Aggregation Behavior,Antibacterial Activity and Biocompatibility of Catanionic Assemblies Based on Amino Acid-Derived Surfactants

The surface activity, aggregates morphology, size and charge characteristics of binary catanionic mixtures containing a cationic amino acid-derived surfactant N(π), N(τ)-bis(methyl)-L-Histidine tetradecyl amide (DMHNHC₁₄) and an anionic surfactant (the lysine-based surfactant N^α-lauroyl-N^εacetyl lysine (C₁₂C₃L) or sodium myristate) were investigated for the first time. The cationic surfactant has an acid proton which shows a strong pK_a shift irrespective of aggregation. The resulting catanionic mixtures exhibited high surface activity and low critical aggregation concentration as compared with the pure constituents. Catanionic vesicles based on DMHNHC₁₄/sodium myristate showed a monodisperse population of medium-size aggregates and good storage stability. According to Small-Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS), the characteristics of the bilayers did not depend strongly on the system composition for the positively charged vesicles. Negatively charged vesicles (cationic surfactant:myristate ratio below 1:2) had similar bilayer composition but tended to aggregate. The DMHNHC₁₄-rich vesicles exhibited good antibacterial activity against Gram-positive bacteria and their bactericidal effectivity declined with the decrease of the cationic surfactant content in the mixtures. The hemolytic activity and cytotoxicity of these catanionic formulations against non-tumoral (3T3, HaCaT) and tumoral (HeLa, A431) cell lines also improved by increasing the ratio of cationic surfactant in the mixture. These results indicate that the biological activity of these systems is mainly governed by the cationic charge density, which can be modulated by changing the cationic/anionic surfactant ratio in the mixtures. Remarkably, the incorporation of cholesterol in those catanionic vesicles reduces their cytotoxicity and increases the safety of future biomedical applications of these systems.     

Anti-Trypanosoma cruzi Activity of Metabolism Modifier Compounds

Chagas disease is caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi and affects over 6 million people worldwide. Development of new drugs to treat this disease remains a priority since those currently available have variable efficacy and frequent adverse effects, especially during the long regimens required for treating the chronic stage of the disease. T. cruzi modulates the host cell-metabolism to accommodate the cell cytosol into a favorable growth environment and acquire nutrients for its multiplication. In this study we evaluated the specific anti-T. cruzi activity of nine bio-energetic modulator compounds. Notably, we identified that 17-DMAG, which targets the ATP-binding site of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90), has a very high (sub-micromolar range) selective inhibition of the parasite growth. This inhibitory effect was also highly potent (IC₅₀ = 0.27 μmol L⁻¹) against the amastigote intracellular replicative stage of the parasite. Moreover, molecular docking results suggest that 17-DMAG may bind T. cruzi Hsp90 homologue Hsp83 with good affinity. Evaluation in a mouse model of chronic T. cruzi infection did not show parasite growth inhibition, highlighting the difficulties encountered when going from in vitro assays onto preclinical drug developmental stages.     

Modeling Interactions between Liposomes and Hydrophobic Nanosheets

2D nanomaterials could cause structural disruption and cytotoxic effects to cells, which greatly challenges their promising biomedical applications including biosensing, bioimaging, and drug delivery. Here, the physical and mechanical interaction between lipid liposomes and hydrophobic nanosheets is studied utilizing coarse‐grained (CG) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The simulations reveal a variety of characteristic interaction morphologies that depend on the size and the orientation of nanosheets. Dynamic and thermodynamic analyses on the morphologic evolution provide insights into molecular motions such as “nanosheet rotation,” “lipid extraction,” “lipid flip‐flop,” and “lipid spreading.” Driven by these molecular motions, hydrophobic nanosheets cause morphologic changes of liposomes. The lipid bilayer structure can be corrugated, and the overall liposome sphere can be split or collapsed by large nanosheets. In addition, nanosheets embedded into lipid bilayers greatly weaken the fluidity of lipids, and this effect can be cumulatively enhanced as nanosheets continuously intrude. These results could facilitate molecular‐level understanding on the cytotoxicity of nanomaterials, and help future nanotoxicology studies associating computational modeling with experiments.     

