No abstract

Glycyrrhizin is an important phytoconstituent of licorice which is widely used in the pharmaceutical and food industry. As the roots and leaves of Abrus precatorius also contain glycyrrhizin, it can be used as an alternative source of glycyrrhizin. In spite of extensive research work undertaken with cultures of Glycyrrhiza glabra, the glycyrrhizin production remains elusive. Successful production of glycyrrhizin in cell cultures of A. precatorius is being reported for the first time in our study. Cell cultures of A. precatorius L. were treated with the elicitors prepared from the fungi (Aspergillus niger and Rhizopus stolonifer), yeast extract, salicylic acid, ascorbic acid, and eugenol to induce and enhance the synthesis of glycyrrhizin. In the present study, an integrated yield enhancement strategy, developed by the addition of selected elicitor (A. niger and ascorbic acid) at optimized concentrations, resulted in 24.6 g/l dry cell weight biomass and 53.62 mg/l glycyrrhizin, which was 5.22 times higher in productivity in comparison to control cultures.

The purpose of the present work was to develop hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) surface-adsorbed cationic poly (D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) PLGA nanoparticles for interferon alpha (IFNa) delivery targeted to hepatocytes. Cationic PLGA nanoparticles loaded with IFNa were prepared using the double emulsification technique. Delipidated HBsAg was passively adsorbed on the surface of nanoparticles by using the simple dipping and drying method. Surface morphology and size distribution of nanoparticles were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and dynamic light-scattering method, respectively. The biodistribution behavior of plain and HBsAgcoated 99m Tc-tagged PLGA nanoparticles was also examined followed by intravenous injection. The results revealed that ∼75% of the radioactivity was recovered in the liver after 4 h of injection that was nearly 3-fold greater in magnitude than the plain PLGA nanoparticles. These data demonstrated that the novel formulation of nanoparticles has potential application in hepatic-targeted drug delivery.

No abstract

No abstract