The approach of drug delivery systems emphasizes the use of nanoparticles as a vehicle, offering the optional property of delivering drugs as a single dose rather than in multiple doses. The current study aims to improve antioxidant and drug release properties of curcumin loaded gum Arabic-sodium alginate nanoparticles (Cur/ALG-GANPs). The Cur/ALG-GANPs were prepared using the ionotropic gelation technique and further subjected to physico-chemical characterization using attenuated total reflectance–Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), size distribution, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The size of Cur/ALG-GANPs ranged between 10 ± 0.3 nm and 190 ± 0.1 nm and the zeta potential was –15 ± 0.2 mV. The antioxidant study of Cur/ALG-GANPs exhibited effective radical scavenging capacity for 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) at concentrations that ranged between 30 and 500µg/mL. Cytotoxicity was performed using MTT assay to measure their potential in inhibiting the cell growth and the result demonstrated a significant anticancer activity of Cur/ALG-GANPs against human liver cancer cells (HepG2) than in colon cancer (HT29), lung cancer (A549) and breast cancer (MCF7) cells. Thus, this study indicates that Cur/ALG-GANPs have promising anticancer properties that might aid in future cancer therapy.

No abstract

The ceramide synthase 2 (CERS2) gene has been linked to tumour recurrence and invasion in many different types of cancers including bladder cancer. In this study, the expression levels of CERS2 in bladder cancer cell lines were analysed using qRT-PCR and the protein expression in clinical bladder cancer histopathological specimens were examined via immunohistochemistry. The potential utility of CERS2 as a predictive biomarker of response to oncolytic virotherapy was assessed by correlating the CERS2 mRNA expression to IC50 values of cells treated with the Newcastle disease virus (NDV), AF2240 strain. This study demonstrates that CERS2 is differentially expressed in different types of bladder cancer cell lines and that the siRNA-mediated downregulation of the expression of CERS2 reduces the migratory potential of UMUC1 bladder cancer cells. However, there were no significant correlations between the expression levels of the CERS2 protein with bladder cancer grade/stage or between the IC50 values of cells treated with NDV and CERS2 expression. Although the utility of CERS2 expression may be limited, its potential as an antimigration cancer therapeutic should be further examined.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent cells derived from adult human tissues that have the ability to proliferate in vitro and maintain their multipotency, making them attractive cell sources for regenerative medicine. However, MSCs reportedly show limited proliferative capacity with inconsistent therapeutic outcomes due to their heterogeneous nature. On the other hand, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) have emerged as an alternative source for the production of various specialized cell types via their ability to differentiate from all three primary germ layers, leading to applications in regenerative medicine, disease modeling, and drug therapy. Notably, iPSCs can differentiate into MSCs in monolayer, commonly referred to as induced mesenchymal stem cells (iMSCs). These cells show superior therapeutic qualities compared with adult MSCs as the applications of the latter are restricted by passage number and autoimmune rejection when applied in tissue regeneration trials. Furthermore, increasing evidence shows that the therapeutic properties of stem cells are a consequence of the paracrine effects mediated by their secretome such as from exosomes, a type of extracellular vesicle secreted by most cell types. Several studies that investigated the potential of exosomes in regenerative medicine and therapy have revealed promising results. Therefore, this review focuses on the recent findings of exosomes secreted from iMSCs as a potential noncell-based therapy.

Detecting breast cancer (BC) at the initial stages of progression has always been regarded as a lifesaving intervention. With modern technology, extensive studies have unraveled the complexity of BC, but the current standard practice of early breast cancer screening and clinical management of cancer progression is still heavily dependent on tissue biopsies, which are invasive and limited in capturing definitive cancer signatures for more comprehensive applications to improve outcomes in BC care and treatments. In recent years, reviews and studies have shown that liquid biopsies in the form of blood, containing free circulating and exosomal microRNAs (miRNAs), have become increasingly evident as a potential minimally invasive alternative to tissue biopsy or as a complement to biomarkers in assessing and classifying BC. As such, in this review, the potential of miRNAs as the key BC signatures in liquid biopsy are addressed, including the role of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning platforms (ML), in capitalizing on the big data of miRNA for a more comprehensive assessment of the cancer, leading to practical clinical utility in BC management.