Targeting lung macrophages for fungal and parasitic pulmonary infections with innovative amphotericin B dry powder inhalers.

The incidence of fungal pulmonary infections is known to be on the increase, and yet there is an alarming gap in terms of marketed antifungal therapies that are available for pulmonary administration. Amphotericin B (AmB) is a highly efficient broad-spectrum antifungal only marketed as an intravenous formulation. Based on the lack of effective antifungal and antiparasitic pulmonary treatments, the aim of this study was to develop a carbohydrate-based AmB dry powder inhaler (DPI) formulation, prepared by spray drying.

Mobilizing Established School Partnerships to Reach Underserved Children During a Global Pandemic.

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has led to drastic public health measures, including school closures to slow the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection. Reopening educational settings by using diagnostic testing approaches in schools can help accelerate the safe return of students and staff to on-site learning by quickly and accurately identifying cases, limiting the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, and ultimately preventing unnecessary school and work absenteeism. Although the National Institutes of Health has identified community partnerships as the foundation for reducing health disparities, we found limited application of a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach in school engagement.

Entrepreneurial, Economic, and Social Well-Being Outcomes from an RCT of a Youth Entrepreneurship Education Intervention among Native American Adolescents.

Entrepreneurship education has demonstrated positive impacts in low-resource contexts. However, there is limited evidence of such programs evaluated among Native American (NA) youth in a rural reservation. A 2:1 randomized controlled trial evaluated the impact of the Arrowhead Business Group (ABG) entrepreneurship education program on entrepreneurship knowledge, economic empowerment, and social well-being among 394 NA youth.

Nebulised antibiotherapy: conventional versus nanotechnology-based approaches, is targeting at a nano scale a difficult subject?

Nebulised antibiotics offer great advantages over intravenously administered antibiotics and other conventional antibiotic formulations. However, their use is not widely standardized in the current clinical practice. This is the consequence of large variability in the performance of nebulisers, patient compliance and a deficiency of robust preclinical and clinical data.

Unmet clinical needs in the treatment of systemic fungal infections: The role of amphotericin B and drug targeting.

Recently an increase in both the prevalence and incidence of invasive fungal infections have been reported. The number of fungal species that can cause systemic mycoses are higher and current antifungal therapies are still far from ideal. The emergence of antifungal resistances has a major clinical impact when using azoles and echinocandins leading to possible treatment failure and ultimately putting the patient's life at risk.

Engineering Oral and Parenteral Amorphous Amphotericin B Formulations against Experimental Trypanosoma cruzi Infections.

Chagas disease (CD) is a parasitic zoonosis endemic in most mainland countries of Central and South America affecting nearly 10 million people, with 100 million people at high risk of contracting the disease. Treatment is only effective if received at the early stages of the disease. Only two drugs (benznidazole and nifurtimox) have so far been marketed, and both share various limitations such as variable efficacy, many side effects, and long duration of treatment, thus reducing compliance.

Analgesic and anti-inflammatory controlled-released injectable microemulsion: Pseudo-ternary phase diagrams, in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo evaluation.

Purpose: Development of analgesic and anti-inflammatory controlled-released injectable microemulsions utilising lysine clonixinate (LC) as model drug and generally regarded as safe (GRAS) excipients.

Methods: Different microemulsions were optimised through pseudo-ternary phase diagrams and characterised measuring droplet size, viscosity, ex vivo haemolytic activity and in vitro drug release. The anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity was tested in mice (Hot plate test) and rats (Carrageenan-induced paw edema test) respectively and their activity was compared to an aqueous solution of LC salt.