scholarly journals Design, Synthesis and Characterization of a Novel Type of Thermo-Responsible Phospholipid Microcapsule–Alginate Composite Hydrogel for Drug Delivery

Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 694 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liang Ding ◽  
Xinxia Cui ◽  
Rui Jiang ◽  
Keya Zhou ◽  
Yalei Wen ◽  
...  

Liposomes are extensively used in drug delivery, while alginates are widely used in tissue engineering. However, liposomes are usually thermally unstable and drug-leaking when in liquids, while the drug carriers made of alginates show low loading capacities when used for drug delivery. Herein, we developed a type of thermo-responsible liposome–alginate composite hydrogel (TSPMAH) by grafting thermo-responsive liposomes onto alginates by using Ca2+ mediated bonding between the phosphatidic serine (PS) in the liposome membrane and the alginate. The temperature-sensitivity of the liposomes was actualized by using phospholipids comprising dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and PS and the liposomes were prepared by a thin-film dispersion method. The TSPMAH was then successfully prepared by bridge-linking the microcapsules onto the alginate hydrogel via PS-Ca2+-Carboxyl-alginate interaction. Characterizations of the TSPMAH were carried out using scanning electron microscopy, transform infrared spectroscopy, and laser scanning confocal microscopy, respectively. Their rheological property was also characterized by using a rheometer. Cytotoxicity evaluations of the TSPMAH showed that the composite hydrogel was biocompatible, safe, and non-toxic. Further, loading and thermos-inducible release of model drugs encapsulated by the TSPMAH as a drug carrier system was also studied by making protamine–siRNA complex-carrying TSPMAH drug carriers. Our results indicated that the TSPMAH described herein has great potentials to be further developed into an intelligent drug delivery system.

Pharmaceutics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 861
Author(s):  
Jacopo Cardellini ◽  
Arianna Balestri ◽  
Costanza Montis ◽  
Debora Berti

In the past decade(s), fluorescence microscopy and laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) have been widely employed to investigate biological and biomimetic systems for pharmaceutical applications, to determine the localization of drugs in tissues or entire organisms or the extent of their cellular uptake (in vitro). However, the diffraction limit of light, which limits the resolution to hundreds of nanometers, has for long time restricted the extent and quality of information and insight achievable through these techniques. The advent of super-resolution microscopic techniques, recognized with the 2014 Nobel prize in Chemistry, revolutionized the field thanks to the possibility to achieve nanometric resolution, i.e., the typical scale length of chemical and biological phenomena. Since then, fluorescence microscopy-related techniques have acquired renewed interest for the scientific community, both from the perspective of instrument/techniques development and from the perspective of the advanced scientific applications. In this contribution we will review the application of these techniques to the field of drug delivery, discussing how the latest advancements of static and dynamic methodologies have tremendously expanded the experimental opportunities for the characterization of drug delivery systems and for the understanding of their behaviour in biologically relevant environments.


Author(s):  
Dr.S.Bhagavathy Sivathanu ◽  
Shivapriya G ◽  
Shivapriya G

Liposome is a spherical vesicle which contains atleast one lipid bilayer. Liposomes are used as a novel drug carriers because of its hydrophobic and hydrophilic nature, it has many advantages in the field of medical sciences. There are some other drug carriers like dendrimers, micelles, niosomes. Out of all, liposomes are considered to be the most promising agent for drug delivery. The uniqueness of liposome is when it is used as a pharmaceutical drug, it acts as a natural receptor. Thus it acts as an antigen and binds with the antibody (cancer cell) without causing any damage to the adjacent cells. For the synthesis of liposomes, a phospholipid is required. The liposomes can be synthesized using egg yolk and chloroform. So the basic phospholipid is obtained from egg yolk. For more stability, the liposomes are prepared using popc. The present work  discuss about the effective preparation of drug loaded liposomes using popc (1- palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3- phosphocholine). POPC is an important phospholipid for biophysical experiments. Additionally chloroform is used as the solvent for the liposome preparation. The drug chosen for liposome loading is vitexin (vxn), which is an effective therapeutic agent against inflammation and cancer. The vesicular size, shape, drug entrapment efficacy, stability, electrochemical property and drug releasing property of the formulated liposomes were characterized. The results showed that the formulated liposomes are considered as the better drug carrier system and good choice for biotransformation within the cell to reach the target site such as cancer cells. Even though available treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy, causes damage to the surrounding cells, the alternative drug transferring system such as liposomal mediated drug transfer within the cell is considered as good choice of treatment to avoid such complications. The aim of liposome mediated  drug carrier system is to develop a method to reach the drug to the target site. After drug delivery at the target site, the liposomes are fused within the surface of the body. This is because of the pH of liposomes, which is at 7.4 and temperature is maintained at 37 oC. So, the vxn loaded liposomes are considered as the novel drug carriers for the successful targetted drug delivery.


