
Irina N SavinaUniversity of Brighton · School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences
Irina N Savina
PhD, Polymer Science
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87
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Introduction
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May 2007 - June 2013
Publications
Publications (87)
The development of effective materials for neural tissue repair remains a major challenge in regenerative medicine. In this study, we present a novel MXene-reinforced composite cryogel scaffold designed for neural tissue regeneration. MXenes, a class of two-dimensional materials with high conductivity and biocompatibility, were integrated into a po...
Cancer treatments are advancing to harness the body’s immune system against tumours, aiming for lasting effects. This progress involves combining potent chemotherapy drugs with immunogens to kill cancer cells and trigger lasting immunity. Developing new prodrugs that integrate both chemotherapy and immune-boosting elements could significantly impro...
Providing clean water to everyone is one of the current global challenges highlighted by the United Nations. Continuous industrial development, agricultural expansion, and population growth place high demands on water supply and create new problems associated with the emergence of new pollutants from human activities. Wastewater treatment is essent...
Synthetic hydrogels provide a promising platform to produce neural tissue analogs with improved control over structural, physical, and chemical properties. In this study, oligo(poly(ethylene glycol) fumarate) (OPF)-based macroporous cryogels were developed as a potential next-generation alternative to a non-porous OPF hydrogel previously proposed a...
Ibuprofen is potentially toxic and carcinogenic for freshwater ecosystems and poses a serious threat to human health by affecting kidney function. The present study focused on the sunlight-controlled degradation of ibuprofen from water using a novel magnetically separable cerium oxide-embedded bismuth ferrite heterostructure. Catalysts were synthes...
Professor Hélder A. Santos and Dr Irina N. Savina introduce the RSC Advances themed collection on Nanomaterials in drug delivery .
Pollution of the aquatic environment by halogen derivatives widely used as antiseptic compounds, as well as chemicals for various industrial purposes, is significant. Existing systems of bioremediation poorly solve the problem of eliminating pollution. This paper discusses the preparation of novel macroporous chitosan-based cryogels with in situ-im...
The persistence of harmful cyanobacterial algal blooms in aquatic ecosystems leads to health damage for various life forms. In this study, a photocatalyst active in the visible light range was prepared by combining BiVO4 with hydrogen peroxide modified titanium dioxide (BiVO4@HMT; for short), using an impregnation method. The catalyst was used to p...
Divalent trace metals (TM), especially copper (Cu), cobalt (Co) and zinc (Zn), are recognized as essential microelements for tissue homeostasis and regeneration. To achieve a balance between therapeutic activity and safety of administered TMs, effective gel formulations of TMs with elucidated regenerative mechanisms are required. We studied in vitr...
Cryogels obtained by the cryotropic gelation process are macroporous hydrogels with a well-developed system of interconnected pores and shape memory. There have been significant recent advancements in our understanding of the cryotropic gelation process, and in the relationship between components, their structure and the application of the cryogels...
In this study, we developed a method to prepare inorganic nanoparticles in situ on the surface of cationized cellulose using a rapid microwave-assisted synthesis. Selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) were employed as a novel type of antimicrobial agent and, using the same method, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were also prepared. The results demonstrated t...
Bioartificial Liver (BAL) devices are extracorporeal systems designed to support or recover hepatic function in patients with liver failure. The design of an effective BAL remains an open challenge since it requires a complex co-optimisation of cell colonisation, biomaterial scaffold and BAL fluid dynamics. Building on previous evidence of suitabil...
A mesoporous support based on silica and zirconia (ZS) was used to prepare monometallic 1 wt% Pd/ZS, 10 wt% Fe/ZS, and bimetallic FePd/ZS catalysts. The catalysts were characterized by TPR-H2, XRD, SEM-EDS, TEM, AAS, and DRIFT spectroscopy of adsorbed CO after H2 reduction in situ and tested in hydrodechlorination of environmental pollutant 4-chlor...
This Special Issue invites original papers and reviews reporting on recent progress in the development of novel porous polymer materials, with a particular focus on advances in the synthesis, characterization, and application of porous polymers in biomedical, biotechnological, and environmental areas. This Issue welcomes focused review articles tha...
Novel macroporous iron oxide nanocomposite cryogels were synthesized and assessed as arsenite (As(III)) adsorbents. The two-step synthesis method, by which a porous nanonetwork of iron oxide is firstly formed, allowed a homogeneous dispersion of the iron oxide in the cryogel reaction mixture, regardless of the nature of the co-polymer forming the c...
