Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 21, Issue 42, 2015

Functionalized magnetic nanoparticles followed two main directions in the field of biomedical applications: one direction is as image enhancing agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the other is as drugdelivery devices for various biologically-active substances. A third field which just emerges in nanomedicine is the field of the so-called theranostic devices which combines in the same delivery vehicle both the ther Read More

Some of the most dangerous diseases of the eye are related to the posterior segment. Diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, cytomegalovirus retinitis, diabetic retinopathy, posterior uveitis and retinitis pigmentosa are difficult to treat using classical methods because of the many internal barriers of the eye which affect the drug efficiency. In this review, we will summarize the main research directions in the fi Read More

Cardiovascular diseases are the major cause of non-communicable illness in both developing and developed nations, representing 30% of global deaths. New therapeutic approaches are desperately needed. Nanomedicine represents one such approach, and involves using molecular entities on the scale of 10-150 nanometers, for purposes of diagnosing, treating, and preventing disease. This review provides a basic overview Read More

Gene delivery, a process of introducing foreign functional nucleic acids into target cells, has proven to be a very promising tool for inducing specific gene expression in host cells. Many different technologies have been developed for efficient gene delivery. Among them, electroporation has been adopted in gene delivery for decades, and it is currently widely used for transfection of different types of cells. Despite of the success ac Read More

Over the past two decades nanosizing technology has become one of the most successful formulation approaches for improving the bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs, which show a low oral absorption due to low dissolution velocity. Nanocrystals are nanoparticles of pure drug, without any matrix material, with an average diameter below 1 μm (typically in the range of 200-500 nm), which can be prepared in both water and Read More

Osteosarcoma is the most frequent primary bone tumor in the pediatric age group. Its aggressive local growth pattern and its high propensity to metastasize, mainly to the lungs, give the disease an unfavorable prognosis that has situated this disease as one of the leading causes of pediatric cancer death. Current protocols for osteosarcoma treatment are based on neo-adjuvant (pre-operatory) chemotherapy followed by sur Read More

The paper focuses on the advances in the field of pain treatment by transdermal delivery of specific drugs. Starting from a short description of the skin barrier, the pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics including absorption, distribution, action mechanism, metabolism and toxicity, aspects related to the use of pain therapy drugs are further discussed. Most recent results on topical anesthetic agents as well as the methods p Read More

There is a tremendous progress in the design and synthesis of nano-scaled, non-viral carriers in the previous two decades. The nanodelivery systems can significantly improve biopharmaceutical features, pharmacokinetic properties and therapeutic efficacy of entrapped drugs. Branched polyethylenimine (PEI) is a cationic polymer that contains primary, secondary and tertiary amino groups. Such type of water-soluble poly Read More

Chemotherapy is the major and most widely used therapeutic strategy for the treatment of a wide variety of cancers. The non-specific/non-targeted drug delivery in chemotherapy leads to undesired side effects in normal and healthy tissues, and insufficient dosages to kill cancerous cells. Now-a-days, smart and intelligent multifunctional targeted nanomedicines based on various nanocarriers (dendrimers, carbon nan Read More

Ceramic nanoparticles are primarily made up of oxides, carbides, phosphates and carbonates of metals and metalloids such as calcium, titanium, silicon, etc. They have a wide range of applications due to a number of favourable properties, such as high heat resistance and chemical inertness. Out of all the areas of ceramic nanoparticles applications, biomedical field is the most explored one. In the biomedical field, ceramic na Read More

The state-of-the-art in the investigation of drugs release from Silica-based ordered Mesoporous Materials (SMMs) is reviewed. First, the SMM systems used like host matrixes are described. Then, the model drugs studied until now, including their pharmacological action, structure and the mesoporous matrix employed for each drug, are comprehensively listed. Next, the factors influencing the release of drugs from SMMs a Read More

Synthetic and biological vesicular carriers have been recognized as attractive and intelligent systems for delivery of a verity of bioactive molecules. The importance of such delivery systems can be mostly due to their physicochemical properties, i.e. a lipid bilayer surrounding an aqueous core which allows encapsulation and protection of active hydrophilic molecules such as nucleic acids. Synthetic vesicles such as liposomes ha Read More

Nano drug delivery systems (NDDSs) have been widely used in tumor-targeted therapy since they can effectively reduce the side effects of traditional antitumor drugs and improve the anti-tumor effect. We divided the in vivo process of tumor-targeted NDDSs into seven steps: blood circulation, tumor accumulation, tumor tissue penetration, target cells internalization, lysosome escape, drug release and drug response Read More

Medical devices form a broad range of appliances from a basic nanoparticle coating or surgical gloves to a complicated laser therapy device. These devices are designed to support patients, surgeons and healthcare personnel in meeting patients’ healthcare needs. Regulatory authorities of each country regulate the process of approval, manufacturing and sales of these medical devices so as to ensure safety and quality to patien Read More

Tumor metastasis is an important prognostic factor regarding long-term survival rate of cancer patients. At present, no imaging modality or technique is ideal for diagnosis of metastases. Molecular imaging has provided a fantastic tool for tumor metastases imaging. Based on the current medical imaging tools such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), optical, single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and p Read More