German A. Islan

• National University of La Plata

This study investigated the use of riboflavin-targeted Nanostructured Lipid Carriers (R-NLCs) to deliver a platinum-based anticancer drug [PtCl(8-O-quinolinate)(dmso)] (8-QO-Pt) to colorectal cancer cells. Three different R-8-QO-Pt-NLC formulations were prepared via hot-homogenization by ultrasonication method. The physicochemical characterizations...

Background/Objectives: Drug repurposing explores new applications for approved medications, such as simvastatin (SV), a lipid-lowering drug that has shown anticancer potential but is limited by solubility and side effects. This study aims to enhance SV delivery and efficacy against lung cancer cells using bioactive lipid nanoparticles formulated wi...

Over 300 million people worldwide suffer from chronic hepatitis B virus infections that can cause serious liver damage and hepatocellular carcinoma. Ineffective innate and adaptive immune responses characterize these chronic infections, making the development of a therapeutic vaccine an urgent medical need. While current vaccines can prevent HBV in...

The liver, which plays pivotal roles in metabolism and immunity, often confers tolerance, suppressing immune responses to pathogens. Adjuvanted, lipid nanoparticle-encapsulated mRNA vaccines (mRNA-LNPs) offer a promising approach to overcome immune tolerance. In this study, the immunostimulatory activity of well-documented adjuvants, i.e., 2′3′-cyc...

Introduction: Bovine mastitis is a major infectious disease affecting dairy cattle, impacting public health and milk industry profitability. Staphylococcus aureus is a contagious pathogen responsible for causing bovine subclinical mastitis. Its pathogenesis and antimicrobial resistance highlight the need for alternative treatments, being the nanoen...

Gaucher Disease (GD) is a genetic disorder with defective activity of the lysosomal enzyme glucocerebrosidase. Velaglucerasa alfa is a recombinant glucocerebrosidase used for enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) of GD. Due to its limited stability and bioavailability, the use of nanosized systems carrying Velaglucerase alfa is proposed as a novel strat...

The objective of this study was to develop two lipid nanoparticle (LNP) formulations capable of efficiently expressing a reporter mRNA while co-delivering the anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone (DX) to reduce inflammatory side effects in protein replacement therapies. Two types of LNPs were developed, in which 25% of cholesterol was replaced by D...

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) tailored for mRNA delivery were optimized to serve as a platform for treating metabolic diseases. Four distinct lipid mixes (LMs) were formulated by modifying various components: LM1 (ALC-0315/DSPC/Cholesterol/ALC-0159), LM2 (ALC-0315/DOPE/Cholesterol/ALC-0159), LM3 (ALC-0315/DSPC/Cholesterol/DMG-PEG2k), and LM4 (DLin-MC3...

In the global context of excessive and indiscriminate application of synthetic agrochemicals, this work combined natural compounds and nanotechnology to develop eco-friendly and sustainable agricultural systems with antifungal action. Cannabis (C) is composed of a large number of phytocannabinoids and terpenes and exhibit important biological prope...

Chagas disease is a neglected endemic disease prevalent in Latin American countries, affecting around 8 million people. The first-line treatment, benznidazole (BNZ), is effective in the acute stage of the disease but has limited efficacy in the chronic stage, possibly because current treatment regimens do not eradicate transiently dormant Trypanoso...

Violacein is a pigment produced by Gram-negative bacteria, which has shown several beneficial biological activities. The most relevant activities of violacein include the interference in the physiological activities of biological membranes, inhibition of cell proliferation, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activities. Moreover, the antiviral acti...

Colorectal cancer is occasionally called colon or rectal cancer, depending on where cancer begins to form, and is the second leading cause of cancer death among both men and women. The platinum-based [PtCl(8-O-quinolinate)(dmso)] (8-QO-Pt) compound has demonstrated encouraging anticancer activity. Three different systems of 8-QO-Pt-encapsulated nan...

