Conveners
Materials and technologies for Health and Environment (Posters)
- Marta Almeida (IST)
- Armandina Maria Lima Lopes (Universidade do Porto (PT))
- Monica Faria
- Rita Rodrigues (Centre of Physics (CFUM), University of Minho)
Cancer remains a worldwide leading death cause, prompting the necessity to develop new therapeutic solutions [1]. Current cancer chemotherapeutic agents can induce toxicity, even at therapeutic doses, and become ineffective by multidrug resistance (MDR) development. Furthermore, traditional synthesis of treatment and imaging agents promote some undesirable toxicity.
Doxorubicin (DOX) is a...
Radiolabeled amino acids for assessment of increased rates of amino acid transport in cancer cells continue to gain importance in cancer imaging. Radiotracers targeting transporters of cationic amino acids (CAs), such as Cationic Amino acid Transporter-1 (CAT-1) and Amino acid Transporter B0,+ (ATB0,+), hold great potential as imaging biomarkers for predicting and...
Pre-targeting approaches based on the inverse-electron-demand Diels-Alder (iEDDA) reaction between strained trans-cyclooctenes (TCO) and electron-deficient tetrazines (Tz) have emerged in recent years as valid alternatives to classic targeted strategies to improve the diagnostic and therapeutic properties of radioactive probes. As reported in this communication, we have synthesized a small...
In the automotive industry hydrodynamic lubrication is a concern in most of the machinery where there are two contacting surfaces in relative motion. The optimization of these surfaces through micro-texturing represents a very promising way to reduce friction, in order to achieve enhanced lifetimes and reduced lubricant use. However, it is very difficult to predict these optimal texturing...
The continuous developments in radiofrequency electromagnetic (EM) radiation applications such as communication technologies, data transference, wireless internet, automatized electronics, etc., has been consistently increasing EM radiation exposition. For this reason, the scientific community is questioning the impact that EM radiation could cause in the human health or affect electronic...
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is currently one of the most common photosensitive materials used in photocatalysis due to its exceptional properties such as low cost, lower toxicity and high chemical content stability, being very useful in water treatment when combined with other components such as cellulose acetate (CA) [1].
Several integrally skinned asymmetric monophasic hybrid CA-based membranes...
Among ceramics, zirconia is one of the most used material to repair/replace damaged/lost dental tissues, due to its high toughness [1]. Glass veneers are usually applied over zirconia frameworks to improve their optical properties [2], but they generally result into chipping [3], leading to extensive wear of the antagonist teeth. Leucite and lithium disilicate are alternative materials to be...
Patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD) are progressively increasing and the demand for renal replacement therapies is expanding [1]. Transplantation is the most effective option, but it is limited by the scarcity of organs thus making in-center hemodialysis (HD) the most reliable form of therapy. The crucial role of HD dosage in critically ill patients suffering from ESRD is well...
HIV stands as an increasing global burden and sexual transmission remains the leading cause of new infections, particularly in women in the Sub-Saharan region [1]. New prevention strategies are urgent and vaginal microbicides have proven to be promising alternatives to prematurely fight and control its dissemination. In this study, we developed TDF/FTC-loaded fibers and tested their...
According to the World Cancer Report, cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide, having been responsible for one-sixth of the deaths globally in 2018 [1–3]. Currently, there exist various oncologic therapeutic approaches, the main ones being surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy [4,5]. However, these are often associated with undesirable side effects, since they do not only kill...
Cancer is one of the main public health problems and the World Health Organization (WHO) points it as the second leading cause of death in the world [1]. Stimulus-responsive nanosystems have been a promising approach to control the release and delivery of therapeutic agents to target sites. In this work, manganese ferrite nanoparticles were decorated with gold nanoparticles or covered with a...
The combination of liposomes with superparamagnetic nanoparticles allies the advantages of the widely used liposomal systems and the possibility to magnetically guide, selectively accumulate, and control the release of drugs on target. The effectiveness of the resulting structures – magnetoliposomes – is intrinsically related to the individual characteristics of the lipid formulation, the...
