Chitosan-Coated Solid Lipid Nanoparticles as an Efficient Avenue for Boosted Biological Activities of Aloe perryi: Antioxidant, Antibacterial, and Anticancer Potential

Bee Venom-Loaded Niosomes as Innovative Platforms for Cancer Treatment: Development and Therapeutical Efficacy and Safety Evaluation

Despite past efforts towards therapeutical innovation, cancer remains a highly incident and lethal disease, with current treatments lacking efficiency and leading to severe side effects. Hence, it is imperative to develop new, more efficient, and safer therapies. Bee venom has proven to have multiple and synergistic bioactivities, including antitumor effects. Nevertheless, some toxic effects have been associated with its administration. To tackle these issues, in this work, bee venom-loaded niosomes were developed, for cancer treatment. The vesicles had a small (150 nm) and homogeneous (polydispersity index of 0.162) particle size, and revealed good therapeutic efficacy in in vitro gastric, colorectal, breast, lung, and cervical cancer models (inhibitory concentrations between 12.37 ng/mL and 14.72 ng/mL). Additionally, they also revealed substantial anti-inflammatory activity (inhibitory concentration of 28.98 ng/mL), effects complementary to direct antitumor activity. Niosome safety was also assessed, both in vitro (skin, liver, and kidney cells) and ex vivo (hen's egg chorioallantoic membrane), and results showed that compound encapsulation increased its safety. Hence, small, and homogeneous bee venom-loaded niosomes were successfully developed, with substantial anticancer and anti-inflammatory effects, making them potentially promising primary or adjuvant cancer therapies. Future research should focus on evaluating the potential of the developed platform in in vivo models.

Optimization of cationic nanoparticles stabilized by poloxamer 188: A potential approach for improving the biological activity of Aloeperryi

Aloe perryi (AP) has gained considerable interest as a medicinal herb in various biological applications due to its rich phytochemical composition. However, the therapeutic benefits of AP could be potentiated by utilizing nanotechnology. Moreover, cationic solid lipid nanoparticles (CSLNs) possess remarkable characteristics that can greatly enrich a variety of biological uses. An optimization approach was used to achieve high-quality CSLNs to maximize the therapeutic efficacy of AP. Therefore, a factorial design was used to investigate the influence of various variables on the attributes of CSLNs quality. In this study, the factors under investigation were compritol 888 ATO (C-888, X1), poloxamer 188 (PL188, X2), and chitosan (CS, X3), which served as independent variables. The parameters measured as dependent variables included particle size (Y1), zeta potential (Y2), and encapsulation efficiency EE (Y3). The relationship among these variables was determined by Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and response surface plots. The results revealed that PL188 played a significant role in reducing the particle size of CSLNS (ranging from 207 to 261 nm with 1 % PL188 to 167-229 nm with 3 % PL188). Conversely, an increase in the concentration of CS led to a rise in the particle size. The magnitude of positive zeta potential values was dependent on the increased concentration of CS. Moreover, the higher amounts of C-888 and PL188 improved the EE% of the CSLNs from 42 % to 86 %. Furthermore, a concentration-dependent antioxidant effect of the optimized AP-CSLNs was observed. The antioxidant activity of the optimized AP-CSLNs at 100 μg/mL was 75 % compared to 62 % and 60 % for AP-SLNs and AP solution, respectively. A similar pattern of improvement was also observed with antimicrobial, and anticancer activities of the optimized AP-CSLNs. These findings demonstrated the potential of AP-CSLNs as a carrier system, enhancing the biological activities of AP, opening new possibilities in herbal medicines.

Anti-Helicobacter pylori, Antioxidant, Antidiabetic, and Anti-Alzheimer's Activities of Laurel Leaf Extract Treated by Moist Heat and Molecular Docking of Its Flavonoid Constituent, Naringenin, against Acetylcholinesterase and Butyrylcholinesterase

It is worth noting that laurel (Laurus nobilis L.) contains several pharmacologically and nutritionally active compounds that may differ according to the pretreatment process. The current study is designed to clarify the effect of moist heat on the phenolic and flavonoid constituents and anti-Helicobacter pylori, antioxidant, antidiabetic, and anti-Alzheimer's activities of laurel leaf extract (LLE). Unmoist-heated (UMH) and moist-heated (MH) LLEs showed the presence of numerous flavonoid and phenolic constituents, although at different levels of concentration. MH significantly induced (p < 0.05) the occurrence of most compounds at high concentrations of 5655.89 µg/mL, 3967.65 µg/mL, 224.80 µg/mL, 887.83 µg/mL, 2979.14 µg/mL, 203.02 µg/mL, 284.65 µg/mL, 1893.66 µg/mL, and 187.88 µg/mL, unlike the detection at low concentrations of 3461.19 µg/mL, 196.96 µg/mL, 664.12 µg/mL, 2835.09 µg/mL, 153.26 µg/mL, 254.43 µg/mL, 1605.00 µg/mL, 4486.02 µg/mL, and 195.60 µg/mL using UMH, for naringenin, methyl gallate, caffeic acid, rutin, ellagic acid, coumaric acid, vanillin, ferulic acid, and hesperetin, respectively. Chlorogenic acid, syringic acid, and daidzein were detected in the UMH LLE but not in the MH LLE, unlike pyrocatechol. The anti-H. pylori activity of the UMH LLE was lower (23.67 ± 0.58 mm of inhibition zone) than that of the MH LLE (26.00 ± 0.0 mm of inhibition zone). Moreover, the values of MIC and MBC associated with the MH LLE were very low compared to those of the UMH LLE. Via MBC/MIC index calculation, the UMH and MH LLEs showed cidal activity. The MH LLE exhibited higher anti-biofilm activity (93.73%) compared to the anti-biofilm activity (87.75%) of the MH LLE against H. pylori. The urease inhibition percentage was more affected in the UMH LLE compared to the MH LLE, with significant (p < 0.05) IC₅₀ values of 34.17 µg/mL and 91.11 µg/mL, respectively. Promising antioxidant activity was documented with a very low value of IC₅₀ (3.45 µg/mL) for the MH LLE compared to the IC₅₀ value of 4.69 µg/mL for the UMH LLE and the IC₅₀ value of 4.43 µg/mL for ascorbic acid. The MH LLE showed significantly higher (p < 0.05) inhibition of α-glucosidase and butyrylcholinesterase activities, with IC₅₀ values of 9.9 µg/mL and 17.3 µg/mL, respectively, compared to those of the UMH LLE at 18.36 µg/mL and 28.92 µg/mL. The molecular docking of naringenin showed good docking scores against acetylcholinesterase 1E66 and butyrylcholinesterase 6EMI, indicating that naringenin is an intriguing candidate for additional research as a possible medication for Alzheimer's disease.