Editorial Cite This: ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2019, 5, 1−2
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Biomaterials Science and Engineering in India: A Celebration of Interdisciplinarity and Glimpses into the Future
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clinical effects. Koyakutty et al. address this challenge by describing scaffold based xenograft models for gliomas for drug screening which are a closer mimic to the complex internal milieu and the high recurrence of gliomas.8 Any technology that can help predict the course or screen new drugs or delivery systems for this life-threatening cancer can potentially make a impact in drug discovery. Varma et al. describes the role of iron oxide doped hydroxyapatite in acting as MR guided theranostic agents which can be used to track, image and deliver drugs at the desired sites.9 Such theranostic technologies have the potential to provide an additional level of spatiotemporal control in drug delivery under external guidance. Another paper that deals with nanocomposites for therapeutic applications is that of Haldar et al. which describes silver nanocomposites and their ability to inhibit biofilms.10 This can address the challenge of surgical implant associated biofilms and microbial drug resistance, which are causes of high morbidity and mortality globally. Biomaterials may play an exciting role in providing solutions to some of these issues in the future. The other major topic covered in this issue is that of tissue engineering. The nonavailability of adequate grafts and the increasing trend of trauma and degenerative diseases makes tissue engineering a promising strategy in the long run. Orthopedic tissue engineering has been dealt with in three papers in this issue. Kumar et al. describe advances in bone tissue engineering studying the role of platelet derived plasma and growth factor release for hard tissue applications.11 Similarly, osteochondral defects have been described by Dhara et al.12 The role of pore alignment in gelatin based scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering have been described by Katti et al.13 These studies can provide an insight into newer biomaterials and technologies for bone and cartilage regeneration which are much needed given the high incidence of arthritis and nonhealing fractures. Ghosh et al. explores decellularised corneas and the role of chondroitin sulfate cross-linking in a study which has high relevance for ophthalmic tissue engineering.14 Advances in this area may go a long way in addressing curable blindness in the country and worldwide. Sen et al. has explored neuronal regeneration and has described fundamental effects of mechanobiology of scaffolds and their effects on the differentiation of mesenchymal and embryonic stem cells.15 This increases our understanding of the complexity of stem cellbiomaterial interactions which are crucial to directing the desired phenotype in differentiating cells for tissue engineering. Finally, Mandal et al. describes the role of magnetically stimulated dynamic scaffolds for triggered drug release and for promoting cardiac differentiation.16 This interesting study
iomaterials have fascinated humans for several decades and have been at the core of many game-changing medical breakthroughs for efficient drug and macromolecule delivery and development of tailor-made biomedical devices.1 The field has evolved and grown rapidly in India over the years and has emerged as a common ground for engineers, biologists, polymer chemists, and medical doctors to collaborate and innovate. Research has progressed from design of inert biomaterial implants to more dynamic, stimuliresponsive smart materials that can actively control release of actives at the sites of therapy, provide realistic models for screening of drugs and scaffolds that can mimic the extracellular matrix, and modulate the functionality of cells in tissue regeneration. This special issue gives an overview of some of the exciting research in these areas being conducted by scientists in India. One of the earliest developments in biomaterials research in India has been the development of the indigenous TTK Chitra heart valve in the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology.2 It is apt that the first review in this special issue is by Dr. Chandra Sharma’s group from this institute and traces the history and advances of biomaterials science and engineering in India from its early days to present day advances in tissue engineering and nanotechnologyenabled drug delivery.3 The other review in this issue addresses a fundamental question that needs to be addressed for successful biomaterial applications: the foreign body response. Basu et al. provides a comprehensive review of the mechanisms underlying foreign body responses to biomaterials and strategies to modulate the same.4 The experimental papers in the special issue range from the application of biomaterials for drug and gene delivery to the design of scaffolds for tissue engineering. A few papers also deal with topics that bridge these areas in the form of scaffolds that act as realistic models for drug screening and scaffolds that are stimulated externally to release growth promoting agents and modulate cell differentiation. Six papers deal with different aspects of drug and gene delivery, theranostics, and therapeutics. Ganguli et al. describe the role of chondroitin sulfate in modulating and improving transfection efficiency in non viral gene delivery.5 On the other hand, Maji et al. deals with amyloid nanofibers to enhance the efficiency of retroviral transduction.6 The novel approaches of these manuscripts open up the possibilities of improving efficiency of gene delivery, which is otherwise restricted in its translational potential. Koul et al. describes polymersomes which are redox responsive and have the potential to improve the specificity of anticancer drug delivery.7 The role of nanostructured biomaterials in modulating the distribution, toxicity and specificity of anticancer drugs holds promise in cancer therapy. However, many cancer treatments are often limited in translation due to eh lack of suitable models for predicting © 2019 American Chemical Society
Special Issue: Biomaterials Science and Engineering in India Received: December 28, 2018 Published: January 14, 2019 1
