Natural melanin: A potential pH-responsive drug release device

Araújo, Marco; Viveiros, Raquel; Correia, Tiago Ruivo; Correia, Ilídio J.; Bonifácio, Vasco D. B.; Casimiro, Teresa; Aguiar‐Ricardo, Ana

doi:10.1016/j.ijpharm.2014.04.051

Cited by 90 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…A study performed with melanin nanoparticles as biocompatible drug nanocarriers, using metronidazole (antibiotic drug), showed that melanin could be a very interesting nanocarrier drug release device because it strongly responds to pH, being a very interesting feature for the treatment of intestine and colon diseases, which would greatly benefit with pH targeting [142]. Another study showed that systemic melanin-covered nanoparticle (MN) administration reduced hematologic toxicity in mice treated with radiation and that these structures provide efficient protection to bone marrow against radiotoxicity during radioimmunotherapy and in some cases external beam radiation therapy, permitting the administration to tumors of significantly higher doses [117].…”

Section: Medical Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Production of Melanin Pigment by Fungi and Its Biotechnological Applications

Sponchiado¹,

Sousa²,

Andrade³

et al. 2017

Melanin

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Production of the microbial pigments is one of the emerging fields of research due to a growing interest of the industry for safer products, easily degradable and eco-friendly. Fungi constitute a valuable source of pigments because they are capable of producing high yields of the substance in the cheap culture medium, making the bioprocess economically viable on the industrial scale. Some fungal species produce a dark-brown pigment, known as melanin, by oxidative polymerization of phenolic compounds, such as glutaminyl-3,4-dihydroxybenzene (GDHB) or catechol or 1,8-dihydroxynaphthalene (DHN) or 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA). This pigment has been reported to act as "fungal armor" due to its ability to protect fungi from adverse conditions, neutralizing oxidants generated in response to stress. Apart from the scavenging activity, melanin exhibits other biological activities, including thermoregulatory, radio-and photoprotective, antimicrobial, antiviral, cytotoxic, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory. Studies have shown that the media composition and cultivation conditions affect the pigment production in fungi and the manipulation of these parameters can result in an increase in pigment yield for large-scale pigment production. This chapter presents a comprehensive discussion of the research on fungal melanin, including the recently discovered biological activities and the potential use of this pigment for various biotechnological applications in the fields of biomedicine, dermocosmetics, materials science, and nanotechnology.

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Section: Medical Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Production of Melanin Pigment by Fungi and Its Biotechnological Applications

Sponchiado¹,

Sousa²,

Andrade³

et al. 2017

Melanin

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“…2B) evidenced the presence of spherical particles. These particles were not observed on uncoated samples and showed the typical morphology of the biopolymer used for coating the bioactive glass [24]; so they can be ascribed to the biopolymer presence on the glass surface.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…This process should be carefully controlled in view of biological in vitro test, in order to avoid pH values not compatible with cell viability. In this contest, the lower pH values observed for B1C can be considered a positive issue and may be resultant from the deprotonation of surface carboxylic groups present in the biopolymer [24]. The functional groups present on the biopolymer may have also an important role on the increase of the bioactivity of the B1 glass.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Melanin is a natural-derived polymer resultant from the oxidative polymerization of phenolic and/or indolic compounds [23]. Besides its wide abundance in nature, proven biocompatibility and absence of cytotoxicity, this biopolymer presents attractive properties such as photo-protection and heat storage capacity, antioxidant behavior and tunable drug delivery ability [24][25][26]. Moreover, the chelating ability of melanin and its structural characteristics can be exploited as preferential site for the nucleation and growth of hydroxyapatite.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Enhanced apatite precipitation on a biopolymer-coated bioactive glass

Araújo¹,

Miola²,

Venturello³

et al. 2015

Biomedical Glasses

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In this work, sintered pellets of a silica-based bioactive glass were dip-coated with a biocompatible natural-derived polymer in order to investigate the influence of the organic coating on the glass bioactivity. After the sintering process optimization, uncoated and coated pellets have been characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM, EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and pH measurements, after the immersion in a simulated body fluid (SBF). An increased apatite forming ability and a better control of the pH during soaking of the samples in SBF were observed in the presence of the biopolymer. This result opens a new insight on the simple fabrication of highly bioactive hybrid inorganic-organic materials for medical applications.

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“…17 Therefore, the authors commenced the electrical study of peptides, one of the biologically occurring polymer, as the first step toward implantable devices. The peptide sequences used in this study contain tyrosine amino acid that can be chemically modified into biocompatible and biodegradable melanin 18,19 and can theoretically allow electrons to move freely along the peptides chain through pi-conjugated bonds in phenol. Here, various types of peptides featuring different length and amino acids components were investigated in terms of resistivity with increasing annealing temperature and fabrication process compatibility (Table S1 of the supplementary material).…”

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confidence: 99%

Increased electrical conductivity of peptides through annealing process

et al. 2017

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Biocompatible biologically occurring polymer is suggested as a component of human implantable devices since conventional inorganic materials are apt to trigger inflammation and toxicity problem within human body. Peptides consisting of aromatic amino acid, tyrosine, are chosen, and enhancement on electrical conductivity is studied. Annealing process gives rise to the decrease on resistivity of the peptide films and the growth of the carrier concentration is a plausible reason for such a decrease on resistivity. The annealed peptides are further applied to an active layer of field effect transistor, in which low on/off current ratio (∼10) is obtained.

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Natural melanin: A potential pH-responsive drug release device

Cited by 90 publications

References 33 publications

Production of Melanin Pigment by Fungi and Its Biotechnological Applications

Production of Melanin Pigment by Fungi and Its Biotechnological Applications

Enhanced apatite precipitation on a biopolymer-coated bioactive glass

Increased electrical conductivity of peptides through annealing process

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