Nanomicelles empower natamycin in treating fungal keratitis: An in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo study.

Fungal infections of cornea are important causes of blindness especially in developing nations with tropical climate. However, the challenges associated with current treatments are responsible for poor outcome. Natamycin is the only FDA-approved antifungal drug to treat fungal keratitis, but unfortunately due to its poor water solubility, it is available as suspension.

Molecular mechanism of interaction of mitocurcumin-1 with Akt1 and STAT3: an in silico approach.

The bioavailability of curcumin is the limiting factor for its effective use in anti-cancer therapy. Recently, we reported a novel approach to enhance the cellular uptake by conjugating curcumin with triphenyl phosphonium, named mitocurcumin-1. We found that such conjugation significantly increased the uptake of curcumin in various cancer cells and caused cancer cell death by inducing apoptosis by decreasing the phosphorylation of Akt1 (Thr308) and STAT3 (Tyr705).

Structure, function, and epigenetic regulation of BNIP3: a pathophysiological relevance.

BCL-2 [B-cell leukemia/lymphoma 2]/adenovirus E1B 19KD interacting protein 3 (BNIP3) is an atypical BH3 domain only containing member of Bcl2 family of proteins. BNIP3 is known to be involved in various cellular processes depending on the cell type and conditions and also shown to play a role in various disease conditions including myocardial ischemia, autophagy and apoptosis. Though its role in autophagy and its pro-death activity have been reported in various studies, recent findings have shown its contradictory role in the regulation of these cellular processes.

Mitochondrial-targeted curcuminoids: a strategy to enhance bioavailability and anticancer efficacy of curcumin.

Although the anti-cancer effects of curcumin has been shown in various cancer cell types, in vitro, pre-clinical and clinical studies showed only a limited efficacy, even at high doses. This is presumably due to low bioavailability in both plasma and tissues, particularly due to poor intracellular accumulation. A variety of methods have been developed to achieve the selective targeting of drugs to cells and mitochondrion.