Natural nanofibers embedded in the seed mucilage envelope: composite hydrogels with specific adhesive and frictional properties

• Agnieszka Kreitschitz and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 1603–1618, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.126

• the diaspore) [6][13]. Mucilage is often composed of three types of polysaccharides, which are typical components found in the plant cell wall. It exhibits modified secondary cell wall, where pectins are the dominating component, while hemicelluloses and cellulose fibrils constitute the lesser part of

• gels and wound dressings [15][18][20][21][22]. Mucilage is a complex mixture of polysaccharides, that is, pectins, hemicelluloses, and cellulose fibrils, which are derivatives of the modified secondary cell wall with its special properties. Among these properties, one of the most important ones is the

• this network are, in general, cellulose fibrils, which constitute a kind of skeleton for other polysaccharides (pectins and hemicelluloses); however, there is also almost purely pectic seed mucilages without cellulose fibrils and mucilage dominated by hemicelluloses [6][7]. This self-organising nature

Electrospun nanofibers: building blocks for the repair of bone tissue

• Tuğrul Mert Serim,
• Gülin Amasya,
• Tuğba Eren-Böncü,
• Ceyda Tuba Şengel-Türk and
• Ayşe Nurten Özdemir

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 941–953, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.77

• stress in mammals [20]. Tropocollagen, the most basic unit of collagen, is formed by the combination of three polypeptide chains, and each chain contains about 1000 amino acids. Type-I collagen forms well-organized fibers and fibrils. Collagen molecules in a triple helix structure self-assemble to form

• collagen fibrils, which, in turn, self-assemble to form collagen fibers. When collagen fibers, which are structural elements in bone, combine with inorganic materials, hardness and strength of the tissue are increased. Apart from collagen, the organic matrix of bone tissue mainly consists of osteocalcin

Classification and application of metal-based nanoantioxidants in medicine and healthcare

• Nguyen Nhat Nam,
• Nguyen Khoi Song Tran,
• Tan Tai Nguyen,
• Nguyen Ngoc Trai,
• Nguyen Phuong Thuy,
• Hoang Dang Khoa Do,
• Nhu Hoa Thi Tran and
• Kieu The Loan Trinh

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 396–415, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.36

• [119]. The main pathogenic mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease involve not only ROS overproduction but also amyloid beta (Aβ) fibril accumulation. Liu et al. reported a nanosystem employing polydopamine and ruthenium (PDA-Ru) as key elements for ROS scavenging and decomposition of mature Aβ fibrils [120

• ]. PDA-Ru nanoparticles could degrade Aβ fibrils under low-power laser irradiation because of their great photothermal effect. Moreover, PDA-Ru nanoparticles could decompose H2O2 owing to their strong CAT activity. PDA-Ru nanoparticles effectively improved memory capacity and decreased neuroinflammation

Exploring internal structures and properties of terpolymer fibers via real-space characterizations

• Michael R. Roenbeck and
• Kenneth E. Strawhecker

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 1004–1017, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.83

• -diameter map were fibrillar in structure (Figure 3a). The surface consisted of a branched network of fibrils closely aligned to the fiber axis, as highlighted in Figure 3b. The widths of individual fibrils varied substantially (20–45 nm) along their length. Unlike in other polymer fibers we have explored

• to date, in Technora®, these features regularly merge and separate from one another, intersecting at nodes and splitting off into fibrils with distinct dimensions [9][10][11][12][13]. Likewise, some fibrils appear to protrude into and out from the primary surface exposed by FIB notching, suggesting

• topography directly corresponded to high stiffness. Those lateral profiles indicate that low-stiffness longitudinal bands in the red boxes in Figure 4 do not coincide precisely with the fibrils; instead, they are slightly offset. The manner in which these compliant regions are offset from the fibrils appears

Biomimetic chitosan with biocomposite nanomaterials for bone tissue repair and regeneration

• Se-Kwon Kim,
• Sesha Subramanian Murugan,
• Pandurang Appana Dalavi,
• Sebanti Gupta,
• Sukumaran Anil,
• Gi Hun Seong and
• Jayachandran Venkatesan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1051–1067, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.92

• nanosized hydroxyapatite crystals with connective collagen fibrils [27]. The bone possesses a unique combination of strength and stiffness, and it has excellent compressive strength and tensile strength due to the attribution of deep nanostructures of inorganic and organic components. Human bones are

