Nanoparticles (NPs) are materials whose dimensions range from 1 to 1,000 nanometers (nm). Due to their nano-scale dimensions and tunable material properties, NPs have gained interest in the global scientific community in recent years. Applications of NPs in the field of human health include NP-based drug delivery systems and radioactive probe-linked NPs for medical diagnosis. While significant advancements have been achieved in the design and synthesis of NPs, studies investigating the interactions of NPs with important biological macromolecules like proteins remain limited.
To reveal the science behind the protein–nanoparticle interaction and its implications for human health, a team of researchers led by Associate Professor Masakazu Umezawa from the Department of Medical and Robotic Engineering Design, Faculty of Advanced Engineering, Tokyo University of Science, Japan, conducted a series of spectroscopy-based experiments. The research team comprised Mr. Naoya Sakaguchi, a second-year PhD student from the Department of Materials Science and Technology, Faculty of Advanced Engineering, Tokyo University of Science, and Junior Associate Professor Atsuto Onoda from Sanyo-Onoda City University. Their research findings were published online in Langmuir on June 3, 2025.
In their study, the researchers employed bovine serum albumin (BSA) as the main protein of interest and silica NPs (SiNPs) with diameters ranging from 10 nm to 10 μm (10,000 nm). They analyzed the protein–nanoparticle interactions using thioflavin T (ThT) fluorescence, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and circular dichroism (CD).
Explaining the motivation behind the present study, Dr. Umezawa says, “When NPs are administered in vivo, interactions with proteins and other biomolecules may occur, leading to the modulation of their biological effects. Therefore, establishing the safety of NPs along with clarifying the effects of NPs on the secondary structure of proteins is highly important.”
The scientists found that the ThT fluorescence intensity decreased with increasing SiNP size. Notably, a drastic increase in the ThT fluorescence intensity was observed when BSA was mixed with 10 nm-sized SiNPs at a stirring time of one hour. However, when BSA was mixed with the largest SiNPs (10 μm) for longer stirring times up to 48 hours, the ThT fluorescence intensity was markedly higher.
“The increase in β-sheet formation in BSA, the most abundant protein in serum and cerebrospinal fluid, is remarkably high during interaction with 10 nm-sized SiNPs. This shows that ultra-small SiNPs can induce abnormal protein conformation and have the potential to cause pathological conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, which involves the formation of amyloid β-peptides,” states Dr. Umezawa.
Further FT-IR experiments to study the secondary protein structure of BSA revealed varied results. The amount of β-sheet structures in BSA increased with longer stirring times in the presence of 10 μm SiNPs. To gain a better picture of the protein–nanoparticle interaction dynamics, Dr. Umezawa and team turned their attention to CD. Using the Beta Structure Selection (BeStSel) technique, which could specifically detect β-sheet-derived peaks, they found that the α-helical structure of BSA was disrupted by interaction with SiNPs. While the α-helix structure percentage in BSA decreased during interaction with SiNPs, parallel β-sheet protein confirmation was increasingly favored.
In summary, this study reveals the impact of ultra-small NPs on biological macromolecules, like proteins. The insights gained from the protein–nanoparticle interaction can guide the development of safe and effective nanoparticle-based systems for applications in various fields of medical biology.
A March 11, 2025 news item on phys.org announces research on protective sports (and other) equipment, Note: Links have been removed,
Researchers at Michigan State University have refined an innovation that has the potential to improve safety, reduce severe injury and increase survival rates in situations ranging from car accidents, sports, law enforcement operations and more.
In 2020 and 2022, Weiyi Lu, an associate professor in MSU’s College of Engineering, developed a liquid nanofoam material made up of tiny holes surrounded by water that has been shown to protect the brain against traumatic injuries when used as a liner in football helmets. Now, MSU engineers and scientists have improved this technology to shield vital internal organs as well.
Falls, motor vehicle crashes and other kinds of collisions can cause blunt force trauma and damage to bodily organs that can lead to life-threatening emergencies. These injuries are often the result of intense mechanical force or pressure that doesn’t penetrate the body like a cut, but causes serious damage to the body’s organs, including internal lacerations, ruptures, bleeding and organ failure.
Lu and Yun Liang, an assistant professor in the College of Osteopathic Medicine, have teamed up to see how the liquid nanofoam could protect internal organs in the event of blunt force trauma. Their findings are published in the journal Scientific Reports.
We improved the liquid nanofoam by adjusting its protective response to match biological organs,” said Lu. “Then, we sealed the liquid nanofoam material inside a plastic pouch about the size of a quarter and made the new protection layer flexible and moldable enough to be worn comfortably against the body.”
To test the capabilities of Lu’s liquid nanofoam, the pouch was used as a protective cover and laid over a tissue sample and compressed by a machine with enough force to mimic a blunt force trauma event.
“For the first time, we are trying to understand how trauma is introduced by mechanical force and effectively mitigated it by using liquid nanofoam,” said Liang. “We are trying to understand the force needed to damage an internal organ, which will be then converted into the future design criteria for protective materials.”
Lu and Liang found that the liquid nanofoam could withstand the mechanical force equal to a blunt force trauma without damaging biological tissue. Liang and her team demonstrated that the liquid nanofoam protected multiple biological tissues, including the liver, kidneys, heart and lungs, from forces and pressures equal to blunt force trauma injuries.
“I could see with my eyes that there’s literally no damage,” said Liang. “I was totally amazed.”
