Anticancer and Antibacterial Properties of Curcumin-Loaded Mannosylated Solid Lipid Nanoparticles for the Treatment of Lung Diseases.

Lung cancer and Mycobacterium avium complex infection are lung diseases associated with high incidence and mortality rates. Most conventional anticancer drugs and antibiotics have certain limitations, including high drug resistance rates and adverse effects. Herein, we aimed to synthesize mannose surface-modified solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) loaded with curcumin (Man-CUR SLN) for the effective treatment of lung disease. The synthesized Man-CUR SLNs were analyzed using various instrumental techniques for structural and physicochemical characterization. Loading curcumin into SLNs improved the encapsulation efficiency and drug release capacity, as demonstrated by high-performance liquid chromatography analysis. Furthermore, we characterized the anticancer effect of curcumin using the A549 lung cancer cell line. Cells treated with Man-CUR SLN exhibited an increased cellular uptake and cytotoxicity. Moreover, treatment with free CUR could more effectively reduce cancer migration than treatment with Man-CUR SLNs. Similarly, free curcumin elicited a stronger apoptosis-inducing effect than that of Man-CUR SLNs, as demonstrated by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR analysis. Finally, we examined the antibacterial effects of free curcumin and Man-CUR SLNs against Mycobacterium intracellulare (M.i.) and M.i.-infected macrophages, revealing that Man-CUR SLNs exerted the strongest antibacterial effect. Collectively, these findings indicate that mannose-receptor-targeted curcumin delivery using lipid nanoparticles could be effective in treating lung diseases. Accordingly, this drug delivery system can be used to target a variety of cancers and immune cells.

Trends in nano-platforms for the treatment of viral infectious diseases.

Viral diseases have always been a major health issue, from the currently eradicated poliovirus to the still unresolved human immunodeficiency virus, and have since become a recent global threat brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Pathogenic viruses easily spread through various means such as contaminated food and water intake, exchange of bodily fluids, or even inhalation of airborne particles mainly due to their miniscule size. Furthermore, viral coats contain virulent proteins which trigger assimilation into target cells on contact through either direct penetration or induction of endocytosis. In some viruses their outer envelope contains masking ligands that create a means of escape from detection of immune cells. To deal with the nanometer size range and biomolecular-based invasion mechanism, nanoparticles are highly suitable for the treatment. The review highlights the progress in nanoparticle technology, particularly viral therapeutics, including therapeutic strategies and existing clinical applications.

Nanosome-Mediated Delivery Of Hdac Inhibitors and Oxygen Molecules for the Transcriptional Reactivation of Latent Hiv-Infected Cd4+ T Cells.

The treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is notoriously difficult due to the ability of this virus to remain latent in the host's CD4+ T cells. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) interfere with DNA transcription in HIV-infected hosts, resulting in viral latency. Therefore, HDAC inhibitors can be used to activate viral transcription in latently infected cells, after which the virus can be eliminated through a shock-and-kill strategy. Here, a drug delivery system is developed to effectively deliver HDAC inhibitors to latent HIV-infected cells. Given that the efficacy of HDAC inhibitors is reduced under hypoxic conditions, oxygen-containing nanosomes are used as drug carriers. Oxygen-containing nanosomes can improve the efficiency of chemotherapy by delivering essential oxygen to cells. Additionally, their phospholipid bilayer structure makes them uniquely well-suited for drug delivery. In this study, a novel drug delivery system is developed by taking advantage of the oxygen carriers in these oxygen nanosomes, incorporating a multi-drug strategy consisting of HDAC inhibitors and PKA activators, and introducing CXCR4 binding peptides to specifically target CD4+ T cells. Oxygen nanosomes with enhanced targeting capability through the introduction of the CXCR4 binding peptide mitigate drug toxicity and slow down drug release. The observed changes in the expression of p24, a capsid protein of HIV, indirectly confirm that the proposed drug delivery system can effectively induce transcriptional reactivation of HIV in latent HIV-infected cells.

Lipid-based colloidal nanoparticles for applications in targeted vaccine delivery.

Bioactive molecules and their effects have been influenced by their solubility and administration route. In many therapeutic reagents, the performance of therapeutics is dependent on physiological barriers in the human body and delivery efficacy. Therefore, an effective and stable therapeutic delivery promotes pharmaceutical advancement and suitable biological usage of drugs. In the biological and pharmacological industries, lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) have emerged as a potential carrier to deliver therapeutics. Since studies reported doxorubicin-loaded liposomes (Doxil®), LNPs have been applied to numerous clinical trials. Lipid-based nanoparticles, including liposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs), and nanostructured lipid nanoparticles, have also been developed to deliver active ingredients in vaccines. In this review, we present the type of LNPs used to develop vaccines with attractive advantages. We then discuss messenger RNA (mRNA) delivery for the clinical application of mRNA therapeutic-loaded LNPs and recent research trend of LNP-based vaccine development.

Surface glycan targeting for cancer nano-immunotherapy.

Cancer immunotherapy is an emerging therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment. Most of the immunotherapeutics approved by the FDA regulate the innate immune system and associated immune cell activity, with immune check inhibitors in particular having transformed the field of cancer immunotherapy due to their significant clinical potential. However, previously reported immunotherapeutics have exhibited undesirable side effects, including autoimmune toxicity and inflammation. Controlling these deleterious responses and designing therapeutics that can precisely target specific regions are thus crucial to improving the efficacy of cancer immunotherapies. Recent studies have reported that cancer cells employ glycan-immune checkpoint interactions to modulate immune cell activity. Thus, the recognition of cancer glycan moieties such as sialoglycans may improve the anticancer activity of immune cells. In this review, we discuss recent advances in cancer immunotherapies involving glycans and glycan-targeting technologies based on nanomaterial-assisted local delivery systems.

Oxygen transport to mammalian cell and bacteria using nano-sized liposomes encapsulating oxygen molecules.

Hypoxic microenvironments emerge as tumor grow, leading to the over-expression and stabilization of hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF-1α). HIF-1α lowers the sensitization against chemotherapy, radiation therapy and photodynamic therapy in cancer. In this study, nano-sized oxygen carrier, namely oxygen dissolved nanoliposome (ODL) was synthesized, and oxygen was efficiently delivered to different types of mammalian cells to help relieve hypoxia. ODL confirmed that oxygen was released without inducing toxicity to cells. After artificially creating hypoxia in cancer cells, normal cells, and immune cells; various parameters such as cell morphology, HIF-1α expression, and degree of hypoxia were examined. The cellular environment was found to be altered by treatment with the ODL. Under hypoxia, the shape of the cells changed, and the cells began to die. After treatment with the ODL, the degree of hypoxia was reduced, indicating that HIF-1α expression and the rate of cell death decreased. Furthermore, bacteria proliferation was observed with the ODL. Therefore, ODL can be used for oxygen delivery platform in cancer therapy. ODL has a potential application in other microorganisms which needs future research.