Over the past few decades, tendency toward innovative drug delivery systems has majorly increased attempts to ensure efficacy, safety and patient acceptability. As discovery and development of new chemical agents is a complex, expensive and time consuming process, so recent trends are shifting toward designing and developing innovative drug delivery systems for existing drugs. Out of those, drug delivery system being very eminent among pediatrics and geriatrics is orally disintegrating films (ODFs). These fast disintegrating films have superiority over fast disintegrating tablets as the latter are associated with the risks of choking and friability. This drug delivery system has numerous advantages over conventional fast disintegrating tablets as they can be used for dysphasic and schizophrenic patients and are taken without water due to their ability to disintegrate within a few seconds releasing medication in mouth. Various approaches are employed for formulating ODFs and among which solvent casting and spraying methods are frequently used. Generally, hydrophilic polymers along with other excipients are used for preparing ODFs which allow films to disintegrate quickly releasing incorporated active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) within seconds. Orally disintegrating films have potential for business and market exploitation because of their myriad of benefits over orally disintegrating tablets. This present review attempts to focus on benefits, composition, approaches for formulation and evaluation of ODFs. Additionally, the market prospect of this innovative dosage form is also targeted.

Lactic acid bacteria are a diverse group of bacteria that produce lactic acid as their major fermented product. Most of them are normal flora of human being and animals and produce myriad beneficial effects for human beings include, alleviation of lactose intolerance, diarrhea, peptic ulcer, stimulation of immune system, antiallergic effects, antifungal actions, preservation of food, and prevention of colon cancer. This review highlights the potential species of Lactic acid bacteria responsible for producing these effects. It has been concluded that lactic acid bacteria are highly beneficial microorganisms for human beings and are present abundantly in dairy products so their use should be promoted for good human health.

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a proinflammatory cytokine that decisively induces the development of insulin resistance and pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) through the generation of inflammation by controlling differentiation, migration, proliferation, and cell apoptosis. The presence of IL-6 in tissues is a normal consequence, but its irregular production and long-term exposure leads to the development of inflammation, which induces insulin resistance and overt T2DM. There is a mechanistic relationship between the stimulation of IL-6 and insulin resistance. IL-6 causes insulin resistance by impairing the phosphorylation of insulin receptor and insulin receptor substrate-1 by inducing the expression of SOCS-3, a potential inhibitor of insulin signaling. In this article, we have briefly described how IL-6 induces the insulin resistance and pathogenesis of T2DM. The prevention of inflammatory disorders by blocking IL-6 and IL-6 signaling may be an effective strategy for the treatment of insulin resistance and T2DM.

Inhibitors of apoptotic proteins (IAPs) can play an important role in inhibiting apoptosis by exerting their negative action on caspases (apoptotic proteins). There are eight proteins in this family: NAIP/BIRC1/NLRB, cellular IAP1 (cIAP1)/human IAP2/BIRC2, cellular IAP2 (cIAP2)/human IAP1/BIRC3, X‐linked IAP (XIAP)/BIRC4, survivin/BIRC5, baculoviral IAP repeat (BIR)‐containing ubiquitin‐conjugating enzyme/apollon/BIRC6, livin/melanoma‐IAP (ML‐IAP)/BIRC7/KIAP, and testis‐specific IAP (Ts‐IAP)/hILP‐2/BIRC8. Deregulation of these inhibitors of apoptotic proteins (IAPs) may push cell toward cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. Inhibitors of apoptotic proteins (IAPs) may provide new target for anticancer therapy. Drugs may be developed that are inhibiting these IAPs to induce apoptosis in cancerous cells.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is fatal disease and one of the major causes of death among cancer patients. Diagnosis of PDAC during the early stages of cancer using ultrasounds and blood tests is difficult and chemotherapies alone for treating cancers are not very effective. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), small non-coding RNAs that alter the expression of genes in many processes, have been identified to play a significant role in pancreatic cancer regulation. miRNAs are classified as oncomiRs (tumor inducers) and tumor suppressor miRNAs. It has been found that miRNAs are regulated very differently in serum and cells surrounding cancer cells and within cancerous cells. miRNAs regulate cancer cell proliferation, invasion, and apoptosis by being differently up-regulated or downregulated and affecting the expression of genes involved in cancer cell signaling. Therefore, miRNAs can be used as effective diagnostic markers and drug targets for therapy. In this review, we describe the most recent studies performed for understanding molecular mechanisms and gene regulations in PDAC and their utility for diagnosis and therapy.

Contribution of Cdc42, a member of Rho family, has been characterized for the beginning of variety of cellular responses including cellular transformation, cell division, cell invasion, migration, invadopodia formation, enzyme activity, filopodia formation, and cell polarity in cells. Deregulation of Cdc42 can alter the normal functioning of the cells, responsible for the initiation of signaling pathways and is correlated with several pathogenic processes such as cancer. Therefore, maintaining the level of Cdc42 and its effectors in cells, tumor progression can be controlled. Therefore, it can be suggested that deeper understanding about the Cdc42 contribution in cancer cell progression at molecular level can approach to the development of Cdc42 inhibitors in cancer management.

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Nanotechnology deals with the synthesis of materials and particles at nanoscale with dimensions of 1–100 nm. Biological synthesis of nanoparticles, using microbes and plants, is the most proficient method in terms of ease of handling and reliability. Core objectives of this study were to synthesize metallic nanoparticles using selenium metal salt from citrus fruit extracts, their characterization and evaluation for antimicrobial activities against pathogenic microbes. In methodology, simple green method was implicated using sodium selenite salt solution and citrus fruit extracts of Grapefruit and Lemon as precursors for synthesizing nanoparticles. Brick red color of the solution indicated towards the synthesis of selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs). Nanoparticle’s initial characterization was done by UV–Vis Spectrophotometry and later FTIR analysis and DLS graphs via Zetasizer were obtained for the confirmation of different physical and chemical parameters of the nanoparticles. Different concentrations of SeNPs were used for antimicrobial testing against E. coli, M. luteus, B. subtilis and K. pneumoniae comparative with the standard antibiotic Ciprofloxacin. SeNPs possessed significant antimicrobial activities against all the bacterial pathogens used. Conclusively, SeNPs made from citrus fruits can act as potent antibacterial candidates.