Drug Delivery Systems Research Articles

A Critical Appraisal of Functionalized 2-Dimensional Carbon-Based Nanomaterials for Drug Delivery Applications.

The development of an efficient and innovative drug delivery system is essential to improve the pharmacological parameters of the medicinal compound or drug. The technique or manner used to improve the pharmacological parameters plays a crucial role in the delivery system. In the current scenario, various drug delivery systems are available where nanotechnology has firmly established itself in the field of drug delivery. One of the most prevalent elements is carbon with its allotropic modifications such as graphene-based nanomaterials, carbon nanotubes, carbon dots, and carbon fullerenes, these nanomaterials offer notable physiochemical and biochemical properties for the delivery applications due to their smaller size, surface area, and ability to interact with the cells or tissues. The exceptional physicochemical properties of carbon-based 2D nanomaterials, such as graphene and carbon nanotubes, make them attractive candidates for drug delivery systems. These nanomaterials offer a large surface area, high drug loading capacity, and tunable surface chemistry, enabling efficient encapsulation, controlled release, and targeted delivery of therapeutic agents. These properties of the nanomaterials can be exploited for drug delivery applications, like assisting the target delivery of drugs and aiding combination molecular imaging. This review emphasizes on the recent patents on 2D carbon-based nanomaterial and their role in drug delivery systems. Carbon-based 2D nanomaterials present a wealth of opportunities for advanced drug delivery systems. Their exceptional properties and versatility offers great potential in improving therapeutic efficacy, minimizing side effects, and enabling personalized medicine and the recent patents on 2D nanomaterial.

Emerging Nanotechnology-based Therapeutics: A New Insight into Promising Drug Delivery System for Lung Cancer Therapy.

Lung cancer is a foremost global health issue due to its poor diagnosis. The advancement of novel drug delivery systems and medical devices will aid its therapy. In this review, the authors thoroughly introduce the ideas and methods for improving nanomedicine- based approaches for lung cancer therapy. This article provides mechanistic insight into various novel drug delivery systems (DDSs) including nanoparticles, solid lipid nanoparticles, liposomes, dendrimers, niosomes, and nanoemulsions for lung cancer therapy with recent research work. This review provides insights into various patents published for lung cancer therapy based on nanomedicine. This review also highlights the current status of approved and clinically tested nanoformulations for their treatment. For finding scholarly related data for the literature search, many search engines were employed including PubMed, Science Direct, Google, Scihub, Google Scholar, Research Gate, Web of Sciences, and several others. Various keywords and phrases were used for the search such as "nanoparticles", "solid lipid nanoparticles", "liposomes", "dendrimers", "niosomes", "nanoemulsions", "lung cancer", "nanomedicine", "nanomaterial", "nanotechnology", "in vivo" and "in vitro". The most innovative and cutting-edge nanotechnology-based approaches that are employed in pre-clinical and clinical studies to address problems associated with lung cancer therapies are also mentioned in future prospects. A variety of problems encountered with current lung cancer therapy techniques that frequently led to inadequate therapeutic success are also discussed in the end. The development of nanoformulations at the pilot scale still faces some difficulties, but their prospects for treating lung cancer appear to be promising in the future. Future developments and trends are anticipated as the evaluation comes to a close.

Recent Advances in Pharmaceutical Design: Unleashing the Potential of Novel Therapeutics.

Pharmaceutical design has made significant advancements in recent years, leading to the development of novel therapeutics with unprecedented efficacy and safety profiles. This review highlights the potential of these innovations to revolutionize healthcare and improve patient outcomes. The application of cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data mining in drug discovery and design has made it easier to find potential drug candidates. Combining big data and omics has led to the discovery of new therapeutic targets and personalized medicine strategies. Nanoparticles, liposomes, and microneedles are examples of advanced drug delivery systems that allow precise control over drug release, better bioavailability, and targeted delivery to specific tissues or cells. This improves the effectiveness of the treatment while reducing side effects. Stimuli-responsive materials and smart drug delivery systems enable drugs to be released on demand when specific internal or external signals are sent. Biologics and gene therapies are promising approaches in pharmaceutical design, offering high specificity and potency for treating various diseases like cancer, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases. Gene therapies hold tremendous potential for correcting genetic abnormalities, with recent breakthroughs demonstrating successful outcomes in inherited disorders and certain types of cancer. Advancements in nanotechnology and nanomedicine have paved the way for innovative diagnostic tools and therapeutics, such as nanoparticle-based imaging agents, targeted drug delivery systems, gene editing technologies, and regenerative medicine strategies. Finally, the review emphasizes the importance of regulatory considerations, ethical challenges, and future directions in pharmaceutical design. Regulatory agencies are adapting to the rapid advancements in the field, ensuring the safety and efficacy of novel therapeutics while fostering innovation. Ethical considerations regarding the use of emerging technologies, patient privacy, and access to advanced therapies also require careful attention.