Future applications of the liquid nanofoam could include using it as a protective layer inside an automobile’s framework, to line the walls of an earthquake-proof room or to wear it close to the body as a protective vest that could have multiple applications to save lives and prevent tissue and organ damage from blunt force trauma events.
An April 3, 2025 news item on ScienceDaily announces work that promises to bring researchers closer to ending nanoparticle cosmetic testing on animals,
A research team from TU Graz [Austria[ and the Vellore Institute of Technology in India is developing a 3D-printed skin imitation equipped with living cells in order to test nanoparticles from cosmetics without animal testing.
Directive 2010/63/EU laid down restrictions on animal testing for the testing of cosmetics and their ingredients throughout the EU. Therefore, there is an intense search for alternatives to test the absorption and toxicity of nanoparticles from cosmetics such as sun creams.
“The hydrogels for our skin imitation from the 3D printer have to fulfil a number of requirements,” says Karin Stana Kleinschek from the Institute of Chemistry and Technology of Biobased Systems. “The hydrogels must be able to interact with living skin cells. These cells not only have to survive, but also have to be able to grow and multiply.” The starting point for stable and 3D-printable structures are hydrogel formulations developed at TU Graz. Hydrogels are characterised by their high-water content, which creates ideal conditions for the integration and growth of cells. However, the high-water content also requires methods for mechanical and chemical stabilisation of the 3D prints.
TU Graz is working intensively on cross-linking methods for stabilisation. Ideally, following nature’s example, the cross-linking takes place under very mild conditions and without the use of cytotoxic chemicals. After successful stabilisation, the cooperation partners in India test the resistance and toxicity of the 3D prints in cell culture. Only when skin cells in the hydrogel survive in cell culture for two to three weeks and develop skin tissue can we speak of a skin imitation. This skin imitation can then be used for further cell tests on cosmetics.
Successful tests
The first tests of 3D-printed hydrogels in cell culture were very successful. The cross-linked materials are non-cytotoxic and mechanically stable. “In the next step, the 3D-printed models (skin imitations) will be used to test nanoparticles,” says Karin Stana Kleinschek. “This is a success for the complementary research at TU Graz and VIT. Our many years of expertise in the field of material research for tissue imitations and VIT’s expertise in molecular and cell biology have complemented each other perfectly. We are now working together to further optimise the hydrogel formulations and validate their usefulness as a substitute for animal experiments.”
Caption: An illustration of the preparation of goji berries for silver nanoparticle synthesis. Credit: Kamran Alam et al.
A January 7, 2025 news item on Nanowerk announces new research into making silver nanoparticles in a more sustainable fashion, Note: Links have been removed,
As the search for sustainability permeates all fields, researchers are turning to a unique organic source for creating antibacterial silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) – the humble goji berry.
Goji berries are a ubiquitous superfood known for a multitude of health benefits, including their antibiotic properties. In research published in AIP Advances (“Ecofriendly synthesis of silver nanoparticles using metallic solution-based goji berry extract for their antibacterial properties”), researcher Kamran Alam from Sapienza University of Rome [Italy] along with others from NED University of Engineering and Technology [Pakistan] and King Saud University [Saudi Arabia] found an effective way to harvest silver nanoparticles from these berries.
“Silver nanoparticles are responsible for disrupting the cell membrane structure, which can generate reactive oxygen species used for inhibiting bacterial growth,” explained Alam.
Silver nanoparticles can be generated using a number of chemical techniques, but green solutions that use biological sources like fruit or leaf extracts are preferred because they save on energy and are nontoxic, nonhazardous, and biologically compatible with humans.
In this interdisciplinary undertaking, Alam and researchers demonstrated a technique for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles using store-bought goji berries.
“Goji berries are easily and locally available in the botanic garden and are rich in bioactive compounds that have natural reducing and stabilizing agents, eliminating the need for additional capping agents during processing,” Alam said.
Alam and the team created silver nanoparticles by drying, grinding, and then filtering the goji berries to create an extract. Then, they added chemical silver nitrate (AgNO3) and reduced the solution.
Using visualization techniques such as X-ray diffraction, Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-Vis) Spectroscopy, and Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectroscopy, the team confirmed the presence of silver nanoparticles. The nanoparticles were also viewed under a microscope and tested for their antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, a gram-positive bacterium that causes staph infections among other diseases.
In the future, Alam plans to study the cellular toxicity and biocompatibility of the nanoparticles synthesized from these berries, which could positively contribute to biomedical research.
“This is a simple and straightforward synthesis method which does not need additional chemicals or complex equipment and can be scaled up for industrial applications,” he said.
This bioenergy harvesting story is from the University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada), where its researchers were part of an international collaboration. From an August 14, 2023 news item on ScienceDaily,
Imagine a coat that captures solar energy to keep you cozy on a chilly winter walk, or a shirt that can monitor your heart rate and temperature.Picture clothing athletes can wear to track their performance without the need for bulky battery packs.
University of Waterloo researchers have developed a smart fabric with these remarkable capabilities.
The fabric has the potential for energy harvesting, health monitoring, and movement tracking applications.
The new fabric developed by a Waterloo research team can convert body heat and solar energy into electricity, potentially enabling continuous operation with no need for an external power source. Different sensors monitoring temperature, stress, and more can be integrated into the material.
