resumo
Supramolecular hydrogels are highly promising candidates as biomedical materials owing to their wide array of properties, which can be tailored and modulated. Additionally, their combination with plasmonic/magnetic nanoparticles to form plasmonic magnetogels further improves their potential in biomedical applications through the combination of complementary strategies, such as photothermia, magnetic hyperthermia, photodynamic therapy and magnetic-guided drug delivery. Here, a new dehydropeptide hydrogelator, Npx-l-Met-Z-Delta Phe-OH, was developed and combined with two different plasmonic/magnetic nanoparticle architectures, i.e., core/shell manganese ferrite/gold nanoparticles and gold-decorated manganese ferrite nanoparticles with ca. 55 nm and 45 nm sizes, respectively. The magnetogels were characterized via HR-TEM, FTIR spectroscopy, circular dichroism and rheological assays. The gels were tested as nanocarriers for a model antitumor drug, the natural compound curcumin. The incorporation of the drug in the magnetogel matrices was confirmed through fluorescence-based techniques (FRET, fluorescence anisotropy and quenching). The curcumin release profiles were studied with and without the excitation of the gold plasmon band. The transport of curcumin from the magnetogels towards biomembrane models (small unilamellar vesicles) was assessed via FRET between the fluorescent drug and the lipid probe Nile Red. The developed magnetogels showed promising results for photothermia and photo-triggered drug release. The magnetogels bearing gold-decorated nanoparticles showed the best photothermia properties, while the ones containing core/shell nanoparticles had the best photoinduced curcumin release.
palavras-chave
NONSTEROIDAL ANTIINFLAMMATORY DRUG; MANGANESE FERRITE NANOPARTICLES; GOLD NANOPARTICLES; NONLINEAR ELASTICITY; CIRCULAR-DICHROISM; OPTICAL-PROPERTIES; QUANTUM YIELDS; HYDROGELS; FLUORESCENCE; SIZE
categoria
Materials Science
autores
Veloso, SRS; Martins, JA; Hilliou, L; Amorim, CO; Amaral, VS; Almeida, BG; Jervis, PJ; Moreira, R; Pereira, DM; Coutinho, PJG; Ferreira, PMT; Castanheira, EMS
nossos autores
Carlos Amorim
Investigador Auxiliaragradecimentos
This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Funding of CF-UM-UP (UID/FIS/04650/2019) and CQUM (UID/QUI/00686/2019). FCT, FEDER, PORTUGAL2020 and COMPETE2020 are also acknowledged for funding under research projects PTDC/QUI-QFI/28020/2017 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028020) and PTDC/QUI-QOR/29015/2017 (POCI-010145-FEDER-029015). The magnetic measurements were supported by projects UTAP-EXPL/NTec/0046/2017, NORTE-010145-FEDER-028538 and PTDC/FIS-MAC/29454/2017. Authors gratefully acknowledge Dr L. M. Vieira for carrying out the FTIR measurements at the Infrared Spectroscopy Lab. of the Centre of Physics, Univ. Minho.