Nano - Based Therapeutic Strategies in Management of Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease, progressively distinctive via cartilage destruction, auto-antibody production, severe joint pain, and synovial inflammation. Nanotechnology represents as one of the utmost promising scientific technologies of the 21st century. It exhibits remarkable potential in the field of medicine, including imaging techniques and diagnostic tools, drug delivery systems and providing advances in treatment of several diseases with nanosized structures (less than 100 nm). Conventional drugs as a cornerstone of RA management including disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDS), Glucocorticosteroids, etc are under clinical practice. Nevertheless, their low solubility profile, poor pharmacokinetics behaviour, and non-targeted distribution not only hamper their effectiveness, but also give rise to severe adverse effects which leads to the need for the emergence of nanoscale drug delivery systems. Several types of nano-diagnostic agents and nanocarriers have been identified; including polymeric nanoparticles (NPs), liposomes, nanogels, metallic NPs, nanofibres, carbon nanotubes, nano fullerene etc. Various patents and clinical trial data have been reported in relevance to RA treatment. Nanocarriers, unlike standard medications, encapsulate molecules with high drug loading efficacy and avoid drug leakage and burst release before reaching the inflamed sites. Because of its enhanced targeting specificity with the ability to solubilise hydrophobic drugs, it acts as an enhanced drug delivery system. This study explores nanoparticles potential role in RA as a carrier for site-specific delivery and its promising strategies to overcome the drawbacks. Hence, it concludes that nanomedicine is advantageous compared with conventional therapy to enhanced futuristic approach.

Adsorption behavior of hydroxyurea drug on pristine, Si, and Ge-doped carbon nitride nanosheet: A computational study

In order to reduce adverse effects of chemotherapy drugs and improve efficacy of cancer therapy, it is important to discover an appropriate carrier for delivering anticancer medications. Currently, there is a significant amount of research focused on the utilization of nanomaterials as drug carriers for delivering medications into tumor cells. The adsorption characteristics, electronic sensitivity, and reactivity of undoped and doped (Si and Ge)-NC3S materials towards hydroxyurea (HU) drug have been examined using DFT calculations in both gaseous and aqueous environments. Based on our computations, it was observed that hydroxyurea (HU) drug undergoes physical adsorption over pristine C3NNS (carbon nitride nanosheet) with energy values of −0.49 eV and −0.13 eV, accompanied by a slight transfer of charge of approximately −0.075e and 0.092e in the aqueous and gaseous environments, respectively, within the most stable complex. However, upon substituting one the of central N (N) atoms with either a silicon (Si) or germanium (Ge) atom, sensitivity of doped NC3S (nitrogen-centered triazine-based graphitic carbon nitride) material significantly increases towards the hydroxyurea (HU) drug molecules. The hydroxyurea (HU) drug exhibits a preference for chemical adsorption on the Si-NC3S and Ge-NC3S materials with energy values of −1.36 and −1.71 eV in gaseous medium, and −1.08 and −1.47 eV in aqueous phase, respectively, within the most stable complexes. Hence, metal-doped C3NNTs have the potential to serve as promising candidates for adsorbing HU molecules in drug delivery systems (DDSs) within the field of nanomedicine.

Featuring the aspects with temperature dependent viscosity of inclined MHD Williamson fluid along with heat source/sink, Soret and Dufour effects: A predictor-corrector approach

