Fundo Europeu De Desenvolvimento Regional Research Articles

Current and Future Trends of Silk Fibroin-Based Bioinks In 3D Printing

Journal of 3D Printing in MedicineVol. 4, No. 2 EditorialCurrent and future trends of silk fibroin-based bioinks in 3D printingJoaquim M OliveiraJoaquim M Oliveira *Author for correspondence: Tel.: +351 253 510 931; Fax: +351 253 510 909; E-mail Address: miguel.oliveira@i3bs.uminho.pthttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-7052-88373B’s Research Group, I3Bs – Research Institute on Biomaterials, Biodegradables & Biomimetics, University of Minho, Headquarters of The European Institute of Excellence on Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine, AvePark, Zona Industrial da Gandra, 4805-017 Barco GMR, PortugalICVS/3B’s - PT Government Associate Laboratory, Braga/Guimaraes, PortugalSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:9 Jul 2020https://doi.org/10.2217/3dp-2020-0005AboutSectionsView ArticleView Full TextPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInReddit View articleKeywords: 3D printingbioinkenzymatic cross-linkingsilk fibrointissue engineering

Nucleolin-SLe <sup>A</sup> Glycoforms as E-Selectin Ligands and Potentially Targetable Biomarkers at the Cell Surface of Gastric Cancer Cells

Gastric cancer (GC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, with half of patients developing metastases within 5 years after treatment, urging the need for novel biomarkers for diagnosis and more efficient therapeutic targeting. The sialyl-Lewis A (SLeA) antigen, a terminal glycoepitope of glycoproteins and glycolipids, offers tremendous potential towards this objective. This glycan is rarely expressed by healthy tissues and blood cells but is often present in cancer cells of high metastatic potential, as well as in the metastases. The SLeA antigen is also directly involved in E-selectin mediated metastasis, making it an ideal target to control disease dissemination. To improve further on cancer specificity, we have zoomed in on the SLeA-glycoproteome of six distinct GC cell models. Emphasis was set on glycoproteins showing affinity for E-selectin. A bioinformatics-assisted algorithm, used for the first time in this study, identified nucleolin (NCL), a nuclear protein frequently observed at the cell-surface in cancer cells, as a potential targetable biomarker potentially involved in metastasis development. Several immunoassays, including western blot and in situ proximity ligation reinforced the existence of NCL-SLeA glycoforms at the cancer cells surface and in GC. The NCL-SLeA glycophenotype was associated with decreased survival and was not reflected in relevant healthy tissues, supporting its tremendous potential for precise cancer targeting with limited off-target effects. To our knowledge, this is also the first report describing SLeA in a protein preferentially found in the nucleus, setting a new paradigm for cancer biomarkers discovery and targeted therapies. Funding Statement: Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for the human resources grants: PhD grant BD/103571/2014 (EF), SFRH/BD/111242/2015 (AP), SFRH/BD/146500/2019 (MRS), SFRH/BD/142479/2018 (JS), SFRH/BD/105355/2014 (RA), SFRH/BD/127327/2016 (CG); and FCT assistant researcher grant CEECIND/03186/2017 (JAF). FCT is co-financed by European Social Fund (ESF) under Human Potential Operation Programme (POPH) from National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF). The authors also acknowledge FCT the funding for CI-IPOP research unit (PEst-OE/SAU/UI0776/201), the Portuguese Oncology of Porto Research Centre (CI-IPOP-29-2014; CI-IPOP-58-2015; CI-IPOPProj.70-bolsa2019-GPTE) and PhD Programs in Biomedical and Pathology and Molecular Genetics of ICBAS-University of Porto. The authors EF, DF and MRS also acknowledge the financial support of the Research Group of Digestive Cancers (GICD) and the “Early stage cancer treatment, driven by context of molecular imaging (ESTIMA)” framework (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000027), IPO-Score (DSAIPA/DS/0042/2018) and “Towards a single therapy with a synergistic combination against triple negative breast cancer and neuroblastoma by nucleolin mediated multicellular targeting” (EU joint call ENMed/0006/2015) for financial support. This article is also a result of the project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000012, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This work was financed by FEDER - Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional funds through the COMPETE 2020 - Operacional Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Portugal 2020, and by Portuguese funds through FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia/Ministerio da Ciencia, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior in the framework of the project Institute for Research and Innovation in Health Sciences (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007274). Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interests. Ethics Approval Statement: All procedures concerning the inclusion of patients were approved by the institutional Ethics Committee after patient’s informed consent.

