Biodistribution and toxicity assessment of methoxyphenyl phosphonium carbosilane dendrimers in 2D and 3D cell cultures of human cancer cells and zebrafish embryos.

The consideration of human and environmental exposure to dendrimers, including cytotoxicity, acute toxicity, and cell and tissue accumulation, is essential due to their significant potential for various biomedical applications. This study aimed to evaluate the biodistribution and toxicity of a novel methoxyphenyl phosphonium carbosilane dendrimer, a potential mitochondria-targeting vector for cancer therapeutics, in 2D and 3D cancer cell cultures and zebrafish embryos. We assessed its cytotoxicity (via MTT, ATP, and Spheroid growth inhibition assays) and cellular biodistribution. The dendrimer cytotoxicity was higher in cancer cells, likely due to its specific targeting to the mitochondrial compartment. In vivo studies using zebrafish demonstrated dendrimer distribution within the vascular and gastrointestinal systems, indicating a biodistribution profile that may be beneficial for systemic therapeutic delivery strategies. The methoxyphenyl phosphonium carbosilane dendrimer shows promise for applications in cancer cell delivery, but additional studies are required to confirm these findings using alternative labelling methods and more physiologically relevant models. Our results contribute to the growing body of evidence supporting the potential of carbosilane dendrimers as vectors for cancer therapeutics.

Conventional and Nonconventional Sources of Exosomes-Isolation Methods and Influence on Their Downstream Biomedical Application.

Despite extensive study of extracellular vesicles (EVs), specifically exosomes (EXs) as biomarkers, important modulators of physiological or pathological processes, or therapeutic agents, relatively little is known about nonconventional sources of EXs, such as invertebrate or plant EXs, and their uses. Likewise, there is no clear information on the overview of storage conditions and currently used isolation methods, including new ones, such as microfluidics, which fundamentally affect the characterization of EXs and their other biomedical applications. The purpose of this review is to briefly summarize conventional and nonconventional sources of EXs, storage conditions and typical isolation methods, widely used kits and new "smart" technologies with emphasis on the influence of isolation techniques on EX content, protein detection, RNA, mRNA and others. At the same time, attention is paid to a brief overview of the direction of biomedical application of EXs, especially in diagnostics, therapy, senescence and aging and, with regard to the current situation, in issues related to Covid-19.

Class II biocompatible E-Shell 300 3D printing material causes severe developmental toxicity in Danio rerio embryos and reduced cell proliferation in vitro - implications for 3D printed microfluidics.

Additive manufacturing is a new technology that represents a highly promising, cheap, and efficient solution for the production of various tools in the biomedicine field. In our study, the toxicity of the commercially available E-Shell 300 series photopolymer, which is used in the manufacture of hearing aids and other implants and which could be potentially exploited in microfluidic device fabrication, was tested using in vivo and in vitro biological models. We examined B14 cell proliferation in direct contact with the three-dimensional (3D)-printed material as well as in water extracts to evaluate in vitro cytotoxicity. Similarly, in vivo tests were performed using an OECD-standardized fish embryo acute toxicity (FET) test on Danio rerio embryos in direct contact with the material and in extracts as well. Despite E-Shell 300 3D-printed material being declared as class-IIa biocompatible, in the case of direct contact with both biological models, the results demonstrated a considerable negative impact on cell proliferation and severe developmental toxicity. In this study, up to 84% reduced cell proliferation in vitro and 79% mortality of in vivo models were observed. In contrast, a negligible toxic influence of E-Shell 300 water extracts was present. Four different post-processing treatments to reduce the toxicity were also tested. We observed that post-printing treatment of 3D-printed material in 96% ethanol can reduce embryonic mortality in the FET test by 71% and also completely eliminate negative effects on cell proliferation. We analyzed leachates from the polymeric structures by mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and we discovered the presence of surfactant residues. In summary, our results indicate the importance of biocompatibility testing of the 3D printing photopolymer material in direct contact with the given biological model. On the other hand, the possibility of eliminating toxic effects by an appropriate post-processing strategy opens the door for broader applications of E-Shell 300 photopolymers in the development of complex microfluidic devices for various biological applications.

Carbosilane dendrimers with phosphonium terminal groups are low toxic non-viral transfection vectors for siRNA cell delivery.

