We live in complex times in the health, social, political, and energy spheres, and we must be aware of and implement new trends in intelligent social health systems powered by the Internet of Things ...(IoT). Sustainable development, energy efficiency, and public health are interrelated parameters that can transform a system or an environment for the benefit of people and the planet. The integration of sensors and smart devices should promote energy efficiency and ensure that sustainable development goals are met. This work is carried out according to a mixed approach, with a literature review and an analysis of the impact of the Sustainable Development Goals on the applications of the Internet of Things and smart systems. In the analysis of results, the following questions are answered about these systems and applications: (a) Are IoT applications key to the improvement of people's health and the environment? (b) Are there research and case studies implemented in cities or territories that demonstrate the effectiveness of IoT applications and their benefits to public health?
In recent years innovative nanostructures are attracting increasing interest and, among them, dendrimers have shown several fields of application. Dendrimers can be designed and modified in plentiful ...ways giving rise to hundreds of different molecules with specific characteristics and functionalities. Biomedicine is probably the field where these molecules find extraordinary applicability, and this is probably due to their multi-valency and to the fact that several other chemicals can be coupled to them to obtain desired compounds. In this review we will describe the different production strategies and the tools and technologies for the study of their characteristics. Finally, we provide a panoramic overview of their applications to meet biomedical needs, especially their use as novel antimicrobials.
In this work, a systematic review of the literature has been carried out to analyse the design of intelligent networks in environments inhabited by people and the applications of sensors to improve ...quality of life and aid human activities. This study aims to answer three research questions. The first question is whether the design of smart grids is made with people in mind. The second question focuses on whether intelligent networks are being taken account of in the research on human activity recognition, the Internet of Things, and the recognition of activities of daily living. The third question looks at whether there are synergies and multidisciplinary teams studying state-of-the-art technologies applied to environments inhabited by elderly or disabled people. Installations with sensors deployed for the improvement of the quality of human life will also help to improve the quality of the intelligent network, thus integrating the Human–Technology binomial. This study concludes with an analysis of the results of the sources examined, putting forward a protocol of seven proposals to guide future work.
Dendrimers are multifunctional molecules with well‐defined size and structure due to the step‐by‐step synthetic procedures required in their preparation. Dendritic constructs based on carbosilane ...scaffolds present carbon–carbon and carbon–silicon bonds, which results in stable, lipophilic, inert, and flexible structures. These properties are highly appreciated in different areas, including the pharmaceutical field, as they can increase the interaction with cell membranes and improve the therapeutic action. This article summarizes the most recent advances in the pharmaceutical applications of carbosilane dendritic molecules, from therapeutics to diagnostics and prevention tools. Dendrimers decorated with cationic, anionic, or other moieties, including metallodendrimers; supramolecular assemblies; dendronized nanoparticles and surfaces; as well as dendritic networks like hydrogels are described. The collected examples confirm the potential of carbosilane dendrimers and dendritic materials as antiviral or antibacterial agents; in therapy against cancer, neurodegenerative disease, or oxidative stress; or many other biomedical applications.
This article is categorized under:
Nanotechnology Approaches to Biology > Nanoscale Systems in Biology
Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Nanomedicine for Infectious Disease
Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Nanomedicine for Oncologic Disease
Carbosilane dendritic systems are unique tools for the therapy, prevention, and diagnosis of multiple diseases. They can be precisely designed for the specific purpose, thus maximizing the biological activity.
Nanotechnology-derived platforms, such as dendrimers, are very attractive in several biological applications. In the case of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, polyanionic carbosilane ...dendrimers have shown great potential as antiviral agents in the development of novel microbicides to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV-1. In this work, we studied the mechanism of two sulfated and naphthylsulfonated functionalized carbosilane dendrimers, G3-S16 and G2-NF16. They are able to inhibit viral infection at fusion and thus at the entry step. Both compounds impede the binding of viral particles to target cell surface and membrane fusion through the blockage of gp120-CD4 interaction. In addition, and for the first time, we demonstrate that dendrimers can inhibit cell-to-cell HIV transmission and difficult infectious synapse formation. Thus, carbosilane dendrimers' mode of action is a multifactorial process targeting several proteins from viral envelope and from host cells that could block HIV infection at different stages during the first step of infection.
Display omitted
•New polyphenolic dendrimers were complexed with proapoptotic siRNAs.•Dendrimer/siRNA complexes were able to internalize A549 cells in 2D and 3D cell cultures.•Formed complexes ...inhibited migration of A549 cells and increased the number of apoptotic cells.•Complexes with PD CC dendrimer showed the best transfection profiles in 2D and 3D cell cultures.
Dendrimers have emerged as an important group of nanoparticles to transport drugs, DNA, or RNA into target cells in cancer and other diseases. Various functional modifications can be imposed on dendrimers to increase the efficacy and specificity in delivering their cargo to the target cells and decrease their toxicity. In the present work, we evaluated the potential of carbosilane polyphenolic dendrimers modified with caffeic acid (CA) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) to deliver proapoptotic Mcl-1 and Bcl-2 siRNAs to A549 cancer cells. Dendrimers formed stable complexes with siRNAs as assessed by transmission electron microscopy and gel electrophoresis. Modification of dendrimers with PEG reduced the size and the zeta potential of dendrimer/siRNA complexes. The presence of PEG caused a red shift of the CD spectrum, and this effect was the more pronounced, the higher the dendrimer/siRNA ratio was. The nanocomplexes were internalized by A549. All studied dendrimer/siRNA formulations inhibited tumor cell migration and adhesion and caused an increase in the population of early apoptotic cells. Among four tested dendrimers, the polyphenolic compound containing two caffeic acid moieties complexed with siRNA demonstrated the lowest polydispersity index and showed an excellent transfection profile. In conclusion, this dendrimer are a promising candidate for the delivery of siRNA into cancer cells in further in vivo studies.
