Fluorescence and drug loading properties of ZnSe:Mn/ZnS-Paclitaxel/SiO2 nanocapsules templated by F127 micelles

Injectable Antiswelling and High-Strength Bioactive Hydrogels with a Wet Adhesion and Rapid Gelling Process to Promote Sutureless Wound Closure and Scar-free Repair of Infectious Wounds

Developing injectable antiswelling and high-strength bioactive hydrogels with wet tissue adhesiveness and a rapid gelling process to meet the requirements for rapid hemostasis, sutureless wound closure, and scar-free repair of infected skin wounds continues to have ongoing challenges. Herein, injectable, antibacterial, and antioxidant hydrogel adhesives based on poly(citric acid-co-polyethylene glycol)-g-dopamine and amino-terminated Pluronic F127 (APF) micelles loaded with astragaloside IV (AS) are prepared. The H2O2/horseradish peroxidase (HRP) system is used to cause cross-linking of the hydrogel network through oxidative coupling between catechol groups and chemical cross-linking between the catechol group and the amino group. The hydrogels exhibit a rapid gelling process, high mechanical strength, an antiswelling effect, good antioxidant property, H2O2 release behavior, and degradability. In addition, the hydrogels present good wet tissue adhesiveness, high bursting pressure, excellent antibacterial activity, long-term sustained release of AS, and good biocompatibility. The hydrogels perform good hemostasis on mouse liver, rat liver, and rabbit femoral vein bleeding models and achieve much better closure and healing of skin incisions than biomedical glue and surgical sutures. Furthermore, the hydrogel dressing significantly improved the scar-free repair of MRSA-infected full thickness skin defect wounds by modulating inflammation, regulating the ratio of collagen I/III, and improving the vascularization and granulation tissue formation. Thus, AS-loaded hydrogels show huge potential as multifunctional dressings for in vivo hemostasis, sutureless wound closure, and scar-free repair of infected skin wounds.

Recent Breakthroughs in Using Quantum Dots for Cancer Imaging and Drug Delivery Purposes

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Because each person's cancer may be unique, diagnosing and treating cancer is challenging. Advances in nanomedicine have made it possible to detect tumors and quickly investigate tumor cells at a cellular level in contrast to prior diagnostic techniques. Quantum dots (QDs) are functional nanoparticles reported to be useful for diagnosis. QDs are semiconducting tiny nanocrystals, 2-10 nm in diameter, with exceptional and useful optoelectronic properties that can be tailored to sensitively report on their environment. This review highlights these exceptional semiconducting QDs and their properties and synthesis methods when used in cancer diagnostics. The conjugation of reporting or binding molecules to the QD surface is discussed. This review summarizes the most recent advances in using QDs for in vitro imaging, in vivo imaging, and targeted drug delivery platforms in cancer applications.

Theranostics applications of quantum dots in regenerative medicine, cancer medicine, and infectious diseases

Quantum dots (QDs) have attracted attention for their application and commercialization in all industrial fields, including communications, displays, and solar cells, due to their excellent optical properties based on the quantum size effect. In recent years, the development of QDs that do not contain cadmium which is toxic to cells and living organisms, has progressed, and they have attracted considerable attention in the bio-imaging field for targeting molecules and cells. Furthermore, recently, the need for diagnostics and treatment at the single molecule and single cell level in the medical field has been increasing, and the application of QDs in the medical field is also accelerating. Therefore, this paper outlines the frontiers of diagnostic and therapeutic applications (theranostics) of QDs, especially in advanced medical fields such as regenerative medicine, oncology, and infectious diseases.

Nanocarriers based novel and effective drug delivery system

Nanotechnology has ultimately come into the domain of drug delivery. Nanosystems for delivery of drugs are promptly emerging science utilizing different nanoparticles as carriers. Biocompatible and stable nanocarriers are novel diagnosis tools or therapy agents for explicitly targeting locates with controllable way. Nanocarriers propose numerous advantages to treat diseases via site-specific as well as targeted delivery of particular therapeutics. In recent times, there are number of outstanding nanocarriers use to deliver bio-, chemo-, or immuno- therapeutic agents to obtain effectual therapeutic reactions and to minimalize unwanted adverse-effects. Nanoparticles possess remarkable potential for active drug delivery. Moreover, conjugation of drugs with nanocarriers protects drugs from metabolic or chemical modifications, through their way to targeted cells and hence increased their bioavailability. In this review, various systems integrated with different types of nanocarriers (inorganic. organic, quantum dots, and carbon nanotubes) having different compositions, physical and chemical properties have been discussed for drug delivery applications.

