Samantha Meenach

• University of Rhode Island

Background: Resveratrol (RSV) is a natural polyphenol that offers antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and chemopreventive benefits. This project determined the ability of RSV-loaded nanoparticles (NP) to inhibit the growth of lung tumor spheroids in vitro. Methods: RSV was encapsulated in NP comprised of the biodegradable polymer, acetalated dextran. A...

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, resulting in the highest mortality rates among both men and women with respect to all other types of cancer. Difficulties in treating lung cancer arise from late-stage diagnoses and tumor heterogeneity and current treatment involves a combination of chemotherapeutics, surgery, and...

Cell membrane-coated nanoparticles (CMCNP), which involve coating a core nanoparticle (NP) with cell membranes, have been gaining attention due to their ability to mimic the properties of the cells, allowing for enhanced delivery and efficacy of therapeutics. Two CMCNP systems comprised of an acetalated dextran-based NP core loaded with curcumin (C...

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) impacts up to 37 million people globally, of which 1.8 million are children. To date, there is no cure for HIV, although treatment options such as antiretroviral therapy (ART) are available. ART, which involves a patient taking a combination of antiretrovirals, is being used to treat HIV clinically. Despite th...

Tangential flow filtration (TFF) is a purification method commonly used in a multitude of fields, including particle engineering. Currently, there is still a lack of comprehensive understanding of the effects of key TFF parameters on nanoparticle (NP) characteristics (purification outcomes). The present study aimed to investigate the influence of v...

Objective: To design and characterize aerosol microparticles (MP) to provide sustained release of the water-soluble compound sulforhodamine B (SRB) and achieve effective aerosol dispersion. Significance: Modulating the release of water-soluble compounds remains a challenge in pulmonary drug delivery. Methods: SRB and water made up an aqueous soluti...

Although vital to the immune system, macrophages can act as reservoirs for pathogens such as tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus. Limitations in the treatment of such diseases include targeting therapeutics directly to macrophages and the large systemic dosages needed. The objective of this study is to develop a nanoparticle (NP)-based dr...

Three-dimensional (3D) cell culture platforms are increasingly being used in cancer research and drug development since they mimic avascular tumors in vitro. In the present study, we focused on the development of a novel air-grown multicellular spheroid (MCS) model to mimic in vivo tumors for understanding lung cancer biology and improvement in the...

Nanocomposite microparticle (nCmP) systems exhibit promising potential in the application of therapeutics for pulmonary drug delivery. This work aimed to identify the optimal spray drying condition(s) to prepare nCmP with specific drug delivery properties including: small aerodynamic diameter, effective nanoparticle redispersion upon nCmP exposure...

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is an incurable cardiovascular disease characterized by high blood pressure in the arteries leading from the heart to the lungs. Over two million people in the USA are diagnosed with PAH annually and the typical survival rate is only 3 years after diagnosis. Current treatments are insufficient because of limite...

Biocompatible, biodegradable polymers are commonly used as excipients to improve the drug delivery properties of aerosol formulations, in which acetalated dextran (Ac-Dex) exhibits promising potential as a polymer in various therapeutic applications. Despite this promise, there is no comprehensive study on the use of Ac-Dex as an excipient for dry...

Background: The use of non-invasive inhaled aerosols for pulmonary drug delivery continues to grow. This is due to the many unique advantages this delivery route offers for the treatment of both local and systemic diseases. The physicochemical properties of the formulated drugs as well as the physiology of the lungs play a key role in both the dep...

Targeted pulmonary delivery facilitates the direct application of bioactive materials to the lungs in a controlled manner and provides an exciting platform for targeting magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) to the lungs. Iron oxide MNPs remotely heat in the presence of an alternating magnetic field (AMF) providing unique opportunities for therapeutic appl...

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Hyperthermia, the heating of tissue between 42 and 45°C, has been shown to enhance the effects of radiation and chemotherapeutics, but current methods of hyperthermia often result in severe side effects due to lack of localization and overheating of tissue. Magnetically mediated hyperthermia provides the opportunity for localized heating, however,...

Hyperthermia, the heating of tissue between 42 and 45°C, has been shown to enhance the effects of radiation and chemotherapeutics, but current methods of hyperthermia often result in severe side effects due to lack of localization and overheating of tissue. Magnetically mediated hyperthermia provides the opportunity for localized heating, however,...

Inhalable lung surfactant-based carriers composed of synthetic phospholipids, dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and dipalmitoylphosphatidylglycerol (DPPG), along with paclitaxel (PTX), were designed and optimized as respirable dry powders using organic solution co-spray-drying particle engineering design. These materials can be used to deliver...

One of the current challenges in the systemic delivery of nanoparticles in cancer therapy applications is the lack of effective tumor localization. Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) coated with crosslinked dextran were functionalized with the tumor-homing peptide CREKA, which binds to fibrinogen complexes in the extracellular matrix of tumors. This...

