Strategic Project - UI 674 - 2011-2012

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Publications

Non-invasive strategy in assessing asthma through biofluids metabolomics exploration: exhaled breath and urine potentialities

Publication . Caldeira, Michael Manuel Lima; Câmara, José Sousa; Carriço, Sílvia Maria da Rocha Simões

Asthma is a significant health issue in the pediatric population with a noteworthy growth over the years. The proposed challenge for this PhD thesis was the development of advanced methodologies to establish metabolomic patterns in urine and exhaled breath associated with asthma whose applicability was subsequently exploited to evaluate the disease state, the therapy adhesion and effect and for diagnostic purposes. The volatile composition of exhaled breath was studied combining headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) with gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry or with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry with a high resolution time of flight analyzer (GC×GC–ToFMS). These methodologies allowed the identification of several hundred compounds from different chemical families. Multivariate analysis (MVA) led to the conclusion that the metabolomic profile of asthma individuals is characterized by higher levels of compounds associated with lipid peroxidation, possibly linked to oxidative stress and inflammation (alkanes and aldehydes) known to play an important role in asthma. For future applications in clinical settings a set of nine compounds was defined and the clinical applicability was proven in monitoring the disease status and in the evaluation of the effect and / or adherence to therapy. The global volatile metabolome of urine was also explored using an HSSPME/GC×GC–ToFMS method and c.a. 200 compounds were identified. A targeted analysis was performed, with 78 compounds related with lipid peroxidation and consequently to oxidative stress levels and inflammation. The urinary non-volatile metabolomic pattern of asthma was established using proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR). This analysis allowed identifying central metabolic pathways such as oxidative stress, amino acid and lipid metabolism, gut microflora alterations, alterations in the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, histidine metabolism, lactic acidosis, and modification of free tyrosine residues after eosinophil stimulation. The obtained results allowed exploring and demonstrating the potential of analyzing the metabolomic profile of exhaled air and urine in asthma. Besides the successful development of analysis methodologies, it was possible to explore through exhaled air and urine biochemical pathways affected by asthma, observing complementarity between matrices, as well as, verify the clinical applicability.

2015-06Doctoral thesis

Open access

A micro-extraction technique using a new digitally controlled syringe combined with UHPLC for assessment of urinary biomarkers of oxidatively damaged DNA

Publication . Mendes, Berta Rodrigues; Silva, Pedro; Aveiro, Fernando; Pereira, Jorge; Câmara, José S.

The formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) within cells causes damage to biomolecules, including membrane lipids, DNA, proteins and sugars. An important type of oxidative damage is DNA base hydroxylation which leads to the formation of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-29-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodG) and 5-hydroxymethyluracil (5-HMUra). Measurement of these biomarkers in urine is challenging, due to the low levels of the analytes and the matrix complexity. In order to simultaneously quantify 8-oxodG and 5-HMUra in human urine, a new, reliable and powerful strategy was optimised and validated. It is based on a semi-automatic microextraction by packed sorbent (MEPS) technique, using a new digitally controlled syringe (eVolH), to enhance the extraction efficiency of the target metabolites, followed by a fast and sensitive ultrahigh pressure liquid chromatography (UHPLC). The optimal methodological conditions involve loading of 250 mL urine sample (1:10 dilution) through a C8 sorbent in a MEPS syringe placed in the semi-automatic eVolH syringe followed by elution using 90 mL of 20% methanol in 0.01% formic acid solution. The obtained extract is directly analysed in the UHPLC system using a binary mobile phase composed of aqueous 0.1% formic acid and methanol in the isocratic elution mode (3.5 min total analysis time). The method was validated in terms of selectivity, linearity, limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ), extraction yield, accuracy, precision and matrix effect. Satisfactory results were obtained in terms of linearity (r2 . 0.991) within the established concentration range. The LOD varied from 0.00005 to 0.04 mg mL21 and the LOQ from 0.00023 to 0.13 mg mL21. The extraction yields were between 80.1 and 82.2 %, while inter-day precision (n=3 days) varied between 4.9 and 7.7 % and intra-day precision between 1.0 and 8.3 %. This approach presents as main advantages the ability to easily collect and store urine samples for further processing and the high sensitivity, reproducibility, and robustness of eVolHMEPS combined with UHPLC analysis, thus retrieving a fast and reliable assessment of oxidatively damaged DNA.