The wonder material graphene has numerous potential applications in nanoelectronics, biomedicine, storage devices, etc. Synthesis of graphene is highly challenging due to the toxic chemicals used and its low yield. In the present study, a facile green route for synthesis of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was carried out using ascorbic acid as reducin...
The aim of this study was to develop and test a non-diffusion limited, high cell density #bioreactor for #biodegradation of various phenol derivatives. The bioreactor was obtained using a straightforward one-step preparation method using #cryostructuration and direct cross-linking of bacteria into a 3D structured (sponge-like) #macroporous #cryogel...
Immobilisation of bacteria on or into a polymer support is a common method for the utilisation of bacteria as biocatalysts for many biotechnological, medical and environmental applications. The main challenge in this approach is the time taken for the formation of stable biofilms, and the typically low percentage of bacterial cells present on or in...
In this review, the importance of water in hydrogel (HG) properties and structure is analyzed. A variety of methods such as 1H NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance), DSC (differential scanning calorimetry), XRD (X-ray powder diffraction), dielectric relaxation spectroscopy, thermally stimulated depolarization current, quasi-elastic neutron scattering, r...
Carbon-based nanofilaments are promising materials for improving the mechanical performance of cementitious composites. To date, the main challenge in their effective use has been controlling the dispersion of these additives in water and in the resulting mixed composites due to their strong van der Waals self-attraction and hydrophobic surfaces. T...
Use of hybrid fibre composites that exploit the synergistic effect of nano- and micro- additives can potentially lead to significant improvements in the toughness and mechanical properties of fibre reinforced cementitious materials. In this study, the mechanical properties of two types of novel cementitious composite (Carbon Nano-Fibre (CNF) Compos...
The synergistic effect of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and Undensified Silica Fume (USF) on the microstructure of cementitious composites has been studied. In the current work, USF was used to enhance the dispersion of nanotubes throughout the composite and prevent the re-agglomeration of nanotubes by providing a physical barrier of parti...
Comparison of nitrogen adsorption isotherms of porous carbons before and after exposure to proteins yields information on the pore landscape that is unobtainable from small angle neutron scattering (SANS) [Carbon 2016; 106:142–151]. Two globular proteins, bovine serum albumin (BSA), and bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor (BPTI), are studied, with...
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Effective technologies are required to remove organic micropollutants from large fluid volumes to overcome present and future challenges in water and effluent treatment. A novel hierarchical composite filter material for rapid and effective removal of polar organic contaminants from water was developed....
This article reports measurements of the concentration distribution of two model proteins adsorbed from aqueous solution by two different high surface area carbons, using small angle neutron and X-ray scattering (SANS and SAXS). The proteins investigated were bovine serum albumin (67 kDa), and bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor (BPTI), also known...
Effective therapy lies in achieving a therapeutic amount of drug to the proper site in the body and then maintaining the desired drug concentration for a sufficient time interval to be clinically effective for treatment. The blood brain barrier (BBB) hinders most drugs from entering the central nervous system (CNS) from the blood stream, leading to...
This chapter provides an introduction on the macroporous polymeric gel preparation in semifrozen solutions-cryogelation. The phenomena of freezing of aqueous polymer solution, formation of unfrozen liquid phase, cryo-concentration of solutions and cryo-polymerization are discussed. The formation of nonfrozen liquid phase and its size dependence on...
Cryogels are hydrogel materials produced in semifrozen conditions and have a unique structure of large interconnected pores and many features of biomaterials. In this chapter, the cryogel properties with particular focus on applications in regenerative medicine are discussed. Recent studies in dermal tissue regeneration, topical wound dressing and...
The present study is focused on the dispersion of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) assisted by superplasticizer/surfactant adsorption, and the impact of CNTs wetta-bility agents on the rheological behaviour and mechanical properties of CNTs-cementitious composites. Two commercially available cationic superplasticisers (belonging to polycarboxylate and napht...
The development of bulk, three-dimensional (3D), macroporous polymers with high permeability, large surface area and large volume is highly desirable for a range of applications in the biomedical, biotechnological and environmental areas. The experimental techniques currently used are limited to the production of small size and volume cryogel mater...
