Nucleic acids, DNA and RNA, not only allow transfer and replication of densely coded genetic information, but also act as danger signals triggering innate immune response. Recent progress in the design and construction of nano-sized structures using DNA has opened a new field of nanotechnology. The unique properties of nano-sized DNA constructs can be exploited to develop programmable materials...

It is therapeutically desirable to effectively deliver ceramide, an antimitogenic and proapoptotic lipid second messenger, to transformed cell types. However, the targeted delivery of cell-permeable ceramide analogs, including C6-ceramide, to cells may be impeded by the hydrophobicity of these bioactive lipids, resulting in reduced efficacy. The objective of this study is to develop and optimiz...

Since 1960 when the history of modern hydrogels began significant progress has been made in the field of controlled drug delivery. In particular, recent advances in the so-called smart hydrogels have made it possible to design highly sophisticated formulations, e.g., self-regulated drug delivery systems. Despite intensive efforts, clinical applications of smart hydrogels have been limited. Smar...

Human cancer is one of the most important causes of death in western and industrialized countries. In advanced stages, therapeutic opportunities are still limited due to the difficulty to target specifically only cancer cells sparing healthy ones. Cancer often has specific molecular alterations of signal transduction pathway or of other molecules linked to the proliferation and wide spreading o...

Hyaluronic acid (HA) has currently several therapeutic applications: in ophthalmology, osteoarthritis, wound healing, tissue regeneration, postoperative anti-adhesion and anesthetic medicine. In the last ten years, it has also been successfully investigated in the field of drug delivery, in the form of conjugates or hydrogel depot systems. HAylation, the covalent conjugation of HA to bioactive ...

The brain is the center of the nervous system and an integral part of the body acting as a major regulating and conveying organ to maintain the body’s homeostasis in response to changes in both the external and internal surroundings. Brain consists of approximately 100 billion neurons and 1 trillion glial cells [1]. The connection between two neurons is known as synapse, which are responsible f...

Table olives and olive oil are sources of compounds with important biological properties and essential components of the Mediterranean Diet. For a long period the scientific community focused its attention mainly on the beneficial effects of olive oil on health. The importance of the edible processed fruit was rather overlooked. Table olives contain a large amount of high quality fat, essential...

RNA interference (RNAi) is a promising approach for cancer treatment. Site specific and controlled delivery of RNAi could be beneficial to the patient, while at the same time reducing undesirable off-target side effects. We utilized electrospinning to generate a biodegradable scaffold capable of incorporating and delivering a bioactive plasmid encoding for short hairpin (sh) RNA against the cel...