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NANBIOSIS #WOMEN IN SCIENCE

In order to achieve full and equitable access and participation in science for women and girls, and also to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, the United Nations General Assembly decided to proclaim in 2016 (resolution A / RES / 70/212) February 11 as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

We want to take this day to congratulate all the women who lead research and innovation and contribute to the breakdown of the barriers that still exist, especially to the scientists from NANBIOSIS ICTS.

Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science!

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A new smart drug that finds and kills metastasis cells could be applied in 23 types of cancer

Researchers of two CIBER-BBN Units of the ICTS NANBIOSIS  U18 Nanotoxicology Unit at Hospital Sant Pau. and U1, Protein Production Platform (PPP), at the  Institute of Biotechnology and biomedicine of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (IBB–UAB), led by Prof Ramón Mangues, have developed a new drug that selectively removes metastatic stem cells, inducing a powerful metastasis prevention effect.

Besides the participation of the “NANBIOSIS” ICTS Units
U1 Protein Production Platform where Protein production was partially performed and U18 Nantoxicology Unit where Biodistribution studies were performed, all in vivo experiments were performed by the Unit 20 In Vivo Experimental Platform of CIBER in Bioengineering, Biomaterials & Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN)

The researchers have ceated inclusion bodies of amyloid and nanostructured fibers that, when administered subcutaneously in mice, release soluble cytotoxic nanoparticles continuously. These nanoparticles are carriers of the exotoxin of Pseudomonas aeruginosa that manages to maintain a stable concentration of this nanomedicine in the blood and tissues. Dr. Mangues explains that “this new pharmaceutical form of subcutaneous administration for sustained release allows high doses of this nanopharmaceutical to be administered, at prolonged intervals (weeks in mice and probably months in humans) without toxicity at the injection site or in normal tissues, while generating a powerful antimetastatic effect. Apart from being controlled-release systems, these nanoparticles incorporate a ligand that interacts with the receptor (CXCR4), present at high levels in the membrane of metastatic stem cells capable of generating metastases (CMM CXCR4 +). Once the new pharmaceutical form is administered subcutaneously in mice with metastatic colorectal cancer, this ligand directs each nanoparticle released by this structure to the tumor tissues, increasing their uptake, to specifically internalize in the CXCR4 + CMMs and induce their selective destruction. “This effect achieves a notable reduction in tumor size in the colon while blocking the development of lymph node, lung, liver and peritoneal metastases, without appreciable uptake or toxicity in non-tumor tissues” continous the researchers.

The researchers estimate that this new therapeutic strategy will have a high clinical impact by reducing the requirement of its hospital administration, which most antitumor drugs have, and blocking metastatic dissemination, responding to an unmet clinical need. On the other hand, this new pharmaceutical form, which combines sustained release with targeting to the CXCR4 receptor, could be used in the treatment of at least 23 types of cancer that also express high levels of this receptor in tumor cells.

The new therapy offers an answer to the urgent medical need to inhibit the development of metastases, which represents the leading cause of death in cancer patients. The selective destruction of tumor and metastatic cells increases the therapeutic index of nanomedicine, obtaining a potent antimetastatic effect without generating associated adverse effects, which differentiates it from most of the currently used antitumor drugs.


Article of reference

María Virtudes Céspedes, Olivia Cano‐Garrido, Patricia Álamo, Rita Sala, Alberto Gallardo, Naroa Serna, Aïda Falgàs, Eric Voltà‐Durán, Isolda Casanova, Alejandro Sánchez‐Chardi, Hèctor López‐Laguna, Laura Sánchez‐García, Julieta M. Sánchez, Ugutz Unzueta, Esther Vázquez, Ramón Mangues, Antonio Villaverde. Engineering Secretory Amyloids for Remote and Highly Selective Destruction of Metastatic Foci Adv.Mater.2019, 1907348

https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201907348

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Ethylcellulose nanoparticles as new “in vitro” tool for cell transfection

Researchers of NANBIOSIS U12 Nanostructured liquid characterization unit and U29 Oligonucleotide Synthesis Platform (OSP) of CIBER-BBN at IQAC-CSIC have obtained successfully ethylcellulose nanoparticles with positive zeta potential formed from nano-emulsion complexation with an antisense oligonucleotide which result very promising complexes for “in vitro” cell transfection.

