Biomechanical Features of Graphene-Augmented Inorganic Nanofibrous Scaffolds and Their Physical Interaction with Viruses

Abstract

Nanofibrous substrates and scaffolds are widely being studied as matrices for 3D cell cultures, and disease models as well as for analytics and diagnostic purposes. These scaffolds usually comprise randomly oriented fibers. Much less common are nanofibrous scaffolds made of stiff inorganic materials such as alumina. Well-aligned matrices are a promising tool for evaluation of behavior of biological objects affected by micro/nano-topologies as well as anisotropy. In this work, for the first time, we report a joint analysis of biomechanical properties of new ultra-anisotropic, self-aligned ceramic nanofibers augmented with two modifications of graphene shells (GAIN scaffolds) and their interaction of three different viral types (influenza virus A, picornavirus (human parechovirus) and potato virus). It was discovered that nano-topology and structure of the graphene layers have a significant implication on mechanical properties of GAIN scaffolds resulting in non-linear behavior. It was demonstrated that the viral adhesion to GAIN scaffolds is likely to be guided by physical cues in dependence on mutual steric factors, as the scaffolds lack common cell membrane proteins and receptors which viruses usually deploy for transfection. The study may have implications for selective viral adsorption, infected cells analysis, and potentially opening new tools for anti-viral drugs development.

Biomechanical Properties of Bone and Mucosa for Design and Application of Dental Implants

“…The invariant values [ 24 ] were obtained with BEST method [ 27 ] and can be used for the estimation and prediction of biomaterials and tissue properties without the use of a material model, as was demonstrated in [ 9 , 10 , 20 , 56 , 57 ]. There, the dependence of the material strain ε from the applied stress σ under pseudodifferential time-convolution (accounting for loading history in this case): where α is a material memory value, E 0 is the averaged time-invariant (i.e., not time-dependent) intrinsic modulus, τ 0 is invariant characteristic time, and Γ() is the gamma-function.…”

“…There, the dependence of the material strain ε from the applied stress σ under pseudodifferential time-convolution (accounting for loading history in this case): where α is a material memory value, E 0 is the averaged time-invariant (i.e., not time-dependent) intrinsic modulus, τ 0 is invariant characteristic time, and Γ() is the gamma-function. The product < E 0 ( τ 0 ) α > is the time-averaged viscostiffness (a pseudo-property) of a material [ 20 , 27 , 46 , 56 , 57 ]. Characteristic invariant time can be related to the material Deborah (De) number: the specimen reaches steady deformation behavior when the observation (measurement) time is larger than the invariant time.…”

“…The test data analyzed in this work were divided into two classes: pseudo-static (creep) and dynamic. For creep under constant applied stress, the method [ 27 , 56 , 57 ] predicts a log-time dependence of the strain with E 0 c as the averaged invariant creep modulus, τ 0 c —invariant characteristic creep time, α c —material creep memory parameter. For dynamic loading case, the method predicts a sub-dimensional dependence of the frequency for the strain amplitude [ 27 , 46 , 57 ].…”

“…For creep under constant applied stress, the method [ 27 , 56 , 57 ] predicts a log-time dependence of the strain with E 0 c as the averaged invariant creep modulus, τ 0 c —invariant characteristic creep time, α c —material creep memory parameter. For dynamic loading case, the method predicts a sub-dimensional dependence of the frequency for the strain amplitude [ 27 , 46 , 57 ]. When the input stress is harmonic, the strain depends on observation time t, frequency ω and constant stress amplitude σ dyn , with E 0c ω as the averaged invariant dynamic modulus (i.e., not dependent on time and frequency), τ 0 ω —invariant characteristic dynamic time, α ω —dynamic material memory parameter.…”

“…The smaller the value, the greater is the effect of short-time memory (= immediate reaction to the stimulus). Zero value means that the material has only a short-time memory, i.e., ideally elastic behavior, whereas α = 1 means ideally viscous behavior [ 27 , 46 , 56 , 57 , 59 ]. For the cases 1 < α < 2, the material only “feels” a long-term memory and the immediate elastic reaction on the stimulus is damped: the material mechanical behavior could turn into inertial damped oscillations [ 27 , 57 ].…”