Vijay Mishra

Carbon dots: emerging theranostic nanoarchitectures

Nanotechnology has gained significant interest from biomedical and analytical researchers in recent years. Carbon dots (C-dots), a new member of the carbon nanomaterial family, are spherical, nontoxic, biocompatible, and discrete particles less than 10nm in diameter. Research interest has focused on C-dots because of their ultra-compact nanosize, favorable biocompatibility, outstanding photoluminescence, superior electron transfer ability, and versatile surface engineering properties. C-dots show significant potential for use in cellular imaging, biosensing, targeted drug delivery, and other biomedical applications. Here we discuss C-dots, in terms of their physicochemical properties, fabrication techniques, toxicity issues, surface engineering and biomedical potential in drug delivery, targeting as well as bioimaging.

Recent advances in galactose-engineered nanocarriers for the site-specific delivery of siRNA and anticancer drugs

Galactosylated nanocarriers have recently emerged as viable and versatile tools to deliver drugs at an optimal rate specifically to their target tissues or cells, thus maximizing their therapeutic benefits while circumventing off-target effects. The abundance of lectin receptors on cell surfaces makes the galactosylated carriers suitable for the targeted delivery of bioactives. Additionally, tethering of galactose (GAL) to various carriers, including micelles, liposomes, and nanoparticles (NPs), might also be appropriate for drug delivery. Here, we review recent advances in the development of galactosylated nanocarriers for active tumor targeting. We also provide a brief overview of the targeting mechanisms and cell receptor theory involved in the ligand-receptor-mediated delivery of drug carriers.

Solid Lipid Nanoparticles: Emerging Colloidal Nano Drug Delivery Systems

Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) are nanocarriers developed as substitute colloidal drug delivery systems parallel to liposomes, lipid emulsions, polymeric nanoparticles, and so forth. Owing to their unique size dependent properties and ability to incorporate drugs, SLNs present an opportunity to build up new therapeutic prototypes for drug delivery and targeting. SLNs hold great potential for attaining the goal of targeted and controlled drug delivery, which currently draws the interest of researchers worldwide. The present review sheds light on different aspects of SLNs including fabrication and characterization techniques, formulation variables, routes of administration, surface modifications, toxicity, and biomedical applications.

Synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of pyridinyl-1,3,4-oxadiazolyl-ethanone derivatives as antimicrobial, antifungal and antitubercular agents

Nicotinic acid was converted into different substituted acetylated nicotinic acid derivatives by sequential transformation involving formation of hydrazide, Schiff’s base and finally acylated oxadiazole derivatives. The synthesized compounds were characterized by spectroscopic techniques and evaluated in vitro for the antimicrobial, antifungal, as well as antitubercular activity. Among all the synthesized derivatives, compounds 6b, 6d, 6e, 6g, and 6j demonstrated excellent antimicrobial activity on Bacillus subtilis. The compounds 6d, 6j and compounds 6b, 6f, 6h, and 6i exhibited maximum zone of inhibition against fungi Candida albicans as well as Aspergillus niger, respectively at the concentration of 500 µg/mL. The antitubercular activity exhibited by 6f, 6g, and 6d with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of 1.2, 3.1, and 7.8 µg/mL, respectively. The synthesized compounds were studied by molecular docking through Autodock Vina to evaluate their interaction at respective proteins. Further the effect of synthesized derivatives on surface morphology of human erythrocytes as well as hemolysis was also evaluated. The results demonstrated lesser extent of hemolytic toxicity.Graphical abstract

Fabrication and biomedical potential of nanogels: An overview

ABSTRACT Nanogels are one of the innovative hydrogel systems that comprise cross-linked polymers of natural or synthetic origin having good water holding capacity. The hydrophilic nature of nanogels possess good water uptake and exhibit controlled, targeted and sustained release. Nanogels show promising features like high biodegradability, biocompatibility, drug loading capacity and good penetration power. This overview mainly focuses on the biomedical applications of nanogels as the drug delivery system, imaging agent, therapeutic carrier, theranostic agent, also its fabrication techniques. In current scenario, nanogels play promising roles to deliver drugs such as anticancer, autoimmune, ophthalmics, anti-microbials, anti-inflammatory, proteins and peptides. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Quality by design (QbD) approaches in current pharmaceutical set-up

