As a result of the significant disruption that is being caused by the COVID-19 pandemic we are very aware that many researchers will have difficulty in meeting the timelines associated with our peer review process during normal times.  Please do let us know if you need additional time. Our systems will continue to remind you of the original timelines but we intend to be highly flexible at this time.

Read the featured article from the October 2020 issue!

Summary: The effect of local anesthetics, particularly those which are hydrophilic, such as tetrodotoxin (TTX), is impeded by tissue barriers that restrict access to individual nerve cells. Insonation has been used to disrupt vascular and cell membranes, which can facilitate transport of substances across biological barriers. Using an in vivo model of local anesthetic delivery, we investigated the effect of acoustic intensity on insonation-mediated delivery of local anesthetics to the peripheral nerve. We found that insonation at acoustic intensity greater than 0.5 W/cm² was capable of enhancing TTX delivery to the peripheral nerve but not bupivacaine, a more hydrophobic local anesthetic. The finding here suggests that the effect of insonation on local drug delivery to the peripheral nerve depends on the hydrophilic/hydrophobic balance of the drug.

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Summary: Sorafenib, a first-line drug for advanced liver cancer, exhibits low and inconsistent oral bioavailability due primarily to its poor aqueous solubility, extensive first-pass metabolism and high level drug efflux by P-gp. Administration of sorafenib at high doses, necessary for meaningful therapeutic action, increases the intensity of associated side effects. Therefore, efforts were undertaken to develop supersaturated Type-III self-emulsifying delivery system for efficient and safe delivery of sorafenib, capitalizing the ease of preparation, biocompatibility, biodegradability, ability to bypass first-pass metabolism, high drug loading capacity, colloidal stability for long-term storage, and excellent scalability. Promising outcomes in diverse experimental studies corroborate immense potential of the system in augmenting the chemotherapeutic efficacy of sorafenib while minimizing safety concern.

This paper was selected as the best paper of the August 2020 issue by the Guest Editors and Main Editors. This article will be Free-to-Access until 24 September, 2020.

Read the best article from the June 2020 issue!

Summary: Bevacizumab is a monoclonal antibody that specifically inactivates VEGF-A, resulting in a decrease of the development of tumor blood vessels and its growth. Currently, it is employed in the treatment of different types of tumors, particularly colorectal cancer. As for other biologicals, the benefits of bevacizumab are limited by a low capability to penetrate into the tumors that, in addition, may increase the risk of acquiring resistance. In this work, the effect of the nanoencapsulation of bevacizumab (in human serum albumin nanoparticles) was evaluated on a xenograft model of human colorectal cancer.   

The resulting nanoparticles demonstrated to be more effective in decreasing the glycolysis and metabolic tumor volume than the conventional treatment. This improvement was associated with a significantly higher accumulation of the monoclonal antibody in the tumor tissues when nanoencapsulated in human serum albumin nanoparticles.

This article was selected as the best article of the Nanomedicines Special Issue by the CRS Nanomedicine and Nanoscale Delivery Focus Group.