Multitechnique characterization of eco-corona formation on airborne nanoplastics.

The increasing presence of micro- and nanoplastics in natural environments raises concerns about their interactions with biological particles such as pollen, that may act as carriers but could also undergo subtle chemical or structural changes, potentially influencing their ecological role. At the same time, the analytical and technological approaches used to investigate nanoplastic pollution mechanism can themselves raise concerns regarding their greenness. In this interdisciplinary study, we explored the interactions between multifloral bee pollen and polyethylene terephthalate nanoparticles (NanoPET) under environmentally relevant conditions using a multimodal analytical strategy combining AF4 (Asymmetrical Flow Field-Flow Fractionation) multidetection, Pyrolysis-GC-MS (py-GC-MS), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), and dielectrophoresis-Raman spectroscopy (DEP-Raman).

A direct, real-time, size-resolved analytical strategy to follow drug loading and release from biocompatible gold nanoparticles.

Background: Analytical methods for the characterization of nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems often rely on the quantification of unbound drug to provide information on drug loading and delivery, but fail to account for system complexity, address the state of the releasing system, or simulate the physiological environment. There is a clear need for new analytical methods capable of following the entire process of drug loading, stability and release under physiological conditions, based on multi-parametric analytical platforms. Asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation (AF4) can be used to size sort and isolate nanoparticles for further analysis or characterization by online, uncorrelated techniques.

Multi-environment and multi-parameter screening of stability and coating efficiency of gold nanoparticle bioconjugates in application media.

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and their biocompatible conjugates find wide use as transducers in (bio)sensors and as Nano-pharmaceutics. The study of the interaction between AuNPs and proteins in representative application media helps to better understand their intrinsic behaviors. A multi-environment, multi-parameter screening strategy is proposed based on asymmetric flow field flow fractionation (AF4)-multidetector.

Native characterization and QC profiling of human amniotic mesenchymal stromal cell vesicular fractions for secretome-based therapy.

Human amniotic mesenchymal stromal cells (hAMSCs) have unique immunomodulatory properties making them attractive candidates for regenerative applications in inflammatory diseases. Most of their beneficial properties are mediated through their secretome. The bioactive factors concurring to its therapeutic activity are still unknown.

Emerging Microfluidic Tools for Simultaneous Exosomes and Cargo Biosensing in Liquid Biopsy: New Integrated Miniaturized FFF-Assisted Approach for Colon Cancer Diagnosis.

The early-stage diagnosis of cancer is a crucial clinical need. The inadequacies of surgery tissue biopsy have prompted a transition to a less invasive profiling of molecular biomarkers from biofluids, known as liquid biopsy. Exosomes are phospholipid bilayer vesicles present in many biofluids with a biologically active cargo, being responsible for cell-to-cell communication in biological systems.

Field-Flow Fractionation in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology.

Field-flow fractionation (FFF) is a family of single-phase separative techniques exploited to gently separate and characterize nano- and microsystems in suspension. These techniques cover an extremely wide dynamic range and are able to separate analytes in an interval between a few nm to 100 µm size-wise (over 15 orders of magnitude mass-wise). They are flexible in terms of mobile phase and can separate the analytes in native conditions, preserving their original structures/properties as much as possible.

Melatonin affects the motility and adhesiveness of in vitro capacitated boar spermatozoa via a mechanism that does not depend on intracellular ROS levels.

This work sought to address the effects of melatonin during in vitro capacitation (IVC) and progesterone-induced acrosome exocytosis (IVAE) in boar spermatozoa. With this purpose, two different experiments were set. In the first one, IVC and IVAE were induced in the absence or presence of melatonin, which was added either at the start of IVC or upon triggering the IVAE with progesterone.