• between cortical and cancellous bones [31]. At the scale of 1 µm, collagen fibrils are surrounded by minerals [32] (Figure 1). Crystals, collagens, and non-collagen organic proteins are found at sub-nanoscale levels ranging from 1 to 10 nm [33]. It has been reported that 90% of the proteins identified

• inside the bone extracellular matrix is produced by bone-forming osteoblasts with a repeating amino acid sequence of [Gly(glycine)–X–Y]n, where X and Y may be proline and hydroxyproline. Collagen fibrils, composed of specific proteins, are usually responsible for mechanical strength. Furthermore

Bioselectivity of silk protein-based materials and their bio-inspired applications

• Hendrik Bargel,
• Vanessa T. Trossmann,
• Christoph Sommer and
• Thomas Scheibel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 902–921, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.81

• , and whilst the termini are hydrophilic, the repetitive cores are composed of alternating large hydrophobic amino acid sequence blocks interspersed with short hydrophilic parts. Interestingly, in both insect (fibroin) and spider (spidroin) silk fibres the core is composed of fibrils that are oriented

Antibacterial activity of a berberine nanoformulation

• Hue Thi Nguyen,
• Tuyet Nhung Pham,
• Anh-Tuan Le,
• Nguyen Thanh Thuy,
• Tran Quang Huy and
• Thuy Thi Thu Nguyen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 641–652, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.56

• remarkable at concentrations greater than 8 µg/mL through affecting the aggregation of phenol-soluble modulins into amyloid fibrils. This result suggests that BBR may be a therapeutic agent against microbial-generated amyloid-involved diseases. BBR is also a phytochemical exhibiting a strong antiviral

Effects of substrate stiffness on the viscoelasticity and migration of prostate cancer cells examined by atomic force microscopy

• Xiaoqiong Tang,
• Yan Zhang,
• Jiangbing Mao,
• Yuhua Wang,
• Zhenghong Zhang,
• Zhengchao Wang and
• Hongqin Yang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 560–569, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.47

• that when we inhibit actin polymerisation with an actin-binding protein inhibitor, the actin fibrils fail to polymerise into bundles and the prostate cancer cells themselves have reduced elasticity values and increased viscosity values, thus reducing the migration ability of the prostate cancer cells

• different stiffness. FibrilTool, an ImageJ plug-in, was used to quantify the fibrillar structure in the original cytoskeleton images. Anisotropy (score between 0 and 1): 0 for no order (purely isotropic arrays) and 1 for perfectly ordered arrays (i.e., parallel fibrils, purely anisotropic arrays); “ns

Ethosomal (−)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate as a novel approach to enhance antioxidant, anti-collagenase and anti-elastase effects

• Çiğdem Yücel,
• Gökçe Şeker Karatoprak,
• Sena Yalçıntaş and
• Tuğba Eren Böncü

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 491–502, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.41

• ultraviolet (UV) radiation, smoking, pollution, and normal endogenous metabolic processes triggers the skin aging process. Elastase and collagenase enzymes induced by the formation of ROS accelerate the aging process and cause loss of collagen and elastin fibrils. With the formation of free radicals, lipid

Micro- and nanotechnology in biomedical engineering for cartilage tissue regeneration in osteoarthritis

• Zahra Nabizadeh,
• Mahmoud Nasrollahzadeh,
• Hamed Daemi,
• Mohamadreza Baghaban Eslaminejad,
• Ali Akbar Shabani,
• Mehdi Dadashpour,
• Majid Mirmohammadkhani and
• Davood Nasrabadi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 363–389, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.31

• cartilage matrix vary in each layer [5]. The superficial zone contains a relatively dense number of flattened and randomly dispersed chondrocytes with collagen fibrils arranged parallel to the articular surface [13]. This zone is responsible for the highest tensile properties of articular cartilage and

• supports deeper layers from shear stresses [5]. The middle or transitional zone constitutes the thickest portion of articular cartilage (40–60%) and has fewer chondrocytes with a more rounded morphology [6]. In this layer, the collagen fibrils are arranged randomly and obliquely and the cells synthesize

• relatively greater amounts of the proteoglycans [14]. The deep zone consists of the lowest cell density, highest aggrecan content, largest diameter collagen fibrils, and least amount of collagen [12]. In this layer, the chondrocytes are typically arranged in columnar clusters parallel to the collagen fibrils