Impact of various solid carriers and spray drying on pre/post compression properties of solid SNEDDS loaded with glimepiride: in vitro-ex vivo evaluation and cytotoxicity assessment

Development of self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery systems (SNEDDS) of glimepiride is reported with the aim to achieve its oral delivery. Lauroglycol FCC, Tween-80, and ethanol were used as oil, surfactant, and co-surfactant, respectively as independent variables. The optimized composition of SNEDDS formulation (F1) was 10% v/v Lauroglycol FCC, 45% v/v Tween 80, 45% v/v ethanol, and 0.005% w/v glimepiride. Further, the optimized liquid SNEDDS were solidified through spray drying using various hydrophilic and hydrophobic carriers. Among the various carriers, Aerosil 200 was found to provide desirable flow, compression, dissolution, and diffusion. Both, liquid and solid-SNEDDS have shown release of more than 90% within 10?min. Results of permeation studies performed on Caco-2 cell showed that optimized SNEDDS exhibited 1.54 times higher drug permeation amount and 0.57 times lower drug excretion amount than that of market tablets at 4?hours (p?cytotoxicity study performed on Caco-2 cell revealed that the cell viability was lower in SNEDDS (92.22%?±?4.18%) compared with the market tablets (95.54%?±?3.22%; p?>?.05, i.e. 0.74). The formulation was found stable with temperature variation and freeze thaw cycles in terms of droplet size, zeta potential, drug precipitation and phase separation. Crystalline glimepiride was observed in amorphous state in solid SNEDDS when characterized through DSC, PXRD, and FT-IR studies. The study revealed successful formulation of SNEDDS for glimepiride.     

纤维素类可吸收止血材料的体外细胞毒性评价

通过体外细胞毒性试验评价速即纱、英洁尔、泰可聆三种可吸收止血材料的细胞相容性,旨在为纤维素类可吸收止血材料的临床安全应用提供参考。采用四唑盐比色法(MTT比色法)、细胞形态分析、琼脂扩散法以及滤膜扩散法,评价三种材料对L929成纤维细胞增殖活性的影响及细胞毒性反应。各材料按50.00mg/mL加入不完全细胞培养液浸提24h后,离心得浸提液,此浓度设为100%,依次稀释得50.0%、25.0%、12.5%、6.25%、3.13%、1.56%、0.78%、0.39%材料浸提液。MTT比色法结合细胞形态分析显示:英洁尔材料各浸提液浓度无明显的细胞毒性,速即纱与泰可聆材料浸提液在浓度稀释至25.0%以下时,才不会出现明显的细胞毒性。对于三种材料本身,琼脂扩散法与滤膜扩散法均显示英洁尔材料无明显的细胞毒性,而速即纱与泰可聆材料有明显的细胞毒性。三种不同止血材料的细胞相容性不同,须选择适宜的评价方法。     

Rheological and biological characteristics of hyaluronic acid derivative modified by polyethylene glycol

Hyaluronic acid （HA） was chemically modified by polyethylene glycol. Meanwhile, the dynamic mechanics properties of HA derivative and its viscoelastic changes were measured on 3ARES3 Rheometer （Japan） at 25℃. Dried cross-linked films of 10- 10 mm^2 were immersed in phosphate buffered saline（PBS： pH 7.4） at 37 ℃ with different time periods to measure its water content and in vitro degradation. Moreover, cell cultured solutions, which were in the different cultivation vesse with 1 mg/mL Solution of HA derivative as doing experimental sample for 2 d, 4 d and 7 d, were observed, respectively, by an inverted discrepancy microscope. The cell relative growth rate was analyzed with the SPSS10.0 mathematic statistic software. Based on the above experiments, structure-modified HA derivative can meet the requirements of biomaterials in view of rheological and degradation in vitro and cytotoxicity charactereistics from clinical medical aspect under this experiment conditions.     

