| 1. |
- Barrat, Jean-Louis, et al.
(författare)
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Soft matter roadmap
- 2024
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Ingår i: Journal of Physics. - : Institute of Physics Publishing (IOPP). - 2515-7639. ; 7:1
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Soft materials are usually defined as materials made of mesoscopic entities, often self-organised, sensitive to thermal fluctuations and to weak perturbations. Archetypal examples are colloids, polymers, amphiphiles, liquid crystals, foams. The importance of soft materials in everyday commodity products, as well as in technological applications, is enormous, and controlling or improving their properties is the focus of many efforts. From a fundamental perspective, the possibility of manipulating soft material properties, by tuning interactions between constituents and by applying external perturbations, gives rise to an almost unlimited variety in physical properties. Together with the relative ease to observe and characterise them, this renders soft matter systems powerful model systems to investigate statistical physics phenomena, many of them relevant as well to hard condensed matter systems. Understanding the emerging properties from mesoscale constituents still poses enormous challenges, which have stimulated a wealth of new experimental approaches, including the synthesis of new systems with, e.g. tailored self-assembling properties, or novel experimental techniques in imaging, scattering or rheology. Theoretical and numerical methods, and coarse-grained models, have become central to predict physical properties of soft materials, while computational approaches that also use machine learning tools are playing a progressively major role in many investigations. This Roadmap intends to give a broad overview of recent and possible future activities in the field of soft materials, with experts covering various developments and challenges in material synthesis and characterisation, instrumental, simulation and theoretical methods as well as general concepts.
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| 2. |
- Newton-Cheh, Christopher, et al.
(författare)
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Genome-wide association study identifies eight loci associated with blood pressure
- 2009
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Ingår i: Nature Genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1546-1718 .- 1061-4036. ; 41:6, s. 666-676
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Elevated blood pressure is a common, heritable cause of cardiovascular disease worldwide. To date, identification of common genetic variants influencing blood pressure has proven challenging. We tested 2.5 million genotyped and imputed SNPs for association with systolic and diastolic blood pressure in 34,433 subjects of European ancestry from the Global BPgen consortium and followed up findings with direct genotyping (N <= 71,225 European ancestry, N <= 12,889 Indian Asian ancestry) and in silico comparison (CHARGE consortium, N 29,136). We identified association between systolic or diastolic blood pressure and common variants in eight regions near the CYP17A1 (P = 7 x 10(-24)), CYP1A2 (P = 1 x 10(-23)), FGF5 (P = 1 x 10(-21)), SH2B3 (P = 3 x 10(-18)), MTHFR (P = 2 x 10(-13)), c10orf107 (P = 1 x 10(-9)), ZNF652 (P = 5 x 10(-9)) and PLCD3 (P = 1 x 10(-8)) genes. All variants associated with continuous blood pressure were associated with dichotomous hypertension. These associations between common variants and blood pressure and hypertension offer mechanistic insights into the regulation of blood pressure and may point to novel targets for interventions to prevent cardiovascular disease.
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| 3. |
- Rodrigues, Leticia, et al.
(författare)
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Cellular uptake of self-assembled phytantriol-based hexosomes is independent of major endocytic machineries
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Colloid and Interface Science. - : Elsevier. - 0021-9797 .- 1095-7103. ; 553, s. 820-833
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite increasing interests in non-lamellar liquid crystalline dispersions, such as hexosomes, for drug delivery, little is known about their interactions with cells and mechanism of cell entry. Here we examine the cellular uptake of hexosomes based on phytantriol and mannide monooleate by HeLa cells using live cell microscopy in comparison to conventional liposomes. To investigate the importance of specific endocytosis pathways upon particle internalization, we silenced regulatory proteins of major endocytosis pathways using short interfering RNA. While endocytosis plays a significant role in liposome internalization, hexosomes are not taken up via endocytosis but through a mechanism that is dependent on cell membrane tension. Biophysical studies using biomembrane models highlighted that hexosomes have a high affinity for membranes and an ability to disrupt lipid layers. Our data suggest that direct biomechanical interactions of hexosomes with membrane lipids play a crucial role and that the unique morphology of hexosomes is vital for their membrane activity. Based on these results, we propose a mechanism, where hexosomes destabilize the bilayer, allowing them to "phase through" the membrane. Understanding parameters that influence the uptake of hexosomes is critical to establish them as carrier systems that can potentially deliver therapeutics efficiently to intracellular sites of action.
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| 4. |
- Rodrigues, Letícia, et al.
(författare)
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Characterization of Lipid-Based Hexosomes as Versatile Vaccine Carriers.
- 2016
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Ingår i: Molecular Pharmaceutics. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1543-8384 .- 1543-8392. ; 13:11, s. 3945-3954
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Subunit vaccines typically show insufficient immunogenicity. To address this issue, we developed a novel self-adjuvanting particulate carrier system based upon the lipids phytantriol (Phy) and mannide monooleate (MaMo). Phy is a lipid known to form nonlamellar phases in fully hydrated systems, whereas MaMo has been found to promote immune responses in emulsion form. A bulk phase composition of Phy/MaMo (14 wt %) showed hexagonal (HII) phase behavior over a practical temperature range (including room and body temperature), and was therefore used for particle development. Hexosomes stabilized with different concentrations of either poloxamer 407, Myrj 59, or Pluronic F108 were successfully prepared. To demonstrate the versatile nature of these systems, the particles were further modified with either positively or negatively charged lipids and loaded with model antigens, while maintaining the HII structure. These hexosomes are structurally robust and amenable to customization, rendering them suitable as antigen delivery carriers.
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| 5. |
- Rodrigues, Letícia, et al.
(författare)
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Immune responses induced by nano-self-assembled lipid adjuvants based on a monomycoloyl glycerol analogue after vaccination with the Chlamydia trachomatis major outer membrane protein.
