Search results for "Nanocarriers"
showing 10 items of 145 documents
Hyaluronic acid and its derivatives in drug delivery and imaging: Recent advances and challenges.
2015
Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a biodegradable, biocompatible, nontoxic, and non-immunogenic glycosaminoglycan used for various biomedical applications. The interaction of HA with the CD44 receptor, whose expression is elevated on the surface of many types of tumor cells, makes this polymer a promising candidate for intracellular delivery of imaging and anticancer agents exploiting a receptor-mediated active targeting strategy. Therefore, HA and its derivatives have been most investigated for the development of several carrier systems intended for cancer diagnosis and therapy. Nonetheless, different and important delivery applications of the polysaccharide have also been described, including gene …
Halloysite nanotubes for efficient loading, stabilization and controlled release of insulin
2018
Hypothesis: Oral insulin administration is not actually effective due to insulin rapid degradation, inactivation and digestion by proteolytic enzymes which results in low bioavailability. Moreover insulin is poorly permeable and lack of lipophilicity. These limits can be overcome by the loading of protein in some nanostructured carrier such as halloysite nanotubes (HNTs). Experiments: Herein we propose an easy strategy to obtain HNT hybrid materials for the delivery of insulin. We report a detailed description on the thermal behavior and stability of insulin loaded and released from the HNTs hybrid by the combination of several techniques. Findings: Release experiments of insulin from the H…
Inhibition of skin inflammation in mice by diclofenac in vesicular carriers: Liposomes, ethosomes and PEVs
2013
Diclofenac-loaded phospholipid vesicles, namely conventional liposomes, ethosomes and PEVs (penetration enhancer-containing vesicles) were developed and their efficacy in TPA (phorbol ester) induced skin inflammation was examined. Vesicles were made from a cheap and unpurified mixture of phospholipids and diclofenac sodium; Transcutol P and propylene glycol were added to obtain PEVs, and ethanol to produce ethosomes. The structure and lamellar organization of the vesicle bilayer were investigated by transmission electron microscopy and small and wide angle X-ray scattering, as well as the main physico-chemical features. The formulations, along with a diclofenac solution and commercial Volta…
Controlling the Stealth Effect of Nanocarriers through Understanding the Protein Corona
2016
The past decade has seen a significant increase in interest in the use of polymeric nanocarriers in medical applications. In particular, when used as drug vectors in targeted delivery, nanocarriers could overcome many obstacles for drug therapy. Nevertheless, their application is still impeded by the complex composition of the blood proteins covering the particle surface, termed the protein corona. The protein corona complicates any prediction of cell interactions, biodistribution, and toxicity. In particular, the unspecific uptake of nanocarriers is a major obstacle in clinical studies. This Minireview provides an overview of what we currently know about the characteristics of the protein …
Tailoring the physicochemical properties of core-crosslinked polymeric micelles for pharmaceutical applications.
2016
To optimally exploit the potential of (tumor-) targeted nanomedicines, platform technologies are needed in which physicochemical and pharmaceutical properties can be tailored according to specific medical needs and applications. We here systematically customized the properties of core-crosslinked polymeric micelles (CCPM). The micelles were based on mPEG-b-pHPMAmLacn (i.e. methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly[N-(2-hydroxypropyl) methacrylamide-lactate]), similar to the block copolymer composition employed in CriPec® docetaxel, which is currently in phase I clinical trials. The CCPM platform was tailored with regard to size (30 to 100 nm), nanocarrier degradation (1 month to 1 year) and drug…
From In Silico to Experimental Validation: Tailoring Peptide Substrates for a Serine Protease.
2020
Smart nanocarriers for the transport of drugs to tumor cells are nowadays of great interest for treating cancer. The use of enzymatic stimuli to cleave peptide-based drug nanocapsules for the selective release of nanocapsule cargo in close proximity to tumor cells opens new possibilities in cancer research. In the present work, we demonstrate a methodology for finding and optimizing cleavable substrate sequences by the type II transmembrane serine protease hepsin, which is highly overexpressed in prostate cancer. The design and screening of combinatorial libraries in silico against the binding cavity of hepsin allow the identification of a panel of promising substrates with high-calculated …
Nanocarriers for optimizing the balance between interfollicular permeation and follicular uptake of topically applied clobetasol to minimize adverse …
2015
The treatment of various hair disorders has become a central focus of good dermatologic patient care as it affects men and women all over the world. For many inflammatory-based scalp diseases, glucocorticoids are an essential part of treatment, even though they are known to cause systemic as well as local adverse effects when applied topically. Therefore, efficient targeting and avoidance of these side effects are of utmost importance. Optimizing the balance between drug release, interfollicular permeation, and follicular uptake may allow minimizing these adverse events and simultaneously improve drug delivery, given that one succeeds in targeting a sustained release formulation to the hair…
Fully degradable protein nanocarriers by orthogonal photoclick tetrazole-ene chemistry for the encapsulation and release
2020
The encapsulation of sensitive drugs into nanocarriers retaining their bioactivity and achieving selective release is a challenging topic in current drug delivery design. Established protocols rely on metal-catalyzed or unspecific reactions to build the (mostly synthetic) vehicles which may inhibit the drug's function. Triggered by light, the mild tetrazole–ene cycloaddition enables us to prepare protein nanocarriers (PNCs) preserving at the same time the bioactivity of the sensitive antitumor and antiviral cargo Resiquimod (R848). This catalyst-free reaction was designed to take place at the interface of aqueous nanodroplets in miniemulsion to produce core–shell PNCs with over 90% encapsul…
Nanocarriers for respiratory diseases treatment: Recent advances and current challenges
2014
Pulmonary delivery of locally-acting drugs encapsulated in nanocarriers provides several advantages for the treatment of respiratory diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, cystic fibrosis, tuberculosis and lung cancer. These advantages include, among others, sustained drug delivery to the lungs, reduced therapeutic dose and improved patient compliance. The aim of this review is to give an updated overview on recent advances recorded in the last few years in this field as well as on the major challenges still existing and that remain to be overcome before any clinical application. After an outline on the cellular and extracellular barriers affecting drug delivery to…
Phospholipid-polyaspartamide micelles for pulmonary delivery of corticosteroids
2011
A novel drug delivery system for beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) has been constructed through self-assembly of a pegylated phospholipid-polyaminoacid conjugate. This copolymer was obtained by chemical reaction of α,β-poly(N-2-hydroxyethyl)-DL-aspartamide (PHEA) with 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-[amino(polyethyleneglycol)2000] (DSPE-PEG(2000)-NH(2)). Benefiting from the amphiphilic structure with the hydrophilic shell based on both PHEA and PEG and many hydrophobic stearoyl tails, PHEA-PEG(2000)-DSPE copolymer was able to self assemble into micelles in aqueous media above a concentration of 1.23 × 10(-7)M, determined by fluorescence studies. During the self-assembling …