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Collagen membranes are used in oral surgery for bone defects treatment acting as a barrier that does not allow the invasion of soft tissue into the growing bone. To improve biocompatibility collagen membranes were coated with graphene oxide (GO), a graphene derivative. The aim of this study was to investigate the biocompatibility of GO coated collagen membranes on human dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) focusing on biomaterial cytotoxicity, ability to promote DPSCs differentiation process and to control inflammation event induction. DPSCs were cultured on uncoated membranes and on both 2 and 10 μg mL GO coated membranes up to 28 days. Alamar blue and LDH cytotocicity assay, PGE2 ELISA assay, real time RT-PCR for RUNX2, BMP2, SP7, TNFα and COX2 genes expression were performed. Proliferation is higher on GO coated membranes at days 14 and 28. LDH assay evidences no cytotoxicity. BMP2 and RUNX2 expression is higher on coated membranes, BMP2 at early and RUNX2 and SP7 at late experimental times. PGE2 levels are lower on GO coated membranes at days 14 and 28, both TNFα and COX2 expression is significantly decreased when GO is applied. GO coated membranes are not toxic for DPSCs, induce a faster DPSCs differentiation into odontoblasts/osteoblasts and may represent good alternative to conventional membranes thus ensuring more efficient bone formation and improving the clinical performance. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 2312-2320, 2017.

Two series of saccharin/isoxazole and saccharin/isoxazoline hybrids were synthesized by 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition. The new compounds showed to be endowed with potent and selective inhibitory activity against the cancer-related human carbonic anhydrase (hCA) IX and XII isoforms in the nanomolar range, while no affinity was encountered for off-targets, such as hCA I and II. Successive enantioseparation on a milligram scale of the most representative compounds led to the discovery that (S)-isomers were more potent than their corresponding (R)-enantiomers. Lastly, molecular modeling studies were conducted to define those structural requirements that were responsible for the discrimination among selected human isoforms of carbonic anhydrases. Two nanomolar hCA IX and XII inhibitors were also screened for their selective toxicity against non tumoral primary cells (fibroblasts) and against a breast adenocarcinoma cell line (MCF7) in hypoxic environment. The efficacious combination of these compounds with doxorubicin on MCF7 cells was demonstrated after 72 h of treatment.

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