-
Biomedical Materials (Bristol, England) Jun 2024Excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the microenvironment of osteoporosis (OP) not only accelerate the bone absorption, but also affect the osteogenic and...
Excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the microenvironment of osteoporosis (OP) not only accelerate the bone absorption, but also affect the osteogenic and mineralized effect of osteoblasts. Procyanidins (PC) have been reported to have anti-oxidation effects, but low bioavailability. This study aimed to explore the effect of magnesium oxide nanoparticles (MgO-PC NPs)-loaded PC on the osteogenesis and mineralization of osteoblasts that stimulated by HO. PC was loaded onto MgO NPs and characterized by transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. After primary screening by cytotoxicity assay, MgO-PC NPs containing 20 μM of PC were chosen for further studies. In HO-stimulated osteoblasts, dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate probe, Cell Counting Kit-8, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, alkaline phosphatase staining/activity and Alizarin red staining were used to detect the ROS production, cell viability and osteogenic and mineralized markers of osteoblasts. PC was loaded onto MgO NPs to successfully receive MgO-PC NPs with a diameter of about 144 nm and negative potential. PC can sustain release from MgO-PC NPs for at least 16 d. The controlled release of PC from MgO-PC NPs can effectively eliminate ROS and thereby promoted the cell activity. Most importantly, the osteogenesis and mineralization of osteoblasts under oxidative stress were also significantly reversed by MgO-PC NPS. Thus, these findings indicate that MgO-PC NPs may be developed as a potential therapeutic strategy for OP.
Topics: Osteoblasts; Proanthocyanidins; Catechin; Oxidative Stress; Magnesium Oxide; Reactive Oxygen Species; Animals; Cell Survival; Biflavonoids; Osteogenesis; Hydrogen Peroxide; Nanoparticles; Delayed-Action Preparations; Mice; Calcification, Physiologic; Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
PubMed: 38815600
DOI: 10.1088/1748-605X/ad5260 -
Biosensors & Bioelectronics Sep 2024Accurate quantification of neurofilament lights (NfLs), a prognostic blood biomarker, is highly required to predict neurodegeneration in the presymptomatic stages of...
Accurate quantification of neurofilament lights (NfLs), a prognostic blood biomarker, is highly required to predict neurodegeneration in the presymptomatic stages of Alzheimer's disease. Here, we report self-oxygen-enriching coral structures with triphase interfaces for the label-free photocathodic detection of NfLs in blood plasma with femtomolar sensitivities and high reliability. In conventional photocathodic immunoassays, the poor solubility and sluggish diffusion rate of the dissolved oxygen serving as electron acceptors have necessitated the incorporation of additional electron acceptors or aeration procedures. To address the challenge, we designed the coral-like copper bismuth oxides (CBO) with robust solid-liquid-air contact boundaries that enrich the interfacial oxygen levels without an external aeration source. By optimally assembling the perfluorododecyltrichlorosilane (FTCS) and platinum (Pt) co-catalysts into the silver-doped CBO (Ag:CBO), the stable solid-liquid-air contact boundaries were formed within the sensor interfaces, which allowed for the abundant supply of air phase oxygen through an air pocket connected to the atmosphere. The Pt/FTCS-Ag:CBO exhibited the stable background signals independent of the dissolved oxygen fluctuations and amplified photocurrent signals by 1.76-fold, which were attributed to the elevated interfacial oxygen levels and 11.15 times-lowered mass transport resistance. Under the illumination of white light-emitting diode, the oxygen-enriching photocathodic sensor composed of Pt/FTCS-Ag:CBO conjugated with NfLs-specific antibodies precisely quantified the NfLs in plasma with a low coefficient of variation (≤2.97%), a high degree of recovery (>97.0%), and a limit of detection of 40.38 fg/mL, which was 140 times lower than the typical photocathodic sensor with diphase interfaces.
Topics: Humans; Biosensing Techniques; Alzheimer Disease; Bismuth; Platinum; Oxygen; Copper; Limit of Detection; Biomarkers; Silver; Electrochemical Techniques; Immunoassay; Neurofilament Proteins; Animals
PubMed: 38815462
DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2024.116431 -
Biomaterials Science Jun 2024Although small molecule drugs are widely used in chemotherapy, their low bioavailability, low-concentrated dose in the tumor zone, systemic toxicity, and chemoresistance...
