Electrospinning of Cyclodextrin-Oligolactide Derivatives

Exploring Electrospun Scaffold Innovations in Cardiovascular Therapy: A Review of Electrospinning in Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of mortality worldwide. In particular, patients who suffer from ischemic heart disease (IHD) that is not amenable to surgical or percutaneous revascularization techniques have limited treatment options. Furthermore, after revascularization is successfully implemented, there are a number of pathophysiological changes to the myocardium, including but not limited to ischemia-reperfusion injury, necrosis, altered inflammation, tissue remodeling, and dyskinetic wall motion. Electrospinning, a nanofiber scaffold fabrication technique, has recently emerged as an attractive option as a potential therapeutic platform for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Electrospun scaffolds made of biocompatible materials have the ability to mimic the native extracellular matrix and are compatible with drug delivery. These inherent properties, combined with ease of customization and a low cost of production, have made electrospun scaffolds an active area of research for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. In this review, we aim to discuss the current state of electrospinning from the fundamentals of scaffold creation to the current role of electrospun materials as both bioengineered extracellular matrices and drug delivery vehicles in the treatment of CVD, with a special emphasis on the potential clinical applications in myocardial ischemia.

Mass Spectrometry of Esterified Cyclodextrins

Cyclodextrins are cyclic oligosaccharides that have received special attention due to their cavity-based structural architecture that imbues them with outstanding properties, primarily related to their capacity to host various guest molecules, from low-molecular-mass compounds to polymers. Cyclodextrin derivatization has been always accompanied by the development of characterization methods, able to unfold complicated structures with increasing precision. One of the important leaps forward is represented by mass spectrometry techniques with soft ionization, mainly matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) and electrospray ionization (ESI). In this context, esterified cyclodextrins (ECDs) benefited also from the formidable input of structural knowledge, thus allowing the understanding of the structural impact of reaction parameters on the obtained products, especially for the ring-opening oligomerization of cyclic esters. The current review envisages the common mass spectrometry approaches such as direct MALDI MS or ESI MS analysis, hyphenated liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, and tandem mass spectrometry, employed for unraveling the structural features and particular processes associated with ECDs. Thus, the accurate description of complex architectures, advances in the gas phase fragmentation processes, assessment of secondary reactions, and reaction kinetics are discussed in addition to typical molecular mass measurements.