No abstract

Growth factors, first known for their essential role in the initiation of mitosis, are required for a variety of cellular processes and their localized delivery is considered as a rational approach in their therapeutic application to assure a safe and effective treatment while avoiding unwanted adverse effects. Noncovalent immobilization of growth factors as well as their covalent conjugation is amongst the most common strategies for localized delivery of growth factors. Today, immobilized and covalently conjugated growth factors are considered as a promising drug design and are widely used for protein reformulation and material design to cover the unwanted characteristics of growth factors as well as improving their functions. Selection of a suitable conjugation technique depends on the substrate chemistry and the availability of functional reactive groups in the structure of growth factor, the position of reactive groups in growth factor molecules and its relation with the receptor binding area, and the intention of creating either patterned or unpatterned conjugation. Various approaches for growth factor reformulation have been reported. This review provides an overview on chemical conjugation of growth factors and covers the relevant studies accomplished for bioconjugation of growth factors and their related application.

A polymer conjugated rhEGF was developed that was more stable against proteases and reserved the biological activity of the drug. This dressing appears to be a competent candidate for chronic wound healing.

It is more than a decade that amniotic membrane has been used as a wound dressing because of its anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-fibrotic, anti-scarring properties, as well as its pain relieving and epithelialization promoting features. However, amniotic membrane had limited applications because it needs to suture in surgery, is highly fragile, firmly adhere to the wound and may cause bleeding and pain when changing the bandage. This study investigated the possibility of development of a novel amniotic-based chitosan gel dressing as a potential wound repair substrate with marked efficacy. In this experiment, amniotic gel prepared based on chitosan/PVP gel containing human amniotic membrane extract (AME-Gel) was investigated in terms of wound-healing efficacy and scar preventive effects in a rat burn model. The levels of re-epithelialization and dermal regeneration were examined by histological assessment using H&E and Masson's trichrome staining. Also, we clarified the mechanism of healing and cytokine-releasing activities of AME as well as its effect on epithelization, angiogenesis, and fibroblast growth and migration. Our results revealed that AME-Gel induces epidermal and dermal regeneration at a shorter time through formation of granulation tissue, enhancement of fibroblast proliferation, and improvement of blood capillary formation concomitant with developing collagen bundles. Therefore, AME-Gel could be considered a simple and easy to be used as a biological dressing for any type of superficial burn wounds, without any adverse effects.

A series of new Schiff bases bearing 1,2,3‐triazole 12a‒o was designed, synthesized, and evaluated as α‐glucosidase inhibitors. All the synthesized compounds showed promising inhibition against α‐glucosidase and were more potent than the standard drug acarbose. The kinetic study on the most potent compound 12n showed that this compound acted as a competitive α‐glucosidase inhibitor. The docking study revealed that the synthesized compounds interacted with the important residues in the active site of α‐glucosidase.