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Drug Delivery Systems for Anti-infectious, Anti-inflammatory and Anti-cancer Agents

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A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Products Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2021) | Viewed by 16107

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ewelina Piktel

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Department of Medical Microbiology and Nanobiomedical Engineering, Medical University of Bialystok, Bialystok, Poland
Interests: antimicrobial peptides; nanotechnology; membrane-active compounds; drug resistance
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Dr. Urszula Wnorowska

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Department of Medical Microbiology and Nanobiomedical Engineering, Medical University of Bialystok, Bialystok, Poland
Interests: antimicrobial peptides; bacterial drug resistance; cystic fibrosis
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Prof. Dr. Bogumil E. Brycki

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Department of Bioactive Compounds, Faculty of Chemistry, Adam Mickiewicz University, Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 8, 61-614 Poznan, Poland
Interests: organic synthesis; molecular interactions; surface chemistry; microbiocide chemistry; smart materials; corrosion inhibition; environmental chemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Despite the continuous development of new therapeutic methods allowing for more and more effective treatment of infectious, inflammatory, and neoplastic diseases, a number of clinically relevant issues, including the low specificity of some therapeutics as well as their high toxicity, have still not been resolved. The constantly growing phenomenon of drug resistance is also an extremely important problem. Notably, a reduction in therapeutic activity has been observed both in antimicrobial and anticancer drugs, which significantly increases the costs of hospitalization for patients, demands the use of potentially more toxic drug combinations, and increases the mortality among patients suffering from these life-threating medical conditions.

The available literature data indicate that the answer to these issues may be the use of drug delivery systems (DDS), which not only increase the therapeutic effectiveness of the drugs incorporated in such formulations, but also modulate their biological activity. The broad spectrum of available drug carriers, both of organic and inorganic origin, makes their employment a promising approach for the safe and effective therapy of drug-resistant infections, chronic inflammation, or malignancies. This Special Issue aims to expand our knowledge of newly developed drug delivery vehicles as well as explore novel possibilities to improve pharmacokinetic and pharmodynamic features of available drugs using those systems.

Dr. Ewelina Piktel
Dr. Urszula Wnorowska
Prof. Dr. Bogumil E. Brycki
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

antimicrobial drugs
anti-inflammatory drugs
anti-cancer drugs
drug resistance
drug delivery systems
pharmakokinetics of drugs
nanotechnology
lipid-based drug delivery vehicles
targeted therapy

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 4529 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Phosphate-Based Self-Immolative Linkers for the Delivery of Amine-Containing Drugs

by Mateja Đud, Markéta Tichotová, Eliška Procházková and Ondřej Baszczyňski

Molecules 2021, 26(17), 5160; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26175160 - 25 Aug 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3457

Abstract

Amine-containing drugs often show poor pharmacological properties, but these disadvantages can be overcome by using a prodrug approach involving self-immolative linkers. Accordingly, we designed l-lactate linkers as ideal candidates for amine delivery. Furthermore, we designed linkers bearing two different cargos (aniline and phenol) for preferential amine cargo release within 15 min. Since the linkers carrying secondary amine cargo showed high stability at physiological pH, we used our strategy to prepare phosphate-based prodrugs of the antibiotic Ciprofloxacin. Therefore, our study will facilitate the rational design of new and more effective drug delivery systems for amine-containing drugs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drug Delivery Systems for Anti-infectious, Anti-inflammatory and Anti-cancer Agents)

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13 pages, 5699 KiB

Open AccessArticle

In Vitro Antiviral Activity of α-Mangostin against Dengue Virus Serotype-2 (DENV-2)

by Kingshuk Panda, Kalichamy Alagarasu, Poonam Patil, Megha Agrawal, Ashwini More, Naveen V. Kumar, Prathama S. Mainkar, Deepti Parashar and Sarah Cherian

Molecules 2021, 26(10), 3016; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26103016 - 19 May 2021

