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J Mater Chem B 2021 Apr 6;9(15):3377-3388. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

Department of Ophthalmology, Clinical Medical College of Shandong University, China.

Fungal keratitis is a major threat to ocular morbidity and blindness. The therapeutic efficacy of eye drops against fungal keratitis is limited by their poor bioavailability, especially in patients with corneal stromal ulcers that lead to tissue defects. Therefore, intervention measures that can control fungal infection while promoting tissue regeneration are desirable. Read More

ACS Sens 2021 Apr 21. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Molecular Therapeutics and New Drug Development, Department of Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China.

The efficient capture and sensitive detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) play a vital role in cancer diagnosis and prognosis. However, CTCs in the peripheral blood are very rare and heterogeneous, which make them difficult to isolate and detect. Herein, a novel colorimetric nanobioplatform was successfully developed for the highly efficient capture and highly sensitive detection of heterogeneous CTCs, which consisted of two parts: the multivalent aptamer-modified gold nanoparticles as the capture unit and two kinds of aptamer-functionalized pH-sensitive allochroic dyes (thymolphthalein and curcumin) @ molybdenum disulfide nanoflakes (MoS NFs) acting as the visual simultaneous detection of heterogeneous CTCs. Read More

Biomater Sci 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau SAR, China.

Nano-graphene oxide (NGO) has attracted increasing attention as an advanced drug delivery system. However, the current surface functionalization and drug-loading of NGO either rely on π-π stacking that is limited to aromatic molecules, or covalent conjugation that requires tedious synthesis. Herein, we developed the first cucurbit[7]uril (CB[7])-conjugated NGO (NGO-CB[7]) that allows non-covalent, modular surface functionalization and drug loading via not only traditional π-π stacking interactions between the NGO surface and functional molecules, but also strong host-guest interactions between CB[7] and guest payloads or adamantane (ADA)-tagged functional molecules, for more versatile biomedical applications. Read More

Small 2021 Apr 20:e2008198. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of British Columbia, 2350 Health Sciences Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z3, Canada.

Encapsulation of small molecule drugs in long-circulating lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) can reduce toxic side effects and enhance accumulation at tumor sites. A fundamental problem, however, is the slow release of encapsulated drugs from these liposomal systems at the disease site resulting in limited therapeutic benefit. Methods to trigger release at specific sites are highly warranted. Read More

Adv Pharm Bull 2021 Feb 15;11(2):311-317. Epub 2020 Jul 15.

Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center Health Institute, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.

The present study aimed to formulate PLGA and PLGA-PEG-galactosamine nanoparticles (NPs) loaded with amphotericin B with appropriate physicochemical properties and antifungal activity. PLGA was functionalized with GalN to increase the adhesion and antifungal activity of NPs against . The physicochemical properties of NPs were characterized by particle size determination, zeta potential, drug crystallinity, loading efficiency, dissolution studies, differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR). Read More

Adv Pharm Bull 2021 Feb 20;11(2):301-310. Epub 2020 Jun 20.

Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Propolis is a resinous material obtained by honeybees with many biological and pharmacological properties which can be used for treatment of various diseases. Current study aims to formulate and characterize propolis-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) carrier system. The prepared SLNs, composed of glyceryl monostearate (GMS), Soy lecithin, Tween 80 and polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG 400), were fabricated employing solvent emulsification-evaporation technique. Read More

Adv Pharm Bull 2021 Feb 5;11(2):295-300. Epub 2020 Aug 5.

Liver and gastrointestinal Diseases Research Center and Faculty of Pharmacy, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.

Enoxaparin has been widely used as a choice drug for treatment and prevention of different coagulation disorders. Orally administered enoxaparin encounters with gastrointestinal barrier because of its high water solubility, high molecular weight and significant negative charge. Since, the nano-liposomes has gained great interest for oral drug delivery, we decided to introduce the best protocol for preparing enoxaparin nano-liposomes through characterization. Read More

Int J Nanomedicine 2021 12;16:2775-2787. Epub 2021 Apr 12.

Department of Urology, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan.

