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Processes
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Drug Discovery and Delivery Processes
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Drug Discovery and Delivery Processes

A special issue of Processes (ISSN 2227-9717). This special issue belongs to the section "Pharmaceutical Processes".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 November 2021) | Viewed by 8757

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Neeraj Chauhan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Immunology & Microbiology, School of Medicine, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, McAllen, TX 78504, USA
Interests: cancer therapeutics; drug delivery; nanomedicine; targeted therapy; drug repurposing

Special Issue Information

Drug discovery and development for a given health condition require a number of years to bring a drug candidate to the market. In addition to clinical trials, basic laboratory research, including in vitro and in vivo work, plays an equally important role in the discovery of a molecule. Identifying a biological target that could be a protein, DNA, or RNA, and designing a molecule for that target is the first step in drug discovery and development processes. A recent development for faster and safer drug discovery and development process is drug repurposing or repositioning. Drug repurposing consists of using a previously developed drug for a new indication. As the safety and efficacy profiles of these drugs are already known, this is an easier, faster, and more affordable means to develop a drug for a new therapeutic condition. Over the past many years, researchers have been working on developing methods to improve drug delivery processes, and nanotechnology stands out as one of the most adopted and successful techniques for that purpose. Improving drug solubility and bioavailability and minimizing non-specific drug toxicity are the main aims of nanotherapy. Considering the importance of the processes that are used to discover, develop, and/or deliver drugs, we aim to release this Special Issue entitled as “Drug Discovery and Delivery Processes”.

This Special Issue will include but is not limited to areas related to drug discovery and development, delivery processes, drug targeting, nanotechnology, and drug repurposing. For the successful release of this Special Issue, we invite original research articles, reviews, clinical trial reports, short/mini articles and reviews, editorials, opinions, and/or conference notes covering the topics on drug discovery and delivery method developments.

Dr. Neeraj Chauhan
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Processes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • drug discovery
  • drug development
  • drug repurposing
  • nanotechnology
  • targeted drugs
  • drug delivery
  • nanomedicines
  • clinical trials
  • basic research
  • method development