In a rational drug design, the modulation of the chemical structure based on drug’s pharmacokinetic profile can be the solution to improve drug development efficiency. Significant correlations between lipophilicity and membrane permeation have been established [1]. Further, anisotropic membrane-like systems, such as membranes/water (M/W) partitioning systems, are described as a more accurate...
Bone tissue is naturally sensitive to mechano-electrical cues provided by its microenvironment. Tissue engineering relies on the development of scaffolds suitable to apply specific stimuli in order to recreate bone tissue microenvironments and trigger their natural recovery. The morphological clues of scaffolds can determine cell behavior and, therefore, the patterning of electroactive...
Cancer is the leading cause of death in Europe after cardiovascular disease, accounting for about 20% of deaths in the European Union [1]. One of the main strategies followed in oncology has been hyperthermia, which consists on raising the temperature of cancer cells to 40-45ºC to reach apoptosis i.e., programmed cell death [2]. One way to reach local and controlled hyperthermia is via...
The advances made on the field of nanotechnology have brought a variety of new possibilities into drug discovery and medical therapy [1]. In this context, nano-scaled carriers have revolutionized drug delivery systems, allowing for therapeutic agents to be selectively targeted to a specific tissue, thus decreasing exposure of healthy tissue to drugs. Nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) are...
As the main goal of tissue engineering (TE) is to mimic cellular microenvironments through scaffold systems, there has been growing interest in smart and functional materials, namely electroactive ones, to develop active scaffolds for TE applications since they are able to provide, apart from the structural support, the necessary biochemical and biophysical cues to cells in order to promote...
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has a prevalence from 11 to 13% in the world’s population and the main treatment to replicate some of the kidney’s functions is hemodialysis (HD) [1]. One of the biggest challenges of HD is the removal of the protein bound uremic toxin’s (PBUT’s) which, in blood, bond to albumin forming very large structures which cannot cross the membranes which compose the...
The radiobiological effects induced by Auger electron (AE) emitters might include hardly repairable and severe DNA damage in the targeted tumor cells, if the AEs are emitted in close proximity to a radiosensitive cellular target, such as the nuclear DNA or the mitochondria. Towards this goal, we have designed organelle-targeted 99mTc-complexes with the ability to selectively recognize prostate...
Reinforced concrete can suffer a significant reduction in durability when used under unfavorable exposure conditions. One of the main degradation mechanisms is corrosion induced by carbonation. This phenomenon occurs when atmospheric carbon dioxide penetrates the porous structure of concrete. Due to the alkaline nature of concrete, the steel covered by this material is protected from...
Outdoor and indoor pollutants have been identified as the main cause for the rising deaths by cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, with around 3.3 million deaths per year related to low air quality and with 98% of the low to medium income cities over 100000 habitants failing to meet air quality standards according to the World Health Organization. [1]
Among these pollutants, volatile...
Recently, a considerable effort has been placed on the study of 1D nanostructures, such as nanowires, nanopillars and nanorods, owing to their biomedical applications [1]
Among several methods that can be employed in the synthesis of NWs, template-assisted electrodeposition in porous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) has been considered a convenient technique, because of its simplicity and easiness...
Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common cancer types in men, and, despite the advances that led to a decline in mortality, it is still considered incurable in advance stages. Thus, it is exceedingly important to ensure an early diagnosis and develop new approaches to overcome PCa chemoresistance. Radiopharmaceuticals emerge as possible solutions for this challenge, as they have the...
Chronic kidney disease, a growing public health concern affecting 11-13% of the global population is defined by an irreversible worsening of renal function which can lead to end stage renal disease (ESRD) [1]. Hemodialysis (HD) is the most widely used renal replacement therapy to purify the blood of ESRD patients and the majority of hemodialyzers on the market are composed of synthetic polymer...
