Nanomaterials applied to nanomedicine: development of membrane models and in vitro studies for evaluation the toxicity.

Abstract

Nanomedicine increased rapidly over the last decade, especially with the development and application of nanomaterials in different fields. These include molecular imaging systems, diagnostics, drug delivery, and biosensors, as well as products such as antibacterial creams and medical surgical instruments. Despite the rapid progress and acceptance of nanomedicine, the potential effects of nanomaterials in biological systems has not been established. In order to promote the safe development of nanomedicine, it is essential to evaluate the adverse health consequences, which requires a systematic investigation of the influence properties of nanomaterials. Due to the complexity of the mechanisms involved in the interactions between nanomaterials and biological systems, biophysical aspects are difficult to be investigated, especially in natural samples and in real time. The interaction between nanomaterials and biological membranes is complex and difficult to understand because of their differences of detail. Nevertheless, there is great interest in understanding the interactions in their more specific details. This project is aimed at assessing the toxicity of nanomaterials through a methodology developed by our group, using cell membrane models. The greatest motivation of this project is to investigate possible interactions between cell membranes and nanomaterials of high interest such as graphene, gold, silver and magnetic nanoparticles. Synthetic membranes extracted from cell lines will be used as cell membrane models by the Langmuir technique, being a new approach in the literature. The project will be conducted to synthesize, functionalize and to investigate the toxicity of nanomaterials in model membranes of synthetic phospholipids such as dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC), dipalmitoylphosphatidylglycerol (DPPG) and cardiolipin, and cell lines derived from L929 (fibroblasts of connective tissue), A375 (melanoma malignant human) and HeLa (human cervical carcinoma). Such investigations may be of great importance to understanding the toxicity of nanomaterials at the molecular scale and bring important benefits to the nanomedicine development.