Reinforcing Silk Scaffolds with Silk Particles

Silk fibroin is a useful protein polymer for biomaterials and tissue engineering. In this work, porogen leached scaffolds prepared from aqueous and HFIP silk solutions were reinforced through the addition of silk particles. This led to about 40 times increase in the specific compressive modulus and the yield strength of HFIP‐based scaffolds. This increase in mechanical properties resulted from the high interfacial cohesion between the silk matrix and the reinforcing silk particles, due to partial solubility of the silk particles in HFIP. The porosity of scaffolds was reduced from ≈90% (control) to ≈75% for the HFIP systems containing 200% particle reinforcement, while maintaining pore interconnectivity. The presence of the particles slowed the enzymatic degradation of silk scaffolds.

     

Solid-phase synthesis of benzimidazole libraries biased for RNA targets

An efficient and highly versatile synthesis of two libraries 1(x,y) and 2-Ar(x,y,z) or 2-R²(x,y,w) based on the privileged benzimidazole scaffold is described. Our design is aimed at obtaining molecules, biased for binding to RNA targets, by incorporating functionalities, which are frequently found in natural RNA-ligands. The library construction was realized with the use of SPOS in high average yields and purity. Monitoring and quantitation of intermediates and final products were performed by the use of NMR spectroscopy using DMFu as an internal standard.     

Synthesis,Nanoformulations, and In Vitro Anticancer Activity of N-Substituted Side Chain Neocryptolepine Scaffolds

The naturally occurring neocryptolepine (5-Methylindolo [2,3-b]quinoline) and its analogs exhibited prominent anticancer and antimalarial activity. However, the main problem of this class of compounds is their poor aqueous solubility, hampering their bioavailability and preventing their clinical development. To overcome the problem of insolubility and to improve the physicochemical and the pharmacological properties of 5-Methylindolo [2,3-b]quinoline compounds, this work was designed to encapsulate such efficient medical compounds into mesoporous silica oxide nanoemulsion (SiO₂NPs). Thus, in this study, SiO₂NPs was loaded with three different concentrations (0.2 g, 0.3, and 0.6 g) of 7b (denoted as NPA). The findings illustrated that the nanoparticles were formed with a spherical shape and exhibited small size (less than 500 nm) using a high concentration of the synthesized chemical compound (NPA, 0.6 g) and good stabilization against agglomeration (more than −30 mv). In addition, NPA-loaded SiO₂NPs had no phase separation as observed by our naked eyes even after 30 days. The findings also revealed that the fabricated SiO₂NPs could sustain the release of NPA at two different pH levels, 4.5 and 7.4. Additionally, the cell viability of the produced nanoemulsion system loaded with different concentrations of NPA was greater than SiO₂NPs without loading, affirming that NPA had a positive impact on increasing the safety and cell viability of the whole nanoemulsion. Based on these obtained promising data, it can be considered that the prepared NPA-loaded SiO₂NPs seem to have the potential for use as an effective anticancer drug nanosystem.     

Biodegradable Polyesters for Tissue Engineering

Summary: Paper describes basic characteristics of synthesis and properties of aliphatic polyesters used for tissue engineering. Described is also synthesis of polyester containing block copolymers suitable for surface modification. Described are methods used for scaffold fabrication with required porosity. In particular, presented are methods according to which scaffolds are made from prefabricated polyester micro- and nanoparticles.     

Raman Spectroscopy Based Techniques in Tissue Engineering—An Overview

Abstract: This article reviews the most recent applications of Raman spectroscopy (RS) in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM). Raman spectroscopy can potentially alleviate the current lack of capabilities to capture important biological data beyond the standard metabolite and pH indicators in tissue bioreactors. Key process components in bioreactors that are important to evaluate cellular integrity and functionality of tissue-engineered constructs include cells, scaffolds, and proteins. A number of studies are discussed to highlight the capability of RS in noninvasive, nondestructive, and label-free in situ analysis. Protein detection is emphasized due to the urgent need for faster and cheaper techniques. The extensiveness of protein detection studies and the inadequacy of current technology formulate the basis for detailing relevant methods seeking to improve the detection limit, specificity, or multiplexing performance of RS. We argue that RS has great promise to solve the key problem in tissue bioprocessing, namely, inadequate monitoring capabilities that handicap TERM from rising to prevalence in clinical practice.     

Electrospun nanofibers of ZnO‐TiO2 hybrid: characterization and potential as an extracellular scaffold for supporting myoblasts

One‐dimensional nanofibers have attracted tremendous attention because of their potential applications. Electrospinning technology enables industrial production of these nanofibers. This study aims to fabricate one‐dimensional ZnO doped TiO₂ by electrospinning and to characterize these hybrid nanofibers. The nanocomposite was prepared using colloidal gel composed of zinc nitrate, titanium isopropoxide and polyvinyl acetate. X‐ray diffraction, energy dispersive x‐ray analysis and transmission electron microscopy analysis confirmed the purity and crystalline nature of this material, whereas the diameter of these nanofibres estimated from scanning electron microscope (SEM), field emission SEM and transmission electron microscopy are between 200 and 300 nm. Cell counting with Kit‐8 assay at regular time intervals and phase‐contrast microscopy data revealed that C2C12 cells proliferated well on ZnO/TiO₂ nanofibers between 1 and 10 µg/ml, and cellular attachments are visible by SEM. The nanostructured ZnO/TiO₂ hybrid nanofibers show higher cell adhesion, proliferation and spreading behavior compared with the titanium substrate and control. Our study suggests that ZnO/TiO₂ nanofibers could potentially be used in tissue engineering applications. The scalability, low cost, reproducibility and high‐throughput capability of this technology is potentially beneficial to examine and optimizing a wide array of cell‐nanofiber systems prior to in vivo experiments. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The preparation of 3-methyl-4-nitro-5-(2-alkylethenyl)isoxazoles

We report the first synthetic route to prepare 3-methyl-4-nitro-5-(2-alkylethenyl)isoxazoles in high yields and exclusively as E-diastereoisomers.     

Robustness Screen in Enantioselective Catalysis Enabled Generation of Enantioenriched Heterocyclic Scaffolds in One Pot

Enantioselective catalysis has emerged as a powerful synthetic paradigm and has accelerated the development of new methods to make diverse chiral molecules. Generally, these reactions are very sensitive to the steric and electronic environment present in the catalyst as well as the substrates. With this scenario, the presence of an additional component in the reaction mixture is expected to add complexity in achieving the enantioselective variants. Herein, we report that various enantioenriched molecules could be obtained from multiple starting materials in one pot. The reaction of aminoaromatics A with alkynols B₁, B₂, B₃…?B_n with a Au^I/chiral Brønsted acid catalyst afforded AB₁*, AB₂*, AB₃*…AB_n*; while, the reaction of alkynols B with aminoaromatics A₁, A₂, A₃…A_n under the same reaction conditions gave A₁B*, A₂B*, A₃B*…A_nB * .     

Multilayered electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds for tailored controlled release of embelin

Polymeric electrospun meshes are highly attractive as versatile platforms for numerous biomedical applications, tissue engineering, biosensors, and controlled release of bioactive agents. Herein, we describe the preparation and characterization of multilayered nanofibrous poly(ε-caprolactone) scaffolds with different embelin content by electrospinning technique. In vitro release in physiological and acidic pH and kinetic analysis were performed. The results show that it is possible to modulate the release profile depending on the number and thickness of layers added to drug-loaded scaffold that acts as an embelin reservoir. Electrospun multilayered scaffolds present characteristics, morphology and release profiles that could be very attractive for use as embelin controlled release systems.