Current Nanomedicine - Volume 6, Issue 1, 2016

Background: Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In particular, heart failure remains a widespread disease with few effective treatment options. Medical management with traditional pharmaceutical and surgical methods have had limited success at relieving symptoms or prolonging life. Therefore, new treatment options have undergone vigorous research. Methods: We searched for reports of recent advances in the use of nanotechnology for stem cell therapy for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. We focused on the use of nanotechnology to improve stem cell culturing, tissue engineering, and tissue imaging post-cell implantation. Results: Nanotechnology, in the form of spun or chemically assembled nanofibers, has been used to create a three-dimensional structure to support the growth of stem cells and promote their differentiation into functional myocardium. The addition of growth and signaling factors such as insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) or vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) to these fibers has also improved stem cell development. For imaging, and tracking cells after implantation, nanoscale fluorescent tags such as NaYF4 nanocrystals doped with Yb3+,Er3+ have been shown to be effective. Carbon nanotubules have also been shown to be effective for following stem cell position in vivo. Conclusion: Nanotechnology has enhanced stem cell-based regenerative therapy, aiding with the ex vivo culturing and differentiation of stem cells as well as with in vivo cell tracking and monitoring. Future advances in nanotechnology will likely produce significant changes in the methods and practice of regenerative cell therapy.

Background: Cosmetic and reconstructive surgery relies extensively on the complex relationship between skin, soft tissue and the underlying bone skeleton. Soft tissue loss and acquired soft tissue deficits are some of the daily challenges faced by the plastic surgeon. Fat grafting has become one of the standard lines of care that has various applications in plastic surgery treatments. The ability of adipose stem cells to rejuvenate tissues is promising for plastic surgery. Bone disorders, including infection and poor healing, pose vexing problems to the reconstructive surgeon. Vascular surgery is a technique necessary for the reconstruction of the most challenging surgical defects, and has great potential for improvement through technology. Methods: We performed a structured search of all recent United States Patents with reference to plastic and reconstructive surgery. Two investigators then reviewed all patents with specific applications to plastic and reconstructive surgery, and regenerative medicine. Results: Eight specific patents were included for review in this article. Conclusion: Recent patents discussed in this article demonstrate promise to dramatically improve a number of specific patient conditions. Nanoscale refinements of current techniques may offer more efficient and improved surgical and non-surgical approaches for reconstruction. Such refinements will significantly expand our capabilities for innovative reconstructive interventions, with high efficiency, specificity and minimal invasiveness.

Background: Leishmaniasis is one of the most abandoned tropical infectious diseases in terms of drug innovation and development. The disease can be characterized by at least four syndromes: cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), muco-cutaneous leishmaniasis (MCL), visceral leishmaniasis (VL) - also known as kala-azar in the Indian sub-continent or black fever, which is the most firm form of the disease being lethal if untreated, and post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL). Most antileishmanial drugs are highly lethal, present resistance issues or require hospitalization, being therefore not adequate to the field. Methods: The advancement in the development of new formulation against leishmaniasis is critically discussed here. Several efforts have been made to overcome the barriers involved in the treatment of leishmaniasis. Recently improvement have been achieved by combination therapy dropping the time and cost of treatment. Nonetheless, new drugs are still directly needed. Results: Colloidal carriers extensively represent the drug delivery systems (DDSs) for intracellular localization of antileishmanial compounds in macrophages rich organs like liver, spleen and bone marrow. These DDSs offer superior therapeutic efficacy over the conventional treatment in terms of site specific drug delivery with reduced side effects. They also express a new hope for the effective treatment of leishmaniasis. Conclusion: In this review, we describe the current leishmaniasis treatments and their limitations. We also discuss the promising antileishmanial natural products, nanotechnology based new strategies to deliver solid candidates specifically against VL, their mechanism of penetration and the recent patents related to leishmaniasis. Moreover, the present article is a compilation of the potent antileishmanial hybrids reported in number of patents.

