Pablo Taboada

University of Santiago de Compostela | USC · Department of Condensed Matter Physics

Urinary tract infections are commonly caused by uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC), which usually presents multiple virulence and resistance mechanisms, making it difficult to treat. It has been demonstrated that silver and polymeric nanoparticles had potential against these pathogens. In this study, we synthesized thiol chitosan-coated silver n...

Gold nanorods (AuNRs) have attracted attention in the field of biomedicine, particularly for their potential as photothermal agents capable of killing tumor cells by photothermic ablation. In this study, the synthesis of novel AuNRs stabilized with thiolated pectin (AuNR@SH-PEC) is reported. To achieve this, thiolated pectin (SH-PEC) was obtained b...

Scientific evidence increasingly supports the strong link between diet and health, acknowledging that a well-balanced diet plays a crucial role in preventing chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular issues, and certain types of cancer. This perspective opens the door to developing precision diets, particularly tailored for individ...

Scientific evidence increasingly supports the strong link between diet and health, acknowledging that a well-balanced diet plays a crucial role in preventing chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular issues, and certain types of cancer. This perspective opens the door to developing precision diets, particularly tailored for individ...

Conventional cancer therapies suffer from nonspecificity, drug resistance, and a poor bioavailability, which trigger severe side effects. To overcome these disadvantages, in this study, we designed and evaluated the in vitro potential of paclitaxel-loaded, PLGA-gold, half-shell nanoparticles (PTX-PLGA/Au-HS NPs) conjugated with cyclo(Arg-Gly-Asp-Ph...

Breast cancer (BC) has surpassed lung cancer as the most diagnosed cancer and, in terms of mortality, is the fifth leading cause with 684,996 new deaths (6.7% of all cancer-related deaths) and the highest mortality amongst all cancers (15.5%) in women. Selective estrogen-receptor modulators (SERMs) have been used for the last thirty years for estro...

This research aimed to chemically synthesize and evaluate the antiproliferative and anti-inflammatory potential of ozopromide (OPC), a novel compound recently isolated from O. vulgaris ink. After chemical synthesis, OPC structural characterization was confirmed by COSY2D, FTIR, and C-/H-NMR. OPC inhibited the growth of human breast (MDA-MB-231), pr...

The potential application of biodegradable and biocompatible polymeric micelles formed by Pluronic F127 and P104 as nanocarriers of the antineoplastic drugs docetaxel (DOCE) and doxorubicin (DOXO) is presented in this work. The release profile was carried out under sink conditions at 37 °C and analyzed using the Higuchi, Korsmeyer–Peppas, and Peppa...

Fabrication and designing advanced porous structures are effective methods to enhance the electrochemical performance of metal organic frameworks (MOFs) for supercapacitor applications. Here, we have developed ternary metal oxide MOFs prepared by a simple chemical bath deposition method. Firstly, a chemical bath deposition process was used to fabri...

The application of high throughput synthesis methodologies in the generation of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) currently requires the use of automated and easily scalable systems, easy dispensing of supported reagents in solution phase organic synthesis (SPOS), and elimination of purification and extraction steps. The recyclability and re...

Metal nanoparticles (NPs), particularly gold nanorods (AuNRs), appear as excellent platforms not only to transport and deliver bioactive cargoes but also to provide additional therapeutic responses for diseased cells and tissues and/or to complement the action of the carried molecules. In this manner, here, we optimized a previous developed metal-b...

Recreating the extracellular matrix organization and cellular patterns of anisotropic tissues in bioengineered constructs remains a significant biofabrication challenge. Magnetically‐assisted 3D bioprinting strategies can be exploited to fabricate biomimetic scaffolding systems, but they fail to provide control over the distribution of magnetic mat...

