EAGER: Carbide Derived Carbons with Pore Structure and Surface Chemistry Designed for Selective Adsorption of Proteins

非技术描述：严重败血症每天导致的死亡人数与肺癌或乳腺癌的死亡人数大致相同。由于脓毒症的炎症反应是由细胞因子驱动的，因此从血液中去除细胞因子可以控制导致脓毒症的未受调控的促炎和抗炎过程。与透析和过滤不同，更不用说基于药物的治疗，吸附可以从血浆中去除细胞因子，而不会向血液中引入任何其他物质。这项拟议的研究有望为更好地理解碳材料吸附细胞因子的基本机制提供一种工具。将这项研究的结果用于医学，可能会挽救患有自身免疫性疾病、严重脓毒症和多器官衰竭的人的生命。该计划将促进在费城(美国)从事纳米多孔碳研究的研究小组之间的跨学科国际合作。和布莱顿(英国)。与布莱顿大学S.Mikhalovsky教授小组的交流将使德雷克塞尔大学的研究生和本科生获得国际经验。技术细节：本研究的目的是研究碳化物衍生碳(CDC)的孔大小、孔形状、颗粒大小和表面终止对细胞因子和其他蛋白质吸附的影响。在CDC工艺中，通过卤素从二元或三元碳化物或碳氮化物陶瓷中提取金属。因此，碳的结构可以通过碳化物结构来模板化，有机会通过控制环境的温度和成分来进一步调整。布莱顿大学的初步测试表明，CDC样品在蛋白质吸附效率方面明显优于最好的商业碳。这一重要的突破需要立即进行进一步的研究，以探索是否可以对脓毒症进行真正的变革性治疗。将利用不同前驱体产生的CDC，对细胞因子(白介素类和肿瘤坏死因子-α)的吸附动力学随孔径(5-50 nm)的变化进行实验研究。将通过实验研究表面官能团对蛋白质与碳相互作用的影响。等电点将确定特定蛋白质的选择性吸附条件，并开发表面末端和孔径可调的材料，以最大限度地提高对选定蛋白质的吸附能力和吸附动力学。

NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Severe sepsis kills about the same number of people per day as lung or breast cancer. Since the inflammatory response in case of sepsis is driven by cytokines, their removal from blood brings under control the unregulated pro- and anti-inflammatory processes driving sepsis. Unlike dialysis and filtration, not to mention drug-based therapy, adsorption can remove cytokines from blood plasma without introducing any other substances into the blood. The proposed research is expected to provide a tool for better understanding of the fundamental mechanisms governing the adsorption of cytokines by carbon materials. The use of the results of this study in medicine may save the lives of people suffering from autoimmune diseases, severe sepsis, and multiple organ failure. This program will facilitate an interdisciplinary international cooperation between the research groups working on nanoporous carbons in Philadelphia (U.S.) and Brighton (U.K.). Exchange with the group of Professor S. Mikhalovsky, University of Brighton, will allow graduate and undergraduate students from Drexel University to obtain international experience. TECHNICAL DETAILS: The goal of this research is to investigate the effect of pore size, pore shape, particle size, and surface termination of carbide-derived carbons (CDC) on adsorption of cytokines and other proteins. In the CDC process, the metal is extracted from a binary or ternary carbide or carbonitride ceramic by halogens. Therefore, the structure of the carbon can be templated by the carbide structure, with an opportunity for further tuning by controlling the temperature and composition of the environment. Preliminary testing at the University of Brighton has demonstrated that CDC samples significantly outperform the best commercial carbons in the efficiency of protein adsorption. This important breakthrough warrants conducting further studies immediately to explore if a truly transformational approach to sepsis can be carried out. Experimental studies will be performed on cytokine (interleukins and TNF-alpha) adsorption kinetics as a function of the pore size (5-50 nm) by using CDC produced from different precursors. The effects of surface functional groups on the interaction of proteins with the carbon will be experimentally investigated. The PI will determine the conditions for selective adsorption of specific proteins and develop materials with the surface termination and pore size tuned to maximize adsorption capacity and kinetics of adsorption for selected proteins.