Non-viral gene delivery vectors studied in the gene therapy applications are often designed with the cationic nitrogen containing groups necessary for binding and cell release of nucleic acids. Disadvantage is a relatively high toxicity which restricts the in vivo use of such nanoparticles. Here we show, that the 3rd generation carbosilane dendrimers possessing (trimethyl)phosphonium (PMe3) groups on their periphery were able to effectively deliver the functional siRNA into the cells (B14, Cricetulus griseus), release it into the cytosol and finally to achieve up to 40% gene silencing of targeted gene (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH)) with the comparable or, in some cases, even better effectivity as their ammonium counterparts. Moreover, such cationic dendrimers show relatively low in vivo toxicity as compared to their ammonium analogues when analyzed by standard fish embryo test (FET) on Danio rerio in vivo model, with LD50 = 6.26 µM after 48 h of incubation. This is more than 10-fold improvement as compared to published values for various other types of cationic dendrimers. We discuss the potential of further increase of the transfection efficiency, endosomal escape and decrease of toxicity of such non-viral vectors, based on the systematic screening of different types of substituents on central phosphonium atom.

Evaluation of toxicological and teratogenic effects of carbosilane glucose glycodendrimers in zebrafish embryos and model rodent cell lines.

Glycodendrimers (Glyco-DDMs) represent a rapidly growing class of nanoparticles with promising properties for biomedical applications but concerns regarding the impact on human health and environment are still justified. Here we report, for the first time, the comparative study of in vivo developmental toxicity of carbosilane Glyco-DDMs and their cytotoxicity in vitro. Carbosilane Glyco-DDMs (generation 1-3) containing 4, 8, and 16 ß-d-glucopyranosyl units at the periphery (DDM1Glu, DDM2Glu, and DDM3Glu) were synthesized and characterized by 1H, 13C and 29Si NMR, mass spectrometry, dynamic light scattering, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and computer modeling. In vitro cytotoxicity assay (MTT) of DDM1-3Glu was performed on three different rodent cell lines (Cricetulus griseus) - B14 (ATCC, CCL-14.1), BRL 3A (ATCC, CRL-1442), and NRK 52E (ATCC, CRL-1571). Overall, very low cytotoxicity was observed with calculated IC50 in mM range with slight difference between each cell line and DDM generation investigated. Modified fish embryo test (FET) was further used for DDM3Glu developmental toxicity testing on zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos. While seemingly harmless to intact embryos, adverse effects of DDMs on the embryonic development become evident after chorion removal (LD50=2.78 µM at 96 hpe). We summarized that the modified FET test showed a two to three orders of magnitude difference between the in vitro cytotoxicity and in vivo developmental toxicity of DDM3Glu. While, in general, the Glyco-DDMs show great promises as efficient vectors in targeted drug delivery or as therapeutic molecules itself, we suggest that their developmental toxicity should be thoroughly investigated to exclude safety risks associated with their potential biomedical use.

Influence of core and maltose surface modification of PEIs on their interaction with plasma proteins-Human serum albumin and lysozyme.

Regardless of the route of administration, some or all of a therapeutic agent will appear in the blood stream, where it can act on blood cells and other components of the plasma. Recently we have shown that poly(ethylene imines) (PEIs) which interact with plasma proteins are taken up into erythrocyte membranes. These observations led us to investigate the interactions between maltose functionalized hyperbranched PEIs (PEI-Mal) and plasma proteins. Two model proteins were chosen - human serum albumin (HSA) (albumins constitute ∼60% of all plasma proteins), and lysozyme. HSA is a negatively charged 66kDa protein at neutral pH, whereas lysozyme is a positively charged 14kDa protein. Fluorescence quenching and changes in the conformation of the amino acid tryptophan, diameter and zeta potential of proteins were investigated to evaluate the interaction of PEI-Mal with proteins. PEI-Mal interacts with both types of proteins. The strength of dendritic glycopolymer interactions was generally weak, especially with lysozyme. Greater changes were found with HSA, mainly triggered by hydrogen bonds and the electrostatic interaction properties of dendritic glycopolymers. Moreover, the structure and the size of PEI-Mal macromolecules affected these interactions; larger macromolecules with more sugar groups (95% maltose units) interacted more strongly with proteins than smaller ones with lower sugar modification (33% maltose units). Due to (i) the proven overall low toxicity of sugar-modified PEIs and, (ii) their ability to interact preferentially through hydrogen bonds with proteins of human plasma or possibly with other interesting protein targets, PEI-Mal is a good candidate for creating therapeutic nanoparticles in the fast developing field of nanomedicine.