Macrocyclic Amphiphiles for Drug Delivery

Nanoparticles are the most crucial part of nanomedicine and various kinds of nanoparticles have been developed for drug delivery. As a new kind of nanoparticles, macrocyclic amphiphiles are gaining more and more attention in the field of nanomedicine due to their intrinsic features of molecular recognition and robust assembly. In this review, we summarized the reported works of drug delivery using macrocyclic amphiphiles, including cyclodextrin, calixarene, cucurbituril and pillararene species. These macrocyclic amphiphiles, serving as a new matrix of nanomedicine, can enhance drug solubility, improve drug stability, selectively deliver drugs to disease both in vitro and in vivo.     

Multi-functional nanoparticles for cancer therapy

Many immunotherapeutic strategies developed in recent years involve the targeting of immune cells to tumors. In this study, we synthesized and characterized modified fluorescent nanoparticles as a targeting and delivery system, by conjugating both tumor targeting agent and chemokines to the nanoparticles, to attract immune cells to tumor cells. Biodegradable chitosan nanoparticles encapsulating quantum dots were prepared, with suitable surface modification to immobilize both tumor targeting agent and chemokine on their surfaces. The interactions between immune cells and tumor cells were visualized using optical microscope.     

Quantum dot-pseudopolyrotaxane supramolecules as anticancer drug delivery systems

Pseudopolyrotaxanes (Ps-PR) consisting of α-cyclodextrin rings, polyethylene glycol axes and end triazine groups were synthesized and characterized. Dissociation of the α-cyclodextrin rings from the polyethylene glycol axes was avoided by the host-guest relationship between its end triazine groups and β-cyclodextrins conjugated onto the surface of quantum dots (β-CD-graft-QDs), leading to a new type of the dynamic polyrotaxanes in which QDs play the role of stoppers noncovalently. Stability of the synthesized supramolecules was depended on the efficiency of the host-guest relationships between the end triazine groups of Ps-PR and β-CD-graft-QDs through which release of α-cyclodextrin rings from the polyethylene glycol axes was controlled.To prove the efficacy of the synthesized supramolecules as drug delivery systems (DDSs) cisplatin (Cis-Diamminedichloroplatinum (CDDP) a platinum-based chemotherapy drug) and folic acid as a tumor-recognition module were conjugated to their stoppers and they were subjected to the receptor-mediated endocytosis and release inside the cancer cells, murine colon adenocarcinoma tumor C26. Then, it was proved that these tumor-targeting DDSs are promising systems for future cancer therapy. Rate of the release of the drugs, conjugated to the functional groups of stoppers was also investigated.     

Qualitative and quantitative analysis of patent data in nanomedicine for bridging the gap between research activities and practical applications

Nanomedicines have made a great breakthrough in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease, but there are still significant challenges to make a leap from the scientific discovery to the practical and clinical success. Herein, we contribute to establish effective strategies that can bridge the gaps by an integrated and balanced analysis of patent literatures on the nanomedicine. Since most of successful commercialization of technologies stems from patents, it is important to comprehensively analyze the patent information. Unfortunately, many previous studies of patent analyses for technological trends and strategies are dependent on only quantitative analyses using structured data such as keyword networks and indicators, thus, these studies are difficult to offer detailed technological key components and trends on scientific perspectives. To address these problems, the present study performs qualitative and quantitative analysis using both structured and unstructured patent data, and provides evolving detailed trends in nanomedicine fields from a scientific point of view. Furthermore, upcoming advances in strategies regarding clinical needs, commercial events and strategies of potential leading groups in nanomedicine could be catalogued. Our analytical method and the results of several meaningful patterns and trends were applied to forecast the future practical issue of nanomedicines.     

Avengers against cancer: A new era of nano-biomaterial-based therapeutics

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. As the cancer burden continues to increase globally, it exerts tremendous physical, emotional, and financial strain on individuals, families, communities, and health care systems. Cancer can affect any part of the body and is characterized by its uncontrollable growth. Numerous treatments, such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy which utilize various drugs, are currently in use; however, their harmful side effects and the development of drug resistance have resulted in major roadblocks when treating cancer. With advancements in synthetic and polymer chemistry, the use of nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems and chemotherapeutic macromolecules have garnered increasing attention in the previous decade. This review discusses the recent advancements in the use of nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems as well as the development of synthetic biodegradable polypeptides and polymers for cancer treatment (both in vivo and in vitro). Additionally, we outline the potent selectivity and efficacy for immunotherapies and bacteria-based therapies that are used to treat various cancers.     