Author(s):  
J. Holy ◽  
G. Schatten

One of the classic limitations of light microscopy has been the fact that three dimensional biological events could only be visualized in two dimensions. Recently, this shortcoming has been overcome by combining the technologies of laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) and computer processing of microscopical data by volume rendering methods. We have employed these techniques to examine morphogenetic events characterizing early development of sea urchin embryos. Specifically, the fourth cleavage division was examined because it is at this point that the first morphological signs of cell differentiation appear, manifested in the production of macromeres and micromeres by unequally dividing vegetal blastomeres.The mitotic spindle within vegetal blastomeres undergoing unequal cleavage are highly polarized and develop specialized, flattened asters toward the micromere pole. In order to reconstruct the three-dimensional features of these spindles, both isolated spindles and intact, extracted embryos were fluorescently labeled with antibodies directed against either centrosomes or tubulin.


Author(s):  
Hakan Ancin

This paper presents methods for performing detailed quantitative automated three dimensional (3-D) analysis of cell populations in thick tissue sections while preserving the relative 3-D locations of cells. Specifically, the method disambiguates overlapping clusters of cells, and accurately measures the volume, 3-D location, and shape parameters for each cell. Finally, the entire population of cells is analyzed to detect patterns and groupings with respect to various combinations of cell properties. All of the above is accomplished with zero subjective bias.In this method, a laser-scanning confocal light microscope (LSCM) is used to collect optical sections through the entire thickness (100 - 500μm) of fluorescently-labelled tissue slices. The acquired stack of optical slices is first subjected to axial deblurring using the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm. The resulting isotropic 3-D image is segmented using a spatially-adaptive Poisson based image segmentation algorithm with region-dependent smoothing parameters. Extracting the voxels that were labelled as "foreground" into an active voxel data structure results in a large data reduction.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 258-265
Author(s):  
Kei Takahashi ◽  
Tomomi Masuda ◽  
Mitsunori Harada ◽  
Tadashi Inoue ◽  
Shinsuke Nakamura ◽  
...  

Objective: This study aimed to examine whether DC101 (anti-VEGFR2 antibody)- modified micelles have applications as novel drug delivery devices, which allow small molecule antiangiogenic agents to deliver to angiogenic sites on a murine laser-induced choroidal neovascularization (CNV) model. Materials and Method: CNV was induced by photocoagulation on the unilateral eye of each mouse under anesthesia. Immediately after laser coagulation, E7974-loaded DC101-modified micelles and motesanib-loaded DC101-modified micelles were intravitreally administrated. Two weeks after photocoagulation, CNV was visualized using fluorescein-conjugated dextran (MW=2,000 kDa), and the CNV area was measured in retinal pigment epithelium (RPE)-choroidal flat mounts. Results: Intravitreal administration of both DC101-modified micelles loaded with E7974 at 2 µM and motesanib at 2 µM significantly reduced CNV area in the murine laser-induced CNV model at a clearly lower concentration than the effective dose of each agent. Conclusion: These results suggest that DC101-modified micelle might be effective drug carrier system for treating CNV and other ocular angiogenic diseases.


2001 ◽  
Vol 34 (15) ◽  
pp. 5186-5191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Jinnai ◽  
Hiroshi Yoshida ◽  
Kohtaro Kimishima ◽  
Yoshinori Funaki ◽  
Yoshitsugu Hirokawa ◽  
...  

1994 ◽  
Vol 42 (11) ◽  
pp. 1413-1416 ◽  
Author(s):  
S L Erlandsen ◽  
E M Rasch

We investigated direct measurement of the DNA content of the parasitic intestinal flagellate Giardia lamblia through quantitation by Feulgen microspectrophotometry and also by visualization of Feulgen-stained DNA chromosomes within dividing cells by laser scanning confocal microscopy. Individual trophozoites of Giardia (binucleate) contained 0.144 +/- 0.018 pg of DNA/cell or 0.072 pg DNA/nucleus. Giardia lamblia cysts (quadranucleate) contained 0.313 +/- 0.003 pg DNA or 0.078 pg DNA/nucleus. The genome size (C) value per nucleus ranged between 6.5-7.1 x 10(7) BP for trophozoites and cysts, respectively. Confocal microscopic examination of Giardia trophozoites undergoing binary fission revealed five chromosome-like bodies within each nucleus. Further information about genome size and DNA content within different Giardia species may help to clarify the pivotal role of these primitive eukaryotic cells in evolutionary development.


2014 ◽  
Vol 926-930 ◽  
pp. 1124-1127
Author(s):  
Zhen Xun Jin ◽  
Li Li Zhang ◽  
Yan Wang ◽  
Lin Chuan Zeng ◽  
Yang Yu ◽  
...  

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects and mechanism of chloroquine (CQ) on the apoptosis induced by cisplatin in human gastric cancer BGC823 cells. MTT assay was used to detect the state of cell growth. The appearances of cellular apoptosis were detected by laser scanning confocal microscopy and light microscopy. The expressions of LC3 and p62 were detected by laser scanning confocal microscopy. MTT tests showed that the non-toxic dose of CQ could increase the inhibition rate of BGC823 cells induced by cisplatin. Under the light microscope, the ratio of apoptotic cells in the group treated with non-toxic dose of CQ combined with cisplatin was higher than that in the group treated with cisplatin alone. Hoechst33342 staining showed that the ratio of apoptotic cells in the combination group was higher than that in the cisplatin group. The expression and colocalization of LC3 and p62 proteins were significantly increased in the combination group. These results indicate that CQ can enhance the cell apoptosis induced by cisplatin in BGC823 cells, which is through the inhibition of autophagy.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document