Molecular Neuro-Pathomechanism of Neurocysticercosis: How Host Genetic Factors Influence Disease Susceptibility.

Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is one of the most neglected tropical diseases among widely endemic neurological diseases. It is caused by cysticerci of Taenia solium. The clinical symptom for the outcome of infection and progression of disease is pleomorphic and its neuro-pathomechanism is still illusive. Identification of host genetic factors and their association with disease susceptibility is one of the most important areas of research towards personalized medicine in the era of omics. Several genes and their allelic variations had been identified to be associated with various neurological disorders; however, the information for parasitic diseases affecting the central nervous system is very limited. Both Th1 and Th2 arms of the immune system are reported to be active at different stages of T. solium infection in the brain. Recently, several papers had been published, where the role of host genetic makeup with NCC had been explored. Increased frequency of HLA-A28, HLA-B63, HLA-B58, TLR 4 Asp299Gly, sICAM-1 gene K469E, GSTM1, and GSTT1 were found to be associated with increased risk of NCC occurrence, while HLA-DQW2 and HLA-A11 were shown to be providing protection from disease. In this review, we have summarized these findings and analyzed the influence of host genetic polymorphism on the susceptibility/resistance of host to NCC.

Multifunctional Drug Delivery Systems Using Inorganic Nanomaterials: A Review.

Targeted drug delivery with controlled rate is vital for therapeutic purpose especially for cancer therapy. Advanced biomaterials with the aid of nanotechnology have evolved as efficient drug delivery systems (DDS), providing a multi-functional platform for simultaneous therapeutic and diagnostic (theranostic) functions. This review discusses current advances in synthesis and applications of inorganic materials such as quantum dots, carbon nanotubes and graphene oxides for drug delivery. The strategies of surface-functionalization of these inorganic materials to render them biocompatible are also reviewed. The advantages and applications of these biomaterials as multi-functional moiety for bio-imaging, drug targeting and delivery have been discussed. The review concludes with discussion on challenges that limits the practical applications of some materials as a drug carrier for therapeutic use. These issues remain to be fully addressed for their maximum utilization for biomedical applications.