Synergistic photothermal ablative effects of functionalizing carbon nanotubes with a POSS-PCU nanocomposite polymer

10.1186/1477-3155-10-34Journal of Nanobiotechnology10-JNOA

Pyrazolo-triazolo-pyrimidines as adenosine receptor antagonists: Effect of the N-5 bond type on the affinity and selectivity at the four adenosine receptor subtypes

In the last few years, many efforts have been made to search for potent and selective human A3 adenosine antagonists. In particular, one of the most promising human A3 adenosine receptor antagonists is represented by the pyrazolo-triazolo-pyrimidine family. This class of compounds has been strongly investigated from the point of view of structure-activity relationships. In particular, it has been observed that fundamental requisites for having both potency and selectivity at the human A3 adenosine receptors are the presence of a small substituent at the N8 position and an unsubstitued phenyl carbamoyl moiety at the N5 position. In this study, we report the role of the N5-bond type on the affinity and selectivity at the four adenosine receptor subtypes. The observed structure-activity relationships of this class of antagonists are also exhaustively rationalized using the recently published ligand-based homology modeling approach

Pyrazolo-triazolo-pyrimidines as adenosine receptor antagonists: A complete structure–activity profile

In the last 5 years, many efforts have been conducted searching potent and selective human A3 adenosine antagonists. In this field several different classes of compounds, possessing very good affinity (nM range) and with a broad range of selectivity, have been proposed. Recently, our group synthesized a new series of pyrazolo-triazolo-pyrimidines bearing different substitutions at the N5 and N8 positions, which have been described as highly potent and selective human A3 adenosine receptor antagonists. The present review summarizes available data and provides an overview of the structure–activity relationships found for this class of human A3 adenosine receptor antagonists

Targeting Non-Coding RNAs for the Development of Novel Hepatocellular Carcinoma Therapeutic Approaches

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a global health challenge, representing the third leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Although therapeutic advances have been made in the few last years, the prognosis remains poor. Thus, there is a dire need to develop novel therapeutic strategies. In this regard, two approaches can be considered: (1) the identification of tumor-targeted delivery systems and (2) the targeting of molecule(s) whose aberrant expression is confined to tumor cells. In this work, we focused on the second approach. Among the different kinds of possible target molecules, we discuss the potential therapeutic value of targeting non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), which include micro interfering RNAs (miRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and circular RNAs (circRNAs). These molecules represent the most significant RNA transcripts in cells and can regulate many HCC features, including proliferation, apoptosis, invasion and metastasis. In the first part of the review, the main characteristics of HCC and ncRNAs are described. The involvement of ncRNAs in HCC is then presented over five sections: (a) miRNAs, (b) lncRNAs, (c) circRNAs, (d) ncRNAs and drug resistance and (e) ncRNAs and liver fibrosis. Overall, this work provides the reader with the most recent state-of-the-art approaches in this field, highlighting key trends and opportunities for more advanced and efficacious HCC treatments

Temporal Changes in Extracellular Vesicle Hemostatic Protein Composition Predict Favourable Left Ventricular Remodeling after Acute Myocardial Infarction

