Uskoković Vuk, Wu Victoria M
Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL, USA.
Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Center for Targeted Drug Delivery, Chapman University, Irvine, CA, USA.
Nanobiomedicine (Rij). 2018 Aug 16;5:1849543518794345. doi: 10.1177/1849543518794345. eCollection 2018 Jan-Dec.
Composite, multifunctional fine particles are likely to be at the frontier of materials science in the foreseeable future. Here we present a submicron composite particle that mimics the stratified structure of the Earth by having a zero-valent iron core, a silicate/silicide mantle, and a thin carbonaceous crust resembling the biosphere and its biotic deposits. Particles were formulated in a stable colloidal form and made to interact with various types of healthy and cancer cells in vitro. A selective anticancer activity was observed, promising from the point of view of the intended use of the particles for tumor targeting across the blood-brain barrier. As an extension of the idea underlying the fabrication of a particle mimicking the planet Earth, we propose a new field of mimetics within materials science: astromimetics. The astromimetic approach in the context of materials science consists of the design of particles after the structure of celestial bodies. With Earth being the most chemically diverse and fertile out of all the astral bodies known, it is anticipated that the great majority of astromimetic material models will fall in the domain of geo-inspired ones.
在可预见的未来，复合多功能细颗粒可能处于材料科学的前沿。在此，我们展示了一种亚微米复合颗粒，它通过具有零价铁芯、硅酸盐/硅化物地幔以及类似于生物圈及其生物沉积物的薄碳质外壳来模拟地球的分层结构。颗粒被制成稳定的胶体形式，并在体外与各种类型的健康细胞和癌细胞相互作用。观察到了选择性抗癌活性，从将颗粒用于跨越血脑屏障的肿瘤靶向的预期用途来看很有前景。作为制造模仿地球的颗粒这一理念的延伸，我们在材料科学中提出了一个新的仿生领域：天体仿生学。材料科学背景下的天体仿生方法包括按照天体结构设计颗粒。由于地球是所有已知星体中化学多样性最高且最具活力的，预计绝大多数天体仿生材料模型将属于受地球启发的模型领域。
