NanoFusion · Effect of nanoparticles on membrane fusion
„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“
- Период
- 2022-06-01 → 2024-05-31
- Финансиране от ЕС
- 224 934 €
- Участници
- 1
- Схема
- MSCA-IF
Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.
Накратко на български
Наночастиците, като металните клъстери, се изследват за това как влияят върху сливането и структурата на клетъчните мембрани. Това помага за намаляване на токсичността и подобряване на доставката на лекарства при лечение на тумори или инфекции.
Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.
Резултати накратко
Effect of nanoparticles on membrane fusion
Artificial nanomaterials have become the focus of intense research in the field nanomedicine because they possess novel functionalities, stabilities and tunability. In particular, nanoparticles (NPs) of different sizes, shapes, materials, and surface chemistry are widely studied as functional components for applications such as medical imaging, theragnostic, targeted therapy, drug delivery and biosensing. Considering its crucial importance to the design and use of nanomaterials in many biomedical applications where nanotoxicity should be minimized, there is an urgent need for a better fundamental understanding of the interactions between functional NPs and model cell membranes. In recent years, nano-ions (charged nanoparticles) have attracted increasing interest due to their fascinating properties. Nano-ions such as polyoxometalates (POMs), boron clusters and hydrophobic ions, are nanometric well-defined molecular metal clusters with variety of structures – of different size, shape, and charge, which depend on the atomic composition. This enables precise control of their biological activity at the cell membrane interface. Nano-ions have promising antitumor, anti-infectious and anti-Alzheimer’s activities. Despite their promising membrane-targeting ability, direct evidence for the proposed mechanism based on the formation and desorption of POM-lipid assemblies is lacking. Their interactions with cell membranes, relevant to their cytotoxicity and drug delivery applications, remain poorly understood. In particular, little is known how the presence of nano-ions might influence the formation, reorganization and evolution of the structure and morphology of SLBs. The overall objective of this project was to understand the effect of NPs on membrane fusion.
Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз
Цел на проекта
Nanoparticles (NPs) of different sizes, shapes, materials, and surface chemistry have been increasingly incorporated in modern formulations. In these applications, it is ubiquitous that NPs are exposed to biological media and come into intimate contact with cells. There is currently an urgent need to bridge the gap in our knowledge of NP toxicity in order to fulfil the potential of nanomaterial application. Such an understanding is also critical to the public perception of the safety of nanomaterials. Gaining cellular entry is a major route for NPs to impart toxicity. Studies using cell viability assays provide useful phenomenological information on the toxicity of specific NPs against specific cells under specific conditions, which however gives limited mechanistic insights into how NP physical properties are correlated with their cellular entrance and consequent toxicity. Physicochemical experiments using quantitative methods to probe the fundamental process of NP cellular entrance are lacking. A directly relevant fundamental area on the mechanisms of NP cellular entrance but remains largely unexplored is how NPs would affect the mechanism of membrane fusion - specifically, how the presence of NPs may lower the energetic barrier in the membrane fusion process. The scientific innovation of this project is to directly measure, using the surface force apparatus (SFA), in situ and in real time, interactions and fusion between model membranes (i.e. supported lipid bilayers) in the presence of NPs and as a function of lipid compositions and physicochemical properties of NPs. Direct visualisation of membrane contact in the SFA allows the role of NPs in the spatiotemporal structural evolution of membrane fusion, as the membranes engage in contact, compression, adhesion and fusion. These measurements will lead to unprecedented results, shedding light on the fundamentals of NP-mediated membrane fusion, relevant to our understanding of how NP gain cellular entry.
Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).
Участници
- UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL · BRISTOLКоординаторОбединеното кралство
Връзки
Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз