eBook Highlights| Topics in Anti-Cancer Research -Volume 7

The seventh volume of the series covers topics such as drug delivery, new avenues for treatment of esophageal cancer and the role of nutrigenomics in finding new therapies.

Topics in Anti-Cancer Research covers important advances on both experimental (preclinical) and clinical cancer research in drug development. The book series offers readers an insight into current and future therapeutic approaches for the prevention of different types of cancers, synthesizing new anti-cancer agents, new patented compounds, targets and agents for cancer therapy as well as recent molecular and gene therapy research.

The comprehensive range of themes covered in each volume will be beneficial to clinicians, immunologists, and R&D experts looking for new anti-cancer targets and patents for the treatment of neoplasms, as well as varied approaches for cancer therapy.

The latest volume of the series starts with a review on non-coding RNAs and associated patents. These patents help researchers to identify various cancer biomarkers and oncogenic regulatory mechanisms. 3 chapters cover nanocarrier patents for enhanced drug delivery of chemotherapeutic agents. Nanocarriers allow drug manufacturers to encapsulate chemotherapeutic agents within thin membranes which allows the molecules to reach the targeted cellular location in the body. The specific topics refer to Nanotaxol which is a nanotechnology enhanced version of Taxol® – a chemotherapeutic agent derived from chemicals in the bark of Taxus brevifolia, stimuli responsive nanocarriers which change behavior according to temperature and pH and smart nanoformulations which rely on different chemical formulations to reach molecular targets. Other topics covered in this volume include the role of autophagy in esophageal cancer, and nutrigenomics (the science of how biological nutrients affect gene expression) in cancer research. In terms of patents, the reader will find a list of compounds which modulate autophagy, and nutrigenomic methods that allow researchers to understand nutritional biomarkers of disease and customize nutraceutical formulations based on genetic and metabolic factors, respectively. To read out more, please visit: https://ebooks.benthamscience.com/book-highlights/190102001/

 

Bentham Press Release — NEWS | Drug Delivery Letters is indexed in Scopus

 

Drug Delivery Letters published by Bentham Science Publishers, has been accepted for inclusion in Scopus. Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature including scientific journals, books and conference proceedings.

Drug Delivery Letters publishes letters, original research papers, mini and full length reviews and guest edited issues in all important aspects of drug delivery, gene delivery, and drug targeting.The journals’ scope covers all the basic and applied research in drug delivery and targeting at molecular and cellular levels and novel delivery systems. The journal also focuses on all innovative aspects of all pharmaceutical dosage forms and the most advanced research on controlled release, bioavailability and drug absorption, nanomedicines and gene delivery, etc. The manuscript submission process is fully electronic to ensure rapid publication of research results.

 

For more information about the journal, please visit: https://benthamscience.com/journals/drug-delivery-letters

TESTIMONIAL BY MINAKSHI PRASAD!

 

Contributed Article: Virus Host Interactions: New Insights and Advances in Drug Development Against Viral Pathogens.

UPCOMING THEMATIC ISSUE – NEW FRONTIERS IN NANOMEDICINE – CURRENT MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY

https://benthamscience.com/journals/current-medicinal-chemistry/special-issues/

MOST ACCESSED ARTICLE – Targeted Nanoparticles for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease – Current Pharmaceutical Design

Journal: Current Pharmaceutical Design

Author(s): Rafael Martín-Rapun, Laura De Matteis, Alfredo Ambrosone, Sonia Garcia-Embid, Lucia Gutierrez, Jesus M. de la Fuente

Abstract:

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has a dramatic impact on society. The therapeutic targets are located in the central nervous system (CNS), which limits the efficacy of drugs systemically administered: the blood-brain barrier (BBB) selectively allows the permeation of just a few kinds of molecules from the systemic circulation to the CNS. On the other hand, local administration routes to CNS are highly invasive.

Methods: In this article, we have reviewed therapeutic approaches against AD, which are based on nanoparticles targeted to the brain and to the pathological hallmarks of the disease. The existing literature has been classified according to the AD feature that is addressed.

Results: Nanoparticles have been used for the targeted delivery of drugs aiming to reduce the AD symptoms or to reverse the course of the disease. For this task the multivalency of nanoparticles has allowed their functionalization with several kinds of targeting groups, to cross the BBB and to target the place of treatment. With this approach an increased drug bioavailability has been achieved in the CNS using intravenous administration in place of more invasive administration routes. Additionally, nanoparticles have also been used in the development of vaccines and therapeutic formulations for intranasal administration.

Conclusion: Targeted nanoparticles have been proved useful to enhance the performance of therapies against AD in animal models. A better understanding of AD mechanisms will help the successful application of targeted nanoparticles for combined therapies.

To access the article, please visit: http://www.eurekaselect.com/148709

Press Release for EurekAlert! Bacterial outer membrane vesicles: An emerging tool in vaccine development

This article by Kendrick B. Turner and Scott A. Walper is published in Drug Delivery Letters, Volume 7, Issue 2, 2017

Graphical Abstract:

Outer membrane vesicles, biological nanoparticles shed during normal growth by bacteria, have seen significant recent advances in engineering and are thus finding new utility as therapeutic and drug delivery agents. One specific research focus explored recently in the literature is the use of bacterial vesicles as adjuvants in vaccine formulations. Early success in this area has demonstrated protection against infection by a number of bacterial species in animal models by engineering vesicles to display species-specific antigens as cargo, either within the interior of the vesicles or displayed on the exterior vesicle surface. In an effort to highlight recent advances in this field, this article explores recent and ongoing efforts to develop novel engineering methods aimed at providing new functionalities for bacterial vesicles as they apply to vaccine formulations. Specifically emerging technologies for engineering these structures, including cargo loading and surface modification will be explored. Bacterial vesicles show great promise as biologically-, derived nanoparticles that could function as a platform technology in a variety of fields. With continued development of novel engineering tools, and an increased understanding in their biogenesis and biological fate in living systems there is significant potential to develop bacterial vesicles as tools for not only vaccine development but also for use in the delivery of therapeutic compounds to targeted cells.