DOI: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.8b01642 ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2019, 5, 1−2
ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering
Editorial
(10) Hoque, J., Yadav, V., Prakash, R. G., Sanyal, K., Haldar, J. Dual function polymer-silver nanocomposites for rapid killing of microbes and inhibiting biofilms. ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2019, DOI: 10.1021/ acsbiomaterials.8b00239. (11) Teotia, A. K., Qayoom, I., Kumar, A. Endogenous platelet rich plasma supplements/augments growth factors delivered via porous collagen-nanohydroxyapatite bone substitute for enhanced bone formation. ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2019, DOI: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.8b00227. (12) Kapat, K., Rameshbabu, A. P., Maity, P. P., Mandal, A., Bankoti, K., Dutta, J., Das, D. K., Dey, G., Mandal, M., Dhara, S. Osteochondral defects healing using extracellular matrix mimetic phosphate/sulphate decorated GAGs-agarose gel and quantitative micro CT evaluation. ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2019, DOI: 10.1021/ acsbiomaterials.8b00253. (13) Bhattacharjee, A., Katti, D. S. Pore alignment in gelatin scaffolds enhances chondrogenic differentiation of infrapatellar fat pad derived mesenchymal stromal cells. ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2019, DOI: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.8b00246. (14) Chakraborty, J., Roy, S., Murab, S., Ravani, R., Kaur, K., Devi, S., Singh, D., Sharma, S., Mohanty, S., Dinda, A. K., Tandon, R., Ghosh, S. Modulation of macrophage phenotype, maturation and graft integration through chondroitin sulphate crosslinking to decellularised cornea. ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2019, DOI: 10.1021/ acsbiomaterials.8b00251. (15) Sthanam, L. K., Saxena, N., Mistari, V. K., Roy, T., Jadhav, S. R., Sen, S. Initial priming on soft substrates enhances subsequent topography − induced neuronal differentiation in ESCs but not in MSCs. ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2019, DOI: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.8b00313. (16) Chouhan, D., Mehrotra, S., Majumder, O., Mandal, B. B. Magnetic actuator device assisted modulation of cellular behaviour and tuning of drug release on silk platform. ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2019, DOI: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.8b00240.
bridges both growth factor delivery and tissue engineering with a focus on trigger responsiveness and magnetic modulation of properties. The collection of articles in this special issue give us a glimpse of the emerging areas of biomaterials research in India and emphasize the need for collaboration and co-operation for successful research in this interdisciplinary field. The research presented here is interesting, cutting edge and has the potential to make a difference in medical sciences. However, the ultimate success of these and other related biomaterial technologies will depend on our ability to scale up and translate these innovations in the future. Close interactions between academia and industry and between technologists and clinicians are a must for this to happen. It has been a pleasure and honor to bring together this special issue on Biomaterials Science and Engineering in India. I hope it stimulates many young minds to work in this interdisciplinary field. I also hope this opens up doors for more stakeholders to come together to accelerate translation of these and many other innovations in this field. I look forward to the growth and success of biomaterials researchers in India in the decades to come.
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Rinti Banerjee, Associate Editor AUTHOR INFORMATION
Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
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REFERENCES
(1) Langer, R.; Folkman, J. Polymers for the sustained release of proteins and other macromolecules. Nature 1976, 263, 797−800. (2) Bhuvaneshwar, G. S.; Ramani, A. V.; Valiathan, M. S. A tilting disc valve- component materials and hydraulic function. Bull. Mater. Sci. 1983, 5 (2), 111−121. (3) Victor, S. P., Selvam, S., Sharma, C. P. Recent advances of biomaterials science and engineering research in India: A minireview. ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2019, DOI: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.8b00233. (4) Chandorkar, Y., Ravikumar, K., Basu, B. The foreign body response demystified. ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2019, DOI: 10.1021/ acsbiomaterials.8b00252. (5) Nisakar, D., Vij, M., Pandey, T., Natarajan, P., Sharma, R., Mishra, S., Ganguli, M. Deciphering the role of chondroitin sulphate in increasing the transfection efficiency of amphipathic peptide-based nanocomplexes. ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2019, DOI: 10.1021/ acsbiomaterials.8b00069. (6) Kirti, S., Patel, K., Das, S., Shrimali, P., Samanta, S., Kumar, R., Chatterjee, D., Ghosh, D., Kumar, A., Tayalia, P., Maji, S. Amyloid fibrils with positive charge enhance retroviral transduction in mammalian cells. ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2019, DOI: 10.1021/ acsbiomaterials.8b00248. (7) Nehate, C., Nayal, A., Koul, V. Redox responsive polymersomes for enhanced doxorubicin delivery. ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2019, DOI: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.8b00238. (8) Jeena, K., Manju, C. A., Sajesh, K. M., Gowd, G. S., Sivanarayanan, T. B., Mol, D. C., Manohar, M., Nambiar, A., Nair, S. V., Koyakutty, M. Brain-tumor regenerating 3D scaffold based primary xenograft models for glioma stem cell targeted drug screening. ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2019, DOI: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.8b00249. (9) Ereath Beeran, A., Fernandez, F. B., Varma, P. R. H. Self controlled hyperthermia and MRI contrast enhancement via iron oxide embedded hydroxyapatite superparamagnetic particles for theranostic application. ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2019, DOI: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.8b00244. 2
DOI: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.8b01642 ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2019, 5, 1−2
