Chitosan-based nanoparticles for improved anticancer efficacy and bioavailability of mifepristone

• Huijuan Zhang,
• Fuqiang Wu,
• Yazhen Li,
• Xiping Yang,
• Jiamei Huang,
• Tingting Lv,
• Yingying Zhang,
• Jianzhong Chen,
• Haijun Chen,
• Yu Gao,
• Guannan Liu and
• Lee Jia

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1861–1870, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.178

• ]. Because the side effects of MIF are closely related with its dosage, some studies have been implemented to find the optimum dosage of MIF [7] or to develop new formulations for MIF to improve its bioavailability [8]. Chitosan (Cs) is a basic polysaccharide found in nature with good biocompatibility and

3D printing of mineral–polymer bone substitutes based on sodium alginate and calcium phosphate

• Aleksey A. Egorov,
• Alexander Yu. Fedotov,
• Anton V. Mironov,
• Vladimir S. Komlev,
• Vladimir K. Popov and
• Yury V. Zobkov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1794–1799, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.172

• number of biocompatible materials, such as polymers of different nature (both natural and synthetic), as well as a variety of calcium phosphates (CPs) are used for this purpose [2]. In this respect, the alginate-based materials are of particular interest. Alginate (extracellular polysaccharide) is a

Effective intercalation of zein into Na-montmorillonite: role of the protein components and use of the developed biointerfaces

• Ana C. S. Alcântara,
• Margarita Darder,
• Pilar Aranda and
• Eduardo Ruiz-Hitzky

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1772–1782, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.170

• , indicating the good compatibility of the biohybrid and the polysaccharide matrix. Tensile-stress studies were carried out for the zein and starch bionanocomposite films. Those films loaded with neat MMT and 3.5% (w/w) Z-MMT_S2 biohybrid were excluded from this study due to their high brittleness. Similar

Nano- and microstructured materials for in vitro studies of the physiology of vascular cells

• Alexandra M. Greiner,
• Adria Sales,
• Hao Chen,
• Sarah A. Biela,
• Dieter Kaufmann and
• Ralf Kemkemer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1620–1641, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.155

• . Additional examples for materials are listed in Table 1 and in some other review articles [4][5][46][47][71][86][87] Polymers from natural sources can be divided in either protein-based (e.g., collagen, fibrin, matrigel, elastin), polysaccharide-based (e.g., hyaluronic acid, chitin, agar, dextran, alginate

Preparation of alginate–chitosan–cyclodextrin micro- and nanoparticles loaded with anti-tuberculosis compounds

• Albert Ivancic,
• Fliur Macaev,
• Fatma Aksakal,
• Veaceslav Boldescu,
• Serghei Pogrebnoi and
• Gheorghe Duca

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1208–1218, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.112

• consisting of seven D-glucopyranonsyl units. Because of its size and specific structure it can form inclusion complexes with preferentially lipophilic low-molecular-weight compounds. Sodium alginate is a salt of alginic acid, a naturally occurring linear polysaccharide consisting of 1,4-linked β-D

Time-dependent growth of crystalline Au⁰-nanoparticles in cyanobacteria as self-reproducing bioreactors: 2. Anabaena cylindrica

• Liz M. Rösken,
• Felix Cappel,
• Susanne Körsten,
• Christian B. Fischer,
• Andreas Schönleber,
• Sander van Smaalen,
• Stefan Geimer,
• Christian Beresko,
• Georg Ankerhold and
• Stefan Wehner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 312–327, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.30

• substances (EPS) of vegetative cells and the heterocyst polysaccharide layer (HEP) are the regions, where the first nanoparticles are detected on most other cells. The uptake of gold starts immediately after incubation and within four hours the average size remains constant around 10 nm. Analyzing the TEM

• , the heterocyst polysaccharide layer (HEP) [28]. In vivo formation of nanoparticles in these layers was, e.g., reported for Anabaena sp. in an earlier study in the setup used here [29]. Bioreduction can also occur in vitro within cell extracts [19][20][30]. It is well known that some microbiological