ABSTRACT Introduction: Quality by design (QbD) encourages the pharmaceutical industry to use risk management and science-based manufacturing principles to gain process and product understanding and thus assures quality of the product. With the objective to curb the rising costs for development and regulatory barriers to innovation and creativity, QbD is being widely promoted by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and International Conference on Harmonization (ICH). Areas covered: This review describes the elements, different design and tools of QbD as well as multidimensional applications of QbD ranging from dosage form and method development to meeting latest regulatory requirements. Expert opinion: The understanding of a process is facilitated by proper identification of sources of variation, management of variability by process design, and prediction of product quality attributes using design space. The pharmaceutical industry is rapidly adopting the QbD principles for fabrication of safe, effective and quality products; however, we are still on a journey and the process of gathering all experience and metrics required for connecting and demonstrating QbD benefits to all stakeholders is still in progress. Understanding the formulation and process parameters with the philosophy of QbD will be useful for the optimization of complex drug delivery systems in the near future.

Current Strategies and Drug Targets in the Management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

BACKGROUND Diabetes is one of the major concerns worldwide which leads to increased level of blood glucose due to deficiency of insulin and the development of insulin resistance in diabetic individuals. Basically, its impact arises due to rapid urbanization, improper diet intake, and increasingly inactive lifestyle. Diabetic patients develop serious complications with the development of disease at later stages, such as obesity, the risk of stroke and heart failure. Globally, an estimated 422 million adults are living with type 2 diabetes mellitus. METHODS We searched the scientific database using relevant keywords. Among the searched literature, only peer-reviewed papers were collected which addresses our questions. The retrieved quality papers were screened and analyzed critically. The key findings of these studies are included along with the importance. RESULTS The quality research paper included in the review, particularly the antidiabetic drugs which account for the second largest market by sales in the pharmaceutical industry after cancer. So the research came up with several novel therapeutic targets for the management of type 2 diabetes, to produce newer generation antidiabetic drug by offering a new concept for developing new drug candidates. CONCLUSION This review discusses the strategies and future perspectives in the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus particularly antidiabetic agents which are helpful for the betterment of diabetic patients.

Novel drug delivery systems for NSAIDs in management of rheumatoid arthritis: An overview

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by chronic joint inflammation which ultimately leads to severe disability and premature mortality. It has a global prevalence of around 1% with the incidence among women being 2-3 times more than in men. The pathogenesis of the disease involves preclinical RA, genetic factors, and environmental factors. The RA has no known cure and the primary aim of treatment remains to attain lowest possible disease activity and recovery if possible. The present review highlights the literature on the different treatment options available for the treatment of RA, their mechanisms of action, side effects, and novel drug delivery systems that are in use for drug administration with the main focus on novel drug delivery systems of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Different classes of drugs such as corticosteroids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), and biologics are discussed with examples of most widely used drugs among each class. Conventional drug therapy has many disadvantages like low solubility and permeability, poor bioavailability, degradation by gastrointestinal enzymes, first pass metabolism, food interactions, and toxicity. Novel drug delivery systems like microspheres, nanoparticles, dendrimers, liposomes, and so on are promising tools as they have been successful in overcoming the disadvantages associated with conventional drug delivery system. The present review squares the various novel drug delivery systems that have been explored for administering anti-rheumatic drugs and the advantages associated with these novel drug delivery systems in comparison to conventional drug delivery systems.

Quantum Dots in Targeted Delivery of Bioactives and Imaging

In the current scenario, Quantum dots (QDs) have attracted interest of biomedical researchers for developing bioimaging probe for several critical diseases including cancer. Basically QDs comprise three structural components like core, shell, and cap. A semiconductor core sheathed in a shell of another semiconductor material is finally covered by different materials such as silica, which improves the solubility in aqueous buffers. QDs exhibit excellent fluorescent properties, good chemical stability, broad excitation ranges, size-tunable narrow emission spectra, high photo-bleaching thresholds, and brighter images than other fluorescent proteins and organic dyes. In this chapter, we have discussed recent advances in the development of QDs and various biomedical applications including bioimaging as well as the targeted delivery of drugs and genes. First, we have described historical background, properties, methods of fabrication, and surface engineering of QDs. Since the toxicity is main shortcoming of QDs hampering their applications, we have also emphasized on the toxicological aspects of QDs as well.