Electrochemical Aptasensor Array for Multiple Detection of Human Osteopontin

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 and from project ref. RECI/BBB-EBI/ 0179/2012 (project number FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462). This work was also financially supported by Project POCI-01–0145-FEDER-006984 – Associate Laboratory LSRE-LCM and by Project UID/QUI/00616/2013 – CQ-VR, both funded by FEDER - Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional through COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizacao (POCI) – and by national funds through FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, Portugal. S. Meirinho also acknowledges the doctoral grant (ref SFRH/BD/65021/2009) funded by FCT.

Influence of fining agents on the sensorial characteristics and volatile composition of mead

A. Pascoal would like to thank Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT), Programa Operacional Pontencial Humano and European Union for his postdoctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/91380/2012). The authors are grateful to FCT, Portugal and Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) under Programme PT2020 for financial support to Centro de Investigacao de Montanha (CIMO) (UID/AGR/00690/2013). This work was supported by the strategic programme UID/BIA/04050/2013 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007569) funded by national funds through the FCT I.P. and by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the COMPETE2020 – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizacao.

Synthesis of Dehydrodipeptide and N-ethyl-dehydrodipeptide Derivatives with an α-Aminoisobutyric Acid Residue

Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) – Portugal and Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) for financial support to Chemistry Centre of University of Minho. The NMR spectrometer Bruker Avance II+ 400 is part of the National NMR Network and was purchased in the framework of the National Program for Scientific Re-equipment; contract REDE/1517/RMN/2005, with funds from POCI 2010, FEDER and FCT.

Effect of Ionic Liquid Anion Type in the Performance of Solid Polymer Electrolytes Based on Poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene)

Solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) or ionic conductors were proposed by Gray in 1997 and are typically composed by polymer with salts in its constitution, finding applications in the areas of batteries, sensors/actuators and supercapacitors, among others. Recently, salts have been substituted by ionic liquid (ILs) due to their excellent properties, including high ionic conductivity (~10-3 – 10-2 S.cm-1), almost null volatility, null flammability, thermal stability, wide electrochemical windows (~4-6 V) and being environmental friendly [1-2].The excellent properties of poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene), P(VDF-TrFE), as solid polymer electrolyte with (N,N,N-trimethyl-N-(2-hydroxyethyl)ammonium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, [N111 2(OH)][NTf2] where demonstrated in [3], where the addition of the ILs affects the microstructure, thermal stability and ionic conductivity of the polymer membrane.In this work, the effect of different anions within the ionic liquid for the development of SPE based on P(VDF-TrFE) has been investigated. 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate, [C2mim][OAc], 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium triflate, [C2mim][(CF3SO3)3], 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium lactate, [C2mim][Lactate], 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium thiocyanate, [C2mim][SNC] and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium hydrogen sulphate [C2mim][HSO4] have been used for this purpose and the SPE were prepared by thermaly induced phase separation (TIPS). The thermal and electrical properties of the SPE strongly depend on the selected IL through their different interactions with the polymer matrix. The room temperature ionic conductivity increasing in the following way for the different anions: [SNC] > [CF3SO3)3] > [HSO4] > [Lactate] > [OAc]. Acknowledgments This work was supported by FEDER through the COMPETE Program and by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Project PEST-C/FIS/UI607/2011, PEST-C/QUI/UI0686/2013, PEST-OE/EQB/LA0004/2011, and grants SFRH/BD/68499/2010 (C.M.C.) and SRFH/BD/90366/2012 (R.L.). The authors also thank funding from Matepro –Optimizing Materials and Processes”, ref. NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000037”, co-funded by the “Programa Operacional Regional do Norte” (ON.2 – O Novo Norte), under the “Quadro de Referência Estratégico Nacional” (QREN), through the “Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional” (FEDER). The authors thank Solvay for kindly supplying the high quality materials.

