Physicochemical and Technological Characteristics of Lycopus Europaeus L. Dry Herbal Extract and Related Compositions

The physicochemical and technological properties of Lycopus europaeus dry herbal extract were studied. Excipients were also selected. The technological characteristics of experimental samples containing L. europaeus dry herbal extract were studied. Stepwise mixing of drugs and excipients was proposed to prepare capsules. The results showed that a formulation in which lactose monohydrate, AEROSIL® A380, and vegetable magnesium stearate were used as excipients had the optimal technological characteristics. © 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

Физико-химические и технологические характеристики зюзника европейского травы экстракта сухого и композиции на его основе

Today, mainly synthetic drugs are used for the prevention and treatment of thyroid diseases. Along with this, the development of drugs based on dry extracts of medicinal plants of special interest. The article reports on the physicochemical and technological properties of a dry extract from Lycopus europaeus L. herbs as well as on the selection of auxiliary substances and the study of technological characteristics of the experimental samples containing this dry extract. For the drug preparation in capsules, a method of stepwise mixing of medicinal and auxiliary substances is proposed. The results of research showed that the optimum technological characteristics are offered by a composition including lactose monohydrate, Aerosil А380, and magnesium stearate of plant origin as auxiliary substances.Освящены вопросы изучения физико-химических и технологических свойств зюзника европейского травы экстракта сухого, а также выбор вспомогательных веществ и изучения технологических характеристик экспериментальных образцов, содержащих зюзника европейского травы экстракт сухой. Для получения капсул предложен метод постадийного смешивания лекарственных и вспомогательных веществ. Результаты исследований показали, что оптимальными технологическими характеристиками обладает состав, в котором в качестве вспомогательных веществ используются лактоза моногидрат, аэросил А 380 и магния стеарат растительный

Encapsulins-bacterial protein nanocompartments: Structure, properties, and application.

Recently, a new class of prokaryotic compartments, collectively called encapsulins or protein nanocompartments, has been discovered. The shell proteins of these structures self-organize to form icosahedral compartments with a diameter of 25-42 nm, while one or more cargo proteins with various functions can be encapsulated in the nanocompartment. Non-native cargo proteins can be loaded into nanocompartments and the surface of the shells can be further functionalized, which allows for developing targeted drug delivery systems or using encapsulins as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging. Since the genes encoding encapsulins can be integrated into the cell genome, encapsulins are attractive for investigation in various scientific fields, including biomedicine and nanotechnology

Genetically encoded self-assembling iron oxide nanoparticles as a possible platform for cancer-cell tracking.

The study of growth and possible metastasis in animal models of tumors would benefit from reliable cell labels for noninvasive whole-organism imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging. Genetically encoded cell-tracking reporters have the advantage that they are contrast-selective for viable cells with intact protein expression machinery. Besides, these reporters do not suffer from dilution during cell division. Encapsulins, which are bacterial protein nanocompartments, can serve as genetically controlled labels for multimodal detection of cells. Such nanocompartments can host various guest molecules inside their lumen. These include, for example, fluorescent proteins or enzymes with ferroxidase activity leading to biomineralization of iron oxide inside the encapsulin nanoshell. The aim of this work was to implement heterologous expression of encapsulin systems from Quasibacillus thermotolerans using the fluorescent reporter protein mScarlet-I and ferroxidase IMEF in the human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2. The successful expression of self-assembled encapsulin nanocompartments with functional cargo proteins was confirmed by fluorescence microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Also, coexpression of encapsulin nanoshells, ferroxidase cargo, and iron transporter led to an increase in T2-weighted contrast in magnetic resonance imaging of HepG2 cells. The results demonstrate that the encapsulin cargo system from Q. thermotolerans may be suitable for multimodal imaging of cancer cells and could contribute to further in vitro and in vivo studies

Novel Copper-Containing Cytotoxic Agents Based on 2-Thioxoimidazolones

A series of 73 ligands and 73 of their Cu+2 and Cu+1 copper complexes with different geometries, oxidation states of the metal, and redox activities were synthesized and characterized. The aim of the study was to establish the structure-activity relationship within a series of analogues with different substituents at the N(3) position, which govern the redox potentials of the Cu+2/Cu+1 redox couples, ROS generation ability, and intracellular accumulation. Possible cytotoxicity mechanisms, such as DNA damage, DNA intercalation, telomerase inhibition, and apoptosis induction, have been investigated. ROS formation in MCF-7 cells and three-dimensional (3D) spheroids was proven using the Pt-nanoelectrode. Drug accumulation and ROS formation at 40-60 μm spheroid depths were found to be the key factors for the drug efficacy in the 3D tumor model, governed by the Cu+2/Cu+1 redox potential. A nontoxic in vivo single-dose evaluation for two binuclear mixed-valence Cu+1/Cu+2 redox-active coordination compounds, 72k and 61k, was conducted.