Display omitted
This paper examines a perspective on the use of newly engineered nanomaterials as effective and safe carriers of genes for the therapy of cancer. Three different groups of cationic ...dendrimers (PAMAM, phosphorus and carbosilane) were complexed with anticancer siRNA and their biophysical properties of the dendriplexes analyzed. The potential of the dendrimers as nanocarriers for anticancer siBcl-xl, siBcl-2, siMcl-1 siRNAs and a siScrambled sequence was explored. Dendrimer/siRNA complexes were characterized by methods including fluorescence, zeta potential, dynamic light scattering, circular dichroism, gel electrophoresis and transmission electron microscopy. Some of the experiments were done with heparin to check if siRNA can be easily disassociated from the complexes, and whether released siRNA maintains its structure after interaction with the dendrimer. The results indicate that siRNAs form complexes with all the dendrimers tested. Oligoribonucleotide duplexes can be released from dendriplexes after heparin treatment and the structure of siRNA is maintained in the case of PAMAM or carbosilane dendrimers. The dendrimers were also effective in protecting siRNA from RNase A activity. The selection of the best siRNA carrier will be made based on cell culture studies (Part B).
Extraction/purification of proteins, at both analytical and industrial levels, is a limiting step that usually requires the use of organic solvents and involves tedious work and a high cost. This ...work proposes a more sustainable alternative based on the use of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) coated with carboxylate-terminated carbosilane dendrons. MNPs coated with first- and second-generation carbosilane dendrons and bare MNPs were employed for the extraction of proteins with different molecular weights and charges. Interaction of proteins with MNPs significantly varied with the pH, the protein, and the dendron generation (different sizes and number of charges in the periphery). Optimal dendron:protein molar ratios and suitable conditions for disrupting interactions after protein extraction were also researched. Second-generation dendron-coated MNPs showed 100% retention capability for all proteins when using acidic conditions. They were reused without losing magnetism or interaction capacity after a disruption of protein-dendron interactions with 0.2% SDS at 100 °C for 10 min. The capacity of dendron-coated MNPs was successfully applied to the recovery/purification of proteins from two food by-products, olive seeds and cheese whey.
Graphical abstract
The present work aims to investigate the wear and friction characteristics of banana fiber (BA)/fly ash (FA) reinforced polyester composites fabricated using manual hand layup technique. Wear ...analysis was carried out with control parameters of filler content 1, 3, and 5 vol.%, speed 300, 500, and 700 rpm, load 20, 40, and 60 N, and time 5, 10, and 15 min to obtain minimum wear responses. Taguchi analysis shows that minimum wear rate was obtained at control parameters of 20 N load, 700 rpm speed and 15 min time on composites with 1, 3, and 5 vol.% of fly ash. ANOVA analysis depicted that the load was the most significant factor which induced a wear rate of 17.70 and coefficient of friction (COF) 22.56 on the F-value compared to other factors. The combined effect of the filler content and the sliding speed is most significant with an F value of 4.29 on the wear rate and 3.44 on the coefficient of friction when compared to other interactions. Material removal mechanisms from worn-out surfaces were identified using SEM characterization. These types of composites can be considered for low load applications such as interior parts of automobiles, interior architecture products, electronic panels, etc.
Infection with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) continues to be a global public health issue, especially in low-resource countries. Sexual transmission is responsible for the majority of ...HIV-1 infections worldwide. Women are more susceptible to HIV-1 acquisition than men and represent nearly 50% of the HIV-infected population. Topical vaginal microbicides that act at the earlier stages of infection offer a prevention strategy to reduce the acquisition of HIV-1. Dendrimers are nano-sized, radially symmetric molecules with a well-defined and monodisperse structure consisting of tree-like arms or branches. We perform a TZM.bl cell line-based screening of two families of carbosilane dendrimers (6 nanocompounds: G1-S12P, G2-S24P, G3-S48P, G1-C12P, G2-C24P and G3-C48P) that we have previously synthesized, containing 12, 24 or 48 sulfonate (or carboxylate) end-groups and a polyphenolic core. This work shows that second- and third-generation sulfonate-ended carbosilane dendrimers with a polyphenolic core (G2-S24P and G3-S48P, respectively) display low cytotoxicity (CC50 > 300 μM) with virucidal anti-R5-HIV-1 activity (EC50 < 50 nM; therapeutic index >6000) causing irreversible HIV-1 inactivation (80-90%) by loss of HIV-1 RNA (40%), gp120 shedding (70-80%) and p24 capsid protein release (45-60%). Herein, we demonstrate that sulfonate end-groups and a flexible scaffold from carbosilane dendrimers strongly influence their properties acting as potent virucides.
PDF
