Pharmaceutical Lipid Formulations of Amphotericin B for the Treatment of Human Leishmaniasis

The first description of a skin lesion, “Delhi button” dates back to Cunningham (1885) who reported the presence, on tissue sections, of bodies of 12.6 μm x 8.8 μm, presumably parasitic macrophages, containing "nucleoid bodies" which he believed to be spores belonging to Mycetozoa. But the first to describe the Leishmania parasite was, in 1898, a young man Russian military surgeon, named Borowsky. He investigated the cause of the "Sart button" at the military hospital in Tashkent. This paper, through the analysis of the studies carried out over the years proposes a description of the different therapeutic strategies for the treatment of leishmaniasis (advantages and criticalities of the same) and in particular an analysis detailed description of Amphotericin B, its mechanisms of action and pharmaceutical formulations, especially liposomal ones

Phytotherapeutic Strategy as a Powerful Approach for the Prevention and Therapy of Alzheimer's Disease

According to the World Health Organization and Alzheimer's Disease International there were about 35.6 million people suffering from dementia in 2010 with an estimated double increase in 2030, triple in 2050, with 7.7 million new cases. per year (1 every 4 seconds) and with an average survival, after diagnosis, of 4-8 years. Alzheimer's disease is generally associated with the elderly and with aging, which is why the symptoms of this disease are often ignored. In reality, Alzheimer's seems to affect people between the ages of 65 and 70, while more precocious and severe cases occur before the age of 65 and aging and stress can only worsen the symptoms. The sex most affected is female. It has been noted that dementia in industrialized countries affects about 8% of people over 65 and rises to over 20% after the age of eighty. This suggests that, very often, different factors such as lifestyle, stress and nutrition influence the speed and onset of this disease. To date, it is now known that the affected organ is the brain, such a complex and fascinating organ, but above all difficult to study and treat due to its complicated structure and organization. In fact, the treatment is based on pharmacological therapies, but although numerous research studies are underway to identify effective therapies in the treatment of dementia, the available interventions have not given definitive solutions to treat 6 this pathology. The therapeutic strategies available for dementias in addition to those of a pharmacological type are: psychosocial and integrated management for continuity of care and also psychotherapeutic support for families. In recent decades, however, we have focused on another aspect of this disease: how to prevent it? And this is where the use of medicinal plants comes into play to prevent and mitigate the onset of this disease. This type of approach is based on the use of medicinal plants; in particular the phytocomplex, contained in them, owes its activity to the synergy between its components. Plants produce secondary metabolites, organic compounds, which unlike the primary ones such as carbohydrates, proteins and fats, do not participate in the normal development and growth of the plant, but are developed by the plant to mediate the relationship with the external environment, carrying out important activities such as facilitate reproduction and therefore attract pollinating insects or act as a deterrent to the external environment. These compounds have very complex chemical structures that can be used as guiding compounds for the discovery of new drugs or for the development of nutraceutical or cosmeceutical remedies. In phytotherapy, medicinal plants that can be used for preventive purposes or as adjuvants in the treatment of Alzheimer's, are identified essentially starting from their antioxidant, anticholinesterase and anti-inflammatory properties, or as very often happens from all three. This paper reviews the plant species used in the prevention of Alzheimer's disease and as adjuvants in the treatment of Alzheimer's

Engineering Phonon Polaritons in van der Waals Heterostructures to Enhance In-Plane Optical Anisotropy

Van der Waals heterostructures assembled from layers of 2D materials have attracted considerable interest due to their novel optical and electrical properties. Here we report a scattering-type scanning near field optical microscopy study of hexagonal boron nitride on black phosphorous (h-BN/BP) heterostructures, demonstrating the first direct observation of in-plane anisotropic phonon polariton modes in vdW heterostructures. Strikingly, the measured in-plane optical anisotropy along armchair and zigzag crystal axes exceeds the ratio of refractive indices of BP in the x-y plane. We explain that this enhancement is due to the high confinement of the phonon polaritons in h-BN. We observe a maximum in-plane optical anisotropy of {\alpha}_max=1.25 in the 1405-1440 cm-1 frequency spectrum. These results provide new insights on the behavior of polaritons in vdW heterostructures, and the observed anisotropy enhancement paves the way to novel nanophotonic devices and to a new way to characterize optical anisotropy in thin films

Antispasmodic saponins from bulbs of red onion, Allium cepa L. var. Tropea

A phytochemical analysis of the polar extract from the red bulbs of Allium cepa L. var. Tropea, typical of Calabria, a southern region of Italy, was performed extensively for the first time, leading to the isolation of four new furostanol saponins, named tropeoside A1/A2 (1a/1b) and tropeoside B1/B2 (3a/3b), along with the respective 22-O-methyl derivatives (2a/2b and 4a/4b), almost certainly extraction artifacts. High concentrations of ascalonicoside A1/A2 (5a/5b) and ascalonicoside B (6), previously isolated from Allium ascalonicum Hort., were also found. This is the first report of furostanol saponins in this A. cepa variety. The chemical structures of the new compounds were established through a combination of extensive nuclear magnetic resonance, mass spectrometry and chemical analyses. High concentrations of quercetin, quercetin 4(I)-glucoside, taxifolin, taxifolin 7-glucoside, and phenylalanine were also isolated. The new saponins were found to possess antispasmodic activity in the guinea pig isolated ileum; such an effect might contribute to explaining the traditional use of onion in the treatment of disturbances of the gastrointestinal tract