Publications

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder caused by the body's inability to produce or use insulin. Considering the figures projected by the World Health Organization, research on insulin therapy is crucial. Hence, we present a soft biointerface based on a thiol-yne poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) click-hydrogel as an advanced treatment option to administrate insulin. Most importantly, the device is rendered electroactive by incorporating biocompatible poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) nanoparticles (PEDOT NPs) as conductive moieties to precisely control the release of insulin over an extended period through electrochemical stimulation (ES). The device has been carefully optimized on account of: (i) the main interactions established between PEDOT- and PEG-based moieties, which have been studied by density functional theory calculations, and reveal the choice of 4-arm PEG precursors as most suitable cross-linkers; and (ii) the concentration of PEDOT NPs in the device, which has been determined considering minimal interference with the gelation process, as well as the resulting morphological, mechanical, electrochemical, and cytocompatible properties of the PEG-based click-hydrogels. Finally, the management over insulin delivery through ES is verified in vitro, with released insulin being detected by high-performance liquid chromatography. Overall, our hydrogel-based device establishes a method for controlled insulin delivery with the potential for translation to other relevant bioelectronic applications.

JTD Keywords: Bioelectronic, Chemistry, Disease, Electroactive click-hydrogel, Energ, Insulin delivery, Pedot nanoparticles, Thiol-yne nucleophilicaddition

Although we have learned much about how the brain fuels its functions over the last decades, there remains much still to discover in an organ that is so complex. This article lays out major gaps in our knowledge of interrelationships between brain metabolism and brain function, including biochemical, cellular, and subcellular aspects of functional metabolism and its imaging in adult brain, as well as during development, aging, and disease. The focus is on unknowns in metabolism of major brain substrates and associated transporters, the roles of insulin and of lipid droplets, the emerging role of metabolism in microglia, mysteries about the major brain cofactor and signaling molecule NAD+, as well as unsolved problems underlying brain metabolism in pathologies such as traumatic brain injury, epilepsy, and metabolic downregulation during hibernation. It describes our current level of understanding of these facets of brain energy metabolism as well as a roadmap for future research. This article details current knowledge and major unknowns in brain energy metabolism and lays out a roadmap for future research.image

JTD Keywords: Acetate, Acetyl-coa, Aerobic glycolysis, Atp-citrate lyase, Extracellular glutamate concentration, Fatty-acid transport, Glucose-metabolism, Glut4, In-vivo, Insulin, Lipid droplet accumulation, Nicotinamide adenine-dinucleotide, Noradrenaline, Obese zucker rats, Rat cerebral-cortex

Alzheimer's disease and Type 2 diabetes are pathological processes associated to ageing. Moreover, there are evidences supporting a mechanistic link between Alzheimer's disease and insulin resistance (one of the first hallmarks of Type 2 diabetes). Regarding Alzheimer's disease, amyloid beta-peptide aggregation into beta-sheets is the main hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. At monomeric state, amyloid beta-peptide is not toxic but its function in brain, if any, is unknown. Here we show, by in silico study, that monomeric amyloid beta-peptide 1-40 shares the tertiary structure with insulin and is thereby able to bind and activate insulin receptor. We validated this prediction experimentally by treating human neuroblastoma cells with increasing concentrations of monomeric amyloid. beta-peptide 1-40. Our results confirm that monomeric amyloid beta-peptide 1-40 activates insulin receptor autophosphorylation, triggering downstream enzyme phosphorylarions and the glucose Transporter 4 translocation to the membrane. On the other hand, neuronal insulin resistance is known to be associated to Alzheimer's disease since early stages. We thus modelled the docking of oligomeric amyloid peptide 1-40 to insulin receptor. We found that oligomeric amyloid. beta-peptide 1-40 blocks insulin receptor, impairing its activation. It was confirmed in vitro by observing the lack of insulin receptor autophosphorylation, and also the impairment of insulin-induced intracellular enzyme activations and the glucose Transporter 4 translocation to the membrane. By biological system analysis, we have carried out a mathematical model recapitulating the process that turns amyloid beta-peptide binding to insulin receptor from the physiological to the pathophysiological regime. Our results suggest that monomeric amyloid beta-peptide 1-40 contributes to mimic insulin effects in the brain, which could be good when neurons have an extra requirement of energy beside the well-known protective effects on insulin intracellular signalling, while its accumulation and subsequent oligomerization blocks the insulin receptor producing insulin resistance and compromising neuronal metabolism and protective pathways.