In this work, an asymmetric aqueous supercapacitor using a ZIF-derived Cu doped Co3O4/reduced graphene oxide cathode and an activated carbon (AC) anode have been developed. Firstly, Cu–Co3O4 flower-like NPs are fabricated using a sol-gel process using Cu doped ZIF-67 metallic organic framework (MOF) as a template to form a binder-free composite cat...

A novel formulation of cationic liposomes was studied by mixing dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) with tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide gemini surfactants with different alkane spacer groups lengths attached to their ammonium head-groups. The physicochemical characterization of the cationic liposomes was obtained by combining experimental re...

This study aimed to design a hyaluronic acid-based targeted, mucoadhesive and mucopenetrating drug delivery system encapsulating clarithromycin that would improve the drug residence time at H. pylori infection site. Clarithromycin-loaded thiolated hyaluronic acid-co-oleic acid (CLR-thHA-co-OA), clarithromycin-loaded ureido-conjugated thiolated hyal...

The combination of natural resources with biologically active biocompatible ionic liquids (Bio-IL) is presented as a combinatorial approach for developing tools to manage inflammatory diseases. Innovative biomedical solutions were constructed combining silk fibroin (SF) and Ch[Gallate], a Bio-IL with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory features, as f...

Sonoran propolis (SP) exerts remarkable biological activities attributed to its polyphenolic composition, mostly described as poplar-type flavonoids. It is known that polyphenols present low bioavailability derived of their molecular weight, glycosylation level, metabolic conversion, as well as interaction with the intestinal microbiota, affording...

Hybrid hydrogels composed of chitosan (CS) and hyaluronic acid (HA) and collagen (Coll) were prepared by polyelectrolyte complex self-assembly. These scaffolds displayed a good intermingling of the polymeric chains, with porosities above 80% and good interconnected structures with pore sizes lying between 30-115 μm. The ionic interactions between C...

Poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) is one of the most effectively developed biodegradable polymers. Biodegradable polymers based on PLGA are the most common materials used to encapsulate therapeutic agents. Protein-loaded PLGA nanoparticles are generally formulated by the double emulsion method. However, the main problems associated with this me...

Atherosclerosis is an underlying risk factor in cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The combination of drugs with microRNAs (miRNA) inside a single nanocarrier has emerged as a promising anti-atherosclerosis strategy to achieve the exploitation of their complementary mechanisms of action to achieve synergistic therapeutic effects while avoiding some of...

Colloidal nanocarriers have provided great opportunities in the field of drug delivery. In this study, to achieve the efficient delivery of anti-cancer agents at the site of action, doxorubicin (DOX) was encapsulated within pH-responsive ergosterol-modified niosomes. The niosome-based formulation displayed size of 125 nm, a surface charge of -22.7...

In this work, we designed a drug delivery nanosystem based on oil-in-water Pluronic F127 nanomicelles to encapsulate and control the release of the antineoplasic drug carfilzomib (CFZ), and hypothesized that CFZ entrapment might result in a better effective and more localized cytotoxic effect on cancerous cells and to reduce its undesirable side ef...

In this work, an easy, cost-effective and scalable procedure combining electric double layer-based nanomaterials as reduced graphene oxide (r-GO) and pseudo-capacitive cubical NiCo2O4 based-metal organic frameworks (MOFs) for the production of promising nanostructured electrodes for electrochemical energy storage devices was reported. r-GO as an el...

Citation: Ballesteros-Monrreal, M.G.; Arenas-Hernández, M.M.P.; Barrios-Villa, E.; Juarez, J.; Álvarez-Ainza, M.L.; Taboada, P.; De la Rosa-López, R.; Bolado-Martínez, E.; Valencia, D. Bacterial Morphotypes as Important Trait for Uropathogenic E. coli Diagnostic; a Virulence-Phenotype-Phylogeny Study. Microorganisms 2021, 9, 2381. https://doi.org/1...

Nowadays, the design of innovative delivery systems is driving new product developments in the field of skincare. In this regard, serving as potential candidates for on-demand drug delivery and fulfilling advanced mechanical and optical properties together with surface protection, spontaneously self-assembled microgel films can be proposed as ideal...