2013Journal article

Open access

RGD-Modified dendrimers for drug encapsulation and targeted inhibition of tumor cells

Publication . Xuedan, He; Xiangyang, Shi; Tomás, Helena Maria Pires Gaspar

In this study, cyclic arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) peptide-modified amine-terminated generation 5 poly(amidoamine) (G5.NH2 PAMAM) dendrimers were prepared for the encapsulation of the anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX) for targeted delivery to cancer cells overexpressing αvβ3 integrin cell surface receptors. First, the thiolated RGD peptide was linked to polyethylene glycol (PEG) via the bifunctional cross-linking reagent 6-maleimidohexanoic acid N-hydroxysuccinimide ester (MHS). Then a dendrimer modification process was performed in which the PEGylated RGD peptide and fluorescein isothiocyanate (FI) were covalently attached to the G5 dendrimers. This process was finally followed by acetylation of the remaining dendrimer terminal amines. The experimental results show that each G5.NHAc-FI-PEG-RGD dendrimer approximately encapsulated six DOX molecules. This formed complex is water soluble and stable. In vitro release studies proved that the multifunctional dendrimers facilitate a sustained release of DOX. More interesting, one-dimensional NMR and two-dimensional NMR were applied to investigate the interactions between dendrimers and DOX. Here, the impact of the environmental pH on the release rate of DOX from G5.NHAc-FI-PEG-RGD/DOX was fully studied. Furthermore, cell biological studies demonstrated that G5.NHAc-FI-PEG-RGD dendrimers have no cytotoxicity towards U87-MG cancer cells but that G5.NHAc-FI-PEG-RGD/DOX complexes have almost the same cytotoxicity as DOX alone. Moreover, due to the targeting ability of RGD, this dendrimer/drug system can also specifically target and display therapeutic efficacy to cancer cells overexpressing αvβ3 integrins. The cellular internalization of the multifunctionalized dendrimer was shown to be receptor mediated to an important extent. According to this study, we can say that G5.NHAc-FI-PEG-RGD is a promising system for the targeted therapy of different types of cancer.

2014-07-30Master thesis

Open access

Divergent route to the preparation of hybrid Pt–Fe 2,4,6-Tris(4-ethynyl)phenyl-1,3,5-triazine metallodendrimers for nonlinear optics

Publication . Maiti, Swarup K.; Jardim, Manuel G.; Rodrigues, João; Rissanen, Kari; Campo, Jochen; Wenseleers, Wim

The synthesis strategy for the preparation of novel platinum acetylide homometallic and heterobimetallic dendrimers (containing Fe as the other metal fragment) based on a 2,4,6-tris(4-ethynyl)phenyl-1,3,5-triazine core (3) is reported. All the dendrimer generations (G0−G2) were synthesized under copper-free conditions following a divergent route. The G0-Pt dendrimer (4) was synthesized using the 1,3,5-triazine core (3) and cis[Pt(PEt3)2Cl2] with a molar ratio of 1/4. The advantage of the current method is that diﬀerent dendrimers can be prepared by following the same procedure with only changes in the molar ratios of the reactants involved. For instance, when 3 reacts with 4 in a 4/1 molar ratio, the G1 dendrimer 7 is aﬀorded without the peripheral Pt moiety, but the G1 dendrimer with the peripheral Pt moiety (8) is formed when 3 reacts with 4 in a 1/3 molar ratio. On the other hand, the G2 dendrimer with a peripheral Pt moiety (9) is synthesized when 7 reacts with 4 in a 1/6 molar ratio. The heterobimetallic dendrimers were synthesized up to generation 1 by capping the corresponding Pt dendrimers with the ethynylferrocenyl group (EFC). The respective G0 (6)- and G1-capped (10) dendrimers were synthesized when EFC reacted with 4 and 8 in molar ratios of 9/1 and 18/1, respectively. Nonlinear optical (NLO) polarizabilities measured by hyper-Rayleigh scattering (HRS) have been evaluated for the core 3, for the G0 dendrimer 4, and for the G0 dendrimer capped with EFC (6). In spite of the fact that the stability of the higher generations in chloroform is too low to allow HRS measurements, the reported NLO results show a remarkable enhancement (plus 50%) upon capping the zero dendrimer generation (6), reﬂecting the importance of the introduction of electron donor organometallic capping groups in the hyperpolarizabilities of the resulting dendrimers.

2013Journal article

Restricted access

Injectable and biodegradable hydrogels: gelation, biodegradation and biomedical applications

Publication . Li, Yulin; Rodrigues, João; Tomás, Helena

Injectable hydrogels with biodegradability have in situ formability which in vitro/in vivo allows an effective and homogeneous encapsulation of drugs/cells, and convenient in vivo surgical operation in a minimally invasive way, causing smaller scar size and less pain for patients. Therefore, they have found a variety of biomedical applications, such as drug delivery, cell encapsulation, and tissue engineering. This critical review systematically summarizes the recent progresses on biodegradable and injectable hydrogels fabricated from natural polymers (chitosan, hyaluronic acid, alginates, gelatin, heparin, chondroitin sulfate, etc.) and biodegradable synthetic polymers (polypeptides, polyesters, polyphosphazenes, etc.). The review includes the novel naturally based hydrogels with high potential for biomedical applications developed in the past five years which integrate the excellent biocompatibility of natural polymers/synthetic polypeptides with structural controllability via chemical modification. The gelation and biodegradation which are two key factors to affect the cell fate or drug delivery are highlighted. A brief outlook on the future of injectable and biodegradable hydrogels is also presented (326 references).

2012-03-21Journal article

Restricted access