The boundary layer flow analysis of Williamson fluid moving on the stretched cylinder has applications in the polymer processing, drug delivery system, cooling systems, rheology of food products, dyeing, and finishing. The numerical solutions of governing Navier-Stokes equations at different scenarios of thermal and solutal aspects have lots of practical implications, including biomedical engineering, cooling and heating processes, chemical reactors, aerodynamics, environmental science, and thermal storage systems. From these practical applications, the authors were motivated to conduct a study in which the numerical behavior is examined by applying the Adams-Bashforth predictor and corrector approach of numerical analysis for the Williamson fluid model in the presence of varying viscosity, natural convection, and the inclined magnetic field. Furthermore, Joule heating, thermal radiation, and heat source/sink effects are included in the thermal aspects because these are the important concepts in thermal management and engineering and have applications in solar thermal energy systems, combustion engines, heat exchangers, nuclear reactors, thermal imaging, and safety. Apart from thermal aspects, the analysis of mass transfer focuses on the influence of chemical reactions and Soret-Dufour effects. The similarity transformations are adopted to convert partial differential equations into ordinary differential equations. Specifically, the well-known predictor and corrector numerical method named the Adams-Bashforth method in combination with the Runge-Kutta 4th order scheme is used to achieve the numerical solutions. The temperature, concentration, and velocity regions are displayed on the graphical and numerical conducts. A comparison is also made between the results obtained by the shooting method and the numerical findings of skin friction, Nusselt number, and Sherwood number determined by the Adams-Bashforth method. The determining results concluded that the restrictions in the flow of Williamson fluid are caused by variations in the inclination magnetic field, the surface curvature, and the Williamson parameter, whereas the motion of the fluid increases due to convection, which occurs due to thermal phenomena. The determined results indicate that the temperature distribution is enhanced due to the addition of thermal radiation, Eckert number, and magnetic field. The surface curvature, Soret number, and reaction coefficient marks the decrease impact on the concentration region. The temperature-dependent viscosity increases the drag force and friction coefficient. The Nusselt number is amplified by applying thermal radiation to the surface of the cylinder. The chemical reaction is the source of the increment in the Sherwood number.

Starch-based bio-membrane for water purification, biomedical waste, and environmental remediation

This review article explores the utilization of starch-based materials as smart materials for the removal of dyes and heavy metals from wastewater, highlighting their cost-effectiveness, biodegradability, and biocompatibility. It addresses the critical need for clean water, emphasizing the contamination caused by industrial activities, such as printing, textile, cosmetic, and leather tanning industries. Starch and its derivatives demonstrate significant potential in water purification technology, effectively removing toxicants through hydrogen bonding, electrostatic interactions, and complexation. The review also discusses the application of starch-based materials in the biomedical field, particularly as drug carriers. Starch-based microspheres, hydrogels, nano-spheres, and nano-composites exhibit sustained drug-release properties and are effective in transporting various drugs, including DOX, quercetin, 5-Fluorouracil, glycyrrhizic acid, paclitaxel, tetracycline hydrochloride, amoxicillin, ciprofloxacin, and moxifloxacin. These materials show good antimicrobial activity against a range of pathogens, including C. albicans, E. coli, S. aureus, C. neoformance, B. subtilis, A. niger, A. fumigatus, and A. terreus. While highlighting the significant achievements of starch-based materials, the review also discusses current limitations and areas for future development. Key weaknesses include the need for enhanced adsorption capacities and the challenge of scaling up production for industrial applications. The review concludes by identifying development directions, such as improving functionalization techniques and exploring new applications in water purification and drug delivery systems. This article aims to assist researchers in advancing the field of starch-based materials for environmental and biomedical applications.

Bioinformatics Approaches in the Development of Antifungal Therapeutics and Vaccines.

Fungal infections are considered a great threat to human life and are associated with high mortality and morbidity, especially in immunocompromised individuals. Fungal pathogens employ various defense mechanisms to evade the host immune system, which causes severe infections. The available repertoire of drugs for the treatment of fungal infections includes azoles, allylamines, polyenes, echinocandins, and antimetabolites. However, the development of multidrug and pandrug resistance to available antimycotic drugs increases the need to develop better treatment approaches. In this new era of -omics, bioinformatics has expanded options for treating fungal infections. This review emphasizes how bioinformatics complements the emerging strategies, including advancements in drug delivery systems, combination therapies, drug repurposing, epitope-based vaccine design, RNA-based therapeutics, and the role of gut-microbiome interactions to combat anti-fungal resistance. In particular, we focused on computational methods that can be useful to obtain potent hits, and that too in a short period.