A new non-viral gene delivery vector has been developed, based on ethylcellulose, an easily available and low cost carbohydrate polymer, “generally recognized as safe” by the FDA. Although ethylcellulose is nonionic, positively charged nanoparticle dispersions have been obtained using nano-emulsion templates in cationic:non-ionic surfactant-based systems. The nanoparticles have been successfully complexed with negatively charged phosphorothioate antisense oligonucleotides. These short nucleic acid chains are advantageous as they show improved cell penetration ability and higher resistance to degradation by nucleases. The nanoparticle:oligonucleotide complexes obtained show suitable transfection efficiency and are promising for “in vitro” gene transfection purposes.

This research has been developed through the close collaboration between the Colloidal and Interfacial Chemistry group led by Dr. Carlos Rodríguez Abreu, and the Nucleic Acids Chemistry group led by Dr. Ramon Eritja as well as the NANBIOSIS U12 and U29 Units. Both groups belong to the Institute of Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC-CSIC) and the CIBER-BBN.

Article of reference: Leitner, S.; Grijalvo, S.; Solans, C.; Eritja, R.; Garcia-Celma, M. J.; Caldero, G., Ethylcellulose nanoparticles as a new “in vitro” transfection tool for antisense oligonucleotide delivery CARBOHYDRATE POLYMERS 229,1, 115451, 2020; DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2019.115451

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NANBIOSIS research to fight cancer

Twenty years ago, the 4 February was declared World Cancer Day with the global challenge of cancer would not be forgotten. Since then, huge progress has been made to understand, prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer.

NANBIOSIS as an ICTS (Singular Scientific and Technical infrastructures) for biomedical research plays a very important role in the fight against cancer. Some examples of the work carried out during the last year, are bellow:

Unit 20 of NANBIOSIS  at VHIR, works in several proyects reletaed to cancer as  H2020-NoCanTher: magnetic nanoparticles against pancreatic cancer through the use of hyperthermia combined with conventional treatment. H2020-Target-4-Cancer: nanotherapy based on polymeric micelles directed against specific receptors of tumor stem cells in colorectal cancer. H2020-DiamStar: nanodiamonds directed against leukemia for the potentiation of chemotherapy. FET-OPEN EvoNano: in silico and tumor-tumor models for the prediction of PK / PD and tumor efficacy of antitumor nanomedicines against tumor stem cells.

The activities of U1 of Protein Production Platform (PPP) are also strongly committed with several projects devoted to develop new, more selective and more efficient antitumoral drugs, with antimetastatic effects.
oordinated action between units U1 of Protein Production Platform (PPP),
U18 of Nanotoxicology and U29 of Nucleic Acid Synthesis, shows promising results in development of nanopharmaceuticals with a high degree of efficacy for the treatment of metastases in colon cancer

Unit 6 of NANBIOSIS Biomaterial Processing and Nanostructuring Unit  is also working on a joined initiative between CIBER-BBN and CIBER-ONC to improve the current ex vivo immune cell expansion systems to help introduce immunotherapies such as the adoptive cell therapies, which have shown complete remissions of terminal cancer patients, to the clinics overcoming the limitation of having enough therapeutic cells with novel Nanobiomaterials. Researchers of Unit 6 and researchers of Laboratory of Translational Research in Child and Adolescent Cancer from the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), are working on a project financed by the Spanish Government and CIBER-BBN, for the development of a new nanomedicine for the treatment of high-risk neuroblastoma, one of the most frequent childhood cancers.

In our unit U26. NMR: Biomedical Applications II,  several studies for cancer biomarker discovery are being carried out. NMR studies on biofluids for the design of novel strategies for diagnosis support, easily transferable into the clinical practice, are being developed in biofluids in the context of cancer. Urine is one of the most easily obtainable biofluid and is a non-invasive source of biomarkers. Among these studies, we can mention the good discrimination achieved between urine from bladder cancer patients before surgery (cancer) and urine after surgery (free of cancer) and in the follow up of the disease, to monitor relapses

Some of the results of these researchs have been published in scientific magazines of high impact as for exemple;

Integrative Metabolomic and Transcriptomic Analysis for the Study of Bladder Cancer Alba Loras, Cristian Suárez-Cabrera, M. Carmen Martínez-Bisbal, Guillermo Quintás , Jesús M. Paramio, Ramón Martínez-Máñez,
Salvador Gil and José Luis Ruiz-Cerdá. Cancers 2019, 11, 686; doi:10.3390/cancers11050686

Nanostructured toxins for the selective destruction of drug-resistant human CXCR4+ colorectal cancer stem cells Naroa Serna, Patricia Álamo, Prashanthi Rameshef, Daria Vinokurovaef, LauraSánchez-García, Ugutz Unzueta, Alberto Gallardo, María  Virtudes Céspedes, Esther Vázquez, Antonio Villaverde, Ramón Mangues, Jan Paul Medema. . Journal of Controlled Release.  Volume 320, 96-104, 2020 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconrel.2020.01.019

