Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology - Volume 16, Issue 11, 2015

Pharmaceutical biotechnology has been showing therapeutic success never achieved with conventional drug molecules. Therefore, biopharmaceutical products are currently well-established in clinic and the development of new ones is expected. These products comprise mainly therapeutic proteins, although nucleic acids and cells are also included. However, according to their sensitive molecular structures, the Read More

Biopharmaceuticals are a generation of drugs that include peptides, proteins, nucleic acids and cell products. According to their particular molecular characteristics (e.g. high molecular size, susceptibility to enzymatic activity), these products present some limitations for administration and usually parenteral routes are the only option. To avoid these limitations, different colloidal carriers (e.g. liposomes, micelles, microe Read More

Protein-based biopharmaceuticals are often produced in mammalian cell cultures, which are more expensive than microbial systems but capable of authentic post-translational modifications. The costs are lower if plants are used as an alternative platform to produce complex proteins such as monoclonal antibodies, vaccines and enzymes. This review highlights recent advances that have been achieved in plant-based biopharm Read More

The shift from empirical to science-based process development is considered to be a key factor to increase bioprocess performance and to reduce time to market for biopharmaceutical products in the near future. In the last decade, expanding knowledge in systems biology and bioprocess technology has delivered the foundation of the scientific understanding of relationships between process input parameters and process Read More

The prevalence and incidence of autoimmune and allergic diseases have increased dramatically over the last several decades, especially in the developed world. The treatment of autoimmune and allergic diseases is typically with the use of non-specific immunosuppressive agents that compromise the integrity of the host immune system and therefore, increase the risk of infections. Antigenspecific immunotherapy by r Read More

Tissue-engineered constructs made of biotechnology-derived materials have been preferred due to their chemical and physical composition, which offers both high versatility and a support to enclose/ incorporate relevant signaling molecules and/or genes known to therapeutically induce tissue repair. Herein, a critical overview of the impact of different biotechnology-derived materials, scaffolds, and recombinant signaling molec Read More

The herpes simplex virus (HSV) is a widespread human pathogen and for many reasons the development of anti-herpetic drugs from natural products has been encouraged. Adenanthera pavonina (Ap) is a medicinal plant widely used in Brazil, among other uses. Herein, a native Ap seed polysaccharide (PLSAp) and its chemically sulfated derivate (SPLSAp) were studied by Fourier transform IR spectra (FT-IR), gel permeati Read More