Biolmpacts
Volume:6 Issue: 1, Mar 2016

During recent years¡ nanoscaled materials have gained much attention because of their applications in the field of pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences. Electrospinning/electrospraying¡ as simple¡ effective and single-step methods¡ are used in the preparation of nanostructured materials (nanofibers and nanobeads). They offer an opportunity for direct encapsulation of the different types of drug molecules. The generatednanomaterials possess high surface area with porous characteristics¡ and the liberation of the loaded drugs follows a controlled-release pattern. Because of their wide applications in medical/ pharmaceutical researches¡ the aim of this editorial is to highlight the importance of electrospinning/ electrospraying technologies in drug delivery.

Sulfasalazine is a drug commonly administrated against inflammatory-based disorders. On the other hand, kidney and liver injury are serious adverse events accompanied by sulfasalazine administration. No specific therapeutic option is available against this complication. The current investigation was designed to evaluate the potential protective effects of taurine against sulfasalazine-induced kidney and liver injury in rats.
Male Sprague-Dawley rats were administered with sulfasalazine (600 mg/kg, oral) for 14 consecutive days. Animals received different doses of taurine (250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg, i.p.) every day. Markers of organ injury were evaluated on day 15th, 24 h after the last dose of sulfasalazine.
Sulfasalazine caused renal and hepatic injury as judged by an increase in serum level of creatinine (Cr), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP). The levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and lipid peroxidation were raised in kidney and liver of sulfasalazine-treated animals. Moreover, tissue glutathione reservoirs were depleted after sulfasalazine administration. Histopathological changes of kidney and liver also endorsed organ injury. Taurine administration (250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg/day, i.p) alleviated sulfasalazine-induced renal and hepatic damage.
Taurine administration could serve as a potential protective agent with therapeutic capabilities against sulfasalazine adverse effects.

The goal of the study described here, was to investigate the potential of umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cell (UC-MSCs) into hepatocyte like cells in a sequential 2D and 3D differentiation protocols as alternative therapy.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were isolated from the umbilical cord (UC) and CD markers were analyzed by flow cytometry. For hepatic differentiation of UC-MSCs, cells were induced with a sequential 4-step protocol in 3D and 2D culture system. Urea concentration and albumin secretion into the culture medium was quantified by ELISA. Gene expression levels of AFP, ALB, and CK18 were determined by RT-PCR. Data were statistically analyzed by the SPSS software. The difference between the mean was considered significant when p Growth factor dependent morphological changes from elongated fibroblast-like cells to round epithelial cell morphology were observed in 2D culture. Cell proliferation analysis showed round-shaped morphology with clear cytoplasm and nucleus on the alginate scaffold in 3D culture. The mean valuses of albumin production and urea secretion were significantly higher in the 3D Culture system when compared with the 2D culture (p = 0.005 vs p = 0.001), respectively. Treatment of cells with TSA in the final step of differentiation induced an increased expression of CK18 and a decreased expression of αFP in both the 3D and 2D cultures (p = 0.026), but led to a decreased albumin gene expression, and an increased expression in the 2D culture (p = 0.001).
Findings of the present study indicated that sequential exposure of UC-MSCs with growth factors in 3D culture improves hepatic differentiation.

Cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) represent a powerful tool in cardiac regenerative medicine. Pre-clinical studies suggest that most of the beneficial effects promoted by the injected cells are due to their paracrine activity exerted on endogenous cells and tissue. Exosomes are candidate mediators of this paracrine effects. According to their potential, many researchers have focused on characterizing exosomes derived from specific cell types, but, up until now, only few studies have analyzed the possible in vitro effects of bovine serum-derived exosomes on cell proliferation or differentiation.
The aim of this study was to analyse, from a qualitative and quantitative point of view, the in vitro effects of bovine serum exosomes on human CPCs cultured either as cardiospheres or as monolayers of cardiosphere-forming cells.
Effects on proliferation, yield and molecular patterning were detected. We show, for the first time, that exogenous bovine exosomes support the proliferation and migration of human cardiosphere-forming cells, and that their depletion affects cardiospheres formation, in terms of size, yield and extra-cellular matrix production.
These results stress the importance of considering differential biological effects of exogenous cell culture supplements on the final phenotype of primary human cell cultures.

microRNAs (miRNAs) are considered to be novel molecular biomakers that could be exploited in the diagnosis and treatment of different diseases. The present study aimed to develop an efficient miRNA isolation method from different clinical specimens.
Total RNAs were isolated by Trizol reagent followed by precipitation of the large RNAs with potassium acetate (KCH3COOH), polyethylene glycol (PEG) 4000 and 6000, and lithium chloride (LiCl). Then, small RNAs were enriched and recovered from the supernatants by applying a combination of LiCl and ethanol. The efficiency of the method was evaluated through the quality, quantity, and integrity of the recovered RNAs using the A260/280 absorbance ratio, reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR), and quantitative real-time PCR (q-PCR).
Comparison of different RNA isolation methods based on the precipitation of DNA and large RNAs, high miRNA recovery and PCR efficiency revealed that applying potassium acetate with final precipitation of small RNAs using 2.5 M LiCl plus ethanol can provide high yield and quality small RNAs that can be exploited for clinical purposes.
The current isolation method can be applied for most clinical samples including cells, formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues and even body fluids with a wide applicability in molecular biology investigations.

