured to evaluate the functional properties of these nanoparticles as drug carriers. The copolymer was labelled with a fluorescent dye for internalisation tests, and rhodamine B was used as a model cargo to study transport and release inside cultured cells. Biological tests demonstrated good cytocompatibility, significant cell internalisation and the possibility to vehiculate non-cell penetrating moieties into endothelial cells. Taken together, these results support the potential use of this nanoparticulate system for systemic administration of drugs.
The mucosal barrier constitutes a huge surface area, close to 40 m2 in humans, located mostly in ... more The mucosal barrier constitutes a huge surface area, close to 40 m2 in humans, located mostly in the respiratory, gastrointestinal and urogenital tracts and ocular cavities. It plays a crucial role in tissue interactions with the microbiome, dietary antigens and other environmental materials. Effective vaccinations to achieve highly protective mucosal immunity are evolving strategies to counteract several serious diseases including tuberculosis, diphtheria, influenzae B, severe acute respiratory syndrome, Human Papilloma Virus infection and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Interestingly, one of the reasons behind the rapid spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 variants has been the weakness of local immunization at the level of the respiratory mucosa. Mucosal vaccines can outperform parenteral vaccination as they specifically elicit protective mucosal immune responses blocking infection and transmission. In this scenario, chitosan-based nanovaccines are promi...
PtNPs hold great potential as anti-inflammatory agents, regulating the ROS-mediated recruitment a... more PtNPs hold great potential as anti-inflammatory agents, regulating the ROS-mediated recruitment and activation of immune system components.
Carbon nanotubes are considered important nanodevices in biomedicine, and several applications in... more Carbon nanotubes are considered important nanodevices in biomedicine, and several applications in drug and gene delivery in different organs and tissues are presently under investigation. Among them very little attention has been dedicated to white adipose tissue (WAT), despite its wide distribution and endocrine role, which could potentially be used to release therapeutic agents. An important premise to use nanotubes in WAT is to determine their potential for toxicity on adipocytes. Here we show that Pluronic F127 (PF127)–coated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) can be tolerated by NIH-3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes without affecting their growth. Moreover, the differentiation process of NIH-3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes to adipocytes is not compromised by the presence of 5 μg/mL MWCNTs in the medium. These results suggest that reasonable concentrations of PF127-MWCNTs are not toxic for adipocytes and do not interfere with their differentiation process. From the Clinical Editor: This study esta...
In this study we exposed 1,2-dioleoyl-3trimethylammonium propane (DOTAP)/DNA lipoplexes to differ... more In this study we exposed 1,2-dioleoyl-3trimethylammonium propane (DOTAP)/DNA lipoplexes to different concentrations of human plasma (HP). Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry showed that the adsorbed protein corona is rich in vitronectin, a major ligand for ανβ3 or ανβ5 integrins. To investigate whether the protein corona could dictate a selective access to cells expressing vitronectin receptors, highly-metastatic MDAMB-435S cells that express high levels of ανβ3 and ανβ5 integrins, were used as experimental model. Non-metastatic MCF7 cells that do not express ανβ3 and express reduced levels of ανβ5 integrins were used as a reference. After exposure to HP, the cellular uptake of lipoplexes in MDAMB-435S cells was more than 2-fold larger than that of bare ones, while complexes could not enter MCF7 cells remaining largely accumulated at the plasma membrane. Collectively our data suggest that the protein corona can be used as a novel tool for cancer cell targeting.
This paper reports the synthesis and the physicochemical, functional and biological characterisat... more This paper reports the synthesis and the physicochemical, functional and biological characterisations of nanocarriers made of a novel di-block biodegradable poly(ether-ester) copolymer. This material presents tunable, fast biodegradation rates, but its products are less acidic than those of other biosorbable polymers like PLGA, thus presenting a better biocompatibility profile and the possibility to carry pH-sensitive payloads. A method for the production of monodisperse and spherical nanoparticles is proposed; drug delivery kinetics and blood protein adsorption were measured to evaluate the functional properties of these nanoparticles as drug carriers. The copolymer was labelled with a fluorescent dye for internalisation tests, and rhodamine B was used as a model cargo to study transport and release inside cultured cells. Biological tests demonstrated good cytocompatibility, significant cell internalisation and the possibility to vehiculate non-cell penetrating moieties into endothelial cells. Taken together, these results support the potential use of this nanoparticulate system for systemic administration of drugs.
The mucosal barrier constitutes a huge surface area, close to 40 m2 in humans, located mostly in ... more The mucosal barrier constitutes a huge surface area, close to 40 m2 in humans, located mostly in the respiratory, gastrointestinal and urogenital tracts and ocular cavities. It plays a crucial role in tissue interactions with the microbiome, dietary antigens and other environmental materials. Effective vaccinations to achieve highly protective mucosal immunity are evolving strategies to counteract several serious diseases including tuberculosis, diphtheria, influenzae B, severe acute respiratory syndrome, Human Papilloma Virus infection and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Interestingly, one of the reasons behind the rapid spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 variants has been the weakness of local immunization at the level of the respiratory mucosa. Mucosal vaccines can outperform parenteral vaccination as they specifically elicit protective mucosal immune responses blocking infection and transmission. In this scenario, chitosan-based nanovaccines are promi...
PtNPs hold great potential as anti-inflammatory agents, regulating the ROS-mediated recruitment a... more PtNPs hold great potential as anti-inflammatory agents, regulating the ROS-mediated recruitment and activation of immune system components.
Carbon nanotubes are considered important nanodevices in biomedicine, and several applications in... more Carbon nanotubes are considered important nanodevices in biomedicine, and several applications in drug and gene delivery in different organs and tissues are presently under investigation. Among them very little attention has been dedicated to white adipose tissue (WAT), despite its wide distribution and endocrine role, which could potentially be used to release therapeutic agents. An important premise to use nanotubes in WAT is to determine their potential for toxicity on adipocytes. Here we show that Pluronic F127 (PF127)–coated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) can be tolerated by NIH-3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes without affecting their growth. Moreover, the differentiation process of NIH-3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes to adipocytes is not compromised by the presence of 5 μg/mL MWCNTs in the medium. These results suggest that reasonable concentrations of PF127-MWCNTs are not toxic for adipocytes and do not interfere with their differentiation process. From the Clinical Editor: This study esta...
In this study we exposed 1,2-dioleoyl-3trimethylammonium propane (DOTAP)/DNA lipoplexes to differ... more In this study we exposed 1,2-dioleoyl-3trimethylammonium propane (DOTAP)/DNA lipoplexes to different concentrations of human plasma (HP). Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry showed that the adsorbed protein corona is rich in vitronectin, a major ligand for ανβ3 or ανβ5 integrins. To investigate whether the protein corona could dictate a selective access to cells expressing vitronectin receptors, highly-metastatic MDAMB-435S cells that express high levels of ανβ3 and ανβ5 integrins, were used as experimental model. Non-metastatic MCF7 cells that do not express ανβ3 and express reduced levels of ανβ5 integrins were used as a reference. After exposure to HP, the cellular uptake of lipoplexes in MDAMB-435S cells was more than 2-fold larger than that of bare ones, while complexes could not enter MCF7 cells remaining largely accumulated at the plasma membrane. Collectively our data suggest that the protein corona can be used as a novel tool for cancer cell targeting.
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Papers by Giuseppe Bardi