Cytotoxic Activity and Structure–Activity Relationship of Triazole‐Containing Bis(Aryl Ether) Macrocycles

Cancer continues to be a worldwide health problem. Certain macrocyclic molecules have become attractive therapeutic alternatives for this disease because of their efficacy and, frequently, their novel mechanisms of action. Herein, we report the synthesis of a series of 20‐, 21‐, and 22‐membered macrocycles containing triazole and bis(aryl ether) moieties. The compounds were prepared by a multicomponent approach from readily available commercial substrates. Notably, some of the compounds displayed interesting cytotoxicity against cancer (PC‐3) and breast (MCF‐7) cell lines, especially those bearing an aliphatic or a trifluoromethyl substituent on the N‐phenyl moiety (IC₅₀<13 μm ). Additionally, some of the compounds were able to induce apoptosis relative to the solvent control; in particular, (Z)‐N‐cyclohexyl‐7‐oxo‐6‐[4‐(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]‐1¹H‐3,10‐dioxa‐6‐aza‐1(4,1)‐triazola‐4(1,3),9(1,4)‐dibenzenacyclotridecaphane‐5‐carboxamide ( 12 f ) was the most potent in this regard (22.7 % of apoptosis).     

Achieving Biocompatible SABRE: An in vitro Cytotoxicity Study

Production of a biocompatible hyperpolarized bolus for signal amplification by reversible exchange (SABRE) could open the door to simple clinical diagnosis via magnetic resonance imaging. Essential to successful progression to preclinical/clinical applications is the determination of the toxicology profile of the SABRE reaction mixture. Herein, we exemplify the cytotoxicity of the SABRE approach using in vitro cell assays. We conclude that the main cause of the observed toxicity is due to the SABRE catalyst. We therefore illustrate two catalyst removal methods: one involving deactivation and ion‐exchange chromatography, and the second using biphasic catalysis. These routes produce a bolus suitable for future in vivo study.     

Alkylated pectin hydrogels as potential protein drug carriers

Pectin has been used in the development of safe and effective drug delivery systems because of its unique physicochemical and biological characteristics. However, it still needs to be modified to overcome some inherent drawbacks. In the present study, pectin was alkylated by bromododecane. The C₁₂‐alkylated pectin (PC₁₂) can form strong hydrogels in the presence of Ca²⁺. Such hydrogels were explored to prepare bovine serum albumin (BSA)‐loaded microspheres (PC₁₂‐MS). The BSA encapsulation yield of PC₁₂‐MS was significantly higher than that of microspheres prepared with the original pectin (PC‐MS). Differential scanning calorimetry analysis indicated that interactions existed between BSA and pectin during the preparation of microspheres. Release tests showed that PC₁₂‐MS almost avoided BSA release in simulated gastric fluids, which was verified by environmental scanning electron microscopy analysis, and exhibited an effective controlled release throughout the simulated gastrointestinal tract compared to PC‐MS. In addition, an MTT assay showed the biocompatibility of C₁₂‐alkylated pectin. Thus alkylated pectin may serve as a potential protein drug carrier. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134, 45344.     

In-situ sonosynthesis of cobblestone-like ZnO nanoparticles on cotton/polyester fabric improving photo,bio and sonocatalytic activities along with low toxicity and enhanced mechanical properties

For the first time in this study, in-situ sonosynthesis and deposition of ZnO nanoparticles under ultrasound irradiation was used to prepare multifunctional cotton/polyester fabric. The process was carried out at 80 ^°C in ultrasonic bath and was free from final heating of fabrics to convert zinc hydroxide to zinc oxide nanoparticles. This was due to the physical and chemical effects of ultrasound promoting the involved reactions and facilitating the nucleation and growth of ZnO nanoparticles. Central composite design was also used to statistically analyze the process, optimizing the applied condition including zinc precursor concentration, pH and the effect of dispersing agent namely cetyltrimethylammonium bromide surfactant (CTAB). The treated samples were further characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDX). Photocatalytic activities of the treated samples were assessed based on the ability of fabrics to degrade Methylene Blue dye stain under sunlight irradiation. The effect of synthesis parameters on photocatalytic activities (self-cleaning) was statistically optimized. Moreover, for evaluating the sonocatalytic efficiencies of the samples Reactive Blue 2 was applied and the activities were studied by visible spectroscopy. The cotton/polyester samples possessed multifunctional properties including self-cleaning, sonocatalytic, antibacterial, antifungal, low cytotoxicity and enhanced mechanical properties.