The nanofluidic confinement apparatus: studying confinement-dependent nanoparticle behavior and diffusion

• Stefan Fringes,
• Felix Holzner and
• Armin W. Knoll

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 301–310, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.30

• nanoparticles and vesicles in nanofluidic systems [13]. In a follow-up experiment, it was shown that crucial information on the trapping potential can be gained by using an AFM-type system and a micro-capillary to adjust the gap distance [14]. Another example of a strongly gap-dependent behavior is the lateral

Involvement of two uptake mechanisms of gold and iron oxide nanoparticles in a co-exposure scenario using mouse macrophages

• Dimitri Vanhecke,
• Dagmar A. Kuhn,
• Dorleta Jimenez de Aberasturi,
• Sandor Balog,
• Ana Milosevic,
• Dominic Urban,
• Diana Peckys,
• Niels de Jonge,
• Wolfgang J. Parak,
• Alke Petri-Fink and
• Barbara Rothen-Rutishauser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2396–2409, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.239

• , and clathrin- and caveolin-independent endocytosis, involving the ingestion of fluid, molecules, and NPs via small vesicles (<0.15 µm in diameter) [9]. Although NPs have been shown to be taken up by the cells mainly by pinocytotis [9], many factors have been shown to influence the interaction with

• experiments revealed that the AuNPs were localised in their membranes rather than in the cores of the vesicles [21][22]. However, indications exist of alternative pathways for particles to enter cells, as studies have reported intracellular NPs of diverse materials lacking surrounding membranes [23][24

• observed. Colocalisation of both particle types in intracellular compartments 24 h after exposure was confirmed by TEM (Figure 4). Intracellular particles were found only in vesicles and in the co-exposure experiments, both particle types were observed in the same vesicle. In the immediate extracellular

Self-assembly of chiral fluorescent nanoparticles based on water-soluble L-tryptophan derivatives of p-tert-butylthiacalix[4]arene

• Pavel L. Padnya,
• Irina A. Khripunova,
• Olga A. Mostovaya,
• Timur A. Mukhametzyanov,
• Vladimir G. Evtugyn,
• Vyacheslav V. Vorobev,
• Yuri N. Osin and
• Ivan I. Stoikov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1825–1835, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.184

• solution. The conformers of the 1,3-alternate (the compounds 9 and 11) have a fundamentally different structure with hydrophilic fragments located on both sides of the macrocyclic system (Figure 1). As a result, they form extended vesicles with a hydrophobic part disposed between two layers of polar

Low uptake of silica nanoparticles in Caco-2 intestinal epithelial barriers

• Dong Ye,
• Mattia Bramini,
• Delyan R. Hristov,
• Sha Wan,
• Anna Salvati,
• Christoffer Åberg and
• Kenneth A. Dawson

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1396–1406, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.141

• in vesicles along the endo-lysosomal pathways, including in endosomes (Figure 3c) and lysosomes (Figure 3d and f). Furthermore, Figure 3e shows a single nanoparticle within a vesicle close to the basolateral membrane, where another vesicle has docked. Although rare, we occasionally made such

• events may occur. Some internalisation events were also seen for 150 nm SiO2-NPs (Figure 4), with particles found in vesicles and lysosomes in both 0 and 10% serum (Figure 4b and d, respectively) as described for the smaller nanoparticles (Figure 3). Finally, we performed transport studies to determine

• in different vesicles along the endolysosomal pathway. Abbreviations: E, endosome; L, lysosome; V, vesicle. Transmission electron micrographs of Caco-2 barriers after exposure to 150 nm SiO2-NPs. Caco-2 barriers cultured for 21 days were exposed for 9 h to 100 µg/mL 150 nm SiO2-NPs dispersed in (a,b

Bright fluorescent silica-nanoparticle probes for high-resolution STED and confocal microscopy

• Isabella Tavernaro,
• Christian Cavelius,
• Henrike Peuschel and
• Annette Kraegeloh

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1283–1296, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.130