• preparation for TEM leaving an electron translucent area behind [28]. The second very typical feature, the heterocyst polysaccharide layer (HEP), can be seen as a ragged gray layer of varying thickness around each heterocyst. We like to stress that the different sizes of cells in an image are not a proof for

Green and energy-efficient methods for the production of metallic nanoparticles

• Mitra Naghdi,
• Mehrdad Taheran,
• Satinder K. Brar,
• M. Verma,
• R. Y. Surampalli and
• J. R. Valero

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2354–2376, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.243

• ]. Jang et al. used dextran (dex), a readily available polysaccharide, both as reducing and stabilizing agents to synthesize dex–Au NPs from HAuCl4. The stability of Au NPs is enhanced due to cross-linking of aminated dextran chains on the surface of NPs using epichlorohydrin (C3H5ClO). The average

• showed that the more Au atoms than Ag atoms are loaded on calcium alginate [98]. Venkatpurwar and Pokharkar mentioned a single step method for synthesis of Ag NPs by using sulfated polysaccharide extracted from marine red algae (Porphyra vietnamensis) in a 15 min reaction at 70 °C. The produced NPs

• showed SPR centered at 404 nm with average particle size measured to fall within the range of 13 nm. Their FTIR study admitted the role of sulfate groups of polysaccharide in reduction of AgNO3. Also, the zeta potential measurement (−35.05 mV) confirmed the capping of anionic polysaccharide on the

Morphology control of zinc oxide films via polysaccharide-mediated, low temperature, chemical bath deposition

• Florian Waltz,
• Hans-Christoph Schwarz,
• Andreas M. Schneider,
• Stefanie Eiden and
• Peter Behrens

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 799–808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.83

• present a three-step process for the low-temperature chemical bath deposition of crystalline ZnO films on glass substrates. The process consists of a seeding step followed by two chemical bath deposition steps. In the second step (the first of the two bath deposition steps), a natural polysaccharide

• , namely hyaluronic acid, is used to manipulate the morphology of the films. Previous experiments revealed a strong influence of this polysaccharide on the formation of zinc oxide crystallites. The present work aims to transfer this gained knowledge to the formation of zinc oxide films. The influence of

• measurements of the electrical conductivity. Keywords: chemical bath deposition; hyaluronic acid; polysaccharide; transparent conductive oxide; zinc oxide; Introduction Zinc oxide is a unique material with a number of interesting properties such as piezo- and pyro-electricity [1][2], high optical

Self-assembled anchor layers/polysaccharide coatings on titanium surfaces: a study of functionalization and stability

• Ognen Pop-Georgievski,
• Dana Kubies,
• Josef Zemek,
• Neda Neykova,
• Roman Demianchuk,
• Eliška Mázl Chánová,
• Miroslav Šlouf,
• Milan Houska and
• František Rypáček

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 617–631, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.63

• layers can be further utilized for the covalent bonding of a biofunctional coating of compounds bearing negatively charged functional groups. To this end, an anionic polysaccharide alginate extracted from the cell walls of brown algae (Phaeophyceae) was chosen as a model natural polymer, which satisfies

• the set prerequisites. This polysaccharide is biocompatible and degradable under normal physiological conditions [40] and has been used in various biomedical applications [41][42]. The presence of carboxyl groups in the structure of β-D-mannuronate and α-L-guluronate monomer units can be utilized for

• the immobilization of the polysaccharide chains to the anchor layer amine groups through the creation of amide bonds. The success of the performed modifications and their short-term stability in a phosphate buffer at 37 °C was probed by different surface sensitive techniques such as X-ray

Multifunctional layered magnetic composites

• Maria Siglreitmeier,
• Baohu Wu,
• Tina Kollmann,
• Martin Neubauer,
• Gergely Nagy,
• Dietmar Schwahn,
• Vitaliy Pipich,
• Damien Faivre,
• Dirk Zahn,
• Andreas Fery and
• Helmut Cölfen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 134–148, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.13

