Polysaccharide hydrogel platforms as suitable carriers of liposomes and extracellular vesicles for dermal applications.

Lipid-based nanocarriers have been extensively investigated for their application in drug delivery. Particularly, liposomes are now clinically established for treating various diseases such as fungal infections. In contrast, extracellular vesicles (EVs) - small cell-derived nanoparticles involved in cellular communication - have just recently sparked interest as drug carriers but their development is still at the preclinical level.

Cell-Derived Vesicles for Antibiotic Delivery-Understanding the Challenges of a Biogenic Carrier System.

Recently, extracellular vesicles (EVs) sparked substantial therapeutic interest, particularly due to their ability to mediate targeted transport between tissues and cells. Yet, EVs' technological translation as therapeutics strongly depends on better biocompatibility assessments in more complex models and elementary in vitro-in vivo correlation, and comparison of mammalian versus bacterial vesicles. With this in mind, two new types of EVs derived from human B-lymphoid cells with low immunogenicity and from non-pathogenic myxobacteria SBSr073 are introduced here.

Chemically Engineered Immune Cell-Derived Microrobots and Biomimetic Nanoparticles: Emerging Biodiagnostic and Therapeutic Tools.

Over the past decades, considerable attention has been dedicated to the exploitation of diverse immune cells as therapeutic and/or diagnostic cell-based microrobots for hard-to-treat disorders. To date, a plethora of therapeutics based on alive immune cells, surface-engineered immune cells, immunocytes' cell membranes, leukocyte-derived extracellular vesicles or exosomes, and artificial immune cells have been investigated and a few have been introduced into the market. These systems take advantage of the unique characteristics and functions of immune cells, including their presence in circulating blood and various tissues, complex crosstalk properties, high affinity to different self and foreign markers, unique potential of their on-demand navigation and activity, production of a variety of chemokines/cytokines, as well as being cytotoxic in particular conditions.

Bacterial extracellular vesicles: Understanding biology promotes applications as nanopharmaceuticals.

Extracellular vesicle (EV)-mediated communication between proximal and distant cells is a highly conserved characteristic in all of the life domains, including bacteria. These vesicles that contain a variety of biomolecules, such as proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and small-molecule metabolites play a key role in the biology of bacteria. They are one of the key underlying mechanisms behind harmful or beneficial effects of many pathogenic, symbiont, and probiotic bacteria.

A comparison of models for the analysis of the kinetics of drug release from PLGA-based nanoparticles.

Purpose: Poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) has received much academic attention for developing nanotherapeutics and FDA has approved it for several applications. An important parameter that dictates the bioavailability and hence the biological effect of the drug is drug release from its delivering system. This study offers a comparative mathematical analysis of drug release from Poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid)-based nanoparticles to suggest a general model explaining multi-mechanistic release they provide.

A mechanistic investigation on methotrexate-loaded chitosan-based hydrogel nanoparticles intended for CNS drug delivery: Trojan horse effect or not?

Chitosan-based hydrogel nanoparticles provide a higher brain concentration of methotrexate (MTX) following IV administration in comparison with the drug's simple solution. The present study investigates the mechanism of this phenomenon, focusing on the possible role of P-gp. A previously developed MTX containing chitosan nanogel was fabricated and characterised.

in vitro- and in vivo Evaluation of Methotrexate-Loaded Hydrogel Nanoparticles Intended to Treat Primary CNS Lymphoma via Intranasal Administration.

Purpose: Although it passes through blood-brain barrier (BBB) very poorly, methotrexate (MTX) is an important therapeutic in the treatment of many central nervous system malignancies. Accordingly, intranasal (IN) administration accompanied with a muco-adhesive chitosan-based nanoformulation is expected to overcome this problem.

Methods: Nanogel containing MTX was prepared through an ionic gelation method and then characterized in terms of particle size, morphology, zeta potential, drug loading and drug release behavior.

Controlled-release in-situ gel forming formulation of tramadol containing chitosan-based pro-nanogels.

Chronic pain is one of the most prevalent health problems worldwide. Tramadol is a synthetic semi-opioid analgesic, interacting with serotonergic, adrenergic and opioid receptors to reduce the pain but its short half-life in vivo may reduce patient compliance in case of chronic pains. To overcome this problem, novel drug delivery systems have been investigated.

Promising horizon to alleviate Alzeheimer's disease pathological hallmarks via inhibiting mTOR signaling pathway: A new application for a commonplace analgesic.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a very prevalent and burdensome disease of elderlies but albeit extensive studies, mechanisms underlying its pathology and consequently its definite treatment is ambiguous. Intra and extra-cellular aggregation of abnormal proteins and impaired autophagy machinery, two closely related events taking place in AD brains proposed to be directly controlled by mTOR signaling pathway. On the other hand, tramadol that is a very well tolerated opioid analgesic has been revealed to inhibit mTOR upstream controllers through interaction with specific types of muscarinic, serotonergic, nicotinic and NMDA receptors, although it seems to induce the opposite effect via µ-opioid receptor.