Controlling self-assembling and tumor cell-targeting of protein-only nanoparticles through modular protein engineering Voltà-Durán, E., Cano-Garrido, O., Serna, N. et al. C. Sci. China Mater.63, 147–156 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-019-9582-9

Engineering Secretory Amyloids for Remote and Highly Selective Destruction of Metastatic Foci, María Virtudes Céspedes  Olivia Cano‐Garrido  Patricia Álamo  Rita Sala  Alberto Gallardo  Naroa Serna  Aïda Falgàs  Eric Voltà‐Durán  Isolda Casanova  Alejandro Sánchez‐Chardi  Hèctor López‐Laguna  Laura Sánchez‐García  Julieta M. Sánchez  Ugutz Unzueta  Esther Vázquez  Ramón Mangues  Antonio Villaverde . Advanced Materiasls Número de artículo: 1907348 , Dec. 2019 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201907348

Artificial Inclusion Bodies for Clinical Development Julieta M. Sánchez  Hèctor López‐Laguna  Patricia Álamo  Naroa Serna  Alejandro Sánchez‐Chardi  Verónica Nolan  Olivia Cano‐Garrido  Isolda Casanova  Ugutz Unzueta  Esther Vazquez  Ramon Mangues  Antonio Villaverde, Advanced Science. 2019 https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.201902420

Nanostructured Nucleolin-Binding Peptide for Intracellular Drug Delivery in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Stem Cells Mireia Pesarrodona, Laura Sánchez-García, Joaquin Seras-Franzoso, Alejandro Sánchez-Chardi, Ricardo Baltá-Foix, Patricia Cámara-Sánchez, Petra Gener,  José Juan Jara, Daniel Pulido, Naroa Serna, Simó Schwartz Jr. Miriam Royo, Antonio Villaverde, Ibane Abasolo, Esther Vazquez ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b15803  

Nanostructure Empowers Active Tumor Targeting in Ligand‐Based Molecular Delivery López‐Laguna, H., Sala, R., Sánchez, J. M., Álamo, P., Unzueta, U., Sánchez‐Chardi, A., Serna, N., Sánchez‐García, L., Voltà‐Durán, E., Mangues, R., Villaverde, A., Vázquez, E., . Part. Part. Syst. Charact. 2019, 36, 1900304. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppsc.201900304

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EUROAGE: to improve people’s quality of life and increase healthy life expectancy

The Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery (JUMISC), partner of NANBIOSIS, as the main beneficiary of the Spain-Portugal EUROAGE cross-border cooperation project that promotes active aging in the region, has presented its results and its impact on society, within the Spanish-speaking meeting ‘ Forum of Iberian Stories. 30 years of the INTERREG Spain-Portugal Cross-Border Cooperation Program (POCTEP) ’.

Specifically, the event has been organized by the agencies EFE and LUSA, and took place this past Wednesday at the headquarters of the Spanish agency in Madrid, with the support of the Directorate General for Regional Policy (DGRegio) of the European Commission.

Its objective has been to address the main achievements of the program and the new challenges demanded by the future of both territories. EUROAGE, belonging to the Cooperation Area 4 (Extremadura-Centro-Alentejo), is focused on promoting healthy autonomous life, mainly for the elderly, but also for dependent people, through the promotion of innovative initiatives based on technologies and knowledge developed by the R&D agents.

In turn, the European project promotes active aging through physical, cognitive and socio-emotional activity, with the main objective of improving people’s quality of life and increasing healthy life expectancy, at the same time that will affect the reduction of expenses, in the optimization of resources in public health systems and in the modernization of the business fabric of the sector.

Although the main beneficiary of the European project is the Jesús Usón Minimally Invasive Surgery Center, other institutions also participate, such as the Castelo Branco Polytechnic Institute, the University of Coimbra, the Extremadura Social Cluster, the University of Extremadura and the Polytechnic Institute Give Guardian

EUROAGE includes the development of materials for health literacy, applications for the improvement of physical and cognitive well-being and an integrated system for the promotion of active aging, as well as different social and welfare robots.

Source of information: Región Digital

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New book by NANBIOSIS U14: Basic research procedures in the cell therapy laboratory

Researchers of NANIOSIS Unit 14 at JUMISC have published a new book titled Basic research procedures in the cell therapy laboratory, in which some basic techniques and general principles for adult stem cell research are explained.

