Soft Matter最新文献

{"title":"Functional assessment of migration and adhesion to quantify cancer cell aggression.","authors":"Lauren E Mehanna, James D Boyd, Chloe G Walker, Adrianna R Osborne, Martha E Grady, Brad J Berron","doi":"10.1039/d4sm01351d","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d4sm01351d","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>During epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), cancer cells lose their cell-cell adhesion junctions as they become more metastatic, altering cell motility and focal adhesion disassembly associated with increased detachment from the primary tumor and a migratory response into nearby tissue and vasculature. Current <i>in vitro</i> strategies characterizing a cell's metastatic potential heavily favor quantifying the presence of cell adhesion biomarkers through biochemical analysis; however, mechanical cues such as adhesion and motility directly relate to cell metastatic potential without needing to first identify a cell specific biomarker for a particular type of cancer. This paper presents a comprehensive comparison of two functional metrics of cancer aggression, wound closure migration velocity and cell detachment from a culture surface, for three pairs of epithelial cancer cell lines (breast, endometrium, tongue tissue origins). It was found that one functional metric alone was not sufficient to categorize the cancer cell lines; instead, both metrics were necessary to identify functional trends and accurately place cells on the spectrum of metastasis. On average, cell lines with low metastatic potential (MCF-7, Ishikawa, and Cal-27) were more aggressive through wound closure migration compared to loss of cell adhesion. On the other hand, cell lines with high metastatic potential (MDA-MB-231, KLE, and SCC-25) were on average more aggressive through loss of cell adhesion compared to wound closure migration. This trend was true independent of the tissue type where the cells originated, indicating that there is a relationship between metastatic potential and the predominate type of cancer aggression. Our work presents one of the first combined studies relating cell metastatic potential to functional migration and adhesion metrics across cancer cell lines from selected tissue origins, without needing to identify tissue-specific biomarkers to achieve success. Using functional metrics provides powerful clinical relevancy for future predictive tools of cancer metastasis.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143727259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Microneedle arrays coated with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus DNA vaccine <i>via</i> electrospray deposition.","authors":"Sarah H Park, Isha R Shah, Nandita C Jhumur, Yaxin Mo, Shalaka Tendolkar, Emran O Lallow, Jerry W Shan, Jeffrey D Zahn, Joel N Maslow, Assimina A Pelegri, Hao Lin, David I Shreiber, Jonathan P Singer","doi":"10.1039/d4sm01322k","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d4sm01322k","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Microneedle arrays have been shown to be a minimally invasive method of transdermal drug delivery. However, methods to coat these arrays often require a reservoir of the active ingredient, leading to unused and wasted material. Electrospray deposition is a targeted coating method that offers a competitive alternative for coating microneedles. By architecting the charge landscape of the setup, this technology can achieve coating deposition efficiencies nearing 100%, with little to no material wasted during the coating process. A Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus DNA vaccine was used as the model material to assess deposition efficiency as well as the efficacy of fragile biological materials subjected to electrospray deposition. Trehalose and polystyrene-<i>block</i>-polyacrylic acid were used as excipients to encourage coating dispersion. These coatings were inserted into Sprague Dawley rats where the antigen was subsequently detected and located using immunohistochemistry. Both coatings, with and without excipients, showed that protein expression is achieved after the vaccine is subjected to electrospray, however, the presence of excipients qualitatively leads to a more disperse diffusion profile. Further, this work demonstrates the capability of electrospray deposition as a highly efficient method to coat microneedles for transdermal drug delivery.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143727266","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"\"Magnetic marshmallows\" for soft robotics: magneto-mechanical characterization and application in switchable adhesion structures.","authors":"Maxime Bès, Samuel Lamont, Azadeh Dufour-Lamartinie, Jean-Claude Mancer, Ludovic Olanier, Jérôme Robert, Franck Vernerey, Artem Kovalenko","doi":"10.1039/d4sm01503g","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d4sm01503g","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Soft magnetic composites exhibit fast and programmable macroscopic deformations in magnetic fields, making them promising for applications in soft untethered robotics or in designing surfaces with switchable adhesion or wetting properties. However, due to the incompressible nature of soft, non-porous actuators, their compression or elongation leads to important shape change due to lateral expansion or compression, respectively. In practice, bending and folding remain preferred actuation modes. Here, we explore the potential of magnetic elastomer \"marshmallows\" as compressible actuators with low Poisson's ratio. Using a sacrificial salt pellet template method, we fabricate polydimethylsiloxane foams with open porosity filled with carbonyl iron particles. The obtained foams exhibit strong reversible compression under the influence of a magnetic field gradient. We reveal the significance of stress accumulation in the direction of the field gradient due to magnetic body forces and the key role of the foam thickness in magnetic strain. We propose a simple analytical model based on the action of a magnetic body force that explains these effects. Finally, we demonstrate the development of a novel switchable adhesion structure, in which the magnetic foam covered with a pressure-sensitive adhesive serves as a compressible actuator able to switch between adhesive and non-adhesive states.