Despite the remarkable advancement in the health care sector, cancer remains the second most fatal disease globally. The existing conventional cancer treatments primarily include chemotherapy, which ...has been associated with little to severe side effects, and radiotherapy, which is usually expensive. To overcome these problems, target-specific nanocarriers have been explored for delivering chemo drugs. However, recent reports on using a few proteins having anticancer activity and further use of them as drug carriers have generated tremendous attention for furthering the research towards cancer therapy. Biomolecules, especially proteins, have emerged as suitable alternatives in cancer treatment due to multiple favourable properties including biocompatibility, biodegradability, and structural flexibility for easy surface functionalization. Several in vitro and in vivo studies have reported that various proteins derived from animal, plant, and bacterial species, demonstrated strong cytotoxic and antiproliferative properties against malignant cells in native and their different structural conformations. Moreover, surface tunable properties of these proteins help to bind a range of anticancer drugs and target ligands, thus making them efficient delivery agents in cancer therapy. Here, we discuss various proteins obtained from common exogenous sources and how they transform into effective anticancer agents. We also comprehensively discuss the tumor-killing mechanisms of different dietary proteins such as bovine α-lactalbumin, hen egg-white lysozyme, and their conjugates. We also articulate how protein nanostructures can be used as carriers for delivering cancer drugs and theranostics, and strategies to be adopted for improving their in vivo delivery and targeting. We further discuss the FDA-approved protein-based anticancer formulations along with those in different phases of clinical trials.
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•Anticancer potential of animal, plant and bacteria proteins were reviewed.•Key focus on structurally modified proteins for their anti-tumor activity.•Protein nanostructures for targeted cancer theranostics delivery was reviewed.•Uncommon conjugates like lysozyme-curcumin and protein-metal ions were reviewed.•Most recent clinical trials of protein based anticancer formulations analyzed.
In recent years, viral infections and associated diseases have become a big challenge for humanity due to high morbidity rates globally. However, timely, accurate, and rapid detection of viral ...infection may lead to the control of morbidity as well as provide enough time for vaccine preparation and early antiviral therapy. Existing virus detection methods based on immunological and molecular diagnosis found drawbacks, such as its time-consuming and costly one. Recently, the introduction of nanomaterials having multiple unique properties with a series of smart and innovative nano-based technologies have been under investigation for rapid viral detection. This chapter aims to critically review recent literature to illustrate the encompassing applications of nano-engineered materials and further highlighting the role of their active surface in improving the virus detection with high sensitivity and detection range, and in a short time.
The authors review the research findings related to emerging nanotechnology-based virus detection systems and their applicability for diagnostics of infectious viruses.
Recent advances in nanotechnology allow for the development of robust, rapid, and sensitive detection of infectious virus to overcome deficiencies of conventional detection technologies. Nanoparticles have several distinctive physical and chemical characteristics such as unique optical, electronic, and magnetic properties compared to their bulk form enabling them the detection of biological agents like viruses. Further, high surface area to volume ratios of nanoparticles also provides a platform for multi-functionalization with various organic or biological ligands for the selective binding and detection of biological targets like viruses. For instance, colloidal gold nanoparticle-based lateral-flow (AuNP-LF) provides rapid diagnosis and on-site diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 virus via the IgM detection using the indirect immune-chromatography method.
The distinct properties of nanomaterials such as plasmon resonance absorption, conductivity, redox behavior, etc. along with surface functionalization might be used in the development of the nano-sensing system with high accuracy and rapid detection of infectious viral diagnosis at the point of care application.
UiO-66-NH2 is a well-known Zr-MOF with a high surface area and good chemical stability, which is often employed for catalysis. The biological applications of Zr-MOFs are less often explored, however ...it has already been shown that they can be used for drug loading and release. In this work we show that UiO-66-NH2 (referred to as nano-MOF throughout the work) can be a host for accommodating β-NaYF4:Er,Yb@β-NaYF4 nanothermometers as well as gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) which can potentially take on the role of nanoheaters for plasmon-induced hyperthermia. Such a hybrid material can be made in an easy two step approach and yields nano-sized porous composites. At the same time, it could potentially still be used for drug delivery. A lipid bilayer is wrapped around the nano-MOF composites to further improve their biocompatibility with the human body. The hybrid composite shows good thermometry in the physiological range when dispersed in water.
