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Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), as a prominent category of hybrid porous materials, have been broadly employed as controlled systems of drug delivery due to their inherent interesting properties.

An investigation was conducted to evaluate the ability of Deferasirox (ICL670 or Exjade) following the distribution of cadmium salt in male Wistar rats. Cadmium was introduced to several groups of weanling male Wistar rats through different means, by act of drinking, feeding. A control group was fed on a diet containing normal level of iron. After a period of 30 days, all the rats administered cadmium were severely anemic and showed toxicity symptoms through loss of hair and increasing in cadmium and reduction in iron levels in blood. Chelation therapy was carried out to remove the toxic element from the body. The ability of Deferasirox chelator in removing cadmium was investigated this chelator for 1 week to the remaining rats of similar groups. The results showed that the cadmium level present in blood was significantly reduced and at the same time, iron concentration returned to the normal level. It was concluded that Deferasirox chelator is able to remove cadmium from the body and could be used for the treatment of complications and eradication of symptoms of cadmium intoxication.

The importance of early-stage diagnosis and in situ monitoring of lesion regions and transportation of bioactive molecules has a pivotal effect on the successful treatment, reducing side effects, and increasing...

Investigations were conducted to evaluate the ability of two chelators, desferrioxamine (DFO), and deferiprone (1,2-dimethy1-3-hydroxypyride-4-one, L 1 ), for the excretion of vanadium after a period of administration of vanadium salts in 6-week-old male Wistar rats. Immediately after 60 days of vanadium administration, the rats received chelators (L 1 , DFO or L 1 ? DFO) for a period of 1 week. Chelators were given orally (L 1 ), intraperitoneally (DFO), or both to different groups of rats at two different dosage levels. After chelation therapy, animals were sacrificed by exsanguination from abdominal aorta. Blood, kidney, liver, and heart samples were collected and prepared for determination of vanadium and iron concentrations by graphite furnace and flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (GF AAS, and F AAS) methods, respectively. These chelators significantly enhanced the urinary and biliary excretion of vanadium and restored the altered levels of iron. Furthermore, the hypothesis that these two known chelators might be more effective in removing vanadium from the body as a combined treatment than as monotherapy also was tested in this study. Although there is no significant difference between these two chelators in reducing the vanadium concentration, combination therapy (L 1 ? DFO) may cause higher efficacy and lower toxicity compared with monotherapies. Collectively, the results indicate that the designed procedure might be useful for preliminary in vivo testing of the efficiency of a chelating agent. However, our findings regarding the efficacy of combination therapy should be confirmed in more experiments. This preliminary study does not provide all answers to the magnitude of the efficiency of chelating agents in vanadium toxicity, and thus, further research is warranted.

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Background Improving anti-cancer drug delivery performance can be achieved through designing smart and targeted drug delivery systems (DDSs). For this aim, it is important to evaluate overexpressed biomarkers in the tumor microenvironment (TME) for optimizing DDSs. Materials and methods Herein, we designed a novel DDS based on magnetic mesoporous silica core–shell nanoparticles (SPION@MSNs) in which release of doxorubicin (DOX) at the physiologic pH was blocked with gold gatekeepers. In this platform, we conjugated heterofunctional polyethylene glycol (PEG) onto the outer surface of nanocarriers to increase their biocompatibility. At the final stage, an epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) aptamer as an active targeting moiety was covalently attached (Apt-PEG-Au@NPs-DOX) for selective drug delivery to colorectal cancer (CRC) cells. The physicochemical properties of non-targeted and targeted nanocarriers were fully characterized. The anti-cancer activity, cellular internalization, and then the cell death mechanism of prepared nanocarriers were determined and compared in vitro. Finally, tumor inhibitory effects, biodistribution and possible side effects of the nanocarriers were evaluated in immunocompromised C57BL/6 mice bearing human HT-29 tumors. Results Nanocarriers were successfully synthesized with a mean final size diameter of 58.22 ± 8.54 nm. Higher cytotoxicity and cellular uptake of targeted nanocarriers were shown in the EpCAM-positive HT-29 cells as compared to the EpCAM-negative CHO cells, indicating the efficacy of aptamer as a targeting agent. In vivo results in a humanized mouse model showed that targeted nanocarriers could effectively increase DOX accumulation in the tumor site, inhibit tumor growth, and reduce the adverse side effects. Conclusion These results suggest that corporation of a magnetic core, gold gatekeeper, PEG and aptamer can strongly improve drug delivery performance and provide a theranostic DDS for efficient CRC therapy. Graphic abstract