• suitable for biological nanoparticle uptake experiments and have been used to determine the intracellular migration and nuclear penetration after uptake into Caco-2 cells [44]. They have also been used to analyse their intracellular agglomeration and their association with intracellular vesicles in living

Nano-engineered skin mesenchymal stem cells: potential vehicles for tumour-targeted quantum-dot delivery

• Liga Saulite,
• Dominyka Dapkute,
• Karlis Pleiko,
• Ineta Popena,
• Simona Steponkiene,
• Ricardas Rotomskis and
• Una Riekstina

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1218–1230, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.123

• ]. Lourenco et al. showed that MSC migration towards cancer cells is induced by MIF–CXCR4 chemotaxis [29]. Moreover, in close proximity of the tumour, cancer-associated fibroblast formation is induced by the release of vesicles containing miRNA from cancer cells. This leads to melanoma growth and invasion [30

Nanoscale isoindigo-carriers: self-assembly and tunable properties

• Tatiana N. Pashirova,
• Andrei V. Bogdanov,
• Lenar I. Musin,
• Julia K. Voronina,
• Irek R. Nizameev,
• Marsil K. Kadirov,
• Vladimir F. Mironov,
• Lucia Ya. Zakharova,
• Shamil K. Latypov and
• Oleg G. Sinyashin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 313–324, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.34

• . This is observed in the case of typical surfactants bearing relative large polar fragment and single alkyl chain. If 1/2 < P ≤ 1, the formation of bilayers is predicted, including closed structures, i.e., vesicles. The polar head surface area was calculated as the sum of the area of hexagons and

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering of self-assembled thiol monolayers and supported lipid membranes on thin anodic porous alumina

• Marco Salerno,
• Amirreza Shayganpour,
• Barbara Salis and
• Silvia Dante

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 74–81, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.8

• ), and then with phospholipid vesicles of different composition to form a supported lipid bilayer (SLB). At each step, the SERS substrate functionality was assessed, demonstrating acceptable enhancement (≥100×). The chemisorption of thiols during the first step and the formation of SLB from the vesicles

• was obtained by scanning electron microscope (SEM) imaging with a JSM-7500F (Jeol, Japan) and subsequent grain analysis carried out with Igor 6.22 (Wavemetrics, OR, USA). Incubation of thiols and fabrication of lipid vesicles Different thiols were used in combination with the different lipids to be

• unilamellar vesicles. Preparation of the Raman target analytes: SLBs The lipid vesicles were diluted to 0.5 g/L in the PBS buffer and vortexed immediately before use. The thiol SAM was incubated overnight with the lipid vesicle dispersion, to allow vesicle physisorption and fusion onto the substrate. The

Polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene oxide) copolymers as templates for stacked, spherical large-mesopore silica coatings: dependence of silica pore size on the PS/PEO ratio

• Roberto Nisticò,
• Giuliana Magnacca,
• Sushilkumar A. Jadhav and
• Dominique Scalarone

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1454–1460, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.137

• critical micellar concentration, CMC) amphiphiles can spontaneously self-organize into well-defined supramolecular aggregates (host) which can be classified as normal and reverse micelles, emulsions, vesicles or liquid crystal phases and can shape or pattern other materials (guest), forming spherical

On the pathway of cellular uptake: new insight into the interaction between the cell membrane and very small nanoparticles

• Claudia Messerschmidt,
• Daniel Hofmann,
• Anja Kroeger,
• Katharina Landfester,
• Volker Mailänder and
• Ingo Lieberwirth

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1296–1311, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.121

• methods, the respective endolysosomal vesicles frequently have been shown to contain SiNPs, whereas the cell nucleus is only occasionally reported to have engulfed nanoparticles [5][7]. On the contrary, there are observations corroborating the hypothesis of the SiNPs’ ability to passively pass through

• . Looking at the TEM micrographs of the endosomal vesicles it could be speculated that shortly after incorporation the cell collects several of these NPs in early endosome-like structures and fuses those to a larger endocytic structure (Supporting Information File 1, Figure S8). The observation of

