Narrow Results

UNITED STATES – Smoking While Pregnant May Compromise Children’s Kidney Function.

UNITED STATES – You Are What You Exhale.

UNITED STATES – A Diet of Fruits, Vegetables May Help Kidney Disease Patients.

TAIWAN – TLC to Proceed with TLC599 Phase 2 Trial in Taiwan.

TAIWAN – TLC Reports Results of Phase 1/2 Clinical Trial of TLC599 for Sustained Pain Relief in the Treatment of Osteoarthritis of the Knee.

JAPAN – Chugai to Join Global Initiative for Addressing Rise of Non-Communicable Diseases in Low and Lower-Middle Income Countries.

AUSTRALIA & MALAYSIA – Holista CollTech Collaborates with Nobel Prize Nominee to File Patent for World’s First Low-GI Sugar with All-Natural Ingredients.

In this paper, we firstly synthesized glycyrrhetinic acid-modified double amino-terminated poloxamer 188 (GA–NH–POLO–NH–GA). The structure of the synthesized compound was confirmed by ¹H-NMR and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Then the nanoparticles composed of GA–NH–POLO–NH–GA/chitosan (GA–NH–POLO–NH–GA/CTS) were prepared by an ionic gelation process. The characterization of the nanoparticles was measured by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results showed that the nanoparticles were well dispersed with a spherical shape and the particle size was distributed between 100 nm and 300 nm. The cytotoxicity based on MTT assay against cells (QGY-7703 cells and L929 cells) showed that the nanoparticles had low toxicity and good biocompatibility. The encapsulation efficiency and drug loading of 5-fluorouracil-loaded nanoparticles (5-FU nanoparticles) were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and fluorescence spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) absorbance. The encapsulation of 5-Fu-loaded CTS nanoparticles was 12.8% and the drug loading was 2.9%, while the encapsulation of 5-Fu-loaded GA–NH–POLO–NH–GA/CTS nanoparticles was 20.9% and the drug loading was 3.36%. The release profile showed that the GA–NH–POLO–NH–GA/CTS nanoparticles were available for sustained release of 5-Fu. The GA–NH–POLO–NH–GA/CTS nanoparticles have a higher affinity to the QGY-7703 cells, so indicated that the GA–NH–POLO–NH–GA/CTS nanoparticles have the capacity of liver-targeting in vitro.

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) were prepared by the coprecipitation method using a molar ratio of Fe³⁺:Fe²⁺ of 2:1. The surface of MNP was coated with chitosan (CS) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) to form CS–MNP and PEG–MNP nanoparticles, respectively. Anthranilic acid (AA) was loaded on the surface of the resulting nanoparticles to form AA–CS–MNP and AA–PEG–MNP nanocomposites, respectively. The nanocomposites obtained were characterized using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetry analysis (TGA), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). XRD results showed that the as-synthesized nanocomposites are pure magnetite. FTIR results analysis indicated the existence of two polymers on the particle surface of the MNP and the presence of loaded AA on the surface of CS–MNP and PEG–MNP nanoparticles. Anthranilic acid loading and the release profiles of AA–CS–MNP and AA–PEG–MNP nanocomposites showed that up to 8.8% and 5.5% of the adsorbed drug were released in 670 min and 771 min, respectively. Anthranilic acid release profiles followed a pseudo-second-order kinetic controlled process. The cytotoxicity of the as-synthesized anthranilic acid nanocomposities were determined using MTT assay using murine macrophage RAW 264.7 cells. MTT results showed that the cytotoxic effects of AA–CS–MNP were higher than AA–PEG–MNP against the tested cells as compared to free anthranilic acid. In this manner, this study introduces novel anthranilic acid nanocomposites that can be used on-demand for biomedical applications.

Monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE) is a derivative of the marine peptide Dolastatin 10, which has therapeutic effects against various cancers according to its antimitotic activity in multiple clinical trials. The antibody drug conjugate (ADC) of MMAE is currently used in clinical practice. However, the safety issues of MMAE-based ADC, such as high drug toxicity and poor bioavailability, still exist when using it for anticancer therapy. A sustained release of drug delivery approach should be used to reduce toxicity and achieve sufficient anticancer effects. Herein, PLGA-b-PEG${}_{2000}$ with excellent biocompatibility and slow degradation ability was adopted to construct MMAE-loaded nanoparticles for safe and effective chemotherapy. The sustained release effect and the immunogenic cell death (ICD) effect of PLGA-MMAE nanoparticles were assessed by in vitro experiments. The PLGA-MMAE nanoparticles effectively accumulated in the tumor through the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect, inducing cell apoptosis and causing a certain degree of immune response. The sustained drug release of PLGA-MMAE improved the bioavailability and effectively reduced the toxicity and development of the tumor compared to the effect of free MMAE or ADC. Overall, this study provides a safe and effective chemotherapeutic approach, as well as a simple and effective synthetic process for MMAE-based nanoparticles, improving their therapeutic efficacy and safety.