Electroactive Polymer Based Porous Membranes for Energy Storage Applications

The market of portable batteries will reach $30.5 billion dollars in 2015 with an annual growth rate of 8.5% [1]. This growth is interconnected with advances of the portable electronic products (mobile-phones, computers) and with the development of new products such as e-labels, e-packaging, disposable medical testers and drug delivery patches.Wide ranges of materials properties for cathode, anode and battery separator/electrolyte are being developments for improving characteristics and performance of the battery.The battery separator is essential in electrochemical cells, separating the anode and cathode and controling the number and mobility of the lithium ions.Among the materials most investigated for battery separators are the PVDF and its copolymers poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene), PVDF-TrFE, poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene), PVDF-HFP, and poly(vinylidene fluoride-cochlorotrifluoroethylene),PVDF-CTFE [2].These materials show strong advantages for their use as separator membranes in comparison to polyolefins due to their high dipolar moment and large dielectric constant for a polymer material, which can assist ionization of lithium salts.In this work, PVDF and its copolymers have been processed by solvent cast technique with varying solvent evaporation temperature and the polymer/solvent ratio with the objective to tailor degree of porosity, mechanical, thermal and electrical properties.Degree of porosity, uptake, tortuosity, degree of crystallinity and ionic conductivity of the different membranes are evaluated and their influence in lithium-ion battery performance presented and discussed. Acknowledgments This work is funded by FEDER funds through the “Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade—COMPETE” and by national funds from FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, in the framework of the Strategic Project PEST-C/FIS/UI607/2011, project F-COMP-01-0124-FEDER-022716 and grant SFRH/BD/68499/2010 (C.M.C.). The authors also thank funding from Matepro –Optimizing Materials and Processes”, ref. NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000037”, co-funded by the “Programa Operacional Regional do Norte” (ON.2 – O Novo Norte), under the “Quadro de Referência Estratégico Nacional” (QREN), through the “Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional” (FEDER).The authors thank Celgard LLC, Timcal, Solvay, Arkema and Clariant for kindly supplying their high quality membranes and excellent materials, respectively.

Synthesis of N-alkyl-Cα,α-dimethylglycine derivatives

Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) – Portugal and Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) for financial support to Chemistry Centre of University of Minho. The NMR spectrometer Bruker Avance II+ 400 is part of the National NMR Network and was purchased in the framework of the National Program for Scientific Re-equipment; contract REDE/1517/RMN/2005, with funds from POCI 2010, FEDER and FCT.

Solid Polymer Electrolytes Based on Poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) and the [N1 1 1 2(OH)][NTf2] Ionic Liquid for Energy Storage Applications

Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries take advantage of solid-state ionic conductors, such as solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) [1, 2]. Despite the large technological potential of solvent-free SPEs, they suffer from a serious problem: a relatively low ionic conductivity. The addition of ionic liquids (ILs) to SPEs appears as a possible solution due to the enhancement of electrochemical stability (~4-6 V) and ionic conductivity (~10-3 – 10-2 S.cm-1) [3].ILs has two important features for their specific use in battery applications: high concentration of ions and high ion mobility at room temperature. The use of PVDF polymer and its copolymers together with ILs as SPEs still has to be thoroughly explored.This work shows the thermal and electrochemical properties of SPEs based on poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene), P(VDF-TrFE), and specific amounts (4wt% to 32wt%) of the ionic liquid N,N,N-trimethyl-N-(2-hydroxyethyl)ammonium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, [N1 1 1 2(OH)][NTf2]. The SPE was prepared by thermaly induced phase separation (TIPS).The addition of ILs in P(VDF-TrFE) affects the microstructure, thermal stability and ionic conductivity of the polymer membrane.The ionic conductivity increases as the ionic liquid (IL) content increases with a maximum value at room temperature of 1.7x10-5 S.cm-1for an IL composition of 32wt%. The temperature behavior of the ionic conductivity follows the Arrhenius equation and the electrical response of the membrane is well represented by a Randles modified equivalent circuit. The results prove that the developed SPEs are adequate for energy storage devices. Acknowledgments This work was supported by FEDER through the COMPETE Program and by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Project PEST-C/FIS/UI607/2011, PEST-C/QUI/UI0686/2011, PEST-OE/EQB/LA0004/2011, projects PTDC/CTM-NAN/121274/2010 and PTDC/QUI-QUI/117340/2010, grants SFRH/BD/68499/2010 (C.M.C.) and SRFH/BD/90366/2012 (R.L.) and FCT Investigator grant (J.M.S.S.E.). The authors also thank funding from Matepro –Optimizing Materials and Processes”, ref. NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000037”, co-funded by the “Programa Operacional Regional do Norte” (ON.2 – O Novo Norte), under the “Quadro de Referência Estratégico Nacional” (QREN), through the “Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional” (FEDER). The authors thank Solvay for kindly supplying the high quality materials.

A founder SDHB mutation in Portuguese paraganglioma patients

This work was supported by Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (Program Ciencia 2007 to V Maximo, Program Ciencia 2008 to J Lima, grant numbers SFRH/BPD/64233/2009 to Pedro Soares, PIC/IC/83037/2007 to V Maximo, and PTDC/CS-ANT/113832/2009 to T Rito). Further funding by Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology by the project ‘Microenvironment, metabolism and cancer’ partially supported by Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (ON.2-O Novo Norte) under the Quadro de Referencia Estrategico Nacional (QREN) and through the Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER).