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What Are Chelating Agents?
Chelating agents are organic compounds capable of linking together metal ions to form complex ring-like structures called chelates. They are also known as chelants, chelators, or sequestering agents. What Are Natural Chelating Agents? Citric, malic, lactic, and tartaric acids and certain amino acids are naturally occurring chelating agents, but they are not as powerful as EDTA. The EDTA (ethylene-diamine-tetraacetic acid) molecule is a chelating agent widely used in molecular biology to sequester divalent and trivalent metal ions such as calcium and magnesium. What Is a Typical Chelating Agent? An example of a simple chelating agent is ethylenediamine. A single molecule of ethylenediamine can form two bonds to a transition-metal ion…
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What is Nano Dressing
Nanotechnology has not only received attention and applications in the field of drug delivery, but also has achieved many successes in the field of tissue engineering. Nano dressings can be defined as dressings in which nanomaterials are the matrix. The birth of nano dressings has brought new treatment methods for wound repair and burn care, such as nanohydrogels, nanofibers, nanomembranes, dendrimers, and polymer conjugates (acting as drugs release in the process of wound treatment, growth factor supplementation and/or artificial skin effect). The role of nano-dressing includes anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory, acting on tissue functional cells, optimizing and improving the matrix, and promoting the proliferation and differentiation of stem cells. Features of…
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What is microneedle
Microneedles are delicate clusters of fine needles made by micro-manufacturing technology. The length is 1-150μm, which is enough to penetrate the stratum corneum or active epidermis of human skin, but does not touch the nerves, has no pain, and has continuous promotion of drug transdermal delivery. Microneedle technology has the comprehensive characteristics of subcutaneous injection and ordinary transdermal patches. Its advantages include: 1. It can deliver macromolecules through the stratum corneum, and is suitable for the transdermal delivery of peptides, proteins and other macromolecular drugs, and even drug-loaded nanoparticles; 2. Compared with the painful subcutaneous injection, the microneedle is almost non-invasive and painless, and has good patient compliance; 3. The…
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Common Non-Viral Gene Vectors
Gene therapy is the transfection of genes (plasmid DNA, siRNA and miRNA, etc.) into specific cells to promote or inhibit the expression of the target protein to achieve the purpose of treating human diseases. Because RNA and DNA gene fragments are negatively charged and are easily degraded by nucleases, it is difficult to pass through negatively charged cell membranes. Therefore, selecting appropriate gene carriers to protect and transport gene fragments into cells is an urgent problem to be solved. Viral vectors and non-viral vectors are the two most commonly used gene transfer vectors. Although viral vectors have high transfection efficiency, their shortcomings such as immunogenicity, tumorigenicity, and difficulty in mass…
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Nano Non-Viral Gene Vector
Gene therapy is the introduction of exogenous normal genes or genes with therapeutic effects into target tissues or target cells through vectors or other means, and appropriate expression to treat diseases. The key of gene therapy is to obtain efficient and safe gene delivery vectors. Vectors for gene delivery are generally classified into viral vectors and non-disease vectors. Viral vectors are the most widely used gene vectors, including retroviruses, adenoviruses, adeno-associated viruses and lentiviruses. The biggest advantage of viral vectors is the high transfection rate, but they also have many disadvantages, such as the difficulty of virus preparation, the limited size of loaded foreign DNA, cytotoxicity, immunogenicity, carcinogenicity, etc., and…
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What Are Sterols?
Sterols are essential components of the membranes of all eukaryotic organisms, controlling membrane fluidity and permeability. Sterols are the third class of lipids, which play multiple roles that either individually or collectively influence cell processes, and through charge and structure they are involved in DNA replication, protein translocation, cell recognition, signalling pathways, energetic, signal transduction, and cell trafficking. Sterols regulate biological processes and sustain the domain structure of cell membranes where they are considered as membrane reinforcers . What are the examples of sterols? Cholesterol is the main animal sterol, while β-sitosterol, campesterol, stigmasterol, brassicasterol, avenasterol, and stigmastenol are major plant sterols present in vegetable oils at much higher levels than…
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What Are Detergents?
Detergents are amphipathic molecules with a polar portion and a hydrophobic portion. Detergents respond to an aqueous environment following the same principles as do membrane lipids. What Are the Forms of Detergents? Detergents can exist in three environments in aqueous media. Detergents have a limited solubility in the aqueous phase, characterized by the CMC, or critical monomer concentration (or critical micelle concentration). Above the CMC, detergents form micelles. In the presence of membranes, detergents can also partition into the membrane. In the latter case, sufficient detergent will lead to transfer of membrane components, including membrane lipids and membrane proteins, into the detergent micelles. What can Detergents Used for? Detergent micelles can…
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The Route And Process Of Ocular Administration
The eye is a special sensory organ of the human body and an important part of the body. Ocular lesions are closely related to and interact with other tissue system lesions throughout the body. The special structure and physiological characteristics of the eye make ophthalmic drugs have their own characteristics in the way and route of administration. Most drugs enter the aqueous humor through the cornea, and then are distributed in surrounding tissues, such as the ciliary body, lens, vitreous body, choroid, retina, and a small amount of drugs enter the pigment membrane and vitreous body through the conjunctiva and sclera . There is a barrier between the tissue fluid…
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Overview and Characteristics Of Ophthalmic Nano Drug Delivery System
Most ophthalmic drugs are administered locally in the conjunctival sac, and the most commonly used dosage form is eye drops. Due to various physiological barriers, the eye bioavailability of eye drops is extremely low, generally less than 5%. On the one hand, the main reason is the rapid elimination rate of the drug on the ocular surface and short residence time. Most of the drugs instilled in the eye are lost quickly with the tears (partly absorbed by the conjunctiva and nasal mucosa into the systemic circulation), and partly bound by the contents of the tears or Decomposition; On the other hand, the absorption of the corneal route and the…
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A Few Tips To Better Know About Neutral Lipids
What Are Neutral Lipids? Neutral lipids are defined as hydrophobic molecules lacking charged groups. Neutral lipids, such as cholesteryl ester (CE), triacylglycerol (TAG), and wax ester (WE), provide organisms with inert forms of energy used in conditions of nutrient deprivation and environmental stress. They also provide an excellent “sink” to buffer the toxic effects of fatty acids and fatty alcohols. Elevated cytoplasmic deposition of neutral lipids (primarily CE and TAG) is a significant risk factor for several disease pathologies, including diabetes, obesity, atherosclerosis, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (41, 53, 101). For example, the accumulation of CE in smooth muscle cells and macrophages in the vessel wall comprises the earliest recognizable stage…