Locust bean gum-based silver nanocomposite hydrogel as a drug delivery system and an antibacterial agent

Effective drug release is of utmost importance in the medical field for treating various diseases, particularly cancer. Nanocomposite hydrogels remain the best materials for enhancing the bioavailability and therapeutic levels of drugs as they enable sustained, targeted, or controlled drug release. In this work, a nanocomposite hydrogel containing locust bean gum (LBG), poly(4-acryloylmorpholine) (PAcM), and silver nanoparticles (SN) has been made using an eco-friendly microwave (MW)-assisted method and characterized by various advanced techniques. The material is evaluated for its potential as a matrix material towards delivering 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), an anticancer drug in the gastrointestinal tract, and inhibiting bacterial growth. The pH-dependency of the nanocomposite materials towards swelling and drug release and its antibacterial characteristics have been compared with the neat gel in order to understand the role of SN in enhancing the performance of the materials. The results indicated both polymer materials exhibit a pH-dependent release of 5-FU with a higher release at pH 1.2, simulated gastric fluid, than at pH 7.4, simulated intestinal fluid. About 72 % of the loaded drug was released from the nanocomposite, as compared to 44 % from neat gel at pH 1.2 during the observation period of 3 h. The drug release process could be best explained by the first-order kinetic model and Fickian diffusion transport mechanism. The nanocomposite exhibited remarkable antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The biocompatibility of the drug-loaded nanocomposite was demonstrated by a cytotoxicity study, which showed higher than 80 % viability of healthy IEC-6 cells. The results indicate the suitability of the developed nanocomposite material as a polymer matrix for sustained release of 5-FU in cancer therapy and also as an antibacterial agent to fight against bacterial infections.

Recent Updates in Inhalable Drug Delivery System against Various Pulmonary Diseases: Challenges and Future Perspectives.

In the current scenario, pulmonary disease has become a prime burden for morbidity and mortality alongside tremendous social and economic crises throughout the world. Numerous conventional drug delivery system and treatment approach targeting the respiratory region has been driven out. However, effective and accurate recovery has not been achieved yet. In this regard, nanotechnological- based inhalable drug delivery strategy including polymeric, lipidic, or metallic-based respirable microparticles plays an indispensable role in circumventing numerous challenges faced during traditional treatment. Excellent aerodynamic performance leads to enhanced lung targetability, reduced dosing frequency and hence systemic toxicities, as well as improved pharmaceutical attributes, and therefore pharmacokinetic profiles are interminable factors associated with nanotechnologicalbased inhalable delivery. In this review, we comprehensively explored recent advancements in nanotechnologically engineered inhalable formulations targeting each of the mentioned pulmonary diseases. Moreover, we systematically discussed possible respiratory or systemic toxicities about the indeterminate and undefined physicochemical characteristics of inhaled particles.

Molecularly imprinting polymethacrylamide onto Cu-based metal-organic framework as a pH-sensitive core-shell nanocarrier for potential anti-cancer drug delivery.

Surface molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are an efficient and rapidly advancing approach, increasingly being utilized in drug delivery systems (DDSs). This research involved synthesizing a core-shell structure, consisting of a metal-organic framework (MOF) core and a doxorubicin (DOX) imprinted polymethacrylamide shell, prepared via precipitation polymerization method in green media. The resulting MOF@MIP was utilized as a nanocarrier for DOX delivery, exhibiting high drug loading capacity and pH responsiveness delivery. The materials were characterized using different techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fourier transform infrared (FTIR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), and zeta potential (ZP). In vitro studies on DOX loading and release demonstrated that a higher amount of DOX was released in a sustained manner under tumor tissue conditions (pH 5, 41 °C) compared to normal physiological conditions (pH 7.4, 37 °C). Additionally, cytotoxicity evaluations revealed significant cytotoxic effects of DOX-loaded MOF@MIP on MCF-7 cells (IC50: 2 μg/mL). Based on these findings, the synthesized MOF@MIP shows promise as a potential candidate for the development of anticancer therapeutic delivery platforms.

Effectiveness of Novel Drug Delivery System using Curcumin in Alzheimer's Disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a form of brain degeneration that gradually impairs a person's memory and cognitive skills, eventually making it harder for them to perform everyday activities. Its pathophysiology has been attributed to the deposition of amyloid β (Aβ), neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), and α-synuclein (A-s) in some cases. Presently, 4 drugs have been approved for the treatment. They are Donepezil, Rivastigmine, Galantamine and Memantine. The first three are acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, while memantine is an NMDA receptor antagonist. Even though these medications are successful in treating mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease, they have not been able to reverse the disease or even slow its progression completely. Hence, natural products are gaining more popularity due to the advantage of the multitarget intervention effect. The most investigated spice, Curcuma longa's bioactive component, curcumin, has demonstrated anti-amyloid, anti-NFT, and anti-Lewy body properties and substantial antiinflammatory, antioxidant, and antiapoptotic properties. However, its proven neuroprotective activity is hampered by many factors, such as poor water solubility and bioavailability. Therefore, many novel formulations have been designed to improve its bioavailability with methods such as 1) Micellar Solubilization, 2) Cyclodextrin Complexation, 3) Crystal Modification, and 4) Particle Size Reduction, etc. The current chapter aims to summarize various novel formulations of curcumin and their effectiveness in treating AD.

