Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Commons^™

Pamam Dendrimers As Promising Nanocarriers For Rnai Therapeutics, Prashant Kesharwani, Sanjeev Banerjee, Umesh Gupta, Mohd Cairul Iqbal Mohd Amin, Subhash Padhye, Fazlul H. Sarkar, Arun K. Iyer

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Therapeutics based on RNA interference mechanisms are highly promising for the management of several diseases including multi-drug resistant cancers. However, effective delivery of siRNAs and oligonucleotides still remains challenging. In this regard, hyper-branched, PAMAM dendrimers having unique three-dimensional architecture and nanoscale size, with cationic surface charge can potentially serve as siRNA condensing agents as well as robust nano-vectors for targeted delivery. In addition, their surface functionality permits conjugation of drugs and genes or development of hybrid systems for combination therapy. Thus far, in vitro cellular testing of dendrimer-mediated siRNA delivery has revealed great potential, with reports on their in vivo …

Ebola Virus Infection: Overview And Update On Prevention And Treatment, Miguel J. Martínez, Abdulbaset M. Salim, Juan C. Hurtado, Paul E. Kilgore

Department of Pharmacy Practice

In 2014 and 2015, the largest Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in history affected large populations across West Africa. The goal of this report is to provide an update on the epidemic and review current progress in the development, evaluation and deployment of prevention and treatment strategies for EVD. Relevant information was identified through a comprehensive literature search using Medline, PubMed and CINAHL Complete and using the search terms Ebola, Ebola virus disease, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, West Africa outbreak, Ebola transmission, Ebola symptoms and signs, Ebola diagnosis, Ebola treatment, vaccines for Ebola and clinical trials on Ebola. Through 22 July …

Polymeric Nanoparticle-Based Delivery Of Microrna-199a-3p Inhibits Proliferation And Growth Of Osteosarcoma Cells, Linlin Zhang, Arun K. Iyer, Xiaoqian Yang, Eisuke Kobayashi, Yuqi Guo, Henry Mankin, Francis J. Hornicek, Mansoor M. Amiji, Zhenfeng Duan

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Our prior screening of microRNAs (miRs) identified that miR-199a-3p expression is reduced in osteosarcoma cells, one of the most common types of bone tumor. miR-199a-3p exhibited functions of tumor cell growth inhibition, suggesting the potential application of miR-199a-3p as an anticancer agent. In the study reported here, we designed and developed a lipid-modified dextran-based polymeric nanoparticle platform for encapsulation of miRs, and determined the efficiency and efficacy of delivering miR-199a-3p into osteosarcoma cells. In addition, another potent miR, let-7a, which also displayed tumor suppressive ability, was selected as a candidate miR for evaluation. Fluorescence microscopy studies and real-time polymerase chain …

Clinical Evaluation Of Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (Lamp) Assay For Rapid Detection Of Neisseria Meningitidis In Cerebrospinal Fluid, Dokyung Lee, Eun Jin Kim, Paul E. Kilgore, Soon Ae Kim, Hideyuki Takahashi, Makoto Ohnishi, Dang Duc Anh, Bai Qing Dong, Jung Soo Kim, Jun Tomono, Shigehiko Miyamoto, Tsugunori Notomi, Dong Wook Kim, Mitsuko Seki

Department of Pharmacy Practice

Background

Neisseria meningitidis (Nm) is a leading causative agent of bacterial meningitis in humans. Traditionally, meningococcal meningitis has been diagnosed by bacterial culture. However, isolation of bacteria from patients’ cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is time consuming and sometimes yields negative results. Recently, polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based diagnostic methods of detecting Nm have been considered the gold standard because of their superior sensitivity and specificity compared with culture. In this study, we developed a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) method and evaluated its ability to detect Nm in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).

Methodology/Principal Findings

We developed a meningococcal LAMP assay (Nm LAMP) that targets …

Filamin A Phosphorylation By Akt Promotes Cell Migration In Response To Arsenic, Lingzhi Li, Yongju Lu, Paul M. Stemmer, Fei Chen

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

We had previously reported that trivalent arsenic (As³⁺), a well-known environmental carcinogen, induces phosphorylation of several putative Akt substrates. In the present report, we characterized one of these substrates by immunoprecipitation and proteomics analysis. The results indicate that a cytoskeleton remodeling protein, filamin A, with a molecular weight around 280 kDa, is phosphorylated by Akt in HEK-293 cells treated with As³⁺, which was also confirmed in human bronchial epithelial cell line, BEAS-2B cells. Additional biochemical and biological studies revealed that serine 2152 (S2152) of filamin A is phosphorylated by activated Akt in the cells treated with …

Mdr1 Sirna Loaded Hyaluronic Acid-Based Cd44 Targeted Nanoparticle Systems Circumvent Paclitaxel Resistance In Ovarian Cancer, Xiaoqian Yang, Arun K. Iyer, Amit Singh, Edwin Choy, Francis J. Hornicek, Mansoor M. Amiji, Zhenfeng Duan

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Development of multidrug resistance (MDR) is an almost universal phenomenon in patients with ovarian cancer, and this severely limits the ultimate success of chemotherapy in the clinic. Overexpression of the MDR1 gene and corresponding P-glycoprotein (Pgp) is one of the best known MDR mechanisms. MDR1 siRNA based strategies were proposed to circumvent MDR, however, systemic, safe, and effective targeted delivery is still a major challenge. Cluster of differentiation 44 (CD44) targeted hyaluronic acid (HA) based nanoparticle has been shown to successfully deliver chemotherapy agents or siRNAs into tumor cells. The goal of this study is to evaluate the ability of …