It can detect temperature changes and a range of other sensors to monitor pressure, chemical composition, and more. One promising application is smart face masks that can track breath temperature and rate and detect chemicals in breath to help identify viruses, lung cancer, and other conditions.
“We have developed a fabric material with multifunctional sensing capabilities and self-powering potential,” said Yuning Li, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering. “This innovation brings us closer to practical applications for smart fabrics.”
Unlike current wearable devices that often depend on external power sources or frequent recharging, this breakthrough research has created a novel fabric which is more stable, durable, and cost-effective than other fabrics on the market.
This research, conducted in collaboration with Professor Chaoxia Wang and PhD student Jun Peng from the College of Textile Science and Engineering at Jiangnan University, showcases the potential of integrating advanced materials such as MXene and conductive polymers with cutting-edge textile technologies to advance smart fabrics for wearable technology.
Li, director of Waterloo’s Printable Electronic Materials Lab, highlighted the significance of this advancement, which is the latest in the university’s suite of technologies disrupting health boundaries.
“AI technology is evolving rapidly, offering sophisticated signal analysis for health monitoring, food and pharmaceutical storage, environmental monitoring, and more. However, this progress relies on extensive data collection, which conventional sensors, often bulky, heavy, and costly, cannot meet,” Li said. “Printed sensors, including those embedded in smart fabrics, are ideal for continuous data collection and monitoring. This new smart fabric is a step forward in making these applications practical.”
The next phase of research will focus on further enhancing the fabric’s performance and integrating it with electronic components in collaboration with electrical and computer engineers. Future developments may include a smartphone app to track and transmit data from the fabric to healthcare professionals, enabling real-time, non-invasive health monitoring and everyday use.
Researchers at two Ontario universities have developed a pain-free, wearable sensor that can continuously monitor levels of blood sugar, lactates and other critical health indicators for weeks at a time, sending results to a smartphone or other device.
The Wearable Aptalyzer, created by a team featuring researchers from McMaster University and the University of Waterloo, uses an array of tiny hydrogel needles that penetrate just deeply enough to reach the interstitial fluid beneath the skin, but not far enough to reach the blood vessels or nerves.
The patch gathers and sends information about markers in the fluid to an electronic device such as a smart phone, creating an ongoing record of patterns in the rise and fall of critical biomarkers.
Once developed for clinical use, it will allow health professionals to access current medical information that today is available only retrospectively after blood tests and lab work.
The new technology could make monitoring the markers of specific diseases and conditions as simple as tracking pulse, blood pressure and other vital signs. The researchers describe the work in a new paper published today [version of record published May 16, 2024] in the journal Advanced Materials.
“This technology can provide real-time information about both chronic and acute health conditions, allowing caregivers to act more quickly and with greater certainty when they see trouble,” says one of the paper’s two corresponding authors, McMaster’s Leyla Soleymani, professor of Engineering Physics who holds the Canada Research Chair in Miniaturized Biomedical Devices.
“The Wearable Aptalyzer is a general platform, meaning it can measure any biomarkers of interest, ranging from diabetes to cardiac biomarkers,” says corresponding author Mahla Poudineh, an assistant professor and director of the IDEATION Lab in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Waterloo. “Continuous health monitoring doesn’t just help catch diseases early and track how treatments are working. It also helps us understand how diseases happen, filling in important gaps in our knowledge that need attention.”
A user would apply and remove the patch much like a small bandage held in place with barely visible, soft hooks. The convenience is likely to appeal to diabetics and others who test themselves by drawing samples of blood or by using solid monitoring patches with metal needles that penetrate deeper and rely on less specific electrodes.
The greatest promise of the technology, though, may lie in its ability to produce weeks’ worth of meaningful results at a time, and to transmit data to electronic devices experts can read without sophisticated equipment.
Among the other potential applications, the Wearable Aptalyzer can make it possible to read and send data that signals cardiac events in real time, making it a potentially valuable tool for monitoring patients in ambulances and emergency rooms, and during treatment. The same technology can readily be adapted to monitor the progress and treatment of many chronic illnesses, including cancers, the researchers say.
The technology holds promise for improving care use in remote care settings, such as northern Indigenous communities set far from hospitals, or on space flights. Data from the Wearable Aptalyzer can signal trouble before symptoms become apparent, making it more likely patients can receive timely care.
The next steps in developing the technology for broad use include human trials and regulatory approvals. The researchers are seeking partners to help commercialize the technology.
The paper’s lead authors are Fatemeh Bakhshandeh of McMaster and Hanjia Zheng of Waterloo. Together with Soleymani and Poudineh, their co-authors are Waterloo’s Sadegh Sadeghzadeh, Irfani Ausri, Fatemeh Keyvani, Fasih Rahman, Joe Quadrilatero, and Juewen Liu, and McMaster’s Nicole Barra, Payel Sen, and Jonathan Schertzer.
Caption: The monitoring patch as compared to a 25-cent coin for scale. Credit: University of Waterloo
A February 27, 2024 news item on ScienceDaily describes the startling research results to anyone who’s listened to countless rhapsodize about the superiority of gas stoves over any other,
Cooking on your gas stove can emit more nano-sized particles into the air than vehicles that run on gas or diesel, possibly increasing your risk of developing asthma or other respiratory illnesses, a new Purdue University study has found.
“Combustion remains a source of air pollution across the world, both indoors and outdoors. We found that cooking on your gas stove produces large amounts of small nanoparticles that get into your respiratory system and deposit efficiently,” said Brandon Boor, an associate professor in Purdue’s Lyles School of Civil Engineering, who led this research.
