Danggui Buxue Extract-Loaded Liposomes in Thermosensitive Gel Enhance In Vivo Dermal Wound Healing via Activation of the VEGF/PI3K/Akt and TGF-β/Smads Signaling Pathway

Multifunctional lipid-based nanoparticles for wound healing and antibacterial applications: A review

Wound healing primarily involves preventing severe infections, accelerating healing, and reducing pain and scarring. Therefore, the multifunctional application of lipid-based nanoparticles (LBNs) has received considerable attention in drug discovery due to their solid or liquid lipid core, which increases their ability to provide prolonged drug release, reduce treatment costs, and improve patient compliance. LBNs have also been used in medical and cosmetic practices and formulated for various products based on skin type, disease conditions, administration product costs, efficiency, stability, and toxicity; therefore, understanding their interaction with biological systems is very important. Therefore, it is necessary to perform an in-depth analysis of the results from a comprehensive characterization process to produce lipid-based drug delivery systems with desired properties. This review will provide detailed information on the different types of LBNs, their formulation methods, characterisation, antimicrobial activity, and application in various wound models (both in vitro and in vivo studies). Also, the clinical and commercial applications of LBNs are summarized.

Therapeutic Potential of Nanocarrier-Mediated Delivery of Phytoconstituents for Wound Healing: Their Current Status and Future Perspective

The treatment of wounds is a serious problem all over the world and imposes a huge financial burden on each and every nation. For a long time, researchers have explored wound dressing that speeds up wound healing. Traditional wound dressing does not respond effectively to the wound-healing process as expected. Therapeutic active derived from plant extracts and extracted bioactive components have been employed in various regions of the globe since ancient times for the purpose of illness, prevention, and therapy. About 200 years ago, most medical treatments were based on herbal remedies. Especially in the West, the usage of herbal treatments began to wane in the 1960s as a result of the rise of allopathic medicine. In recent years, however, there has been a resurgence of interest in and demand for herbal medicines for a number of reasons, including claims about their efficacy, shifting consumer preferences toward natural medicines, high costs and negative side effects of modern medicines, and advancements in herbal medicines brought about by scientific research and technological innovation. The exploration of medicinal plants and their typical uses could potentially result in advanced pharmaceuticals that exhibit reduced adverse effects. This review aims to present an overview of the utilization of nanocarriers in plant-based therapeutics, including its current status, recent advancements, challenges, and future prospects. The objective is to equip researchers with a comprehensive understanding of the historical background, current state, and potential future developments in this emerging field. In light of this, the advantages of nanocarriers based delivery of natural wound healing treatments have been discussed, with a focus on nanofibers, nanoparticles, nano-emulsion, and nanogels.

Biomaterials releasing drug responsively to promote wound healing via regulation of pathological microenvironment

Wound healing is characterized by complex, orchestrated, spatiotemporal dynamic processes. Recent findings demonstrated suitable local microenvironments were necessities for wound healing. Wound microenvironments include various biological, biochemical and physical factors, which are produced and regulated by endogenous biomediators, exogenous drugs, and external environment. Successful drug delivery to wound is complicated, and need to overcome the destroyed blood supply, persistent inflammation and enzymes, spatiotemporal requirements of special supplements, and easy deactivation of drugs. Triggered by various factors from wound microenvironment itself or external elements, stimuli-responsive biomaterials have tremendous advantages of precise drug delivery and release. Here, we discuss recent advances of stimuli-responsive biomaterials to regulate local microenvironments during wound healing, emphasizing on the design and application of different biomaterials which respond to wound biological/biochemical microenvironments (ROS, pH, enzymes, glucose and glutathione), physical microenvironments (mechanical force, temperature, light, ultrasound, magnetic and electric field), and the combination modes. Moreover, several novel promising drug carriers (microbiota, metal-organic frameworks and microneedles) are also discussed.

Local Drug Delivery Strategies towards Wound Healing

A particular biological process known as wound healing is connected to the overall phenomena of growth and tissue regeneration. Several cellular and matrix elements work together to restore the integrity of injured tissue. The goal of the present review paper focused on the physiology of wound healing, medications used to treat wound healing, and local drug delivery systems for possible skin wound therapy. The capacity of the skin to heal a wound is the result of a highly intricate process that involves several different processes, such as vascular response, blood coagulation, fibrin network creation, re-epithelialisation, collagen maturation, and connective tissue remodelling. Wound healing may be controlled with topical antiseptics, topical antibiotics, herbal remedies, and cellular initiators. In order to effectively eradicate infections and shorten the healing process, contemporary antimicrobial treatments that include antibiotics or antiseptics must be investigated. A variety of delivery systems were described, including innovative delivery systems, hydrogels, microspheres, gold and silver nanoparticles, vesicles, emulsifying systems, nanofibres, artificial dressings, three-dimensional printed skin replacements, dendrimers and carbon nanotubes. It may be inferred that enhanced local delivery methods might be used to provide wound healing agents for faster healing of skin wounds.