Geraniol (GOH) is a linear monoterpene alcohol found in essential oils of plants and herbs with multiple pharmacological properties, including anticancer activity. Due to its poor water solubility and volatility, GOH stability, administration, and bioavailability in physiological conditions should be improved to develop efficient carrier systems. T...

Staphylococcus aureus es un patógeno importante para la salud pública, capaz de formar biofilms que lo protegen contra los antibacterianos. El aceite esencial (AE) de Melaleuca armillaris ha demostrado ser eficaz in vitro frente a S. aureus. La nanotecnología permite encapsular AEs, favoreciendo su protección, liberación controlada y reduciendo la...

Vitamin E (VitE) is one of the most important antioxidants and plays a key role in decreasing the inflammatory effects of oxidative stress caused by recurrent doses of iron administration in anemia treatment. However, VitE is poorly soluble in aqueous environments. Here, VitE encapsulation into solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) composed of myristil m...

Bacterial resistance to antimicrobials is continuously representing a high risk for public health. Staphylococcus aureus is a pathogen causative of different infectious illnesses in humans and animals. One of the most important virulence factors is the ability to form biofilms, that protect bacteria against hostile conditions and antibacterial comp...

Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) by microdilution method and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of EO alone, EO-nanoencapsulated and empty nanoparticles were determined against 3 MRSA, 3 MSSA and S. aureus ATCC 29213 (control strain). EO-containing nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) were prepared by sonication: 400 mg Myristyl myristat...

This research focused on the formulation of Ca2+ cross-linked alginate (Alg) gels containing Zingiber officinale oil extract (ZOE) loaded into a nanostructured lipid carrier (NLC). The NLC is intended to protect the Zingiber officinale oil against physical and chemical degradation during topical administration to sustain the drug release and reduce...

Pharmacological treatments of central nervous system diseases are always challenging due to the restrictions imposed by the blood–brain barrier: while some drugs can effectively cross it, many others, some antiepileptic drugs among them, display permeability issues to reach the site of action and exert their pharmacological effects. The development...

Liver inflammation represents a major clinical problem in a wide range of pathologies. Among the strategies to prevent liver failure, dexamethasone (DXM) has been widely used to suppress inflammatory responses. The use of nanocarriers for encapsulation and sustained release of glucocorticoids to liver cells could provide a solution to prevent sever...

Pigments are among the most fascinating molecules found in nature and used by human civilizations since the prehistoric ages. Although most of the bio-dyes reported in the literature were discovered around the eighties, the necessity to explore novel compounds for new biological applications has made them resurface as potential alternatives. Prodig...

This study aimed to encapsulate and characterize a potential anti-tuberculosis copper complex (CuCl2(INH)2.H2O:I1) into polymeric nanoparticles (PNs) of polymethacrylate copolymers (Eudragit®, Eu) developed by nanoprecipitation method. NE30D, S100 and, E100 polymers were tested. The physicochemical characterizations were performed by DLS, TEM, FTIR...

Antibiotic resistance is a significant challenge in the clinical practice. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a multidrug-resistant opportunistic pathogen prevalent in hospital settings. Besides, P. aeruginosa forms biofilms that aggravate the problem since biofilms are more resilient to conventional decontamination methods than their planktonic counterpart...

Epilepsy is the second most common chronic central nervous system disorder. Oxcarbazepine (OXC) is an antiepileptic drug with low solubility in aqueous media but is used for the treatment of both focal and generalized seizures. Studies of OXC encapsulation in nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) composed of cetyl palmitate and oleic acid coated wit...

The development of versatile carriers to deliver chemotherapeutic agents to specific targets with establishing drug release kinetics and minimum undesirable side effects is becoming a promising relevant tool in the medical field. Magnetic hybrid nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) were prepared by incorporation of 1,8-cineole (CN, a monoterpene wit...