Current treatment of chronic wounds has been critically limited by various factors, including bacterial infection, biofilm formation, impaired angiogenesis, and prolonged inflammation. Addressing these challenges, we developed a multifunctional wound dressing-based three-pronged approach for accelerating wound healing. The multifunctional wound dre...

Propolis is a resinous material produced by bees (Apis mellifera) from different botanical sources. It has a wide variety of biological activities attributed to its chemical constituents, which are mainly phenolic acids and polyphenols such as flavonoids. These components usually had low water solubility and poor bioavailability. Polymeric, lipid a...

Hyaluronic acid (HA) and gelatin (Gel) are major components of the extracellular matrix of different tissues, and thus are largely appealing for the construction of hybrid hydrogels to combine the favorable characteristics of each biopolymer, such as the gel adhesiveness of Gel and the better mechanical strength of HA, respectively. However, despit...

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) are widely used in industry as a white pigment (paints, paper industry and toothpastes), photocatalysts (environmental decontamination and photovoltaic cells), inorganic UV filter (sunscreens and personal care products) and as a food additive (E171) and antimicrobial food packaging material. Silver nanopart...

The use of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) as adsorbent/separation agents for the removal of heavy metal-based compounds from aqueous environments has received much attention in the last few years. However, in most cases, the designed particles present large dimensions (at least several tens of nm) in order to provide them with high magnetic energy a...

Correction for ‘Vescalagin and castalagin reduce the toxicity of amyloid-beta42 oligomers through the remodelling of its secondary structure’ by Ana R. Araújo et al. , Chem. Commun. , 2020, 56 , 3187–3190, DOI: 10.1039/D0CC00192A.

Underutilized marine food products such as cephalopods' ink could be sources of bioactive compounds providing health benefits. This study aimed to assess the anti-proliferative and anti-inflammatory effects from Octopus vulgaris ink extracts (hexane-, ethyl acetate-, dichloromethane- (DM), and water extracts) using human colorectal (HT-29/HCT116) a...

Most tissues of the human body are characterized by highly anisotropic physical properties and biological organization. Hydrogels have been proposed as scaffolding materials to construct artificial tissues due to their water-rich composition, biocompatibility, and tunable properties. However, unmodified hydrogels are typically composed of randomly...

Cancer is a noncommunicable disease of rising worldwide concern. Marine food products such as Octopus vulgaris ink (OI) could be sources of compounds addressing these concerns. This study aimed to evaluate the antimutagenic, cytoprotective, antiproliferative, proapoptotic, and antioxidant capacity of OI extracts on human cancer cell lines (22Rv1, H...

Microemulsions have received particular interest as novel vehicles for drug delivery. Herein, a new tribenuron-methyl (TM) loaded oil-in-water Pluronic F127-stabilized microemulsion is developed as a promising delivery nanocarrier for herbicides to control the growth of wheat weed (Convolvulus arvensis). The diameter for the TM-loading microemulsio...

In this study, nanocomposites films of polycarbonate/TiO2/ZnO nanoparticles with various weight percentages (5 and 10 wt%) were prepared. X-ray diffraction and FTIR spectroscopy were utilized to investigate the structure of the samples. The morphologies of nanocomposites were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Optical properties of the...

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are particles originating from the exfoliation of the cellular membrane. They are involved in cell-to-cell and cell-to-matrix signaling, exchange of bioactive molecules, tumorigenesis and metastasis, among others. To mitigate the limited understanding of EVs transfer phenomena, we developed a simplistic model that mimic...

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a general term that includes diseases that affect the circulatory system and/or the heart. Their underlying pathology is atherosclerosis, an inflammatory disease characterized by the accumulation of lipids, inflammatory cells and fibrous tissue in the arteries' internal wall, provoking to some extent their obstructio...