A Review on Nanocarrier-based Polyherbal Drug Delivery Systems for Wound Healing

Background: Nanotechnology-based polyherbal drug delivery systems are considered a new and rapidly emerging area in the pharmaceutical field. They improved the drug loading capacity or enhanced encapsulation efficiency of herbal drugs and thus improved permeation efficiency, accelerated wound healing, promoted tissue remodelling, and reduced scarring. Objective: A wound on the skin is an injury of the skin tissues that arises due to a cut or damage and also by an impact, blow, or other forces like a cut, surgery, chemical, heat, cold, friction, or illness like leg ulcers or carcinomas. These wounds result in the loss of skin's protective function by the removal of epithelium or connective tissues (i.e., muscle, bone, nerves). The four sequential but overlapping phases of the typical wound healing process are hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling. By encouraging the growth and movement of fibroblasts and keratinocytes, as well as angiogenesis at the site of damage, it has been demonstrated that a polyherbal mixture composed of plant extraction accelerates the lesion recovery process. Polyherbal formulations contain phytoconstituents such as triterpenoids, flavonoids, coumarins, quinones, and carotenoids etc. All these phytoconstituents are used for anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, antioxidant, and lesion recovery. At the same time, nanotechnology-based polyherbal formulation has the potential to overcome the limitations of traditional polyherbal formulation in wound healing. Wounds are better managed by polyherbal combination rather than an individual plant due to its synergism and fewer side effects. To include these polyherbal components and deliver them to the wound site in a more focused and sustained way, novel drug delivery systems are also being developed. Conclusion: This review discussed many nanotechnology-based polyherbal topical formulations for efficient and faster wound healing and recovery. Nanotechnology-based polyherbal formulations prove their success in promoting wound healing which is a unique approach to improving wound care and development of healthy skin.

The Impact of Carrageenan on Pharmascience

Abstract: Carrageenan (CG) a sulfated polysaccharide (SP) is produced using a variety of seaweeds from the Rhodophyceae family. This type of seaweed is available in areas, like the Atlantic Ocean close to Great Britain, Europe, and North America. Carrageenan has been permitted for the use as food items with the European additive E-number E407. Carrageenan is a widely used polysaccharide derived from red seaweed and is known for its various applications in the chemical, biological, and pharmaceutical fields. It delves into its versatile applications across various sub areas, spanning from the food to the pharmaceutical industry. A significant emphasis is placed on the intricate roles of carrageenan in pharmaceutical science, where it serves as both a drug carrier agent and an active ingredient, owing to its noteworthy biological activity. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of carrageenan's versatile applications, with a focus on its chemical properties, biological activities, and pharmaceutical uses. The pharmaceutical applications of carrageenan are further categorized into various subparts, including its role in treating diseases and its use in drug delivery systems, such as topical, oral, nasal, and unconventional routes. The review also incorporates the most recent developments in clinical trials involving carrageenan and its updated applications, drawing from authoritative sources. This comprehensive analysis aims to offer readers a clear understanding of carrageenan's multifaceted nature and its evolving significance in diverse industries.

Enhancing retention and permeation of rapamycin for osteoarthritis therapy using a two-stage drug delivery system

Osteoarthritis (OA) remains a challenging degenerative joint disease, largely associated with chondrocyte apoptosis during its development. Preserving chondrocytes stands as a promising strategy for OA treatment. Rapamycin (RP) exhibits chondrocyte protection by fostering autophagy. Nevertheless, the swift clearance of intra-articular injections and the dense cartilage extracellular matrix (ECM) hinder RP from effectively reaching chondrocytes. Herein, we developed a "two-stage" drug delivery system (RP@PEG-PA@P-Lipo). This system comprises primary nanoparticles (P-Lipo), liposomes modified with a collagen II targeting peptide (WYRGRLC), and secondary nanoparticles (RP@PEG-PA), PEG-modified PAMAM encapsulating rapamycin (RP). RP@PEG-PA@P-Lipo demonstrates adherence to the cartilage surface with WYRGRLC, substantially prolonging retention within the joint cavity. Subsequently, released RP@PEG-PA can effectively penetrate the cartilage and deliver RP to chondrocytes through small size and charge-driven forces. In vitro and in vivo experiments corroborate its notable therapeutic effects on OA. This study holds promise in offering a novel approach for clinical drug delivery and OA treatment.

