Recently, numerous side effects of synthetic drugs have lead to using medicinal plants as a reliable source of new therapy. Pain is a global public health problem with a high impact on life quality and a huge economic implication, becoming one of the most important enemies in modern medicine. The medicinal use of plants as analgesic or antinociceptive drugs in traditional therapy is estimated to be about 80% of the world population. The Lamiaceae family, one of the most important herbal families, incorporates a wide variety of plants with biological and medical applications. In this study, the analgesic activity, possible active compounds of Lamiaceae genus, and also the possible mechanism of actions of these plants are presented. The data highlighted in this review paper provide valuable scientific information for the specific implications of Lamiaceae plants in pain modulation that might be used for isolation of potentially active compounds from some of these medicinal plants in future and formulation of commercial therapeutic agents.

In the last two decades, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopies turn out to be valuable tools, capable of providing fingerprint-type information on the composition and structural conformation of specific molecular species. Vibrational spectroscopy’s multiple features, namely highly sensitive to changes at the molecular level, noninvasive, nondestructive, reagent-free, and waste-free analysis, illustrate the potential in biomedical field. In light of this, the current work features recent data and major trends in spectroscopic analyses going from in vivo measurements up to ex vivo extracted and processed materials. The ability to offer insights into the structural variations underpinning pathogenesis of diseases could provide a platform for disease diagnosis and therapy effectiveness evaluation as a future standard clinical tool.

Viral infections are a major global health problem, representing a significant cause of mortality with an unfavorable continuously amplified socio-economic impact. The increased drug resistance and constant viral replication have been the trigger for important studies regarding the use of nanotechnology in antiviral therapies. Nanomaterials offer unique physico-chemical properties that have linked benefits for drug delivery as ideal tools for viral treatment. Currently, different types of nanomaterials namely nanoparticles, liposomes, nanospheres, nanogels, nanosuspensions and nanoemulsions were studied either in vitro or in vivo for drug delivery of antiviral agents with prospects to be translated in clinical practice. This review highlights the drug delivery nanosystems incorporating the major antiviral classes and their transport across specific barriers at cellular and intracellular level. Important reflections on nanomedicines currently approved or undergoing investigations for the treatment of viral infections are also discussed. Finally, the authors present an overview on the requirements for the design of antiviral nanotherapeutics.

C60-PEI and C60-PEG-PEI as efficient binders of dsDNA, with good transfection up to 25%, high cytocompatibility and cell proliferation up to 200%.

The paper aims to investigate the cytotoxic effect on tumor cells of irradiated AuNPs in green light and subsequently functionalized with HS-PEG-NH 2. The toxicity level of gold conjugates after their functionalization with DOX and TAT peptide was also evaluated. The AuNPs were prepared using the modified Turkevich method and exposed to visible light at a wavelength of 520 nm prior their PEGylation. The optical properties were analyzed by UV-vis spectroscopy, the surface modification was investigated using FTIR and XPS spectroscopies and their sizes and morphologies were evaluated by TEM and DLS techniques. DOX and TAT peptide were linked to the surface of PEGylated AuNPs by reacting their amino groups with glycidyloxypropyl of PEGylated DOX or TAT conjugates under mild conditions at room temperature and in the presence of ethanol as catalyst. The conjugates containing DOX or DOX and TAT have been characterized by fluorescence and FTIR techniques. The changes of electrochemical features were observed using cyclic voltammetry, suggesting a better stability of irradiated nanoparticles. By mass spectrometry it was confirmed that the compounds of interest were obtained. The cell viability test showed that irradiated and non-irradiated nanoparticles coated with PEG are not toxic in normal cells. Tumor cell viability analysis showed that the PEGylated nanoparticles modified with DOX and TAT peptide were more effective than pristine DOX, indicating cytotoxicity up to 10% higher than non-irradiated ones. The presence of gold nanomaterials (AuNPs) in biomedicine and particularly in antitumor therapy still remains a topic of wide debate, as evidenced by the tremendous amount of scientific works on this issue in recent years 1-3. An impressive number of research studies have straightened their efforts toward the use of AuNPs in enhancing the efficiency of cancer treatment, due to their ease production and chemical functionalization of their surface 4,5. Gold nanoparticles are feasible to be developed as versatile nontoxic carriers for drug release as long as they are able to be conjugated with different molecules, including chemotherapeutics, antibodies, peptides, ligands, and other structures which are likely to promote a great capacity to penetrate the tumor site, resulting in a predominant accumulation of bioactive agent in the tumor region 6,7. On the other hand, the passive anticancer effect based on the accumulation strategy of AuNPs at the tumor site is limited by the inherent heterogeneities of tumor vasculature 8. It was shown that nanoparticle concentration in the target tissue is influenced by renal clearance rate, and also by activation of immune system mechanisms such as opsonization or nonspecific particle phagocytosis, fulfilled by the reticuloendothelial system (RES).

