Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 23, Issue 26, 2017

The foundation of tissue engineering for either therapeutic or diagnostic applications is the ability to exploit living cells. Tissue engineering utilizes living cells as engineering materials implanted, seeded or bioplotted into an artificial structure capable of supporting three-dimensional tissue formation. These structures, typically called scaffolds, are critical, both ex vivo and in vivo, to influence their own microenvironments. Sc Read More

β-Amino acids are being increasingly used in the design of bioactive ligands and more recently in the generation of novel biomaterials. Peptides containing either individual β-amino acid substitutions or peptides comprised entirely of β-amino acids, display unique properties in terms of their structural and/or chemical characteristics. β-Peptides form well-defined secondary structures that exhibit different geometries compare Read More

Hydroxyapatite (HAp) is a complicated ceramic material that varies between the way it appears in biological systems and how it is synthesized as various calcium phosphates. HAp varies in chemical composition of substituting atoms, crystallinity, grain size and electrical polarization. HAp can form solid to macro-, micro- and nanoporous structures. Also, particulate HAp can have highly porous structure. HAp can be used as co Read More

This review article provides an overview of hybrid and nanocomposite materials used as biomaterials in nanomedicine, focusing on applications in controlled drug delivery, tissue engineering, biosensors and theranostic systems. Special emphasis is placed on the importance of tuning the properties of nanocomposites, which can be achieved by choosing appropriate synthetic methods and seeking synergy among different Read More

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have become one of the most important cell sources for regenerative medicine. However, some mechanisms of MSC-based therapy are still not fully understood. The clinical outcome may be restricted by some MSC-related obstacles such as the low survival rate, differentiation into undesired lineages and malignant transformation. In recent years, with the emergence of nanotechnology, vari Read More

Increasing numbers of requests for transplantable organs and their scarcity has led to a pressing need to find alternative solutions to standard transplantation. An appealing but challenging proposal came from the fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, the purpose of which is to build tissues/organs from scratch in the laboratory and use them as either permanent substitutes for direct implantation into the pa Read More

Facing the problems of limited renal regeneration capacity and the persistent shortage of donor kidneys, dialysis remains the only treatment option for many end-stage renal disease patients. Unfortunately, dialysis is only a medium-term solution because large and protein-bound uremic solutes are not efficiently cleared from the body and lead to disease progression over time. Current strategies for improved renal replacement t Read More

Current research in neural tissue-engineering is focused on the development of advanced biomaterials for the creation of sophisticated neuro-tissue analogues, showing that mimicking the in vivo tissue disposition and functions is a useful tool for the study of brain-related issues in normal and pathological states. In addition, the most common approach for developing new drug therapies is to carry out in vitro investigation Read More

Transport systems are hydrophobic proteins localized in cell membranes where they mediate transmembrane flow of nutrients, ions and any other compounds essential for cell metabolism. More than 400 transporters of the SoLuteCarrier (SLC) group are present in human cells. Transporters take contacts also with xenobiotics, thus mediating absorption and/or interaction with these exogenous compounds. Since drugs belong Read More

Background: Ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury causes the dysfunctions of different major organs, leading to morbidity and mortality on the global scale. Among a battery of therapeutic targets, the heme oxygenase- 1 (HO-1)/carbon monoxide (CO) system has been evaluated for the development of new therapies against I/R injury. The enzyme HO-1 catalyzes the degradation of heme into three biologically active end Read More

Brain injury constitutes a disabling health condition of several etiologies. One of the major causes of brain injury is hypoxia-ischemia. Until recently, pharmacological treatments were solely focused on neurons. In the last decades, glial cells started to be considered as alternative targets for neuroprotection. Novel treatments for hypoxia-ischemia intend to modulate reactive forms of glial cells, and/or potentiate their recover Read More