Unveiling the mechanism of methylcellulose-templated synthesis of Al2O3 microspheres with organic solvents as swelling agents in microchannel

Herein, we report a systematic investigation of the preparation of large-pore-volume Al₂O₃ microspheres using a complex synthesis system with methylcellulose (MC) as the template and gelation initiator and organic solvents as the swelling agent and carrier medium under the flow characteristics of a coaxial microchannel. The adsorption of MC micelles on boehmite colloidal nanoparticles (NPs) was proven and determined by interfacial tension measurements, dynamic light scattering, and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy. Isothermal titration calorimetry demonstrated that the adsorption process was caused by nonspecific hydrophobicity; one binding site was involved, and the affinity constant was 1060 M^-1. When the MC:NPs mass ratio exceeded 0.1, the template-NP bridged each other to form large aggregates, thereby forming large mesopores and enhancing the gelation speed. Alkanes, alcohols, and amines were applied to further enhance the porosity, and the swelling capacities were investigated experimentally and theoretically. Amines were efficient swelling agents owing to their excellent ability to swell MC micelles and insert into the acid colloid network. The coaxial microchannel was subjected to molding; this process significantly influenced the morphology and textural properties owing to the internal circulation during droplet formation. When trihexylamine with suitable steric hindrance, alkalinity, and polarity was used as the swelling agent, the microspheres exhibited an optimal specific surface area of 403 m²/g and a pore volume of 1.85 cm³/g.

Hollow Multicomponent Capsules for Biomedical Applications: A Comprehensive Review

Hollow capsules with multi-shelled or multicomponent structures are essential materials for various applications. Biomedical applications like disease diagnosis, therapy, and monitoring have special significance as they aim to improve health conditions. This review demonstrated a comprehensive overview of hollow, multifunctional structures incorporating meaningful use of nanotechnology and its’ unique prospects in medicine such as patient-specific treatment, multimodal imaging, multimodal therapy, simultaneous delivery of drugs and imaging probes, and actively targeted delivery. The internal hollow cavity provides safe and controlled drug release while also enabling transport of functional moieties to target sites. This review explored the performance of different organic, inorganic, and metallic multicomponent capsules that have been reported for biomedical applications, mainly diagnostic imaging and drug delivery. Material compositions, morphologies, and synthesis strategies involved in fabricating such multifunctional systems have been discussed in detail. It is expected that with time, more sophisticated and precise systems will come to light as the outcome of ongoing concentrated research efforts.

Organic/Inorganic Self-Assembled Hybrid Nano-Architectures for Cancer Therapy Applications

Since the conceptualization of nanomedicine, numerous nanostructure-mediated drug formulations have progressed into clinical trials for treating cancer. However, recent clinical trial results indicate such kind of drug formulations has a limited improvement on the antitumor efficacy. This is due to the biological barriers associated with those formulations, for example, circulation stability, extravasation efficiency in tumor, tumor penetration ability, and developed multi-drug resistance. When employing for nanomedicine formulations, pristine organic-based and inorganic-based nanostructures have their own limitations. Accordingly, organic/inorganic (O/I) hybrids have been developed to integrate the merits of both, and to minimize their intrinsic drawbacks. In this context, the recent development in O/I hybrids resulting from a self-assembly strategy will be introduced. Through such a strategy, organic and inorganic building blocks can be self-assembled via either chemical covalent bonds or physical interactions. Based on the self-assemble procedure, the hybridization of four organic building blocks including liposomes, micelles, dendrimers, and polymeric nanocapsules with five functional inorganic nanoparticles comprising gold nanostructures, magnetic nanoparticles, carbon-based materials, quantum dots, and silica nanoparticles will be highlighted. The recent progress of these O/I hybrids in advanced modalities for combating cancer, such as, therapeutic agent delivery, photothermal therapy, photodynamic therapy, and immunotherapy will be systematically reviewed.

Exploring the interactions between protein coronated CdSe quantum dots and nanoplastics

QDs after protein coronation can undergo sequential interaction with other pollutants which may alter the physiochemical property of the QDs and influence the stability of the corona proteins.

Nanotheranostics for Cancer Therapy and Detection: State of the Art

Nanotheranostics, an approach of combining both diagnosis and therapy, is one of the latest advances in cancer therapy particularly. Nanocarriers designed and derived from inorganic materials such as like gold nanoparticles, silica nanoparticles, magnetic nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes have been explored for tremendous applications in this area. Similarly, nanoparticles composed of some organic material alone or in combination with inorganic nano-cargos have been developed pre-clinically and possess excellent features desired. Photothermal therapy, MRI, simultaneous imaging and delivery, and combination chemotherapy with a diagnosis are a few of the known methods exploring cancer therapy and detection at organ/tissue/molecular/sub-cellular level. This review comprises an overview of the recent reports meant for nano theranostics purposes. Targeted cancer nanotheranostics have been included for understating tumor micro-environment or cell-specific targeting approach employed. A brief account of various strategies is also included for the readers highlighting the mechanism of cancer therapy.

Pluronic-based nanovehicles: Recent advances in anticancer therapeutic applications

Pluronics are a class of amphiphilic tri-block copolymers with wide pharmaceutical applicability. In the past decades, the ability to form biocompatible nanosized micelles was exploited to formulate stable drug nanovehicles with potential use in antitumor therapy. Due to the great potential for tuning physical and structural properties of Pluronic unimers, a panoply of drug or polynucleotide-loaded micelles was prepared and tested for their antitumoral activity. The attractive inherent antitumor properties of Pluronic polymers in combination with cell targeting and stimuli-responsive ligands greatly improved antitumoral therapeutic effects of tested drugs. In spite of that, the extraordinary complexity of biological challenges in the delivery of micellar drug payload makes their therapeutic potential still not exploited to the fullest. In this review paper we attempt to present the latest developments in the field of Pluronic based nanovehicles and their application in anticancer therapy with an overview of the chemistry involved in the preparation of these nanovehicles.

Preparation and evaluation of isoliquiritigenin-loaded F127/P123 polymeric micelles

Isoliquiritigenin (ISL) possesses a variety of pharmacological activities amid poor solubility in water which has restricted its clinical application. In this study, isoliquiritigenin-loaded F127/P123 polymeric micelles (ISL-FPM) were successfully prepared and evaluated in vitro and in vivo. The particle size, polydispersity index, and zeta potential of the selected formulation were 20.12 ± 0.72 nm, 0.183 ± 0.046, and -38.31 ± 0.33 mV, respectively, coupled with high encapsulation efficiency of 93.76 ± 0.31%. Drug-loading test showed the solubility of ISL after formulating into micelles was 232 times higher than its intrinsic solubility. Moreover, critical micelle concentration (CMC) was tested with fluorescence probe method and turned out to be quite low, which implied high stability of ISL-FPM. Release profile in HCl (pH 1.2), double distilled water, and PBS (pH 7.4) of ISL-FPM reached over 80%, while free ISL was around 40%. Pharmacokinetic research revealed that formulated ISL-FPM significantly increased bioavailability by nearly 2.23-fold compared to free ISL. According to the results of in vitro antioxidant activity, scavenging DPPH activity of ISL was significantly strengthened when it was loaded into polymeric micelles. Altogether, ISL-FPM can act as a promising approach to improve solubility as well as enhance bioavailability and antioxidant activity of ISL.

Transferrin-Conjugated Polymeric Nanoparticle for Receptor-Mediated Delivery of Doxorubicin in Doxorubicin-Resistant Breast Cancer Cells

In this study, a transferrin (Tf)-conjugated polymeric nanoparticle was developed for the targeted delivery of the chemotherapeutic agent doxorubicin (Dox) in order to overcome multi-drug resistance in cancer treatment. Our objective was to improve Dox delivery for producing significant antitumor efficacy in Dox-resistant (R) breast cancer cell lines with minimum toxicity to healthy cells. The results of our experiments revealed that Dox was successfully loaded inside a transferrin (Tf)-conjugated polymeric nanoparticle composed of poloxamer 407 (F127) and 123 (P123) (Dox/F127&P123-Tf), which produced nanosized particles (~90 nm) with a low polydispersity index (~0.23). The accelerated and controlled release profiles of Dox from the nanoparticles were characterized in acidic and physiological pH and Dox/F127&P123-Tf enhanced Dox cytotoxicity in OVCAR-3, MDA-MB-231, and MDA-MB-231(R) cell lines through induction of cellular apoptosis. Moreover, Dox/F127&P123-Tf inhibited cell migration and altered the cell cycle patterns of different cancer cells. In vivo study in MDA-MB-231(R) tumor-bearing mice demonstrated enhanced delivery of nanoparticles to the tumor site when coated in a targeting moiety. Therefore, Dox/F127&P123-Tf has been tailored, using the principles of nanotherapeutics, to overcome drug-resistant chemotherapy.

Characteristics and mechanism associated with drug conjugated inorganic nanoparticles

Nanoparticles have several exciting applications nowadays almost in every area. Biomedical field is one of them where nanoparticles show potential for various applications due to their exceptional and exciting properties. The presence of heavy metals in inorganic nanoparticles lead to toxicity in the biological system, therefore, their direct use for drug delivery is restricted. But encapsulating their surface with a non-toxic or biocompatible material makes them a promising material for application in drug delivery system. This review highlights the various characteristics and factors involved in nano-drug delivery system. The understanding of various mechanisms involved during the uptake of nanoparticles by cells, toxicity, surface chemistry and several drug release mechanisms has been discussed. This article also includes various computational studies used to optimise the design and properties of drug delivery system.

Basic principles of drug delivery systems - the case of paclitaxel

Cancer is the second cause of death worldwide, exceeded only by cardiovascular diseases. The prevalent treatment currently used against metastatic cancer is chemotherapy. Among the most studied drugs that inhibit neoplastic cells from acquiring unlimited replicative ability (a hallmark of cancer) are the taxanes. They operate via a unique molecular mechanism affecting mitosis. In this review, we show this mechanism for one of them, paclitaxel, and for other (non-taxanes) anti-mitotic drugs. However, the use of paclitaxel is seriously limited (its bioavailability is <10%) due to several long-standing challenges: its poor water solubility (0.3 μg/mL), its being a substrate for the efflux multidrug transporter P-gp, and, in the case of oral delivery, its first-pass metabolism by certain enzymes. Adequate delivery methods are therefore required to enhance the anti-tumor activity of paclitaxel. Thus, we have also reviewed drug delivery strategies in light of the various physical, chemical, and enzymatic obstacles facing the (especially oral) delivery of drugs in general and paclitaxel in particular. Among the powerful and versatile platforms that have been developed and achieved unprecedented opportunities as drug carriers, microemulsions might have great potential for this aim. This is due to properties such as thermodynamic stability (leading to long shelf-life), increased drug solubilization, and ease of preparation and administration. In this review, we define microemulsions and nanoemulsions, analyze their pertinent properties, and review the results of several drug delivery carriers based on these systems.

AlPcS4-PDT for gastric cancer therapy using gold nanorod, cationic liposome, and Pluronic® F127 nanomicellar drug carriers

Purpose

As a promising photodynamic therapy (PDT) agent, Al(III) phthalocyanine chloride tetrasulfonic acid (AlPcS₄) provides deep penetration into tissue, high quantum yields, good photostability, and low photobleaching. However, its low delivery efficiency and high binding affinity to serum albumin cause its low penetration into cancer cells, further limiting its PDT effect on gastric cancer. In order to improve AlPcS₄/PDT effect, the AlPcS₄ delivery sys tems with different drug carriers were synthesized and investigated.

