Therapeutic vaccines that treat cancers with the help of the patient's own immune system signify a feasible option for active immunotherapy against the disease. Dendritic cells (DCs) play a central role in modulating the immune response and thus can be wisely utilized as an immunotherapeutic strategy for cancer regimens. Advances in the knowledge of DC biology and function have led to the development of DC-based vaccines for cancer therapy. In the present review, we discuss the biology and function of DCs, their subsets and receptors, antigen loading and route of administration of DC vaccines, as well as active and passive targeting strategies for treating the cancer. We also discuss the preclinical and clinical status of these newly developed vaccines. Special attention should be given by the scientific community to the challenges that need to be solved for the successful implication of these vaccines in cancer therapy.

While higher anxiety during antenatal period cause several maternal and foetal health related complications, lower anxiety levels are found to be associated with lesser “precautionary behaviours” and consequently greater risk of infection, during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we aimed to assess rates and determinants of generalized anxiety at the time of the pandemic as well as anxiety that was specific to the context of being pregnant during the COVID-19 pandemic. (COVID-19-antenatal anxiety) in Indian women. This hospital-based, cross-sectional study using face-to-face interviews was conducted at antenatal clinics of five medical college hospitals in India. The Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale (GAD −7) and a customized scale to assess antenatal COVID-19 anxiety along with other tools that assessed social support and COVID-19-risk perception were administered to 620 pregnant women. We found that the percentage of women with moderate or severe anxiety based on GAD −7 was 11.1%. Multivariate analysis showed that higher COVID-19-risk perception, greater antenatal COVID-19 anxiety and lower perceived support significantly predicted moderate and severe generalized anxiety. Greater number of weeks of gestation, lower education, semiurban habitat and lower perceived social support were significant predictors of antenatal COVID-19 anxiety. We conclude that the rates of anxiety in pregnant women though not very high, still warrant attention and specific interventions.

Objective: The objective of the present study was to formulate and characterize paclitaxel (Ptx) loaded sterically stabilized emulsomes to provide non-toxic and biocompatible carriers with high Ptx loading efficiency. Methods: Plain (P-Es) and sterically stabilized emulsomes (SS-Es) were prepared by a modified solvent evaporation method using tristearin as solid lipid and optimized for lipid to (DSPC+CHOL+DSPE-PEG)/ tristearin ratio, lipid/lipid-PEG (DSPC+CHOL/DSPE-PEG) molar ratio, solid lipid concentration, phospholipid concentration, organic to aqueous phase volume and homogenization time based on their effect particle size and entrapment efficiency. Optimized emulsomes were characterized for morphological features, in vitro drug release kinetics and protection from plasma protein. Results: The emulsomes so formed were uniform in size with a mean particle diameter of 275±5.52 and 195±6.4 nm for P-Es and SS-Es respectively. All the formulations showed pH dependent drug release with a slow and sustained release profile. Slower drug release was observed from sterically stabilized emulsomes than the plain emulsomes. The drug release profile followed the Higuchi model with the Fickian diffusion pattern. The Pegylation of emulsomes significantly reduced the in vitro protein absorption. Conclusion: The sterically stabilized emulsome can serve as a novel non-toxic platform with longer circulatory time for the delivery of Paclitaxel and other poorly water-soluble drugs as well.

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