Piperine and piperine-loaded albumin nanoparticles ameliorate adjuvant-induced arthritis and reduce IL-17 in rats

AimRheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the most common chronic, inflammatory, autoimmune diseases affecting mainly the joints. Piperine (PIP), an alkaloid found in black pepper, has anti-inflammatory properties and its use in drug delivery systems such as nanoparticles might be a treatment for RA. This study aims to evaluate the possible anti-inflammatory and anti-arthritic effects of PIP and its use in albumin nanoparticles as a possible approach for the treatment of Adjuvant-induced arthritis (AIA) rats. MethodsPIP-loaded Bovine Serum Albumin nanoparticles (PIP-BSA NPs) were prepared using a desolvation method. AIA rats were given intraperitoneal injections of either 40 mg PIP or 131 mg PIP-BSA NPs every two days until day 28 when animals were sacrificed. Clinical score, histopathology, X-ray radiography, and serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β, IL-17, and TNF-α were evaluated. ResultsPIP and PIP-BSA NPs significantly reduced clinical scores, and alleviated inflammation within the joints. PIP was superior to PIP-BSA NPs for the alleviation of fibrin deposition and periosteal reactions while bone inflammation and erosion were less severe in the case of PIP-BSA NPs. Besides, both of the treatments suppressed serum levels of IL-17 in AIA rats (p = 0.003 and p = 0.02; respectively). ConclusionsPIP and PIP-BSA NPs effectively alleviate the severity of AIA and suppress inflammation. Due to the superiority of PIP in improving fibrin deposition and periosteal reactions and the efficacy of PIP-BSA NPs in suppressing bone inflammation and erosion, their simultaneous use might be investigated.

Formulation and Evaluation of Niosomal Loaded Transdermal Patches for the Treatment of Osteoarthritis

Introduction: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease resulting from the breakdown of joint cartilage and underlying bone. The most common symptoms of osteoarthritis are joint pain and stiffness. The major hurdle in its treatment is that the oral administration of NSAIDs (Lornoxicam) causes side effects like GI side effects, cardiovascular problems, liver is-sues, or renal problems. Thus, there is a need to develop a Transdermal drug delivery system for the transport of drugs, which reduces side effects and has several benefits over oral delivery, and a Novel drug delivery system to enhance the permeation of drugs and give relief from symptoms of OA. Objectives: This work deals with the formulation and evaluation of niosomal-loaded Transdermal Patches for the treatment of Osteoarthritis. Method: The Niosomes were prepared using the thin film hydration method, and Niosomal-loaded Transdermal patches were prepared using the Solvent Casting method. The preliminary evaluation and characterization studies were conducted to find the optimized formulation. The in-vitro release and ex-vivo permeation studies were investigated. Stability studies were also assessed. Result: The prepared Niosomes suspension (F2) was found to have particle size 320.2 nm, Zeta potential 23.9 mV, and Drug entrapment 79 ± 0.32%. The in-vitro drug release studies of opti-mized formulation show 96.44 ± 0.34 % drug release for 24 hours. Then, the optimized Niosome formulation (F2) was loaded into the transdermal patches. The in-vitro permeation studies of Nio-somal-loaded transdermal patch F1 (NLXTP) were performed, which showed a higher permeabil-ity than plain drug-loaded transdermal patch. F1 (NLXTP) followed Zero order release kinetic model, which shows a non-fickian controlled release diffusion mechanism. The ex-vivo drug re-lease studies of optimized formulation F1 (NLXTP) show 2.79 ± 0.76 (μg/ml) drug permeated for 8 hours with a flux value of 0.35 ± 0.55, and the percentage of drug retention was found to be 5.67%. The stability studies showed that patches were stable over 90 days in different atmospher-ic conditions. Conclusion: The Lornoxicam-loaded Niosomal transdermal patch was found to be a promising nano-drug-delivery alternative that showed better entrapment and release with a permeation pro-file for the daily management of osteoarthritis.