Functional diversity of resilin in Arthropoda

• Jan Michels,
• Esther Appel and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1241–1259, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.115

Improved biocompatibility and efficient labeling of neural stem cells with poly(L-lysine)-coated maghemite nanoparticles

• Igor M. Pongrac,
• Marina Dobrivojević,
• Lada Brkić Ahmed,
• Michal Babič,
• Miroslav Šlouf,
• Daniel Horák and
• Srećko Gajović

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 926–936, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.84

• micrographs demonstrated that PLL-γ-Fe2O3 or nanomag®-D-spio labeling did not affect the NSC ultrastructure and that both types of the nanoparticles were internalized into the cell vesicles rather than adhering to the cell surface (Figure 6). To determine the mechanism of the uptake of PLL-γ-Fe2O3 and nanomag

• . Transmission electron micrographs of NSCs labeled with PLL-γ-Fe2O3 (PLL, A, B) and nanomag®-D-spio (NM, C, D) nanoparticles, and unlabeled controls (E, F). Arrows indicate the macropinocytotic vesicles. Insets show macropinocytotic vesicles. Scale bar: 1 µm. Macropinocytosis is the mechanism of cellular uptake

Reconstitution of the membrane protein OmpF into biomimetic block copolymer–phospholipid hybrid membranes

• Matthias Bieligmeyer,
• Franjo Artukovic,
• Stephan Nussberger,
• Thomas Hirth,
• Thomas Schiestel and
• Michaela Müller

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 881–892, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.80

• strength up to 10 times larger than that of phospholipid bilayers [18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Vesicles formed by synthetic block polymers (polymersomes) can be modified in a similar way as vesicles made from phospholipids (liposomes) [25][26][27][28]. Although polymer membranes are generally thicker than

• DPhPC, block copolymer–phospholipid vesicles (lipopolymersomes) were prepared by electroformation [53] in aqueous solutions. Confocal fluorescence microscopy of vesicles dyed with fluorescent lipid (TopFluorPC) and nile red showed that blends of 90 mol % PIPEO block copolymers and 10 mol % DPhPC form

• giant vesicles (Figure 2A). Nile red was used as a general hydrophobic dye to visualize the membranes; TopFluorPC was used to assess possible phase separation between lipids and polymers. The molecular weight of PIPEO appeared to have no observable effect on the formation of vesicles despite the

Gold nanoparticles covalently assembled onto vesicle structures as possible biosensing platform

• M. Fátima Barroso,
• M. Alejandra Luna,
• Juan S. Flores Tabares,
• Cristina Delerue-Matos,
• N. Mariano Correa,
• Fernando Moyano and
• Patricia G. Molina

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 655–663, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.58

• bilayers with the aim of using this nanomaterial as platform for the future design of immunosensors. A novel methodology for the self-assembly of AuNPs onto large unilamellar vesicle structures is described. The vesicles were formed with 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) and 1-undecanethiol

• (SH). After, the AuNPs photochemically synthesized in pure glycerol were mixed and anchored onto SH–DOPC vesicles. The data provided by voltammetry, spectrometry and microscopy techniques indicated that the AuNPs were successfully covalently anchored onto the vesicle bilayer and decorated vesicles

• exhibit a spherical shape with a size of 190 ± 10 nm. The developed procedure is easy, rapid and reproducible to start designing a possible immunosensor by using environmentally friendly procedures. Keywords: covalently decorated vesicles; gold nanoparticles; immunosensors design; synthesis

Active multi-point microrheology of cytoskeletal networks

• Tobias Paust,
• Tobias Neckernuss,
• Lina Katinka Mertens,
• Ines Martin,
• Michael Beil,
• Paul Walther,
• Thomas Schimmel and
• Othmar Marti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 484–491, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.42

