Synthesis and Characterization of a Biocompatible Nanoplatform Based on Silica-Embedded SPIONs Functionalized with Polydopamine

Abstract

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) have gained increasing interest in nanomedicine, but most of those that have entered the clinical trials have been withdrawn due to toxicity concerns. Therefore, there is an urgent need to design low-risk and biocompatible SPION formulations. In this work, we present an original safe-by-design nanoplatform made of silica nanoparticles loaded with SPIONs and decorated with polydopamine (SPIONs@SiO2-PDA) and the study of its biocompatibility performance by an ad hoc thorough in vitro to in vivo nanotoxicological methodology. The results indicate that the SPIONs@SiO 2 -PDA have excellent colloidal stability in serum-supplemented culture media, even after long-term (24 h) exposure, showing no cytotoxic or genotoxic effects in vitro and ex vivo. Physiological responses, evaluated in vivo using Caenorhabditis elegans as the animal model, showed no impact on fertility and embryonic viability, induction of an oxidative stress response, and a mild impact on animal locomotion. These tests indicate that the synergistic combination of the silica matrix and PDA coating we developed effectively protects the SPIONs, providing enhanced colloidal stability and excellent biocompatibility.

αS1-Casein-Loaded Proteo-liposomes as Potential Inhibitors in Amyloid Fibrillogenesis: In Vivo Effects on a C. elegans Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

“…Animal treatments with α s1 -Casein, Lip0, LipCas, and buffer as control were performed in liquido in 96-multiwell plates from Falcon (cat. 353072) starting from synchronized eggs, obtained by bleaching, until the young adult stage . About ∼20 eggs per well in triplicate for each experimental condition have been treated in M9 buffer (3 g KH 2 PO 4 ; 6 g Na 2 HPO 4 ; 5 g NaCl; 1 mL MgSO 4 1M; ddH 2 O to 1 L) with 2× antibiotic/antimycotic solution from Sigma-Aldrich Inc. (cat.…”

“…353072) starting from synchronized eggs, obtained by bleaching, until the young adult stage. 60 About ∼20 eggs per well in triplicate for each experimental condition have been treated in M9 buffer (3 g KH 2 PO 4 ; 6 g Na 2 HPO 4 ; 5 g NaCl; 1 mL MgSO 4 1M; ddH 2 O to 1 L) with 2× antibiotic/antimycotic solution from Sigma-Aldrich Inc. (cat. A5955), 5 ng/mL cholesterol from Sigma-Aldrich Inc. (cat.…”

Harnessing Nature’s nanoSecrets: biocompatibility, biodistribution and bioactivity of extracellular vesicles derived from microalgae

“…To test the nanoalgosome effect on brood size and embryonic vitality, 20 animals were treated in solido, as described above, until L4 larval stage and then transferred to new plates without any treatment. Then, every 24 h animals were moved to new plates without any treatment for all the fertile period of the animals (4 days) and the number of laid and hatched eggs counted every day, treatments were performed in triplicate 63 . To assess a putative nanoalgosome neurotoxicity, animals expressing fluorescent protein in GABAergic, mechanosensory and dopaminergic neurons were treated in liquido in triplicate, as described above.…”

“…Epi-fluorescence images were collected with a Leica TCS SP8 AOBS inverted microscope, using a 10x objective and FITC filter. Fluorescence quantification was performed using ImageJ, and the Corrected Total Fluorescence (CTF) was calculated for each image using this formula: (integrated density of the area containing the animals) -[(area containing the animals) x (mean fluorescence of background)] 63 . Representative pictures in supporting figure 7 were pseudo-colored using Image J.…”

Fluorescent Magnetic Mesoporous Nanoprobes for Biotechnological Enhancement Procedures in Gene Therapy

“…Among inorganic nanoparticles, superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) have gained enormous interest for biomedical applications as they can be manipulated remotely using external magnetic fields and can interact in biological processes at nanoscale range. Currently, a variety of SPIONs are in early clinical trials, and some formulations have been clinically approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for medical imaging, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), magnetic particle imaging (MPI) and therapeutic applications, such as magnetic hyperthermia treatment (MHI) or cell targeting [12][13][14][15]. External modification of SPIONs can increase biocompatibility properties, prevent the agglomeration of bare nanoparticles due to electrostatic interactions and provide them with additional surface properties (such as polydopamine, PDA, showing enhanced biocompatibility and optical properties, apart from being used as a surface polymer for pH-dependent release of the anticancer drugs into cells) [8,[16][17][18].…”