Quimera

Treballs Finals de Grau de Belles Arts. Facultat de Belles Arts. Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2022-2023, Tutor: Cufí, Montserrat[spa] Quimera es una representación de mi, de lo que soy gracias a las mujeres importantes de mi vida, es el ideal que me gustaría llegar a ser. Cuando veo a una persona y la conozco más de cerca le asigno un animal al que creo que se parece físicamente. En este caso, quimera es la unión de león (mi animal), avestruz (mi madre), gorrión (mi abuela), cabra (mi hermana) y serpiente bicéfala (mi mejor amiga) Quimera es un león con cuernos de cabra, alas de gorrión, patas de avestruz y una cola de serpiente bicéfala hecha de hierro reciclado, huesos reales y madera.[eng] My work “Quimera” is a representation of me, of what I am thanks to the important women in my life, it is the ideal that I would like to become. When I see a person and get to know them more closely, I assign them an animal that I think resembles both physically and in characteristics, both of them and of the animal. In this case, the chimera is a lion (my animal) together with the animals of my mother (the ostrich), my grandmother (he is a sparrow), my sister (the goat) and my best friend (the two-headed snake). “Chimera” is a lion with the horns of a goat, the wings of a sparrow, the legs of an ostrich, and the tail of a two-headed serpent made of recycled iron, real bones, and wood

Ruthenium metallodendrimer against triple-negative breast cancer in mice

Carbosilane metallodendrimers, based on the arene Ru(II) complex (CRD13) and integrated to imino-pyridine surface groups have been investigated as an anticancer agent in a mouse model with triple-negative breast cancer. The dendrimer entered into the cells efficiently, and exhibited selective toxicity for 4T1 cells. In vivo investigations proved that a local injection of CRD13 caused a reduction of tumour mass and was non-toxic. ICP analyses indicated that Ru(II) accumulated in all tested tissues with a greater content detected in the tumour.European CommissionMinisterio de Economía y CompetitividadComunidad de MadridJunta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Manch

Carbosilane dendritic nanostructures, highly versatile platforms for pharmaceutical applications

Dendrimers are multifunctional molecules with well-defined size and structure due to the step-by-step synthetic procedures required in their preparation. Dendritic constructs based on carbosilane scaffolds present carbon-carbon and carbon-silicon bonds, which results in stable, lipophilic, inert, and flexible structures. These properties are highly appreciated in different areas, including the pharmaceutical field, as they can increase the interaction with cell membranes and improve the therapeutic action. This article summarizes the most recent advances in the pharmaceutical applications of carbosilane dendritic molecules, from therapeutics to diagnostics and prevention tools. Dendrimers decorated with cationic, anionic, or other moieties, including metallodendrimers; supramolecular assemblies; dendronized nanoparticles and surfaces; as well as dendritic networks like hydrogels are described. The collected examples confirm the potential of carbosilane dendrimers and dendritic materials as antiviral or antibacterial agents; in therapy against cancer, neurodegenerative disease, or oxidative stress; or many other biomedical applications.This article is categorized under:Nanotechnology Approaches to Biology > Nanoscale Systems in BiologyTherapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Nanomedicine for Infectious DiseaseTherapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Nanomedicine for Oncologic DiseaseMinisterio de Economía y CompetitividadComunidad de MadridJunta de Comunidades de Castilla-La ManchaUniversidad de Alcal

Heterofunctionalized polyphenolic dendrimers decorated with caffeic acid: Synthesis, characterization and antioxidant activity

