Accelerated and scarless wound repair by a multicomponent hydrogel through simultaneous activation of multiple pathways.

Scarless healing of injury remains a clinical challenge because of its complicated and overlapping phases of inflammation, clearing, and regeneration. Curcumin has been already established as a potential wound healing agent for normal and diabetic-impaired wounds. Herein, the question has been addressed whether a well-known antioxidant cerium oxide nanoparticle (CNP) can potentiate the activity of curcumin to promote a cellular program for scarless healing. In this study, we have developed a biocompatible poly (acrylamide) hydrogel (PAGE)-based dressing material comprising of CNP and curcumin (ACC) and tested its wound healing activity in an animal model of acute wound. Characterization of the CNP- and curcumin-entrapped hydrogel dressing (ACC) demonstrated high loading efficiency and sustained release of curcumin. In a full-thickness acute wound healing model of rat, a single application of ACC dressing demonstrated higher wound healing efficacy (78%) and negligible scarring compared to dressings containing only curcumin or CNP in 7 days. Enhanced cell proliferation, higher collagen content, advanced wound maturity, re-epithelialization, and granulation tissue formation were observed using the combination of curcumin and CNP (ACC). Study of cellular mechanisms identified MCP-1 and TGF-ß as the key drivers of differential and accelerated healing observed in the ACC group. These, coupled with the upregulation of growth-related signaling pathways (HER2/ErbB2, TGF-ß-Smad2/3, MAPK/ERK, AKT, and VEGF), promoted almost scarless healing in animals treated with ACC. The optimized combination of curcumin and CNP used in our study shows distinct advantage and can be a better agent for complete wound healing.

Magnetic nanoscale metal organic frameworks for potential targeted anticancer drug delivery, imaging and as an MRI contrast agent.

The development of a novel multifunctional porous nanoplatform for targeted anticancer drug delivery with cell imaging and magnetic resonance imaging has been realised in the current work. Here we have developed a magnetic nanoscale metal organic frameworks (NMOF) for potential targeted drug delivery. These magnetic NMOFs were fabricated by incorporation of Fe3O4 nanoparticles into porous isoreticular metal organic frameworks (IRMOF-3). To achieve targeted drug delivery towards cancer cells specifically, folic acid was conjugated to the NMOF surface. Then, the fluorescent molecule rhodamine B isothiocyanate (RITC) was conjugated to the NMOFs for biological imaging applications. The synthesized magnetic NMOFs were fully characterised by FTIR, powder XRD, XPS, SQUID, TGA, TEM, FESEM, and DLS. The synthesized magnetic NMOFs were observed to be smaller than 100 nm and were found to be nontoxic towards human cervix adenocarcinoma (HeLa) and murine fibroblast (NIH3T3) cells according to cell viability assays. The cancer chemotherapy drug paclitaxel was conjugated to the magnetic NMOFs through hydrophobic interactions with a relatively high loading capacity. Moreover, these folic acid-conjugated magnetic NMOFs showed stronger T2-weighted MRI contrast towards the cancer cells, justifying their possible significance in imaging.

A novel approach for efficient immobilization and stabilization of papain on magnetic gold nanocomposites.

In the present study, a facile functionalization of magnetic nanoparticles has been described for the immobilization of enzyme that offers many advantages for reuse and excellent efficiencies. The magnetic gold nanocomposites have been fabricated for the successful immobilization of an industrially important enzyme "papain". For immobilization of papain on magnetic gold nanocomposites, magnetic nanoparticles were modified with 3-(mercaptopropyl) trimethoxy silane (MPTS). Further, the citrate stabilized gold nanoparticles were chemisorbed on these thiol coated magnetic nanoparticles to fabricate the desired magnetic gold nanocomposites. Papain containing net positive charge (isoelectric point of papain=8.75) in PBS buffer (pH 7.4) has immobilized on the surface of the negatively charged magnetic gold nanocomposites through the ionic or electrostatic interaction. The Michaelis-Menten kinetic constant (K(m)) and maximum reaction velocity (V(max)) for free papain were 0.236×10(5) g ml(-1) and 4.08 g ml(-1)/s respectively whereas for immobilized papain, K(m) and V(max) values were 0.308×10(5) g ml(-1) and 5.4 g ml(-1)/s respectively. The loading amount of papain on magnetic gold nanocomposites was 54 mg/g support and the activity recovery of the immobilized papain reached to 47 (±5)% compared to native papain. The main advantage of this papain nanobiocatalyst is the easy isolation of enzyme from the reaction medium.