Chemotherapy results in many adverse side effects when administered systemically through oral or intravenous delivery, and the localization of this therapy can result in improved therapeutic outcomes and enhanced patient response. When treating lung cancer, targeted pulmonary administration of chemotherapy has shown enhanced therapeutic response an...

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States with an estimate of 580,000 deaths in 2013[1]. Of the previous estimate, approximately 163,890 of those deaths are caused by lung cancer alone [1]. Along with lung cancer, breast cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer in women. The current treatment of any cancer can be filed...

Lung cancer for both men and women is the number-one cause of cancer deaths with survival rates of less than 16 % at five years (1). Over half of cancer patients receive radiation at some point during treatment (2). Radiosensitizing treatments, treatments that enhance radiation, are particularly relevant in combating cancer because they increase th...

Hyperthermia, the heating of tissue from 41 to 45 °C, has been shown to improve the efficacy of cancer therapy when used in conjunction with irradiation and/or chemotherapy. In this work, hydrogel nanocomposites have been developed that can control the delivery of both heat and a chemotherapeutic agent (e.g. paclitaxel). The nanocomposites studied...

Pulmonary inhalation chemotherapeutic drug delivery offers many advantages for lung cancer patients in comparison to conventional systemic chemotherapy. Inhalable particles are advantageous in their ability to deliver drug deep in the lung by utilizing optimally sized particles and higher local drug dose delivery. In this work, spray-dried and co-s...

Novel advanced spray-dried and co-spray-dried inhalable lung surfactant-mimic phospholipid and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)ylated lipopolymers as microparticulate/nanoparticulate dry powders of biodegradable biocompatible lipopolymers were rationally formulated via an organic solution advanced spray-drying process in closed mode using various phosph...

Three-dimensional (3D) lung multicellular spheroids (MCS) in liquid-covered culture (LCC) and air-interface culture (AIC) conditions have both been developed for the evaluation of aerosol anticancer therapeutics in solution and aerosols, respectively. The MCS were formed by seeding lung cancer cells on top of collagen where they formed spheroids du...

Despite the significant advances in the treatment of lung cancer, it is a disease that still has signifies poor prognosis and challenges in implementation of treatment. Targeted pulmonary inhalation drug delivery offers many advantages for lung cancer patients in comparison to conventional systemic chemotherapy. These include the potential to deliv...

Chemotherapy results in many adverse side effects when administered systemically through oral or intravenous delivery, and the localization of this therapy can result in improved therapeutic outcomes and enhanced patient response. When treating lung cancer, targeted pulmonary administration of chemotherapy has shown enhanced therapeutic response an...

The translation of in vitro results to in vivo applications has limitations due to conventional two-dimensional (2D) in vitro conditions lacking the ability to create a physiologically representative model. The utilization of three-dimensional (3D) cell culture in Air Interface Culture (AIC) conditions creates an extremely beneficial model of lung...

Despite the significant advances in the treatment of lung cancer, it is a disease which still signifies poor prognosis and challenges in implementation of treatment. Targeted pulmonary inhalation drug delivery offers many advantages for lung cancer patients in comparison to conventional systemic chemotherapy. These include: the potential to deliver...

Micro- and nanoparticles have been shown to improve the efficacy of safer protein-based (subunit) vaccines. Here, we evaluate a method of improving the vaccine stability outside cold chain conditions by encapsulation of a model enzyme, horseradish peroxidase (HRP), in an acid-sensitive, tunable biodegradable polymer, acetalated dextran (Ac-DEX). Va...

Poly(β-amino ester) (PBAE) biodegradable hydrogels were investigated for potential combined chemotherapeutic and heat delivery in the synergistic treatment of cancer. Hyperthermia, the heating of cancerous tissue from 41 to 45 °C, increases the efficacy of conventional cancer therapies such as irradiation and chemotherapy. The hydrogel nanocomposit...

Immunosuppressive drugs can treat autoimmune disorders and limit rejection with organ transplants. However, delivering immunosuppressants like rapamycin systemically can have harmful side-effects. We aim to potentially reduce these toxic side-effects by encapsulating rapamycin in a polymeric microparticle to passively target phagocytes, the cells i...

We propose the use of a new biopolymer, acetalated dextran (Ac-DEX), to synthesize porous microparticles for pulmonary drug delivery. Ac-DEX is derived from the polysaccharide dextran and, unlike polyesters, has tunable degradation from days to months and pH neutral degradation products. Ac-DEX microparticles fabricated through emulsion techniques...

Recently, there has been increasing interest in remote heating of polymer nanocomposites for applications such as actuators, microfluidic valves, drug delivery devices, and hyperthermia treatment of cancer. In this study, magnetic hydrogel nanocomposites of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) with varying amounts of iron oxide nanoparticle loadings were sy...