A Narrative Review of the Potential Roles of Lipid-Based Vesicles (Vesiculosomes) in Burn Management

Burn injuries can have a lasting effect on people’s quality of life, as they negatively impact their physical and mental health. Then, they are likely to suffer psychological problems as a result. A serious problem is that deep burns are more challenging to treat due to their slow healing rate and susceptibility to microbial infection. Conventional topical medications used for burn treatment are sometimes ineffective because they cannot optimize their ability of transcutaneous absorption at the targeted site and accelerate healing. However, nanotechnology offers excellent prospects for developing current medical wound therapies and is capable of addressing issues such as low drug stability, water solubility, permeability, and bioavailability. The current review focuses on lipid-based vesicles (vesiculosomes) as an example of advanced delivery systems, showing their potential clinical applications in burn wound management. Vesiculosomes may help overcome impediments including the low bioavailability of active agents, offering the controlled release of drugs, increased drug stability, fewer side effects, and reduced dosing frequency, which will ultimately improve therapeutic efficacy and patient compliance. We discuss the application of various types of vesiculosomes such as liposomes, niosomes, ethosomes, cubosomes, transfersomes, and phytosomes in burn healing therapy, as these demonstrate superior skin penetration compared to conventional burn topical treatment. We also highlight their noteworthy uses in the formulation of natural products and discuss the current status as well as future perspectives of these carriers in burn management. Furthermore, the burn treatment options currently available in the market are also summarized.

Vesicular Nanocarriers for Phytocompounds in Wound Care: Preparation and Characterization

The need to develop wound healing preparations is a pressing challenge given the limitations of the current treatment and the rising prevalence of impaired healing wounds. Although herbal extracts have been used for many years to treat skin disorders, due to their wound healing, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antioxidant effects, their efficacy can be questionable because of their poor bioavailability and stability issues. Nanotechnology offers an opportunity to revolutionize wound healing therapies by including herbal compounds in nanosystems. Particularly, vesicular nanosystems exhibit beneficial properties, such as biocompatibility, targeted and sustained delivery capacity, and increased phytocompounds’ bioavailability and protection, conferring them a great potential for future applications in wound care. This review summarizes the beneficial effects of phytocompounds in wound healing and emphasizes the advantages of their entrapment in vesicular nanosystems. Different types of lipid nanocarriers are presented (liposomes, niosomes, transferosomes, ethosomes, cubosomes, and their derivates’ systems), highlighting their applications as carriers for phytocompounds in wound care, with the presentation of the state-of-art in this field. The methods of preparation, characterization, and evaluation are also described, underlining the properties that ensure good in vitro and in vivo performance. Finally, future directions of topical systems in which vesicle-bearing herbal extracts or phytocompounds can be incorporated are pointed out, as their development is emerging as a promising strategy.

Advanced drug delivery systems containing herbal components for wound healing

Management of chronic wound has an immense impact on social and economic conditions in the world. Healthcare costs, aging population, physical trauma, and comorbidities of diabetes and obesity seem to be the major factors of this increasing incidence of chronic wounds. Conditions of chronic wound could not restore functional epidermis; thus, delaying the closure of the wound opening in an expected manner. Failures in restoration of skin integrity delay healing due to changes in skin pathology, such as chronic ulceration or nonhealing. The role of different traditional medicines has been explored for use in the healing of cutaneous wounds, where several phytochemicals, such as flavonoids, alkaloids, phenolic acids, tannins are known to provide potential wound healing properties. However, the delivery of plant-based therapeutics could be improved by the novel platform of nanotechnology. Thus, the objectives of novel delivery strategies of principal bioactive from plant sources are to accelerate the wound healing process, avoid wound complications and enhance patient compliance. Therefore, the opportunities of nanotechnology-based drug delivery of natural wound healing therapeutics have been included in the present discussion with special emphasis on nanofibers, vesicular structures, nanoparticles, nanoemulsion, and nanogels.