A Comprehensive Review on Prospects of Polymeric Nanoparticles for Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus: Receptors-Ligands, In vitro & In vivo Studies.

As per International Diabetes Federation Report 2022, worldwide diabetes mellitus (DM) caused 6.7M moralities and ~537M adults suffering from diabetes mellitus. It is a chronic condition due to β-cell destruction or insulin resistance that leads to insulin deficiency. This review discusses Type-1 DM and Type-2 DM pathophysiology in detail, with challenges in management and treatment. The toxicity issues of conventional drugs and insulin injections are complex to manage. Thus, there is a need for technological intervention. In recent years, nanotechnology has found a fruitful advancement of novel drug delivery systems that might potentially increase the efficacy of anti-diabetic drugs. Amongst nano-formulations, polymeric nanoparticles have been studied to enhance the bioavailability and efficacy of anti-diabetic drugs and insulin. In the present review, we summarized polymeric nanoparticles with different polymers utilized to deliver anti-diabetic drugs with in vitro and in vivo studies. Furthermore, this review also includes the role of receptors and ligands in diabetes mellitus and the utilization of receptor-ligand interaction to develop targeted nanoparticles. Additionally, we discussed the utility of nanoparticles for the delivery of phytoconstituents which aids in protecting the oxidative stress generated during diabetes mellitus. Atlast, this article also comprises of numerous patents that have been filed or granted for the delivery of antidiabetic and anticancer molecules for the treatment of diabetes mellitus and pancreatic cancer.

PLGA Nanoparticles as New Drug Delivery Systems in Leishmaniasis Chemotherapy: A Review of Current Practices.

Although leishmaniasis is one of the most common parasitic diseases, its traditional treatments suffer from some serious problems. To solve such issues, we can take advantage of the effective nanoparticle-based approaches to deliver anti-leishmanial agents into leishmania-infected macrophages either using passive targeting or using macrophagerelated receptors. Despite the high potential of nanotechnology, Liposomal Amphotericin B (AmBisome®) is the only FDA-approved nanoparticle-based anti-leishmanial therapy. In an effort to find more anti-leishmanial nano-drugs, this 2011-2021 review study aimed to investigate the in-vivo and in-vitro effectiveness of poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles (PLGA-NPs) in the delivery of some traditional anti-leishmanial drugs. Based on the results, PLGA-NPs could improve solubility, controlled release, trapping efficacy, bioavailability, selectivity, and mucosal penetration of the drugs, while they decreased resistance, dose/duration of administration and organotoxicity of the agents. However, none of these nano-formulations have been able to enter clinical trials so far. We summarized the data about the common problems of anti-leishmanial agents and the positive effects of various PLGA nano-formulations on reducing these drawbacks under both in-vitro and in-vivo conditions in three separate tables. Overall, this study proposes two AmB-loaded PLGA with a 99% reduction in parasite load as promising nanoparticles for further studies.

Injectable hydrogel microsphere-bomb for MRSA-infected chronic osteomyelitis

Biofilm and bone tissue defect induced by the bacterial infection severely impede chronic osteomyelitis treatment. It is critical to break though the densely and obstinate biofilm so that the target drugs can deliver to the infected bone more effectively. Herein, an acoustically responsive multifunctional hydrogel microsphere-bomb (EMgel) was designed and prepared by microfluidic technology, which could be injected to the focus of bone infection, and blasted into the nidus deeply to destroy the bacterial biofilm matrix barrier under penetrating ultrasound, so the encapsulated natural polyphenolic EGCG and bioactive MoS2 released to repair the damaged bone. The results proved the hydrogel microsphere-bomb exhibited controlling drug release, favorable antibacterial (as high as 99 %), high biofilm resistance, fascinating antioxidation, good cytocompatibility, and osteogenic differentiation. The acoustically responsive microsphere-bomb further proved their fantastic ability to eradicate biofilm and promote bone regeneration in the Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infected chronic osteomyelitis model due to the synergy effects of EGCG and bioactive MoS2. Especially, immunohistochemical staining showed lower inflammatory reaction and higher expression of OCN in EMgel group treated with ultrasound wave. This study presents a new design of hydrogel microsphere-based intelligence drug delivery for osteomyelitis treatment, which exhibit great promising potential for dealing with chronic orthopedic infections, drug delivery system and tissue engineering.