Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 21, Issue 14, 2021

Background: Despite advances in surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, brain tumors are still a major health issue due to poor prognosis and high mortality rate. The current treatment options have limited efficiency. The main barriers to effective clinical treatment are systemic toxicity of cytotoxic compounds, the physical and functional barrier of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), and low selectivity of the therapeutic agents t Read More

Background: Recent evidence has been demonstrated that Sinomenine (SIN) exerts antitumor activity in vitro. However, the clinical utility of SIN remains limited mainly because of its poor bioavailability. Exosomes are nanoscale vesicles that play crucial roles in intracellular communications through functionally active substances such as DNA and RNA. Exosomes have been utilized as nanocarriers for targeted drug delivery of Read More

Background: Virus-like Particles (VLPs) are non-genetic multimeric nanoparticles synthesized through in vitro or in vivo self-assembly of one or more viral structural proteins. Immunogenicity and safety of VLPs make them ideal candidates for vaccine development and efficient nanocarriers for foreign antigens or adjuvants to activate the immune system. Aims: The present study aimed to design and synthesize a chimeric VLP v Read More

Background and Objective: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), particularly bone MSCs (BMSCs) offer great potentials for targeted therapeutic applications owing to their migratory and differentiation capacities. Significant advances have been achieved in the differentiation of hepatocyte or hepatocyte-like cells both in vitro and in vivo. However, there is limited knowledge on the differentiation of BMSCs into bipotential hepati Read More

Aims: Research on developing targeted delivery of anticancer drugs for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is ongoing. This study aimed to synthesize nanoliposomes modified by glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) and ferric tetroxide (Fe3O4) for targeted delivery of paclitaxel for selective and specific therapy of HCC. Objective: During this project, GA and Fe3O4 were used to jointly modify the active targeting and magnetic Read More

Background: Epithelial Ovarian Carcinoma (EOC) is a ubiquitous gynecological malignancy with complicated pathogenesis. Genetic risk factors and pathways involved in the prognosis of this cancer are not yet understood completely. Determining genetic markers with diagnostic and prognostic values would pave the way for efficient management of cancer. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the genes and the regulatory Read More

Background and Objective: Chromosomal abnormalities are one of the genetic disorders caused by abnormal chromosome number or structure and can endanger multiple organs, morphology and function of the systems in the human body. This study aims to investigate the relationship between prenatal diagnosis indications and abnormal karyotypes to improve prenatal screening. Methods: The karyotype analyses were Read More