Day :
Keynote Forum
Alberto Coelho
University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Keynote: 3D printing in chemistry: development of monolithic heterogeneous 3D-catalysts for solution phase chemistry in drug discovery

Biography:
Alberto Coelho has completed his PhD in Pharmacy from Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (2003, Spain) and Post-doctoral studies in Europe (Belgium, Italy and Portugal). He is a Member of the Instituto de Cerámica de Galicia (Spain). He has published more than 50 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of repute. His expertise is focused on Medicinal Chemistry, Drug Discovery, Catalysis and Nanomaterials.
Abstract:
The application of efficient catalytic processes instead of stoichiometric ones is a main requirement for a sustainable and environmentally friendly chemistry. Developing hybrid heterogeneous catalysts with multiple active sites, as well as designing sequential reactions using multiple catalysts in the same reaction vessel with eco-friendly conditions are ambitious challenges to achieve the objectives mentioned above. Shape and size are key aspects in the design of heterogeneous catalysts. However, integration of micro and macroscopic properties in the design of new devices and three-dimensional shape defined catalysts is an aspect barely explored so far. 3D printing technology offers the key advantage of the fabrication of three-dimensional physical objects from a digital model, taking a virtual design from computer aid design (CAD) software and its reproduction layer by layer until the physical definition of the layers gives the designed product. In addition, 3D printing can make a significant impact in the field of the chemical synthesis and catalyst manufacturing, in particular because the easy and economy which 3D-printers currently available permits a broad spectrum of materials to be printed, including solutions of comparatively low viscosity. The application of 3D-printed devices, appropriately modified on the surface, to perform complex catalytic processes such as multicatalytic multicomponent reactions (MMCRs) is a field nothing explored at all. In this work, we address the different chemical strategies for the appropriate functionalization of ceramic materials obtained by 3D-printing, as well as the combined application of these obtained 3D-monolithic catalysts, reacting cooperatively, in the development of new designed MMCRs.
- Bionanotechnology | Nanoscale materials | Nanocomposites | Nanoparticles and Nanomedicine | Emerging Nano Medicine | Computational Studies in Nanoparticles | Research and Development of Nano medicine
Location: Las Vegas

Chair
Istvan Toth
The University of Queensland, Australia

Co-Chair
Jordi Arbiol
Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Spain
Session Introduction
Long-ping Wen
South China University of Technology, China
Title: Exploiting nanomaterial-induced pro-survival autophagy for cancer therapy
Biography:
Long-ping Wen has graduated from Xiamen University in 1982 (BS) and obtained his PhD from University of California, Los Angeles, USA in 1988. He has over 30 years of experience in Biomedical Research at various Academic Institutions in the USA, Singapore and China. He is currently a Full Professor at South China University of Technology, with a research interest focusing on Nanobiology and Nanomedicine. He has published over 100 papers, including 51 corresponding author papers during the past 10 years, in the various Sci journals such as Nature Biotechnology and Nature Materials.
Abstract:
Autophagy, a key cellular degradation process, is a common response of cells upon exposure to nanomaterials. A variety of nanomaterials, including carbon, metal, and rare earth oxide nanoparticles, have been demonstrated to induce elevated level of autophagy in different cell types. Autophagy induced by nanomaterials may be either pro-survival or pro-death, and the different fate on the affected cell can be differentially exploited to enhance cancer therapy. In this talk, I will focus on the pro-survival aspect of the autophagy induced by namomaterials and how it may be exploited for cancer therapy. First, I will summarize our published work on silver nanoparticle-induced autophagy, its pro-survival nature and the enhanced therapeutic efficacy upon its inhibition. Then I will present our recent unpublished work on cancer photothermal therapy (PTT) facilitated by a type of CuPd tetrapod nanoparticles (CuPd TNPs-1). These unique nanoparticles exhibited superior NIR-assisted photothermal conversion efficiency and induced pro-survival autophagy in a shape- and composition-dependent manner. Inhibition of autophagy with the autophagy inhibitor 3-methyl adenine (3-MA) had a remarkable synergistic effect on the anti-cancer efficacy of CuPd TNPs-1-mediated PTT both in triple-negative (4T1) and drug-resistant (MCF7/MDR) breast cancer models, as it helped to achieve a level of efficacy unattainable with CuPd TNPs-2, the similarly shaped alloy nanoparticle that had a higher photothermal conversion efficiency but no autophagy-inducing activity. This work provided a proof-of-concept for a novel chemo-PTT strategy, in which traditional chemotherapeutic agents are replaced by autophagy inhibitors. This strategy is applicable to any PTT-ready nanomaterial with the capability of inducing pro-survival autophagy and should be particularly useful for eradicating drug-resistant cancer.