The philosophy to design and construct polyrotaxane carriers, as efficient gene delivery systems.

Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is a progressive disorder that increases in prevalence with age. An important role in aortic valve calcification is played by valvular interstitial cells (VIC), that with age or in pathological conditions acquire an osteoblast-like phenotype that advances the disease. Therefore, pharmacological interventions aiming to stop or reverse the osteoblastic transition of VIC may represent a therapeutic option for CAVD. In this study, we aimed at developing a nanotherapeutic strategy able to prevent the phenotypic switch of human aortic VIC into osteoblast-like cells. We hypothesize that nanocarriers designed for silencing the Runt-related transcription factor 2 (Runx2) will stop the progress or reverse the osteodifferentiation of human VIC, induced by high glucose concentrations and pro-osteogenic factors. We report here the potential of fullerene (C60)-polyethyleneimine (PEI)/short hairpin (sh)RNA-Runx2 nano-polyplexes to efficiently down-regulate Runx2 mRNA and protein expression leading subsequently to a significant reduction in the expression of osteogenic proteins (i.e., ALP, BSP, OSP and BMP4) in osteoblast-committed VIC. The data suggest that the silencing of Runx2 could represent a novel strategy to impede the osteoblastic phenotypic shift of VIC and the ensuing progress of CAVD.

Transfection of nucleic acid molecules, large enough to interfere with the genetic mechanisms of active cells, can be performed by means of small carriers, able to collectively collaborate in generating cargocomplexes that could be involved in passive mechanisms of cellular uptake. The present work describes the synthesis, characterization, and evaluation of transfection efficacy of a conjugate molecule, which comprises a cyclic siloxane ring (2,4,6,8-tetramethylcyclotetrasiloxane, cD 4 H ) as the core, and, on average, 3.76 molecules of 2 kDa polyethyleneimine (PEI) as cationic branches, with an average molecular mass of 7.3 kDa. As demonstrated by in silico molecular modeling and dynamic simulation, the conjugate molecule (cD 4 H -AGE-PEI) tends to adopt an asymmetric structure, specific for amphipathic molecules (confirmed by a log P value of À1.902 AE 0.06), that favors a rapid interaction with nucleic acids. The conjugate and the polyplexes with the pEYFP plasmid were proved to be non-cytotoxic, and capable of ensuring transfection yields better than 30%, on HEK 293T cell culture, superior to the value obtained using the SuperFect s reagent. We presume that the increased transfection efficacy originates in the ability of the conjugate to locally tightly encompass pDNA molecules by electrostatic interaction mediated by the short PEI branches, and consequently to expose the siloxane hydrophobic moiety, which decreases the interaction energy with the lipid layers. † Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Additional experimental data of cD 4 H -AGE-PEI conjugate and its precursors including FTIR spectra, XPS wide scan spectra, a table resuming high resolution spectra C 1s and N 1s assignments, TGA/DTG and DSC curves, a table comprising summary results of molecular dynamics simulation regarding DNA/cD 4 H -AGE-PEI. See