For More information about the article, please visit: http://www.eurekaselect.com/154475

For Press Release on EurekAlert, please visit: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-09/bsp-bom092617.php

Upcoming Thematic Issue – Advanced Functional Biointerfaces Engineering for Medical Applications – Current Medicinal Chemistry

http://benthamscience.com/journals/current-medicinal-chemistry/special-issues/

Press Release for EurekAlert! Non-ambient conditions in the investigation and manufacturing of drug forms

To become a drug, a pharmacologically active compound must be prepared in a specific form. This form must be robust during manufacturing, packaging, storage and transport, and must administer the correct dose to the patient. To successfully prepare a drug form, one often needs to produce solid samples with controlled crystal structure and a specific particle size and shape. To further complicate matters, these compounds, these drug particles must often end up as a part of a multi-component composite. The present review summarizes how extreme pressure and temperature conditions help achieve this highly tuned material.

In modern culture, it is very rare to find an individual who has never taken any form of medication. It must follow that the pharmaceutical industry is required to produce an enormous quantity of drug products, which can take a variety of different forms: solutions for injections, inhalation powders, sprays, tablets, ointments, patches, amongst others. In many cases, although adopting different administration routes, different trade names are used to market the very same active pharmaceutical ingredient (API). This begs the question: if these products are the same API, is there any difference in which form is taken?

Quite simply put, yes.

Drug molecules move around the body and, by necessity, act at the molecular level. However, many of these compounds are manufactured as solids, which must either be dissolved prior to injection, or are expected to dissolve on digestion in biological fluids. In either case, dissolution is required to release individual molecules into the body.

Solid pharmaceuticals containing the same API (either pure or with additives) can have different crystal structures (polymorphism) or be amorphous. Additionally, solid particles can differ in size, shape, meso-structure, and surface charge. Within the bulk material, the spatial distribution of an API and the additives can vary. Control of these, and many other, characteristics is within the scope of materials sciences and solid-state chemistry. The chemical and material properties of their physical form therefore needs to be identified and optimized for in vivo performance, reliable manufacture and the protection of intellectual property.

Drugs are materials, not simply molecules [1-12], By viewing drugs in this way, one can apply the knowledge of solid-state chemistry, materials science and non-ambient conditions to obtain solid forms with optimized properties. These conditions include, among others, different types of mechanical and ultrasonic treatment, hydrostatic compression, high-temperature or cryogenic spray-drying, and crystallization from supercritical solvents. Solid-state reactions (e.g. dehydration or clathrate decomposition) can be efficient in accessing metastable polymorphs or in uniformly micronizing the sample. To achieve control over drug forms and the processes used for their robust manufacturing, one needs to account for both the thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of their transformations.

The review contains over 400 references and provides a comprehensive guide through the vast ocean of publications in this field. This work is based on the personal experience of the author over several decades of active research.

For more information visit: http://benthamscience.com/journals/current-pharmaceutical-design/volume/22/issue/32/page/4981/

Upcoming Thematic Issue – Recent Development of Drug Delivery systems for improving Bioavailability and Pharmacokinetics

http://www.eurekaselect.com/592/journal/current-drug-metabolism

Press Release for EurekAlert! New hopes in cancer battle — a review of new molecules and treatment strategies

Cancer treatment is still one of the most intractable challenge for medicine. There are several approaches to fight cancer, which include: surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapy and hormone therapy. From all these treatment methods, chemotherapy seems to be the most widely used. Therefore, it is understandable that scientists are trying to discover new molecules which may be applied as effective chemotherapeutics.

The researchers from Jan Dugosz University in Czstochowa and Centre of Molecular and Macromolecular Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences reviewed the most significant achievements in the area of cancer treatment, published in 2014/2015. This review describes newly discovered anticancer molecules interacting with DNA or affecting cancer cell cycles. New cancer treatment strategies, which increase efficiency of chemotherapy or radiotherapy and new chemotherapeutic delivery systems have also been mentioned in the review. Multiplicity of the described compounds proves that cancer battle is still in progress. We constantly learn something new about cancer cells and hopefully we are getting closer to find effective cancer treatment. We know that molecules can interact with cancer DNA by inhibiting its synthesis, transcription or duplication.

Chemotherapeutics are also able to affect tumor cell cycle by suppressing itsproliferation and angiogenesis, and also promoting its apoptosis.

However, developing effective cancer treatment is, still, a demanding task because the number of cancer cell-types known to researchers constantly increases. In spite of all these odds, we hope that along with the development of science, people will win the race with still incurable cancers.

Reference: Turek, M.; (2016). New Hopes in Cancer Battle – A Review of New Molecules and Treatment Strategies Med. Chem., DOI: 10.2174/1573406412666160502153700

 

For more information about the article, please visit: http://benthamscience.com/journals/medicinal-chemistry/article/141662/