We prepared an experimental sample of gelatin based cryogel membrane with pore size of 50-150 μm. Confocal microscopy and LDH assay showed that the cryogel macroporous structure promotes migration and proliferation of human skin fibroblasts within the matrix in vitro. To assess in vivo effect of the cryogel an excision wound model in rats was teste...
Polymeric cryogels are efficient carriers for the immobilization of biomolecules because of their unique macroporous structure, permeability, mechanical stability and different surface chemical functionalities. The aim of the study was to demonstrate the potential use of macroporous monolithic cryogels for biotoxin removal using anthrax toxin prote...
New type of copolymers of propylene oxide and ethylene oxide was assessed for promoting delivery of plasmid DNA based gene therapeutics. Lipid-like trifunctional copolymers (TFCs), with both random or diblock structures and relatively low hydrophilic-lipophilic balance, were studied and compared with linear Pluronic™ L61. Structure-dependent relati...
Feather keratin (FK) extracted from feathers represents a valuable source of biodegradable and biocompatible polymer. The aim of this study was the development and characterization of blended films based on FK and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) cross-linked by dialdehyde starch (DAS) for a potential drug release application. The compatibility of FK/PVA wa...
The progress in development of a number of novel products using recombinant DNA technology and cell culturing, plus the demands for high product yield whilst preserving biological activity, require novel approaches for fast and cost-effective isolation and/or purification processes. Smart polymers (SPs) with their ability to undergo considerable ch...
This chapter summarizes the properties and most representative applications of pH-responsive polymers in the biomedical fi eld. The most common methodologies to synthesize pH-responsive polymers such as emulsion polymerization, group transfer polymerization, atom transfer radical polymerization and reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer p...
A sheet gelatin scaffold with attached silicone pseudoepidermal layer for wound repair purposes was produced by a cryogelation technique. The resulting scaffold possessed an interconnected macroporous structure with a pore size distribution of 131±17μm at one surface decreasing to 30±8μm at the attached silicone surface. The dynamic storage modulus...
Smart polymers are polymers that respond to different stimuli or changes in the environment. The first part of this book reviews the different types of smart polymer, discussing their properties, structure, design and characterization. Part two reviews applications of smart polymers in such areas as biomedical engineering, textiles and food packagi...
A polymerizable room temperature ionic liquid (RTIL), 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propane sulfonic acid (AMPS) - triethylamine (TEA), was synthesized by neutralization of AMPS with TEA in acetone followed by evaporation of the solvent under a reduced pressure at room temperature. The RTIL was characterized with fourier transform infrared spectroscopy,...
Novel copolymeric gels of poly(AMPS–TEA-co-AAm) with superabsorbency in both water and alcohols were synthesized by neutralizing 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propane sulfonic acid (AMPS) with triethylamine (TEA) followed by copolymerizing the resulted salt with acrylamide (AAm) in aqueous solutions using N,N′-methylenebisacrylamide (MBAm) as a crosslink...
Experimental results on polymer, protein, and composite cryogels and data treatment methods used for morphological, textural, structural, adsorption and diffusion characterisation of the materials are analysed and compared. Treatment of microscopic images with specific software gives quantitative structural information on both native cryogels and f...
Macroporous permeable composites with embedded nanoparticles were prepared by cryogelation. Nanoscale particles have large surface area and high surface reactivity and provide cost effective solutions to many challenging environmental remediation problem. Embedding the nanoparticles into polymer or other substrates significantly reduces the risk of...
In this article, synthesis, mechanical and structural properties of polymeric cryogels, and their composites – materials produced by polymerization in a frozen solvent used as a porogen – are described. The analysis of their porosity and pore structure studied using electron microscopy, confocal laser scanning microscopy, and microcomputed tomograp...
Novel nanocomposite materials where iron nanoparticles are embedded into the walls of a macroporous polymer were produced and their efficiency for the removal of As(III) from aqueous media was studied. Nanocomposite gels containing α-Fe(2)O(3) and Fe(3)O(4) nanoparticles were prepared by cryopolymerisation resulting in a monolithic structure with l...
Water quality sustains our economies and is critical to health, which has given rise to European policies that actively promote sustainable use of water. It is therefore vital to develop technological solutions to minimize water pollution to a level that would not affect humans or the ecosystem. This research
addresses the scientific and technologi...
The porous structure and the state of the water are two main factors which define the vast applications of hydrogels in the life science arena. The structural characterisation and water state in hydrogels produced by the cryogelation of poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) and gelatine were undertaken using different techniques. Images obtained using co...