Materials and methods

Gold nanorods, cationic liposomes, and Pluronic^® F127 nanomicellars were used to formulate the AlPcS₄ delivery systems. The anticancer effect was evaluated by CCK-8 assay and colony formation assay. The delivery efficiency of AlPcS₄ and the binding affinity to serum proteins were determined by fluorescence intensity assay. The apoptosis and necrosis ability, reactive oxygen species and singlet oxygen generation, mitochondrial transmembrane potential and ([Ca²⁺]_i) concentration were further measured to evaluate the mechanism of cell death.

Results

The series of synthesized AlPcS₄ delivery systems with different drug carriers improve the limited PDT effect in varying degrees. In contrast, AlPcS₄ complex with gold nanorods has significant anticancer effects because gold nanorods are not only suitable for AlPcS₄ delivery, but also exhibit enhanced singlet oxygen generation effect and photothermal effect to induce cell death directly. Moreover, AlPcS₄ complex with cationic liposomes shows the potent inhibition effect because of its optimal AlPcS₄ delivery efficiency and ability to block serum albumin. In addition, AlPcS₄ complex with Pluronic F127 exhibits inferior PDT effect but presents lower cytotoxicity, slower dissociation rate, and longer retention time of incorporated drugs; thus, F127–AlPcS₄ is used for prolonged gastric cancer therapy.

Conclusion

The described AlPcS₄ drug delivery systems provide promising agents for gastric cancer therapy.

Evaluation of cell penetrating peptide coated Mn:ZnS nanoparticles for paclitaxel delivery to cancer cells

This work aimed at formulating paclitaxel (PTX) loaded cell penetrating peptide (CPP) coated Mn doped ZnS nanoparticles (Mn:ZnS NPs) for improved anti-cancer efficacy in vitro and in vivo. The developed PTX loaded Mn:ZnS NPs with different CPPs (PEN, pVEC and R9) showed enhanced anti-cancer effect compared to bare PTX, which has been validated by MTT assay followed by apoptosis assay and DNA fragmentation analysis. The in vivo bio-distribution and anti-cancer efficacy was studied on breast cancer xenograft model showing maximum tumor localization and enhanced therapeutic efficacy with R9 coated Mn:ZnS NPs (R9:Mn:ZnS NPs) and was confirmed by H/E staining. Thus, R9:Mn:ZnS NPs could be an ideal theranostic nano-carrier for PTX with enhanced  the rapeutic efficacy toward cancer cells, where penetration and sustainability of therapeutics are essential.

Plasmonic CuS nanodisk assembly based composite nanocapsules for NIR-laser-driven synergistic chemo-photothermal cancer therapy

The NIR-laser-driven plasmonic photothermal and sustained drug release behavior of CuS–PTX/SiO₂ nanocapsules show great synergistic chemo-photothermal therapeutic effects on cancer cells in vitro and in vivo.

Quantum dots in imaging, drug delivery and sensor applications

Quantum dots (QDs), also known as nanoscale semiconductor crystals, are nanoparticles with unique optical and electronic properties such as bright and intensive fluorescence. Since most conventional organic label dyes do not offer the near-infrared (>650 nm) emission possibility, QDs, with their tunable optical properties, have gained a lot of interest. They possess characteristics such as good chemical and photo-stability, high quantum yield and size-tunable light emission. Different types of QDs can be excited with the same light wavelength, and their narrow emission bands can be detected simultaneously for multiple assays. There is an increasing interest in the development of nano-theranostics platforms for simultaneous sensing, imaging and therapy. QDs have great potential for such applications, with notable results already published in the fields of sensors, drug delivery and biomedical imaging. This review summarizes the latest developments available in literature regarding the use of QDs for medical applications.

Paclitaxel-loaded pluronic F127/P123 silica nanocapsules with surface conjugated rhTRAIL for targeted cancer therapy

A novel anticancer drug PFPSNT, paclitaxel (PTX)-loaded polymeric F127/P123 silica nanocapsules conjugated with TRAIL (tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-related apoptosis-inducing ligand), was designed and synthesized.