• oxide mineral phases incorporated into a protein–polysaccharide matrix. Especially, magnetite nanoparticles that are present in large amounts (ca. 70 wt %) at the tooth cap, covering the cutting surface, are responsible for the outstanding mechanical performance [5]. There are many approaches to produce

Mammalian cell growth on gold nanoparticle-decorated substrates is influenced by the nanoparticle coating

• Christina Rosman,
• Sebastien Pierrat,
• Marco Tarantola,
• David Schneider,
• Eva Sunnick,
• Andreas Janshoff and
• Carsten Sönnichsen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2479–2488, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.257

• cytotoxic [11] causing complexation of nucleic acids as well as protein/polysaccharide aggregation. These cytotoxic effects of CTAB clearly emerge in the proliferation, since after three days of incubation, nearly all cells stopped spreading while about 40% of the starting cells remained adherent. Here

Non-covalent and reversible functionalization of carbon nanotubes

• Antonello Di Crescenzo,
• Valeria Ettorre and
• Antonella Fontana

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1675–1690, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.178

• the polymer conformation from a wrapping to an unwrapping state [98]. Shiraki et al. have shown that NIR laser irradiation coagulates a modified helical polysaccharide/SWCNT complex [99]. Recently, a UV-responsive supra-amphiphile based on the host–guest complexation of a water-soluble pillar[6]arene

Exploring the complex mechanical properties of xanthan scaffolds by AFM-based force spectroscopy

• Hao Liang,
• Guanghong Zeng,
• Yinli Li,
• Shuai Zhang,
• Huiling Zhao,
• Lijun Guo,
• Bo Liu and
• Mingdong Dong

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 365–373, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.42

• 10.3762/bjnano.5.42 Abstract The polysaccharide xanthan has been extensively studied owing to its potential application in tissue engineering. In this paper, xanthan scaffold structures were investigated by atomic force microscope (AFM) in liquid, and the mechanical properties of the complex xanthan

• cell incubation [2] and the repair of damaged tissue [3]. Xanthan, a polysaccharide which can self-associate into a scaffold structure [4][5], has been widely used in various fields, such as food additives [6] and drug delivery [7][8]. A number of tools, including NMR [9][10], circular dichroism (CD

• mechanical properties of single molecules [15][16]. FS was firstly used to study the polysaccharide dextran [17], and was later extended to other molecules such as DNA [18][19], proteins [20][21], other polysaccharides [22][23][24], and amyloid proteins [25][26]. Mechanical properties such as tensile

Grain boundaries and coincidence site lattices in the corneal nanonipple structure of the Mourning Cloak butterfly

• Ken C. Lee and
• Uwe Erb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 292–299, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.32

• and retinula cells. The signals detected by thousands of ommatidia are processed neurologically in the brain to form a complete image. The corneal lens incorporates chitin, a long chained semicrystalline natural polysaccharide with a refractive index of about 1.52. It is well known that the outer

Functionalization of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes

• Eloise Van Hooijdonk,
• Carla Bittencourt,
• Rony Snyders and
• Jean-François Colomer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 129–152, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.14

• the evaporation of the solvent. The product has high optical transparency, robust flexibility and good conductivity. Chen et al. [130] used a radio-frequency glow-discharge treatment and chemical reactions post-treatment to graft polysaccharide chains onto a VA-CNT surface. After functionalization

Conducting composite materials from the biopolymer kappa-carrageenan and carbon nanotubes

• Ali Aldalbahi,
• Jin Chu,
• Peter Feng and
• Marc in het Panhuis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 415–427, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.48

• from various sources of the Rhodophyta (marine red algae). The carrageenans are well known for their gel-forming and thickening properties [39][40]. This biopolymer is an anionic polysaccharide whose structure contains galactose, 3,6-anhydrogalactose units, carboxy and hydroxy groups and ester sulfates