Although small molecule drugs are widely used in chemotherapy, their low bioavailability, low-concentrated dose in the tumor zone, systemic toxicity, and chemoresistance can significantly limit the therapeutic outcome. These drawbacks can be overcome by two main strategies: (i) development of novel therapeutic molecules with more significant antitumor activity than currently available drugs and (ii) loading chemotherapeutic agents into drug delivery systems. In this study, we aimed to encapsulate a highly prospective small molecule drug based on substituted 2-aminothiophene (2-AT) into calcium carbonate (CaCO) microparticles (MPs) for the treatment of melanoma tumors. In particular, we have optimized the encapsulation of 2-AT into MPs (2-AT@MPs), studied drug release efficiency, investigated cellular uptake, and evaluated biodistribution and tumor inhibition efficiency. results revealed that 2-AT@MPs were able to penetrate into tumor spheroids, leading to prolonged release of 2-AT. By performing intratumoral injection of 2-AT@MPs we observed significant melanoma suppressions in murine models: ∼0.084 cm for 2-AT@MPs at a dose of 0.4 g kg ∼1.370 cm for untreated mice. In addition, the 2-AT@MPs showed negligible toxicity towards major organs such as heart, lung, liver, kidney, and spleen. Thus, this work provided an efficient strategy for the improved chemotherapy of solid tumors by using an encapsulated form of small molecule drugs.
Topics: Animals; Calcium Carbonate; Mice; Thiophenes; Antineoplastic Agents; Drug Carriers; Melanoma; Cell Line, Tumor; Drug Liberation; Tissue Distribution; Humans; Melanoma, Experimental; Mice, Inbred C57BL
PubMed: 38812410
DOI: 10.1039/d4bm00390j -
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Jul 2024Pharmaceuticals and drugs of abuse are organic micropollutants of emerging concern in both surface and groundwater worldwide. These compounds are considered to be...
Pharmaceuticals and drugs of abuse are organic micropollutants of emerging concern in both surface and groundwater worldwide. These compounds are considered to be pseudo-persistent because of their continuous release into water systems. The presence of these compounds in the environment at any concentration poses a potential risk to nontarget organisms. The main sources of these contaminants are wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and combined sewer overflows (CSOs). The primary goal of our study was to identify and quantify a panel of 28 commonly prescribed pharmaceuticals (mood-altering drugs, cardiovascular drugs, antacids, antibiotics) and high-prevalence drugs of abuse (cocaine, amphetamines, opioids, cannabis) in river water samples collected from 19 locations in the Hudson and East rivers in New York City. The second goal was to investigate the possible source (WWTP or CSOs) of these micropollutants. Samples were collected weekly from May to August 2021 (n = 224) and May to August 2022 (n = 232), and placed at -20 °C until analysis by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The most frequently detected analytes in 2021 were metoprolol (n = 206, 92%), benzoylecgonine (n = 151, 67%), atenolol (n = 142, 63%), and methamphetamine (n = 118, 53%), and in 2022 the most frequently detected were methamphetamine (n = 194, 84%), atenolol (n = 177, 76%), metoprolol (n = 177, 76%), and 2-ethylene-1,5-dimethyl-3,3-diphenylpyrrolidine (n = 159, 69%). Measured concentrations ranged from the limit of detection (0.50-5.00 ng/L) to 103 ng/L. More drugs and higher concentrations were detected in water contaminated by Enterococci (>60 most probably number) and after rainfall, indicating the influence of CSOs. The presence of drugs in samples with little to no Enterococci and after dry weather events indicates that WWTPs contribute to the presence of these substances in the river, probably due to a low removal rate. Environ Toxicol Chem 2024;43:1592-1603. © 2024 SETAC.
Topics: Water Pollutants, Chemical; Illicit Drugs; Environmental Monitoring; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Sewage; Rivers; New Jersey; Wastewater; New York
PubMed: 38808394
DOI: 10.1002/etc.5891 -
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces Jun 2024Colloidal nanocrystals (NCs) exhibit significant potential for photovoltaic bioelectronic interfaces because of their solution processability, tunable energy levels, and...
Colloidal nanocrystals (NCs) exhibit significant potential for photovoltaic bioelectronic interfaces because of their solution processability, tunable energy levels, and inorganic nature, lending them chemical stability. Silver bismuth sulfide (AgBiS) NCs, free from toxic heavy-metal elements (e.g., Cd, Hg, and Pb), particularly offer an exceptional absorption coefficient exceeding 10 cm in the near-infrared (NIR), surpassing many of their inorganic counterparts. Here, we integrated an ultrathin (24 nm) AgBiS NC layer into a water-stable photovoltaic bioelectronic device architecture that showed a high capacitive photocurrent of 2.3 mA·cm in artificial cerebrospinal fluid (aCSF) and ionic charges over 10 μC·cm at a low NIR intensity of 0.5 mW·mm. The device without encapsulation showed a halftime of 12.5 years under passive accelerated aging test and did not show any toxicity on neurons. Furthermore, patch-clamp electrophysiology on primary hippocampal neurons under whole-cell configuration revealed that the device elicited neuron firing at intensity levels more than an order of magnitude below the established ocular safety limits. These findings point to the potential of AgBiS NCs for photovoltaic retinal prostheses.
