Construction of coaxial liquid centrifugal platform for the extraction of active ingredients from natural products.

In the classical natural product extraction and separation process, it is tedious and requires large amounts of reagents and time. In this study, an efficient coaxial liquid centrifugal oil-water-oil triple-liquid-phase system with a simple structure and convenient operation was successfully constructed and used to extract flavonoids from Platycladi Cacumen. The results showed that the coaxial liquid centrifugal platform constructed in this study had good stability and 6 ml was the minimum volume of the middle phase for 1000 rpm to stabilize the system. Besides, it was easy to repeat the operation: the relative standard deviations of the extraction yields of flavonoids and sugar in six parallel operations were all less than 10%. Moreover, it was only one-tenth of the time required for this method as traditional liquid-liquid extraction while reducing the use of volatile organic reagents. Finally, the new method was more selective than the traditional method for the extraction of flavonoids. Therefore, this study provides a possibility for the coaxial liquid centrifugal platform to be used in multi-liquid phase systems to achieve the simultaneous extraction of different parts of natural products by different liquid phases. It is expected to provide a reliable reference for further expansion of small-scale experimental operations to industrial production.

Sinapultide-Loaded Microbubbles Combined with Ultrasound to Attenuate Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Acute Lung Injury in Mice.

PURPOSE: Pulmonary surfactants (eg, sinapultide) are widely used for the treatment of lung injury diseases; however, they generally induce poor therapeutic efficacy in clinics. In this study, sinapultide-loaded microbubbles (MBs) were prepared and combined with ultrasound (US) treatment as a new strategy for improved treatment of lung injury diseases. METHODS: The combination treatment strategy of MBs combined with ultrasound was tested in a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced mouse model of alveolar epithelial cells (AT II) and acute lung injury. Firstly, cytotoxicity, cytokines, and protein levels in LPS-mediated AT II cells were assessed. Secondly, the pathological morphology of lung tissue, the wet/dry (W/D) weight ratio, cytokines, and protein levels in LPS-mediated acute lung injury mice after treatment with the MBs were evaluated. Moreover, histology examination of the heart, liver, spleen, lung and kidney of mice treated with the MBs was performed to initially evaluate the safety of the sinapultide-loaded MBs. RESULTS: Sinapultide-loaded MBs in combination with ultrasound treatment significantly reduced the secretion of inflammatory cytokines and increased the expression of surfactant protein A (SP-A) in AT II cells. Furthermore, the pathological morphology of lung tissue, the wet/dry (W/D) weight ratio, interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and SP-A expression level of mice treated with MBs and ultrasound were significantly improved compared to those of non-treated mice. In addition, the histology of the examined organs showed that the MBs had a good safety profile. CONCLUSION: Sinapultide-loaded MBs combined with ultrasonic treatment may be a new therapeutic option for lung injury diseases in the clinic.

Anticancer loading and controlled release of novel water-compatible magnetic nanomaterials as drug delivery agents, coupled to a computational modeling approach.

The preparation, characterization and application of novel anticancer "epirubicin" (EPI) water-compatible magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (M-MIPs) like artificial antibodies by computational design and chemical synthesis as a carrier for drug delivery is described herein. Two monomers: methacrylic acid (MAA) and methacrylamide (MAM) were selected by computational simulation from the four chemicals used. Covalent and non-covalent bonds were evaluated by this technique based on the interaction mode and energy with template or solvent. Non-covalent bonding was predominant in all cases and major energy interaction was observed. The nanomaterials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), and a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The loading and controlled release studies performed showed a slight advantage for the M-MIP obtained from MAA than that from MAM at ambient temperature. However, the drug release in vitro was slightly better for the second M-MIP when the temperature increased to 50 °C. The water-compatible nanomaterial showed good pH-sensitive drug release profiles in vitro. Briefly, due to its magnetic property, amphiphilicity, good biomimetic recognition of EPI, high adsorption capacity and controlled release, the epirubicin M-MIPs synthesized in this study are suitable to be applied to a magnetic targeted drug delivery system.