During the last few years, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are being consideredas ideal candidates to find more efficient systems for the production and storage of energy[1]. [...]

The beginnings of metal-organic frameworks (MOF) chemistry were established by Yaghi et al., in the 1990s. They started a new promising field for which, depending on the nature of the organic functionality and metal−ligand coordination chemistry, diversity of MOFs in terms of their structures and chemical properties is virtually endless. Since the...

Alterations in neurogenesis result in the inevitable loss of brain nervous tissue and cause neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and Huntington’s disease (HD). In this regard, hydrogels based on natural biopolymers have attractive properties, such as excellent biocompatibility, a low immune respons...

In this work, SnO2 and carbon black (CB) nanoparticles (NPs) were used to improve the physical and mechanical properties of polycarbonate films (PC) for industrial applications. Raman spectroscopy proved the successful inclusion of the fillers within the polymeric-based nanocomposites, with a suitable dispersion without changes in the structure and...

A histidine-based gemini cationic lipid, which had already demonstrated its efficiency as a plasmid DNA (pDNA) nanocarrier, has been used in this work to transfect a small interfering RNA (siRNA) into cancer cells. In combination with the helper lipid monoolein glycerol (MOG), the cationic lipid was used as an antiGFP-siRNA nanovector in a multidis...

The aggregation kinetics of Aβ1–40 peptide was characterized using a synergistic approach by a combination of nuclear magnetic resonance, thioflavin-T fluorescence, transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering. A major finding is the experimental detection of high molecular weight oligomers (HMWO) that converts into fibrils nuclei....

Nanoparticles can act on tumor cells at the nanoscale, causing biological therapeutic responses. In the current work, magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) were synthesized via a co-precipitation method and functionalized with dextran (D) and crocin, a saffron metabolite with potential antiproliferative properties. These MNPs were characterized using X-ray...

Background. Exosomes are extracellular vesicles originating from the exfoliation of the cellular membrane. They are involved in cell-to-cell and cell-to-matrix signaling, exchange of bioactive molecules, tumorigenesis and metastasis, among others. To mitigate the limited understanding of exosome transfer phenomena, we developed a simplistic model t...

Despite the use of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) as therapeutic agents through the knockdown expresion of pathogenic proteins, the transportation and delivery of such siRNAs into cells continues under investigation. Within non-viral vectors, cationic lipids that include amino acid residues in their structures, and that have already demonstrated t...

In the past few decades, polymeric nanocarriers have been recognized as promising tools and have gained attention from researchers for their potential to efficiently deliver bioactive compounds, including drugs, proteins, genes, nucleic acids, etc., in pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. Remarkably, these polymeric nanocarriers could be fur...

Background: The unique upconversion properties of rare-earth-doped nanoparticles offers exciting opportunities for biomedical applications, in which near-IR remote activation of biological processes is desired, including in vivo bioimaging, optogenetics, and light-based therapies. Tuning of upconversion in purposely designed core-shell nanoparticl...

Self-assembly structures of gemini surfactants are characterized, among others, for their low CMC. This characteristic could be due to great hydrophobic parts in their molecular structures. That availability could imply great stability of self-assembly structures or monolayers absorbed in an interface. The micellization behavior of two cationic gem...

Self-assembly structures of gemini surfactants are characterized, among others, for their low CMC. This characteristic could be due to great hydrophobic parts in their molecular structures. That availability could imply great stability of self-assembly structures or monolayers absorbed in an interface. The micellization behavior of two cationic gem...

Background: The unique upconversion properties of rare-earth-doped nanoparticles offers exciting opportunities for biomedical applications, in which near-IR remote activation of biological processes is desired, including in vivo bioimaging, optogenetics, and light-based therapies. Tuning of upconversion in purposely designed core-shell nanoparticle...

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are one of the most promising candidates for their use as theranostic agents in the biomedical field due to their potential as contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and also as heat generators in magnetic hyperthermia treatments. However, despite the large number of publications about this topic, just som...