Dendrimers, branched polymer structures, have been widely studied as efficient drug carriers. Scientists are trying to find new dendrimer-based formulations with the properties needed for biomedical applications such as improved bioavailability, low toxicity and high transfection profiles. The unique drug delivery properties of carbosilane dendrimers have already been demonstrated. Their efficacy has been further improved by conju-gation with polyphenols, plant secondary metabolites with a wide range of biological activities, including antioxidant effects that are beneficial for human health. The present study focuses on synthesis and character-ization of two new types of carbosilane dendritic systems, one family presents one or two caffeic acid units and ammonium groups on the surface to make them water soluble. The other family has, in addition to the two mentioned functionalities, one or two polyethylene glycol (PEG) chains in the structure to increase the biocompatibility of the system. Carbosilane dendrimers with caffeic acid have low toxicity and protect eryth-rocytes against oxidative hemolysis. These dendrimers also decrease AAPH-induced ROS production in human fibroblasts.Various techniques demonstrating such antioxidant activities have been applied in the current research. The best antioxidant properties were shown for the dendrimer with two PEG-caffeic acid moieties. Further aspects of the biochemical characterization of the dendrimers are also considered and discussed.Ministerio de Ciencia e InnovaciónMinisterio de Economía y CompetitividadJunta de Comunidades de Castilla-La ManchaComunidad de MadridPolish National Agency for Academic Exchang

Albayzín-2014 evaluation: audio segmentation and classification in broadcast news domains

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13636-015-0076-3Audio segmentation is important as a pre-processing task to improve the performance of many speech technology tasks and, therefore, it has an undoubted research interest. This paper describes the database, the metric, the systems and the results for the Albayzín-2014 audio segmentation campaign. In contrast to previous evaluations where the task was the segmentation of non-overlapping classes, Albayzín-2014 evaluation proposes the delimitation of the presence of speech, music and/or noise that can be found simultaneously. The database used in the evaluation was created by fusing different media and noises in order to increase the difficulty of the task. Seven segmentation systems from four different research groups were evaluated and combined. Their experimental results were analyzed and compared with the aim of providing a benchmark and showing up the promising directions in this field.This work has been partially funded by the Spanish Government and the European Union (FEDER) under the project TIN2011-28169-C05-02 and supported by the European Regional Development Fund and the Spanish Government (‘SpeechTech4All Project’ TEC2012-38939-C03

Copper (II) Metallodendrimers Combined with Pro-Apoptotic siRNAs as a Promising Strategy Against Breast Cancer Cells

Cancer treatment with small interfering RNA (siRNA) is one of the most promising new strategies; however, transfection systems that increase its bioavailability and ensure its delivery to the target cell are necessary. Transfection systems may be just vehicular or could contain fragments with anticancer activity that achieves a synergistic effect with siRNA. Cationic carbosilane dendrimers have proved to be powerful tools as non-viral vectors for siRNA in cancer treatment, and their activity might be potentiated by the inclusion of metallic complexes in its dendritic structure. We have herein explored the interaction between Schiff-base carbosilane copper (II) metallodendrimers, and pro-apoptotic siRNAs. The nanocomplexes formed by metallodendrimers and different siRNA have been examined for their zeta potential and size, and by transmission electron microscopy, fluorescence polarisation, circular dichroism, and electrophoresis. The internalisation of dendriplexes has been estimated by flow cytometry and confocal microscopy in a human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7), following the ability of these metallodendrimers to deliver the siRNA into the cell. Finally, in vitro cell viability experiments have indicated effective interactions between Cu (II) dendrimers and pro-apoptotic siRNAs: Mcl-1 and Bcl-2 in breast cancer cells. Combination of the first-generation derivatives with chloride counterions and with siRNA increases the anticancer activity of the dendriplex constructs and makes them a promising non-viral vector.Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA)European CommissionMinisterio de Economía y CompetitividadComunidad de MadridJunta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Manch

Amoebicidal activity of cationic carbosilane dendrons derived with 4-phenylbutyric acid against Acanthamoeba griffini and Acanthamoeba polyphaga trophozoites and cysts