Enzymes exhibit a tremendous potential due to the catalytic activity in response to physiological conditions and specific microenvironments. Exploiting these properties in combination with the versatility of biopolymers, a fascinating field for the rational development of a new class of “smart” delivery systems for therapeutic molecules is proposed...

The development of smart nanoparticles (NPs) became a trend to enhance the delivery of drugs. In the present work, Tobramycin (TB), an aminoglycoside antibiotic that displays several undesirable side effects, has been encapsulated into cationic Eudragit®E100 (E100) NPs for the treatment of infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Combination wi...

Nanotechnology has recently emerged as a promising tool in biomedicine research. An important branch of nanotechnology is drug delivery (DD) and drug targeting using a wide range of biomaterials with promising potential applications in many diseases. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the evolution of nanotechnology in controlled...

In the global context of emerging pathogens associated with respiratory diseases, novel nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) having both antioxidant and antimicrobial properties produced by α-tocopherol (αT) and levofloxacin (LV) respectively, were developed. Hybrid NLCs were made of solid lipid esters and liquid αT as central core, plus chitosan (...

Drug controlled release technologies (DCRTs) represent an opportunity for designing new therapies. Main objectives are dose number optimization and secondary effects reduction to improve the level of patient/client acceptance. The present work studies DCRTs based in blended polymeric implants for single dose and long-term therapies of florfenicol (...

Violacein (Viol) is a pigment produced by several Gram-negative bacteria with many bioactivities, such as anticancer, virucide, and antiparasitic. However, violacein is insoluble under physiological conditions preventing its potential therapeutic uses. Surface-active ionic liquids (SAILs) based on the cation 1-alkylimidazolium ([CnHim]) with n = 10...

The discovery of new alternatives for the treatment of infectious diseases has become the focus of burgeoning global interest. The complexation of the wide-spectrum antibiotic nalidixic acid (NA) with oxidovanadium(IV) ion and its incorporation into hybrid nanoparticulate systems were explored. The V-NA complex proved to be a stronger antimicrobial...

Ceftiofur is a third-generation cephalosporin approved to treat numerous infections in production animals. Its commercial formulations are administered daily due to the mean life time, leading to several inconveniences, like operative challenges and non-uniform plasma levels. The objective of this work was to microencapsulate ceftiofur in chitosan...

Biopolymeric blends based on bacterial cellulose (BC) films modified with low molecular weight chitosan (Chi) were developed for controlled release of ciprofloxacin (Cip). Biophysical studies revealed a compatible and cooperative network between BC and Chi including deep structural changes in the BC matrix shown by spectroscopic and thermal analyse...

Florfenicol (FF) is a broad-spectrum antibiotic with the drawback of poor solubility in physiological media. Despite vehiculization of FF become an alternative, current devices usually showed low encapsulation efficiencies (EE) and uncontrolled fast release. In the present work, a novel drug delivery system based on alginate and Eudragit RS® (EuRS)...

In the global context of an imminent emergence of multidrug-resistant microorganisms, the present work combined the use of nanotechnology and the therapeutic benefits of natural compounds as a strategy to potentiate antimicrobial action of the wide-spectrum antibiotic Ofloxacin (Ofx). Hybrid solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) were synthesized by incor...

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have emerged as an interesting tool with high potential in the medical field and as a promising alternative against multidrug-resistant microorganisms. Green chemical synthesis of AuNPs conjugated with the flavonoid silybin (S) to generate a nano-system with dual antibacterial and antioxidant properties were performed. Th...

Nanotechnology could be defined as the manipulation of atoms and molecules to design, develop, and apply natural and artificial structures and/or devices with special purposes or applications and superior biophysical properties. This expanding field is now providing powerful tools for the pharmaceutical industry such as polymeric, solid lipid, meta...

Chrysin (5,7-dihydroxyflavone) (Chrys) is a natural flavone extracted from many plants, and it has been proposed as a bioactive agent for cancer therapy. Nevertheless, its use is limited mainly due to its poor water solubility. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) is a water soluble, biocompatible and non-toxic protein with a promising application in lipophi...