Topics: Neurons; Animals; Bismuth; Sulfides; Infrared Rays; Nanoparticles; Silver Compounds; Silver; Rats; Hippocampus; Mice
PubMed: 38807565
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.4c01964 -
Clinical Pharmacokinetics May 2024Managing drug-food interactions is essential for optimizing the effectiveness and safety profile of quinolones. Following PRISMA guidelines, we systematically reviewed...
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
Managing drug-food interactions is essential for optimizing the effectiveness and safety profile of quinolones. Following PRISMA guidelines, we systematically reviewed the influence of dietary interventions on the bioavailability of 22 quinolones.
METHODS
All studies describing or investigating the impact of food, beverages, antacids, and mineral supplements on pharmacokinetic parameters or pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic indices of orally taken quinolones were considered for inclusion. We excluded reviews, in vitro and in silico studies, studies performed on animals, and those involving alcohol. We performed the search in Medline (via PubMed), Embase, and Cochrane Library, covering reports from database inception to December 2022. We used the following tools to assess the risk of bias: version 2 of the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for parallel trials, the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for cross-over studies, and the NIH quality assessment tool for before-after studies. We performed quantitative analyses for each quinolone if two or more food-effect studies with specified and comparable study designs were available. If meta-analyses were not applicable, we qualitatively summarized the results.
RESULTS
We included 109 studies from 101 reports. Meta-analyses were conducted for 12 antibiotics and qualitative synthesis was employed for the remaining drugs. Of the studies, 60.5% were open-label, cross-over, as recommended by FDA. We judged 46% of studies as having a high risk of bias and only 4% of having a low risk of bias. Among 19 quinolones with available food impact data, 14 (74%) had potentially clinically important interactions. For nalidixic acid, oxolinic acid, and tosufloxacin, food exerted a high positive impact on bioavailability (AUC or C increased by > 45%), whereas, for all the remaining drugs, postprandial absorption was lower. The most significant negative influence of food (AUC or C decreased by > 40%) occurred for delafloxacin capsules and norfloxacin, whereas the moderate influence (AUC or C decreased by 30-40%) occurred for nemonoxacin and rufloxacin. All 14 analysed quinolones showed a substantial reduction in bioavailability when co-administered with antacids and mineral supplements, except for calcium preparations. The impact of beverages was evaluated for 10 quinolones, with 50% experiencing significantly reduced absorption in the presence of milk (the highest negative impact for ciprofloxacin). Moreover, both ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin demonstrated compromised bioavailability when consumed with orange juice, particularly calcium-fortified.
DISCUSSION
Several factors may influence interactions, including the physicochemical characteristics of quinolones, the type of intervention, drug formulation, and the patient's health status. We assessed the quality of evidence as low due to the poor actuality of included studies, their methodological diversity, and uneven data availability for individual drugs.
PubMed: 38807006
DOI: 10.1007/s40262-024-01377-0 -
Environmental Science and Pollution... Jun 2024Soil contamination, land desertification and concrete cracking can have significant adverse impacts on sustainable human economic and societal development.... (Review)
Review
Application of microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) process in concrete self-healing and environmental restoration to facilitate carbon neutrality: a critical review.
Soil contamination, land desertification and concrete cracking can have significant adverse impacts on sustainable human economic and societal development. Cost-effective and environmentally friendly approaches are recommended to resolve these issues. Microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) is an innovative, attractive and cost-effective in situ biotechnology with high potential for remediation of polluted or desertified soils/lands and cracked concrete and has attracted widespread attention in recent years. Accordingly, the principles of MICP technology and its applications in the remediation of heavy metal-contaminated and desertified soils and self-healing of concrete were reviewed in this study. The production of carbonate mineral precipitates during the MICP process can effectively reduce the mobility of heavy metals in soils, improve the cohesion of dispersed sands and realize self-healing of cracks in concrete. Moreover, CO can be fixed during MICP, which can facilitate carbon neutrality and contribute to global warming mitigation. Overall, MICP technology exhibits great promise in environmental restoration and construction engineering applications, despite some challenges remaining in its large-scale implementation, such as the substantial impacts of fluctuating environmental factors on microbial activity and MICP efficacy. Several methods, such as the use of natural materials or wastes as nutrient and calcium sources and isolation of bacterial strains with strong resistance to harsh environmental conditions, are employed to improve the remediation performance of MICP. However, more studies on the efficiency enhancement, mechanism exploration and field-scale applications of MICP are needed.
