NanoMito

Nanosystems provided to NHRF by In Touch Health will be administered to the model organism C. elegans to assess the following phenotypic characteristics of the nematode: pharyngeal pumping rate on the first day of adulthood and number of progeny throughout the egg-laying period (~10 days). The purpose of these experiments is to evaluate the toxicity of the new nanosystems.

Subsequently, nanosystems will be “loaded” with two different bioactive compounds selected by the company and delivered to NHRF for administration to the C. elegans model organism, to assess the following phenotypic characteristics: pharyngeal pumping rate, defecation cycle, and locomotion on the 1st and 5th day of adulthood. These experiments aim to examine the potential ability of the “loaded” nanosystems to extend the organism’s healthspan, so that the knowledge generated by In Touch Health may be used in the future for the possible development of products claiming positive effects on healthspan without recorded toxicity.

In parallel, since the new nanosystems have been designed to target mitochondria within cells, NHRF will assess their selective mitochondrial targeting in human primary fibroblasts. The goal of these experiments will be to enable future applications related to the development of products with claims associated with selective mitochondrial targeting.