The isomers vescalagin and castalagin protect SH-SY5Y cells from Aβ42-mediated death. This is achieved better by vescalagin due to the spatial organization of its OH group at the C1 position...

The use of magnetic nanoparticles as theranostic agents for the detection and treatment of cancer diseases has been extensively analyzed in the last few years. In this work, cubic-shape cobalt and zinc-doped iron oxide nanoparticles with edge lengths in the range from 28 to 94 nm are proposed as negative contrast agents for magnetic resonance imagi...

Gemini surfactants (GS) have been highlighted as attractive gene carriers for a few years now; however, key aspects of the role of the GS chemical structure on the DNA-GS complexation and subsequent biological activity remain to be determined. Aiming to elucidate the effects of the GS spacer hydrophobicity, this work was focused on the biophysical...

The capability of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) to reduce noble metal ions and, in turn, to prepare one‐step hybrid systems that exhibit near‐infrared radiation (NIR) light‐responsiveness has been barely explored. The aim of this work was to elucidate whether gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) could be spontaneously formed in PVA gels suitable to be used as s...

This paper reports the most prominent contributions in the field of biodegradable polymeric nanoparticles from poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) used as a protein/drug delivery. We use a combination of Human Serum Albumin (HSA)-superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) loaded PLGA nanoparticles. To obtain protein stabilization, the op...

Background: Improving the water solubility of hydrophobic drugs, increasing their accumulation in tumor tissue and allowing their simultaneous action by different pathways are essential issues for a successful chemotherapeutic activity in cancer treatment. Considering potential clinical application in the future, it will be promising to achieve su...

Most tissues of the human body are characterized by highly anisotropic physical properties and biological organization. Hydrogels have been proposed as the most promising scaffolding materials to construct artificial tissues due to their water-rich composition, biocompatibility and tunable properties. However, hydrogels are typically composed of ra...

In this work conductive polymeric polyaniline (PANI) nanofibers are prepared by a fast chemical method and in-situ assembled with electrostatic double-layer (multi-wall carbon nanotubes, MWNTs) and pseudocapacitive materials (metal oxides) to construct MWCNT/PANI, NiCo2O4/PANI and NiCo2O4/MWCNT/PANI coral-like nanostructured composites for electroc...

Nanostructured electrodes for supercapacitors made by combination of electrical double layer and pseudocapacitive based-nanomaterials within a single hybrid composite has a great potential on expanding the range of use of these devices and increase their electrochemical performance. In this work, we developed several nanostructured composites with...

External stimuli such as light, magnetic fields or ultrasounds allow for controlled drug release from nanocarriers with spatiotemporal resolution. Such tetherless approaches may become a straightforward solution to overcome the specificity problems typically associated with nanomedicines. Most of current nanomedicines suffer of very low specificity...

Small interfering RNA (siRNA) is as a very interesting therapeutic alternative to treat genetic diseases such Alzheimer´s or some types of cancer, but its effective delivery still remains a challenge. Herein, Au nanorods (GNRs)-based platforms functionalised with polyelectrolyte (PE) layers were developed and analysed as potential siRNA nanocarrier...

The present work investigates the potentiality of poly(N-vinyl caprolactam) (PVCL)-based thermoresponsive microgels decorated with cationic polymer brushes as drug delivery carriers. The effect of physico-chemical features of the colloids on cell viability response have to be carefully investigated to establish the range of suitable hydrodynamic di...

The effect of thermoplasmonic heating on the dynamics of the protein corona around polyethylene glycol (PEG) coated gold nanorods (GNRs) is reported. GNRs were surface-modified with densely packed shells composed of thiolated PEGs bearing carboxyl and/or amine end-terminal groups, which led to negatively, positively or neutral charged GNRs. The thr...