Delivery of therapeutic compounds to the diseased area in the body with minimized adverse effects is the underlying objective behind development of advanced drug delivery systems. Providing disease-specific release patterns is the ultimate goal of any drug delivery system. Electrospinning has been widely used for nanofiber fabrication. Having high aspect ratio and similarity to the extracellular matrix in the body make electrospun nanofibers a great candidate to be used as drug delivery implants. In this study, we report electrospinning to be a tunable technique capable of providing engineered, disease-specific drug release patterns. Using “one factor at a time” and “central composite design” techniques, we respectively demonstrate flow rate and applied voltage to be the two most significant parameters (with $F$-values of 512.48 and 42.31) affecting the final fiber diameter, and capillary-to-collector distance as the least important one, by evaluating their influence, individually and combined, on the morphology of electrospun Poly (Lactide-co-Glycolide acid) nanofibers. Using the same two techniques, we also show that hydrophobicity of the polymeric fibrous scaffold, measured by water contact angle (WCA) with the $F$-value of 376.44, is the main factor to consider when designing an electrospun fibrous drug delivery system for a specific disease, while fiber diameter can further modulate the release pattern of the drug from hydrophobic polymeric nanofibers. We finally support our hypothesis by comparing our findings with analysis of data derived from the literature. Taken together, our findings suggest electrospinning to be a tunable technique capable of providing various release patterns for any small molecular weight drug on the basis of the requirements of the diseases to be treated.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) leads to a cascade of primary and secondary neurodegenerative events, often causing lifelong disabilities. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a potential therapeutic for functional recovery of neurons. Unfortunately, BDNF is unstable and expensive, making direct infusion impractical. Therefore, we sought to develop a controlled release formulation to deliver BDNF. Our therapeutic construct encapsulates BDNF in poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles (PLGA NPs), and further encapsulates these NPs in an alginate hydrogel. Encapsulating BDNF within NPs protects and assists in drug delivery, while further encapsulating the BDNF-NPs in alginate enables localization and sustained release. The BDNF-NPs were synthesized and evaluated for size, stability and BDNF release profile. A MATLAB model was developed to determine the approximate quantity of BDNF-NPs needed to evaluate therapeutic efficacy in neurons injured with hydrogen peroxide. We then compared the therapeutic efficacy and BDNF release profile of these BDNF-NPs to our novel alginate/BDNF-NP formulation. We have successfully designed and fabricated a double encapsulation positionally controllable construct that preserves BDNF bioactivity and extends its release. We also demonstrated that very low dosages of BDNF may be equally effective in promoting neuroprotection, thereby potentially reducing therapeutic costs without compromising efficacy. Our novel formulation offers a promising avenue for treating severe TBI and other neurological disorders which would benefit from a long-lasting and positionally controllable neuroprotective treatment. This approach can easily accommodate additional biologics for localized drug delivery with minimal re-formulation.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) leads to a cascade of primary and secondary neurodegenerative events, often causing lifelong disabilities. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a potential therapeutic for functional recovery of neurons. Unfortunately, BDNF is unstable and expensive, making direct infusion impractical. Therefore, we sought to develop a controlled release formulation to deliver BDNF. Our therapeutic construct encapsulates BDNF in poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles (PLGA NPs), and further encapsulates these NPs in an alginate hydrogel. Encapsulating BDNF within NPs protects and assists in drug delivery, while further encapsulating the BDNF-NPs in alginate enables localization and sustained release. The BDNF-NPs were synthesized and evaluated for size, stability and BDNF release profile. A MATLAB model was developed to determine the approximate quantity of BDNF-NPs needed to evaluate therapeutic efficacy in neurons injured with hydrogen peroxide. We then compared the therapeutic efficacy and BDNF release profile of these BDNF-NPs to our novel alginate/BDNF-NP formulation. We have successfully designed and fabricated a double encapsulation positionally controllable construct that preserves BDNF bioactivity and extends its release. We also demonstrated that very low dosages of BDNF may be equally effective in promoting neuroprotection, thereby potentially reducing therapeutic costs without compromising efficacy. Our novel formulation offers a promising avenue for treating severe TBI and other neurological disorders which would benefit from a long-lasting and positionally controllable neuroprotective treatment. This approach can easily accommodate additional biologics for localized drug delivery with minimal re-formulation.