Tissue engineering scaffolds in the treatment of brain disorders in geriatric patients.

The world population is ageing at an alarming rate, currently increasing at around 3% per year for people over 60 years. This fast growing demography is largely unproductive and prone to many brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and brain tumors. Currently available treatment modalities are inadequate to stop neural degeneration or to completely eradicate cancer cells. Exogenously engineered scaffolds hold great potential for in vivo brain regeneration and functional restoration. Ideally, scaffolds for brain tissue engineering should be biocompatible, non-toxic, and electroactive with the ability to encourage neural elongation. These scaffolds have been successfully fabricated from a wide range of materials and techniques. Different types of stem cells have also been investigated for their ability to differentiate to nerve or glial tissue. The success of tissue engineering can thus be envisioned as a panacea for "retooling" of both individual's ability and for immense long-term benefit of society.

Investigation of Effective Parameters on Size of Paclitaxel Loaded PLGA Nanoparticles.

Purpose: The size of polymeric nanoparticles is considered as an effective factor in cancer therapy due to enterance into tumor tissue via the EPR effect. The purpose of this work was to investigate the effective parameters on poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)-paclitaxel (PLGA -PTX) nanoparticles size. Methods: We prepared PLGA-PTX nanoparticles via single emulsion and precipitation methods with variable paremeters including drug concentration, aqueous to organic phase volume ratio, polymer concentration, sonication time and PVA concentration. Results: PLGA-PTX nanoparticles were characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results exhibited that the diameter of nanoparticles enhanced with increasing drug, polymer and PVA concentrations whereas organic to aqueous phase volume ratio and sonication time required to the optimization for a given size. Conclusion: The precipitation method provides smaller nanoparticles compared to emulsion one. Variable parameters including drug concentration, aqueous to organic phase volume ratio, polymer concentration, sonication time and PVA concentration affect diameter of nanoparticles.

Nano-structures mediated co-delivery of therapeutic agents for glioblastoma treatment: A review.

Glioblastoma is a malignant brain tumor and leads to death in most patients. Chemotherapy is a common method for brain cancer in clinics. However, the recent advancements in the chemotherapy of brain tumors have not been efficient enough. With the advancement of nanotechnology, the used drugs can enhance chemotherapy efficiency and increase the access to brain cancers. Combination of therapeutic agents has been recently attracted great attention for glioblastoma chemotherapy. One of the early benefits of combination therapies is the high potential to provide synergistic effects and decrease adverse side effects associated with high doses of single anticancer drugs. Therefore, brain tumor treatments with combination drugs can be considered as a crucial approach for avoiding tumor growth. This review investigates current progress in nano-mediated co-delivery of therapeutic agents with focus on glioblastoma chemotherapy prognosis.