Antibacterial activity of green gold and silver nanoparticles using ginger root extract.

Recent studies demonstrated that the speed of synthesis, biocompatibility, and antimicrobial activity of gold (Au) and silver (Ag) metals is enhanced when biosynthesized in nano-sized particles. In the present study, Au- and Ag-based nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized via a biological process using aqueous Ginger root extract and characterized by various spectroscopic methods. The NPs have hexagonal and spherical shapes. The average particle size for Au and Ag NPs was 20 and 15 nm, respectively. The dynamic light scattering (DLS) technique has shown that the zeta potential values of synthesized NPs were 4.8 and - 7.11 mv, respectively. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of Ginger root extract revealed 25 compounds. The synthesized NPs showed significant activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia (E). coli in vitro, with IC50 and IC90 values for Au and Ag NPs, respectively, noted to be 7.5 and 7.3 µg/ml and 15 and 15.2 µg/ml for both bacterial strains. The protein leakage level was tremendous and morphological changes occurred in bacteria treated with biosynthesized NPs. These results suggest that the biosynthesized metallic NPs have the suitable potential for application as antibacterial agents with enhanced activities.

A Lysine-Functionalized Graphene Oxide-Based Nanoplatform for Delivery of Fluorouracil to A549 Human Lung Cancer Cells: A Comparative Study.

Background: Today, increasing attention is being paid to the application of biocompatible polymers as drug carriers with low cytotoxicity in drug delivery systems to enhance the therapeutic effects of anticancer agents. Materials and Methods: In this study, a biocompatible synthetic polymer (grafted on graphene oxide), composed of N-isopropylacrylamide and 1-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone with L-lysine segments (Lys/PNIPAM-PVP/GO), was developed as a nano-vehicle for the drug. This platform was used for the delivery of fluorouracil (FU) to A549 human lung cancer cells. The superior characteristics of the platform included low-cost precursors, easy synthesis, and the presence of many functional groups for loading drugs. To determine and compare the cytotoxic effects of free FU and its formulated form on the A549 cells, MTT assay was performed; the results showed no significant toxicity difference between the two treated groups (free and formulated FU). For further evaluations, cellular uptake assays were performed via fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry. Results: Both analyses revealed the low internalization of nano-vehicle into the A549 cells, with 4.31% and 8.75% cellular uptakes in the first two and four hours of treatment. Therefore, the low penetration rate reduced the toxicity of drug-loaded nano-vehicle. Conclusion: Finally, DAPI staining and Annexin V-FITC staining were performed as complementary techniques to determine cell apoptosis.

Pathophysiological Effects of Sulfur Mustard on Skin and its Current Treatments: Possible Application of Phytochemicals.

BACKGROUND: Sulfur-(SM) and nitrogen (NM)-based mustards are the mutagenic incapacitating compounds which are widely used in vesicating the chemical warfare and cause toxicity in many organs, especially skin. SM, as a potent vesicating agent, contributes to the destruction of skin in dermis and epidermis layers. The progression of the lesion depends on the concentration of SM and the duration of exposure. Body responses start with pruritus, erythema, edema and xerosis, which lead to the accumulation of immune cells in the target sites and recruitment of mast cells and paracrine-mediated activity. Pro-inflammatory effectors are accumulated in the epidermis, hair follicles, and sebaceous glands resulting in the destruction of the basement membrane beneath the epidermis. There is still no satisfactory countermeasure against SM-induced lesions in clinical therapy, and the symptomatic or supportive treatments are routine management approaches. OBJECTIVE: The current review highlights the recent progression of herbal medicines application in SM-induced injuries through the illustrative examples and also demonstrates their efficacies, properties and mechanism of actions as therapeutic agents. CONCLUSION: Phytochemicals and herbal extracts with anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties have been recently shown to hold therapeutic promise against the SM-induced cutaneous complications. The present review discusses the possible application of herbal medicines in the healing of SM-induced injuries.

Lysine-embedded cellulose-based nanosystem for efficient dual-delivery of chemotherapeutics in combination cancer therapy.

Combination therapy by two or multiple drugs with different mechanisms of action is a promising strategy in cancer treatment. In this regard, a wide range of chemotherapeutics has used simultaneously to achieve the synergistic effect and overcome the adverse side effects of single-drug therapy. Herein, we developed a biocompatible nanoparticle-based system composed of nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) and amino acid l-lysine for efficient co-delivery of model chemotherapeutic methotrexate (MTX) and polyphenol compound curcumin (CUR) to the MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. The drugs could release in a sustained and acidic-facilitate manner. In vitro cytotoxicity results represented the superior anti-tumor efficacy of the dual-drug-loaded nanocarriers. Possible inhibition of cell growth and induction of apoptosis in the cells treated with different formulations of CUR and MTX were explored by cell cycle analysis and DAPI staining. Overall, the engineered nanosystem can be used as suitable candidates to achieve efficient multi-drug delivery for combination cancer therapy.

Spotlight on 17-AAG as an Hsp90 inhibitor for molecular targeted cancer treatment.

Hsp90 is a ubiquitous chaperone with important roles in the organization and maturation of client proteins that are involved in the progression and survival of cancer cells. Multiple oncogenic pathways can be affected by inhibition of Hsp90 function through degradation of its client proteins. That makes Hsp90 a therapeutic target for cancer treatment. 17-allylamino-17-demethoxy-geldanamycin (17-AAG) is a potent Hsp90 inhibitor that binds to Hsp90 and inhibits its chaperoning function, which results in the degradation of Hsp90's client proteins. There have been several preclinical studies of 17-AAG as a single agent or in combination with other anticancer agents for a wide range of human cancers. Data from various phases of clinical trials show that 17-AAG can be given safely at biologically active dosages with mild toxicity. Even though 17-AAG has suitable pharmacological potency, its low water solubility and high hepatotoxicity could significantly restrict its clinical use. Nanomaterials-based drug delivery carriers may overcome these drawbacks. In this paper, we review preclinical and clinical research on 17-AAG as a single agent and in combination with other anticancer agents. In addition, we highlight the potential of using nanocarriers and nanocombination therapy to improve therapeutic effects of 17-AAG.

Recent Advances of Gold Nanoparticles in Biomedical Applications: State of the Art.

Nanomedicine is one of the growing fields that presents new techniques for cancer diagnosis and treatment. Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) are considered as an important class of nanomaterials that possess superior physicochemical properties that make them valuable in medical applications. Unique optical properties of GNPs and their utility in photothermal and radiotherapy have extended a new platform for early detection and treatment of cancer, lately. Nanostructures based on GNPs are nontoxic and biocompatible with a large surface area that makes it possible to modify their surface with different chemicals including different polymers, antibodies, and even drug molecules. Therefore, they are utilized for targeted drug delivery in order to carry drugs and selectively release them in desired tissues which reduces destructive effects on healthy cells while it elevates the drug dose in cancerous ones. This review mainly covers the basic properties of GNPs, their synthesis methods, and focuses on surface modification of these nanoparticles and their diagnosis and therapeutic applications in cancer.

Current developments in green synthesis of metallic nanoparticles using plant extracts: a review.

Metal nanoparticles (MNPs) produced by green approaches have received global attention because of their physicochemical characteristics and their applications in the field of biotechnology. In recent years, the development of synthesizing NPs by plant extracts has become a major focus of researchers because of these NPs have low hazardous effect in the environment and low toxicity for the human body. Synthesized NPs from plants are not only more stable in terms of size and shape, also the yield of this method is higher than the other methods. Moreover, some of these MNPs have shown antimicrobial activity which is consistently confirmed in past few years. Plant extracts have been used as reducing agent and stabilizer of NPs in which we can reduce the toxicity in the environment as well as the human body only by not using chemical agents. Furthermore, the presence of some specific materials in plant extracts could be extremely helpful and effective for the human body; for instance, polyphenol, which may have antioxidant effects has the capability for capturing free radicals before they can react with other biomolecules and cause serious damages. In this article, we focused on of the most common plants which are regularly used to synthesize MNPs along with various methods for synthesizing MNPs from plant extracts.

Enhancement of anticancer activity by silibinin and paclitaxel combination on the ovarian cancer.

BACKGROUND: Ovarian carcinoma is the most lethal cancer among all gynaecological malignancies. One of the most chemotherapy drugs used for ovarian cancer is paclitaxel which induces apoptosis. Paclitaxel has been used for many years. Similar to the most cancers this responds to chemotherapy initially but in a long run, drug resistance happens which fails the treatment procedure. Combination of chemotherapy drugs has been suggested to deal with this issue. Silibinin, a plant extraction, has been used from ancient time in traditional medicine and identified to have powerful antioxidant activity. AIM: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of paclitaxel and silibinin combination on SKOV-3 cancer cell line. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The human epithelial ovarian cancer cell line, SKOV-3, was cultured and treated with paclitaxel, silibinin and paclitaxel plus silibinin for 48 hours. MTT assay was carried out to determine cell viability. For apoptotic process, we used real-time PCR to study P53 and P21 genes expression after drug treatment and network analysis was performed using Pathway Studio web tool (Elsevier). RESULTS: Cell growth was inhibited considerably (p < .05) by combination of paclitaxel and silibinin after 48 hours of treatment. Also silibinin and paclitaxel combination induced apoptosis in SKOV-3 cells. Expression analysis by real-time PCR showed the significant up-regulation of two tumour suppressor genes, P53 and P21 in response to combination of silibinin and paclitaxel. In addition, computational network analysis demonstrated the crosstalk between paclitaxel, silibinin and ovarian cancer. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed that combination of chemotherapy drugs of silibinin and paclitaxel can be more efficient in treatment of ovarian cancer cells.

Preparation and Characterization of Gold Nanoparticles in the Presence of Citrate and Soybean Seed Extract in an Acidic Conditions.

Through the present study, an eco-friendly method was used to synthesize the gold nanoparticles (GNPs) by using the sodium citrate and extract of the soybean seed as reducing the agents at PH 3. X-Ray diffraction (XRD) method was used to evaluate the crystal structure of as-synthesized NPs and it's revealed that this method leads to well crystallized GNPs. In order to determine the particle size and their distribution, field emission scanning microscopy (FE-SEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) were used. The results showed that, the average particle size distribution of synthesized GNPs in solutions containing of the soybean extract and 1% citrate at PH 3 is about 109.6 and 140.9 nm, respectively. Also, we find that the average size of GNPs is 40 and 33 nm from solutions of citrate and soybean extract, respectively. It was concluded that using the extract of soybean seeds as reducing agent can lead to GNPs with small size and narrow size distribution.

Profiling of Compositions of Essential Oils and Volatiles of Salvia limbata Using Traditional and Advanced Techniques and Evaluation for Biological Activities of Their Extracts.

In the present work, the essential oils and volatiles from flowers, leaves, and stems of Salvia limbata obtained using microwave-assisted hydrodistillation, solvent-free microwave extraction, headspace-assisted analysis, and headspace-solid phase microextraction have been characterized for the first time. The results have been also compared with those from traditional separation techniques involving hydrodistillation and steam distillation. Regardless of some common compounds in all of the profiles, some dissimilarities were noted due to the use of different extracting approaches. Taking into account the chemical categories, sesquiterpene hydrocarbons were found as the most represented group of natural compounds contributing to the chemical profiles. It was also noted that the methanol extracts obtained from the flowers of Sal. limbata showed a desirable antioxidant activity, comparable to the standard antioxidant butylated hydroxytoluene. Furthermore, using the disc diffusion and broth microdilution methods, all the tested bacteria demonstrated weak to moderate and moderate to strong sensibilities to the MeOH extracts obtained from different plant parts of Sal. limbata.

Chemical composition of the essential oils and extracts of Achillea species and their biological activities: A review.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: The Asteraceae (alt. Compositae) family incorporates a large number of flowering plants, which have been classified under ca. 1600 genera covering more than 23,000 species. The genus Achillea is one of the best-known genera of this family. The Achillea species are important for their uses in the chemical and pharmaceutical purposes, and traditional and folk medicines. From ethnobotanical point of view, they have been recommended as effective tonic, sedative, diuretic and carminative remedies and extensively prescribed for the treatment of stomachache, inflammation, gastrointestinal, hemorrhoid, hay fever, and wound healing in indigenous medicines. They are also known as effective remedies that promote breast-feedings and regulate women menstruation. This review presents an overview on the ethnopharmacological knowledge of the Achillea genus and provides a deeper insight into medicinal and pharmaceutical applications of different Achillea species. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Relevant data were obtained through systematic electronic searches from various scientific databases including the Institute of scientific information (ISI)-Web of Science, Google Scholar, Scopus, Pubmed, other relevant texts and local books. RESULTS: A variety of ethnopharmacological properties of the Achillea have been documented, and a broad spectrum of medicinal applications, and phytochemicals of the essential oils and extracts of this genus have been identified. CONCLUSIONS: General correlations between the ethnopharmacological uses and medicinal properties identified through systematic research have been observed. Some of the medicinal properties could also be linked to the phytochemicals present in this genus. The findings of the studied reports in this review article represent therapeutic characteristics of Achillea species and account for their significant impact on the current and future modern medicine.