Topics: Calcium Carbonate; Construction Materials; Environmental Restoration and Remediation; Carbon; Soil; Soil Pollutants
PubMed: 38806987
DOI: 10.1007/s11356-024-33824-7 -
Biomaterials Advances Jul 2024Engineered calcium carbonate (CaCO) particles are extensively used as drug delivery systems due to their availability, biological compatibility, biodegradability, and...
Engineered calcium carbonate (CaCO) particles are extensively used as drug delivery systems due to their availability, biological compatibility, biodegradability, and cost-effective production. The synthesis procedure of CaCO particles, however, suffers from poor reproducibility. Furthermore, reducing the size of CaCO particles to <100 nm requires the use of additives in the reaction, which increases the total reaction time. Here we propose on-chip synthesis and loading of nanoscaled CaCO particles using microfluidics. After the development and fabrication of a microfluidic device, we optimized the synthesis of CaCO NPs by varying different parameters such as flow rates in the microfluidic channels, concentration of reagents, and the reaction time. To prove the versatility of the used synthesis route, we performed single and double loading of CaCO NPs with various compounds (Doxorubicin, Cy5 or FITC conjugated with BSA, and DNA) using the same microfluidic device. Further, the on-chip loaded CaCO NPs were used as carriers to transfer compounds to model cells. We have developed a microfluidic synthesis method that opens up a new pathway for easy on-chip fabrication of functional nanoparticles for clinical use.
Topics: Calcium Carbonate; Nanoparticles; Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; Doxorubicin; Humans; Microfluidics; Microfluidic Analytical Techniques; Drug Carriers; Particle Size; DNA
PubMed: 38805763
DOI: 10.1016/j.bioadv.2024.213904 -
Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) May 2024The shift of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) from prescription to nonprescription (nonRx) status in Canada has altered pharmacist treatment options for heartburn. This...
The shift of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) from prescription to nonprescription (nonRx) status in Canada has altered pharmacist treatment options for heartburn. This report examines pharmacist approaches to therapy based on case severity; pharmacist confidence and consult duration were also explored. A 2022 online survey gathered data from Ontario and Québec pharmacists regarding their therapeutic approaches for two hypothetical heartburn cases. A total of 715 pharmacists participated, with most having 1-10 years of experience. In Ontario, common choices for the milder case included a solo histamine-2 receptor antagonist (H2RA) (21.2%), combination H2RA + antacid (29.4%), and nonRx PPI (22.3%). For the more severe case, common choices for Québec were switches to nonRx H2RA (22.1%), combination H2RA + antacid (13.4%), a nonRx PPI (24.9%), or prescription PPI (22.5%). Pharmacists often recommended switching medications or referring patients with recurring symptoms after seven days. The approaches varied significantly between cases and provinces. The Ontario pharmacists favoured a combination H2RA + antacid for the milder case, while the Québec pharmacists preferred a solo H2RA. For the more severe case, both groups often chose nonRx H2RA followed by nonRx PPI. Despite the differences, the pharmacists demonstrated confidence in managing these situations. These findings highlight potential debates regarding optimal therapeutic approaches and the impact of drug scheduling on patient care.
PubMed: 38804473
DOI: 10.3390/pharmacy12030081 -
The Science of the Total Environment Aug 2024Cyanobacterial blooms have been a growing problem in water bodies and attracted attention from researcher and water companies worldwide. Different treatment methods have...
Cyanobacterial blooms have been a growing problem in water bodies and attracted attention from researcher and water companies worldwide. Different treatment methods have been researched and applied either inside water treatment plants or directly into reservoirs. We tested a combination of coagulants, polyaluminium chloride (PAC) and iron(III) chloride (FeCl), and ballasts, luvisol (LUV) and planosol (PLAN), known as the 'Floc and Sink' technique, to remove positively buoyant cyanobacteria from a tropical reservoir water. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) based on Central Composite Design (CCD) was used to optimize the two reaction variables - coagulant dosage (x) and ballast dosage (x) to remove the response variables: chlorophyll-a, turbidity, true color, and organic matter. Results showed that the combination of LUV with PAC effectively reduced the concentration of the response variables, while PLAN was ineffective in removing cyanobacteria when combined to PAC or FeCl. Furthermore, FeCl presented poorer floc formation and lower removal efficiency compared to PAC. This study may contribute to the theoretical and practical knowledge of the algal biomass removal for mitigating eutrophication trough different dosages of coagulants and ballasts.
Topics: Cyanobacteria; Eutrophication; Water Purification; Chlorides; Flocculation; Ferric Compounds; Aluminum Hydroxide; Soil
PubMed: 38795993
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173378