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143727254","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Kovacs-like memory effect in a sheared colloidal glass: role of non-affine flows.","authors":"Maitri Mandal, Abhishek Ghadai, Rituparno Mandal, Sayantan Majumdar","doi":"10.1039/d4sm01514b","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d4sm01514b","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Memory effect reflects a system's ability to encode, retain and retrieve information about its past. Such effects are essentially an out-of-equilibrium phenomenon providing insight into the complex structural and dynamical behavior of the system. Kovacs effect is one such memory effect that is traditionally associated with thermal history. Although studies on the Kovacs-like memory effect have been extended to mechanical perturbations such as compression-decompression, whether such effects can also be observed under volume-conserving perturbations like shear, remains unclear. Combining experiments, simulations and linear response theory we demonstrate Kovacs-like memory effect in a sheared colloidal glass. Moreover, we explore the influence of non-linear perturbations and establish a correlation between the deviation from linear response prediction and microscopic non-affine flows generated due to such large deformations in affecting the memory effect. Our study not only extends Kovacs-like memory effect in the domain of volume-conserving mechanical perturbations, it also highlights the importance of the nature of underlying microscopic flows in controlling the bulk stress relaxation, affecting the Kovacs-like memory effect in amorphous materials.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143727265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Recent advances in nanoprecipitation: from mechanistic insights to applications in nanomaterial synthesis.","authors":"Muzammil Kuddushi, Chiranjeevi Kanike, Ben Bin Xu, Xuehua Zhang","doi":"10.1039/d5sm00006h","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d5sm00006h","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Nanoprecipitation is a versatile, low-energy technique for synthesizing nanomaterials through controlled precipitation, enabling precise tuning of material properties. This review offers a comprehensive and up-to-date perspective on nanoprecipitation, focusing on its role in nanoparticle synthesis and its adaptability in designing diverse nanostructures. The review begins with the foundational principles of nanoprecipitation, emphasizing the impact of key parameters such as flow rate, mixing approach, injection rate, and Reynolds number on nanomaterial characteristics. It also discusses the influence of physicochemical factors, including solvent choice, polymer type, and drug properties. Various nanoprecipitation configurations-batch, flash, and microfluidic are examined for their specific advantages in controlling particle size, morphology, and internal structure. The review further explores the potential of nanoprecipitation to create complex nanostructures, such as core-shell particles, Janus nanoparticles, and porous and semiconducting polymer nanoparticles. Applications in biomedicine and other fields highlight nanoprecipitation's promise as a sustainable and tunable method for fabricating advanced nanomaterials. Finally, the review identifies future directions, including scaling microfluidic techniques, expanding compatibility with hydrophilic compounds, and integrating machine learning to further enhance the development of nanoprecipitation.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143727270","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Electric field-induced control of protein crystal morphology.","authors":"Debes Ray, Mahnoush Madani, Jan K G Dhont, Florian Platten, Kyongok Kang","doi":"10.1039/d5sm00181a","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d5sm00181a","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In a previous study (D. Ray, <i>et al</i>., <i>J. Phys. Chem. Lett.</i>, 2024, <b>15</b>, 8108-8113), we found that an alternating electric field considerably affects the location of the crystallization boundary and the liquid-liquid phase separation line as well as crystallization kinetics in lysozyme solutions containing sodium thiocyanate (NaSCN). The present study extends this work by investigating the influence of the same electric field on the microscopic appearance of lysozyme crystals as they form from a supersaturated solution. We observe a variety of distinct crystal morphologies, which we classify as single- and multi-arm crystals, flower-like crystal structures, whiskers, and sea-urchin crystals. Crystal morphologies exhibit significant variations with changes in protein and salt concentrations, and the electric field strongly alters the morphology-state diagram in the protein-versus-salt concentration plane. This alteration is likely due to the field effect on protein-protein interactions. We believe the effect is mediated by the field-enhanced adsorption of SCN^- ions to the surface of lysozyme, ultimately driving the observed changes in crystallization behavior. These findings offer insights into how electric fields can be used to control crystal formation and morphology in protein systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143727258","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Probing molecular motion and microstructure into emulsion gels by PFG NMR and advanced microscopy for microstructural observations.","authors":"Carmine D'Agostino, Valentina Preziosi, Carmine Schiavone, Maria Vittoria Maiorino, Giuseppina Caiazza, Stefano Guido","doi":"10.1039/d5sm00069f","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d5sm00069f","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Emulsion gels are soft-solid materials with a composite structure consisting of an oil phase within a gel matrix. In recent years, the interest in the application of gel-like systems as functional colloids has attracted great attention especially in the food and pharmaceutical industries due to their tunable morphology and microstructure, excellent stability, and promising functional properties, such as controlled release of encapsulated bioactive compounds. The presence of the oil phase in emulsion gels can strongly affect water diffusion in a complex manner that is far from being fully elucidated. Here, an experimental investigation based on the use of pulsed-field gradient (PFG) NMR with a low-field benchtop NMR instrument, in combination with advanced microscopy, has been carried out to investigate the dynamic behavior of water molecules in agarose gel-based systems. Results on agarose gels (that is, without the oil/surfactant components) at two different concentrations (1% and 2% wt) showed a single water diffusion environment, which could be ascribed to free water diffusing within the gel pores. Conversely, the PFG NMR signal attenuation data for water in agarose emulsion gels showed a multi-component behavior, which can be described very well by a model that assumes species exchanging between two compartments with different diffusivities, a fast diffusion component attributed to water within the gel pores (unbound water), and a much slower diffusion component attributed to a complex interconnected microstructure formed through a synergic interaction between the hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfactants, the latter being also alike to the oil.