Shuhua Bai
Husson University, United States
Title: Exosome nanovesicles for the homing delivery of therapeutics into autologous cancer cells
Biography:
Shuhua Bai has obtained his PhD from the School of Pharmacy, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. He is an Associate Professor in the School of Pharmacy, Husson University. He has had more than 16-years of research experience on the Nanoparticle-based drug delivery and development. He has published more than 30 research papers in reputed journals. He recently received the 2017 Pharmaceutical Research Meritorious Manuscript Award, presented by the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS).
Abstract:
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are naturally occurring membrane particles that mediate intercellular communication by delivering molecular information between cells. In this study, we propose to package therapeutics agents in endogenous nanovesicles, known as exosomes, derived from cancer cells. It is expected that autologous cancer cell-derived exosomes can be taken by cancer cells themselves via homing selectivity and bring the entire payload to the autologous tumor cells. Exosomes were isolated from human adenocarcinoma A549 and brain endothelial bEND.3 cell cultures using centrifugation. They presented nanosized vesicles measured by a nanosizing system. Fluorescent rhodamine 123 and anticancer drugs including paclitaxel and doxorubicin were incorporated into exosome nanoparticles by diffusion. Designed siRNA to inhibit Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 (ICAM-1) was loaded into exosome with the assistance of transfection reagent. Fluorescence intensity in the cells treated with autologous cell-derived exosome delivered markers was significantly increased. Exosome-delivered anticancer drugs significantly decreased cell viability in autologous cells compared to other exosomes. Exosome-delivered siRNAs significantly enhanced the knockdown efficacy compared to siRNA alone, dependent on exosome original sources and loading methods. ICAM-1 siRNA formulated in autologous lung cell-derived exosomes with the assistance of transfection agent showed the best inhibitory effect on the ICAM-1 expression compared to other treatments. Cancer cell-derived exosomes could be used as effective carriers, bringing therapeutic agents into the cells and increasing efficacy to their parental cells. The use of cancer cell-derived exosomes will be further investigated for individualized and targeted lung cancer therapy.
Biography:
Amparo Verdu Solis holds a University Degree in Industrial Chemistry by the Polytechnic University of Valencia and Master’s in Plastics and Rubber Materials. For 10 years, she developed her career as Researcher in AIMPLAS, Plastics Technology Centre. Currently, she is the R&D Project Manager of Bioinicia, SL, experts in Nanotechnology and Electro-Hydro Dynamic Processing. She has collaborated as an Expert Member in the European Committee for Standardization CEN/TC 249/WG 7/TG one Biodegradable mulch films. Now, she is involved in SBIOC Spanish BioCluster as President of the Cluster.
Abstract:
Nanocomposites have special physical and chemical properties and an array of potential applications, in particular they can be used to adapt surface properties and introduce additional functionalities. Performance of nanocomposites depends on a number of parameters, but nanoparticles dispersion and distribution state remain the key challenge in order to obtain the full nanocomposites’ potential. Optinanopro project has worked to demonstrate the benefits of the introduction of nanotechnology into packaging, automotive and photovoltaic materials production lines. Special mention to the development and industrial integration of electrospray nano-deposition, online dispersion and monitoring system to ensure a constant quality of produced nanocomposites. Nano-enhanced coating has been applied by electrospinning, a phenomenon that occurs when an appropriate electric field is applied to a conductive solution. Electrospinning technology has been used to obtain both self-cleaning OPVs and product repellent surfaces (with tailored repellence to selected liquids) for easy emptying packaging. Bioinicia has achieved materials with tailored polarity including super hydrophobic properties but also amphiphobic ones, a quite peculiar behavior that is much less reported in the literature. In the case of OPV surfaces, hydrophobicity will allow the panels to self-clean from dirty rain, whereas the same effect will allow facilitating the emptying and therefore reduce leftover at end of life in case of polar liquids/pastes being packaged (e.g. oil in water emulsions for cosmetics). The process required a novel multistep approach that has been patented by Bioinicia on how to use electro-hydrodynamic processes for obtaining stable layers with target characteristics.
