3D Printing Technology in Customized Drug Delivery System: Current State of the Art, Prospective and the Challenges.

Background: 3D printing/Additive Manufacturing seems a pragmatic approach to realize the quest for a truly customized and personalized drug delivery. 3DP technology, with innovations in pharmaceutical development and an interdisciplinary approach to finding newer Drug Delivery Systems can usher a new era of treatments to various diseases. The true potential of this is yet to be realized, and the US-FDA is focusing on the regulatory science of 3D printed medical devices to help patients access this technology safely and effectively.

Acute toxicity profiling of the ethyl acetate fraction of seeds and - neuroprotection studies.

(SM) is a medicinally important plant found in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The ethyl acetate fraction of the seeds of (SMEAF) is reported to exhibit potent anticancer, antitumor, anti-inflammatory and antifeedant activities. Till date, there have been no studies reported on the acute oral toxicity profile of the ethyl acetate fraction of the seeds of SM.

Intracellular delivery of potential therapeutic genes: prospects in cancer gene therapy.

Conventional therapies for malignant cancer such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy are associated with poor survival rates owing to the development of cellular resistance to cancer drugs and the lack of targetability, resulting in unwanted adverse effects on healthy cells and necessitating the lowering of therapeutic dose with consequential lower efficacy of the treatment. Gene therapy employing different types of viral and non-viral carriers to transport gene(s) of interest and facilitating production of the desirable therapeutic protein(s) has tremendous prospects in cancer treatments due to the high-level of specificity in therapeutic action of the expressed protein(s) with diminished off-target effects, although cancer cell-specific delivery of transgene(s) still poses some challenges to be addressed. Depending on the potential therapeutic target genes, cancer gene therapy could be categorized into tumor suppressor gene replacement therapy, immune gene therapy and enzyme- or prodrug-based therapy.