Health economics matters in the nanomaterial world: Cost-effectiveness of utilizing an inhalable antibacterial nanomaterial for the treatment of multidrug-resistant pneumonia

Bacterial pathogens rapidly develop resistance to clinically approved antibiotics. Together with the subsiding economic incentives for the development of newer and more effective antibiotic therapies, this threatens to cause a bacterial disease pandemic in the next 30 years. For this reason, timely analyses of various scientific and socioeconomic aspects of alternatives to traditional antibiotic therapies are needed. Here, pharmacoeconomic cost-of-illness, cost-effectiveness and price sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the impact of multidrug resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa implicated in pneumonia on healthcare systems of the United States and of the developing countries. The assessment was extended to include the effects of various therapies for this condition, one group of which consisted of colistin administered intravenously or with the use of a nebulizer and another therapy coming in the form of an inhalable colloidal formulation comprising biocompatible antibacterial nanoparticles. Both colistin and nanoparticle therapies produced net gain per quality adjusted life year (QALY) saved for patients with pneumonia caused by multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa in the United States. In the developing world, in contrast, where the pricing sensitivity is shown to be higher, there is a positive cost of $8800 and $3600 per QALY saved associated with the use of colistin at a price adjusted to the local economy and administered through a parenteral route or through a nebulizer, respectively. Simultaneously, thanks to the higher affordability compensating for the 15% lower clinical efficacy assumed in the model, there is a net gain of $10,100 per QALY saved with the use of the nanoparticle formulation, translating to $52,000 gain for each life saved by the treatment. In conclusion, inorganic nanoparticle therapies for infectious disease are not only more immune to eliciting resistance than small-molecule antibiotics, but are also more applicable in low-cost healthcare systems of the developing world. The current generation of antibiotic therapies is cost-effective in high-cost healthcare systems, such as the one of the United States, but its application in more frugal settings, where pricing is as important as efficacy, comes with tremendous costs. These results demonstrate the considerable disparity in profit margin flexibility depending on the wealth and the size of the healthcare economy, which contributes daily to the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor.     

Chemotherapeutic engineering: Vitamin E TPGS-emulsified nanoparticles of biodegradable polymers realized sustainable paclitaxel chemotherapy for 168 h in vivo

A full spectrum of proof-of-concept research from nanoparticle preparation and characterization, in vitro drug release, cellular uptake and cytotoxicity, to in vivo pharmacokinetics and xenograft tumor model is developed in this paper to demonstrate how nanoparticles of biodegradable polymers can be applied to formulate anticancer drugs to avoid use of toxic adjuvant and to enable sustained and controlled chemotherapy. Paclitaxel-loaded poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles were prepared by solvent extraction/evaporation with vitamin E TPGS as the emulsifier, which has much higher emulsification effects and better biocompatibility than other chemical emulsifiers such as polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), resulting in a high drug encapsulation efficiency, high uptake of nanoparticles by cancer cells, and sustainable pharmacokinetics. In vitro C6 cell mortality experiments demonstrated that the nanoparticle formulation was five times more effective than Taxol^®. In vivo pharmacokinetics measurements showed that the nanoparticle formulation had a comparable value of the area-under-the-curve (AUC) with that of Taxol^®, but never exceeded the maximum tolerance level, and hence should greatly reduce the side effects compared with Taxol^®. Moreover, the nanoparticle formulation realized a sustainable therapeutic time of 168 h in comparison with 22 h for Taxol^® at a same dose of 10 mg/kg and achieved four times greater drug tolerance than Taxol^®.     

Plasmonic nanomaterials: A versatile phototheranostic platform of cancers

Phototheranostic platform emerges as a highly powerful tool against cancers due to unique features such as minimal invasiveness, high spatiotemporal resolution, and function integration. Plasmonic nanomaterials are able to achieve a myriad of diagnostic and therapeutic functionalities owing to their superior photophysical properties stemming from local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR), and enable them to act as a versatile phototheranostic platform. Therefore, a bridge is needed to link the underlying LSPR process and the plasmonic theranostic functionalities. To fill the gap, this review ventures to summarize the plasmonic nanomaterials-based phototheranostic modalities in mechanistic physics. Three major physical processes and the corresponding theranostic functionalities are outlined: (1) the excitation of LSPR arises significant field enhancement near the plasmonic nanomaterials, which can be harvested to magnify the output signal for fluorescence imaging, Raman scattering, and boost reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. (2) LSPR subsequently generates abundant hot carriers that are capable of catalyzing intracellular reactions and producing ROS, thereby fulfilling therapeutic purposes. (3) the LSPR finally decays either through heat or fluorescence, which indicates the plasmonic nanomaterials can either act as a heat source to trigger drug release, damage cellular component and delineate cancers, or enable visualizing tumor sites explicitly by fluorescence. This review hopes to give assistance on integration of these diagnostic and therapeutic functions by providing a big picture of the plasmonic nanomaterials-based nanomedicine. Finally, several limitations of current research in this regard are pointed out.