Background: Various drug delivery systems of antitumor drugs have been developed for past several decades. Nanomedicines, being one of promising choices, have been attracting much attention for the purpose of improving clinical use; because, they sometimes exhibit superior potentiality of enhanced efficacy and reduction of toxicity. Recently, many nanomedicines have been found to have useful results in the preclinical studies, and reached clinical trials or clinically-available stages. As there are few overviews for such situation, the brief explanation of such promising nanomedicines has been performed in this review. Methods: we focused on several types of antitumor drugs, therapeutic features of which were improved extensively by nano-technological approaches. As to each antitumor drug, physicochemical and antitumor characteristics and improved points in nanomedicines were briefly introduced by referring to main papers and patents. Results: Promising nanomedicines have been recently developed for doxorubicin, epirubicin, paclitaxel, cisplatin, oxaliplatin and SN-38, and they are now being in clinical trials or clinically used. The pharmacokinetic features are drastically improved in nanomedicines as compared with original drugs, leading to enhanced efficacy and reduced toxicity. The major reason is by passive drug targeting based on enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect. At this late date, as antibody/drug conjugate micelles were found to show superior antitumor efficacy, active drug targeting nanomedicines are expected as novel nanomedicines toward clinical use. Conclusion: This review made clear recent situations of promising nanomedicines of antitumor drugs. The concept of nanomedicines has been demonstrated to be a useful strategy because several of them have reached clinical stage. Nanomedicines with potential of passive targeting or active targeting are expected as superior

Objective: The aim is to describe the role and function of polymer or peptide mediated drug delivery system considerations in Nano-formulations. Background: The Polymers are the basic frameworks of any formulation, more importantly in case of Sustained/controlled release or Nano-particulate forms. The most commonly used polymers composed of PLA (Poly Lactic Acids). Methods: A systematic search of the published literature was performed by using MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library and Patent Databases. Results: More than 20 patents and 60 research and review papers were selected and studied in which PLA’s had been used as a formulating agent. The data from literature was transformed in tabular forms for better comparison and understanding of role and function of polymer or peptide mediated drug delivery system considerations. Conclusion: These transformations usually aid to achieve the desired in-vivo biological activity by protecting the molecule’s first pass metabolism and overcoming toxicity. Moreover, these peptide polymer conjugates have numbers of biomedical remedy applications in the various disorders. These poly-peptide conjugates have been approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as materials that can be used in medicine/pharmaceutical delivery vehicles.

Abstract: Background: During the last decades, Solid Lipid Nanoparticles (SLNs) have attracted the interest of many researchers and have been utilized as delivery systems in an increasing number of applications. Methods: This delivery system has shown potential as alternative drug delivery system as compared to various other oral particulate delivery systems. The lipids used in the formulations are biodegradable, biocompatible, and physiological lipids, so there may be less toxicity problems related with this dosage form. Results: It can encapsulate both hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs with prolonged release pattern. The main advantage of lipid-based systems is to improve gastrointestinal (GI) absorption and oral bioavailability of many lipophilic drugs. SLN showed improved physical stability, prevent enzymatic degradation, high drug loading and prolonged release of incorporated drugs. The stability of the formulations might increase than other liquid nanocarriers due to the solid matrix of these lipid nanoparticles. SLN showed improved bioavailability of several drugs by increasing the oral absorption. Conclusion: In this review, oral bioavailability enhancement mechanisms, recent patents and advances in oral delivery of the solid lipid nanoparticles based on solid matrix will be discussed.

Background: With the revolutionary advent of nanotechnology in 21st century, nanolipospheres have been increasingly viewed as a potential drug carrier for improving gastrointestinal absorption and oral bioavailability of several lipophilic drugs. Methods: Moreover, these possess advantages with respect to limited toxicity over polymeric nanoparticles and able to deliver drugs with low half-life or low therapeutic index for providing sustained or control drug delivery action. Results: Considering potential advantages of the nanotechnology for controlling particle size, shape and multi-functionality of drug molecules, nanolipospheres play promising role for attaining improved oral bioavailability of drugs for minimizing the adverse effects. Conclusion: In this context, the present review article provides details on preparation and application of nanolipospheres-based drug delivery systems for oral bioavailability enhancement of drugs. Besides, the article aims to provide readers as a ready reckoner on current developments in nanoliposphere-based nanomedicines along with future prospects with them in modern drug therapy.