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Nano-inspired technologies offer unique opportunities to treat numerous diseases by using therapeutic peptides. Therapeutic peptides have attractive pharmacological profiles and can be manufactured at relatively low costs. The major advantages of using a nanodelivery approach comprises significantly lower required dosages compared to systemic delivery, and thus reduced toxicity and immunogenicity. The combination of therapeutic peptides with delivery peptides and nanoparticles or small molecule drugs offers systemic treatment approaches, instead of aiming for single biological targets or pathways. This review article discusses exemplary state-of-the-art nanosized delivery systems for therapeutic peptides and antibodies, as well as their biochemical and biophysical foundations and emphasizes still remaining challenges. The competition between using different nanoplatforms, such as liposome-, hydrogel-, polymer-, silica nanosphere-, or nanosponge-based delivery systems is still “on” and no clear frontrunner has emerged to date. 

Magnetic nanoparticles have continuously gained importance for the purpose of magnetically-aided drug-delivery, magnetofection, and hyperthermia. We have summarized significant experimental approaches, as well as their advantages and disadvantages with respect to future clinical translation. This field is alive and well and promises meaningful contributions to the development of novel cancer therapies. 

Here we describe in detail the design, fabrication and operation of our automated high-throughput single cell microchip electrophoresis device with laser induced fluorescence detection. Our device features on-board integrated peristaltic pumps that generate flow directly within the microfluidic channels. Additionally, we have incorporated an optical fiber bridge that enables simultaneous fluorescence detection at two points of interest within the device without the need for additional optical components or detectors. The second detection spot is used to detect the intact cell immediately prior to lysis giving a signal at t = 0 s for each single-cell electropherogram. We can also use this signal to measure the absolute migration time of the separated analytes to confidently determine the identity of each peak. Finally, we demonstrate the application of our device for the measurement of intracellular nitric oxide (NO) levels in T-lymphocytes. Changes in NO levels within cells is associated with a number of chronic diseases including neurodegenerative, cardiovascular and cancers. We show that our system is capable of measuring NO levels under the following conditions: native, lipopolysaccharide stimulation, and inhibition of inducible nitric oxide synthase. It is our hope that the information and procedures described in this chapter may enable others to use or adapt our system for other analyses at the single cell level.