Based on these findings, the researchers would encourage turning on a kitchen exhaust fan while cooking on a gas stove.
The study, published in the journal PNAS [Proceedngs of the National Academy of Sciences] Nexus, focused on tiny airborne nanoparticles that are only 1-3 nanometers in diameter, which is just the right size for reaching certain parts of the respiratory system and spreading to other organs.
Recent studies have found that children who live in homes with gas stoves are more likely to develop asthma. But not much is known about how particles smaller than 3 nanometers, called nanocluster aerosol, grow and spread indoors because they’re very difficult to measure.
“These super tiny nanoparticles are so small that you’re not able to see them. They’re not like dust particles that you would see floating in the air,” Boor said. “After observing such high concentrations of nanocluster aerosol during gas cooking, we can’t ignore these nano-sized particles anymore.”
Using state-of-the-art air quality instrumentation provided by the German company GRIMM AEROSOL TECHNIK, a member of the DURAG GROUP, Purdue researchers were able to measure these tiny particles down to a single nanometer while cooking on a gas stove in a “tiny house” lab. They collaborated with Gerhard Steiner, a senior scientist and product manager for nano measurement at GRIMM AEROSOL.
Called the Purdue zero Energy Design Guidance for Engineers (zEDGE) lab, the tiny house has all the features of a typical home but is equipped with sensors for closely monitoring the impact of everyday activities on a home’s air quality. With this testing environment and the instrument from GRIMM AEROSOL, a high-resolution particle size magnifier—scanning mobility particle sizer (PSMPS), the team collected extensive data on indoor nanocluster aerosol particles during realistic cooking experiments.
This magnitude of high-quality data allowed the researchers to compare their findings with known outdoor air pollution levels, which are more regulated and understood than indoor air pollution. They found that as many as 10 quadrillion nanocluster aerosol particles could be emitted per kilogram of cooking fuel — matching or exceeding those produced from vehicles with internal combustion engines.
This would mean that adults and children could be breathing in 10-100 times more nanocluster aerosol from cooking on a gas stove indoors than they would from car exhaust while standing on a busy street.
“You would not use a diesel engine exhaust pipe as an air supply to your kitchen,” said Nusrat Jung, a Purdue assistant professor of civil engineering who designed the tiny house lab with her students and co-led this study.
Purdue civil engineering PhD student Satya Patra made these findings by looking at data collected in the tiny house lab and modeling the various ways that nanocluster aerosol could transform indoors and deposit into a person’s respiratory system.
The models showed that nanocluster aerosol particles are very persistent in their journey from the gas stove to the rest of the house. Trillions of these particles were emitted within just 20 minutes of boiling water or making grilled cheese sandwiches or buttermilk pancakes on a gas stove.
Even though many particles rapidly diffused to other surfaces, the models indicated that approximately 10 billion to 1 trillion particles could deposit into an adult’s head airways and tracheobronchial region of the lungs. These doses would be even higher for children — the smaller the human, the more concentrated the dose.
The nanocluster aerosol coming from the gas combustion also could easily mix with larger particles entering the air from butter, oil or whatever else is cooking on the gas stove, resulting in new particles with their own unique behaviors.
A gas stove’s exhaust fan would likely redirect these nanoparticles away from your respiratory system, but that remains to be tested.
“Since most people don’t turn on their exhaust fan while cooking, having kitchen hoods that activate automatically would be a logical solution,” Boor said. “Moving forward, we need to think about how to reduce our exposure to all types of indoor air pollutants. Based on our new data, we’d advise that nanocluster aerosol be considered as a distinct air pollutant category.”
This study was supported by a National Science Foundation CAREER award to Boor. Additional financial support was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Chemistry of Indoor Environments program through an interdisciplinary collaboration with Philip Stevens, a professor in Indiana University’s Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs in Bloomington.
Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
Dynamics of nanocluster aerosol in the indoor atmosphere during gas cooking by Satya S Patra, Jinglin Jiang, Xiaosu Ding, Chunxu Huang, Emily K Reidy, Vinay Kumar, Paige Price, Connor Keech, Gerhard Steiner, Philip Stevens, Nusrat Jung, Brandon E Boor. PNAS Nexus, Volume 3, Issue 2, February 2024, pgae044, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae044 Published: 27 February 2024
I love the fact that ‘frozen smoke’ is another term for aerogel (which has multiple alternative terms) and the latest work on this interesting material is from the University of Cambridge (UK) according to a February 9, 2023 news item on ScienceDaily,
Researchers have developed a sensor made from ‘frozen smoke’ that uses artificial intelligence techniques to detect formaldehyde in real time at concentrations as low as eight parts per billion, far beyond the sensitivity of most indoor air quality sensors.
The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, developed sensors made from highly porous materials known as aerogels. By precisely engineering the shape of the holes in the aerogels, the sensors were able to detect the fingerprint of formaldehyde, a common indoor air pollutant, at room temperature.
The proof-of-concept sensors, which require minimal power, could be adapted to detect a wide range of hazardous gases, and could also be miniaturised for wearable and healthcare applications. The results are reported in the journal Science Advances.
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a major source of indoor air pollution, causing watery eyes, burning in the eyes and throat, and difficulty breathing at elevated levels. High concentrations can trigger attacks in people with asthma, and prolonged exposure may cause certain cancers.
