Exploring the anti-inflammatory effects of curcumin encapsulated within ferritin nanocages: a comprehensive in vivo and in vitro study in Alzheimer's disease.

Background: The global demographic shift towards an aging population is generating a rise in neurodegenerative conditions, with Alzheimer's disease (AD) as the most prominent problem. In this landscape, the use of natural supplements has garnered attention for their potential in dementia prevention. Curcumin (Cur), derived from Curcuma longa, has demonstrated promising pharmacological effects against AD by reducing the levels of inflammatory mediators.

Raman spectroscopy on dried blood plasma allows diagnosis and monitoring of colorectal cancer.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains challenging to diagnose, necessitating the identification of a noninvasive biomarker that can differentiate it from other conditions such as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and diverticular disease (DD). Raman spectroscopy (RS) stands out as a promising technique for monitoring blood biochemical profiles, with the potential to identify distinct signatures identifying CRC subjects. We performed RS analysis on dried plasma from 120 subjects: 32 CRC patients, 37 IBD patients, 20 DD patients, and 31 healthy controls.

Novel loading protocol combines highly efficient encapsulation of exogenous therapeutic toxin with preservation of extracellular vesicles properties, uptake and cargo activity.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have mostly been investigated as carriers of biological therapeutics such as proteins and RNA. Nevertheless, small-molecule drugs of natural or synthetic origin have also been loaded into EVs, resulting in an improvement of their therapeutic properties. A few methods have been employed for EV cargo loading, but poor yield and drastic modifications of vesicles remain unsolved challenges.

Ferritin nanoconjugates guide trastuzumab brain delivery to promote an antitumor response in murine HER2 + breast cancer brain metastasis.

Brain metastasis (BM) represents a clinical challenge for patients with advanced HER2 + breast cancer (BC). The monoclonal anti-HER2 antibody trastuzumab (TZ) improves survival of BC patients, but it has low central nervous system penetrance, being ineffective in treating BM. Previous studies showed that ferritin nanoparticles (HFn) may cross the blood brain barrier (BBB) through binding to the transferrin receptor 1 (TfR1).

Quantification and prospective evaluation of serum NfL and GFAP as blood-derived biomarkers of outcome in acute ischemic stroke patients.

Identification of reliable and accessible biomarkers to characterize ischemic stroke patients' prognosis remains a clinical challenge. Neurofilament light chain (NfL) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) are markers of brain injury, detectable in blood by high-sensitive technologies. Our aim was to measure serum NfL and GFAP after stroke, and to evaluate their correlation with functional outcome and the scores in rehabilitation scales at 3-month follow-up.

Determination of the quality of lipoproteins by Raman spectroscopy in obese and healthy subjects.

Lipoproteins (LPs) are multimolecular complexes of lipids and proteins responsible for transporting fatty acids, cholesterol, and micronutrients (carotenoids) through the body. The quantification of triglycerides and cholesterol carried by lipoproteins is a leading clinical parameter to assess the increased risk of cardiovascular events. However, in recent times, the study of the overall "quality" of lipoproteins, defined by their biochemical composition and oxidation state, has emerged as necessary to improve the definition of the cardiovascular risk.

Neurofilament-light chain quantification by Simoa and Ella in plasma from patients with dementia: a comparative study.

Neurofilament light chains (NfL) are neuron-specific cytoskeletal proteins whose plasmatic concentrations have been explored as a clinically useful marker in several types of dementia. Plasma concentrations of NfL are extremely low, and just two assays are commercially available for their study: one based on the SiMoA technology and one based on Ella. We thus studied plasma levels of NfL with both platforms to check the correlation between them and to assess their potential in the diagnosis of neurodegeneration.

Novel Bioengineering Strategies to Improve Bioavailability and Circulation of H-Ferritin Nanocages by Surface Functionalization.

Due to its unique architecture and innate capability to specifically target cancer cells, ferritin has emerged as an attractive class of biomaterials for drug delivery. In many studies, various chemotherapeutics have been loaded into ferritin nanocages constituted by H-chains of ferritin (HFn), and their related anti-tumor efficacy has been explored by employing different strategies. Despite the multiple advantages and the versatility of HFn-based nanocages, there are still many challenges to face for their reliable implementation as drug nanocarriers in the process of clinical translation.

Prognostic Potential of Immune Inflammatory Biomarkers in Breast Cancer Patients Treated with Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy.

Immune inflammatory biomarkers are easily obtained and inexpensive blood-based parameters that recently showed prognostic and predictive value in many solid tumors. In this study, we aimed to investigate the role of these biomarkers in predicting distant relapse in breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT). All breast cancer patients who referred to our Breast Unit and underwent NACT were retrospectively reviewed.

Bisdemethoxycurcumin (BDC)-Loaded H-Ferritin-Nanocages Mediate the Regulation of Inflammation in Alzheimer's Disease Patients.

