Concetta Di Natale

Title : Cell membrane-coated oil in water nano-emulsions as biomimetic nanocarriers for lipophilic compounds conveyance

Abstract:

Recently, we developed ultra-stable oil in water nano-emulsions (O/W NEs), able to carry both internal and external cargos (Somes), such as lipophilic compounds and hydrophilic coatings, respectively, that we call here NEsoSomes. O/W NEs are an excellent bioengineering tool for drug and molecules delivery, due to their ability to dissolve many hydrophobic compounds and protect them from hydrolysis and degradation under biological conditions. At present, no report is available on the combination of cell membrane coatings with such nanocarriers, probably due to their typical instability feature. Since then, we have reported, for the first time, a new cell membrane (CM)-coated nanomaterial composed of membranes extracted from glioblastoma cancer cells (U87-MG) deposited on NEsoSomes, through a liquid–liquid interface method, to produce highly controllable membrane caked nano-capsules, namely CM-NEsoSomes. CM-NEsoSomes were physically characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS) over time and their correct morphology was analyzed by confocal and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) microscopy. Moreover, CM-NEsoSomes biocompatibility was tested on the healthy model cell line, performing cell cytotoxicity and uptake assay, showing nanocarriers uptake by cells with no induced cytotoxicity.

Audience take-away:

• Audience could learn to fabricate  nanocarriers as innovative cell-derived biocompatible systems
• Adopting a simple but efficient purification and deposition strategy.
• The use of oil core-based nanocarriers, which opens to the conveyance of several lipophilic compounds, ranging from drugs and biomolecules to contrast agent compounds.
• The use of biocompatible systems for the treatment and diagnosis of several human diseases, including cancer, as well as for vaccination and prevention from viral infection.
• The production of mature cell membrane delivery systems could improve the potential of nanocarriers increasing chemotherapeutic drug biocompatibility and decreasing the incidence of associated side effects.

Biography:

She is expert in the field of protein-protein interaction and in the identification of compounds able to modulate these interactions. She has 10-years track record in the field of the chemical synthesis and biochemical characterization of biomolecules. She has a background in peptide and protein chemistry and a specific expertise in the identification of new bioactive molecules of peptidic and peptidomimetic nature, in the preparation and screening o peptide/peptoid libraries and in the structural and functional characterization of biomolecules by biochemical methods as   LC-MS, CD, ELISA, SPR, ITC and fluorescence assays. In the last 5 years she has become an expert in biomaterial synthesis, funcationalization and characterization by novel techniques such as IR, QCM, SEM, TEM, AFM, confocal microscopies  and microfluidics devices.