Despite advances in the development of new therapeutic agents and diagnostic imaging techniques, the 5-year survival of osteosarcoma, the most common type of bone cancer, remains practically unaltered for the last three decades at around 60%. Nanoparticle-based carriers have emerged as new class of drug delivery systems that could potentially overcome conventional chemotherapy limitations, by promoting a better drug biodistribution profile by allowing a preferential accumulation of the drug in the desired tissue, while minimising non-targeted tissue toxicity, thus resulting in an improved overall therapeutic effectiveness. Hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (HANP) are known to be biocompatible and non-immunogenic and have shown to be preferentially accumulated in bone tissues being considered a promising carrier to bone tissues. Herein, we successfully synthesised mesoporous hydroxyapatite nanoparticles with mean size of 285.32 ± 10.29 nm and superficial area of 103.5 m/g, containing significant quantities of chemotherapeutic drug vincristine. A spectrophotometric method was developed and validated aiming to quantify the vincristine (VCR)-loaded in nanoparticles. Chorioallantoic membrane assay revealed relevant anti-angiogenic activity of system, leading to accentuated reduction in the number of blood vessels in fertilised eggs. Findings presented in this paper suggested that VCR-loaded HANP has a promising future as a nanocarrier for bone cancer treatment.

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Seventeen borneol esters (1-17) were synthesised by conventional and microwave-assisted methodology using DIC/DMAP, and seven are described for the first time (8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16 and 17). The microwave-assisted methodology was carried out without use of solvents, displayed short reaction times, and showed equal or higher yields for all the long-chain esters and three aromatic compounds (11, 12 and 14) when compared to the conventional approach. All the borneol esters were evaluated against the bacteria Streptococcus sanguinis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and the fungus Candida albicans. Compounds 12, 13 and 14 displayed promising antibacterial activity with a MIC equal to ampicilin (62.5 mg mL) for some microorganisms. In fact, bornyl 3',4'-dimethoxybenzoate (13) was active against all tested bacteria and fungus.