Viability and proliferation of endothelial cells upon exposure to GaN nanoparticles

• Tudor Braniste,
• Ion Tiginyanu,
• Tibor Horvath,
• Simion Raevschi,
• Serghei Cebotari,
• Marco Lux,
• Axel Haverich and
• Andres Hilfiker

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1330–1337, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.124

• cell function. Many studies have tried treating endothelial cells with peptide-coated nanoparticles, with the final outcome dependent upon the surfactant bound to the nanoparticle rather than the nanoparticle itself [11][12]. We propose the use of “smart materials” for such purposes. GaN could be a

• , which make it promising for biomedical applications. Recently, it was shown that GaN does not require surface treatment for biocompatibility [18]. Bulk GaN is nontoxic for cells with or without peptide functionalization of the surface, with only very low amounts of gallium being released during the cell

High antiviral effect of TiO₂·PL–DNA nanocomposites targeted to conservative regions of (−)RNA and (+)RNA of influenza A virus in cell culture

• Asya S. Levina,
• Marina N. Repkova,
• Elena V. Bessudnova,
• Ekaterina I. Filippova,
• Natalia A. Mazurkova and
• Valentina F. Zarytova

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1166–1173, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.108

• sequences as our DNA5, DNA1, DNA8, and DNA4 were examined against the NP segment [10]. To ensure the delivery into cells, morpholino oligonucleotides were conjugated to an arginine-rich peptide. The efficiency of the used oligomers were in the following order: DNA1 << DNA8 < DNA4 ≤ DNA5 (reduction by 50% or

Assembling semiconducting molecules by covalent attachment to a lamellar crystalline polymer substrate

• Rainhard Machatschek,
• Patrick Ortmann,
• Renate Reiter,
• Stefan Mecking and
• Günter Reiter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 784–798, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.70

• solution. However, 1 becomes fluorescent upon reaction with a carboxyl group. Therefore, the covalent attachment of 1 to the crystal surface is conveniently proven by measuring the fluorescence emission. The coupling reaction was carried out in dimethylformamide (DMF) using a standard peptide coupling

Novel roles for well-known players: from tobacco mosaic virus pests to enzymatically active assemblies

• Claudia Koch,
• Fabian J. Eber,
• Carlos Azucena,
• Alexander Förste,
• Stefan Walheim,
• Thomas Schimmel,
• Alexander M. Bittner,
• Holger Jeske,
• Hartmut Gliemann,
• Sabine Eiben,
• Fania C. Geiger and
• Christina Wege

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 613–629, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.54

• necrosis aborting viral multiplication, which has been analyzed in detail especially for TMV [47]. Consequently, direct genetic fusion of enzyme sequences to the ends, or into exposed loops, of viral CPs frequently failed, and also short peptide tags enabling bioaffinity linkage were inserted only

• the ribosome “skip” mechanism ([154] and T. Michon, personal communication), which is attained by foot-and-mouth-disease virus (FMDV) 2a peptide-like junctions [73][163]. Although the enzyme CALB underwent a 45-fold decrease in activity, it functioned stably on the plant viral backbone. The use of

• antibodies as “molecular stickers” and thus spacers was developed into a partially universal coupling concept to viral templates [88]: It allows for the stable binding of functional proteins fused with the Z33 peptide (derived from staphylococcal protein A [164]) to the Fc portions of immunoglobulins IgG1

Early breast cancer screening using iron/iron oxide-based nanoplatforms with sub-femtomolar limits of detection

• Dinusha N. Udukala,
• Hongwang Wang,
• Sebastian O. Wendel,
• Aruni P. Malalasekera,
• Thilani N. Samarakoon,
• Asanka S. Yapa,
• Gayani Abayaweera,
• Matthew T. Basel,
• Pamela Maynez,
• Raquel Ortega,
• Yubisela Toledo,
• Leonie Bossmann,
• Colette Robinson,
• Katharine E. Janik,
• Olga B. Koper,
• Ping Li,
• Massoud Motamedi,
• Daniel A. Higgins,
• Gary Gadbury,
• Gaohong Zhu,
• Deryl L. Troyer and
• Stefan H. Bossmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 364–373, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.33

• and FRET quenching. Notable exceptions are MMPs 1 (Figure 5) and 7 (Figure 4) where significant matrix effects were detected. As noted in Table S1 in Supporting Information File 1, the physical properties (isoelectric point and hydrophobicity index) of the consensus sequences plus peptide linkers

