NANBIOSIS makes available its youtube channel with informative videos about the ICTS-NANBIOSIS and the activity of some of its research units and platforms, as well as its Cutting-edge Biomedical Solutions and Nanomedicines Cascade Characterizations
Jaume Veciana and Imma Ratera (NANBIOSIS U6 Biomaterial Processing and Nanostructuring Unit) have supervised Manuel Souto’s PhD thesis entitled “Multifunctional Materials based on TTF-PTM dyads: towards new Molecular Switches, Conductors and Rectifiers”.
The School for Doctoral Studies, together with UAB Alumni, organises an event every semester for the award of PhD degrees and PhD special prizes. With 66 PhD programmes, the UAB is one of the leading Catalan universities in the production of theses and generates approximately a third of the doctoral theses that are defended in the Catalan university system each year. The PhD special prizes confer value to theses which have received the qualification of excellence “Cum Laude” and which, having been proposed by the Admissions Committee of each academic programme, stand out for their contribution and advance in the different areas of our University.The prizes are awarded per academic year, in accordance with PhD regulations and with the criteria specified in each PhD programme.
Researchers of NANBIOSIS U7 Nanotechnology Unit are coauthors of the article “Involvement of Cellular Prion Protein in α-Synuclein Transport in Neurons” by Molecular Neurobiology
The cellular prion protein, encoded by the gene Prnp, has been reported to be a receptor of β-amyloid. Their interaction is mandatory for neurotoxic effects of β-amyloid oligomers. In this study, we aimed to explore whether the cellular prion protein participates in the spreading of α-synuclein. Results demonstrate that Prnp expression is not mandatory for α-synuclein spreading. However, although the pathological spreading of α-synuclein can take place in the absence of Prnp, α-synuclein expanded faster in PrPC-overexpressing mice. In addition, α-synuclein binds strongly on PrPC-expressing cells, suggesting a role in modulating the effect of α-synuclein fibrils.
Article: doi: 10.1007/s12035-017-0451-4
Researchers of NANBIOSIS U7. Nanotechnology Unit, are coauthors of the article “Nanopatterns of Surface-Bound EphrinB1 Produce Multivalent Ligand–Receptor Interactions That Tune EphB2 Receptor Clustering” published by NanoLetters, ACC Publications.
The authors present a nanostructured surface able to produce multivalent interactions between surface-bound ephrinB1 ligands and membrane EphB2 receptors. They have created ephrinB1 nanopatterns of regular size (<30 nm in diameter) by using self-assembled diblock copolymers. Next, they have used a statistically enhanced version of the Number and Brightness technique, which can discriminate—with molecular sensitivity—the oligomeric states of diffusive species to quantitatively track the EphB2 receptor oligomerization process in real time. The results indicate that a stimulation using randomly distributed surface-bound ligands was not sufficient to fully induce receptor aggregation. Conversely, when nanopatterned onto our substrates, the ligands effectively induced a strong receptor oligomerization. This presentation of ligands improved the clustering efficiency of conventional ligand delivery systems, as it required a 9-fold lower ligand surface coverage and included faster receptor clustering kinetics compared to traditional cross-linked ligands.
In conclusion, nanostructured diblock copolymers constitute a novel strategy to induce multivalent ligand–receptor interactions leading to a stronger, faster, and more efficient receptor activation, thus providing a useful strategy to precisely tune and potentiate receptor responses. The efficiency of these materials at inducing cell responses can benefit applications such as the design of new bioactive materials and drug-delivery systems
Article:
The PRONANBIOSIS II Network of Excellence ICTS 2017 SAF2017-90810-REDI, granted by the Spanish Minitry of Science to NANBIOSIS, begins its activity planned for two years.
Networks of Excellence favor the development of networks of research groups aimed, in this case, to promote the general coordination of ICTS or Distributed ICTS, as is the case of NANBIOSIS.
This Network will give continuity to the previous PRONANBIOSIS Network, which ended on July 31st. The main purposes of the Network are:
– to consolidate its unified management model,
– to boost its internationalization and strategic positioning
– to promote a complete cascade service for nanomaterials characterization
Scientists of NANBIOSIS U6. Biomaterial Processing and Nanostructuring Unit, have recently pubished an article in the ACS Omega about the design 0f 3D platforms specific for T cell culture to improve the current T cell expansion systems to introduce new in vitro models and facilitate the broad use of ACT in the clinics.
