Fatality in a body packer: the first reported case in Saudi Arabia

Background Body packers use different methods and materials to pack drugs inside their bodies. These could be simple or sophisticated to ensure a successful transfer or concealment of the drug with minimal risk to the packer. Different drugs were reported with cocaine and heroin being the most common. The packer presents to health facilities whenever they develop complications like drug leakage or intestinal obstruction, or they can be detected after a fatal event as an incidental finding in autopsy. Case presentation A body packer who was in detention suffered pain and died shortly after that. The autopsy not only revealed severe coronary atherosclerosis but also unveiled 10 rubber packages filled with methamphetamine and cannabis, and one package was found ruptured in the mouth. Toxicological analysis showed a blood level of methamphetamine 3.66 mg/L which was considered a cause of death. While methamphetamine was reported in cases of body packers, cannabis is rarely concealed by body packers for several reasons including its cost compared to the risk of packing. Conclusions This is the first reported case of fatality in body packers in Saudi Arabia and Arab countries. This should put into consideration the need for screening suspicious cases who are involved or suspected to be involved with drugs. Effective screening in specific facilities is needed to reduce fatalities and at the same time lowering drug smuggling.

Review on nanoparticles used in drug delivery for cancer

Current cancer treatments include surgical intervention, radiation, and chemotherapy medications. Nanoparticles have a variety of advantages as medication delivery systems. Nanoparticles (NPs) are newly discovered methods for delivering medicines to tumour cells with little drug leakage into healthy cells. To enhance biodistribution and increase circulation duration in the bloodstream, nanoparticles have been developed with optimum size and surface properties. Here, I look at the many types and features of nanoparticles. Examples of commercially available nanocarrier-based medicines include: Therapeutic nanoparticles, the function of metal nanoparticles in cancer diagnosis and therapy, are important ideas in nanoparticle medication delivery for cancer.

Tornado-inspired acoustic vortex tweezer for trapping and manipulating microbubbles

Spatially concentrating and manipulating biotherapeutic agents within the circulatory system is a longstanding challenge in medical applications due to the high velocity of blood flow, which greatly limits drug leakage and retention of the drug in the targeted region. To circumvent the disadvantages of current methods for systemic drug delivery, we propose tornado-inspired acoustic vortex tweezer (AVT) that generates net forces for noninvasive intravascular trapping of lipid-shelled gaseous microbubbles (MBs). MBs are used in a diverse range of medical applications, including as ultrasound contrast agents, for permeabilizing vessels, and as drug/gene carriers. We demonstrate that AVT can be used to successfully trap MBs and increase their local concentration in both static and flow conditions. Furthermore, MBs signals within mouse capillaries could be locally improved 1.7-fold and the location of trapped MBs could still be manipulated during the initiation of AVT. The proposed AVT technique is a compact, easy-to-use, and biocompatible method that enables systemic drug administration with extremely low doses.

pH-Responsive expandable polycarbonate-doxorubicin conjugate nanoparticles for fast intracellular drug release

Nanoparticles used as drug carriers with prolonged circulation time, reduced early drug leakage, stimulus triggered and improved drug release is a powerful method for anticancer treatment. Herein, a new tailor-made...

Anthraquinone: a promising scaffold for the discovery and development of therapeutic agents in cancer therapy

Cancer, characterized by uncontrolled malignant neoplasm, is a leading cause of death in both advanced and emerging countries. Although, ample drugs are accessible in the market to intervene with tumor progression, none are totally effective and safe. Natural anthraquinone (AQ) equivalents such as emodin, aloe-emodin, alchemix and many synthetic analogs extend their antitumor activity on different targets including telomerase, topoisomerases, kinases, matrix metalloproteinases, DNA and different phases of cell lines. Nano drug delivery strategies are advanced tools which deliver drugs into tumor cells with minimum drug leakage to normal cells. This review delineates the way AQ derivatives are binding on these targets by abolishing tumor cells to produce anticancer activity and purview of nanoformulations related to AQ analogs.

NANOSTRUCTURED LIPID CARRIERS: THE FRONTIERS IN DRUG DELIVERY

By the modification of solid-lipid nanoparticles (SLNs), the nano-structured lipid carriers (NLCs) were obtained by the modification of nanostructured that hold the qualities of the SLN, increases the stability of the drug, and prevents drug leakage. The limitations of the drugs that are delivered in the body using different routes are poor solvency, first pass metabolism, and poor bioavailability hence to overcome these limitations NLCs were prepared. Oral, topical, transdermal, ocular, and parenteral are the different routes through which nanobased systems are delivered. Spatially incompatible liquid lipids and solid lipids are blended and NLCs were prepared. It stays solid at room temperature. The advantages of for drug therapy over conventional carriers NLCs are increased solubility, improved bioavailability. This review describes about the NLC, its advantages and disadvantages, types, NLC techniques, mode of action, and applications of NLC. Imperfect, amorphous, and multiple types are the main three types of NLCs. Lipids, liquid lipids, solid lipids, Emulsifiers, ultraviolet (UV) blockers, and aqueous medium were the excipients used. Microemulsion technique, microemulsion based SLN/NLC preparations, solvent diffusion method, high-pressure homogenization (HPH), hot and cold homogenization techniques, and melt emulsification method are the techniques used for the preparation of NLC. The applications of NLCs are for ocular, brain targeting, topical, cancer therapy, cosmetics, and analgesia.

Lyophilization of Liposomal Formulations: Still Necessary, Still Challenging

Nowadays, the freeze-drying of liposome dispersions is still necessary to provide a solid dosage form intended for different routes of administration (i.e., parenteral, oral, nasal and/or pulmonary). However, after decades of studies the optimization of process conditions remains still challenging since the freezing and the dehydration destabilize the vesicle organization with the concomitant drug leakage. Starting from the thermal properties of phospholipids, this work reviews the main formulation and process parameters which can guarantee a product with suitable characteristics and increase the efficiency of the manufacturing process. In particular, an overview of the cryo- and/or lyo-protective mechanisms of several excipients and the possible use of co-solvent mixtures is provided. Attention is also focused on the imaging methods recently proposed to characterize the appearance of freeze-dried products and liposome dispersions upon reconstitution. The combination of such data would allow a better knowledge of the factors causing inter-vials variability in the attempt to improve the quality of the final medicinal product.