Oxidative stress and carbonyl stress have essential mediatory roles in the development of diabetes and its related complications through increasing free radicals production and impairing antioxidant defense systems. Different chemical and natural compounds have been suggested for decreasing such disorders associated with diabetes. The objectives of the present study were to investigate the protective effects of Cucumis sativus (C. sativus) fruit (cucumber) in oxidative and carbonyl stress models. These diabetes-related models with overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive carbonyl species (RCS) simulate conditions observed in chronic hyperglycemia.
Cytotoxicity induced by cumene hydroperoxide (oxidative stress model) or glyoxal (carbonyl stress model) were measured and the protective effects of C. sativus were evaluated using freshly isolated rat hepatocytes.
Aqueous extract of C. sativus fruit (40 μg/mL) prevented all cytotoxicity markers in both the oxidative and carbonyl stress models including cell lysis¡ ROS formation¡ membrane lipid peroxidation¡ depletion of glutathione¡ mitochondrial membrane potential decline¡ lysosomal labialization¡ and proteolysis. The extract also protected hepatocytes from protein carbonylation induced by glyoxal. Our results indicated that C. sativus is able to prevent oxidative stress and carbonyl stress in the isolated hepatocytes.
It can be concluded that C. sativus has protective effects in diabetes complications
and can be considered a safe and suitable candidate for decreasing the oxidative stress and
carbonyl stress that is typically observed in diabetes mellitus.

Buerger’s disease is an occlusive arterial disease that occurs mainly in medium and small vessels. This disease is associated with Tobacco usage. The existence of corkscrew collateral is one of the established characteristics of the Buerger’s disease.
In this study, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of blood flow within the corkscrew artery of the Buerger’s disease is conducted. The geometry of the artery is constructed based on the actual corkscrew artery of a patient diagnosed with the Buerger’s disease. The blood properties are the same as the actual blood properties of the patient. The blood flow rate is taken from the available experimental data in the literature.
The local velocity patterns, pressure and kinematic viscosity distributions in different segments of the corkscrew collateral artery was demonstrated and discussed for the first time for this kind of artery. The effects of non-Newtonian consideration for the blood viscosity behavior were investigated in different segments of the artery. Moreover, the variations of the blood flow patterns along the artery were investigated in details for each segment.
It was found that the flow patterns were affected by the complex geometry of this artery in such a way that it could lead to the presence of sites that were prone to the accumulation of the flowing particles in blood like nicotine. Furthermore, due to the existence of many successive bends in this artery, the variations of kinematic viscosity along this artery were significant, therefore the non-Newtonian behavior of the blood viscosity must be considered.

Ocular targeted therapy has enormously been advanced by implementation of new methods of drug delivery and targeting using implantable drug delivery systems (DDSs) or devices (DDDs), stimuli-responsive advanced biomaterials, multimodal nanomedicines, cell therapy modalities and medical bioMEMs. These technologies tackle several ocular diseases such as inflammation-based diseases (e.g., scleritis, keratitis, uveitis, iritis, conjunctivitis, chorioretinitis, choroiditis, retinitis, retinochoroiditis), ocular hypertension and neuropathy, age-related macular degeneration and mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) due to accumulation of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). Such therapies appear to provide ultimate treatments, even though much more effective, yet biocompatible, noninvasive therapies are needed to control some disabling ocular diseases/disorders.
In the current study, we have reviewed and discussed recent advancements on ocular targeted therapies.
On the ground that the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic analyses of ophthalmic drugs need use of special techniques, most of ocular DDSs/devices developments have been localized within the eye. Application of advanced DDSs such as Subconjunctival insert/implants (e.g., latanoprost implant, Gamunex-C), episcleral implant (e.g., LX201), cationic emulsions (e.g., Cationorm™, Vekacia™, Cyclokat™), intac/punctal plug DDSs (latanoprost punctal plug delivery system, L-PPDS), and intravitreal implants (I-vitaion™, NT-501, NT-503, MicroPump, Thethadur, IB-20089 Verisome™, Cortiject, DE-102, Retisert™, Iluvein™ and Ozurdex™) have significantly improved the treatment of ocular diseases. However, most of these DDSs/devices are applied invasively and even need surgical procedures. Of these, use of de novo technologies such as advanced stimuli-responsive nanomaterials, multimodal nanosystems (NSs)/nanoconjugates (NCs), biomacromolecualr scaffolds, and bioengineered cell therapies need to be further advanced to get better compliance and higher clinical impacts.
Despite mankind successful battle on ocular diseases, our challenge will continue to battle the ocular disease that happen with aging. Yet, we need to understand the molecular aspects of eye diseases in a holistic way and develop ultimate treatment protocols preferably as non-invasive systems.