• designed for detecting MMP 1 and MMP 7 are within the ranges defined by all employed peptide sequences. Pieper et al. have analyzed human serum by fractionating serum proteins, followed by two-dimensional electrophoresis, and sequential anion-exchange and size-exclusion chromatography. They have resolved

• 3700 posttranslationally modified proteins [43]. Based on their findings, we cannot exclude that binding of the peptide sequences designed for MMP 1 and MMP 7 detection to one or several serum protein occurs, which is ultimately responsible for the observed photophysical behavior of these nanoplatforms

Surface-site reactivity in small-molecule adsorption: A theoretical study of thiol binding on multi-coordinated gold clusters

• Elvis C. M. Ting,
• Tatiana Popa and
• Irina Paci

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 53–61, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.6

• used to examine the behavior of single molecules or small molecular clusters on ideal surfaces [23][24][25][26][27][33][34][36][37]. Several classical simulation studies also exist, generally focused investigating peptide behavior at a metal surface [38][39][40]. A still outstanding issue is the change

• in aminoacid or peptide behavior upon adsorption on non-ideal surfaces, i.e., substrates with adatoms, high-Miller-index facets or surface curvature have been examined individually [41][42][43][44][45], but no rigorous studies of the dependence of surface binding on site reactivity or coordination

Peptide-equipped tobacco mosaic virus templates for selective and controllable biomineral deposition

• Klara Altintoprak,
• Axel Seidenstücker,
• Alexander Welle,
• Sabine Eiben,
• Petia Atanasova,
• Nina Stitz,
• Alfred Plettl,
• Joachim Bill,
• Hartmut Gliemann,
• Holger Jeske,
• Dirk Rothenstein,
• Fania Geiger and
• Christina Wege

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1399–1412, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.145

• mineralization-directing peptides designed to yield silica coatings in a reliable and predictable manner via precipitation from tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) precursors. Three peptide groups were compared regarding their influence on silica polymerization: (i) two peptide variants with alternating basic and acidic

• peptides with high ZnO binding affinity. Differential effects on the mineralization of the TMV surface were demonstrated, where a (KD)x charge-relay peptide (designed in this study) led to the most reproducible and selective silica deposition. A homogenous coating of the biotemplate and tight control of

• shell thickness were achieved. Keywords: biomineralization; charge-relay system; peptide; silica; tobacco mosaic virus (TMV); Introduction Amorphous silica (SiO2) precipitated from silicate precursor sols comprises a wide range of versatile materials applied in various technological approaches, for

Natural and artificial binders of polyriboadenylic acid and their effect on RNA structure

• Giovanni N. Roviello,
• Domenica Musumeci,
• Valentina Roviello,
• Marina Pirtskhalava,
• Alexander Egoyan and
• Merab Mirtskhulava

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1338–1347, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.138

• backbone provide determinant contributions for efficient RNA recognition [59]. Besides the RNA binding ability, many other interesting properties of the nucleobase-containing peptide-like molecules are known in the field of biomedicine, including the antigene activity and the modulation of the expression

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

• at the same time novel opportunities for developing diverse scientific fields, particularly in materials science [1], supramolecular chemistry [2], and medicinal chemistry [3][4]. The derivatization of fullerene with peptide units substantially modifies its original properties, rendering them

• wide range of activities of fullerene–peptide conjugates has been studied [3][7][16]. Fulleropeptides synthesized by Prato's research group [17] showed a good bacteriostatic activity against Gram-positive bacterium S. aureus making it interesting for potential antimicrobial chemotherapeutics. Recently

• contribution to the development of carriers for biomolecules [21]. Higashi and co-workers have reported the aggregation properties and a high superoxide scavenging activity of fullerene–poly(Glu)peptide nanoparticles as self-assembled structures [22]. Fullerene C60 and fulleropyrrolidine derivatives showed

Protein corona – from molecular adsorption to physiological complexity

• Lennart Treuel,
• Dominic Docter,
• Michael Maskos and
• Roland H. Stauber

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 857–873, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.88

• occur upon adsorption onto NP surfaces resulting in altered protein conformations [6][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59]. Such altered conformations may well lead to the exposure of cryptic peptide epitopes [60][61], altered function and/or avidity effects [22][43][62][63][64]. When

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

• ][27]. Furthermore, we combined ECIS with single-particle tracking, which was previously used to follow the intracellular pathway of Tat peptide-conjugated QDs in living cells [28], transport of QD-labelled monoclonal anti-HER2 antibody in mice [29], specific recognition of avidin-CD14 receptor by