Porosity over a broad range (typically 0.001-300 mu m in diameter) of tissue scaffolds provides appropriate conditions for diffusion and adsorption of small molecules and macromolecules, migration of cells through the scaffold, and adequate cell proliferative capacity. Characterisation of pores over this large range poses a problem especially when...
Boronate-containing thin polyacrylamide gels (B-Gel), polymer brushes (B-Brush) and chemisorbed organosilane layers (B-COSL) were prepared on the surface of glass slides and studied as substrates for carbohydrate-mediated cell adhesion. B-COSL- and B-Brush-modified glass samples exhibited multiple submicron structures densely and irregularly distri...
Hydrogels represent a special class of hydrophilic polymer materials and are dened as two-or multicomponent systems consisting of a water or aqueous solution, lled three-dimensional network of polymer chains (Hoffman 2002; Rosiak et al. 2002). Hydrogels adsorb signicant amounts of water, from 10 to 20% to several thousand times their dry weight (Ho...
Macroporous sponge-like gelatin-fibrinogen (Gl-Fg) scaffolds cross-linked with different concentrations (0.05-0.5%) of glutaraldehyde (GA) were produced using cryogelation technology, which allows for the preparation of highly porous scaffolds without compromising their mechanical properties, and is a more cost-efficient process than freeze-drying....
Macroporous hydrogels (MHs), cryogels, are a new type of biomaterials for tissue engineering that can be produced from any natural or synthetic polymer that forms a gel. Synthetic MHs are rendered bioactive by surface or bulk modifications with extracellular matrix components. In this study, cell response to the architecture of protein ligands, bov...
Macroporous hydrogels (MHs) hold great promise as scaffolds in tissue engineering and cell-based assays. In this study, the possibility of combination of three-dimensional (3D) cell culture with a miniaturized screening format was demonstrated on human colon cancer HCT116, human acute myeloid leukemia KG-1 cells, and embryonic fibroblasts cultured...
Macroporous hydrogels (MHs) have been prepared by cross-linking polymerization of hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) or cross-linking co-polymerization of HEMA with dimethylacrylamide (DMAA) in semi-frozen state. The MHs are elastic and have a unique structure of large interconnected pores with pore sizes up to 100 µm and total porosity of 94–97%, as...
Graft polymerization of glycidyl methacrylate onto the pore surface of polyacrylamide macroporous gel was implemented in DMSO-aqueous solution using diperiodatocuprate(III) complexes as an initiator. The grafting densities up to 410% were achieved. The graft polymerization was confirmed by gravimetrical methods and FTIR. The graft polymerization of...
The grafting of functional polymers to the pore surface of macroporous monolithic polyacrylamide cryogels was found to be an efficient and convenient method for the preparation of macroporous polyacrylamide gels, so-called cryogels (pAAm cryogels), with both controlled extent of functional group incorporated and with tailored surface chemistries. A...
Monolith columns from macroporous polyacrylamide gel were grafted with polycations, poly(N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) (polyDMAEMA), (2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl)-trimethyl ammonium chloride (polyMETA) and partially quaternized polyDMAEMA prepared via treating polyDMAEMA-grafted columns with propylbromide. The polymer grafting degrees varied be...
Graft polymerization initiated by diperiodatocuprate(III) complex (Cu(III)) initiator was found to be an effective and convenient method for graft polymerization of vinyl monomers onto macroporous polyacrylamide gels, the so-called cryogels (pAAm-cryogels). The effect of time, temperature, monomer and initiator concentration during the graft polyme...
Potassium diperiodatocuprate-initiated graft polymerization was found to be an efficient and convenient method for grafting of acrylic acid (AAc) onto superporous polyacrylamide gels, so called cryogels (pAAm cryogels). It was possible to achieve grafting degrees as high as 70% with about 25% yield of grafted polymer with respect to the initial amo...
Graft polymerization using potassium diperiodatocuprate as initiator was found to be an effective and convenient method for grafting functional polymer of N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) onto superporous polyacrylamide gels, so-called cryogels (pAAm cryogels). It was possible to achieve grafting degrees up to 110% (w/w). The two-step g...
A composite material produced from a poly(vinyl alcohol) cryogel with entrapped particles of the strong anion-exchange resin Amberlite is presented. The properties of the composite material depended strongly on whether the resin was used in OH− form or Cl− form. The ion-exchange filler in OH− form caused both a significant reinforcement of the comp...