Background: Endometriosis (EMS) is an estrogen-dependent disease in which endometrial glands and stroma arise outside the uterus. Current studies have suggested that the number and function of immune cells are abnormal in the abdominal fluid and ectopic lesion tissues of patients with EMS. The developed CIBERSORT method allows immune cell profiling by the deconvolution of gene expression microarray data.Methods: By applying CIBERSORT, we assessed the relative proportions of immune cells in 68 normal endometrial tissues (NO), 112 eutopic endometrial tissues (EU) and 24 ectopic endometrial tissues (EC). The obtained immune cell profiles provided enumeration and activation status of 22 immune cell subtypes. We obtained associations between the immune cell environment and EMS r-AFS stages. Macrophages were evaluated by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in 60 patients with ovarian endometriomas.Results: Total natural killer (NK) cells were significantly decreased in EC, while plasma cells and resting CD4 memory T cells were increased in EC. Total macrophages in EC were significantly increased compared to those of EU and NO, and M2 macrophages were the primary macrophages in EC. Compared to those of EC from patients with r-AFS stage I ~ II, M2 macrophages in EC from patients with stage III ~ IV were significantly increased. IHC experiments showed that total macrophages were increased in EC, with M2 macrophages being the primary subtype.Conclusions: Our data demonstrate that deconvolution of gene expression data by CIBERSORT provides valuable information about immune cell composition in EMS.

Oral medication is the most acceptable therapy to treat chronic diseases. Natural drugs and excipients have unique advantages, such as low cost and high safety. We first investigated modified ethanol nanosomes for tumor treatment via oral administration. We loaded curcumin (CM) into small ethanol nanosomes coated with the natural alkaline polysaccharide chitosan (CCSET) for increased absorption and bioavailability and enhanced efficacy against small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Compared to CM and noncoated ethanol nanosomes, CCSETs exhibited superior physicochemical, in vitro–in vivo kinetic, and absorptive properties and treatment efficacy at the cellular and animal levels. The interaction of CM and serum albumin (the quantitative binding force) was analyzed. The bioavailability of CCSET increased by 11.84-fold and the tumor growth inhibition rate increased markedly compared to CM. We first confirmed the effect of CM on SCLC stem cells, and CCSET greatly enhanced this action. We first reported that CM had an antitumor effect on SCLC at the animal level and that CCSET enhanced this effect. Natural alkaline polysaccharide-coated small ethanol nanosomes delivering natural medicine may be a potential oral anticancer strategy.

Antiviral drugs (AvDs) are the primary resource in the global battle against viruses, including the recent fight against corona virus disease 2019 . Most AvDs require multiple medications, and their use frequently leads to drug resistance, since they have poor oral bioavailability and low efficacy due to their low solubility/low permeability. Characterizing the in vivo metabolism and pharmacokinetic characteristics of AvDs may help to solve the problems associated with AvDs and enhance their efficacy. In this review of AvDs, we systematically investigated their structure-based metabolic reactions and related enzymes, their cellular pharmacology, and the effects of metabolism on AvD pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics. We further assessed how delivery systems achieve better metabolism and pharmacology of AvDs. This review suggests that suitable nanosystems may help to achieve better pharmacological activity and pharmacokinetic behavior of AvDs by altering drug metabolism through the utilization of advanced nanotechnology and appropriate administration routes. Notably, such AvDs as ribavirin, remdesivir, favipiravir, chloroquine, lopinavir and ritonavir have been confirmed to bind to the severe acute respiratory syndrome-like coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) receptor and thus may represent anti-COVID-19 treatments. Elucidating the metabolic and pharmacokinetic characteristics of AvDs may help pharmacologists to identify new formulations with high bioavailability and efficacy and help physicians to better treat virus-related diseases, including COVID-19.

This study investigated the effect of colloidal selenium nanoparticles modified with bovine serum albumin (nanoSe0–BSA) on the crystal phase and morphology of CaC2O4 and explained the cooperative inhibition mechanism of nanoSe0 and BSA on the crystallization of CaC2O4. The results were compared with those for nanoSe0 and BSA individually. NanoSe0 could induce the formation of oval or spherical calcium oxalate monohydrate (COM) crystals at high concentrations. BSA could induce the formation of hexagonal plate-shaped COM crystals at low concentrations and the formation of thin diamond-shaped COM crystals and mixed hydrates with cracks at high concentrations. NanoSe0–BSA showed additive effects on CaC2O4 crystal growth. NanoSe0–BSA could induce the formation of mixed hydrates with more surface cracks and obvious voids at relatively low BSA concentrations. These mixed hydrates were considered to be calcium oxalate trihydrate (COT) or calcium oxalate dihydrate (COD) crystals containing BSA or nanoSe0–BSA. These results were a consequence of the interaction of nanoSe0 with BSA. UV–vis, circular dichroism, and FT-IR spectra indicated that the binding of nanoSe0 to BSA induces a change in the secondary structure of BSA and forms the complex. The nanoSe0–BSA binding constant (2.257 × 104 L mol–1) and number of binding sites (1.13) were calculated from the data of fluorescence spectra.