Nanomaterials in Wound Healing and Infection Control

Wounds continue to be a serious medical concern due to their increasing incidence from injuries, surgery, burns and chronic diseases such as diabetes. Delays in the healing process are influenced by infectious microbes, especially when they are in the biofilm form, which leads to a persistent infection. Biofilms are well known for their increased antibiotic resistance. Therefore, the development of novel wound dressing drug formulations and materials with combined antibacterial, antibiofilm and wound healing properties are required. Nanomaterials (NM) have unique properties due to their size and very large surface area that leads to a wide range of applications. Several NMs have antimicrobial activity combined with wound regeneration features thus give them promising applicability to a variety of wound types. The idea of NM-based antibiotics has been around for a decade at least and there are many recent reviews of the use of nanomaterials as antimicrobials. However, far less attention has been given to exploring if these NMs actually improve wound healing outcomes. In this review, we present an overview of different types of nanomaterials explored specifically for wound healing properties combined with infection control.

Burn Ointment Promotes Cutaneous Wound Healing by Modulating the PI3K/AKT/mTOR Signaling Pathway

Burn ointment (BO) is a clinically useful medicine for the treatment of burns and scalds. However, there is no enough scientific evidence to report the effect of BO on wound healing and its analgesic and anti-inflammatory efficacy. The aim of this work was to evaluate the anti-inflammatory and analgesic efficacy of BO and to reveal the potential wound healing properties and related mechanisms of BO. In this work, the content of active ingredients of BO was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Two animal models of inflammation were used to study its anti-inflammatory activity, and a hot plate method was used to evaluate its analgesic effect. In addition, mouse incision and rat burn models were used to investigate the effect of BO on the anti-inflammatory and wound healing mechanisms. The results showed that BO was safe for topical application, and BO could significantly inhibit auricular swelling in mice and paw swelling in rats and significantly prolong the latency period of paw licking in the hot plate experiment in mice. It can also accelerate wound healing and repair scars by promoting the formation of new epithelial tissues in rat burn models. In addition, BO significantly downregulated the serum level of TNF-α and significantly increased the serum levels of VEGF and TGF-β1. Also, BO promoted the expression of collagen I and increased the ratio in p-PI3K/PI3K, p-AKT/AKT, and p-mTOR/mTOR pathways. Our results demonstrate the safety and efficacy of BO and suggest that activation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway may play an important role in the promotion of wound healing by BO.

Danggui Buxue Decoction in the Treatment of Metastatic Colon Cancer: Network Pharmacology Analysis and Experimental Validation

Purpose

This study aimed to reveal Danggui Buxue Decoction (DBD) candidate targets and mechanisms in the treatment of metastatic colon cancer (MCC), using network pharmacology-based analyses and experimental validation.

Methods

Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP) database query and text mining were used to screen active compounds in DBD, and the Swiss target prediction platform was applied to predict compound-related target proteins. Targets likely associated with MCC were determined using GeneCards and OMIM databases. Targets common to DBD and MCC were obtained from the Venn platform; subsequently, Cytoscape was used to construct drug-compound-target-disease and protein-protein interaction networks. The hub gene was determined by R, while GO and KEGG enrichment analyses were performed on common targets to elucidate biological processes and signaling pathways involved in DBD against MCC. Finally, the metastatic colon cancer mouse model was used to detect the levels of expression of protein Bax, Bcl2, Caspase3, and Cleaved caspase3 by Western blot.

Results

A total of 28 active compounds and 61 common targets were predicted. The main compounds were quercetin, hederagenin, jaranol, methylnissolin, formononetin, calycosin, kaempferol, 3.9-di-O-methylnissolin, 24-propylcholesterol, and 7-O-methylisomucronulatol, present in Astragalus membranaceus (Huangqi, HQ). In addition, beta-sitosterol, ferulic acid, and stigmasterol, present in Angelica sinensis (Danggui, DG), were detected. JUN, PTSG2, EGFR, ESR1and, CASP3 genes were the top 5 hub genes in the PPI network. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses indicated that apoptosis played a major role in the biological processes and signaling pathways involved. Moreover, the in vivo experiment revealed that DBD inhibited MCC by up-regulating the expression of Bax, Caspase3, and Cleaved caspase3, and by down-regulating the expression of Bcl2.

Conclusion

This study revealed candidate DBD targets and mechanisms in the treatment of MCC, using network pharmacology-based analyses and experimental validation. The present findings provide a reference for tumor treatment during the perioperative period.