Purpose: With the advance of screening techniques, there is a growing number of low-risk or intermediate-risk prostate cancer (PCa) cases, remaining a serious threat to men's health. To obtain better efficacy, a growing interest has been attracted to develop such emerging treatments as immunotherapy and focal therapy. However, few studies offer guidance on whether and how to combine these modalities against PCa. Read More

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021 Apr;118(17)

The FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology, Italian Foundation for Cancer Research, 20139, Milan, Italy;

encodes an iron-sulfur cluster DNA helicase required for development, mutated, and overexpressed in cancers. Here, we show that loss of causes replication stress and sensitizes cancer cells to DNA damaging agents, including poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors and platinum drugs. We find that DDX11 helicase activity prevents chemotherapy drug hypersensitivity and accumulation of DNA damage. Read More

Acta Biomater 2021 Apr 17. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

Laboratory of Tissue Biology and Therapeutic Engineering, UMR5305 CNRS/UCBL, 7 passage du Vercors, 69367 Lyon cedex 07, France. Electronic address:

The sublingual mucosa is an appealing route for drug administration. However, in the context of increased use of therapeutic proteins, development of protein delivery systems that will protect the protein bioactivity is needed. As proteins are fragile and complex molecules, current sublingual formulations of proteins are in liquid dosage. Read More

Eur J Pharm Biopharm 2021 Apr 17. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

National Engineering Research Center for Process Development of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients, Collaborative Innovation Center of Yangtze River Delta Region Green Pharmaceuticals, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, P.R. China; Key Laboratory for Green Pharmaceutical Technologies and Related Equipment of Ministry of Education, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, P.R. China. Electronic address:

Natural compounds as carriers for hydrophobic drugs have been increasingly used in drug delivery systems. In this study, disodium glycyrrhizin (NaGA), tannic acid (TA) and camptothecin (CPT) were firstly used to prepare the camptothecin solid dispersion (CPT SD). When dissolved in a solution medium, NaGA self-assembled to form micelles and CPT was encapsulated in micelles, meanwhile, TA connected with NaGA through hydrogen bonds to form a contract shell. Read More

Int J Biol Macromol 2021 Apr 17. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

Tianjin Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin 300457, China. Electronic address:

The Ibuprofen-Cellulose nanofibril (IBU-CNF) drug delivery system was prepared by esterification of Ibuprofen (IBU) and cellulose nanofibril (CNF) with isopropyl acetate as the solvent and sulfuric acid as the catalyst. The results showed that IBU was successfully grafted on to the CNF molecular chain and the crystal structure of CNF did not change. Moreover, the natural three-dimensional network structure was maintained to a large extent. Read More

ACS Biomater Sci Eng 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Department of Orthopedics, The Second Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130041, P.R. China.

Local drug delivery systems composed of biomaterials and osteogenic substances provide promising strategies for the reconstruction of large bone defects. In recent years, simvastatin has been studied extensively for its pleiotropic effects other than lowering of cholesterol, including its ability to induce osteogenesis and angiogenesis. Accordingly, several studies of simvastatin incorporated drug delivery systems have been performed to demonstrate the feasibility of such systems in enhancing bone regeneration. Read More

Tissue Eng Regen Med 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Department of Biomedical-Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, The Catholic University of Korea, 43 Jibong-ro, Wonmi-gu, Bucheon, Gyeonggi, 14662, Republic of Korea.

Background: Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microspheres have been actively used in various pharmaceutical formulations because they can sustain active pharmaceutical ingredient release and are easy to administer into the body using a syringe. However, the acidic byproducts produced by the decomposition of PLGA cause inflammatory reactions in surrounding tissues, limiting biocompatibility. Magnesium hydroxide (MH), an alkaline ceramic, has attracted attention as a potential additive because it has an acid-neutralizing effect. Read More

Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2021 Apr 19. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.

Clofazimine is classified as a WHO group B drug for the treatment of rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis. QT prolongation, which is associated with fatal cardiac arrhythmias, is caused by several anti-tubercular drugs, including clofazimine, but there are no data quantifying the effect of clofazimine concentration on QT prolongation.To describe the effect of clofazimine exposure on QT prolongationFifteen adults drug-susceptible tuberculosis patients received clofazimine mono-therapy as 300 mg daily for three days followed by 100 mg daily in one arm of a 2-week, multi-arm early bactericidal activity trial in South Africa. Read More

J Nanobiotechnology 2021 Apr 19;19(1):111. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, Functional and Molecular Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, National Clinical Research Center for Geriatrics, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, People's Republic of China.

