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- Sardine roe as a source of lipids to produce liposomesPublication . Guedes, Marta; Costa-Pinto, Ana Rita; Gonçalves, Virgínia; Moreira-Silva, Joana; Tiritan, Maria; Reis, Rui L.; Ferreira, Helena; Neves, Nuno M.Sea-derived materials have promising applications in the medical, pharmaceutical, and biotechnological fields. Fish roe, for example, is a highly nutritional product, presenting diverse beneficial effects on human health. Therefore, this work explored extracts of sardine (Sardina pilchardus) roe, due to the well-known health benefits of this fish, to produce novel and promising delivery systems. After morphological, histological, and histochemical characterizations of sardine roe, their lipids were extracted using two different approaches, namely, Bligh and Dyer (BD) and methyl-tert-butyl ether (MTBE) methods. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analyses demonstrated that lipid extracts contain several fatty acids, such as ω3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. The lipids, especially phospholipids, were used to produce multilamellar liposomes (MLVs). These delivery systems presented size heterogeneity, a negative surface charge, and the ability to control the release of the encapsulated anti-inflammatory drug, namely, celecoxib. Biological assays indicated that MLVs produced with MTBE lipidic extracts presented a better cytocompatibility than those obtained by the BD method. This can be further improved if the lipid extracts are processed by chemical extraction. Therefore, sardine roe-derived lipids can produce drug-delivery systems with the potential to be applied in the biomedical field.
- Influence of PDLA nanoparticles size on drug release and interaction with cellsPublication . Cartaxo, Ana Luísa; Costa-Pinto, Ana R.; Martins, Albino; Faria, Susana; Gonçalves, Virgínia M. F.; Tiritan, Maria Elizabeth; Ferreira, Helena; Neves, Nuno M.Polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) are strong candidates for the development of systemic and targeted drug delivery applications. Their size is a determinant property since it defines the NP–cell interactions, drug loading capacity, and release kinetics. Herein, poly(D,L-lactic acid) (PDLA) NPs were produced by the nanoprecipitationmethod, in which the influence of type and concentration of surfactant as well as PDLA concentration were assessed. The adjustment of these parameters allowed the successful production of NPs with defined medium sizes, ranging from 80 to 460 nm. The surface charge of the different NPs populations was consistently negative. Prednisolone was effectively entrapped and released from NPs with statistically different medium sizes (i.e., 80 or 120 nm). Release profiles indicate that these systems were able to deliver appropriate amounts of drug with potential applicability in the treatment of inflammatory conditions. Both NPs populations were cytocompatible with human endothelial and fibroblastic cells, in the range of concentrations tested (0.187–0.784 mg/mL). However, confocal microscopy revealed that within the range of sizes tested in our experiments, NPs presenting amedium size of 120 nmwere able to be internalized in endothelial cells. In summary, this study demonstrates the optimization of the processing conditions to obtain PDLA NPs with narrow size ranges, and with promising performance for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.