Université de Fribourg

Aerosol delivery of functionalized gold nanoparticles target and activate dendritic cells in a 3D lung cellular model

Fytianos, Kleanthis ; Chortarea, Savvina ; Rodriguez-Lorenzo, Laura ; Blank, Fabian ; Garnier, Christophe von ; Petri-Fink, Alke ; Rothen-Rutishauser, and Barbara

In: ACS Nano, 2017, vol. 11, no. 1, p. 375–383

Nanocarrier design combined with pulmonary drug delivery holds great promise for the treatment of respiratory tract disorders. In particular, targeting of dendritic cells that are key immune cells to enhance or suppress an immune response in the lung is a promising approach for the treatment of allergic diseases. Fluorescently encoded poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)-coated gold nanoparticles,...

Université de Fribourg

Artificial lysosomal platform to study nanoparticle long-term stability

Milosevic, Ana ; Bourquin, Joël ; Burnand, David ; Lemal, Philipp ; Crippa, Federica ; Monnier, Christophe A. ; Rodriguez-Lorenzo, Laura ; Petri-Fink, Alke ; Rothen-Rutishauser, Barbara

In: CHIMIA International Journal for Chemistry, 2019, vol. 73, no. 1, p. 55–58

Nanoparticles (NPs) possess unique properties useful for designing specific functionalities for biomedi- cal applications. A prerequisite of a safe-by-design and effective use in any biomedical application is to study NP–cell interactions to gain a better understanding of cellular consequences upon exposure. Cellular uptake of NPs results mainly in the localization of NPs in the complex...

Université de Fribourg

Biodistribution of single and aggregated gold nanoparticles exposed to the human lung epithelial tissue barrier at the air-liquid interface

Durantie, Estelle ; Vanhecke, Dimitri ; Rodriguez-Lorenzo, Laura ; Delhaes, Flavien ; Balog, Sandor ; Septiadi, Dedy ; Bourquin, Joel ; Petri-Fink, Alke ; Rothen-Rutishauser, Barbara

In: Particle and Fibre Toxicology, 2017, vol. 14, p. 49

The lung represents the primary entry route for airborne particles into the human body. Most studies addressed possible adverse effects using single (nano)particles, but aerosolic nanoparticles (NPs) tend to aggregate and form structures of several hundreds nm in diameter, changing the physico-chemical properties and interaction with cells. Our aim was to investigate how aggregation might...

Université de Fribourg

A bio-inspired amplification cascade for the detection of rare cancer cells

Rüegg, Curzio ; Reis, Corine ; Rafiee, Sarah ; Rodriguez-Lorenzo, Laura ; List, Jonathan ; Rothen-Rutishauser, Barbara ; Mayer, Michael ; Petri-Fink, Alke

In: CHIMIA International Journal for Chemistry, 2019, vol. 73, no. 1, p. 63–68

The main cause of cancer-related death is due to cancer cell spreading and formation of secondary tumors in distant organs, the so-called metastases. Metastatic cancer cells are detectable in the blood of cancer patients as circulating tumor cells (CTC) and may be exploited for prognostic and monitoring purposes, including in breast cancer. Due to their very low frequency, however, their...

Université de Fribourg

Carbon nanodots: Opportunities and limitations to study their biodistribution at the human lung epithelial tissue barrier

Durantie, Estelle ; Barosova, Hana ; Drasler, Barbara ; Rodriguez-Lorenzo, Laura ; Urban, Dominic A. ; Vanhecke, Dimitri ; Septiadi, Dedy ; Hirschi-Ackermann, Liliane ; Petri-Fink, Alke ; Rothen-Rutishauser, Barbara

In: Biointerphases, 2018, vol. 13, no. 6, p. 06D404

Inhalation of combustion-derived ultrafine particles (≤0.1 μm) has been found to be associated with pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases. However, correlation of the physicochemical properties of carbon-based particles such as surface charge and agglomeration state with adverse health effects has not yet been established, mainly due to limitations related to the detection of carbon...

Université de Fribourg

Characterizing nanoparticles in complex biological media and physiological fluids with depolarized dynamic light scattering

Balog, Sandor ; Rodriguez-Lorenzo, Laura ; Monnier, Christophe A. ; Obiols-Rabas, Marc ; Rothen-Rutishauser, Barbara ; Schurtenberger, Peter ; Petri-Fink, Alke

In: Nanoscale, 2015, p. -

Light scattering is one of the few techniques available to adequately characterize suspended nanoparticles (NPs) in real time and in situ. However, when it comes to NPs in multicomponent and optically complex aqueous matrices – such as biological media and physiological fluids – light scattering suffers from lack of selectivity, as distinguishing the relevant optical signals from the...

Université de Fribourg

Decoupling the shape parameter to assess gold nanorod uptake by mammalian cells

Kinnear, Calum ; Rodriguez-Lorenzo, Laura ; Clift, M. J. D. ; Goris, B. ; Bals, S. ; Rothen-Rutishauser, Barbara ; Petri-Fink, Alke

In: Nanoscale, 2016, vol. 8, no. 36, p. 16416–16426

The impact of nanoparticles (NPs) upon biological systems can be fundamentally associated with their physicochemical parameters. A further often-stated tenet is the importance of NP shape on rates of endocytosis. However, given the convoluted parameters concerning the NP–cell interaction, it is experimentally challenging to attribute any findings to shape alone. Herein we demonstrate that...

Université de Fribourg

Distribution of polymer-coated gold nanoparticles in a 3D lung model and indication of apoptosis after repeated exposure

Chortarea, Savvina ; Fytianos, Kleanthis ; Rodriguez-Lorenzo, Laura ; Petri-Fink, Alke ; Rothen-Rutishauser, Barbara

In: Nanomedicine, 2018, vol. 13, no. 10, p. 1169–1185

Aim: The distribution and impact of aerosol-delivered gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) functionalized with a mixture of aminated-polyvinyl alcohol and amino-PEG ([polyvinyl alcohol/PEG]-NH2) upon repeated administration onto a 3D lung model were explored. Materials & methods: AuNPs were aerosolized and uptake and epithelial translocation was assessed by inductively coupled plasma optical-emission ...

Université de Fribourg

Dynamic depolarized light scattering of small round plasmonic nanoparticles: When imperfection is only perfect

Balog, Sandor ; Rodriguez-Lorenzo, Laura ; Monnier, Christophe A. ; Michen, Benjamin ; Obiols-Rabasa, Marc ; Casal-Dujat, Lucia ; Rothen-Rutishauser, Barbara ; Petri-Fink, Alke ; Schurtenberger, Peter

In: The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2014, vol. 118, no. 31, p. 17968–17974

Although small round gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) possess only a small degree of shape anisotropy, they support localized surface plasmon resonances and exhibit intrinsic optical anisotropy. These inherent features promote depolarized light scattering, whose temporal fluctuations carry information about rotational Brownian dynamics, and thus can be used to describe the size distribution of...

Université de Fribourg

Fluorescence-encoded gold nanoparticles: library design and modulation of cellular uptake into dendritic cells

Rodriguez-Lorenzo, Laura ; Fytianos, Kleanthis ; Blank, Fabian ; Garnier, Christophe von ; Rothen-Rutishauser, Barbara ; Petri-Fink, Alke

In: Small, 2014, vol. 10, no. 7, p. 1341–1350

In order to harness the unique properties of nanoparticles for novel clinical applications and to modulate their uptake into specific immune cells we designed a new library of homo- and hetero-functional fluorescence-encoded gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) using different poly(vinyl alcohol) and poly(ethylene glycol)-based polymers for particle coating and stabilization. The encoded particles were...