Nanotherapeutics: Emerging Competent Technology in Neuroaids and CNS Drug Delivery

Abstract

There is increasing interest in using natural products as anticancer agents, as many have antioxidative properties that may help to prevent cellular damage that can lead to cancer. In addition, there is the expectation that many natural products will have low toxicity and few side effects. However, most anticancer and antioxidative agents are hydrophobic, reducing their bioavailability in vivo and making them problematic to deliver. Curcumin provides a good model system for study. In low doses it shows both anticancer and antioxidation effects, whereas in high doses and delivered locally it could be cytotoxic for cancer cells. In this paper, curcumin microemulsions were formed with food-grade chemicals, including soybean lecithin, soybean oil, and Tween 80, a Food and Drug Administration-approved surfactant. The optimized composition formed curcumin microemulsions with a mean size of 40-50 nm, carrying a concentration of curcumin as high as 15 μM. The stability of curcumin microemulsions refrigerated at 5°C over at least 968 days was assessed by size distribution and zeta potential. The effects of low-frequency ultrasound on two oral squamous cell carcinoma cell lines (OSCC-4 and OSCC-25), and the synergy between treatment with curcumin microemulsions and low-frequency sonic stimulation, were tested. Finally, microscopic imaging of the cells confirmed the toxic effects of the curcumin microemulsions, showing damaged and ruptured cells after treatment. Brief exposure to the curcumin-containing microemulsions did have cytotoxic effects, but the addition of ultrasound strongly enhanced those effects, especially on OSCC-25 cells.

Nanotherapeutic Approach to Targeting HIV-1 in the CNS

“…Several studies have shown that the nanoparticles are able to transverse the BBB (Mahajan et al, , 2010(Mahajan et al, , 2012aBonoiu et al, 2009;Rao et al, 2009;Wong et al, 2010Wong et al, , 2012Saxena et al, 2012;Pilakka-Kanthikeel et al, 2013;Gidwani and Singh, 2014). The BBB shields the brain from toxic substances in the blood, supplies brain tissues with nutrients, and filters harmful compounds from the brain back to the bloodstream.…”

Role of Withaferin A as a Neuroprotectant against Beta Amyloid Induced Toxicity and associated mechanism

“…[253,254]. [255].The most fatal and complex of neurological diseases is AD or AD like pathology Amongst various strategies for increasing drug delivery including physical methods like focused ultrasound [273], chemical modifications like modifying a drug into a prodrug to enhance lipophilicity [274] and biological modifications like tagging drugs with macromolecules (proteins and peptides to aid BBB transmigration by endocytosis) [275], the strategy of nanoparticles based drug-delivery system is competent and more efficacious and promising [276].…”