New hybrid nanostructured electrodes for supercapacitors made by combination of electrical double layer and faradaic supercapacitors based-nanomaterials within a single hybrid composite has a great potential on expanding the range of use of these devices and increase their electrochemical performance. In this work, we developed several hybrid nanos...

A plasmonic core‐shell gold nanostars/zeolitic imidazolate framework 8 (ZIF‐8) nanocomposite was developed for thermoplasmonic‐driven release of encapsulated active molecules inside living cells. The nanocomposites were loaded, as a proof of concept, with bisbenzimide molecules as functional cargo, and wrapped with an amphiphilic polymer that preve...

A plasmonic core–shell gold nanostar/zeolitic‐imidazolate‐framework‐8 (ZIF‐8) nanocomposite was developed for the thermoplasmonic‐driven release of encapsulated active molecules inside living cells. The nanocomposites were loaded, as a proof of concept, with bisbenzimide molecules as functional cargo and wrapped with an amphiphilic polymer that pre...

The ability to specifically silence genes by RNA interference has an enormous potential for treating genetic diseases. However, different drawbacks such as short interfering RNA (siRNA) degradability by serum nucleases and biodistribution issues still need to be overcome to develop suitable delivery vehicles that have been proven essential in carry...

Aim: Cationically modified solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) were investigated as plasmid DNA (pDNA) carriers and transfection agents for the pulmonary route. Materials & methods: pDNA-loaded SLN were produced using glyceryl dibehenate or tristearate as matrix lipids and chitosan as surface charge modifier, and encapsulated by spray-drying in mann...

Block copolymer dispersions that form gels at body temperature and that additionally are able to reduce a gold salt to nanoparticles (AuNPs) directly in the final formulation under mild conditions were designed as hybrid depots for photothermal therapy. The in situ gelling systems may retain AuNPs in the application zone for a long time so that loc...

Here we report the synthesis and characterization of a mononuclear gadolinium complex (Gd) and two heteronuclear Zn-Gd complexes (ZnGd and Zn2Gd), which contain two similar three-armed ligands that display an external compartment suitable for lanthanoid ions, and two internal compartments adequate for zinc (II) ions [H3L′ = (2-(3-formyl-2-hydroxy-5...

In this work, multifunctional nanocarriers consisting of poly(sodium-4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS)/doxorubicin (DOXO)/poly-l-lysine hydrobromide (PLL)/hyaluronic acid (HA)-coated and (PSS/DOXO/PLL)2/HA-coated gold nanorods were assembled by the layer-by-layer technique with the aims of coupling the plasmonic photothermal properties of the metal nanopar...

The Biodegradable nanoparticles from poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) have been extensively investigated for sustained and targeted/localized deli-very of different agents. Many parameters are required in the synthesis of a biodegradable polymeric nanoparticle. We report the synthesis of human se-rum albumin (HSA)-superparamagnetic iron oxide n...

Drug discovery frequently relies on the kinetic analysis of physicochemical reactions that are at the origin of the disease state. Amyloid fibril formation has been extensively investigated in relation to prevalent and rare neurodegenerative diseases, but thus far no therapeutic solution has directly arisen from this knowledge. Other aggregation pa...

a bottom-up green chemical method for the preparation of a new nanometric microporous coordination polymer made of copper imidazolate is reported. Thin entangled nanosheets thermodynamically evolve either to structurally identical larger nanosheets or, upon redispersion in water, to nanospikes mainly composed of copper oxide. The physicochemical, s...

Most investigations about polymer and surfactant interactions are related to standard surfactants, while the scope of literature using imidazolium surfactants is limited. In this work, conductometric and calorimetric techniques have been combined to determine the interaction of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) with two surfactants: 1-tetradecyl-3-methyl...

The use of colloidal particles as drug delivery carriers holds a great promise in terms of improvement of traditional treatment and diagnosis of human diseases. Nano- and microsized particles of different composition including organic and inorganic materials can be fabricated with a great control over size, shape and surface properties. Nevertheles...