Background: Nanocarriers-derived antitumor therapeutics are often associated with issues of limited tumor penetration and dissatisfactory antitumor efficacies. Some multistage delivery systems have been constructed to address these issues, but they are often accompanied with complicated manufacture processes and undesirable biocompatibility, which hinder their further application in clinical practices. Herein, a novel dual-responsive multi-pocket nanoparticle was conveniently constructed through self-assembly and cross-linking of amphiphilic methoxypolyethylene glycol-lipoic acid (mPEG-LA) conjugates to enhance tumor penetration and antitumor efficacy. Read More

J Biomech 2021 Apr 5;121:110412. Epub 2021 Apr 5.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories, Division of Applied Mechanics, Silver Spring, MD 20993, USA.

Intervertebral body fusion devices (IBFDs) are commonly used in the treatment of various spinal pathologies. Intra-operative fractures of polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK) implants have been reported in the literature and to the FDA as device-related adverse events. The device and/or implant inserter failures typically occur during device impaction into the disc space and require implant removal and replacement. Read More

Nanomedicine 2021 Apr 16:102392. Epub 2021 Apr 16.

Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA; Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77840, USA. Electronic address:

This paper reports a smart intracellular nanocarrier for sustainable and controlled drug release in non-invasive neuroregeneration. The nanocarrier is composed by superparamagnetic iron oxide-gold (SPIO-Au) core-shell nanoparticles (NPs) conjugated with porous coordination cages (PCCs) through the thiol-containing molecules as bridges. The negatively charged PCC-2 and positively charged PCC-3 are compared for intracellular targeting. Read More

J Biomed Mater Res B Appl Biomater 2021 Apr 19. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.

Wounds resulting from surgeries, implantation of medical devices, and musculoskeletal trauma result in pain and can also result in infection of damaged tissue. Up to 80% of these infections are due to biofilm formation either on the surface of implanted devices or on surrounding wounded tissue. Bacteria within a biofilm have intrinsic growth and development characteristics that allow them to withstand up to 1,000 times the minimum inhibitory concentration of antibiotics, demonstrating the need for new therapeutics to prevent and treat these infections. Read More

J Biomed Mater Res A 2021 Apr 19. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles coated with Chitosan are exploited here as a potential carrier for oral vaccine delivery. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) was used as a protein antigen model to reveal the carrier property. Chitosan-coated BSA-loaded silica NPs had particle size 345 ± 60 nm with a cationic surface charge of 18. Read More

J Mater Chem B 2021 Apr 19. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

School of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan RD, Shanghai 200240, China.

The excessive use of antibiotics has led to a rise in drug-resistant bacteria. These "superbugs" are continuously emerging and becoming increasingly harder to treat. As a result, new and effective treatment protocols that have minimal risks of generating drug-resistant bacteria are urgently required. Read More

Bioact Mater 2021 Oct 24;6(10):3473-3484. Epub 2021 Mar 24.

College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China.

For cancer nanomedicine, the main goal is to deliver therapeutic agents effectively to solid tumors. Here, we report the unique design of self-adaptive ultrafast charge-reversible chitosan-polypyrrole nanogels (CH-PPy NGs) for enhanced tumor delivery and augmented chemotherapy. CH was first grafted with PPy to form CH-PPy polymers that were used to form CH-PPy NGs through glutaraldehyde cross-linking a miniemulsion method. Read More

Drug Deliv 2021 Dec;28(1):787-799

School of Medical Imaging, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, China.

In this study, a novel intelligent nanoplatform to integrate multiple imaging and therapeutic functions for targeted cancer theranostics. The nanoplatform, DOX@Gd-MFeO NPs, was constructed Gd-doped mesoporous FeO nanoparticles following with the doxorubicin (DOX) loading in the mesopores of the NPs. The DOX@Gd-MFeO NPs exhibited good properties in colloidal dispersity, photothermal conversion, NIR triggered drug release, and high T/T relaxicity rate (=9. Read More

Epilepsy Behav 2021 Apr 15;118:107964. Epub 2021 Apr 15.