Preparation, Surface Properties, and Therapeutic Applications of Gold Nanoparticles in Biomedicine.

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) due to their unique properties and manifold surface functionalities have been applied in bio-nanotechnology. The application of GNPs in recent medical and biological research is very extensive. Especially it involves applications such as detection and photothermalysis of microorganisms and cancer stem cells, biosensors; optical bio-imaging and observing of cells and these nanostructures also serve as practical platforms for therapeutic agents. In this review we studied all therapeutic applications of gold nanoparticles in biomedicine, synthesis methods, and surface properties.

Bimetallic nanoparticles: Preparation, properties, and biomedical applications.

Many studies of non-supported bimetallic nanoparticle (BMNP) dispersions, stabilized by ligands or polymers, and copolymers, were started only about 10 years ago. Several preparative procedures have been proposed, and full characterizations on BMNPs have been approved. Studies on BMNPs received huge attention from both scientific and technological communities because most of the NPs' catalytic activity depends on their structural aspects. In this study, we focus on the preparation, properties, and bio-application of BMNPs and introduction of the recent advance in these NPs.

Anti-Proliferative Effects of Hesa-A on Human Cancer Cells with Different Metastatic Potential.

BACKGROUND: During the past few years, Hesa-A, a herbal-marine mixture, has been used to treat cancer as an alternative medicine in Iran. Based on a series of studies, it is speculated that Hesa-A possesses special cytotoxic effects on invasive tumors. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the selective anticancer effects of Hesa-A on several cancer cell lines with different metastatic potential. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Hesa-A was prepared in normal saline as a stock solution of 10 mg/ml and further diluted to final concentrations of 100 µg/ml, 200 µg/ ml, 300 µg/ml and 400 µg/ml. MTT-based cytotoxicity assays were performed with A549 (lung non small cancer), MCF-7 (breast adenocarcinoma), SKOV3 (ovarian cancer), and PC-3 (prostate adenocarcinoma) cells. RESULTS: All treated cancer cells showed significant (P<0.01) or very significant (P<0.0001) differences in comparison to negative control at almost all of the tested doses (100-400 µg/ml). At the lower dose (100 µg/ml), Hesa-A reduced cell viability to 66%, 45.3%, 35.5%, 33.2% in SKOV3, A549, PC-3 and MCF-7 cells, respectively. Moreover, at the highest dose (400 µg/ml), Hesa-A resulted in 88.5%, 86.6% , 84.9% and 79.3% growth inhibition in A549, MCF-7, PC-3 and SKOV3 cells, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Hesa-A exert potent cytotoxic effects on different human cancer cells, especially those with a high metastatic potential.

A Novel Protocol to Differentiate Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells by Neuronal microRNAs to Provide a Suitable Cellular Model.

Neurodegenerative diseases are one of the most challenging subjects in medicine. Investigation of their underlying genetic or epigenetic factors is hampered by lack of suitable models. Patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) represent a valuable approach to provide a proper model for poorly understood mechanisms of neuronal diseases and the related drug screenings. miR-124 and miR-128 are the two brain-enriched miRNAs with different time-points of expression during neuronal development. Herein, we transduced human iPS cells with miR-124 and miR-128 harboring lentiviruses sequentially. The transduced plasmids contained GFP and puromycin antibiotic-resistant genes for easier selection and identification. Morphological assessment and immunocytochemistry (overexpressions of beta-tubulin and neuron-specific enolase) confirmed that induced hiPS cells by miR-124 and miR-128 represent similar characteristics to those of mature neurons. In addition, the upregulation of neuron-specific enolase, beta-tubulin, Map2, GFAP, and BDNF was detected by quantitative real-time PCR. In conclusion, it seems that our novel protocol remarks the combinatorial effect of miR-124 and miR-128 on neural differentiation in the absence of any extrinsic factor. Moreover, such cellular models could be used in personalized drug screening and applied for more effective therapies.