Sallahuddin Panhwar
University of Engineering & Technology, Pakistan
Title: Gold nanoparticles based electrochemical biosensor for the detection of Escherichia coli ATCC 25922
Biography:
Sallahuddin Panhwar is a PhD Student of US-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Water (USPCAS-W) at Mehran Univeristy of Enineering & Technology Jamshoro, Pakistan. Currently he is exchnage visiting scholar at the Univerosty of Utah, U.S.A. He has published more than 8 research papers in reputed journals and attended national and international conferences.
Abstract:
The aim of this study was to develop a simple electrochemical sensor for detection of (E.coli 25922) from water using gold nanoparticles. The water security and microbiological defense applications are globally concerns because of accuracy in the results and time saving technology. The traditional detection method of bacteria is requiring more time for the results. The biosensor reduce the detection time from 2 to 3 days to less than one hour with a simple identification method. The detection of pathogenic bacteria (E.coli 25922) is pivotal to public health for the water and food security. The electrochemical detection is applied for the detection of E. coli. However, in resulting the lowest bacterial concentration was weekly at 1 x 101 CFU/ml and the strongly on 1 x 106 CFU/ml. The electrochemical signal was increased with the increasing concentration of E. Cali. These results confirmed that the AuNPs-GCE is an effective approach to highly sensitive detection for the E.coli.
- Nanoscale materials | Sustainable (or) Green nanotechnology | Nanofabrication | Nanocomposites | Smart nanotechnology | Sustainable (or) Green nanotechnology | Toxicology of Nanoparticles | Research and development of Nano Medicine | Polymer Nanoparticles and Nano Medicine | Nano Particles and Nano Medicine
Location: Las Vegas

Chair
Xudong Huang
Harvard Medical School, USA

Co-Chair
Toyoko Imae
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
Session Introduction
Nicky Thomas
University of South Australia, Australia
Title: A Trojan horse strategy for the delivery of biologicals for your consideration
Biography:
Nicky Thomas is an NHMRC Research Fellow at the School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, University of South Australia and is working in the Professor Clive Prestige’s group. He is a trained Pharmacist with several years of experience in both hospital and community pharmacies. In 2012, he has been awarded his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Otago, New Zealand. His PhD research was concerned with the development and in vitro and in vivo characterization of nano emulsions for drug delivery. He has joined UniSA in 2012 to work on novel treatments against bacterial biofilms. Building on his expertise in nanomedicine-based drug delivery systems he has been awarded an NHMRC Early Career Researcher Fellowship in 2014 for the investigation on the interaction of antimicrobial therapies with bacterial biofilms. In 2017, he established the Adelaide Biofilm Test Facility at UniSA’s Sansom Institute for Health Research, SA’s first facility dedicated to test antimicrobials and pharmaceutical products in a range of in vitro and in vivo biofilm models. His main area of research is anti-infective treatment options against biofilms; oral drug delivery and lipid-based drug delivery.
Abstract:
Background: Glycoside hydrolases have emerged as potent, novel therapeutics that can disrupt biofilms, thereby increasing the susceptibility of the residing bacteria to co-administered antibiotics. The broader clinical use of glycoside hydrolases such as alginate lyase (AL) is limited due to challenges in maintaining enzyme stability, adequate delivery and release of the enzyme at the site of infection. Herein, we present a Trojan horse carrier for AL using environment-sensing lyotropic liquid crystalline gels (LLC).
Aim: The aim of this study was to design a LLC-gel carrier based on the lipid glycerol monooleate to protect, deliver and release AL in combination with the antibiotic gentamicin (GENT) as a novel anti-biofilm strategy.
Methods: The effect of Pseudomonas lipase on the release of AL/GENT from LLC-gels was evaluated and the efficacy of the gel was determined over 1 week in vitro against biofilms formed by alginate producing P. aeruginosa (clinical isolate) and compared to an unformulated simple drug solution. Finally, the stability of AL after fabrication of the LLC gel was assessed.
