11 research outputs found

    Development of lutein nanocarrier and evaluation of its effect on retinal angiogenesis in the hyperglycaemic animal model.

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    Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a frequent microvascular complication of diabetes and a major cause of vision loss globally. DR ranked as the fifth most common cause of preventable blindness and the fifth most common cause of moderate to severe visual impairment. The low bioavailability of the drugs at the target site imposed by the anatomic and physiologic barriers within the eye requires long-term treatments with frequent injections that often compromise patient’s compliance and increase the risk of developing more complications. In recent years, much effort has been put towards developing new drug delivery platforms aiming to enhance their permeation, prolong their retention time at the target site and provide a sustained release profile with reduced toxicity and improved efficacy. Hence, the present study aimed to enhance lutein bioavailability and bioefficacy by encapsulating it in a hybrid polymer-lipid-based nanocarrier system. It is hypothesized that the “Lutein loaded nanocarrier system enhances the solubility, stability bioavailability and bioefficacy of lutein and also helps in slow and controlled release of lutein at the target site to modulate oxidative stress and inflammation in delaying or preventing retinal angiogenesis through the restoration of angiogenic markers in STZ induced diabetic rat”

    Boosting Curcumin Bioavailability: Unveiling the Potential of Sodium Caseinate Nanoparticle Microneedle Patches

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    Curcumin is a well-known anti-obesity compound with limited clinical application due to its poor bioavailability at the target site. Hence, we hypothesized that the curcumin sodium caseinate nanoparticles (CNC) loaded in microneedle patches (MNPs) may improve curcumin bioavailability. The CNC were prepared with a microemulsion technique using clove oil, sodium casein- ate to form nanoparticles and PEG 400 as a stabilizer and exhibited smaller particle size (100–250 nm) and polydispersity index (0.201) with higher zeta potential (−45 mV) and entrapment efficiency (90%–95%). The CNC improved solubility, bioaccessibility (7.2 fold) and bioavailability (2.6 fold) compared to native curcumin. Further, the CNC-loaded MNPs were developed by the micro-molding and displayed a slow and controlled release of curcumin with superior bioavailability in the plasma (200 ng/mL) and adipose (435 ng/mL) tissue of C57BL6 mice. Overall, the study advocates the novel CNC-loaded MNPs as a potential cur- cumin delivery tool for treating obesity

    Lutein encapsulated oleic - linoleic acid nanoemulsion boosts oral bioavailability of the eye protective carotenoid lutein in rat model

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    There is great interest in emerging colloidal delivery systems to enhance the water solubility and oral bioavailability of lutein, a hydrophobic carotenoid claimed to possess health benefits. The present study aimed to design lutein-enriched nanoemulsions with improved physicochemical properties and achieve various health benefits. The prepared lutein nanoemulsion was characterized and its bioavailability was examined in vitro (simulated gastrointestinal digestion) and in vivo. The mean size, PDI and zeta potential of the lutein nano�emulsion were 110 ± 8 nm, 0.271 and 36 ± 2 mV, respectively. Furthermore, TEM examination revealed that the particles are nanosized and spherical. Notably, the aqueous solubility of the nanoemulsion was 726-fold higher than that of free lutein. The composite nanoemulsion also showed exceptionally higher (87.4 %) in vitro bio�accessibility than nonencapsulated or free lutein (15 %). The in vivo bioavailability of lutein nanoemulsion (112.6 ng/mL) was much higher than that of nonencapsulated lutein (48.6 ng/mL) and mixed micelles (68.5 ng/ mL) and the tissue distribution pattern of lutein nanoemulsion showed higher lutein accumulation in the liver (2.80 and 1.70 fold) and eye (1.91 and 1.48 fold) compared to free lutein and mixed micelle-fed groups. These results suggested that oleic acid-linoleic acid composite nanoemulsions may be a promising delivery system for lutein and may help enhance the solubility, oral bioavailability and bioefficacy of lutein and could be used as an ingredient for the formulation of beverages or functional foods

    Numerical investigation of aerospike semi-cone angle and a small bump on the spike stem in reducing the aerodynamic drag and heating of spiked blunt-body: New correlations for drag and surface temperature

