A Minireview of the Promising Drugs and Vaccines in Pipeline for the Treatment of COVID-19 and Current Update on Clinical Trials

The COVID-19 is affecting thousands of peoples day by day and continues to spread across the world. The present review has focused on promising repurposing drugs, including remdesivir, lopinvar/retinovar, favipiravir, hydroxychloroquine, monoclonal antibodies and vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 infection. Besides, our review has also focused on many organizations that are in the race to develop vaccines using various approaches including DNA, RNA, viral vectors and subunit proteins against this highly contagious respiratory disease. The spike protein is being studied by scientists all over the world to develop potential vaccines. The antiviral drugs, antibodies and vaccines developed by various researchers around the world have entered clinical trials in humans. The current clinical trials for antiviral agents and vaccines with promising outcomes are being discussed. So far, four vaccines developed by the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the Johnson and Johnson vaccine and two AstraZeneca vaccines (produced by SKBio in the Republic of Korea and Serum Institute of India) are approved by the World Health Organization for public use

A pH stimuli thiol modified mesoporous silica nanoparticles: Doxorubicin carrier for cancer therapy

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) have been attracted in the field of biomedicine due to their versatile properties as a drug nanocarrier. In this research, MSN and thiol modified MSN (mMSN) were synthesized to be the drug nanocarriers, by the sol-gel technique for the efficient delivering doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX). These carriers were characterized by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), SA3100 analyzer (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller), Zetasizer and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). FESEM observation revealed that these particles have uniform sizes and the zeta potential analysis confirmed the existence of surface charge and stability of the particles. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller showed that MSN and mMSN are characteristic type IV N-2 adsorption/desorption patterns. The in vitro drug release profile studies have profound that the drug-loaded carriers were pH dependent and the drug-loaded mMSN (DOX@mMSN) displayed a faster drug release at the acidic pH with tumor cells than the pH with normal cells. Cell cycle arrest and ROS generation were analyzed by Fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Assay on the cytotoxicity against the HeLa cells showed a better antitumor effect with DOX@mMSN compared to DOX@MSN. This study attested that pH -responsive thiol modified drug nanocarrier can have the potential cancer therapy. (C) 2018 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Nano-immunotherapeutic strategies for targeted RNA delivery: Emphasizing the role of monocyte/macrophages as nanovehicles to treat glioblastoma multiforme

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is considered the most aggressive and heterogeneous type of brain malignancy. The substantial invasion of the central nervous system parenchyma is a typical hallmark of all grades of glioma. To improve tumor localization and prevent unanticipated toxicity, anti-tumor drug delivery mechanisms must be upgraded in parallel with pharmacotherapeutics. Monocytes can easily pass the blood-brain barrier, and thus, drugs with difficulty entering the brain can be loaded into monocytes, resulting in the treatment of brain cancers. RNA as a natural and biocompatible polymer has many advantages for biomedical applications, and RNA-based therapies can provide regulated biological functions by highly selective and controlling means. In this context, macrophages are excellent carriers for distributing RNA-based treatments. However, developing an efficient macrophage-targeted RNA delivery has remained challenging. Several approaches have been introduced in the last decade to efficiently deliver RNA-based therapy via macrophages to treat GBM and inflammatory conditions. This review summarizes the most suitable nano-carrier systems to deliver RNA into immunocytes; also, different methods of synthesizing RNA-loaded nanopArticles and their application, with an emphasis on targeting GBM, are discussed. Furthermore, it focuses specifically on the stability of such nanoformulations and the effect of targeting moieties and adjuvants in determining the worth of the aroused immune response. Finally, the critical aspects of delivering RNA-lipid hybrid nanopArticles (LNPs) via oral, systemic, and local routes are highlighted. We hope that these findings will pave the way for more effective treatment of solid tumors, such as GBM, in the future

Biopolymers Regulate Silver Nanoparticle under Microwave Irradiation for Effective Antibacterial and Antibiofilm Activities.

In the current study, facile synthesis of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and sodium alginate capped silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) was examined using microwave radiation and aniline as a reducing agent. The biopolymer matrix embedded nanoparticles were synthesized under various experimental conditions using different concentrations of biopolymer (0.5, 1, 1.5, 2%), volumes of reducing agent (50, 100, 150 μL), and duration of heat treatment (30 s to 240 s). The synthesized nanoparticles were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, UV-Vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy for identification of AgNPs synthesis, crystal nature, shape, size, and type of capping action. In addition, the significant antibacterial efficacy and antibiofilm activity of biopolymer capped AgNPs were demonstrated against different bacterial strains, Staphylococcus aureus MTCC 740 and Escherichia coli MTCC 9492. These results confirmed the potential for production of biopolymer capped AgNPs grown under microwave irradiation, which can be used for industrial and biomedical applications

Comparison of the microwave assisted methods with other physical methods and summary of their morphological size.

<p>Comparison of the microwave assisted methods with other physical methods and summary of their morphological size.</p

Fourier transform infrared spectra.

<p>(A) CMC—(a) Pure CMC and (b) CMC@AgNPs. (B) SA—(a) Pure SA and (b) SA@AgNPs.</p

Ultraviolet–Visible spectroscopy.

<p>(A) CMC@AgNPs at (a) 30s, (b) 60s, (c) 90s, (d) 120s, (e) 150s, (f) 180s, (g) 210s and (h) 240s. (B) SA@AgNPs at (a) 30s, (b) 60s, (c) 90s, (d) 120s, (e) 150s, (f) 180s, (g) 210s and (h) 240s. Arrow indicates direction of spectral changes.</p

Biopolymers Regulate Silver Nanoparticle under Microwave Irradiation for Effective Antibacterial and Antibiofilm Activities - Fig 7

<p><b>(A) Antibiofilm efficacy of</b> CMC@AgNPs <b>and (B)</b> SA@AgNPs <b>against both <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> and <i>S</i>. <i>aureus</i>.</b> Error bars represent the standard deviation. * Significantly different (P<0.05) from the positive control.</p

Scanning electron microscopic images.

<p>(A) CMC@AgNPs and (B) SA@AgNPs.</p