Formaldehyde is a common VOC and is emitted by household items including pressed wood products (such as MDF), wallpapers and paints, and some synthetic fabrics. For the most part, the levels of formaldehyde emitted by these items are low, but levels can build up over time, especially in garages where paints and other formaldehyde-emitting products are more likely to be stored.
According to a 2019 report from the campaign group Clean Air Day, a fifth of households in the UK showed notable concentrations of formaldehyde, with 13% of residences surpassing the recommended limit set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“VOCs such as formaldehyde can lead to serious health problems with prolonged exposure even at low concentrations, but current sensors don’t have the sensitivity or selectivity to distinguish between VOCs that have different impacts on health,” said Professor Tawfique Hasan from the Cambridge Graphene Centre, who led the research.
“We wanted to develop a sensor that is small and doesn’t use much power, but can selectively detect formaldehyde at low concentrations,” said Zhuo Chen, the paper’s first author.
The researchers based their sensors on aerogels: ultra-light materials sometimes referred to as ‘liquid smoke’, since they are more than 99% air by volume. The open structure of aerogels allows gases to easily move in and out. By precisely engineering the shape, or morphology, of the holes, the aerogels can act as highly effective sensors.
Working with colleagues at Warwick University, the Cambridge researchers optimised the composition and structure of the aerogels to increase their sensitivity to formaldehyde, making them into filaments about three times the width of a human hair. The researchers 3D printed lines of a paste made from graphene, a two-dimensional form of carbon, and then freeze-dried the graphene paste to form the holes in the final aerogel structure. The aerogels also incorporate tiny semiconductors known as quantum dots.
The sensors they developed were able to detect formaldehyde at concentrations as low as eight parts per billion, which is 0.4 percent of the level deemed safe in UK workplaces. The sensors also work at room temperature, consuming very low power.
“Traditional gas sensors need to be heated up, but because of the way we’ve engineered the materials, our sensors work incredibly well at room temperature, so they use between 10 and 100 times less power than other sensors,” said Chen.
To improve selectivity, the researchers then incorporated machine learning algorithms into the sensors. The algorithms were trained to detect the ‘fingerprint’ of different gases, so that the sensor was able to distinguish the fingerprint of formaldehyde from other VOCs.
“Existing VOC detectors are blunt instruments – you only get one number for the overall concentration in the air,” said Hasan. “By building a sensor that is able to detect specific VOCs at very low concentrations in real time, it can give home and business owners a more accurate picture of air quality and any potential health risks.”
The researchers say that the same technique could be used to develop sensors to detect other VOCs. In theory, a device the size of a standard household carbon monoxide detector could incorporate multiple different sensors within it, providing real-time information about a range of different hazardous gases. The team at Warwick are developing a low-cost multi-sensor platform that will incorporate these new aerogel materials and, coupled with AI algorithms, detect different VOCs.
“By using highly porous materials as the sensing element, we’re opening up whole new ways of detecting hazardous materials in our environment,” said Chen.
The research was supported in part by the Henry Royce Institute, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Tawfique Hasan is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge.
This work is not about drinking tea with silver nanoparticles in it or ingesting colloidal silver by any means, a dangerous practice as Nicole Karlis’s January 7, 2024 article for Salon highlights, Note: Links have been removed,
The HBO docuseries “Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God” begins with a jarring image. The corpse of the cult leader, Amy Carlson, laying in a bed, wrapped in blankets and string lights. She is noticeably gaunt and her face is a very blue color. When Carlson died in 2021 at the age of 45, a coroner’s report deemed her cause of death to be “alcohol abuse, anorexia and chronic colloidal silver ingestion.”
…
Most medical experts advise against ingesting silver — especially in large amounts. That’s because too much of it can build up in a person’s body and lead to argyria, which is the condition that Carlson and Stan Jones both had that turned them a blue. While argyria alone isn’t a serious health condition, it doesn’t go away when a person stops ingesting silver. Plus, too much silver can be fatal. [emphasis mine]
…
A November 17, 2023 news item on phys.org announced research from the Polish Academy of Sciences into improving antimicrobial activity, Note: A link has been removed,
Researchers at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IPC PAS) have demonstrated that green tea–silver nanoparticles as a powerful tool against pathogens such as bacteria and yeast. Their work is published in Nanoscale Advances.
Once upon a time, people believed to be invincible against bacterial diseases, thanks to the antibiotics. Does this sound like a fairy tale? By all means! Nothing could be further from the truth. Despite widespread access to antibiotic therapy, many lives are lost due to pathogens invisible to the eye. The ability to develop drugs that can combat resistant strains of bacteria has not kept pace with the spread of resistance. So far, innovations to defeat antimicrobial-resistant strains of bacteria are in high demand. Recently, researchers at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IPC PAS) demonstrated green tea-silver nanoparticles as a powerful tool against pathogens such as bacteria and yeast. Their goal was to develop an efficient method to combat bacteria that are otherwise unaffected by antimicrobial agents, such as antibiotics.
Following the discovery of antibiotics, there came a change in the curse of mankind by accelerating the development of medicine and extending human life expectancy. Their successful implementation led to the rapid development of pharmacy, providing more and more drugs against many pathogens. Nevertheless, the overuse of antibiotics has led to the emergence of resistance to these compounds, becoming one of the biggest health threats worldwide. As a result, antibiotic resistance has emerged faster than the advancement of antibiotics . The appearance of new drugs on the horizon to combat these pathogens is a short-lasting spark. Even if we seem to be on the losing end, there is still a chance to defeat an invisible enemy.
