Multidrug resistance (MDR) is the dominant challenge in the failure of chemotherapy in cancers. Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) is a lipid kinase that spreads intracellular signal cascades and regulates a variety of cellular processes. PI3Ks are considered significant causes of chemoresistance in cancer therapy. Protein kinase B (AKT) is also a significant downstream effecter of PI3K signaling, and it modulates several pathways, including inhibition of apoptosis, stimulation of cell growth, and modulation of cellular metabolism. This review highlights the aberrant activation of PI3K/AKT as a key link that modulates MDR. We summarize the regulation of numerous major targets correlated with the PI3K/AKT pathway, which is further related to MDR, including the expression of apoptosis-related protein, ABC transport and glycogen synthase kinase-3 beta (GSK-3β), synergism with nuclear factor kappa beta (NF-κB) and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), and the regulation of glycolysis.

Citrus fruits, which are cultivated worldwide, have been recognized as some of the most high-consumption fruits in terms of energy, nutrients and health supplements. What is more, a number of these fruits have been used as traditional medicinal herbs to cure diseases in several Asian countries. Numerous studies have focused on Citrus secondary metabolites as well as bioactivities and have been intended to develop new chemotherapeutic or complementary medicine in recent decades. Citrus-derived secondary metabolites, including flavonoids, alkaloids, limonoids, coumarins, carotenoids, phenolic acids and essential oils, are of vital importance to human health due to their active properties. These characteristics include anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, as well as cardiovascular protective effects, neuroprotective effects, etc. This review summarizes the global distribution and taxonomy, numerous secondary metabolites and bioactivities of Citrus fruits to provide a reference for further study. Flavonoids as characteristic bioactive metabolites in Citrus fruits are mainly introduced.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13065-015-0145-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), as a kind of inorganic nanoparticle, have been gradually recognized as one of the most promising nanomaterials, which is attributed to their unique optical, electronic, sensing and biochemical characteristics. Due to such unique characteristics, AuNPs have been widely applied in biomedical fields such as diagnosis, biosensing and drug delivery. Except for their use in cancer treatment alone with their photothermal ablation of solid tumours, when used with anticancer drugs, AuNPs can exert a dual role in treating cancer. With the advantages of protecting drugs from degradation and leakage in the physiological environment, tuneable modification in size, surface and shape, and biocompatibility, AuNPs can be used as promising drug carriers in anticancer drug design. However, there are still many aspects that need to be improved during the usage of drug carriers in pharmacology including the following aspects: prolongation in the plasma, enhancement in targeting accumulation, improvement in cellular uptake and the control of intracellular release. AuNPs are important drug carriers.

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Boswellia serrata l " Burseraceae l " boswellic acids l " derivatization l " pharmacokinetics l " analysis methods l " new formula