Pharmacokinetics, biodistribution and antitumour effects of Sclerotium rolfsii lectin in mice

Sclerotium rolfsii lectin (SRL) is a lectin isolated from the fungus Sclerotium rolfsii and has exquisite binding specificity towards the oncofetal Thomsen-Friedenreich antigen (TF-Ag; Galβ1-3GalNAcα-O-Ser/Thr) and its derivatives. Previous studies have shown that SRL inhibits the proliferation of human colon, breast and ovarian cancer cells in vitro and suppresses tumour growth in mice when introduced intratumourally. The present study assessed the effect of SRL on tumour growth when introduced intraperitoneally in BALB/c nude mice and investigated the pharmacokinetics and biodistribution of SRL in Swiss albino mice. When 9 doses of SRL (30 mg/kg body weight/mice) was administered to BALB/c nude mice bearing human colon cancer HT-29 xenografts, a substantial reduction in tumour size was observed. A 35.8% reduction in tumour size was noted in the treated animals after 17 days. SRL treatment also inhibited angiogenesis, and the tumours from the treated animals were observed to carry fewer blood vessels and express less angiogenesis marker protein CD31, than that from the control animals. Pharmacokinetics and biodistribution analysis revealed that SRL was detected in the serum after 1 h and its level peaked after 24 h. SRL was not detected in any of the organs apart from the kidney where a trace amount was detected after 24 h of SRL injection. No significant changes were observed in any of the biochemical parameters tested including SGOT, SGPT, LDH, CREAT and BUN in the SRL-treated mice compared to these levels in the controls. This suggests that SRL has good potential to be developed as a therapeutic agent for cancer treatment and warrant further investigations in vivo and subsequent clinical trials.

Single-Step Synthesis and Optical Properties of Bimetallic Fe–Ag Nanoparticles

Bimetallic nanoparticles containing ferromagnetic iron (Fe) and plasmonic silver (Ag) are synthesized by one-step chemical reduction process. Structural and optical properties of nanoparticles are studied by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction technique, UV-Visible spectroscopy and photoluminescence measurement. Tunable optical properties with the variation of Ag percentage in the Fe–Ag nanoparticles are observed. Sharp absorption peak due to localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) is observed in the visible spectrum range for Fe–Ag nanoparticles which is absent in Fe nanoparticles. LSPR peak shows redshift due to variation in shape and size of the nanoparticles having higher Ag content. Enhanced photoluminescence in the bimetallic nanoparticles is attributed to the observed surface plasmon resonance.