•Nano Zr-MOFs are suitable hosts for accommodating NaYF4:Er,Yb@NaYF4 nanothermometers and gold nanoparticle nanoheaters.•Such hybrid materials are non-toxic to human cells, however incorporating AuNPs increases the toxicity.•These hybrid composites show good thermometric performance in the physiological range.
The three dimensional structure of a protein is very important for its structure. Studies relating to protein structure have been numerous and the effect of denaturants on proteins can help ...understand the process of protein folding and misfolding. Detergents are important denaturants and play important roles in various fields. Here we explored the effect of sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) on the structure of peanut agglutinin (PNA). The protein was purified from its natural source and impact of SDS and CTAB was studied by circular dichroism, intrinsic fluorescence, 8-anilino-1-napthalenesulfonic acid, molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation. Pure peanut agglutinin showed a trough at 220 nm and positive ellipticity peak at 195 nm, specific for lectins. Results from the experimental and simulation studies suggest how oppositely charged detergents can interact differently and lead to varied structural perturbations in PNA. Both the surfactants induce all α protein-like circular dichroism in the protein, above its critical micelle concentrations, with significant change in accessible surface area that became more hydrophobic upon the treatment. Major interactions between the surfactants and protein, resulting in PNA conformational rearrangement, are electrostatic and van der Waals interactions. However, CTAB, a cationic surfactant, has similar effects as anionic surfactant (SDS) but at significantly very low concentration. Though the effects followed same pattern in both the surfactant treatment, i.e. above respective CMC, the surfactants were inducing all α protein-like conformation in PNA.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
Employing luminescence thermometry in the biomedical field is undeniably appealing as many health conditions are accompanied by temperature changes. In this work, we show our ongoing efforts and ...results at designing novel vehicles for dual-mode thermometry and pH-dependent drug release based on hollow spheres. Hereby for that purpose, we exploit the hollow Y 2 O 3 and Y 2 O 2 SO 4 host materials. These two inorganic hollow phosphors were investigated and showed to have excellent upconversion Er 3+ –Yb 3+ luminescence properties and could be effectively used as optical temperature sensors in the physiological temperature range when induced by near-infrared CW light (975 nm). Further, doxorubicin was exploited as a model anti-cancer drug to monitor the pH-dependent drug release of these materials showing that they can be used for simultaneous thermometry and drug delivery applications.
Experimental metastasis assay Mohanty, Sonali; Xu, Lei
Journal of visualized experiments,
08/2010
42
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Metastasis is the leading cause of death in cancer patients. To understand the mechanism of metastasis, an experimental metastasis assay was established using immunodeficient mice. This article ...delineates the procedures involved in this assay, including sample preparation, intravenous injection, and culturing cells from lung metastases. Briefly, a pre-determined number of human cancer cells were prepared in vitro and directly injected into the circulation of immunodeficient mice through their tail veins. A small number of cells survive the turbulence in the circulation and grow as metastases in internal organs, such as lung. The injected mice are dissected after a certain period. The tissue distribution of metastases is determined under a dissecting microscope. The number of metastases in a specific tissue is counted and it directly correlates with the metastatic ability of the injected cancer cells. The arisen metastases are isolated and cultured in vitro as cell lines, which often show enhanced metastatic abilities than the parental line when injected again into immunodeficient mice. These highly metastatic derivatives become useful tools for identifying genes or molecular pathways that regulate metastatic progression.
Employing luminescence thermometry in the biomedical field is undeniably appealing as many health conditions are accompanied by temperature changes. In this work, we show our ongoing efforts and ...results at designing novel vehicles for dual-mode thermometry and pH-dependent drug release based on hollow spheres. Hereby for that purpose, we exploit the hollow Y2O3 and Y2O2SO4 host materials. These two inorganic hollow phosphors were investigated and showed to have excellent upconversion Er3+–Yb3+ luminescence properties and could be effectively used as optical temperature sensors in the physiological temperature range when induced by near-infrared CW light (975 nm). Further, doxorubicin was exploited as a model anti-cancer drug to monitor the pH-dependent drug release of these materials showing that they can be used for simultaneous thermometry and drug delivery applications.
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