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143727268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mesoscopic study of smart dendritic-polymeric micelles for the removal of hormonal contraceptives from polluted aqueous environments.","authors":"César Soto-Figueroa, Tomas Galicia-Garcia, Armando Sebastián Pérez-Rodríguez, María Del Rosario Rodríguez-Hidalgo, Luis Vicente","doi":"10.1039/d5sm00272a","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d5sm00272a","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The ability of new smart dendritic-polymeric micelles (Boltorn-H40-P(NPAM)-P(NIPAM)) to extract hormonal contraceptives from polluted aqueous environments was investigated using dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations and coarse-grained models. Mesoscopic results indicated that these dendritic-polymeric micelles exhibit stimulus sensitivity at two low critical solution temperatures (LCST's). Thermal scans revealed that the micelles generate distinct temperature-dependent miscibility intervals: below the LCST, a thermodynamically stable micellar system is formed, while above the LCST, the system loses miscibility through a cloud point, resulting in hydrophobic particles with a complex conformational structure, comprising a dendritic core and a polymeric shell that double encapsulates the hydrophobic core. The removal process of two hormonal contraceptives, drospirenone and 17α-ethinylestradiol, using Boltorn-H40-P(NPAM)-P(NIPAM) micelles involved two consecutive stages: (I) loading the contraceptive molecules into the dendritic core below the LCST, and (II) separating the contraceptive molecules <i>via</i> a cloud point above the LCST. Finally, all the stages involved in the removal of hormonal contraceptives from polluted aqueous environments were explored in detail.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143717709","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"High-resolution ¹³C NMR indicates that changes in the dynamics of polyproline II conformations induce collagen I fibrillogenesis.","authors":"Naomasa Kawashima, Paulo Peres De Sa Peixoto","doi":"10.1039/d4sm01003e","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d4sm01003e","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Collagen I is a 300 nm long fibrous protein that plays an important role in maintaining the structure of several tissues, such as the dermis, bone, enamel and cornea. In these tissues, collagen is found in the form of fibrils, which can be several microns in length and have different diameters. Collagen-collagen interactions rely mainly on the hydrogen bond (H-bond) network and display a very strong sensitivity to temperature; at the physiological temperature, it forms micro to macro fibrils but tends to be dissolved into a triple helix at 5 °C. It has been argued that the temperature-dependent structural transformation of the more flexible regions of collagen is mainly responsible for this transition. In the present work, we used ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy with magic angle spinning (MAS) technique to acquire local and unusual high-resolution information on the conformations and dynamics of collagen in the microfibril form (at the physiological temperature) and dissolved form (at 5 °C). The obtained data showed that at physiological temperatures, about 60% of the dihedral angles in the collagen are in the polyproline II (PII) conformation, which resulted in higher dynamics than the other residues. These residues displayed chemical shifts in previously assigned regions close to amino acids. Alternatively, the regions assigned to imino acid-rich regions displayed the strongest decrease in dynamics in contrast to the remaining conformations. Although the resolution remained relatively good at 5 °C, no strong shift was observed in the NMR spectrum for the other residues, indicating that the temperature affected mainly the PII residues. These results support the previous hypothesis that the PII regions are mainly responsible for the temperature-dependent tunability of collagen into fibrils. These data bring new insights into collagen mechanics and may help understand the impact of collagen defects in related diseases.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143717701","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mechanism of microplastic and nanoplastic emission from tire wear.","authors":"Shankar Ghosh, Anit Sane, Smita Gohil, Vedant Vashishtha, Sanat K Kumar, Guruswamy Kumaraswamy","doi":"10.1039/d5sm00074b","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d5sm00074b","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Tire and brake-wear emissions, in particular nanoparticulate aerosols, can potentially impact human health and the environment adversely. While there is considerable phenomenological data on tire wear, the creation and environmental persistence of particulate pollutants is not well understood. Here, we unequivocally show that normal mechanical tire wear results in two distinct micro and nanoplastic (MNP) populations: a smaller, aerosolized fraction (<10 μm), and larger microplastics. Nanoplastic emissions follow a power law distribution that we show is consistent with the classical arguments of Archard, and Griffiths. Nanoplastic pollution increases dramatically with vehicle speed and weight, as the power law distribution characterizing these gets steeper. Charge stabilization of the tire wear nanoparticles keeps them suspended, while microplastics settle due to gravity. Larger microplastics are formed by sequential wear processes and show a log-normal distribution, as anticipated by Kolmogorov. Thus, the particle size distribution provides mechanistic insights to tire fragmentation: the aerosolized fraction is determined by power input to the tire while the larger microplastics are determined by sequential wear processes due to tire-road surface interactions, independent of vehicle weight and speed.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143717706","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}