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Liver fibrosis refers to a complex inflammatory response caused by multiple factors, which is a known cause of liver cirrhosis and even liver cancer. As a valuable medicine food homology herb, saffron has been widely used in the world. Saffron is commonly used in liver-related diseases and has rich therapeutic and health benefits. The therapeutic effect is satisfactory, but its mechanism is still unclear. In order to clarify these problems, we planned to determine the pharmacological effects and mechanisms of saffron extract in preventing and treating liver fibrosis through network pharmacology analysis combined with in vivo validation experiments. Through UPLC-Q-Exactive-MS analysis, a total of fifty-six nutrients and active ingredients were identified, and nine of them were screened to predict their therapeutic targets for liver fibrosis. Then, network pharmacology analysis was applied to identify 321 targets for saffron extract to alleviate liver fibrosis. Functional and pathway enrichment analysis showed that the putative targets of saffron for the treatment of hepatic fibrosis are mainly involved in the calcium signaling pathway, the HIF-1 signaling pathway, endocrine resistance, the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, lipid and atherosclerosis, and the cAMP signaling pathway. Based on the CCl4-induced liver fibrosis mice model, we experimentally confirmed that saffron extract can alleviate the severity and pathological changes during the progression of liver fibrosis. RT-PCR and Western blotting analysis confirmed that saffron treatment can prevent the CCl4-induced upregulation of HIF-1α, VEGFA, AKT, and PI3K, suggesting that saffron may regulate AKT/HIF-1α/VEGF and alleviate liver fibrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advent of nanotechnology, DNA molecules have been transformed from solely genetic information carriers to multifunctional materials, showing a tremendous potential for drug delivery and disease diagnosis. In drug delivery systems, DNA is used as a building material to construct drug carriers through a variety of DNA self-assembly methods, which can integrate multiple functions to complete in vivo and in situ tasks. In this study, ladder-shaped drug carriers are developed for drug delivery on the basis of a DNA nanoladder. We first demonstrate the overall structure of the nanoladder, in which a nick is added into each rung of the nanoladder to endow the nanoladder with the ability to incorporate a drug loading site. The structure is designed to counteract the decrement of stability caused by the nick and investigated in different conditions to gain insight into the properties of the nicked DNA nanoladders. As a proof of concept, we fix the biotin in every other nick as a loading site and assemble the protein (streptavidin) on the loading site to demonstrate the feasibility of the drug-carrying function. The protein can be fixed stably and can be extended to different biological and chemical drugs by altering the drug loading site. We believe this design approach will be a novel addition to the toolbox of DNA nanotechnology, and it will be useful for versatile applications such as in bioimaging, biosensing, and targeted therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ZL-004, a promising small molecule that increases white blood cell counts, was developed for extended-release nanosuspensions to improve low solubility and compliance of patients. In vivo pharmacokinetic studies of nanosuspensions with different particle sizes and administration volumes were conducted. Unexpectedly, Cmax of NS-PC-L (1156 nm) was 1.3 fold higher than NS-PB-L (836 nm), and area under plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) was similar. It suggested that in vivo behavior of nanosuspensions was influenced significantly by the original dissolved drug, which did not only rely on the particle size but also the amount of the free stabilizers. In addition, smaller administration volume (0.1 mL) achieved significantly lower Cmax and AUC than the higher volume (0.5 mL), due to the reduced amount of dissolved drug. DSC and XPRD demonstrated that the crystal forms of nanosuspensions prepared by the precipitation method and high-pressure homogenization were similar; therefore, in vivo behaviors did not show significant differences. An additional 0.15% PEG 4000 enhanced the redispersity and maintained the particle size for 3 months. Finally, a nanosuspensions with the desired initial release was achieved, which lasted approximately 32 days steadily after a single dose. AUC and t1/2 were 161.2 fold and 22.9 fold higher than oral administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]