Yokukansankachimpihange Is Useful to Treat Behavioral/Psychological Symptoms of Dementia.

Yokukansankachimpihange is a Japanese herbal medicine reported to benefit anxiety and sleep disorders, and it has recently been introduced to treat behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia. There are no multicenter studies of its effectiveness regarding dementia in Japan, and this study's main objective was to clarify the effects of Yokukansankachimpihange on behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia in a sample of patients from multiple healthcare centers. Nine facilities affiliated with Osaka Association of Psychiatric Clinics participated in November 2013 through April 2015 and provided 32 Alzheimer's disease patients to whom Yokukansankachimpihange was orally administered for 8 weeks.

Inhibitory effect of siRNA complexes with polyamidoamine dendrimer/α-cyclodextrin conjugate (generation 3, G3) on endogenous gene expression.

In the present study, we prepared the small interfering RNA (siRNA) complexes with polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer (G3) conjugate with α-cyclodextrin (α-CDE (G3)), and examined the physicochemical properties, serum resistance, in vitro RNAi effects on endogenous gene expression, cytotoxicity, interferon response, hemolytic activity, cellular association and intracellular distribution. In addition, these results were compared to the siRNA complexes with the commercial transfection reagents such as linear polyethyleneimine (PEI), Lipofectamine™2000 (L2) and RNAiFect™ (RF). α-CDE (G3) interacted with siRNA, and suppressed siRNA degradation by serum.

Potential use of polyamidoamine dendrimer/alpha-cyclodextrin conjugate (generation 3, G3) as a novel carrier for short hairpin RNA-expressing plasmid DNA.

The potential of starburst polyamidoamine dendrimer (dendrimer, generation 3, G3) conjugate with alpha-cyclodextrin (alpha-CyD) having an average degree of substitution of 2.4 (alpha-CDE) as a novel carrier of short hairpin RNA (shRNA) expressing plasmid DNA (shpDNA) was evaluated and the shpDNA transfer activity of alpha-CDE was compared with that of dendrimer (G3). Alpha-CDE formed a stable and condensed complex with shpDNA and induced a conformational transition of shpDNA in solution even in the low charge ratios.

Evaluation of polyamidoamine dendrimer/alpha-cyclodextrin conjugate (generation 3, G3) as a novel carrier for small interfering RNA (siRNA).

As the first step toward an evaluation of the potential use of the PAMAM dendrimer (G3) conjugate with alpha-cyclodextrin (alpha-CDE) for a small interfering RNA (siRNA) carrier, the ternary complexes of alpha-CDE or the transfection reagents such as Lipofactamine 2000 (L2), TransFast (TF) and Lipofectin (LF) with plasmid DNA (pDNA) and siRNA were prepared, and their RNAi effects, cytotoxicity, physicochemical properties and intracellular distribution were compared. Here the pGL2 control vector (pGL2) and pGL3 control vector (pGL3) encoding the firefly luciferase gene and the two corresponding siRNAs (siGL2 and siGL3) were used. The ternary complexes of pGL3/siGL3/alpha-CDE showed the potent RNAi effects with negligible cytotoxicity compared to those of the transfection reagents in various cells.

Improvement of gene delivery mediated by mannosylated dendrimer/alpha-cyclodextrin conjugates.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate in vitro and in vivo gene delivery efficiency of polyamidoamine (PAMAM) starburst dendrimer (generation 2, G2) conjugate with alpha-cyclodextrin (alpha-CDE conjugate (G2)) bearing mannose (Man-alpha-CDE conjugates) with the various degrees of substitution of the mannose moiety (DSM) as a novel non-viral vector in a variety of cells. Man-alpha-CDE conjugates (DSM 3.3 and 4.

Enhancing effects of galactosylated dendrimer/alpha-cyclodextrin conjugates on gene transfer efficiency.

To improve in vitro gene transfer efficiency and/or achieve cell-specific gene delivery of polyamidoamine (PAMAM) starburst dendrimer (generation 2, G2) conjugate with alpha-cyclodextrin (alpha-CDE conjugate (G2)), we prepared alpha-CDE conjugate bearing galactose (Gal-alpha-CDE conjugates) with the various degrees of substitution of the galactose moiety (DSG) as a novel non-viral vector. The agarose gel electrophoretic studies revealed that Gal-alpha-CDE conjugates formed complexes with plasmid DNA (pDNA) and protected the degradation of pDNA by DNase I, but these effects impaired as the DSG value increased. Dendrimer and alpha-CDE conjugate exerted pDNA condensation through the complexation, but Gal-alpha-CDE conjugates did not.

In vitro and in vivo gene transfer by an optimized alpha-cyclodextrin conjugate with polyamidoamine dendrimer.

The purpose of the present study is to optimize the structure of the polyamidoamine starburst dendrimer (dendrimer) conjugate with alpha-cyclodextrin (alpha-CDE conjugate) as a nonviral vector. alpha-CDE conjugates of dendrimer (generation 3, G3) with various average degrees of substitution (DS) of alpha-CyD of 1.1, 2.

Effects of structure of polyamidoamine dendrimer on gene transfer efficiency of the dendrimer conjugate with alpha-cyclodextrin.

To improve gene transfer activity of a new nonviral vector, a polyamidoamine dendrimer (G2) conjugate with alpha-cyclodextrin (alpha-CDE conjugate (G2)), we prepared alpha-CDE conjugates with dendrimer having different generations (G3 and G4), and their gene transfer activities were compared with those of alpha-CDE conjugate (G2) and TransFast, a novel transfection reagent. alpha-CDE conjugates (G2, G3, and G4) formed the complexes with pDNA, changing the zeta-potential and particle size of pDNA complexes and the protection of pDNA from DNase I in a charge ratio-dependent manner, although their differences at higher charge ratios (vector/pDNA) were small. The gene transfer activity of alpha-CDE conjugates (G2, G3, and G4) was higher than that of the corresponding dendrimer alone in NIH3T3 and RAW264.