A 3D-polyphenylalanine network inside porous alumina: Synthesis and characterization of an inorganic–organic composite membrane

• Jonathan Stott and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 938–951, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.78

• and smooth polymer film, whereas polymerization in pure DCM leads to the formation of a three-dimensional network of agglomerated fibrils that expand throughout the full pore volume of the porous ALOX-membrane (thus clogging its interior). In this study, we investigate the influence of different

• ALOX-membranes. Surface-initiated ring-opening polymerization of polyphenylalanine-NCA in pure DCM results in the formation of a three-dimensional network of agglomerated fibrils which fills the inner pores of the ALOX-membrane. It consists of predominantly α-helix conformations of the polymer chains

Identification of physicochemical properties that modulate nanoparticle aggregation in blood

• Ludovica Soddu,
• Duong N. Trinh,
• Eimear Dunne,
• Dermot Kenny,
• Giorgia Bernardini,
• Ida Kokalari,
• Arianna Marucco,
• Marco P. Monopoli and
• Ivana Fenoglio

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 550–567, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.44

• aggregation. However, in this case the effect is not due to the interaction with integrin, but it is a non-specific process due to the tendency of fibrinogen to form fibrils similar to fibrin. This tendency is a consequence of the specific fibrinogen arrangement onto surfaces, modulated by the surface

• occur. In fact, we previously reported that the tendency of fibrinogen to self-assemble to form fibrin-like fibrils increased by decreasing the hydrophilic character of silica [23]. When incubated in the presence of platelets, SNPs induced only mild aggregation (Figure 9). This is in agreement with that

Nanoscale optical and structural characterisation of silk

• Meguya Ryu,
• Reo Honda,
• Adrian Cernescu,
• Arturas Vailionis,
• Armandas Balčytis,
• Jitraporn Vongsvivut,
• Jing-Liang Li,
• Denver P. Linklater,
• Elena P. Ivanova,
• Vygantas Mizeikis,
• Mark J. Tobin,
• Junko Morikawa and
• Saulius Juodkazis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 922–929, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.93

• , Melbourne, Australia 10.3762/bjnano.10.93 Abstract The nanoscale composition of silk defining its unique properties via a hierarchial structural anisotropy needs to be analysed at the highest spatial resolution of tens of nanometers corresponding to the size of fibrils made of β-sheets, which are the

Topochemical engineering of composite hybrid fibers using layered double hydroxides and abietic acid

• Liji Sobhana,
• Lokesh Kesavan,
• Jan Gustafsson and
• Pedro Fardim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 589–605, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.60

• material. Both bleached and unbleached pulps further undergo refining. Refining is a process in which mechanical compression and shear forces are applied to the intact wet fiber network in order to increase the surface exposure and surface area. In addition, it opens up fibrils on the surface, which

• throughout the report are given. The water drainability of the refined pulps was determined according to ISO 5267-1:1999, the Schopper–Riegler method, in order to verify the refining degree of the pulps. The refining results in compression, fibrillation and finally intertwinement of the fibrils. Flattened

• BKPR. Optical microscopy pictures (10× magnification) showed that external fibrillation had occurred in both refined pulps, BKPR and UBKPR (Figure 1c,d). External fibrillation is the phenomenon in which fibrils stand out from the fiber surface but are still attached to the fiber strands. External

Mechanical and thermodynamic properties of Aβ₄₂, Aβ₄₀, and α-synuclein fibrils: a coarse-grained method to complement experimental studies

• Adolfo B. Poma,
• Horacio V. Guzman,
• Mai Suan Li and
• Panagiotis E. Theodorakis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 500–513, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.51

• fibrils associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Aβ40, Aβ42, and α-synuclein systems to obtain a molecular understanding and interpretation of nanomechanical characterization experiments. The computational method is versatile and addresses a new subarea within the mechanical characterization of

• heterogeneous soft materials. We investigate both the elastic and thermodynamic properties of the biological fibrils in order to substantiate experimental nanomechanical characterization techniques that are quickly developing and reaching dynamic imaging with video rate capabilities. The computational method

• qualitatively reproduces results of experiments with biological fibrils, validating its use in extrapolation to macroscopic material properties. Our computational techniques can be used for the co-design of new experiments aiming to unveil nanomechanical properties of biological fibrils from a point of view of