This hitch was researched by the team of scientists from the IPC PAS under the supervision of Prof. Jan Paczesny, who proposed new nanoformulations for use against widespread and challenging pathogens such as ESKAPE bacteria (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter spp.) and other problematic yeast pathogens such as Candida auris or Cryptococcus neoformans. These microorganisms, treated with commercially available antibiotics, rapidly develop antibiotic resistance. Researchers chose ESKAPE as the target group since these pathogens lead to serious diseases, from sepsis to even cancer. How? This is where the story begins.
A few months ago, Paczesny’s team decided to try combining silver nanoparticles, which are known for their antimicrobial and antifungal properties, and tea extracts rich in polyphenols additionally possessing antioxidant properties. The concept was built to enhance broad-spectrum efficacy against pathogens using green hybrid silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), which are significantly more effective than all ingredients and even more effective than certain antibiotics. Why are these hybrid particles so special? In their work, three well-known tea varieties: black tea (B-Tea), green tea (G-Tea) and Pu-erh tea (R-Tea) were used as a capping agent, which acts as a stabilizer to protect the synthesized particles from aggregation. In this way, the particles offer a high active surface area compared to other formulations. Additionally, such synthesis is eco-friendly for the use of natural ingredients during precipitation. The structures produced vary in shape and size from 34 to 65 nm, depending on the type of tea used during synthesis, and show different reactivity towards microorganisms.
Initially, silver nanoparticles produced in the presence of tea extracts (B-TeaNPs, G-TeaNPs and R-TeaNPs) were used to treat Gram-negative (E. coli) and Gram-positive (E. faecium) bacterial strains to test the effect on strains with different cell envelope morphologies. They looked at the interactions between the manufactured nanoparticles and the pathogens to determine efficacy, comparing the results with commercially available antibiotics. The ESKAPE pathogens were then tested according to a protocol for the most effective concentration and composition of the particles, revealing up to a 25% decrease in the number of bacterial cells in E. faecium and a 90% decrease in the case of E. cloacae. Interestingly, the green silver nanoparticles also showed antifungal activity, leading to an 80% decrease in the number of viable cells of C. auris and about a 90% decrease for C. neoformans.
The first author, Sada Raza claims “What is more, the size of nanoparticles is usually related to the cytotoxic effect of nanomaterials, with smaller particles being more cytotoxic. This should favor control AgNPs and R-TeaNPs over G-TeaNPs and B-TeaNPs in our experiments. This was not the case. In most experiments, C-AgNPs and R-TeaNPs showed the lowest antimicrobial efficacy. This is in line with other studies, which demonstrated that size is not a primary factor affecting the antimicrobial activity of AgNPs.”
The antibacterial and antifungal properties of silver nanoparticles made with tea extracts are greater than those of silver nanoparticles alone due to their high content of phenolic compounds, isoflavonoids (especially catechins such as epigallocatechin (EGC) and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG)). These combinations, using biologically active tea extracts and smaller amounts of silver nanoparticles, appear to be a potential way to combat a range of infections and even replace antibiotics in some applications.
“We established that silver nanoparticles synthesized with tea extracts have higher antibacterial properties than silver nanoparticles alone. Therefore, lower dosages of TeaNPs could be used (0.1 mg mL−1). We confirmed that in some cases, the synergistic effect of tea extracts and silver nanoparticles allowed for efficacy higher than that of antibiotics (ampicillin) when tested at the same concentrations (0.1 mg mL−1) and after a relatively short exposure time of three hours.” – remarks Mateusz Wdowiak, co-author of this work.
The researchers found that the antimicrobial hybrid nanoparticles resulted in a significant reduction in bacteria compared to antibiotics or compounds separately. Although not all bacteria were killed, this is a significant improvement that could aid the treatment of superbugs using much lower doses than other commercially available compounds. The amount of hybrid silver nanoparticles needed to overcome bacteria or fungal infections is extremely low, making them cost-effective, so the key to using them well is not only functionality, but also the low cost of application.
It is an approach that can also be adapted to combat other difficult-to-treat bacterial infections. The new nanoparticles developed by researchers at the IPC PAS could bring us one step closer to effectively killing deadly drug-resistant superbugs, providing an alternative to antibiotics against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. This study also shows how much more work there is to be done in this field. Compounds used separately were much less effective than the green hybrid.
In the future, the researchers’ main goal is to use nanoparticles in everyday life, starting with agricultural applications, replacing harmful compounds used in fields to overcome infestations in plants and bring us closer to organic farming. On a larger scale, the proposed material could also be used in biomedical applications, such as an additive for wound dressings to protect against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. They hope to use nanotechnology to develop more targeted treatments for drug-resistant superbugs.
Their work was published in Nanoscale Advances journal and was financed by the National Science Centre, Poland, within the SONATA BIS grant number 2017/26/E/ST4/00041 and Foundation for Polish Science from the European Regional Development Fund within the project POIR.04.04.00-00-14D6/18-00 ‘Hybrid sensor platforms for integrated photonic systems based on ceramic and polymer materials (HYPHa)’ (TEAM-NET program).
This paper is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. “You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC [Royal Society of Chemistry], provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.” Or, consider it an open access paper.
Finally, this is not a recommendation not is it an endorsement for the ingestion of colloidal silver.