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

27 pages, 5464 KiB  
Article
5-Fluorouracil Loaded Biogenic and Albumin Capped Gold Nanoparticles Using Bacterial Enzyme—In Vitro-In Silico Gastroplus® Simulation and Prediction
by Wael A. Mahdi, Afzal Hussain and Mohd. Ramzan
Processes 2020, 8(12), 1579; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/pr8121579 - 30 Nov 2020
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1975
Abstract
The study investigated in situ biosynthesis of albumin capped 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) loaded gold nanoparticles (NPs) using bacterial extract for enhanced efficacy against MCF-7 and in silico prediction using a GastroPlus® software. The optimized formulations were characterized for morphology, size, zeta potential, drug [...] Read more.
The study investigated in situ biosynthesis of albumin capped 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) loaded gold nanoparticles (NPs) using bacterial extract for enhanced efficacy against MCF-7 and in silico prediction using a GastroPlus® software. The optimized formulations were characterized for morphology, size, zeta potential, drug loading (%DL) and entrapment (%EE), compatibility, in vitro drug release, in vitro hemolysis, cellular toxicity and apoptosis studies. The results exhibited highly dispersed albumin capped mono-metallic stable NPs. Spherical size, negative zeta potential and polydispersity index were in range of 38.25–249.62 nm, 18.18–29.87 mV and 0.11–0.283, respectively. F11, F7 and F3 showed a progressive increase in %DL and %EE with increased concentration of the cellular lysate (100% > 50% > 10%). The drug release was relatively extended over 48 h as compared to drug solution (96.64% release within 5 h). The hemolysis result ensured hemocompatibility (<14%) at the explored concentration. The biogenic F11 was more cytotoxic (81.99% inhibition by F11 and 72.04% by pure 5-FU) to the MCF-7 cell lines as compared to others which may be attributed to the preferential accumulation by the tumor cell and capped albumin as the source of energy to the cancer cells. Finally, GastroPlus® predicted the key factors responsible for improved pharmacokinetics parameters and regional absorption from various segments of human intestine. Thus, the approach can be more efficacious and suitable to control breast cancer when administered transdermally or orally. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drug Discovery and Delivery Processes)
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19 pages, 3901 KiB  
Article
Novel Hemocompatible Imine Compounds as Alternatives for Antimicrobial Therapy in Pharmaceutical Application
by Mohammad A. Altamimi, Afzal Hussain, Sultan Alshehri, Syed Sarim Imam, Abdulmalik Alnami and Ahmed Bari
Processes 2020, 8(11), 1476; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/pr8111476 - 17 Nov 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2987
Abstract
The aim of this study was to synthesize, characterize, and evaluate neoteric imine compounds for antimicrobial activity and hemocompatibility. Four compounds were synthesized using 3-thiophene carboxaldehyde, ethanol, amine, and acetic acid. The compounds were characterized using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, Fourier transform [...] Read more.
The aim of this study was to synthesize, characterize, and evaluate neoteric imine compounds for antimicrobial activity and hemocompatibility. Four compounds were synthesized using 3-thiophene carboxaldehyde, ethanol, amine, and acetic acid. The compounds were characterized using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD). A solubility study was conducted with various solvents and surfactants at 40 °C. An in vitro antimicrobial assay was performed against bacterial and fungal strains to determine the zone of inhibition and minimum inhibitory concentrations. Finally, an in vitro hemolysis study was conducted using rat erythrocytes. The structure of the compounds was confirmed by NMR, FTIR corroborated their functional group attributes, DSC determined their enthalpies of fusion and fusion temperatures, and PXRD confirmed their crystalline nature. These compounds were water-insoluble but soluble in chloroform, with a maximum solubility of ~80 mg/mL. The antimicrobial assay suggested that two of the products exerted potent activities against C. albicans and several bacterial strains. Finally, hemolysis analysis excluded the possibility of hemolysis at the assessed concentrations. In conclusion, two of the novel imine compounds showed promise as antimicrobial agents to control local and systemic microbial infections in a suitable dosage form. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drug Discovery and Delivery Processes)
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9 pages, 3300 KiB  
Article
Targeting Collagen Type III in Proteinuric Kidney Disease: Informing Drug Potential Using the Jaccard–Tanimoto Index
by Michelle Liu, Anoushka Dalvi, Sony Dalapati, Natalia Prakash, Zhijian Hu, Ping Zhou, Kai Jiang, Anthony Pellicano, Itzhak D. Goldberg and Prakash Narayan
Processes 2020, 8(8), 996; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/pr8080996 - 16 Aug 2020
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3200
Abstract
Collagenofibrotic glomerulopathy, a collagen type III kidney disease, is associated with proteinuria and accumulation ofcollagen type III in the glomerulus specifically the mesangium and/or capillary walls. The puromcyin aminonucleoside (PAN) nephropathy model was evaluated to examine the relation between COL3A1 mRNA and proteinuria. [...] Read more.
Collagenofibrotic glomerulopathy, a collagen type III kidney disease, is associated with proteinuria and accumulation ofcollagen type III in the glomerulus specifically the mesangium and/or capillary walls. The puromcyin aminonucleoside (PAN) nephropathy model was evaluated to examine the relation between COL3A1 mRNA and proteinuria. In Wistar rats administered PAN, a robust increase in proteinuria was accompanied by glomerular hypertrophy and expansion of both the Bowman’s capsule and Bowman’s space. An ~4-fold increase in renal COL3A1 mRNA was observed in the PAN cohort with urine protein exhibiting a direct (r = 0.8) and significant correlation with kidney COL3A1 mRNA level. Both Picrosirius red polarized microscopy and immunohistochemical analysis showed localization of collagen type III to the glomerular mesangium. Gene ontology-driven transcriptomic analysis reveals a robust COL3A1 network in the glomerular compartment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drug Discovery and Delivery Processes)
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