Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic situation due to a new viral infection (COVID-19) caused by a novel virus (Sars-CoV-2). COVID-19 is today the leading cause of death ...from viral infections in the world. It is known that many elements play important roles in viral infections, both in virus survival, and in the activation of the host's immune system, which depends on the presence of micronutrients to maintain the integrity of its functions. In this sense, the metallome can be an important object of study for understanding viral infections. Therefore, this work presents an overview of the role of trace elements in the immune system and the state of the art in metallomics, highlighting the challenges found in studies focusing on viral infections.
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•NP-CDs conjugates improve physicochemical properties of formulation.•The main improved properties were solubility, stability and encapsulation efficiency.•More toxicity studies ...should be used to test the safety of these formulations.•Higher-resolution techniques should be used to characterize these systems.
For many years, researchers have worked with supramolecular structures involving inclusion complexes with cyclodextrins. These studies have resulted in new commercially available drugs which have been of great benefit. More recently, studies using nanoparticles, including nanosystems containing cyclodextrins, have become a focus of academic research due to the versatility of the systems and their remarkable therapeutic potential. This review focuses on studies published between 2002 and 2018 involving nanosystems containing cyclodextrins. We consider the type of nanosystems, their importance in a health context, the physicochemical techniques used to show the quality of these systems and their potential for the development of novel pharmaceutical formulations. These have been developed in recent studies which have mainly been focusing on basic science with no clinical trials as yet being performed. This is important to note because it means that the studies do not include any toxicity tests. Despite this limitation, the characterization assays performed suggest that these new formulations may have therapeutic potential. However, more research is required to assess the efficacy and safety of these nanosystems.
Major depressive disorder is considered one of the most common and prevalent diseases worldwide, affecting children, adults, and the elderly. Currently, several antidepressant drugs are available on ...the market, but the low adherence of patients due to the slow therapeutic response is a problem to be solved. In this way, cyclodextrins become an alternative to circumvent the limitations and improve the physicochemical and pharmacological properties of this class of drugs. Thus, the objective of this work is to carry out a current review of patents associating antidepressant drugs and cyclodextrins. The patent search was performed in two patent databases, the World Intellectual Property Organization and the European Patent Office using terms in the title and abstract fields and the international patent classification code for antidepressant drugs. In the end, 27 patent documents were selected and divided into three classifications, physical-chemical characterization study, pre-clinical in vivo trials, and clinical trials. The scientific evidence found in the patents considers the use of cyclodextrins as an important alternative to improve the therapeutic and physicochemical properties of antidepressant drugs, among the main improved properties are, solubility, stability, masking taste and odor, bioavailability.
Developing effective and targeted drug delivery systems is crucial in searching for improved pain management strategies. Here, it is shown the preparation of a nanocarrier using chitosan hydrogel, ...and polymeric nanocapsules loaded with linalool for enhancing transdermal permeation and targeted delivery of this antinociceptive monoterpene for the pain treatment. Extensive characterization was conducted to evaluate the properties of the nanocarrier, and several in vitro studies were performed to investigate the release kinetics of linalool from the nanocarrier and its permeation through the layers of the skin. As results, the prepared polymeric nanocarrier exhibited an average size of 160 ± 9 nm, with a polydispersion index of 0.12 ± 0.01. The kinetic study revealed that the nanocarrier effectively controlled and prolonged the release of linalool, following a pseudo‐second order model (R2 = 0.98). To evaluate the permeation of the nanocarrier through the transdermal barrier, swine ear skin was employed. The nanocarrier efficiently penetrated the transdermal barrier and successfully delivered linalool to the skin layers. Additionally, an in vivo toxicity study indicated no toxicity for the nanocarrier at the tested concentrations (<0.950 μg mL−1). The release kinetics showed a controlled and sustained release of the linalool, suggesting its potential for prolonged therapeutic effects.
General scheme illustrating nanocarrier penetration through the transdermal barrier for the treatment local pain.
Abstract The present study aimed to evaluate the antibacterial and modulatory potential of α-bisabolol, β-cyclodextrin and α-bisabolol/β-cyclodextrin complex. The minimum inhibitory concentration was ...determined through the broth microdilution technique using the bacterial strains: Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The drugs norfloxacin, imipenem and gentamicin were used in the tests, and the compounds α-bisabolol and β-cyclodextrin; all the compounds were diluted in DMSO. To obtain the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) a serial microdilution of the substances in volumes corresponding to the sub-inhibitory concentration (MIC/8), and microdilution with the antibiotic until the penultimate well were performed. The results showed that β-cyclodextrin did not present synergistic effects when combined with the antibiotics. It was found that α-bisabolol presented a synergistic effect against S. aureus , when combined with the antibiotic norfloxacin. Moreover, α-bisabolol presented synergism against E. coli when combined with gentamicin. The results of this study show that α-bisabolol presents a modulatory synergistic effect for some antibiotics, as gentamicin, and this is an interesting result against multidrug resistant bacteria (MDR). By other side, the complexation of α-bisabolol with β-cyclodextrin apparently reduces the modulatory effect, maybe due the polarity enhancement of the polarity of α-bisabolol, affecting the interaction of this compound with the cell membrane bilayer. However, more studies are necessary to demonstrate or not these interactions.
