Nitric oxide-releasing nanoparticles accelerate wound healing by promoting fibroblast migration and collagen deposition.

Wound healing is a complex process that involves coordinated interactions between diverse immunological and biological systems. Long-term wounds remain a challenging clinical problem, affecting approximately 6 million patients per year, with a high economic impact. To exacerbate the problem, these wounds render the individual susceptible to life-threatening microbial infections. Because current therapeutic strategies have proved suboptimal, it is imperative to focus on new therapeutic approaches and the development of technologies for both short- and long-term wound management. In recent years, nitric oxide (NO) has emerged as a critical molecule in wound healing, with NO levels increasing rapidly after skin damage and gradually decreasing as the healing process progresses. In this study, we examined the effects of a novel NO-releasing nanoparticle technology on wound healing in mice. The results show that the NO nanoparticles (NO-np) significantly accelerated wound healing. NO-np modified leukocyte migration and increased tumor growth factor-ß production in the wound area, which subsequently promoted angiogenesis to enhance the healing process. By using human dermal fibroblasts, we demonstrate that NO-np increased fibroblast migration and collagen deposition in wounded tissue. Together, these data show that NO-releasing nanoparticles have the ability to modulate and accelerate wound healing in a pleiotropic manner.

In Vitro, Ex Vivo, and In Vivo Determination of Thyroid Hormone Modulating Activity of Benzothiazoles.

As in vitro assays are increasingly used to screen chemicals for their potential to produce endocrine disrupting adverse effects, it is important to understand their predictive capacity. The potential for a set of 6 benzothiazoles to affect endpoints related to thyroid hormone synthesis inhibition were assessed using in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo assays. Inhibition of thyroid peroxidase (TPO) derived from pig thyroid glands was determined for benzothiazole (BTZ), 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT), 5-chloro-2-mercaptobenzothiazole (CMBT), 2-aminobenzothiazole (ABT), 2-hydroxybenzothiazole (HBT), and 2-methylthiobenzothiazole (MTBT). Their rank order potency for TPO inhibition was MBT=CMBT>ABT>BTZ, whereas HBT and MTBT exhibited no inhibitory activity. The benzothiazoles were tested further in a Xenopus laevis thyroid gland explant culture assay in which inhibition of thyroxine (T4) release was the measured endpoint. In this assay all 6 benzothiazoles inhibited T4 release. The activity of the benzothiazoles for disrupting thyroid hormone activity was verified in vivo using X. laevis tadpoles in a 7-day assay. The 2 most potent chemicals for TPO inhibition, MBT and CMBT, produced responses in vivo indicative of T4 synthesis inhibition including induction of sodium iodide symporter mRNA and decreases in glandular and circulating thyroid hormones. The capability to measure thyroid hormone levels in the glands and blood by ultrahigh performance LC-MS/MS methods optimized for small tissue samples was critical for effects interpretation. These results indicate that inhibition of TPO activity in vitro was a good indicator of a chemical's potential for thyroid hormone disruption in vivo and may be useful for prioritizing chemicals for further investigation.

Cross-species analysis of thyroperoxidase inhibition by xenobiotics demonstrates conservation of response between pig and rat.

Thyroperoxidase (TPO), the enzyme that catalyzes the synthesis of thyroid hormone, is a known target for thyroid-disrupting chemicals. In vivo toxicological evidence supporting TPO-inhibition as one molecular-initiating event that leads to thyroid disruption is derived largely from rat models; however, a significant fraction of research on the inhibition of TPO by xenobiotics has been conducted using porcine TPO. The current work tested the hypothesis that porcine and rat thyroid microsomes exposed to TPO-inhibiting chemicals would demonstrate different responses in a guaiacol oxidation assay. A primary objective of this work is to establish the degree of concordance between rat and porcine TPO inhibition data. Microsomes were isolated from both rat and pig thyroid glands, and the guaiacol oxidation assay was performed for a training set of 12 chemicals, including previously reported TPO inhibitors, thyroid-disrupting chemicals thought to perturb other targets, and several previously untested chemicals, to determine the relative TPO inhibition responses across species. Concentration-response curves were derived for methimazole (MMI), dibutylphthalate (DBP), diethylhexylphthalate (DEHP), diethylphthalate (DEP), 3,5-dimethylpyrazole-1-methanol (DPM), iopanoic acid (IOA), 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT), sodium perchlorate (PERC), p-nonylphenol (PNP), 4-propoxyphenol (4POP), 6-propylthiouracil (PTU), and triclosan (TCS). MMI, PTU, MBT, DPM, 4POP, and at extremely high concentrations, PERC, inhibited TPO activity. Results demonstrated a strong qualitative concordance of response between the two species. All chemicals that inhibited TPO in porcine microsomes also inhibited TPO in rat microsomes. Hill model-derived IC50 values revealed approximate 1.5- to 50-fold differences in relative potency to MMI between species for positive chemicals. DPM, MBT, 4POP, and PTU exhibited greater relative potency to MMI using rat TPO versus porcine TPO, but rank order potency for inhibition was similar for the other test chemicals, with: PTU>MBT>DPM>4POP>PERC for rat TPO and MBT>PTU>DPM>4POP>PERC for porcine TPO. These data support the extrapolation of porcine TPO data to potential thyroid-disrupting activity in rodent models to evaluate TPO-inhibiting chemicals.

Nitric oxide releasing nanoparticles for treatment of Candida albicans burn infections.

Candida albicans is a leading fungal cause of burn infections in hospital settings, and sepsis is one of the principle causes of death after a severe burn. The prevalence of invasive candidiasis in burn cases varies widely, but it accounts for 3-23% of severe infection with a mortality rate ranging from 14 to 70%. Therefore, it is imperative that we develop innovative therapeutics to which this fungus is unlikely to evolve resistance, thus curtailing the associated morbidity and mortality and ultimately improving our capacity to treat these infections. An inexpensive and stable nitric oxide (NO)-releasing nanoparticle (NO-np) platform has been recently developed. NO is known to have direct antifungal activity, modulate host immune responses and significantly regulate wound healing. In this study, we hypothesized that NO-np would be an effective therapy in the treatment of C. albicans burn infections. Using a murine burn model, NO-np demonstrated antifungal activity against C. albicans in vivo, most likely by arresting its growth and morphogenesis as demonstrated in vitro. NO-np demonstrated effective antimicrobial activity against yeast and filamentous forms of the fungus. Moreover, we showed that NO-np significantly accelerated the rate of wound healing in cutaneous burn infections when compared to controls. The histological evaluation of the affected tissue revealed that NO-np treatment modified leukocyte infiltration, minimized the fungal burden, and reduced collagen degradation, thus providing potential mechanisms for the therapeutics' biological activity. Together, these data suggest that NO-np have the potential to serve as a novel topical antifungal which can be used for the treatment of cutaneous burn infections and wounds.