The development of simple, fast and reproducible techniques that provide information about the antioxidant activity (AA) of different compounds is essential to screen and discover new molecules with potential applications in the therapeutic, cosmetic, toxicological and food fields. Here, a novel and simple colorimetric method ("BCB assay") is propo...

The use of hybrid materials, where a matrix sustains nanoparticles controlling the release of the chemotherapeutic drug, could be beneficial for the treatment of primary tumors prior or after surgery. This localized chemotherapy would guarantee high drug concentrations at the tumor site while precluding systemic drug exposure minimizing undesirable...

Levofloaxin (Levo) and Human Serum albumin (HSA) were succesfulli incorportated into novel biopolymeric films based on bacterial cellulose (BC) modified with high methoxylated pectin (HMP). Incorporation efficiencies of both cargo molecules were determined using films with different HMP content (from 0.1% to 2.0%) with a maximum drug payload of 6.2...

Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) and nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) represent promising alternatives for drug delivery to the central nervous system. In the present work, four different nanoformulations of the antiepileptic drug Carbamazepine (CBZ) were designed and prepared by the homogenization/ultrasonication method, with encapsulation effic...

In this study, the culture conditions necessary for the effective production of kefiran, using whey as a substrate, were evaluated through the one-factor-at-a-time and central-composite design methods. Using the optimal factors (whey supplemented with 15% (w/v) glucose fermented at 30 °C for 10 h without shaking), 0.20 g·L−1·h−1 kefir grains compos...

The study of neglected diseases is an important topic and deeply discussed in the newspapers, publications, and research foundations in the world. However, unfortunately no public or private attention has been paid on this issue. Still old drugs are being used, and very few are new for these diseases. Nanobiotechnology has appeared as a new strateg...

Background: Lipid nanoparticles are considered one of the most promising systems for controlled release of therapeutic molecules highly hydrophobic and with low biodisponibility. Solid lipid nanoparticles and nanostructured lipids carriers are widely seen as the workhorses of drug delivery systems because of low toxicity, enhanced encapsulation ca...

The applications of pharmaceutical and medical nanosystems are among the most intensively investigated fields in nanotechnology. A relevant point to be considered in the design and development of nanovehicles intended for medical use is the formation of the “protein corona” around the nanoparticle, i.e., a complex biomolecular layer formed when the...

Linalool (LN) is a monoterpene found in essential oils of plants and herbs that produces multiple effects on the mevalonate pathway and interesting antiproliferative activity in cancer cells. However, due to its poor aqueous solubility, an efficient vehicle is needed to improve its administration and bioavailability in physiological media. LN encap...

Current medical treatments against recurrent pulmonary infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, such as cystic fibrosis (CF) disease, involve the administration of inhalable antibiotics. The main challenge is, however, the erradication of microbial biofilms immersed in a dense mucous that requires high and recurrent antibiotic doses. Accordingl...

The study of neglected diseases has not received much attention, especially from public and private institutions over the last years, in terms of strong support for developing treatment for these diseases. Support in the form of substantial amounts of private and public investment is greatly needed in this area. Due to the lack of novel drugs for t...

Recent studies in cystic fibrosis (CF) transmembrane regulator (CFTR) mutations and function have shed light on its involvement in disease progression. The extent of cell and tissue distribution of CFTR facilitates systemic dysfunction of ion transport in patients carrying a mutation in CFTR, however, its incidences as cofounding risk factor to dev...

Therapeutic enzymes are one of the most promising applications of this century in the field of pharmaceutics. Biocatalyst properties can be improved by enzyme immobilization on nanoobjects, thereby increasing stability and reusability and also enhancing the targeting to specific tissues and cells. Therapeutic biocatalyst–nanodevice complexes will p...