Results: GENT and AL were released at different rates and extent from the LLC-gels (10% AL over nine days; 60% GENT over two days, respectively). Addition of Pseudomonas lipase increased AL release >2-fold (20-30% within two days). The LLC-gel demonstrated similar anti-biofilm activity (2.5 log reduction in CFU) compared to unformulated solution, confirming preservation of AL activity in the LLC-gels. Interestingly the antimicrobial effect could not be sustained over extended period (>2 days) which was attributed to a gradual loss of AL activity from prolonged exposure to 37oC during the assay, rather than short exposure to higher temperatures (60oC) during LLC-gel fabrication.
Summary: LLC gels present a promising Trojan horse strategy to conceal and protect biologicals such as glycoside hydrolase. The ability of infection-triggered release provides potential as a future site-specific anti-biofilm therapeutic system.
Muhammad Yasir Ali
Philipps University Marburg, Germany
Title: Aptamer modified PLGA Nanoparticles for the site specific Tumor Targeting of Sorafenib
Biography:
Muhammad Yasir Ali has done masters in Pharmaceutics from The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan and was working in GC University Faisalabad, Pakistan in Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Currently, he is doing his PhD at the Philipps University Marburg, Germany.
Abstract:
Targeting ErbB receptors has become a popular tool for drug delivery to overcome the downstream cytoplasmic signaling mechanisms. The cascade of these reactions, RAS-MAPK and PI3K-Akt are responsible for cell proliferation and anti-apoptotic ways of cell growth and resistance to already approved antibody and drug therapies against these receptors. Among other approaches of cell targeting, use of aptamers has become one of the major choices because of their selective targeting and low immunogenicity. Aptamer can easily be synthesized chemically. The current project involved the use of Sorafenib loaded biodegradable PLGA nanoparticles prepared by solvent evaporation method. The surface of these particles was coupled with aptamer (aH3) against ErbB3 using EDC/NHS. For physico-chemical characterization, particls size, zeta potential and shape was determined before and after the surface modification. Antiproliferation assay was conducted using ErbB3 positive MDA-MB-231 and ErbB3 negative SKOV-3 cell lines. Cell migration and displacement was checked by scratch test and agarose gel method, using EGFR and NRG1 as positive control. Cellular uptake studies were evaluated using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). A decrease in cell viability was observed after incubation with aptamer modified nanoparticles in case of MDA-MB-231 cells. The opposite was observed in SK-OV-3 cells due to he absence of ErbB3 receptors. Scratch tests performed with modified nanopartciles revealed a change in the migration pattern of the cells depending upon the presence of absence of the ErbB3 receptors. CLSM results showed the receptor mediated intracellular uptake of nanoparticles. It was thus obvious from the results that the specificity of aptamer can be used for targeted drug delivery.
Arend L Mapanawang
Yayasan Medika Mandiri Foundation, Indonesia
Title: Chemical bonding characters of love herbal medicine
Biography:
Arend L Mapanawang has completed his PhD from Department of Pharmacy, College of Health Sciences, Yayasan Medika Mandiri Foundation, Halmahera, Indonesia. He is the Director of College of Health Sciences (STIKES Halmahera), Medika Mandiri Foundation, Halmahera, Indonesia. He is the Head of Internal Medicine Departement of Bethesda Hospital in Tobelo North Halmahera, North Moluccas.
Abstract:
Anti-oxidant with a very high concentration of IC50=6.54ng/ml extracted from Golobe halmahera (Zingiberaceae) fruit had made this local fruit a very good candidate for improving human health. Based on this finding, a medicine named as love herbal had been fabricated with a multitasking healing in human body problems. In order to analyze the physical working system of this medicine, one investigated the optical properties of it by using chemical bonding spectroscopy method. We obtain that such medicine has optical uniqueness behaviors which might be closely associated with multitasking healing of human body problems, for example in improving antibody protection of human body from cancer diseases as well as the health of heart and liver. The main indicator associated with that was from a small C-F bonding peak at 1360cm-1 contributed by love herbal related to the C-H bonding. Moreover, the presence of love herbal in tap water mixed with betadine created a higher peak of C