Development of copper doped ferrite nanoparticles with enhanced functionality for biomedical applications

by Swaroop Chakraborty, Barath K. Mahadevan, Juhi Shah, C Balasubramanian, Sanjay Singh and Superb K. Misr

Development of stable isotope enriched 65-Cu doped ferrite nanoparticles for nanoparticles tracing

by Swaroop Chakraborty, Barath K. Mahadevan, Juhi Shah, C. Balasubramanian, Sanjay Singh and Superb K. Misr

Preferential targeting of human erythrocytes infected with the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum via hexose transporter surface proteins

Glucose uptake by Plasmodium-infected erythrocytes (RBC) is higher compared to uninfected RBC. Glucose is transported across the cell membrane by transporter proteins. Particles of median size 146.3 ± 18.7 nm, containing anti-malarial agents in corn starch were prepared for investigating: (a) whether the glucose moiety in starch targets RBC via hexose transporter(s), (b) whether there are differences in the extent of targeting to uninfected RBC versus infected RBC (iRBC) in view of higher cell surface density of these proteins on iRBC and (c) whether targeting provides enhanced efficacy against P. falciparum in comparison to drugs in solution. Binding of these particles to RBC was target-specific, since it could be blocked by phloretin, an inhibitor of glucose transporters (GLUT), or competed out in a dose-dependent manner with d-glucose in a flow cytometry assay. Significant (P = 0.048, t-test) differences in extent of targeting to iRBC versus RBC were observed in flow cytometry. CDRI 97/63 incorporated in particles was 63% more efficacious than its solution at 250 ng/ml, while quinine was 20% more efficacious at 6.25 ng/ml in a SYBR Green incorporation assay. Preferential targeting of iRBC using an inexpensive excipient promises advantages in terms of dose reduction and toxicity alleviation

Interventions for age-related diseases: Shifting the paradigm

Over 60% of people aged over 65 are affected by multiple morbidities, which are more difficult to treat, generate increased healthcare costs and lead to poor quality of life compared to individual diseases. With the number of older people steadily increasing this presents a societal challenge. Age is the major risk factor for age-related diseases and recent research developments have led to the proposal that pharmacological interventions targeting common mechanisms of ageing may be able to delay the onset of multimorbidity. Here we review the state of the knowledge of multimorbidity, appraise the available evidence supporting the role of mechanisms of ageing in the development of the most common age-related diseases and assess potential molecules that may successfully target those key mechanisms.This article is based upon work from COST Action (BM1402: MouseAGE), supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). LJR was supported by Nordea-fonden and the Danish Research Council. AM was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia, Grant ON173056. AJC was supported by the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF115), Danish Council for Independent Research (Sapere Aude, DFF-Starting Grant 2014) and Danish Cancer Society (KBVU-2014). IF and SX were supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal), SFRH/BPD/76642/2011 and SFRH/BD/86584/2012, respectively