• migration, reaction to external influences and transport of vesicles. In this work we showed the theoretical idea behind the method, the experimental implementation and in addition its limits via calculations of the SNR. These preliminary results open a wide field of applications in all kinds of different

Fabrication of hybrid graphene oxide/polyelectrolyte capsules by means of layer-by-layer assembly on erythrocyte cell templates

• Joseba Irigoyen,
• Nikolaos Politakos,
• Eleftheria Diamanti,
• Elena Rojas,
• Marco Marradi,
• Raquel Ledezma,
• Layza Arizmendi,
• J. Alberto Rodríguez,
• Ronald F. Ziolo and
• Sergio E. Moya

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2310–2318, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.237

• layer-by-layer technique (LbL). Although the technique was originally developed for the alternating assembly of polyelectrolytes (PE) of opposite charge, LbL can be and has been extended to include particles, 2D layered materials, nanostructures, and lipid vesicles, which provide charged surfaces, or

Selective porous gates made from colloidal silica nanoparticles

• Roberto Nisticò,
• Paola Avetta,
• Paola Calza,
• Debora Fabbri,
• Giuliana Magnacca and
• Dominique Scalarone

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2105–2112, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.215

• solution are able to form various types of aggregates, such as micelles and vesicles that can be employed to build novel nanomaterials [36][37]. Figure 1 reports the possible supramolecular organizations of amphiphiles when dissolved in solution. In particular, by changing the ratio between the silica

• order depending on the physicochemical properties of the block copolymer [38]. Next to the widespread spherical and short cylindrical (rod-like) micellar systems, also other types of supramolecular organizations were found, like lamellar sheets [39], worm-like systems [27] and vesicles [38]. When

Fulleropeptide esters as potential self-assembled antioxidants

• Mira S. Bjelaković,
• Tatjana J. Kop,
• Jelena Đorđević and
• Dragana R. Milić

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1065–1071, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.107

• functionalized fullerenes are able to self-assemble into a plethora of supramolecular structures, such as spheres, nanotubes, vesicles, rods, nanowires, and nanofibers [9][10][11]. Also, formation of diverse morphologies of self-assembled fullerene derivatives under different external conditions has also been

Capillary and van der Waals interactions on CaF₂ crystals from amplitude modulation AFM force reconstruction profiles under ambient conditions

• Annalisa Calò,
• Oriol Vidal Robles,
• Sergio Santos and
• Albert Verdaguer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 809–819, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.84

• characterize a variety of nanoscale materials, from soft biomaterials (vesicles, viruses) [16][17], to organic thin films [18][19][20][21] and self-assembled monolayers [22] in liquid and in air, especially at those short separations where breakthrough events and sample mechanical deformations occur. However

Silica micro/nanospheres for theranostics: from bimodal MRI and fluorescent imaging probes to cancer therapy

• Shanka Walia and
• Amitabha Acharya

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 546–558, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.57

• vesicles without any appreciable amount of change in the NP size and shape. In a similar way, Chen et al. [59] reported the synthesis of multifunctional magnetic and fluorescent nanocolloids. The synthesis began with the preparation of either inorganic QDs or organic semiconductors. These nanocomposites

The effect of surface charge on nonspecific uptake and cytotoxicity of CdSe/ZnS core/shell quantum dots

• Vladimir V. Breus,
• Anna Pietuch,
• Marco Tarantola,
• Thomas Basché and
• Andreas Janshoff

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 281–292, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.26

• is approximate 600 nm in diameter (Supporting Information File 1, Figure S3). However, due to the point spread function of the microscope, we can assume that the actual size of the endosome is smaller. Accordingly, the observed vesicles might correspond to caveolae (d = 50–100 nm), rather than large

• directed phases, most likely corresponding to QD or QD-contained vesicles being transported by a motor protein along cytoskeletal filaments, and nondirected phases, during which the connection between QDs and filaments was lost. The presence of such trajectories for QD–kinesin constructs in HeLa cells was

