ICI - Instituto Coordenador da Investigação
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O ICI integra Unidades de Investigação que exerçam as suas atividades na UBI e que tenham sido classificados com notação igual ou superior a Bom pelos painéis internacionais de avaliação periódica designados pela Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia.
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Browsing ICI - Instituto Coordenador da Investigação by Field of Science and Technology (FOS) "Ciências Médicas::Ciências da Saúde"
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- ARIA-Italy managing allergic rhinitis and asthma in a changing world: The role of the PharmacistPublication . Paoletti, Giovanni; Giua, Corrado; Marti, Alessandro; Baio, Matteo Alberto; Valli, Nicolò; Ridolo, Erminia; Ventura, Maria Teresa; Passalacqua, Giovanni; Puggioni, Francesca; Lourenço, Olga ; Bousquet, Jean; Canonica, Giogio Walter; Heffler, Enrico; Lombardi, CarloAllergic rhinitis (AR) and asthma are common respiratory disorders that often occur together, affecting quality of life and increasing healthcare expenses of patients. These chronic illnesses are often managed without medical supervision, creating distinct challenges. A lack of resources can limit regular follow-up, which in turn promotes disease mismanagement and an increased reliance on self-medication, including the inappropriate use of corticosteroids and nasal decongestants. Community pharmacies could serve as critical primary healthcare providers, facilitating AR and asthma management by promoting therapy adherence, minimizing drug misuse, and improving symptom monitoring using digital tools. The evolving role of pharmacists as vital healthcare team members is highlighted by their involvement in screening, prevention, and patient education, particularly in underserved communities. Strengthening the partnerships between pharmacists, physicians, and patients may lead to more tailored and effective management strategies. This collaborative approach has demonstrated promise in enhancing disease outcomes and reducing healthcare costs.
- Beeswax-enriched tricalcium phosphate/hydroxyapatite/sodium alginate/ thymol 3D-printed scaffolds for application in bone tissue engineeringPublication . Francisco, Martinho Jorge ; Cabral, Cátia Solange Duarte; Calvinho, Paula Cristina Nunes Ferreira ; Correia, Ilídio Joaquim Sobreira ; Moreira, André FerreiraTissue engineering, particularly bone tissue engineering (BTE), continues to pose significant challenges to modern medicine. In this work, a rapid prototyping technique was explored to create 3D scaffolds using a Fab@Home 3D-Plotter extruder. For that purpose, a novel composite mixture containing tricalcium phosphate (TCP), hydroxyapatite (HAp), sodium alginate (SA), beeswax (BW), and thymol (TM) was formulated. BW and TM resulted in 3D scaffolds with rougher surfaces and moderate hydrophilic profiles, properties crucial for mediating cell adhesion and proliferation. Moreover, the 3D scaffolds containing BW displayed a significant increase in compressive strength and Young modulus, being comparable to those exhibited by trabecular bone. TM loading prevented the establishment of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli infections, inhibiting bacterial adhesion and proliferation at the scaffolds' surface. Additionally, the cytocompatibility of the scaffolds was confirmed over 21 days, with the adhesion and proliferation of Human osteoblasts (hOB) at the scaffold's surfaces. Simultaneously, calcium and phosphate ions accumulated at the scaffolds' surface, forming apatite crystals. Therefore, this improved composite mixture showed promising results for being applied in BTE, not only facilitating hOB cell adhesion and proliferation but also avoiding bacterial infection, addressing a critical challenge in implant-based therapies.
