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Objectives Considerable progress has been made in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD), but all available strategies focus on alleviating symptoms rather than curing, which means that AD is viewed as an unresolvable neurodegenerative disease. Nanotechnological applications offer an alternative platform for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. This review aims to summarize the recent nanomedicine and nanotechnology developments for the treatment of AD. Key findings A plethora of nanocarriers and nanoparticle prodrugs have been reported to have negligible cytotoxicity in animal models, and these developments have revealed new opportunities for development of new classes of potent drug formulations for AD. Different nanotechnology-based approaches such as polymers, emulsions, lipo-carriers, solid lipid carriers, carbon nanotubes and metal-based carriers have been developed over the past decade, and they have been focusing on both neuroprotective and neurogenerative techniques to treat AD. Studies also reveal that nanotechnological approaches can aid in early diagnosis of AD and enhance therapeutic efficacy and bioavailability. Summary Notably, the drugs used conventionally to target the central nervous system have limitations that include an inability to cross the 'blood-brain barrier' or the 'blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier' effectively and high drug efflux due to the activity of P-glycoprotein, but these limitations can be successfully overcome when nanocarriers are used for targeted drug delivery in AD.

a b s t r a c tDrug discovery and development are long and financially taxing processes. On an average it takes 12e15 years and costs 1.2 billion USD for successful drug discovery and approval for clinical use. Many lead molecules are not developed further and their potential is not tapped to the fullest due to lack of resources or time constraints. In order for a drug to be approved by FDA for clinical use, it must have excellent therapeutic potential in the desired area of target with minimal toxicities as supported by both pre-clinical and clinical studies. The targeted clinical evaluations fail to explore other potential therapeutic applications of the candidate drug. Drug repurposing or repositioning is a fast and relatively cheap alternative to the lengthy and expensive de novo drug discovery and development. Drug repositioning utilizes the already available clinical trials data for toxicity and adverse effects, at the same time explores the drug's therapeutic potential for a different disease. This review addresses recent developments and future scope of drug repositioning strategy.

The disadvantages of conventional sunscreens can be overcome by incorporation of solid lipid nanoparticles. On comparing the lipid nanobased systems with traditional cosmetic products, the occlusion can be achieved without the use of paraffin and other greasy oils. The film formed by lipid nanoparticles will be smooth as compared to the inflexible films formed by the paraffin. Newer approaches may lead to even better results. They also possess excellent UV-blocking activity and showed better photoprotection.

These results indicated that the sunscreen containing silymarin solid lipid nanoparticles exhibited better photoprotective action.

Context:Local drug delivery (LDD) systems have been proposed for the treatment of periodontitis. Curcumin could be a suitable agent as LDD for the treatment of periodontitis.Aim:To formulate, evaluate the anti-inflammatory activity and to assess the duration of the action and the efficacy of 2% curcumin gel in the treatment of experimental periodontitis in Wistar albino rat model.Settings and Design:Twenty-one Wistar albino rats were randomly assigned to three groups. Periodontitis was induced using ligature model. Group 1: Control; group 2: Plain gel, and group 3: 2% curcumin gel.Materials and Methods:About 2% curcumin gel was prepared. The anti-inflammatory activity and duration of action was assessed. Silk ligature 5-0 was used to induce periodontitis. Gingival index (GI) and probing pocket depth (PPD) were measured. Treatment was done. The rats were sacrificed. Morphometric analysis was performed using stereomicroscope and ImageJ software.Statistical Analysis Used:Analysis of variance followed by Bonferroni's test, Wilcoxon's test for inter-group comparison, Mann–Whitney test for P value computation was used. The observations are mean ± standard deviation and standard error of the mean. P < 0.01 when compared to control was considered as statistically significant.Results:About 2% curcumin gel showed 42.98% inhibition of edema and peak activity was noted at 24 h. There was statistically significant change in the GI and PPD. Morphometric analysis did not show any significant difference between groups. No toxic effects were seen on oral administration of 2000 mg/kg of curcumin.Conclusions:About 2% curcumin gel was effective in the treatment of experimental periodontitis.

Introduction:The potent antifungal agent amphotericin B (AmB) is not freely soluble in water. The clinical use of AmB is limited by nephrotoxicity and poor water solubility. Polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer offers an identical carrier for drug binding that has the capacity to attach and discharge drugs in numerous ways.Materials and methods:In this research work, we explored the potential of PAMAM dendrimers to improve the solubility of AmB.Results and discussion:The experimental results indicated that the solubility of AmB was greatly enhanced in the presence of PAMAM dendrimer solutions. Results indicated that the solubility of AmB enhanced with increase in dendrimer generations as well as concentration. In vitro release studies of AmB in the presence of the third generation of PAMAM dendrimers was performed by the dialysis method. Our research work revealed that binding of drug into dendrimers led to sustained release of AmB in vitro.Conclusion:Based on the stability studies, it was concluded that the drug dendrimer complex should be stored in a dark place at a cool temperature.