The subset of plasma extracellular vesicles (EVs) that coprecipitate with low-density lipoprotein (LDL-EVs) carry coagulation and fibrinolysis pathway proteins as cargo. We investigated the association between LDL-EV hemostatic/fibrinolysis protein ratios and post-acute myocardial infarction (post-AMI) left ventricular (LV) remodeling which precedes heart failure. Protein concentrations of von Willebrand factor (VWF), SerpinC1 and plasminogen were determined in LDL-EVs extracted from plasma samples obtained at baseline (within 72 h post-AMI), 1 month and 6 months post-AMI from 198 patients. Patients were categorized as exhibiting adverse (n = 98) or reverse (n = 100) LV remodeling based on changes in LV end-systolic volume (increased or decreased ≥15) over a 6-month period. Multiple level longitudinal data analysis with structural equation (ML-SEM) model was used to assess predictive value for LV remodeling independent of baseline differences. At baseline, protein levels of VWF, SerpinC1 and plasminogen in LDL-EVs did not differ between patients with adverse versus reverse LV remodeling. At 1 month post-AMI, protein levels of VWF and SerpinC1 decreased whilst plasminogen increased in patients with adverse LV remodeling. In contrast, VWF and plasminogen decreased whilst SerpinC1 remained unchanged in patients with reverse LV remodeling. Overall, compared with patients with adverse LV remodeling, higher levels of SerpinC1 and VWF but lower levels of plasminogen resulted in higher ratios of VWF:Plasminogen and SerpinC1:Plasminogen at both 1 month and 6 months post-AMI in patients with reverse LV remodeling. More importantly, ratios VWF:Plasminogen (AUC = 0.674) and SerpinC1:Plasminogen (AUC = 0.712) displayed markedly better prognostic power than NT-proBNP (AUC = 0.384), troponin-I (AUC = 0.467) or troponin-T (AUC = 0.389) (p \u3c 0.001) to predict reverse LV remodeling post-AMI. Temporal changes in the ratios of coagulation to fibrinolysis pathway proteins in LDL-EVs outperform current standard plasma biomarkers in predicting post-AMI reverse LV remodeling. Our findings may provide clinical cues to uncover the cellular mechanisms underpinning post-AMI reverse LV remodeling

Diameter-dependent release of a cisplatin pro-drug from small and large functionalized carbon nanotubes

The use of platinum-based chemotherapeutic drugs in cancer therapy still suffers from severe disadvantages, such as lack of appropriate selectivity for tumor tissues and insurgence of multi-drug resistance. Moreover, drug efficacy can be attenuated by several mechanisms such as premature drug inactivation, reduced drug uptake inside cells and increased drug efflux once internalized. The use of functionalized carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as chemotherapeutic drug delivery systems is a promising strategy to overcome such limitations due to their ability to enhance cellular internalization of poorly permeable drugs and thus increase the drug bioavailability at the diseased site, compared to the free drug. Furthermore, the possibility to encapsulate agents in the nanotubes’ inner cavity can protect the drug from early inactivation and their external functionalizable surface is useful for selective targeting. In this study, a hydrophobic platinum(IV) complex was encapsulated within the inner space of two different diameter functionalized multi-walled CNTs (Pt(IV)@CNTs). The behavior of the complexes, compared to the free drug, was investigated on both HeLa human cancer cells and RAW 264.7 murine macrophages. Both CNT samples efficiently induced cell death in HeLa cancer cells 72 hours after the end of exposure to CNTs. Although the larger diameter CNTs were more cytotoxic on HeLa cells compared to both the free drug and the smaller diameter nanotubes, the latter allowed a prolonged release of the encapsulated drug, thus increasing its anticancer efficacy. In contrast, both Pt(IV)@CNT constructs were poorly cytotoxic on macrophages and induced negligible cell activation and no pro-inflammatory cytokine production. Both CNT samples were efficiently internalized by the two types of cells, as demonstrated by transmission electron microscopy observations and flow cytometry analysis. Finally, the platinum levels found in the cells after Pt(IV)@CNT exposure demonstrate that they can promote drug accumulation inside cells in comparison with treatment with the free complex. To conclude, our study shows that CNTs are promising nanocarriers to improve the accumulation of a chemotherapeutic drug and its slow release inside tumor cells, by tuning the CNT diameter, without inducing a high inflammatory response

New 2,6,9-trisubstituted adenines as adenosine receptor antagonists: a preliminary SAR profile

A new series of 2,6,9-trisubstituted adenines (5–14) have been prepared and evaluated in radioligand binding studies for their affinity at the human A1, A2A and A3 adenosine receptors and in adenylyl cyclase experiments for their potency at the human A2B subtype. From this preliminary study the conclusion can be drawn that introduction of bulky chains at the N6 position of 9-propyladenine significantly increased binding affinity at the human A1 and A3 adenosine receptors, while the presence of a chlorine atom at the 2 position resulted in a not univocal effect, depending on the receptor subtype and/or on the substituent present in the N6 position. However, in all cases, the presence in the 2 position of a chlorine atom favoured the interaction with the A2A subtype. These results demonstrated that, although the synthesized compounds were found to be quite inactive at the human A2B subtype, adenine is a useful template for further development of simplified adenosine receptor antagonists with distinct receptor selectivity profiles