A Concentration-Dependent Insulin Immobilization Behavior of Alkyl-Modified Silica Vesicles: The Impact of Alkyl Chain Length

The insulin immobilization behaviors of silica vesicles (SV) before and after modification with hydrophobic alkyl -C₈ and -C₁₈ groups have been studied and correlated to the grafted alkyl chain length. In order to minimize the influence from the other structural parameters, monolayered -C₈ or -C₁₈ groups are grafted onto SV with controlled density. The insulin immobilization capacity of SV is dependent on the initial insulin concentrations (IIC). At high IIC (2.6–3.0 mg/mL), the trend of insulin immobilization capacity of SV is SV-OH > SV-C₈ > SV-C₁₈, which is determined mainly by the surface area of SV. At medium IIC (0.6–1.9 mg/mL), the trend changes to SV-C₈ ≥ SV-C₁₈ > SV-OH as both the surface area and alkyl chain length contribute to the insulin immobilization. At an extremely low IIC, the hydrophobic–hydrophobic interaction between the alkyl group and insulin molecules plays the most significant role. Consequently, SV-C₁₈ with longer alkyl groups and the highest hydrophobicity show the best insulin enrichment performance compared to SV-C₈ and SV-OH, as evidenced by an insulin detection limit of 0.001 ng/mL in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and 0.05 ng/mL in artficial urine determined by mass spectrometry (MS)

A Concentration-Dependent Insulin Immobilization Behavior of Alkyl-Modified Silica Vesicles: The Impact of Alkyl Chain Length

The insulin immobilization behaviors of silica vesicles (SV) before and after modification with hydrophobic alkyl -C₈ and -C₁₈ groups have been studied and correlated to the grafted alkyl chain length. In order to minimize the influence from the other structural parameters, monolayered -C₈ or -C₁₈ groups are grafted onto SV with controlled density. The insulin immobilization capacity of SV is dependent on the initial insulin concentrations (IIC). At high IIC (2.6–3.0 mg/mL), the trend of insulin immobilization capacity of SV is SV-OH > SV-C₈ > SV-C₁₈, which is determined mainly by the surface area of SV. At medium IIC (0.6–1.9 mg/mL), the trend changes to SV-C₈ ≥ SV-C₁₈ > SV-OH as both the surface area and alkyl chain length contribute to the insulin immobilization. At an extremely low IIC, the hydrophobic–hydrophobic interaction between the alkyl group and insulin molecules plays the most significant role. Consequently, SV-C₁₈ with longer alkyl groups and the highest hydrophobicity show the best insulin enrichment performance compared to SV-C₈ and SV-OH, as evidenced by an insulin detection limit of 0.001 ng/mL in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and 0.05 ng/mL in artficial urine determined by mass spectrometry (MS)

An Approach to Prepare Polyethylenimine Functionalized Silica-Based Spheres with Small Size for siRNA Delivery

A novel approach has been developed to prepare polyethylenimine functionalized hybrid silica spheres with a diameter of ∼10 nm, which show excellent delivery efficiency of siRNA into osteosarcoma cancer cells and human colon cancer cells with a significant cell inhibition comparable to commercial agents

I dubbi sull’attuale rilevanza dei Gruppi di Imprese nel diritto del lavoro. Le oscillazioni della giurisprudenza e la necessità di un intervento organico del Legislatore in materia

Mesostructured hollow carbon nanoparticles have widespread applications. A big challenge in materials science is surfactant-free synthesis of hollow carbon nanoparticles with tunable mesostructures. Herein we report a new surfactant-free sequential heterogeneous nucleation pathway to prepare mesostructured hollow carbon nanoparticles. This strategy relies on two polymerizable systems, i.e., resorcinol formaldehyde and tetraethyl orthosilicate, each of which undergoes homogeneous nucleation and particle growth. By controlling the polymerization kinetics of two systems when mixed together, sequential heterogeneous nucleation can be programmed, leading to monodispersed and mesostructured hollow carbon nanoparticles with large mesopores, controllable mesostructures (bi- and triple-layered), and rich morphologies (invaginated, intact, and endoinvaginated spheres). For the first time, it is demonstrated that the invaginated structure shows better hemocompatibility compared to the intact one. The pristine hollow carbon nanoparticles with large pore size and high pore volume show the high loading capacity of biomolecules and successfully deliver biomolecules into cells. Our strategy has paved the way for the designed synthesis of unprecedented carbon nanostructures with potential applications in drug/biomolecule delivery