• ). For internalized peptide-coated QDs, an involvement of more than one motor protein such as kinesin or dynein was reported earlier. Here, some repetitive back-and-forth movements were assigned to the competition between motors with different directionality or conjunction of the cargo in the cytoplasm

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

• helical (Gly–Hyp–Pro)n peptide [44] of 100 Å length with two associated iron clusters. a) The ferric ion (light blue) is coordinated by seven oxygen atoms of which the three hydroxides show the strongest interaction and an Fe–O distance of 2.7 Å. The Fe–O distances to the solvent and to carbonyl/hydroxy

The distribution and degradation of radiolabeled superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles and quantum dots in mice

• Denise Bargheer,
• Artur Giemsa,
• Barbara Freund,
• Markus Heine,
• Christian Waurisch,
• Gordon M. Stachowski,
• Stephen G. Hickey,
• Alexander Eychmüller,
• Jörg Heeren and
• Peter Nielsen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 111–123, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.11

• even its physiological role as a trace element is controversially discussed. Supporters of its physiological role have suggested a function in the form of a Cr3+-binding peptide, the so-called chromodulin, occurring in carbohydrate, fat, or cholesterol, whereby metabolism can increase insulin

Chemoselective silicification of synthetic peptides and polyamines

• Maryna Abacilar,
• Fabian Daus and
• Armin Geyer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 103–110, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.10

• components at the surface of the forming silica beads. Poulsen et al. investigated the mutual influence of peptides and LCPAs. Here we investigate the simplest scenario of chemoselective precipitation, which is the differentiation between two dissolved components, a cationic peptide and an oligoamine, that

• precipitate silica (Figure 2). Three amines with increasing number of nitrogen atoms, a basic peptide, and a toxin [14] that is not involved in biomineralization but stands exemplary for other amines capable of silica precipitation. Synthetic methods Figure 3 shows the synthetic strategies used to access the

• amine remains reactive for peptide coupling. The HBTU/HOBt-mediated condensation of a Fmoc-acylated amino acid and cleavage of the temporary protecting group Fmoc with piperidine was repeated in 15 cycles to obtain CTC-bound precursor of peptide 5 which was finally Boc-deprotected by TFA and

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

• interaction with the surface of the BNNTs. This study provides a deeper understanding into the nature of the interactions of amino acids (and perhaps similar molecules) with surface of the BNNTs [68]. The interaction of a peptide, HWSAWWIRSNQS, with BNNTs was studied using AFM [69]. It was found that the

• peptide–BNNT structure had an excellent dispersibility in water since the BNNTs were covered by this peptide. The study revealed that the presence of Trp (W), which has a benzene ring in the peptide sequence, exhibited a strong π–π interaction with the BNNT surfaces [69]. Dendrimers prepared from

Coating with luminal gut-constituents alters adherence of nanoparticles to intestinal epithelial cells

• Heike Sinnecker,
• Katrin Ramaker and
• Andreas Frey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2308–2315, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.239

• acids representative for an alimentary peptide source, we noticed that this seemed to have no substantial effect on the adherence of NPs to the cells, only with the 20 nm NPs slightly higher fluorescence intensities were measured (Figure 2A). Individual peptides and amino acids of this extract do

Localized surface plasmon resonances in nanostructures to enhance nonlinear vibrational spectroscopies: towards an astonishing molecular sensitivity

• Dan Lis and
• Francesca Cecchet

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2275–2292, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.237

• molecule detection. Furthermore, this weak molecular contribution was still higher than the non-resonant contributions of water and silver particles. The authors confirmed the high sensitivity of the system with the peptide angiotensin I, as testified by the 40 times higher signal than that of SERS, while

Biopolymer colloids for controlling and templating inorganic synthesis

• Laura C. Preiss,
• Katharina Landfester and
• Rafael Muñoz-Espí

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2129–2138, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.222

• used for templating. The toroidal structures formed by DNA condensates were used as soft templates for the formation of silver [64][65] and gold [66] nanoparticles by reduction of the metal salts (Figure 6). Rings resulting from the assembly of a bolaamphiphilic peptide molecule were reported as

Carbon-based smart nanomaterials in biomedicine and neuroengineering

• Antonina M. Monaco and
• Michele Giugliano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1849–1863, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.196

• grown on smooth and electrically conducting indium tin oxide substrates (ito) nor on electrically-insulating RADA16 peptide thin-films (b), characterised by a similar nanoscale roughness s CNTs (c). The culture substrates do not alter the electrical passive properties of neuronal membranes (d

