Natural biopolymer scaffolds and conductive nanomaterials have been widely used in cardiac tissue engineering; however, there are still challenges in the scaffold fabrication, which include enhancing nutrient delivery, biocompatibility and properties that favor the growth, maturation and functionality of the generated tissue for therapeutic application. In the present work, different scaffolds prepared with sodium alginate and chitosan (alginate/chitosan) were fabricated with and without the addition of metal nanoparticles and how their fabrication affects cardiomyocyte growth was evaluated. The scaffolds (hydrogels) were dried by freeze drying using calcium gluconate as a crosslinking agent, and two types of metal nanoparticles were incorporated, gold (AuNp) and gold plus sodium alginate (AuNp+Alg). A physicochemical characterization of the scaffolds was carried out by swelling, degradation, permeability and infrared spectroscopy studies. The results show that the scaffolds obtained were highly porous (>90%) and hydrophilic, with swelling percentages of around 3000% and permeability of the order of 1 × 10⁻⁸ m². In addition, the scaffolds proposed favored adhesion and spheroid formation, with cardiac markers expression such as tropomyosin, troponin I and cardiac myosin. The incorporation of AuNp+Alg increased cardiac protein expression and cell proliferation, thus demonstrating their potential use in cardiac tissue engineering.

Due to its chemical properties, glyphosate [N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine] is one of the most commonly used agricultural herbicides globally. Due to risks associated with human exposure to glyphosate and its potential harmfulness, the need to develop specific, accurate, online, and sensitive methods is imperative. In accordance with this, the present review is focused on recent advances in developing nanomaterial-based sensors for glyphosate detection. Reported data from the literature concerning glyphosate detection in the different matrices using analytical methods (mostly chromatographic techniques) are presented; however, they are expensive and time-consuming. In this sense, nanosensors’ potential applications are explained to establish their advantages over traditional glyphosate detection methods. Zero-dimensional (0D), one-dimensional (1D), two-dimensional (2D), and three- dimensional (3D) materials are reviewed, from biomolecules to metallic compounds. Bionanomaterials have generated research interest due to their selectivity with respect to using enzymes, DNA, or antibodies. On the other hand, Quantum Dots also are becoming relevant for their vast surface area and good limit of detection values (in the range of pM). This review presents all the characteristics and potential applications of different nanomaterials for sensor development, bearing in mind the necessity of a glyphosate detection method with high sensitivity, selectivity, and portability.

This work showcases the remarkable viscoelasticity of films consisting of α-cyclodextrin (α-CD) and anionic surfactants (S) at the water/air interface, the magnitude of which has not been observed in similar systems. The anionic surfactants employed are sodium salts of a homologous series of n-alkylsulfates (n = 8-14) and of dodecylsulfonate. Our hypothesis was that the very high viscoelasticity can be systematically related to the bulk and interfacial properties of the system. Through resolution of the bulk distribution of species using isothermal titration calorimetry, the high dilatational modulus is related to (α-CD)2:S1 inclusion complexes in the bulk with respect to both the bulk composition and temperature. Direct interfacial characterization of α-CD and sodium dodecylsulfate films at 283.15 K using ellipsometry and neutron reflectometry reveals that the most viscoelastic films consist of a highly ordered monolayer of 2:1 complexes with a minimum amount of any other component. The orientation of the complexes in the films and their driving force for adsorption are discussed in the context of results from molecular dynamics simulations. These findings open up clear potential for the design of new functional materials or molecular sensors based on films with specific mechanical, electrical, thermal, chemical, optical or even magnetic properties.

Plasma polymerized pyrrole/iodine (PPPy/I) microparticles and bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein have shown interesting results in experimental models for the treatment of traumatic spinal cord injury. By studying the interaction between BSA and PPPy/I by a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) and docking, we obtained important results to elucidate possible cellular interactions and promote the use of these polymers as biomaterials. These measurements were also used to characterize the adsorption process using an equilibrium constant. In addition, atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to obtain images of the QCM surface sensors before and after BSA adsorption. Furthermore, we carried out molecular dynamics simulations and molecular docking to characterize the molecular recognition between BSA and the previously reported PPPy/I structure. For this study, we used two combinatorial models that have not been tested. Thus, we could determine the electrostatic (ΔG_ele) and nonelectrostatic (ΔG_nonelec) components of the free binding energy (ΔG_b). We demonstrated that BSA is adsorbed on PPPy/I with an adsorption constant of K = 24.35 μ^-1 indicating high affinity. This observation combined with molecular docking and binding free energy calculations showed that the interaction between BSA and both combinatorial models of the PPPy structure is spontaneous.