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    Aerodynamic drag and heat reduction effectivity of the aerospike attached to the blunt-body at various aerospike semi-cone angles (θ S), lateral injection from the aerospike stem, and a small bump on the aerospike stem, at different Mach number is numerically investigated. An open-source computational fluid dynamics code, i.e., rhoCentralFoam, a density-based solver in OpenFOAM is employed to solve the governing equations of supersonic turbulent flow. Menter's two-equation turbulence model, i.e., k - ω shear stress transport model is employed for turbulence modeling. A significant reduction in the total drag force (T D f) on the blunt-body is observed with the increase in aerospike θS at a fixed spike length (L)/blunt-body diameter (D) ratio for Mach 2 and 5. With the increase in θ S > 15 ° for L/D = 1 and θ S > 10 ° for L/D = 2, a significant decrease in the magnitude of coefficient of pressure is observed for Mach 5. Results show a maximum percentage reduction of 23.611% and 61.414% in TDf at L/D = 2 and θ S = 45 ° for Mach 2 and 5, respectively. Correlations are developed for the estimation of total drag force on the blunt-body and average surface temperature of the nose at Mach 2 and 5. Lateral injection substantially improves the aerodynamic heat reduction capability of the aerospike owing to the rapid expansion of the injectant in the main flow. An alternate passive technique (a small bump on the spike stem) capable of producing higher aerodynamic drag reduction compared to the active technique (i.e., lateral injection) is proposed. The small bump on the spike facilitates an early initiation of boundary layer separation and leads to the formation of a large recirculation zone ahead of the nose. Results indicate a higher reduction in aerodynamic drag with the increase in bump height (H B) compared to lateral and no injection at Mach 2 and 5. Present results have been validated with the experimental results available in the literature. © 2021 Author(s)

    Using a Bacterial Protein to Selectively Target Bacterial Biofilms: Treatment of S. epidermidis Biofilms with Targeted Photothermal Gold Nanoparticle

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    Biofilm-related infections are associated with high mortality and morbidity combined with increased treatment costs. Traditional antibiotics are becoming less effective due to the emergence of drug-resistant bacterial strains. The need to treat biofilms on medical implants is particularly acute, and one persistent challenge is selectively directing nanoparticles to the biofilm site. Here, we present a protein-based functionalization strategy that targets the extracellular matrix of biofilms. The engineered protein combines the Staphylococcus epidermidis autolysin R2ab domain with a gold-binding GB3 domain, directing nanoparticles specifically to bacterial cell wall components (lipoteichoic acid and wall teichoic acid) that are absent in mammalian tissues. This fusion protein is applied to a gold nanoparticle (AuNP) core, along with elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs), which generate a robust photothermal response. The engineered particles exhibit exceptional biocompatibility, including low protein corona formation, minimal macrophage uptake, and hemocompatibility, while maintaining selective biofilm targeting. The photothermal conversion can be modulated by changing the ELP transition temperature, and the functionalized AuNPs strongly interact with biofilms under static and flow conditions without significantly binding to serum-coated surfaces. Near-infrared laser irradiation resulted in a 10,000-fold improvement in killing efficiency compared to untreated controls (p \u3c 0.0001). The targeting strategy utilized here represents a versatile approach to targeting drug-resistant infections and could be readily expanded to other bacterial pathogens and anti-biofilm nanoparticle platforms

    Mixed Culture Microalgae-Based Coconut Biodiesel as Fuel to Improve DI CI Engine Performance, Emission Characteristics

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    The depleting Fossil fuels reserves are caused to look into new Renewable energy sources to fulfill Diesel fuel demand in developing countries such as India. Increasing urbanization is lead to the search for new alternative sources like biodiesel. In India demand of diesel fuel in Industry and Transportation sector. To resolve all the above problems, researchers, scientists were produced biodiesel from first, second and third generation biodiesel sources. Among all the sources Algae was the most Oil rich sources. The byproducts in algae to biodiesel conversion process are most valuable than other. In the present work author tried to work in a new approach, i.e. the mixed culture algae particles are emulsified in pure Coconut biodiesel fuel by using TritonX-100 as a surfactant to prepare an emulsified fuel. This fuel sample was applied to DI CI engine to improve performance, emission characteristics. The experimental results were shown that there is the improvement in diesel engine performance; emission characteristics especially break thermal efficiency and NOx emission reduction than diesel fuel due to its clean combustion.</jats:p
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