Neurology Division, Department of Pediatrics, Phramongkutklao Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand. Electronic address:

Status epilepticus (SE) and acute repetitive seizure (ARS) are emergency conditions associated with significant morbidity and mortality in children. Anti-seizure medications (ASMs) need to terminate seizures to prevent brain damage and death. Common challenges that delay the management of SE and ARS in children at Phramongkutklao hospital are difficulty in accessing intravenous route for drug administration and inadequate number of intensive care units (which will be required in case of the use of adverse events to anesthetic ASMs). Read More

Acta Biomater 2021 Apr 15. Epub 2021 Apr 15.

Key Laboratory of Textile Science &Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Textiles, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China; Key Laboratory of Textile Industry for Biomedical Textile Materials and Technology, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China. Electronic address:

The efficacy of implanted polypropylene (PP) hernia meshes is often compromised by an inflammatory response. Thus, engineering an anti-inflammatory mesh has significant implications for hernioplasty. Here, we report a facile strategy to develop a filament-anchored hydrogel layer (FAHL) on PP mesh (FAHL-P). Read More

Eur J Pharm Biopharm 2021 Apr 14. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, School of Life Science, Anhui University, 111 Jiulong Road, Hefei, Anhui Province 230601, P. R. China. Electronic address:

The main objective of this paper is to develop a self-delivered prodrug system with nanoscale characteristics to enhance the efficacy of tumor therapy. The pH-sensitive prodrug was composed of ortho ester-linked dasatinib (DAS-OE), which was further self-assembled with or without doxorubicin (DOX) to obtain two carrier-free nanoparticles (DOX/DAS-OE NPs or DAS-OE NPs). The prodrug-based nanoparticles united the superiorities of small molecules and nano-assemblies together and displayed well-defined structure, uniform spherical shape, high drug loading ratio and on-demand drug release behavior. Read More

Colloids Surf B Biointerfaces 2021 Apr 1;203:111733. Epub 2021 Apr 1.

National Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China.

Chemotherapy-photodynamic therapy (PDT)-based combination therapy is a currently frequently used means in cancer treatment that photosensitizer was able to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) for improving chemotherapy, owing to the high oxidative stress of the tumor microenvironment (TME). Whereas, cancer cells were accustomed to oxidative stress by overexpression of antioxidant such as glutathione (GSH), which would consume the damage of ROS, as well as it could result in ineffective treatment. Herein, amplification of oxidative stress preferentially in tumor cells by consuming GSH or generating ROS is a reasonable treatment strategy to develop anticancer drugs. Read More

Adv Drug Deliv Rev 2021 Apr 13. Epub 2021 Apr 13.

School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, UK. Electronic address:

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are complex nanoparticles required for the intercellular transfer of diverse biological cargoes. Unlike synthetic nanoparticles, EVs may provide a natural platform for the enhanced targeting and functional transfer of therapeutics across complex and often impenetrable biological boundaries (e.g. Read More

Int J Pharm 2021 Apr 13:120602. Epub 2021 Apr 13.

Department of Chemistry and Department of Health Sciences, Cape Breton University, 1250 Grand Lake Road, Sydney, Nova Scotia, B1P 6L2, Canada. Electronic address:

β-Cyclodextrin (β-CD) was grafted onto hyaluronic acid (HA) in a single step to generate a supramolecular biopolymer (HA-β-CD) that was explored for targeted drug delivery applications. Along with its excellent biocompatibility, the prepared HA-β-CD exhibits not only exceptionally high loading capacity for the model drugs doxorubicin and Rhodamine B through the formation of inclusion complexes with the β-CD component, but also the capability of targeted drug delivery to cancerous cells with a high level of expression of CD44 receptors, attributable to its HA component. The polymer can release the drug under slightly acidic conditions. Read More

Bioconjug Chem 2021 Apr 16. Epub 2021 Apr 16.

Eindhoven University of Technology, Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, PO Box 513 (STO 3.41), 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

Protein cages hold much promise as carrier systems in nanomedicine, due to their well-defined size, cargo-loading capacity, and inherent biodegradability. In order to make them suitable for drug delivery, they have to be stable under physiological conditions. In addition, often surface modifications are required, for example, to improve cell targeting or reduce the particle immunogenicity by PEGylation. Read More