Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology - Volume 17, Issue 8, 2016

In recent years many different nanotechnology platforms have been developed for both diagnostics and cancer therapy. Researchers have been attracted to use lipid-based nanoparticles with particle size approximately 100 nm as a new pharmaceutical delivery system or pharmaceutical formulation that can be assembled from different types of lipid or other chemical components in order to overcome biological barriers. Read More

Research has been lately prospering in the field of Janus nanoparticles, focusing on new synthesis techniques and their application in various fields. This is due to the unique characteristics possessed by this type of particles such as their anisotropic nature, and their synergistic potential for combination therapy in addition to the multilevel targeting. These unique features are essential in several biomedical applications, espec Read More

The oral route is the preferred mode of administration, however the poor intestinal absorption of many bioactive compounds limit their efficacy. Several strategies have been developed to overcome the low oral bioavailability of bioactive compounds. Nanocarriers present a unique opportunity to overcome this limitation due to their diverse bioactive carriage potential, surface functionality and design flexibility. Despi Read More

Nanomedicine has opened the way to the design of more efficient diagnostics and therapeutics. Moreover, recent literature has illustrated the use of short cationic and/or amphipathic peptides, known as cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs), for mediating advanced drug delivery. CPPs exploit their ability to enter cells and enhance the uptake of many cargoes ranging from small molecules to proteins. The distinctive properties of na Read More

Lipid nanocapsules (LNCs) were designed more than 15 years ago to deliver lipophilic drugs to cells with non toxic excipients by mimicking lipoproteins. During the last 5 years these promising nanocarriers were re-designed to deliver nucleic acids to cancer cells. This short review sums up the features of LNCs and describes how DNAs or RNAs can be associated or encapsulated in these lipid carriers. The results of transf Read More

RNA interference (RNAi) is an evolutionary conserved highly specific gene-silencing mechanism initiated by small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules. Fast-paced preclinical and clinical studies helped the siRNA technology become an efficient tool for undruggable targets in different diseases including genetic diseases, viral diseases and cancer. Despite great feature of siRNAs that can down-regulate any protein in the cells, th Read More

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of post-transcriptional gene expression modulators. In the past two decades, over 1500 human miRNAs were discovered. These small non-coding RNAs regulate various biological processes, including cell growth, proliferation, differentiation, and cell death. Thus, miRNAs have been proposed as new therapeutical agents in different multifactorial diseases such as cancer. Since miRNAs therapi Read More