This news comes from the University of Edinburgh (Scotland). From an October 10, 2023 news item on phys.org, Note: A link has been removed,
Scientists have used gene editing techniques to identify and change parts of chicken DNA that could limit the spread of the bird flu virus in the animals.
Researchers were able to restrict—but not completely block—the virus from infecting chickens by altering a small section of their DNA.
The birds showed no signs that the change in their DNA had any impact on their health or well-being.
The findings are an encouraging step forward, but experts highlight that further gene edits would be needed to produce a chicken population which cannot be infected by bird flu—one of the world’s most costly animal diseases.
Scientists from University of Edinburgh, Imperial College London and the Pirbright Institute bred the chickens using gene editing techniques to alter the section of DNA responsible for producing the protein ANP32A. During an infection, flu viruses hijack this molecule to help replicate themselves.
When the ANP32A gene-edited chickens were exposed to a normal dose of the H9N2-UDL strain of avian influenza virus – commonly known as bird flu – 9 out of 10 birds remained uninfected and there was no spread to other chickens.
Partial protection
The research team then exposed the gene-edited birds to an artificially high dose of avian influenza virus to further test their resilience.
When exposed to the high dose, half of the group – 5 out of 10 birds – became infected. However, the gene edit did provide some protection, with the amount of virus in the infected gene-edited chickens much lower than the level typically seen during infection in non-gene-edited chickens.
The gene edit also helped to limit onward spread of the virus to just one of four non-gene-edited chickens placed in the same incubator. There was no transmission to gene-edited birds.
Viral evolution
Scientists found that in the ANP32A gene-edited birds, the virus had adapted to enlist the support of two related proteins – ANP32B and ANP32E – to replicate.
Following lab tests, scientists found that some of the mutations enabled the virus to utilise the human version of ANP32, but its replication remained low in cell cultures from the human airway.
Experts say that additional genetic changes would be needed for the virus to infect and spread effectively in humans.
However, the findings demonstrate that the single ANP32A gene edit is not robust enough for application in the production of chickens, according to the team.
Gene editing
Scientists from University of Edinburgh, Imperial College London and the Pirbright Institute bred the chickens using gene editing techniques to alter the section of DNA responsible for producing the protein ANP32A. During an infection, flu viruses hijack this molecule to help replicate themselves.
When the ANP32A gene-edited chickens were exposed to a normal dose of the H9N2-UDL strain of avian influenza virus – commonly known as bird flu – 9 out of 10 birds remained uninfected and there was no spread to other chickens.
Partial protection
The research team then exposed the gene-edited birds to an artificially high dose of avian influenza virus to further test their resilience.
When exposed to the high dose, half of the group – 5 out of 10 birds – became infected. However, the gene edit did provide some protection, with the amount of virus in the infected gene-edited chickens much lower than the level typically seen during infection in non-gene-edited chickens.
The gene edit also helped to limit onward spread of the virus to just one of four non-gene-edited chickens placed in the same incubator. There was no transmission to gene-edited birds.
Viral evolution
Scientists found that in the ANP32A gene-edited birds, the virus had adapted to enlist the support of two related proteins – ANP32B and ANP32E – to replicate.
Following lab tests, scientists found that some of the mutations enabled the virus to utilise the human version of ANP32, but its replication remained low in cell cultures from the human airway.
Experts say that additional genetic changes would be needed for the virus to infect and spread effectively in humans.
However, the findings demonstrate that the single ANP32A gene edit is not robust enough for application in the production of chickens, according to the team.
Further edits
To prevent the emergence of escape viruses – viruses that adapt to evade the gene edit and cause infection – the research team next targeted additional sections of DNA responsible for producing all three proteins – ANP32A, ANP32B and ANP32E – inside lab-grown chicken cells.
In cell cultures in the lab, growth of the virus was successfully blocked in cells with the three gene edits.
The next step will be to try to develop chickens with edits to all three genes. No birds have been produced yet.
The study highlights the importance of responsible gene editing and the need to be alert to the risks of driving viral evolution in unwanted directions if complete resistance is not achieved, experts say.
Bird flu is a major global threat, with a devastating impact in both farmed and wild bird populations. In the UK alone, the current outbreak of H5N1 bird flu has decimated seabird populations and cost the poultry industry more than £100 million in losses.
In rare instances, mutations in the bird flu virus allow it to infect people and cause serious illness. Efforts to control the spread of the disease are urgently needed.
“Bird flu is a great threat to bird populations. Vaccination against the virus poses a number of challenges, with significant practical and cost issues associated with vaccine deployment. Gene-editing offers a promising route towards permanent disease resistance, which could be passed down through generations, protecting poultry and reducing the risks to humans and wild birds. Our work shows that stopping the spread of avian influenza in chickens will need several simultaneous genetic changes.” Professor Mike McGrew, The study’s principal investigator, from the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute
“This work is an exciting collaboration that fuses our expertise in virology with the world-leading genetic capability at the Roslin Institute. Although we haven’t yet got the perfect combination of gene edits to take this approach into the field, the results have told us a lot about how influenza virus functions inside the infected cell and how to slow its replication.” Professor Wendy Barclay, Imperial College London
The research was funded by UKRI-BBSRC, which also provides strategic funding to The Roslin Institute, and was supported by Edinburgh Innovations, the University’s commercialisation service.
Scientists have successfully used gene editing techniques to limit the spread of bird flu in chickens.
