Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology - Volume 15, Issue 9, 2014

Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) can sense pathogen DNA and CpG ODN or even self-DNA by trafficking assisted by Unc93B1, an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) transmembrane protein, from ER to endolysosomes or cell surface. In previous study, we found that an oligodeoxynucleotide with CCT repeats (SAT05f) could selectively inhibit TLR7/9 activation. However, the mechanism for the inhibitory activity of SAT05f is still unknown. In pres Read More

This study aimed to evaluate the co-delivery of cationic liposome/plasmid DNA complexes and cationic liposome/antisense oligodeoxyribonucleotide (AS ODN) complexes in HeLa human cervical carcinoma cells. Dimethyldioctadecyl ammonium bromide (DDAB): dioleoyl phosphatidylethanolamine (DOPE) liposome/plasmid DNA complexes, and DDAB:DOPE liposome/AS ODN complexes were formulated and characterized in terms of Read More

Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) have promising therapeutic potential in oncotherapy. However, low stability and efficacy limit their application in the clinic. Cationic liposomes have been investigated as delivery vehicles for ASOs. Here, we report the synthesis and evaluation of an ASO delivery vehicle comprising cationic liposomes incorporating fatty acid-modified polyethylenimine. An oleic acid derivative of branched polyethyl Read More

The development of nucleic acid-based drugs has attracted considerable interest in the past two decades as a new category of biologics. A key challenge in successfully achieving the full potential of nucleotide therapeutics is their efficient delivery. Synthetic cationic lipids are currently the most extensively used non-viral nucleotide carriers because of their ability to form complexes with the nucleic acids. Here we examine t Read More

Membrane insertion peptides have been developed in recent years and serve as cargos to deliver small molecules into cells. A class of membrane insertion peptides is the so called pH-induced peptides (pHLIPs), which are able to insert into membrane when the environment pH is acidic. Despite a number of experimental studies, the insertion process as well as the penetration mechanism is still worth study with computational me Read More

Microfluidically (MF) synthesized lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for antisense oligonucleotides (ODN) delivery have been shown to be superior to those prepared by bulk mixing (BM). In this study, a 5-inlet MF chip was used to synthesize LNPs loaded with LOR-2501, an antisense ODN targeting the ribonucleotide reductase R1 subunit. The size distribution of ODN- LNPs was measured by dynamic light scattering. The cytotoxicity of O Read More

Nanoparticles have shown great promise for improving the efficacy of nucleic acid drugs that lack permeability and bioavailability needed for reaching their intracellular site of action. The pharmacokinetics of the nucleic acid nanomedicines contributes greatly to their pharmacodynamic and toxicity characteristics. The pharmacokinetics of nanomedicines is determined by their physiochemical properties, such as particle s Read More

Objective: Among heterogeneous glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) cells, glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) is a subpopulation having a critical role in tumor initiation and therapy resistance. Thus targeting GSCs would be an essential step to completely eradicate this lethal disease. MicroRNA-1 (miR-1) expression is deregulated in GBM patients and restoration of miR-1 by viral-vector in GBM cells has been demonstrated to inhibit Read More

Antisense oligonucleotides (AS-ODNs) are short, single-stranded DNA molecules designed to bind specifically to a target messenger RNA (mRNA) and down-regulate gene expression. Despite being a promising class of therapeutics for a variety of diseases, they face major hurdles limiting their clinical application, including low intracellular delivery and poor in vivo stability. Among strategies available to enhance delivery, lipid nan Read More

Human brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) is utilized in the treatment of acute decompensated congestive heart failure. However, BNP has limited clinical use owing to its rapid clearance and the need for continuous intravenous infusion. Thus, we generated human serum albumin (HSA)-BNP fusion constructs to produce long-acting fusion proteins in Pichia pastoris. Four fusion proteins, BNP–HSA, (BNP)2–HSA, (BNP)4–HSA, and Read More

Recent advances in nanotechnology and nanobiotechnology have contributed to the development of nanomaterials, able to be used as drug carriers, probes, targets or cytostatic drugs by itself. Nanomedicine is now the leading area in nanotechnology where a large number and types of nanoparticles (NPs) has been developed and several are already in the clinical practice. Chemotherapy is one of the most widely used st Read More

Demonstrating comparability of secondary structure composition as part of higher order structure (HOS) in therapeutic proteins is a significant challenge. Previously, we showed that the variability of second derivative amide I Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra were small enough that significant differences in secondary structures could be seen for a variety of model proteins. Those comparisons used spectral overlap a Read More