Active Targeting Liposomes: Promising Approach for Tumor-Targeted Therapy

A good bioavailability is a prerequisite for the function of drugs and thus is considered as an important standard to evaluate the quality of drug products. However, with the emerge of precision medicine, a good bioavailability becomes far less enough for assessment of drugs intended to be delivered into specific tissues, cells, or even organelles, especially for drugs with serious side effects such asanticancer drugs. The purpose of this commentary is to discuss the use of drug delivery systems, especially liposomes, to solve the problem of non-specific distribution of free anticancer drugs through passive or active tumor targeting.

Liposomes are artificially prepared vesicles composed of a biocompatible lipid bilayer and/or a concentric series of multiple bilayers that enclose a central aqueous compartment. Agents can beencapsulated in the aqueous compartment or intercalated in the bilayermembrane. The protective and solubilizing effect of liposomes can significantly improve the solubility, stability and blood circulation time of drugs.

Importance of Subtle Behavioural Changes in the Diagnosis of Paediatric Psychosis

Master A, 6 year old boy, primary school student, New Delhi resident, member of nuclear family of lower socio-economic strata, presented with 1st episode of abrupt onset of illness with duration of 48 h, characterized by excessive irritability, increased activity, crying spells, hitting and biting others, not sleeping and refusal to eat. Detailed work-uprevealed the child was born at term by normal vaginal delivery without anyperinatal complications. His developmental milestones were attained on time as per his age at the time of presentation. Premorbidly, he had been an easy child with good scholastic performance and no past history of any major medical or surgical condition. There was no history of head injury, loss of consciousness, unknown substance ingestion, any stressful event, or any form of abuse, at the child’s house or school.

Physical examination did not reveal any abnormality. However, child appeared disoriented and kept asking for his mother in spite of sitting on her lap.Mental status examination revealed a young male child withmarkedly increased psychomotor activity, ill sustained eye to eye contact, and irritable affect with frequent crying.

Characterization of L. reuteri NCIMB 701359 Probiotic Features for Potential Use as a Colorectal Cancer Biotherapeutic by Identifying Fatty Acid Profile and Anti-Proliferative Action against Colorectal Cancer Cells

Colorectal cancer is considered a leading cause of cancer mortality, the third most common cancer in men but the second in women, worldwide, with a high 5 year recurrence rates for patients. Since developments in therapeutic strategies still have limitations in improving the survival rate of colorectal cancer patients, CRC is considered one of these types of cancers for which the mortality regressions comes significantly as a results of earlier detection and prevention making chemoprevention an attractive strategy for this disease. Contrary to common chemo-preventive agents which long administration brings unknown risk factors and possible toxicity, probiotics have been shown more safety, reduced cancer recurrence andtoxicity in CRC patients. Some of these probiotic formulations contained lactic acid bacteria (LAB) of which many were used in biopharmaceutical supplements for CRC patients. As in the different stages of carcinogenesis, apoptosis and cell proliferation come as key factors, studies showed that many Lactobacilli extracts induced cell death, cell differentiation and apoptosis in cancer cells, in some cases, by the production of anti-carcinogenic products such as short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA).

In fact, L. acidophilus and L. rhamnosus have showed a potential effect in colon cancer suppression, while for some speciessuch as L. reuteri, only recently shown to possess probiotic efficacy, are lessinvestigated. Most of the studies on L. reuteri bacteria focused on their ability to affect the production in intestinal environment, while very few showed production of SCFAs.

MicroRNAs Role in the Central Nervous System Development and Abnormalities

Initially, non-coding RNAs were thought to be “junk RNAs”. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a group of small non-coding RNA molecules, were discovered in 1993. However, their functions have been found to be associated with diverse biological procedures, including development, metabolism, immunity, hematopoietic differentiation, etc.It is estimated that miRNAs regulate theactivity of approximately 60% of human protein-coding genes. Abnormal miRNA expression may lead to a number of diseases, such as neoplasms, age-related diseases, and neurological disorders. Advances in miRNA research have suggested that miRNAs not only help to understand molecular mechanisms of human CNS diseases, but also have potential to serve as biomarkers for early detection of neurological and/or neurodegenerative alterations.

Around 70% of the identified miRNAs are found in the brain. Some miRNAs are specifically expressed and enriched in brain , suggesting their specific roles in regulating brain functions. Specifically, miRNAs are implicated in brain development: they regulate embryonic neuralinduction, development, differentiation, neuronal subtype specification,migration and integration, synaptogenesis and synaptic plasticity. Any interference of miRNA regulations may be associated with aberrant neural development and neurological disorders.

Using Human Cancer Cell Lines as In vitro Model for Testing the Efficacy of CDBPA

The use of tissue culture methods in oncology has been performed for the last many decades, where Beebe and Ewing tried to grow lymphosarcoma in dogs. An increasing variety of in vivo tests are used in cancer research to detect the optimal therapy and to study cancer cell functions. in vivo experiments indicate that these in vivo techniques are oftenthe leading techniques initially when a potential anticancer drug is going tobe tested for its ability to kill cancer cells. Improved cell culture techniques and application of molecular biology and genetic techniques will be more and more useful in the efficacy studies of anti-cancer drugs research as recommended by the European Community (Europe against cancer). 

However, we agree with Weaseling and Draws, that in vivo tests can`t abolish in vivo studies in testing any cancer agents nowadays. But we feel that in vivo testing can reduce the number of painful animal experiments to be reduced substantially. This together with amethodology approach created to reduce the number of animals for research is animportant issue. We have used in vivo studies to determine the potential of the new innovative anti-cancer substance CDBPA (BP-C1) cis-coordinated complexes of platinum (II) with polymer of benzene poly-carboxylic acids derived from lignin, on the viability of human breast cancer cells.