Cited by 32 | Viewed by 4148

Abstract

Dengue virus (DENV), a member of the family Flaviviridae, is a threat for global health as it infects more than 100 million people yearly. Approved antiviral therapies or vaccines for the treatment or prevention of DENV infections are not available. In the present study, natural compounds were screened for their antiviral activity against DENV by in vitro cell line-based assay. α-Mangostin, a xanthanoid, was observed to exert antiviral activity against DENV-2 under pre-, co- and post-treatment testing conditions. The antiviral activity was determined by foci forming unit (FFU) assay, quantitative RT-PCR and cell-based immunofluorescence assay (IFA). A complete inhibition of DENV-2 was observed at 8 µM under the co-treatment condition. The possible inhibitory mechanism of α-Mangostin was also determined by docking studies. The molecular docking experiments indicate that α-Mangostin can interact with multiple DENV protein targets such as the NS5 methyltransferase, NS2B-NS3 protease and the glycoprotein E. The in vitro and in silico findings suggest that α-Mangostin possesses the ability to suppress DENV-2 production at different stages of its replication cycle and might act as a prophylactic/therapeutic agent against DENV-2. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drug Delivery Systems for Anti-infectious, Anti-inflammatory and Anti-cancer Agents)

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13 pages, 2781 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Budesonide-Loaded Pectin/Polyacrylamide Hydrogel for Sustained Delivery: Fabrication, Characterization and In Vitro Release Kinetics

by Manisha Pandey, Hira Choudhury, Sahleni Kaur D/O Segar Singh, Naveenya Chetty Annan, Subrat Kumar Bhattamisra, Bapi Gorain and Mohd Cairul Iqbal Mohd Amin

Molecules 2021, 26(9), 2704; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26092704 - 05 May 2021

Cited by 25 | Viewed by 3218

Abstract

A single ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that causes inflammation of the colonic mucosa at the distal colon and rectum. The mainstay therapy involves anti-inflammatory immunosuppression based on the disease location and severity. The disadvantages of using systemic corticosteroids for UC treatment is the amplified risk of malignancies and infections. Therefore, topical treatments are safer as they have fewer systemic side effects due to less systemic exposure. In this context, pH sensitive and enzymatically triggered hydrogel of pectin (PC) and polyacrylamide (PAM) has been developed to facilitate colon-targeted delivery of budesonide (BUD) for the treatment of UC. The hydrogels were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), swelling ratio, and drug release. FT-IR spectroscopy confirmed the grafting as well loading of BUD in hydrogel. XRD showed the amorphous nature of hydrogel and increment in crystallinity after drug loading. On the other hand, SEM showed that the hydrogels exhibited a highly porous morphology, which is suitable for drug loading and also demonstrated a pH-responsive swelling behaviour, with decreased swelling in acidic media. The in-vitro release of BUD from the hydrogel exhibited a sustained release behaviour with non-ficken diffusion mechanism. The model that fitted best for BUD released was the Higuchi kinetic model. It was concluded that enzyme/pH dual-sensitive hydrogels are an effective colon-targeted delivery system for UC. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drug Delivery Systems for Anti-infectious, Anti-inflammatory and Anti-cancer Agents)

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Review

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37 pages, 3698 KiB

Open AccessReview

Challenges and Progress in Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Co-Crystal Development

by Ilma Nugrahani and Rismaya Desti Parwati

Molecules 2021, 26(14), 4185; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26144185 - 09 Jul 2021

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 4515

Abstract

Co-crystal innovation is an opportunity in drug development for both scientists and industry. In line with the “green pharmacy” concept for obtaining safer methods and advanced pharmaceutical products, co-crystallization is one of the most promising approaches to find novel patent drugs, including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID). This kind of multi-component system improves previously poor physicochemical and mechanical properties through non-covalent interactions. Practically, there are many challenges to find commercially viable co-crystal drugs. The difficulty in selecting co-formers becomes the primary problem, followed by unexpected results, such as decreased solubility and dissolution, spring and parachute effect, microenvironment pH effects, changes in instability, and polymorphisms, which can occur during the co-crystal development. However, over time, NSAID co-crystals have been continuously updated regarding co-formers selection and methods development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drug Delivery Systems for Anti-infectious, Anti-inflammatory and Anti-cancer Agents)

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