JTD Keywords: akt, alzheimer’s disease, amyloid β-peptide, insulin, A-beta, Aggregation, Akt, Alzheimer's disease, Alzheimers-disease, Amyloid beta-peptide, Brain, Design, Insulin, Insulin resistance, Precursor protein, Protein-protein docking, Receptor, Resistance, Site

Type 1 Diabetes results from autoimmune response elicited against β-cell antigens. Nowadays, insulin injections remain the leading therapeutic option. However, injection treatment fails to emulate the highly dynamic insulin release that β-cells provide. 3D cell-laden microspheres have been proposed during the last years as a major platform for bioengineering insulin-secreting constructs for tissue graft implantation and a model for in vitro drug screening platforms. Current microsphere fabrication technologies have several drawbacks: the need for an oil phase containing surfactants, diameter inconsistency of the microspheres, and high time-consuming processes. These technologies have widely used alginate for its rapid gelation, high processability, and low cost. However, its low biocompatible properties do not provide effective cell attachment. This study proposes a high-throughput methodology using a 3D bioprinter that employs an ECM-like microenvironment for effective cell-laden microsphere production to overcome these limitations. Crosslinking the resulting microspheres with tannic acid prevents collagenase degradation and enhances spherical structural consistency while allowing the diffusion of nutrients and oxygen. The approach allows customization of microsphere diameter with extremely low variability. In conclusion, a novel bio-printing procedure is developed to fabricate large amounts of reproducible microspheres capable of secreting insulin in response to extracellular glucose stimuli.© 2022 The Authors. Advanced Materials Technologies published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH.

JTD Keywords: 3d bioprinter, beta-cell, biomaterial, collagen, encapsulation, mechanics, microspheres, survival, 3d bioprinter, ?-cell, Advanced material technologies, Biocompatibility, Cell encapsulations, Cells, Collagen, Cross-linking, Cytology, Drug delivery, Encapsulation, Fabrication, Flavonoids, Gelation, In-vitro, Insulin injections, Insulin release, Microspheres, Tannic acid, Tannins, Throughput, Tissue grafts, Type 1 diabetes, Β‐cell

In vitro research for the study of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is frequently limited by the availability of a functional model for islets of Langerhans. To overcome the limitations of obtaining pancreatic islets from different sources, such as animal models or human donors, immortalized cell lines as the insulin-producing INS1E beta-cells have appeared as a valid alternative to model insulin-related diseases. However, immortalized cell lines are mainly used in flat surfaces or monolayer distributions, not resembling the spheroid-like architecture of the pancreatic islets. To generate islet-like structures, the use of scaffolds appeared as a valid tool to promote cell aggregations. Traditionally-used hydrogel encapsulation methods do not accomplish all the requisites for pancreatic tissue engineering, as its poor nutrient and oxygen diffusion induces cell death. Here, we use cryogelation technology to develop a more resemblance scaffold with the mechanical and physical properties needed to engineer pancreatic tissue. This study shows that carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) cryogels prompted cells to generate beta-cell clusters in comparison to gelatin-based scaffolds, that did not induce this cell organization. Moreover, the high porosity achieved with CMC cryogels allowed us to create specific range pseudoislets. Pseudoislets formed within CMC-scaffolds showed cell viability for up to 7 d and a better response to glucose over conventional monolayer cultures. Overall, our results demonstrate that CMC-scaffolds can be used to control the organization and function of insulin-producing beta-cells, representing a suitable technique to generate beta-cell clusters to study pancreatic islet function.

JTD Keywords: biomaterial, cryogel, pancreatic islets, scaffold, tissue engineering, ?-cell, Architecture, Beta-cell, Beta-cell heterogeneity, Biomaterial, Carboxymethyl cellulose, Cell culture, Cell death, Cell engineering, Cell organization, Cells, Cellulose, Cryogel, Cryogels, Cytoarchitecture, Delivery, Encapsulation methods, Gelation, Gene-expression, Immortalized cells, Insulin, Insulin secretory responses, Islets of langerhans, Mechanical and physical properties, Monolayer culture, Monolayers, Pancreatic islets, Pancreatic tissue, Pancreatic-islets, Proliferation, Scaffold, Scaffolds, Scaffolds (biology), Size, Tissue, Tissue engineering, Β-cell

Organ-on-a-chip (OOC) devices offer new approaches for metabolic disease modeling and drug discovery by providing biologically relevant models of tissues and organs in vitro with a high degree of control over experimental variables for high-content screening applications. Yet, to fully exploit the potential of these platforms, there is a need to interface them with integrated non-labeled sensing modules, capable of monitoring, in situ, their biochemical response to external stimuli, such as stress or drugs. In order to meet this need, we aim here to develop an integrated technology based on coupling a localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) sensing module to an OOC device to monitor the insulin in situ secretion in pancreatic islets, a key physiological event that is usually perturbed in metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes (T2D). As a proof of concept, we developed a biomimetic islet-on-a-chip (IOC) device composed of mouse pancreatic islets hosted in a cellulose-based scaffold as a novel approach. The IOC was interfaced with a state-of-the-art on-chip LSPR sensing platform to monitor the in situ insulin secretion. The developed platform offers a powerful tool to enable the in situ response study of microtissues to external stimuli for applications such as a drug-screening platform for human models, bypassing animal testing.