In a UK first, researchers have been able to restrict, but not completely block, the avian influenza virus from infecting the birds by precisely altering a small section of their DNA.
The modified birds showed no signs that the change had any impact on the animals’ health or well-being.
But the researchers say that while the findings are encouraging, further gene edits would be needed to produce chickens which cannot be infected by bird flu.
The study, carried out by researchers from the University of Edinburgh, Imperial College London and the Pirbright Institute, is published in the journal Nature Communications.
Professor Wendy Barclay, Head of the Department of Infectious Disease at Imperial College London, said: “This work is an exciting collaboration that fuses our expertise in virology with the world world-leading genetic capability at the Roslin Institute.
“Although we haven’t yet got the perfect combination of gene edits to take this approach into the field, the results have told us a lot about how influenza virus functions inside the infected cell and how to slow its replication.”
Global Threat
Bird flu is a major global threat, with a devastating impact in both farmed and wild bird populations. In the UK alone, the current outbreak of H5N1 bird flu has decimated seabird populations and cost the poultry industry more than £100 million in losses.
In the latest study, researchers aimed to test whether precise edits to the chicken’s genome could potentially generate birds which are resistant to the virus.
The team bred chickens with small edits to a gene called ANP32A. During an infection, influenza viruses hijack the ANP32A protein to help replicate themselves.
But when the gene-edited birds were exposed to a normal dose of virus (the H9N2 strain of avian influenza), 9 out of 10 birds remained uninfected and there was no spread to other chickens.
When the birds were exposed to an artificially high dose of virus, only half of them became infected. The single gene edit also provided some protection against transmission, with a much lower amount of virus in infected gene-edited birds compared to non-edited birds.
In addition, the edit also helped to limit onward spread of the virus to just one of four non-edited chickens placed in the same incubator. There was no transmission to gene-edited birds.
Triple edits
Analysis revealed that in the edited birds, the virus adapted to enlist the support of two related proteins to replicate – ANP32B and ANP32E.
Following lab tests, the researchers found some of the mutations may enable the virus to utilise the human version of ANP32, but replication remained low in cell cultures from the human airway. The researchers stress that additional genetic changes would be needed for the virus to have the potential to infect and spread effectively in humans.
According to the team, the findings demonstrate that a single gene edit is not robust enough to produce resistant chickens. To prevent the emergence of viruses able to adapt to the single edit, the team next used a triple edit to target additional proteins (ANP32A, ANP32B and ANP32E) in lab-grown chicken cells.
In cell cultures in the lab, growth of the virus was successfully blocked in cells with edits to all three genes. In future, researchers hope to develop chickens with this triple edit, but no birds have been produced at this stage.
According to the researchers, the study highlights the importance of responsible gene editing and the need to be alert to the risks of driving viral evolution in unwanted directions if complete resistance is not achieved, experts say.
Professor Mike McGrew, from the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute and principal investigator of the study, said: “Bird flu is a great threat to bird populations. Vaccination against the virus poses a number of challenges, with significant practical and cost issues associated with vaccine deployment.
“Gene-editing offers a promising route towards permanent disease resistance, which could be passed down through generations, protecting poultry and reducing the risks to humans and wild birds. Our work shows that stopping the spread of avian influenza in chickens will need several simultaneous genetic changes.”
A non-gene-edited chicken (left) pictured next to an ANP32A gene-edited chicken (right). Image credit: Norrie Russell Courtesy: University of Edinburgh
There’s also an October 10, 2023 article by Jon Cohen for Science.org, which gives some idea of how much work it took to get to this point, Note: Links have been removed,
For 3 decades, Helen Sang has tinkered with the genomes of chickens to try to make the birds resistant to the flu viruses that periodically devastate flocks and raise fears of a human pandemic. Now, as an especially virulent strain of avian influenza sweeps through poultry and wild birds around the world, the geneticist at the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute has her first solid success. Using the CRISPR gene editor and recent findings about what makes poultry vulnerable to flu, Sang and colleagues from three other institutions have created chickens that can resist real-life doses of avian flu viruses. “Sticking to it gets you somewhere in the end,” she says.
The result, published today [October 5, 2023] in Nature Communications, is “a long-awaited achievement,” says Jiří Hejnar, a virologist at the Czech Academy of Sciences’s Institute of Molecular Genetics whose group showed in 2020 that CRISPR-edited chickens could resist a cancer-causing virus. But farmers won’t be raising flu-proof chickens anytime soon. The edited birds still became infected when exposed to larger amounts of the flu virus. And the strategy raises a safety concern: chickens edited this way could, in theory, drive the evolution of flu variants better at infecting people. “What this showed is a proof of concept,” says Wendy Barclay, a virologist at Imperial College London who worked on the new study. “But we’re not there yet.”
…
Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
Creating resistance to avian influenza infection through genome editing of the ANP32 gene family by Alewo Idoko-Akoh, Daniel H. Goldhill, Carol M. Sheppard, Dagmara Bialy, Jessica L. Quantrill, Ksenia Sukhova, Jonathan C. Brown, Samuel Richardson, Ciara Campbell, Lorna Taylor, Adrian Sherman, Salik Nazki, Jason S. Long, Michael A. Skinner, Holly Shelton, Helen M. Sang, Wendy S. Barclay & Mike J. McGrew. Nature Communications volume 14, Article number: 6136 (2023) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41476-3 Published: 10 October 2023