• difference in size of the QD-containing vesicles (Figure 6b). Thus, internalized amine-functionalized CA–QDs were seemingly the largest cargos transported in the cellular interior, while carboxylated DHLA-coated and zwitterionic DPA-coated QDs were appreciably smaller, possibly internalized as single QDs or

Tailoring the ligand shell for the control of cellular uptake and optical properties of nanocrystals

• Johannes Ostermann,
• Christian Schmidtke,
• Christopher Wolter,
• Jan-Philip Merkl,
• Hauke Kloust and
• Horst Weller

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 232–242, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.22

• solvents, which are selective for only one of the blocks [7]. The formation of polymeric vesicles (polymerosomes) and spherical micelles is an interesting tool for the encapsulation of hydrophobic nanoparticles and since the critical micelle concentration (CMC) is comparatively low [8][9], a high stability

• -assembled vesicles and micelles in water, depending on the chosen block length ratio [19]. The high amount of present double bonds in the micelle core offers the possibility of radically initiated cross-linking of the structures or even microemulsion polymerizations to produce very dense capsules. Review

• the microscope image, the PI-b-PEG with 42 wt % PEG forms unilamellar vesicles in water in a size range between 2 and 5 µm. The sample containing 51 wt % PEG shows a big hydrodynamic diameter of about 250 nm with a broad size distribution in the DLS measurements (Figure 1B). This could be attributed

Caveolin-1 and CDC42 mediated endocytosis of silica-coated iron oxide nanoparticles in HeLa cells

• Nils Bohmer and
• Andreas Jordan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 167–176, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.16

• single layers in each experiment. To calculate an average fluorescence intensity of SCIONs for a whole cell population, the overall fluorescence of the dye Alexa Fluor® 555 in every single cell was determined. Therefore the sensitivity of the nanoparticle channel was adjusted to the distinct vesicles

• of SCIONs by HeLa cells. This could be an indication for an unknown, alternative uptake mechanism, which is dependent on Caveolin-1 but independent from Dynamin 2. Because it is known, that Dynamin 2 plays an important role in the constriction of caveolae-coated vesicles from the inner cell membrane

• [27][43], another possible explanation is, that SCIONs accumulate in caveolae-coated vesicles at the cell membrane without their detachment when Dynamin 2 is depleted. These SCIONs would not have been removed before quantitative analysis. Further experiments have to be conducted to test these

Synthesis of boron nitride nanotubes and their applications

• Saban Kalay,
• Zehra Yilmaz,
• Ozlem Sen,
• Melis Emanet,
• Emine Kazanc and
• Mustafa Çulha

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 84–102, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.9

• the BNNTs in the primary human osteoblasts (hOBs) under the exposure of low frequency ultrasound (US) [80]. The BNNTs were wrapped with PLL for stabilization in water. Furthermore, they found that the PLL–BNNTs were localized in the cytoplasm in the vesicles. Although the experimental system was

Intake of silica nanoparticles by giant lipid vesicles: influence of particle size and thermodynamic membrane state

• Florian G. Strobl,
• Florian Seitz,
• Christoph Westerhausen,
• Armin Reller,
• Adriano A. Torrano,
• Christoph Bräuchle,
• Achim Wixforth and
• Matthias F. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2468–2478, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.256

• present experiments on a massive uptake of silica nanoparticles by giant unilamellar lipid vesicles (GUVs). We find that this uptake process depends on the size of the particles as well as on the thermodynamic state of the lipid membrane. Our findings are discussed in the light of several theoretical

• models and indicate that these models have to be extended in order to capture the interaction between nanomaterials and biological membranes correctly. Keywords: cells; endocytosis; engulfment; fission; gel phase; giant unilamellar lipid vesicles (GUV); lipid membranes; liquid phase; nanoparticle

• ; phosphocholines; uptake; vesicles; wrapping; Introduction Nanomaterials gain more and more importance in different industrial and scientific branches and the rising probability of accidental exposure of humans and their environment to nanoparticles gave rise to the development of the relatively new research