15 documents found, page 1 of 2
Elastin-like recombinamers as a biotechnological platform for the development o...
Gonçalves, Anabela; Pinho, Vanessa; da Costa, André; Ribeiro, Artur; Gomes, Andreia C; Machado, RaulOncostatin M (OSM) and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) are pleiotropic cytokines from the interkeukine-6 family, associated with several disorders, and present significant potential in biomedicine. However, their therapeutic use is highly constrained by factors such as short circulating half-life and narrow therapeutic window. The conjugation of cytokines with elastin-like recombinamers (ELR) holds the potenti...
Antimicrobial and anti-biofilm activity of silver nanoparticles biosynthesized ...
Fernandes, Mário; González-Ballesteros, Noelia; da Costa, André; Machado, Raul; Gomes, Andreia C; Rodríguez-Argüelles, Maria CarmenAntimicrobial resistance is an ever-growing global concern to public health with no clear or immediate solution. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have long been proposed as efficient agents to fight the growing number of antibiotic-resistant strains. However, the synthesis of these particles is often linked to high costs and the use of toxic, hazardous chemicals, with environmental and health impact. In this study,...
Uncovering the promiscuous activity of IL-6 proteins: a multi-dimensional analy...
da Costa, André; Franco-Duarte, Ricardo; Machado, Raul; Gomes, Andreia CThe IL-6 family of cytokines, known for their pleiotropic behavior, share binding to the gp130 receptor for signal transduction with the necessity to bind other receptors. Leukemia inhibitory factor receptor is triggered by the IL-6 family proteins: leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), oncostatin-M (OSM), cardiotrophin-1 (CT-1), ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), and cardiotrophin-like cytokine factor 1 (CLCF1). ...
Protein-engineered polymers functionalized with antimicrobial peptides for the ...
Pereira, Ana Margarida Macedo Bernardes; Gomes, Diana Cristina Serra; da Costa, André; Dias, Simoni Campos; Casal, Margarida; Machado, RaulAntibacterial resistance is a major worldwide threat due to the increasing number of infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria with medical devices being a major source of these infections. This suggests the need for new antimicrobial biomaterial designs able to withstand the increasing pressure of antimicrobial resistance. Recombinant protein polymers (rPPs) are an emerging class of nature-inspired bi...
Protein-based films functionalized with a truncated antimicrobial peptide seque...
da Costa, André; Pereira, Ana M.; Sampaio, Paula; Rodriguez-Cabello, Jose Carlos; Gomes, Andreia C; Casal, Margarida; Machado, RaulThe increasing bacterial resistance to antibiotics is driving strong demand for new antimicrobial biomaterials. This work describes the fabrication of free-standing films exhibiting antimicrobial properties by combining, in the same polypeptide chain, an elastin-like recombinamer comprising 200 repetitions of the pentamer VPAVG (A200) and an 18-amino-acid truncated variant of the antimicrobial peptide BMAP-28, ...
Production and purification of two bioactive antimicrobial peptides using a two...
Pereira, Ana Margarida; da Costa, André; Dias, Simoni Campos; Casal, Margarida; Machado, RaulAntimicrobial resistance is an increasing global threat, demanding new therapeutic biomolecules against multidrug-resistant bacteria. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are promising candidates for a new generation of antibiotics, but their potential application is still in its infancy, mostly due to limitations associated with large-scale production. The use of recombinant DNA technology for the production of AMPs ...
Design of polymeric core-shell carriers for combination therapies
Silva, Dina M.; Liu, Ruy; Gonçalves, Anabela F.; da Costa, André; Gomes, Andreia C; Machado, Raúl; Vongsvivut, Jitraporn; Tobin, Mark J.Particle engineering for co-delivery of drugs has the potential to combine multiple drugs with different pharmaceutical mechanisms within the same carrier, increasing the therapeutic efficiency while improving patient compliance. This work proposes a novel approach for producing polymer–polymer core–shell microparticles by multi-step processing of emulsion and spray drying. The particle core was obtained by an ...
Elastins-based antimicrobial particles for delivery of bioactive compounds
Machado, Raul; da Costa, André; Pereira, Ana Margarida Macedo Bernardes; Rodriguez-Cabello, José Carlos; Casal, MargaridaIn the development of drug delivery systems, researchers pursue multifunctionality to target more complex problems, while maintaining biocompatibility and high encapsulation efficiency. Herein, we describe the preparation of noncytotoxic particles with intrinsic antimicrobial properties able to entrap bioactive compounds. The particles are composed of a recombinantly produced elastin-like recombinamer functiona...
Leukemia inhibitory factor: recent advances and implications in biotechnology
Pinho, Vanessa; Fernandes, Mário; da Costa, André; Machado, Raul; Gomes, Andreia CLeukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is a pleiotropic cytokine with several functions in health and disease ranging from inflammation to cancer. LIF is also a potential target and/or therapeutic agent for diseases such as multiple sclerosis, stroke and even psychological disorders, where the function of LIF as a neurotrophic factor has only recently been explored. In recent years, a limited number of LIF clinical t...
A molecular biology platform for the production of cytokines and cytokine-funct...
Gonçalves, Anabela Ferreira; da Costa, André; Casal, Margarida; Gomes, Andreia C; Machado, RaulLeukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and Oncostatin-M (OSM) are two pleiotropic cytokines from the IL-6 cytokine family with implications in health and disease. Their biotechnological exploitation finds applications in the treatment of different diseases such as cardiac and neurological pathologies, and even cancer. In recent years, several patents and research papers were published regarding their heterologous exp...