Ciprofloxacin is a broad-spectrum antibiotic associated with gastric and intestinal side effects after extended oral administration. Alginate is a biopolymer commonly employed in gel synthesis by ionotropic gelation, but unstable in the presence of biological metal-chelating compounds and/or under dried conditions. Kefiran is a microbial biopolymer...

Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) program although was successfully applied for the last 40 years by UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO now changed due to current challenges and this active program requires new and innovative solutions. Among neglected diseases, one of important issue in the world actually is infection through Aedes aegypti. Surveillance...

Levofloxacin (LV) is a hydrophilic broad-spectrum antibiotic commonly used in pulmonary treatment against recurrent infections of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and particularly in cystic fibrosis (CF) disease. In order to study feasible carriers for LV, solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) of myristyl myristate were prepared by the ultrasonication method in t...

Recent studies in cystic fibrosis (CF) transmembrane regulator (CFTR) mutations and function have shed light on its involvement in disease progression. The extent of cell and tissue distribution of CFTR facilitates systemic dysfunction of ion transport in patients carrying a mutation in CFTR, however, its incidences as co-founding risk factor to de...

ct Nanotechnology has been growing fast as a new area for oral delivery of molecules with biological interest. Common drugs from the market usually show numerous side effects in the organism and a relative poor biodisponibility. In this sense, smart nanodevices encapsulating drugs provide an alternative to avoid the barriers that affect stability o...

Hypothesis: Biopolymer-CaCO3 hybrid microparticles exposed to hydrolytic enzymes can provide new surface tailorable architectures. Soluble Alginate lyase hydrolyzed alginate chains exposed on microparticle surface are generating considerable matrix changes. The change of porosity and surface to volume ratio is expected to influence absorption of dr...

Alginate and low methoxylated pectin gel matrices emulsified with oleic acid were studied for phage oral delivery. Matrix structural analysis revealed that emulsified pectin (EP) gel microbeads were harder and more cohesive than those of emulsified alginate (EA). EP showed high swelling capacity and slower matrix degradation in aqueous media, sugge...

Alginate lyase (AL) from Sphingobacterium multivorum is unsuitable for oral delivery because of rapid inactivation under acidic conditions. The synthesis of a novel crosslinking enzyme aggregate (CLEA) of AL (AL-CLEA) is proposed. AL precipitation with 95% ammonium sulfate and combined with low methoxylated pectin (LMP), showed 100% precipitation y...

Context: Ciprofloxacin (Cip) is a broad spectrum antibiotic frequently used in the treatment of infectious diseases caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Cip oral administration is commonly associated with poor drug biodisponibility, gastrointestinal tract irritation, and toxic undesirable side effects. Objective: The aim of this work is to provide...

Stability of nano-objects should be considered in both ways such as static and dynamic, both directly related to their applications and uses. Nano-objects stability can be determined by their physicochemical properties and by the interactions and their effects in a cell, tissue, organ and/or physiology and structure of an entire organism. Nanotoxic...

A new formulation is described based on biopolymeric microspheres containing alginate lyase (AL) and ciprofloxacin (Cip) for sustainable oral delivery in CF patients. Alginate (ALG) and high-methoxyl pectin (HMP) are selected as the biopolymers to develop a composite matrix. ALG microspheres coated with HMP and ALG-HMP blend are gelled in water/org...

Phage therapy by oral administration requires enhanced resistance of phages to the harsh gastric conditions. The aim of this work is the microencapsulation of phages in natural biopolymeric matrices as a protective barrier against the gastric environment. Alginate and pectin are used as base polymers. Further emulsification with oleic acid or coati...

Screening of ciprofloxacin (Cip) with selected biopolymers brings about 90% antibiotic interactions with a coacervate composed of alginate/high metoxylated pectin in 2:1 ratio. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis provides information about the nature of this interaction, revealing ionic and hydrophobic patterns among the molecules. Alg...