Real-time monitoring of calcium carbonate and cationic peptide deposition on carboxylate-SAM using a microfluidic SAW biosensor

• Anna Pohl and
• Ingrid M. Weiss

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1823–1835, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.193

• below the solubility equilibrium. The peptide ES9, equal to the mollusc chitin synthase epitope, is less sensitive to changes in pH than its counterpart AS8 with a penta-lysine core, which lacks the flanking acidic residues. This study demonstrates the extraordinary potential of microfluidic surface

• acoustic wave biosensors to significantly expand our experimental capabilities for studying the principles underlying biomineralization in vitro. Keywords: biomineralization; calcium carbonate; love-type surface acoustic wave; poly-cationic peptide; Introduction Biomineralization is a natural process of

• (sequence, N→C: EEKKKKKES) and AS8 (sequence, N→C: AKKKKKAS) [46]. The ES9 peptide is derived from E22, one of four major extracellular loops of an enzyme involved in biomineralization [20][47]. Previous experiments suggest that self-assembly of E22 is fine-tuned in accordance with pH changes that may occur

In vitro interaction of colloidal nanoparticles with mammalian cells: What have we learned thus far?

• Moritz Nazarenus,
• Qian Zhang,
• Mahmoud G. Soliman,
• Pablo del Pino,
• Beatriz Pelaz,
• Susana Carregal-Romero,
• Joanna Rejman,
• Barbara Rothen-Rutishauser,
• Martin J. D. Clift,
• Reinhard Zellner,
• G. Ulrich Nienhaus,
• James B. Delehanty,
• Igor L. Medintz and
• Wolfgang J. Parak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1477–1490, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.161

• as those provided by the TAT peptide or surface functionalization, interact initially with the negatively charged heparan sulfate proteoglycan groups on the exterior of the cells. This allows them to then be present on the plasma cell membrane as endocytosis starts. Thus, while details may be very

Model systems for studying cell adhesion and biomimetic actin networks

• Dorothea Brüggemann,
• Johannes P. Frohnmayer and
• Joachim P. Spatz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1193–1202, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.131

• observation was not as predicted by the switchblade model and is more consistent with the deadbolt model. Goennenwein et al. reconstituted integrin αIIbβ3 into supported lipid bilayers to measure their adhesion force against RGD-peptide carrying giant vesicles. With this setup a simple and powerful tool was

Molecular biology approaches in bioadhesion research

• Marcelo Rodrigues,
• Birgit Lengerer,
• Thomas Ostermann and
• Peter Ladurner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 983–993, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.112

• start, because it uses Ruby’s built in webserver Webrick (http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib-2.0/libdoc/webrick/rdoc/WEBrick.html). Finally, any query sequence such as known adhesion-related transcripts of other organisms, mass spectrometry peptide sequences or candidate transcripts originated from a

Nanodiamond-DGEA peptide conjugates for enhanced delivery of doxorubicin to prostate cancer

• Amanee D Salaam,
• Patrick Hwang,
• Roberus McIntosh,
• Hadiyah N Green,
• Ho-Wook Jun and
• Derrick Dean

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 937–945, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.107

• delivery system for bone metastatic prostate cancer was developed, characterized, and evaluated in vitro. NDs were conjugated with the Asp–Gly–Glu–Ala (DGEA) peptide to target α2β1 integrins over-expressed in prostate cancers during metastasis. To facilitate drug delivery, DOX was adsorbed to the surface

• from 2.5% to 12% cell death and 11% to 34% cell death, respectively. These studies confirmed that the delivery and efficacy of DOX were enhanced by ND-DGEA conjugates. Thus, the targeted ND-DGEA+DOX system provides a novel approach for decreasing toxicity and drug doses. Keywords: DGEA peptide

• prostate cancers, targeted drug delivery with a ligand that interacts with these integrins should allow for increased accumulation of drug systems in cancer cells versus normal cells or tissues. Asp–Gly–Glu–Ala (DGEA) peptide has been identified as a binding peptide for the α2β1 integrins; it corresponds

Biocalcite, a multifunctional inorganic polymer: Building block for calcareous sponge spicules and bioseed for the synthesis of calcium phosphate-based bone

• Xiaohong Wang,
• Heinz C. Schröder and
• Werner E. G. Müller

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 610–621, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.72

• reaction (hydration of CO2) are present in the CA-alpha (vertebrate-like) group stretch of the S. raphanus protein. The Zn ions are bound to the enzyme through the three His residues in the catalytic center of the enzyme [41]. The presence of a signal peptide cleavage site in the sponge CA indicates that