Flexible electrical stimulation device with Chitosan-Vaseline® dressing accelerates wound healing in diabetes

The healing process of diabetic wounds is typically disordered and prolonged and requires both angiogenesis and epithelialization. Disruptions of the endogenous electric fields (EFs) may lead to disordered cell migration. Electrical stimulation (ES) that mimics endogenous EFs is a promising method in treating diabetic wounds; however, a microenvironment that facilitates cell migration and a convenient means that can be used to apply ES are also required. Chitosan-Vaseline® gauze (CVG) has been identified to facilitate wound healing; it also promotes moisture retention and immune regulation and has antibacterial activity. For this study, we created a wound dressing using CVG together with a flexible ES device and further evaluated its potential as a treatment for diabetic wounds. We found that high voltage monophasic pulsed current (HVMPC) promoted healing of diabetic wounds in vivo. In studies carried out in vitro, we found that HVMPC promoted the proliferation and migration of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) by activating PI3K/Akt and ERK1/2 signaling. Overall, we determined that the flexible ES-chitosan dressing may promoted healing of diabetic wounds by accelerating angiogenesis, enhancing epithelialization, and inhibiting scar formation. These findings provide support for the ongoing development of this multidisciplinary product for the care and treatment of diabetic wounds.

Effect of Polysaccharides from Bletilla striata on the Healing of Dermal Wounds in Mice

Bletilla striata has been largely used in traditional folk medicine in China as a wound healing agent and to treat gastritis and several other health problems. Some studies have shown that plant polysaccharides may have the ability to promote wound healing. The aim of this work was to evaluate the wound healing activity of the polysaccharide extracted from Bletilla striata. Firstly, a Bletilla striata polysaccharide was extracted by water extraction and alcohol precipitation and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The Bletilla striata polysaccharide was then tested for cell migration and proliferation using the mouse fibroblast cell line. Then, the Bletilla striata hydrogel was fabricated for acute wound health care of the mouse full-thickness excision. The results showed that the BSP enhanced the proliferation and migration of L929 cells. The superior wound healing capacity of the BSP hydrogel was demonstrated that it significantly accelerated the wound healing process in vivo in full-thickness skin defect wounded models. Compared to the saline group, the BSP hydrogel could accelerate wound healing and promote re-epithelialization and collagen deposition by means of TGF-β/Smad signal pathway activation. Taken together, BSP hydrogel would be a useful pharmaceutic candidate for acute cutaneous wound health care.

Liposome: composition, characterisation, preparation, and recent innovation in clinical applications

In the last decades, pharmaceutical interested researches aimed to develop novel and innovative drug delivery techniques in the medical and pharmaceutical fields. Recently, phospholipid vesicles (Liposomes) are the most known versatile assemblies in the drug delivery systems. The discovery of liposomes arises from self-forming enclosed phospholipid bilayer upon coming in contact with the aqueous solution. Liposomes are uni or multilamellar vesicles consisting of phospholipids produced naturally or synthetically, which are readily non-toxic, biodegradable, and are readily produced on a large scale. Various phospholipids, for instance, soybean, egg yolk, synthetic, and hydrogenated phosphatidylcholine consider the most popular types used in different kinds of formulations. This review summarises liposomes composition, characterisation, methods of preparation, and their applications in different medical fields including cancer therapy, vaccine, ocular delivery, wound healing, and some dermatological applications.

Natural product-based nanomedicines for wound healing purposes: therapeutic targets and drug delivery systems

Wound healing process is an intricate sequence of well-orchestrated biochemical and cellular phenomena to restore the integrity of the skin and subcutaneous tissue. Several plant extracts and their phytoconstituents are known as a promising alternative for wound healing agents due to the presence of diverse active components, ease of access, and their limited side effects. The development of nanotechnological methods can help to improve the efficacy of different therapeutics as well as herbal-based products. Here, we present a review of the efficacy of the plant based-nanomaterials in the management of wounds and discuss the involved therapeutic targets. For this purpose, a profound search has been conducted on in vitro, in vivo, and/or clinical evidences evaluating the efficacy and pharmacological mechanisms of natural product-based nanostructures on different types of wounds. Different pharmacological targets are involved in the wound healing effects of herbal-based nanostructures, including suppressing the production of inflammatory cytokines and inflammatory transduction cascades, reducing oxidative factors and enhancing antioxidative enzymes, and promoting neovascularization and angiogenic pathways through increasing the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor, fibroblast growth factor, and platelet-derived growth factor. Moreover, nanostructure of plant extracts and their phytochemicals can enhance their bioavailability, control their release in the form of sustained delivery systems to the wound site, and enhance the permeability of these therapeutics to the underlying skin layers, which are all necessary for the healing process. Overall, various plant extracts and their natural compounds, used in nanoformulations, have demonstrated high activity in the management of wounds and thus can be assumed as future pharmaceutical drugs.