An investigation has taken a first step towards the development of new nanomaterials for faster detection, more reliable monitoring and more precise quantification of neutrophils involved in severe inflammatory processes.
This research constitutes Miriam Peña’s Final Degree Project, defended at the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) in Spain.
Miriam Peña Figueroa, a student graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry, defended her Final Degree Project related to the development of chemiluminescent nanoparticles with potential application to detect serious inflammatory diseases. “The main objective of this work is to overcome the limitations of traditional techniques used for severe inflammatory processes, which do not provide much information about the neutrophils involved in these processes. In addition, many of these techniques are based on metallic nanoparticles that accumulate in the liver and whose use is now totally restricted.”
Miriam Peña Figueroa has shown in her study that it is possible to encapsulate neutrophil detector compounds in a special type of soft, biocompatible particles similar in size to proteins. “Of all the white blood cells that we have in our blood to defend ourselves against foreign substances or infectious agents, neutrophils are the ones that play the greatest role in the response to serious inflammatory processes. These are associated with the onset of numerous diseases such as arthritis, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s and metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes. At the same time, they are implicated in the initiation of chronic inflammatory processes such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) -which causes obstruction of the airflow of the lungs-, inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, as well as atherosclerosis.
Miriam Peña in a laboratory at the UPV/EHU Materials Physics Center. (Photo: UPV/EHU)
To deepen the knowledge, diagnosis and treatment of these diseases, rapid detection, reliable follow-up and precise quantification of the neutrophils involved in the severe associated inflammatory processes are essential. “To generate a luminescent image that allows visualizing inflammatory cell activation and examining neutrophil recruitment, small molecular chemiluminescent probes such as luminol and its analogues are currently used.” Miriam Peña Figueroa’s Final Degree Project has shown that “it is possible to immobilize this type of probes (luminol, isoluminol) in soft and biocompatible nanoparticles so that they act as chemiluminescent sensors in simplified models of severe inflammatory processes. This is a first step towards the development of novel chemiluminescent nanomaterials for faster detection, more reliable monitoring, and more precise quantification of neutrophils involved in severe inflammatory processes,” she concludes. (Source: UPV/EHU)