Excitotoxicity is a common phenomenon in several neurological diseases, associated with an impaired clearance of synaptically released glutamate, which leads to an overactivation of postsynaptic glutamate receptors. This will, in turn, start an intracellular cascade of neurotoxic events, which include exacerbated production of reactive oxygen species and ammonia toxicity. We report the assembly of microreactors equipped with platinum nanoparticles as artificial enzymes and polymer terminating layers including poly(dopamine). The biological response to these microreactors is assessed in human neuroblastoma cell culture. The microreactors' function to deplete hydrogen peroxide (HO) and ammonia is confirmed. While the proliferation of the cells depends on the number of microreactors present, no inherent toxicity is found. Furthermore, the microreactors are able to ameliorate the effects of excitotoxicity in cell culture by scavenging HO and ammonia, thus having the potential to provide a therapeutic approach for several neurological diseases in which excitotoxicity is observed.

Mimicking specific structural or functional aspects of cells is considered a promising approach to substitute for missing or lost cellular functions. However, the interaction of such artificial assemblies with their biological counterparts including the exploitation of the activity of the synthetic partner remains thus-far a rather unexplored avenue. Herein, the assembly of active microreactors with similar size to hepatocytes is reported. These microreactors are successfully cocultured with hepatocytes into bionic tissue for up to 10 d. Further, microreactors loaded with the liver enzyme catalase are effective in alleviating external pressure, induced by the addition of hydrogen peroxide, from such bionic tissue in an attempt to mimic the detoxification ability of hepatocytes. Taken together, the findings open up a different route in combining synthetic and biological entities for tissue engineering by using the former partner not only as structural support, but also to induce beneficial activity.

A comparison is made between polydopamine and tannic acid polymer films, with embedded paclitaxel‐loaded liposomes, for their ability to prevent hepatocyte adhesion.

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