Oral infections are associated with the appearance of systemic diseases. Among the natural products, commercially used in dental formulations is thymol (TM). However, this compound presents low ...stability. In order to overcome these limitations, the membranes were prepared using the solvent evaporation method and TM/β-cyclodextrin using the liofilization technique. The results showed that the presence of inclusion complex in the membranes causes considerable modifications in the physical-chemical, morphological, and mucoadhesive properties. In addition, the membranes presented antimicrobial activity. These data show that mucoadhesive membranes containing IC may be promising systems for TM delivery in the treatment of oral infections.
ABBREVIATIONS
β-CD: β-cyclodextrin, TM: Thymol, IC: Inclusion complex, XRD: X-ray diffraction, ATR-FTIR: Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform Infrared, SEM: Scanning electron microscopy, DSC: Differential Scanning Calorimetry, TG: Thermogravimetry, Propylene glycol (PPG).
Since January 2020, the World Health Organization announces COVID-19 outbreak a case of public health emergency of international interest, and declaring it a pandemic on March. Due to the high ...transmission of this disease, rate precautions have been implemented, such as the use of masks by the population, personal protective equipment (PPE), and safety protocols, mainly to health workers. Thus, we performed a patent review to evaluate the current patents related to the protective mask. The review was carried out in the patent database in the period of May 2019 to May 2020. After the process of screening and eligibility, 563 patents were selected for our analysis according to the aim of the study which used masks such as a PPE against dust particles and pathogens, mostly when it is about airborne transmission, such as viruses and bacteria. Here, an overview of the main materials used in the mask manufacturing and their efficiency was described. The results of the review showed that most of the masks used cotton, nylon, silver fiber fabrics, among others as fabrics to develop the masks. It also makes an analysis of masks composed of nanotechnology which provide high filtration efficiency. Moreover, the review also brought possibilities of masking the population, which already have been done in countries such as China and Korea and ways of sterilization for reuse of PPE during COVID-19 outbreak. Thus, this review can further researchers in the developing of masks to decrease the spread of a pandemic disease.
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•Fe3O4@L-his is prepared.•Multivariate optimization allows obtaining optimal conditions for concentrating low-abundance proteins.•The application of synthesized nanospheres allows the ...discrimination of patients with neurological disorders.
Here, the efficiency of magnetic nanosphere (Fe3O4) coated with L-histidine (L-his) was evaluated to enrich proteins of low-abundance in human serum. The chemometric analysis provided optimal conditions to concentrate low-abundance proteins, reducing the dynamic range of protein levels in the serum sample. Three independent factors (temperature, mass ratio and pH) were tested. The optimal condition achieved was using temperature (42 °C), ratio (3:1, nanomaterial/sample) and pH (5.5). The kinetic study revealed that the adsorption of proteins on the surface of the monolayer magnetic nanosphere follows a pseudo-second order model with R2 = 0.9153. Adsorption isotherm experiments revealed high capacity of protein adsorption on the surface of the nanosphere, indicating a maximum theoretical adsorption capacity (qmax) of 123.45 mg g−1. The efficiency of enrichment of low-abundance proteins in the serum sample was evaluated by gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Furthermore, when compared to the method using organic solvent (acetonitrile), Fe3O4@L-his showed adequate efficiency to simplify the serum sample. Using MALDI-TOF/TOF, approximately 50 proteins were identified using Fe3O4@L-his. As a proof of concept for this study, patients with bipolar disorder and healthy controls were discriminated using the magnetic nanosphere as an adsorbent in the sample preparation step. These results show that Fe3O4@L-his can be a fast, robust, and simple alternative to enrich low-abundance proteins in human serum, emerging as an important strategy in the search for biomarkers of human diseases.
UV radiation can cause damages, such as erythema, skin photoaging, and carcinogenesis. The adoption of protective measures against sun exposure is essential to prevent these damages, and the interest ...in using natural substances as an alternative for photoprotection is growing. Thus, hesperetin with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer properties is a promising substance to be used with photochemopreventive action and to protect the skin from damage induced by UV radiation. Therefore, the present study aimed to develop a topical formulation based on AAMVPC gel containing hesperetin and evaluate its photoprotective effect on the skin of rats exposed to UVA-UVB radiation. The animals were submitted to the irradiation protocol UVA-UVB, and at the end, erythema, lipid peroxidation, and activity of the antioxidant enzyme catalase and superoxide dismutase were evaluated. Additionally, it evaluated the activity of myeloperoxidase and histological changes. The formulation presented a rheological and spreadability profile suitable for cutaneous application.
In vivo
results demonstrated that the topical formulation of AAMVPC gel containing hesperetin at a concentration of 10% protected the skin from damage induced by UVA-UVB radiation, with the absence of erythema, lipid lipoperoxidation, and inflammation (low myeloperoxidase activity), and increased catalase and superoxide dismutase activities. The morphology and architecture of the dermo-epidermal tissue of these animals were like those observed under normal conditions (non-irradiated animals). Thus, the results showed that hesperetin was able to protect the animals’ skin against UV radiation–induced skin damage and the protection mechanisms may be related to the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of this natural product.
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