Magnetic nanoparticles, with their unique physical properties, are being studied for a wide range of biomedical applications such as imagining, targeted delivery, and hyperthermia treatment of cancer. In order to be successful in these applications, surface modifications play an essential role. In most cases, surface modification is needed to incre...

Acetalted dextran nanoparticles have been investigated for their use in various biomedical applications, specifically for the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis or celiac disease. The nanoparticulate materials would be involved in an immunotherapy application by inducing and/or enhancing an immune response in the body to he...

Temperature-responsive hydrogels are one of the most widely studied types of stimuli-responsive hydrogel systems. Their ability to transition between their swollen and collapsed states makes them attractive for controlled drug delivery, microfluidic devices, and biosensor applications. Recent work has shown that poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) methacry...

Hyperthermia, the heating of cancerous tissues to between 41 and 45 °C, has been shown to improve the efficacy of cancer therapy when used in conjunction with irradiation and/or chemotherapy. Here a novel method for remotely administering heat is presented, which involves the heating of tumor tissue using hydrogel nanocomposites containing magnetic...

With the growing interest in nanocomposites and their applications in biology and medicine, studies examining the biocompatibility of those materials are critical. Magnetic hydrogel nanocomposites based on poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) and iron oxide nanoparticles were fabricated via UV-polymerization with tetra(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate acting...

This research investigates the utilization of poly(β-amino ester) (PBAE) polymers and iron oxide for combined chemotherapeutic and heat delivery for hyperthermia-based treatment of cancer. Hyperthermia, the heating of cancerous tissue from 42 to 45C, has been shown to increase the efficacy of conventional cancer therapies such as irradiation and ch...

The type and severity of a host cell or tissue response to a degradable material depends on the toxicity of its low molecular weight degradation products and its rate of degradation. Studies have found out that local accumulation of the low molecular weight water-soluble and water-insoluble biodegradation products of the polymers can trigger an inf...

Temperature-responsive hydrogels are one of the most widely-studied types of responsive hydrogel systems, especially for biomedical applications. Their ability to perform in both swollen and collapsed states gives them the ability to be used in controlled drug delivery, microfluidic devices, and biosensors. Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogels are...

Hydrogels and hydrogel nanocomposites are attractive materials for a variety of biomedical/pharmaceutical applications. In recent studies, magnetic hydrogel composites of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm) hydrogels have been demonstrated as pulsatile drug delivery systems with radiofrequency(RF) at 293 kHz as a trigger.1 In another study, magnetic nan...

Nanocomposites obtained by incorporation of nanoparticulates in hydrogel matrix are attractive biomaterials for a variety of biomedical applications including drug delivery, hyperthermia cancer treatment, sensors and actuators, and tissue engineering. In this study, we present a nanocomposite of hydrogels with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT)....

Hyperthermia, the heating of tissue to 41 to 45C, has been shown to improve the efficacy of cancer therapy when used in conjunction with irradiation and/or chemotherapy. Current limitations include but are not limited to non-homogeneous distribution of temperature over the cancer site, low specificity, patient discomfort, and lack of localized deli...

Chemotherapy is a conventional cancer treatment that is still limiting for some types of cancer. Hyperthermia, the heating of cancerous tissues to 40-45C, can increase the efficacy of chemotherapy, specifically paclitaxel. We hypothesize that iron oxide hydrogel nanocomposites can be used for a dual-therapy application to treat cancer. Hydrogels co...

Since nanocomposites have been shown to have remote heating capabilities and have demonstrated biocompatibility, a variety of applications in medicine are possible, particularly in hyperthermia cancer therapy. Hyperthermia is a type of treatment in which body tissue is exposed to moderate temperatures (up to 45C) for a period of time. In this resea...

Hydrogel nanocomposites are an important class of biomaterials that can be utilized in applications such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, and hyperthermia treatment. The incorporation of nanoparticles into a hydrogel matrix can provide unique properties including remote actuation and can also improve properties such as mechanical strength. Sin...

Hydrogel nanocomposites have been investigated with increasing interest over the last several years due their ability to improve or enhance the properties of conventional hydrogels. These improvements may include increased mechanical strength or the ability for the gels to be remotely-controlled via external stimuli such as light or magnetic fields...

A powerful method was used for producing metal/polymer composite nanowires of controllable composition by dealloying alloy nanowires and backfilling the pores with an electropolymerized films while the wires were inside the membrane template. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy were used to assess the quality and morphology of the resulti...

Currently, cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. Conventional cancer treatment includes chemotherapy, radiation, and surgical resection, but unfortunately, all of these methods have significant drawbacks. Hyperthermia, the heating of cancerous tissues to between 41 and 45°C, has been shown to improve the efficacy of canc...