Pull-off and friction forces of micropatterned elastomers on soft substrates: the effects of pattern length scale and stiffness

• Peter van Assenbergh,
• Marike Fokker,
• Julian Langowski,
• Jan van Esch,
• Marleen Kamperman and
• Dimitra Dodou

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 79–94, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.8

• - and/or nanoscale fibrillar geometries have been reported [7], where the flexibility of the individual fibrils leads to a low Eeff [8]. Furthermore, micropatterns with a fibrillar geometry have been shown to have better defect control [9] and better stress distribution [10] compared to smooth adhesives

Low cost tips for tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy fabricated by two-step electrochemical etching of 125 µm diameter gold wires

• Antonino Foti,
• Francesco Barreca,
• Enza Fazio,
• Cristiano D’Andrea,
• Paolo Matteini,
• Onofrio Maria Maragò and
• Pietro Giuseppe Gucciardi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2718–2729, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.254

• the detection of toxic HypF-N oligomers that precede the formation of mature amyloid fibrils [69][70]. HypF-N oligomers (48 μM) are obtained by controlled aggregation (4 h, 25 °C, pH 5.5) of the HypF-N monomer in 50 mM acetate buffer, 12% (v/v) trifluoroethanol and 2 mM dithiothreitol [66]. The gold

Nanoscale characterization of the temporary adhesive of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus

• Ana S. Viana and
• Romana Santos

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2277–2286, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.212

• protein is pulled from the surface of the adhesive fibrils and the “hidden length” of the amino acid chain is extended [1]. When probed directly in milli-Q water, pull-off forces around 63 ± 40 pN were needed to break these sacrificial bonds [1]. As for barnacle cyprid larvae they use glycoproteinaceous

• around 20 nm could clearly be distinguished (Figure 4a,c). These results are consistent with previous reports, describing the sea urchin footprint microstructure, observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), as a dense meshwork with smaller mesh-like areas (<1 μm) delimited by very fine fibrils (about

• within an intermolecular β-sheet as protein is pulled from the surface of the adhesive fibrils and the “hidden length” of the amino acid chain is extended [1]. In E. solae the sawtooth peaks observed in the retracting force–extension curve were equally spaced (15.5 ± 4.2 nm), indicating an underlying

The structural and chemical basis of temporary adhesion in the sea star Asterina gibbosa

• Birgit Lengerer,
• Marie Bonneel,
• Mathilde Lefevre,
• Elise Hennebert,
• Philippe Leclère,
• Emmanuel Gosselin,
• Peter Ladurner and
• Patrick Flammang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2071–2086, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.196

• SEM preparation, individual tube feet were amputated and only a part of the stem was maintained (Figure 1C). On some tube feet, adhesive material was preserved on the disc surface (Figure 1D). The material appeared fibrous and emerged from secretory pores. Fibrils originated from single pores and

Sheet-on-belt branched TiO₂(B)/rGO powders with enhanced photocatalytic activity

• Huan Xing,
• Wei Wen and
• Jin-Ming Wu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1550–1557, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.146

• nanocrystals on TiO2(B) single-crystal fibrils by a two-step process [23]. Li et al. prepared a biphase TiO2 core/shell nanofiber with anatase core and TiO2(B) shell [24]. Kandiel et al. used a hydrothermal technique to synthesize TiO2(B) nanofibers simultaneously decorated with anatase nanoparticles [25]. The

Review on nanoparticles and nanostructured materials: history, sources, toxicity and regulations

• Jaison Jeevanandam,
• Ahmed Barhoum,
• Yen S. Chan,
• Alain Dufresne and
• Michael K. Danquah

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1050–1074, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.98

• drugs that can inhibit the growth of these harmful bacteria in its early stage. Nanoparticles and nanostructures in plants Wood is made of natural fibers that are considered as cellular hierarchical bio-composites. Natural fibers are composites of cellulosic-fibrils at the nanoscale level. The simplest

• form of nanometer-sized cellulosic-fibrils are 100–1000 nm long, containing both crystalline and amorphous segments. The unique strength and extreme performance properties of various natural fibers such as wood are attributed to their elementary hierarchical structure with nanofibrillar components [187

• with the extracellular matrix (ECM) within the stem cells includes influential stem cell behavior through sources of passive mechanical force. A wide structural protein spectrum and polysaccharides of different length scales with dominating nanometer-sized collagen fibrils strands of 35–60 nm diameter

