IMAGE: Effects of functionalized surfaces on viral particles view much more
Credit: ICFO
Disease can easily be spread through contact along with contents contaminated along with infectious microorganism, making manage of transmission an interesting target of surface research. In order to produce “energetic surfaces” that can easily lessen or do away with this contamination, a detailed knowing of the molecular mechanisms of interactions between the surfaces and the microorganisms is crucial. ICFO researchers in the teams led by ICREA Professor at ICFO Valerio Pruneri and Prof. Melike Lakadamyali, in collaboration along with Dr. Prantik Mazumder at Corning Incorporated and researchers at the Universitat de Barcelona led by Professors Ramon Reigada and Francesc Sagués, present a study of the external membrane of Influenza A virus envelope, recently published in Applied contents and Interfaces, which sheds light on the mechanisms by which substrates along with various wettability can easily interact along with the lipid envelope of bacteria and viruses. Their findings pave the method for the design of brand-new and much more efficient antimicrobial surfaces.
First author of this paper, Dr. Ilaria Mannelli, a member of the Optoelecetonics research group at ICFO led by Prof. Pruneri, explains, “The external envelope of Influenza A virus features a phospholipid bilayer along with embedded proteins, in which the external section is hydrophilic allowing an excellent dispersion of the viral particles in aqueous solutions. However, the inner section of the envelope is earned of the hydrophobic and oleophilic tails of lipids. Due to this, as quickly as a solution of viruses is deposited onto a functionalized surface that is simultaneously hydrophobic and oleophilic, the inner section of the viral envelope strongly interacts along with the substrate molecules moving from the viral envelope to the surface. As a consequence, the integrity of the external membrane of Influenza A virus envelope is damaged and the infectivity of the virus solution is reduced.”
ICFO researchers in collaboration along with Corning, Inc, tailored the wetting characteristics of glass surfaces by functionalizing them along with coating earned of alkyl- and fluoro-silanes too as by nanostructuring. Furthermore, using a lot of experimental and computational means including real-time fluorescence microscopy carried out at ICFO and molecular dynamics simulations carried out by researchers at UB, researchers were able to study the effects of these functionalized surfaces on the infectivity of Influenza A viruses and introduce design criteria for brand-new surfaces along with personal properties that can easily deactivate Influenza A viruses along with higher efficiency.
These outcomes offer brand-new insights in to the role of the wetting properties of functionalized surfaces on their effect on enveloped viruses coming in to contact along with them. These insights constitute the basis for guiding the design and progress of brand-new surfaces along with better antiviral activity that can easily be crucial for applications in public and/or sensitive environments such as in hospitals.
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Link to paper: http://pubs. acs. org/ doi/ abs/ 10. 1021/ acsami. 6b02779
About ICFO:
ICFO – The Institute of Photonic Sciences, member of The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, is a research focus located in a specially designed, 14.000 m2-building situated in the Mediterranean Technology Park in the metropolitan location of Barcelona. It currently hosts 350 people, including research group leaders, post-doctoral researchers, PhD students, research engineers, and staff. ICFOnians are organized in 23 research teams functioning in 60 state-of-the-art research laboratories, equipped along with the most recent experimental facilities and supported by a range of cutting-edge facilities for nanofabrication, characterization, imaging and engineering.
The Severo Ochoa distinction awarded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, too as 13 ICREA Professorships, 18 European Research Council grants and 6 Fundació Cellex Barcelona Nest Fellowships, demonstrate the centre’s dedication to research excellence, as does the institute’s consistent appearance in top international placements in global rankings. From an industrial standpoint, ICFO participates actively in the European Technological Platform Photonics21 and is additionally pretty proactive in fostering entrepreneurial tasks and spin-off creation. The focus participates in incubator tasks and seeks to attract venture capital investment. ICFO hosts an energetic Corporate Liaison Regimen that aims at making collaborations and links between industry and ICFO researchers. To date, ICFO has actually produced 5 successful start-up companies.
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