Development of phosphonate modified Fe 1-x MnxFe2O4 mixed ferrite nanoparticles: novel peroxidase mimetics in enzyme linked immunosorbent assay.

A highly facile and feasible strategy on the fabrication of advanced intrinsic peroxidase mimetics based on Mn(2+) doped mixed ferrite (Mn(II)(x)Fe(II)(1-x)Fe(III)(2)O(4)) nanoparticles was demonstrated for the quantitative and sensitive detection of mouse IgG (as a model analyte). Mn(2+) doped Fe(1-x)Mn(x)Fe(2)O(4) nanoparticles were synthesized using varying ratios of Mn(2+):Fe(2+) ions and characterized by the well known complementary techniques. The increase of Mn(2+) proportion had remarkably enhanced the peroxidase activity and magnetism. The catalytic activity of mixed ferrites was found to follow Michaelis-Menten kinetics and was noticeably higher than native Fe(3)O(4). The calculated K(m) and K(cat) exhibited strong affinity with substrates which were remarkably higher than similar sized native magnetite nanoparticles and horseradish peroxidase (HRP). These findings stimulated us to develop carboxyl modified Fe(1-x)Mn(x)Fe(2)O(4) nanoparticles using phosphonomethyl immunodiacetic acid (PMIDA) to engineer PMIDA-Fe(1-x)Mn(x)Fe(2)O(4) fabricated enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results of both PMIDA-Fe(1-x)Mn(x)Fe(2)O(4) linked ELISA revealed that the enhancements in absorbance during the catalysis of enzyme substrate were linearly proportional to the concentration of mouse IgG within the range between 0.1 µg/ml and 2.5 µg/ml. Further, this detection was ten times lower than previous reports and the detection limit of mouse IgG was 0.1 µg/ml. The advantages of our fabricated artificial peroxidase mimetics are combined of low cost, easy to prepare, better stability and tunable catalytic activity. Moreover, this method provides a new horizon for the development of promising analytical tools in the application of biocatalysis, bioassays, and bioseparation.

Folate receptor targeted, carboxymethyl chitosan functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles: a novel ultradispersed nanoconjugates for bimodal imaging.

This article delineates the design and synthesis of a novel, bio-functionalized, magneto-fluorescent multifunctional nanoparticles suitable for cancer-specific targeting, detection and imaging. Biocompatible, hydrophilic, magneto-fluorescent nanoparticles with surface-pendant amine, carboxyl and aldehyde groups were designed using o-carboxymethyl chitosan (OCMC). The free amine groups of OCMC stabilized magnetite nanoparticles on the surface allow for the covalent attachment of a fluorescent dye such as rhodamine isothiocyanate (RITC) with the aim to develop a magneto-fluorescent nanoprobe for optical imaging. In order to impart specific cancer cell targeting properties, folic acid and its aminated derivative was conjugated onto these magneto-fluorescent nanoparticles using different pendant groups (-NH(2), -COOH, -CHO). These newly synthesized iron-oxide folate nanoconjugates (FA-RITC-OCMC-SPIONs) showed excellent dispersibility, biocompatibility and good hydrodynamic sizes under physiological conditions which were extensively studied by a variety of complementary techniques. The cellular internalization efficacy of these folate-targeted and its non-targeted counterparts were studied using a folate-overexpressed (HeLa) and a normal (L929 fibroblast) cells by fluorescence microscopy and magnetically activated cell sorting (MACS). Cell-uptake behaviors of nanoparticles clearly demonstrate that cancer cells over-expressing the human folate receptor internalized a higher level of these nanoparticle-folate conjugates than normal cells. These folate targeted nanoparticles possess specific magnetic properties in the presence of an external magnetic field and the potential of these nanoconjugates as T(2)-weighted negative contrast MR imaging agent were evaluated in folate-overexpressed HeLa and normal L929 fibroblast cells.