Liquid-crystalline nanoarchitectures for tissue engineering

• Baeckkyoung Sung and
• Min-Ho Kim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 205–215, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.22

• are core materials in the living body [16]. For example, cell membranes [17] and chromosomes [18][19] exhibit LC-like phases, and some pathological states are closely related to LC formation processes, such as those of amyloid fibrils [20]. Consequently, complex self-organization dynamics of living

• cholesteric droplets of concentrated suspensions of α-chitin and chitosan have been reported [45], and nematic order was also confirmed in the solutions of collagen type IV [46]. Similarly, the cholesteric phase behavior of cellulose fibrils is well established. For all these cases, the isotropic–nematic

• tissue by altering the elastic modulus of tissue [58]. Hard tissues Skeletal tissues are mineralized compact matrices of ordered biopolymers [59]. In vertebrates, bones consist of a dense mesophase of collagen fibrils [60], which has been believed to render mechanical stiffness to the skeletal tissues

Strategy to discover full-length amyloid-beta peptide ligands using high-efficiency microarray technology

• Clelia Galati,
• Natalia Spinella,
• Lucio Renna,
• Danilo Milardi,
• Francesco Attanasio,
• Michele Francesco Maria Sciacca and
• Corrado Bongiorno

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2446–2453, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.243

• Abstract Although the formation of β-amyloid (Aβ) fibrils in neuronal tissues is a hallmark of Alzheimer disease (AD), small-sized Aβ oligomers rather than mature fibrils have been identified as the most neurotoxic species. Therefore, the design of new inhibitors, able to prevent the aggregation of Aβ, is

• , and scientists believe that the observed build-up of plaque between nerve cells could be the cause of cell death [1]. Two peptides, 40 and 42 amino acids long, known as Aβ40 and Aβ42 amyloid, are the main constituents of the fibrillar plaques [2]. Although amyloid fibrils were initially considered the

• inhibitors to the Aβ monomers are challenging due to the short lifetimes of the intermediate aggregation states and the highly dynamic nature of their transition into the final fibrils [19][20]. Therefore, there is an urgent need for sensitive tools capable of capturing binding events even at Aβ peptide

Luminescent supramolecular hydrogels from a tripeptide and nitrogen-doped carbon nanodots

• Maria C. Cringoli,
• Slavko Kralj,
• Marina Kurbasic,
• Massimo Urban and
• Silvia Marchesan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 1553–1562, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.157

• upon application of a pH trigger was studied in the presence of NCNDs to evaluate effects at the supramolecular level. Luminescent hydrogels were obtained whereby NCND addition allowed the rheological properties to be fine-tuned and led to an overall more homogeneous system composed of thinner fibrils

• stability to external forces, especially when NCNDs were added to the acidic buffer. This observation was compatible with better interconnected networks of fibrils in the presence of NCND. Frequency sweep experiments confirmed in all cases a hydrogel nature with G’ > G’’ and both G’ and G’’ independent of

• ability to laterally bind to the surface of peptide fibrils [37]. This interaction has been the subject of numerous studies that overall elucidated that an increase in fluorescence intensity linearly correlates to amyloid fibril concentration [38]. In the presence of the dye, the NCNDs showed negligible

Dispersion of single-wall carbon nanotubes with supramolecular Congo red – properties of the complexes and mechanism of the interaction

• Anna Jagusiak,
• Barbara Piekarska,
• Tomasz Pańczyk,
• Małgorzata Jemioła-Rzemińska,
• Elżbieta Bielańska,
• Barbara Stopa,
• Grzegorz Zemanek,
• Janina Rybarska,
• Irena Roterman and
• Leszek Konieczny

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 636–648, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.68

• , sonication-based method of obtaining CR-functionalized SWNTs. Congo red is best known as an amyloid specific dye, used for years in histochemical analyses for the detection of amyloid fibrils, which – when stained with CR – present characteristic apple-green birefringence under the polarized light microscope

• . Birefringence implies anisotropy and ordered arrangement of dye molecules bound to regular, beta-structured amyloid fibrils [29][30]. Congo red molecules self-assemble in water solutions producing supramolecular entities stabilized by π–π interactions between aromatic rings [31][32][33]. Supramolecular Congo