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Controlled Release. - : Elsevier BV. - 0168-3659 .- 1873-4995. ; 285, s. 12-22
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Nanocarriers based on inverse hexagonal liquid crystalline phases (hexosomes) show promising potential as vaccine delivery systems. Their unique internal structure, composed of both lipophilic domains and water-containing channels, renders them capable of accommodating immunopotentiating compounds and antigens. However, their adjuvant properties are poorly understood. We hypothesized that the supramolecular structure of the lyotropic liquid crystalline phase influences the immunostimulatory activity of lipid-based nanocarriers. To test this, hexosomes were designed containing the lipid phytantriol (Phy) and the immunopotentiator monomycoloyl glycerol-1 (MMG-1). Self-assembly of Phy and MMG-1 into nanocarriers featuring an internal hexagonal phase was confirmed by small-angle X-ray scattering and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy. The effect of the nanostructure on the adjuvant activity was studied by comparing the immunogenicity of Phy/MMG-1 hexosomes with MMG-1-containing lamellar liquid crystalline nanoparticles (liposomes, CAF04). The quality and magnitude of the elicited immune responses were determined after vaccination of CB6/F1 mice using the Chlamydia trachomatis major outer membrane protein (MOMP) as antigen. MMG-1-based hexosomes potentiated significantly stronger MOMP-specific humoral responses than CAF04 liposomes. The liposome-based vaccine formulation induced a much stronger MOMP-specific cell-mediated immune response compared to hexosome-adjuvanted MOMP, which elicited minimal MOMP-specific T-cell stimulation after vaccination. Hence, our data demonstrates that hexosomal and liposomal adjuvants activate the immune system via different mechanisms. Our work provides valuable insights into the adjuvant potential of hexosomes and emphasizes that engineering of the supramolecular structure can be used to design adjuvants with customized immunological properties.
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| 6. |
- Yin, Shanshan, et al.
(författare)
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In Situ GISAXS Observation and Large Area Homogeneity Study of Slot-Die Printed PS-b-P4VP and PS-b-P4VP/FeCl3 Thin Films
- 2022
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Ingår i: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1944-8244 .- 1944-8252. ; 14:2, s. 3143-3155
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mesoporous hematite (alpha-Fe2O3) thin films with high surface-to-volume ratios show great potential as photoelectrodes or electrochemical electrodes in energy conversion and storage. In the present work, with the assistance of an up-scalable slot-die coating technique, locally highly ordered alpha-Fe2O3 thin films are successfully printed based on the amphiphilic diblock copolymer poly(styrene-b-4-vinylpyridine) (PS-b-P4VP) as a structure-directing agent. Pure PS-b-P4VP films are printed under the same conditions for comparison. The micellization of the diblock copolymer in solution, the film formation process of the printed thin films, the homogeneity of the dry films in the lateral and vertical direction as well as the morphological and compositional information on the calcined hybrid PS-b-P4VP/FeCl3 thin film are investigated. Because of convection during the solvent evaporation process, a similar dimple-type structure of vertically aligned cylindrical PS domains in a P4VP matrix developed for both printed PS-b-P4VP and hybrid PS-b-P4VP/FeCl3 thin films. The coordination effect between the Fe3+ ions and the vinylpyridine groups significantly affects the attachment ability of the P4VP chains to the silicon substrate. Accordingly, distinct feature sizes and homogeneity in the lateral direction, as well as the thicknesses in the perpendicular direction, are demonstrated in the two printed films. By removing the polymer template from the hybrid PS-b-P4VP/FeCl3 film at high temperature, a locally highly ordered mesoporous alpha-Fe2O3 film is obtained. Thus, a facile and up-scalable printing technique is presented for producing homogeneous mesoporous alpha-Fe2O3 thin films.
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| 7. |
- Zhong, Qi, et al.
(författare)
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Effect of chain architecture on the swelling and thermal response of star-shaped thermo-responsive (poly(methoxy diethylene glycol acrylate)-block-polystyrene)(3) block copolymer films
- 2018
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Ingår i: Soft Matter. - : Royal Society of Chemistry. - 1744-683X .- 1744-6848. ; 14:31, s. 6582-6594
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The effect of chain architecture on the swelling and thermal response of thin films obtained from an amphiphilic three-arm star-shaped thermo-responsive block copolymer poly(methoxy diethylene glycol acrylate)-block-polystyrene ((PMDEGA-b-PS)(3)) is investigated by in situ neutron reflectivity (NR) measurements. The PMDEGA and PS blocks are micro-phase separated with randomly distributed PS nanodomains. The (PMDEGA-b-PS)(3) films show a transition temperature (TT) at 33 degrees C in white light interferometry. The swelling capability of the (PMDEGA-b-PS)(3) films in a D2O vapor atmosphere is better than that of films from linear PS-b-PMDEGA-b-PS triblock copolymers, which can be attributed to the hydrophilic end groups and limited size of the PS blocks in (PMDEGA-b-PS)(3). However, the swelling kinetics of the as-prepared (PMDEGA-b-PS)(3) films and the response of the swollen film to a temperature change above the TT are significantly slower than that in the PS-b-PMDEGA-b-PS films, which may be related to the conformation restriction by the star-shape. Unlike in the PS-b-PMDEGA-b-PS films, the amount of residual D2O in the collapsed (PMDEGA-b-PS)(3) films depends on the final temperature. It decreases from (9.7 +/- 0.3)% to (7.0 +/- 0.3)% or (6.0 +/- 0.3)% when the final temperatures are set to 35 degrees C, 45 degrees C and 50 degrees C, respectively. This temperature-dependent reduction of embedded D2O originates from the hindrance of chain conformation from the star-shaped chain architecture.
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