Background: Bisdemethoxycurcumin (BDC) might be an inflammation inhibitor in Alzheimer's Disease (AD). However, BDC is almost insoluble in water, poorly absorbed by the organism, and degrades rapidly. We thus developed a new nanoformulation of BDC based on H-Ferritin nanocages (BDC-HFn).

Fast quantification of extracellular vesicles levels in early breast cancer patients by Single Molecule Detection Array (SiMoA).

Purpose: Preliminary reports suggest that extracellular vesicles (EVs) might be a promising biomarker for breast cancer (BC). However, the quantification of plasmatic levels of EVs is a complex task. To overcome these limitations, we developed a new, fast, and easy to use assay for the quantification of EVs directly in plasma based on the use of Single-Molecule Array (SiMoA).

Preoperative Systemic Inflammatory Biomarkers Are Independent Predictors of Disease Recurrence in ER+ HER2- Early Breast Cancer.

The host's immune system plays a crucial role in determining the clinical outcome of many cancers, including breast cancer. Peripheral blood neutrophils and lymphocytes counts may be surrogate markers of systemic inflammation and potentially reflect survival outcomes. The aim of the present study is to assess the role of preoperative systemic inflammatory biomarkers to predict local or distant relapse in breast cancer.

Circulating Fibroblast Activation Protein as Potential Biomarker in Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

A major concern in the management of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is the absence of accurate and specific biomarkers to drive diagnosis and monitor disease status timely and non-invasively. Fibroblast activation protein (FAP) represents a hallmark of IBD bowel strictures, being overexpressed in stenotic intestinal myofibroblasts. The present study aimed at evaluating the potential of circulating FAP (cFAP) as an accessible blood biomarker of IBD.

A Bioorthogonal Probe for Multiscale Imaging by F-MRI and Raman Microscopy: From Whole Body to Single Cells.

Molecular imaging techniques are essential tools for better investigating biological processes and detecting disease biomarkers with improvement of both diagnosis and therapy monitoring. Often, a single imaging technique is not sufficient to obtain comprehensive information at different levels. Multimodal diagnostic probes are key tools to enable imaging across multiple scales.

Raman analysis of microcalcifications in male breast cancer.

Microcalcifications (MCs) are important disease markers for breast cancer. Many studies were conducted on their characterization in female breast cancer (FBC), but no information is available on their composition in male breast cancer (MBC). Raman spectroscopy (RS) is a molecular spectroscopy that can rapidly explore the biochemical composition of MCs without requiring any staining protocol.

Lipofilling in Breast Oncological Surgery: A Safe Opportunity or Risk for Cancer Recurrence?

Lipofilling (LF) is a largely employed technique in reconstructive and esthetic breast surgery. Over the years, it has demonstrated to be extremely useful for treatment of soft tissue defects after demolitive or conservative breast cancer surgery and different procedures have been developed to improve the survival of transplanted fat graft. The regenerative potential of LF is attributed to the multipotent stem cells found in large quantity in adipose tissue.

Stable and scalable SERS tags conjugated with neutravidin for the detection of fibroblast activation protein (FAP) in primary fibroblasts.

SERS tags are a class of nanoparticles with great potential in advanced imaging experiments. The preparation of SERS tags however is complex, as they suffer from the high variability of the SERS signals observed even at the slightest sign of aggregation. Here, we developed a method for the preparation of SERS tags based on the use of gold nanostars conjugated with neutravidin.

Selective Targeting of Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts by Engineered H-Ferritin Nanocages Loaded with Navitoclax.

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are key actors in regulating cancer progression. They promote tumor growth, metastasis formation, and induce drug resistance. For these reasons, they are emerging as potential therapeutic targets.

Combined Method to Remove Endotoxins from Protein Nanocages for Drug Delivery Applications: The Case of Human Ferritin.

Protein nanocages represent an emerging candidate among nanoscaled delivery systems. Indeed, they display unique features that proved to be very interesting from the nanotechnological point of view such as uniform structure, stability in biological fluids, suitability for surface modification to insert targeting moieties and loading with different drugs and dyes. However, one of the main concerns regards the production as recombinant proteins in , which leads to a product with high endotoxin contamination, resulting in nanocage immunogenicity and pyrogenicity.

Comparability of Raman Spectroscopic Configurations: A Large Scale Cross-Laboratory Study.

The variable configuration of Raman spectroscopic platforms is one of the major obstacles in establishing Raman spectroscopy as a valuable physicochemical method within real-world scenarios such as clinical diagnostics. For such real world applications like diagnostic classification, the models should ideally be usable to predict data from different setups. Whether it is done by training a rugged model with data from many setups or by a primary-replica strategy where models are developed on a 'primary' setup and the test data are generated on 'replicate' setups, this is only possible if the Raman spectra from different setups are consistent, reproducible, and comparable.