Chitosan-coupled solid lipid nanoparticles: Tuning nanostructure and mucoadhesion.

Solid Lipid Nanoparticles (SLNs) composed of biodegradable physiological lipids have been widely proposed as efficient drug delivery systems, also for ophthalmic administration. Recently, chitosan-associated-SLNs have been developed to further improve the residence time of these colloidal systems in the precorneal area by means of mucoadhesive interaction. In the present study, a one-step preparation protocol was used aiming both at scale-up ease and at stronger coupling between chitosan and SLNs.

Amyloid-β peptides in interaction with raft-mime model membranes: a neutron reflectivity insight.

The role of first-stage β-amyloid aggregation in the development of the Alzheimer disease, is widely accepted but still unclear. Intimate interaction with the cell membrane is invoked. We designed Neutron Reflectometry experiments to reveal the existence and extent of the interaction between β-amyloid (Aβ) peptides and a lone customized biomimetic membrane, and their dependence on the aggregation state of the peptide.

What the cell surface does not see: The gene vector under the protein corona.

The fate of lipid-based nanovectors, used in genetic targeting inside cells, depends on their behavior in biological media. In fact, during both in vitro and in vivo transfection, nanovectors come in contact with proteins that compete for their surface and build the protein corona, their true biological identity while engaging the cell membrane. Nonetheless, after cell internalization, the efficacy of transfection may depend also on structural modifications that occurred under the protein cover, following interaction with biological fluids.

Optimizing the crowding strategy: sugar-based ionic micelles in the dilute-to-condensed regime.

In the present study, we explore the effect of concentration on micelles made by different gangliosides, which are ionic biological glycolipids bearing multisugar headgroups with huge steric hindrance. Moreover, strong preferential interactions exist among like-conformer headgroups that can keep the ganglioside micelles in a trapped configuration. We extend the well-known ionic-amphiphiles paradigm, where local condensation and micelle crowding are matched by forming larger aggregates at increasing concentration.

Different mutations at V363 MAPT codon are associated with atypical clinical phenotypes and show unusual structural and functional features.

Microtubule-associated protein tau gene (MAPT) is one of the major genes linked to frontotemporal lobar degeneration, a group of neurodegenerative diseases clinically, pathologically, and genetically heterogeneous. In particular, MAPT mutations give rise to the subgroup of tauopathies. The pathogenetic mechanisms underlying the MAPT mutations so far described are the decreased ability of tau protein to promote microtubule polymerization (missense mutations) or the altered ratio of tau isoforms (splicing mutations), both leading to accumulation of hyperphosphorylated filamentous tau protein.

Transient step-like kinetics of enzyme reaction on fragmented-condensed substrates.

We followed the process of enzymatic digestion of ganglioside GD1a, operated by sialidase on aggregated micelles. The product is the ganglioside GM1, lacking the external sialic acid. The structural aspects and the kinetics connected to the process occurring on a fragmented-condensed substrate, the ganglioside micelles, are investigated by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS).

Nanoscale structural response of ganglioside-containing aggregates to the interaction with sialidase.

It is well known that the curvature of ganglioside-containing nanoparticles strongly depends on their headgroup structure, as determined in aggregates with 'stationary' composition, that is, when the system finds its optimal structure at the moment of lipid dissolution in aqueous solution. In the present work, we directly followed the structural change in model aggregates, induced by on-line molecular modification of already-packed gangliosides, namely the one brought about by a sialidase, acting on the ganglioside GD1a and leading to the lower-curvature-aggregating GM1. We applied small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering techniques to follow the time evolution of the aggregate structure.

Shape fluctuations of large unilamellar lipid vesicles observed by laser light scattering: influence of the small-scale structure.

In the present paper, we apply the dynamic laser light scattering technique to investigate the dependence of the characteristic times of thermally induced shape fluctuation of large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) on bilayer composition. After addressing single-component LUVs made of two common phospholipids, dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) and dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC), we investigate the changes in vesicle shape fluctuation times due to the presence of cholesterol and gangliosides (GM1), added in small amounts. The experimental results show that the addition of a second component, even in small amount, to DMPC vesicles induces a change in membrane fluctuation times.