3,3'-Diselenodipropionic acid immobilised gelatin gel: a biomimic catalytic nitric oxide generating material for topical wound healing application

Diseleno-albumin, a native bio-inspired drug free therapeutic protein induces apoptosis in lung cancer cells through mitochondrial oxidation

Macromolecular therapeutic is the emerging concept in the fields of drug delivery and drug discovery. The present study reports the design and development of a serum albumin based macromolecular chemotherapeutic by conjugating bovine serum albumin (BSA) with 3,3'-diselenodipropionic acid (DSePA), a pharmacologically active organo-diselenide (R-Se-Se-R). The reaction conditions were optimised to achieve the controlled conjugation of BSA with DSePA without causing any significant alteration in its physico-chemical properties or secondary structure and crosslinking. The chemical characterisation of the reaction product through various spectroscopic techniques viz., FT-IR, Raman, XPS, AAS and MALDI-TOF-MS, established the conjugation of about ∼5 DSePA molecules per BSA molecule. The DSePA conjugated BSA (Se-Se-BSA) showed considerable stability in aqueous and lyophilized forms. The cytotoxicity studies by involving cell lines of cancerous and non-cancerous origins indicated that Se-Se-BSA selectively inhibited the proliferation of cancerous cells. The cellular uptake studies by physically labelling Se-Se-BSA with curcumin and following its intracellular fluorescence confirmed that uptake efficiency of Se-Se-BSA was almost similar to that of native BSA. Finally, studies on the mechanism of action of Se-Se-BSA in the A549 (lung adenocarcinoma) cells revealed that it induced mitochondrial ROS generation followed by mitochondrial dysfunction, activation of caspases and apoptosis. Together, these results demonstrate a bio-inspired approach of exploring diselenide (-Se-Se-) grafted serum albumin as the potential drug free therapeutic for anticancer application.

Fabrication of yeast β-glucan/sodium alginate/γ-polyglutamic acid composite particles for hemostasis and wound healing

Particles with a porous structure can lead to quick hemostasis and provide a good matrix for cell proliferation during wound healing. Recently, many particle-based wound healing materials have been clinically applied. However, these products show good hemostatic ability but with poor wound healing ability. To solve this problem, this study fabricated APGG composite particles using yeast β-glucan (obtained from Saccharomyces cerevisiae), sodium alginate, and γ-polyglutamic acid as the starting materials. The structure of yeast β-glucan was modified with many carboxymethyl groups to obtain carboxymethylated β-glucan, which could coordinate with Ca2+ ions to form a crosslinked structure. A morphology study indicated that the APGG particles showed an irregular spheroidal structure with a low density (<0.1 g cm-3) and high porosity (>40%). An in vitro study revealed that the particles exhibited a low BCI value, low hemolysis ratio, and good cytocompatibility against L929 cells. The APGG particles could quickly stop bleeding in a mouse liver injury model and exhibited better hemostatic ability than the commercially available product Celox. Furthermore, the APGG particles could accelerate the healing of non-infected wounds, and the expression levels of CD31, α-SMA, and VEGF related to angiogenesis were significantly enhanced.

Smart Magnetic Nanocarriers for Codelivery of Nitric Oxide and Doxorubicin for Enhanced Apoptosis in Cancer Cells

Extremely short half-life therapeutic molecule nitric oxide (NO) plays significant roles in the functioning of various physiological and pathological processes in the human body, whereas doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) is a clinically important anticancer drug widely used in cancer chemotherapy. Thus, the intracellular delivery of these therapeutic molecules is tremendously important to achieve their full potential. Herein, we report a novel approach for the development of highly water-dispersible magnetic nanocarriers for codelivery of NO and DOX. Primarily, bifunctional magnetic nanoparticles enriched with carboxyl and thiol groups were prepared by introducing cysteine onto the surface of citrate-functionalized Fe3O4 nanoparticles. DOX was electrostatically conjugated onto the surface of bifunctional nanoparticles via carboxyl moieties, whereas the thiol group was further nitrosated to provide NO-releasing molecules. The developed magnetic nanocarrier exhibited good aqueous colloidal stability, protein resistance behavior, and high encapsulation efficacy for NO (65.5%) and DOX (85%), as well as sustained release characteristics. Moreover, they showed superior cytotoxicity toward cancer (A549 and MCF-7) cells via apoptosis induction over normal (WI26VA4) cells. Specifically, we have developed magnetic nanocarriers having the capability of dual delivery of NO and DOX, which holds great potential for combinatorial cancer treatment.