JTD Keywords: biosensor, cytoarchitecture, dna hybridization, gelatin, in situ insulin monitoring, langerhans, lspr sensors, microfluidic device, organ-on-a-chip, parallel, platform, scaffold, Animals, Biosensing techniques, Diabetes mellitus, type 2, Drug discovery, Drug evaluation, preclinical, Human pancreatic-islets, Humans, In situ insulin monitoring, Insulin secretion, Insulins, Lab-on-a-chip devices, Lspr sensors, Oligonucleotide array sequence analysis, Organ-on-a-chip, Surface plasmon resonance

Aim: Explore the use of polymeric micelles in the development of powders intended for pulmonary delivery of biopharmaceuticals, using insulin as a model protein. Materials & methods: Formulations were assessed in vitro for aerosolization properties and in vivo for efficacy and safety using a streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat model. Results: Powders presented good aerosolization properties like fine particle fraction superior to 40% and a mass median aerodynamic diameter inferior of 6 μm. Endotracheally instilled powders have shown a faster onset of action than subcutaneous administration of insulin at a dose of 10 IU/kg, with pharmacological availabilities up to 32.5% of those achieved by subcutaneous route. Additionally, micelles improved the hypoglycemic effect of insulin. Bronchoalveolar lavage screening for toxicity markers (e.g., lactate dehydrogenase, cytokines) revealed no signs of lung inflammation and cytotoxicity 14 days postadministration. Conclusion: Developed powders showed promising safety and efficacy characteristics for the systemic delivery of insulin by pulmonary administration.

JTD Keywords: Fine particle fraction, Inhalation, Insulin, In vivo, Pharmacological availability, Polymeric micelles, Pulmonary toxicity

Abstract Nanocomposite powders composed by polymeric micelles as vehicles for delivery proteins were developed in this work, using insulin as model protein. Results showed that size and polydispersity of micelles were dependent on the amphiphilic polymer used, being all lower than 300 nm, while all the formulations displayed spherical shape and surface charge close to neutrality. Percentages of association efficiency and loading capacity up to 94.15 ± 3.92 and 8.56 ± 0.36, respectively, were obtained. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements confirmed that insulin was partially present at the hydrophilic shell of the micelles. Lyophilization did not significantly change the physical characteristics of micelles, further providing easily dispersion when in contact to aqueous medium. The native-like conformation of insulin was maintained at high percentages (around 80%) after lyophilization as indicated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and far-UV circular dichroism (CD). Moreover, Raman spectroscopy did not evidenced significant interactions among the formulation components. The formulations shown to be physically stable upon storage up to 6 months both at room-temperature (20 C) and fridge (4 C), with only a slight loss (maximum of 15%) of the secondary structure of the protein. Among the polymers tested, Pluronic® F127 produced the carrier formulations more promising for delivery of proteins.

JTD Keywords: Amphiphilic polymers, Insulin, Lyophilization, Polymeric micelles, Stability

Background aims. Diabetes type I is an autoimmune disease characterized by the destruction of pancreatic insulin-producing (beta-) cells and resulting in external insulin dependence for life. Islet transplantation represents a potential treatment for diabetes but there is currently a shortage of suitable organs donors. To augment the supply of donors, different strategies are required to provide a potential source of beta-cells. These sources include embryonic and adult stem cells as well as differentiated cell types. The main goal of this study was to induce the transdifferentiation (or conversion of one type cell to another) of human hepatoma cells (HepG2 cells) to insulin-expressing cells based on the exposure of HepG2 cells to an extract of rat insulinoma cells (RIN). Methods. HepG2 cells were first transiently permeabilized with Streptolysin O and then exposed to a cell extract obtained from RIN cells. Following transient exposure to the RIN extract, the HepG2 cells were cultured for 3 weeks. Results. Acquisition of the insulin-producing cell phenotype was determined on the basis of (i) morphologic and (ii) ultrastructural observations, (iii) immunologic detection and (iv) reverse transcription (RT)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis. Conclusions. This study supports the use of cell extract as a feasible method for achieve transdifferentiation of hepatic cells to insulin-producing cells.

JTD Keywords: Beta-cells, Diabetes, Insulin-producing cells, Transdifferentiation