Adoptive cell therapy, i.e., the extraction, manipulation, and administration of ex vivo generated autologous T cells to patients, is an emerging alternative to regular procedures in cancer treatment. Nevertheless, these personalized treatments require laborious and expensive laboratory procedures that should be alleviated to enable their incorporation into the clinics. With the objective to improve the ex vivo expansion of large amount of specific T cells, we propose the use of three-dimensional (3D) structures during their activation with artificial antigen-presenting cells, thus resembling the natural environment of the secondary lymphoid organs. Thus, the activation, proliferation, and differentiation of T cells have been analyzed when cultured in the presence of two 3D systems, Matrigel and a 3D polystyrene scaffold, showing an increase in cell proliferation compared to standard suspension systems.
Article of reference:
Eduardo Pérez del Río, Marc Martinez Miguel, Jaume Veciana, Imma Ratera, and Judith Guasch. Artificial 3D Culture Systems for T Cell Expansion . ACS Omega 2018 3 (5), 5273-5280. DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.8b00521
Senescent cells are damaged cells that do not perform their normal roles anymore but that are not dead –hence they are commonly known as zombi cells. These cells interfere with the functioning of the tissue in which they accumulate. Senescence is a cell program that is triggered by many types of damage and senescent cells are present in many diseases. They accumulate in diverse types of tissues during aging, thus contributing to the progressive deterioration associated to aging. Eliminating these zombi cells is one of the challenges facing science today.
In the Cellular Plasticity and Disease lab headed by the ICREA researcher Manuel Serrano at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and supported by “la Caixa” Banking Foundation, the researchers devise strategies to eliminate senescent cells. In a study published in EMBO Molecular Medicine, they present a proof of principle of a drug delivery system with selectivity for tissues that harbour senescent cells.
In collaboration with a team headed by Ramón Martínez-Máñez, Scientific Diirector of NANBIOSIS Unit 26 NMR: Biomedical Applications II , the IRB Barcelona scientists have exploited a particular hallmark of senescent cells in order to design a delivery system that specifically targets them. They have demonstrated its efficacy in cells in vitro and in two experimental mouse models, namely pulmonary fibrosis and cancer. These diseases are characterized by the presence of damaged cells, and in the case of cancer this is particularly true after treatment with chemotherapy.
In these models, the senescent cells take up the carrier more efficiently than other cells and once inside the cell the casing of the carrier degrades to release the drug cargo. When the nano-vehicles contained cytotoxic compounds, the senescent cells were killed and this resulted in therapeutic improvements in mice with pulmonary fibrosis or with cancer.
“This nano-carrier may pave the way for new therapeutic approaches for serious conditions, such as pulmonary fibrosis or to eliminate chemotherapy-induced senescent cells,” explains Manuel Serrano. Another outcome of this study is that these nano-carriers could be used for diagnostic tests of senescence as they can transport a fluorescent compound or marker.
This study, performed by IRB Barcelona in collaboration with the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, CNIO, the University of Cambridge, CIBER-BBN, and the company Pfizer in the US, is a step towards achieving the capacity to eliminate senescent cells. Developing tools to specifically eliminate senescent cells is currently a central goal for many pharmaceutical companies, among them the one set up by Manuel Serrano himself together with Ramón Martínez-Máñez and José Ramón Murguia, Senolytic Therapeutics, which is located at the Barcelona Science Park and in Boston.
The study has been funded by “la Caixa” Banking Foundation, the Botín Foundation, the European Research Council, CRUK Cambridge Centre Early Detection Programme, the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness/ERDFs and the Catalan Governmen
Daniel Muñoz‐Espín, Miguel Rovira, Irene Galiana, Cristina Giménez, Beatriz Lozano‐Torres, Marta Paez‐Ribes, Susana Llanos, Selim Chaib, Maribel Muñoz‐Martín, Alvaro C Ucero, Guillermo Garaulet, Francisca Mulero, Stephen G Dann, Todd VanArsdale, David J Shields, Andrea Bernardos, José Ramón Murguía, Ramón Martínez‐Máñez, Manuel Serrano A versatile drug delivery system targeting senescent cells EMBO Molecular Medicine (2018) DOI 10.15252/emmm.201809355
Image: The figure shows two views, frontal and lateral, of the image obtained by CT of the lungs of a mouse with fibrosis (grey areas) before and after receiving nano-therapy directed at senescent cells. (Guillem Garaulet and Francisca Mulero, CNIO)