Stem cells are cells capable of differentiating into a wide variety of cell types and can be isolated from different tissues such as. They have regenerative and anti-inflammatory properties thanks to the secretion of paracrine factors. Currently, these cells are being widely used in clinical trials for the treatment of different diseases such as Crohn disease, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis or myocardial infarction.
In this book, some basic techniques and general principles for working in a research laboratory in Cellular Therapy are explained in a simplified manner. In the same way, a series of basic knowledge are exposed that must be taken into account for the correct handling of the cells and their environment.
This book is not intended to be a detailed manual of laboratory procedures or a book on cell management for clinical use, but its purpose is to describe part of the protocols developed by the Cell Therapy Unit of NANBIOSIS at the Jesús Usón Minimally Invasive Surgery Center and which have the objective of evaluating the effectiveness and safety of these cells in the preclinical setting.

Book: Basic research procedures in the cell therapy laboratory. Álvarez Pérez, Verónica, García Casado, Javier, Sánchez-Margallo, Francisco.
ISBN 13: 978-84-17959-64-7

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POSITION II WORKSHOP #5 IN LEUVEN, BELGIUM

Jose Luis Pedraz, Jesus Ciriza and Angela Losada of NANBIOSIS U10 Drug Formulation – NanoBioCel Group of CIBER-BBN and University of the Basque Country were in Leuven, Belgium attending the European Project POSITION-II Workshop #5, which was held between January 21 and 23. The workshop was held at the facilities of iMEC, one of the partners of the project and world leader in R&D in nanoelectronics and digital technology.

The project lasts three years and after 18 months, in this workshop, the researchares of NANBIOSIS U10 Drug Formulation, have microencasulated and characterized the heart cells with the aim of checking the viability of the capsules for the treatment. In the next month all the team members of our workpackage (WP7) will meet with purpose of integrating each of the components of the final catheter (assemble them) to proceed with their validation because next year the validation must be done in vivo. 

This work is part of  a pilot line for realising the next generation of smart catheters and implants by building on Europe’s strength in medical diagnostic equipment and monitoring systems.

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Researchers from NANBIOSIS Unit 8 opt for the Cutting-Edge Science Award: How to measure brain’s hidden activity.

La Vanguardia and the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera have jointly promoted for the tenth consecutive year the Cutting-Edge Science Award “La Vanguardia de la Ciencia”, with the objective of givin visibility to the research of excellence carried out in Spain. The prize will correspond to the proposal candidate most voted by the public.

One of the 8 selected candidates is the research led by Anton Guimerà-Brunet (NANBIOSIS Unit 8 -Institut de Microelectrònica de Barcelona-CNM-CSIC / CIBER-BBN) and Jose Garrido (Institut Català de Nanociències i Nanotecnologia / Icrea), for developing graphene implants capable of measuring the hidden activity of the brain  with more sensitivity than conventional methods.

These new devices could improve the diagnosis of epilepsy and are being used as research tool to better understand this and other diseases and develop new therapies.

Further information can be found at the Vanguardias’s website dedicated to the prize and also how to cast your vote: https://www.lavanguardia.com/ciencia/20200126/473088817129/premio-vanguardia-de-la-ciencia.html

Article of reference:

The hidden brain activity
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Support for companies: Nanotechnological Bonds

From the NFP research group of CIBER-BBN and INA, led by Jesus Santamaria, that coordinates NANBIOSIS U9 Synthesis of Nanoparticles Unit, and through the SAMCA Nanotechnology Chair, the call for grants has been launched: Nanotechnological Bonds

For more information: http://capsulasdenanotecnologia.es/bonos-nanotec/

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PICCOLO Project 7th Face-to-Face Meeting at JUMISC (NANBIOSIS)

The Piccolo consortium members met at JUMISC (Cácere) last on 21st-22nd January to hold the 7th face-to-face meeting.

Project partners had the chance to visit Nanbiosis U21 Experimental operating rooms led by Francisco M. Sánchez Margallo and participate in a training session with the prototype demo. A murine specimen was analysed ex-vivo with the probe and the clinicians had the opportunity to evaluate the features present in a neoplastic polyp.

The meeting agenda included a general overview of the project, the status update of OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography), MPT (Multiphoton Tomography) and fluorescence technologies, deep learning algorithms preliminary results, the final steps to follow with the validation on animal and human samples and the exploitation and dissemination plan. All members agreed to focus on the preparation of dissemination material with the results of the project, such as a brochure or videos to approach the project to the scientific community.

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