- Dual-crosslinked injectable in situ forming Alginate/CaCl2/Pluronic F127/ α-Cyclodextrin hydrogels incorporating Doxorubicin and graphene-based nanomaterials for cancer chemo-photothermal therapyPublication . Gonçalves, Joaquim; Melo, Bruna Daniela Lopes ; Pouso, Manuel António do Rosário ; Correia, Ilídio Joaquim Sobreira ; de Melo-Diogo, DuarteInjectable in situ forming hydrogels have been emerging due to their capacity to perform the direct delivery of therapeutics into the tumor site with minimal off-target leakage. Particularly, physical crosslinked injectable in situ forming hydrogels are appealing due to their straightforward preparation that exploits the native jointing capabilities of specific polymers/materials. However, the features of these hydrogels (e.g., injectability, degradation, swelling) are strongly pre-determined by the physical interactions available on the selected polymers/ materials, occasionally yielding undesired outcomes. Thus, the combination of multiple physical crosslinking cues may allow the preparation of hydrogels with enhanced properties. In this work, a dual-crosslinked injectable in situ forming hydrogel was engineered by combining Pluronic F127/α-Cyclodextrin and Alginate/CaCl2 (i.e., combination of host-guest and electrostatic interactions), being loaded with Doxorubicin (chemotherapeutic drug) and Dopamine-reduced Graphene Oxide (photothermal nano-agent) for application in cancer chemophotothermal therapy. When compared to the single-crosslinked hydrogels, the dual-crosslinking contributed to the assembly of formulations with suitable injectability and improved degradation and water absorption behaviors. Moreover, the dual-crosslinked hydrogels presented a good photothermal capacity (ΔT ≈ 14 ◦C), leading to a 1.18-times enhanced Doxorubicin release. In in vitro cell-based studies, the dual-crosslinked hydrogels exhibited an excellent cytocompatibility towards healthy (normal human dermal fibroblasts) and breast cancer (MCF-7) cells. As importantly, the dual-crosslinked hydrogels were able to mediate a chemophotothermal effect that diminished the cancer cells’ viability to just 23 %. Overall, the developed dualcrosslinked injectable in situ forming hydrogels incorporating Doxorubicin and Dopamine-reduced Graphene Oxide are a promising macroscale system for breast cancer chemo-photothermal therapy.
- Injectable and implantable hydrogels for localized delivery of drugs and nanomaterials for cancer chemotherapy: A reviewPublication . Pouso, Manuel António do Rosário ; Melo, Bruna Daniela Lopes ; Gonçalves, Joaquim; Louro, Ricardo; Mendonça, António; Correia, Ilídio Joaquim Sobreira ; de Melo-Diogo, DuarteMultiple chemotherapeutic strategies have been developed to tackle the complexity of cancer. Still, the outcome of chemotherapeutic regimens remains impaired by the drugs’ weak solubility, unspecific biodistribution and poor tumor accumulation after systemic administration. Such constraints triggered the development of nanomaterials to encapsulate and deliver anticancer drugs. In fact, the loading of drugs into nanoparticles can overcome most of the solubility concerns. However, the ability of systemically administered drug-loaded nanomaterials to reach the tumor site has been vastly overestimated, limiting their clinical translation. The drugs’ and drug-loaded nanomaterials’ systemic administration issues have propelled the development of hydrogels capable of performing their direct/local delivery into the tumor site. The use of these macroscale systems to mediate a tumor-confined delivery of the drugs/drugs-loaded nanomaterials grants an improved therapeutic efficacy and, simultaneously, a reduction of the side effects. The manufacture of these hydrogels requires the careful selection and tailoring of specific polymers/materials as well as the choice of appropriate physical and/or chemical crosslinking interactions. Depending on their administration route and assembling process, these matrices can be classified as injectable in situ forming hydrogels, injectable shear-thinning/selfhealing hydrogels, and implantable hydrogels, each type bringing a plethora of advantages for the intended biomedical application. This review provides the reader with an insight into the application of injectable and implantable hydrogels for performing the tumor-confined delivery of drugs and drug-loaded nanomaterials.
- Renewable Photo-Cross-Linkable Polyester-Based Biomaterials: Synthesis, Characterization, and Cytocompatibility AssessmentPublication . Cernadas, Maria Teresa; Pereira, João; Melo, Bruna Daniela Lopes ; de Melo-Diogo, Duarte; Correia, Ilídio Joaquim Sobreira ; Alves, Patrícia; Calvinho, Paula Cristina Nunes FerreiraTThe present work consist of the synthesis of photo-crosslinkable materials, based on unsaturated polyesters (UPs), synthesized from biobased monomers from renewable sources such as itaconic acid and 1,4- butanediol. The UPs were characterized to assess the influence of polycondensation reaction temperature and cross-linking time on their final properties. For this purpose, different UV irradiation exposure periods were tested. Homogeneous, uniform, and transparent films were obtained after 1, 3, and 5 min of UV exposure. These cross-linked films were then characterized. All materials presented high gel content, which was dependent on the reaction’s temperature. The thermal behaviors of the UPs were shown to be similar. In vitro hydrolytic degradation tests showed that the materials can undergo degradation in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) at pH 7.4 and 37 °C, ensuring their biodegradability over time. Finally, to assess the applicability of the polyesters as biomaterials, their cytocompatibility was determined by using human dermal fibroblasts.