Chronic wounds and severe burns are diseases responsible for severe morbidity and even death. Wound repair is a crucial process and tissue regeneration enhancement and infection prevention are key factors to minimize pain, discomfort, and scar formation. The aim of this work was the development of lipid nanoparticles (solid lipid nanoparticles and nanostructured lipid carriers [NLC]), to be loaded with eucalyptus or rosemary essential oils and to be used, as medical devices, to enhance healing of skin wounds. Lipid nanoparticles were based on natural lipids: cocoa butter, as solid lipid, and olive oil or sesame oil, as liquid lipids. Lecithin was chosen as surfactant to stabilize nanoparticles and to prevent their aggregation. The systems were prepared by high shear homogenization followed by ultrasound application. Nanoparticles were characterized for physical–chemical properties, bioadhesion, cytocompatibility, in vitro proliferation enhancement, and wound healing properties toward normal human dermal fibroblasts. Antimicrobial activity of nanoparticles was evaluated against two reference microbial strains, one of Staphylococcus aureus , the other of Streptococcus pyogenes . Finally, the capability of nanoparticles to promote wound healing in vivo was evaluated on a rat burn model. NLC based on olive oil and loaded with eucalyptus oil showed appropriate physical–chemical properties, good bioadhesion, cytocompatibility, in vitro proliferation enhancement, and wound healing properties toward fibroblasts, associated to antimicrobial properties. Moreover, the in vivo results evidenced the capability of these NLC to enhance the healing process. Olive oil, which is characterized by a high content of oleic acid, proved to exert a synergic effect with eucalyptus oil with respect to antimicrobial activity and wound repair promotion.

Glioblastoma is known to be one of the most lethal and untreatable human tumors. Surgery and radiotherapy in combination with classical alkylating agents such as temozolomide offer little hope to escape a poor prognosis. For these reasons, enormous efforts are currently devoted to refine in vivo and in vitro models with the specific goal of finding new molecular aberrant pathways, suitable to be targeted by a variety of therapeutic approaches, including novel pharmaceutical formulations and immunotherapy strategies. In this review, we will first discuss current molecular classification based on genomic and transcriptomic criteria. Also, the state of the art in current clinical practice for glioblastoma therapy in the light of the recent molecular classification, together with ongoing phases II and III clinical trials, will be described. Finally, new pharmaceutical formulations such as nanoparticles and viral vectors, together with new strategies entailing the use of monoclonal antibodies, vaccines and immunotherapy agents, such as checkpoint inhibitors, will also be discussed.

No abstract

No abstract

Clinical depression is viewed as a physical and psychic disease process having a neuropathological basis, although a clear understanding of its ethiopathology is still missing. The observation that depressive symptoms are influenced by pharmacological manipulation of monoamines led to the hypothesis that depression results from reduced availability or functional deficiency of monoaminergic transmitters in some cerebral regions. However, there are limitations to current monoamine theories related to mood disorders. Recently, a growing body of experimental data has showed that other classes of endogenous compounds, such as neuropeptides and amino acids, may play a significant role in the pathophysiology of affective disorders. With the development of neuroscience, neuronal networks and intracellular pathways have been identified and characterized, describing the existence of the interaction between monoamines and receptors in turn able to modulate the expression of intracellular proteins and neurotrophic factors, suggesting that depression/antidepressants may be intermingled with neurogenesis/neurodegenerative processes.