Lipid Nanoarchitectonics for Natural Products Delivery in Cancer Therapy

3D printed scaffolds with quercetin and vitamin D3 nanocarriers: In vitro cellular evaluation

Increasing bone diseases and anomalies significantly challenge bone regeneration, necessitating the development of innovative implantable devices for effective healing. This study explores the potential of 3D-printed calcium phosphate (CaP) scaffolds functionalized with natural medicine to address this issue. Specifically, quercetin and vitamin D3 (QVD) encapsulated solid lipid nanoparticles (QVD-SLNs) are incorporated into the scaffold to enhance bone regeneration. The melt emulsification method is utilized to achieve high drug encapsulation efficiency (~98%) and controlled biphasic release kinetics. The process-structure-property performance of these systems allows more controlled release while maintaining healthy cell-material interactions. The functionalized scaffolds show ~1.3- and ~-1.6-fold increase in osteoblast cell proliferation and differentiation, respectively, as compared with the control. The treated scaffold demonstrates a reduction in osteoclastic activity as compared with the control. The QVD-SLN-loaded scaffolds show ~4.2-fold in vitro chemopreventive potential against osteosarcoma cells. Bacterial assessment with both Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa shows a significant reduction in bacterial colony growth over the treated scaffold. These findings summarize that the release of QVD-SLNs through a 3D-printed CaP scaffold can treat various bone-related disorders for low or non-load-bearing applications.

Drug delivery strategies through 3D-printed calcium phosphate

3D printing has revolutionized bone tissue engineering (BTE) by enabling the fabrication of patient- or defect-specific scaffolds to enhance bone regeneration. The superior biocompatibility, customizable bioactivity, and biodegradability have enabled calcium phosphate (CaP) to gain significance as a bone graft material. 3D-printed (3DP) CaP scaffolds allow precise drug delivery due to their porous structure, adaptable structure-property relationship, dynamic chemistry, and controlled dissolution. The effectiveness of conventional scaffold-based drug delivery is hampered by initial burst release and drug loss. This review summarizes different multifunctional drug delivery approaches explored in controlling drug release, including polymer coatings, formulation integration, microporous scaffold design, chemical crosslinking, and direct extrusion printing for BTE applications. The review also outlines perspectives and future challenges in drug delivery research, paving the way for next-generation bone repair methodologies.

A sustainable RP-HPLC method for concurrent estimation of capecitabine and celecoxib in liposomal formulation: Greenness and whiteness appraisal

Liposomes have been reported for combination therapy due to their ability to carry both hydrophilic and lipophilic drugs together. The current investigation aims to develop a novel, eco-friendly, and sustainable reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method for the simultaneous quantification of capecitabine and celecoxib co-encapsulated in liposomes. The method reported herein uses a C18 column (4.6 × 250 mm2, 5 μm) and a mobile phase consisting of water, and acetonitrile/methanol in a ratio of 60:40, containing 0.1% formic acid in both the phases. The flow rate is maintained at 1 mL/min, with an injection volume of 10 μL in the gradient mode. Detection is set at λmax = 240 nm for capecitabine and 252 nm for celecoxib. The developed liposomes are mono-disperse with a surface potential of -6.93 mV. The average size of the liposomes is 142 nm. The percentage entrapment efficiency for capecitabine is 52.39 ± 0.94%, and for celecoxib, it is 77.13 ± 0.74%. The Analytical Greenness Metric of 0.61 and Analytical Eco-Scale Score of 75 signify the greenness of the developed method. Also, the Red-Green-Blue model shows excellent whiteness, with a score of 83.2. Thus, the developed method offers a reliable, accurate, precise, buffer-free, and environment-friendly RP-HPLC approach for the simultaneous analysis of capecitabine and celecoxib co-encapsulated in liposomes.

Porphyrin and doxorubicin mediated nanoarchitectonics of copper clusters: a bimodal theranostics for cancer diagnosis and treatment in vitro

Nanoarchitectonics, an emerging strategy, presents a promising alternative for developing highly efficient next-generation functional materials. Multifunctional materials developed using nanoarchitectonics help to mimic biological molecules. Porphyrin-based molecules can be effectively utilized to design such assemblies. Metal nanocluster is one of the functional materials that can shed more insight into developing nanoarchitectonic materials. Herein, an inherently near-infrared (NIR) fluorescing copper nanocluster (CuC)-mediated structural assembly via protoporphyrin IX (PPIX) and doxorubicin (Dox) is demonstrated as the functional material. Dox-loaded porphyrin-mediated CuC assembly shows singlet oxygen generation and 66% drug release at 15 min. Furthermore, the efficacy of this material is tested for cancer diagnosis and bimodal therapeutic strategy due to the fluorescing ability of the cluster and loading of PPIX as well as the drug, respectively. The nanoarchitecture exhibits targeted imaging and 83% cell death in HeLa cells upon laser irradiation with 10 nmoles and 20 nmoles of PPIX and Dox, respectively.