Alkaloids for cancer prevention and therapy: Current progress and future perspectives.

Alkaloids are important chemical compounds that serve as a rich source for drug discovery. Numerous alkaloids screened from medicinal plants and herbs showed antiproliferative and anticancer effects on wide category of cancers both in vitro and in vivo. Vinblastine, vinorelbine, vincristine, and vindesine have already been successfully developed as anticancer drugs.

Alginate Based Nanocarriers for Drug Delivery Applications.

Background: Now a day's natural polymer based nanoparticulate system have been widely studied as particulate vehicles in the bio-medical and pharmaceutical area. Alginate, a natural biopolymer show good biodegradability, biocompatibility and non toxic, has received attention to utilise as a carrier for preparation of polymeric nanoparticles. Chemically and physically alginate can modified easily and obtained various structure having various properties, and versatile applications.

Metal ion-induced alginate-locust bean gum IPN microspheres for sustained oral delivery of aceclofenac.

The alginate microspheres represent a useful tool for sustained oral delivery of drugs but exhibit several problems associated with the stability and rapid release of drugs at higher pH values. To overcome these drawbacks, alginate-locust bean gum (LBG) interpenetrating microspheres were prepared by calcium ion (Ca(+2)) induced ionotropic gelation technique for prolonged release of aceclofenac. The drug entrapment efficiency of these microspheres was found to be 59-93%.

Gellan gum microspheres containing a novel α-amylase from marine Nocardiopsis sp. strain B2 for immobilization.

A Nocardiopsis sp. stain B2 with an ability to produce stable α-amylase was isolated from marine sediments. The characterization of microorganism was done by biochemical tests and 16S rDNA sequencing.

In-vitro release of acyclovir loaded Eudragit RLPO(®) nanoparticles for sustained drug delivery.

In this present study the possibility to develop Eudragit RLPO(®) based nanoparticles of acyclovir was investigated in order to increase its efficacy because acyclovir has oral bioavailability of only 10-20% thus showing erratic absorption and bioavailability behaviour. The nanoparticles were prepared by nanoprecipitation technique. Pluronic F68 was used as stabilizer.