Amoebae from the genus Acanthamoeba are important pathogens responsible for severe illnesses in humans such as Acanthamoeba keratitis and granulomatous amoebic encephalitis. In the last few decades, AK diagnoses have steadily increased. Most patients suffering from AK were contact lens users and the infection was related to poor hygiene. However, therapy is not yet well established, and treatments may last for several months due to resistance. Moreover, these treatments have been described to generate cytotoxicity. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop new therapeutic strategies against AK. In this study, the amoebicidal activity of different generation cationic carbosilane dendrons derived with 4-phenylbutyric acid was demonstrated against Acanthamoeba polyphaga and Acanthamoeba griffini trophozoites and cysts. In addition, the combination of chlorhexidine digluconate and the most effective dendron (ArCO(2)G(2)(SNMe3I)(4)) showed an in vitro effect against Acanthamoeba trophozoites and cysts, reducing the minimal trophozoite amoebicidal concentration as well as concentrations with cysticidal activity.Ministerio de Economía y CompetitividadUniversidad de AlcaláComunidad de Madri

In Vitro anticancer properties of copper metallodendrimers

Newly synthesized carbosilane copper dendrimers (CCD) with chloride and nitrate surface groups seem to be good candidates to be used as gene and drug carriers in anti-cancer therapy, due to their properties such as size and surface charge. Copper attached to the nanoparticles is an important element of many biological processes and recently their anti-cancer properties have been widely examined. Zeta size and potential, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), circular dichroism (CD), analysis of haemolytic activity, and fluorescence anisotropy techniques were used to characterize copper dendrimers. Additionally, their cytotoxic properties toward normal (PBMC) and cancer (1301; HL-60) cells were examined. All tested dendrimers were more cytotoxic against cancer cells in comparison with normal cells

Antioxidant and Antibacterial Properties of Carbosilane Dendrimers Functionalized with Polyphenolic Moieties

A new family of polyphenolic carbosilane dendrimers functionalized with ferulic, caffeic, and gallic acids has been obtained through a straightforward amidation reaction. Their antioxidant activity has been studied by different techniques such as DPPH (2,2 '-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging assay, FRAP assay (ferric reducing antioxidant power), and cyclic voltammetry. The antioxidant analysis showed that polyphenolic dendrimers exhibited higher activities than free polyphenols in all cases. The first-generation dendrimer decorated with gallic acid stood out as the best antioxidant compound, displaying a correlation between the number of hydroxyl groups in the polyphenol structure and the antioxidant activity of the compounds. Moreover, the antibacterial capacity of these new systems has been screened against Gram-positive (+) and Gram-negative (-) bacteria, and we observed that polyphenolic dendrimers functionalized with caffeic and gallic acids were capable of decreasing bacterial growth. In contrast, ferulic carbosilane dendrimers and free polyphenols showed no effect, establishing a correlation between antioxidant activity and antibacterial capacity. Finally, a viability assay in human skin fibroblasts cells (HFF-1) allowed for corroborating the nontoxicity of the polyphenolic dendrimers at their active antibacterial concentration.Ministerio de Economía y CompetitividadJunta de Comunidades de Castilla-La ManchaComunidad de Madri

Exploring the Interactions of Ruthenium (II) carbosilane metallodendrimers and precursors with model cell membranes through a dual spin label spin probe technique using EPR

Dendrimers exhibit unique interactions with cell membranes, arising from their nanometric size and high surface area. To a great extent, these interactions define their biological activity and can be reported in situ by spin-labelling techniques. Schiff-base carbosilane ruthenium (II) metallodendrimers are promising antitumor agents with a mechanism of action yet to explore. In order to study their in situ interactions with model cell membranes occurring at a molecular level, namely cetyltrimethylammonium bromide micelles (CTAB) and lecithin liposomes (LEC), electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) was selected. Both a spin probe, 4-(N,N-dimethyl-N-dodecyl)ammonium-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl bromide (CAT12), able to enter the model membranes, and a spin label, 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO) covalently attached at newly synthesized heterofunctional dendrimers, were used to provide complementary information on the dendrimer-membrane interactions. The computer-aided EPR analysis demonstrated a good agreement between the results obtained for the spin probe and spin label experiments. Both points of view suggested the partial insertion of the dendrimer surface groups into the surfactant aggregates, mainly CTAB micelles, and the occurrence of both polar and hydrophobic interactions, while dendrimer-LEC interactions involved more polar interactions between surface groups. We found out that subtle changes in the dendrimer structure greatly modified their interacting abilities and, subsequently, their anticancer activity