Publications by authors named "Roberta Bilardo"

Polymeric nanogels as drug delivery systems offer great advantages, such as high encapsulation capacity and easily tailored formulations; however, data on biocompatibility are still limited. We synthesized -isopropylacrylamide nanogels, with crosslinker content between 5 and 20 mol%, functionalized with different positively charged co-monomers, and investigated the in vivo toxicity in zebrafish. Our results show that the chemical structure of the basic unit impacts the toxicity profile depending on the degree of ionization and hydrogen bonding capability.

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Article Synopsis
  • Nanomaterials can enhance drug delivery and imaging but their clinical use is limited by poor understanding of how they interact with biological systems, especially proteins and lipids.
  • The interaction leads to the formation of a "biomolecular corona" that alters the nanoparticles' behavior, influenced by their size, shape, charge, and hydrophobicity.
  • Recent findings highlight that surface chemistry is key in determining how nanoparticles interact with biomolecules, and exploring additional properties like shape and chirality can help in customizing these interactions.
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The delivery of drugs to the brain remains a challenge due to the blood-brain barrier's (BBB) highly specific and restrictive properties, which controls and restrict access to the brain parenchyma. However, with the development of nanotechnologies, large panels of new nanomaterials were developed to improve drug delivery, highlighting the need for reliable in vitro microsystems to predict brain penetration in the frame of preclinical assays. Here is a straightforward method to set up a microphysiological system to model the BBB using solely human cells.

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