Enhanced Efficacy of Artemisinin Loaded in Transferrin-Conjugated Liposomes versus Stealth Liposomes against HCT-8 Colon Cancer Cells.

Artemisinin (ART) is a unique sesquiterpene lactone isolated from Artemisia annua that is well known for antimalarial properties and was recently reported as a promising anticancer drug. The aim of our work was to develop a novel nanocarrier for enhanced ART delivery and activation in cancer tissues, because transferrin receptors are largely expressed in cancer cells and the iron content is higher than in normal cells. ART was loaded in transferrin-conjugated liposomes (ART-L-Tf), and the performance was compared with ART loaded in stealth liposomes (ART-L).

Essential oils loaded in nanosystems: a developing strategy for a successful therapeutic approach.

Essential oils are complex blends of a variety of volatile molecules such as terpenoids, phenol-derived aromatic components, and aliphatic components having a strong interest in pharmaceutical, sanitary, cosmetic, agricultural, and food industries. Since the middle ages, essential oils have been widely used for bactericidal, virucidal, fungicidal, antiparasitical, insecticidal, and other medicinal properties such as analgesic, sedative, anti-inflammatory, spasmolytic, and locally anaesthetic remedies. In this review their nanoencapsulation in drug delivery systems has been proposed for their capability of decreasing volatility, improving the stability, water solubility, and efficacy of essential oil-based formulations, by maintenance of therapeutic efficacy.

Strategy to provide a useful solution to effective delivery of dihydroartemisinin: development, characterization and in vitro studies of liposomal formulations.

Dihydroartemisinin is one of the most potent anticancer artemisinin-like compounds, able to induce cancer cell death by apoptotic pathways. Besides its effectiveness, it is a poorly water soluble drug with low bioavailability and low half-life (34-90 min), therefore, the development of new formulations of dihydroartemisinin to increase bioavailability is in great need. Conventional (P90G and cholesterol) and stealth liposomes (P90G; cholesterol and PE 18:0/18:0 PEG 2000) to deliver dihydroartemisinin to cancer cells were developed for the first time.

Microarray-based mRNA expression profiling of leukemia cells treated with the flavonoid, casticin.

Natural polyphenols play an important role in tumor inhibition. We used a doxorubicin-sensitive acute T-lymphoblastic leukemia cell line (CCRF-CEM) and its multidrug-resistant subline (CEM/ADR5000) to evaluate the activity of 15 plant polyphenols isolated in our laboratory (hypericin and pseudohypericin, verbascoside, ellagic acid, casticin, kaempferol-3-O-(2'',6''-di-E-p-coumaroyl)-glucopyranoside, kaempferol-3-O-(3,4-diacetyl-2,6-di-E-p-coumaroyl) -glucopyranoside, tiliroside, salvianolic acid B, oleuropein, rosmarinic acid, bergenin) or of others from commercial sources (curcumin, epigallocatechin-3-gallate, silymarin). Casticin was the most potent compound (IC50 values of 0.

Artemisinin and artemisinin plus curcumin liposomal formulations: enhanced antimalarial efficacy against Plasmodium berghei-infected mice.

The therapeutic efficacies of novel liposomal delivery systems based on artemisinin or artemisinin-based combination therapy with curcumin have been investigated and reported in this study. The developed liposomal formulations had proper characteristics as drug carriers for parental administration in terms of particle size, polydispersity, encapsulation efficacy and ζ-potential. Their physical and chemical stabilities were also evaluated.