Orally ingestible medication utilizing layered double hydroxide nanoparticles strengthened alginate and hyaluronic acid-based hydrogel bead for bowel disease management.

In the treatment of bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis through oral administration, an effective drug delivery system targeting the colon is crucial for enhancing efficacy and minimizing side effects of therapeutic agents. This study focuses on the development of a novel nanocomposite hydrogel bead comprising a synergistic blend of biological macromolecules, namely sodium alginate (ALG) and hyaluronic acid (HA), reinforced with layered double hydroxide nanoparticles (LDHs) for the oral delivery of dual therapeutics. The synthesized hydrogel bead exhibits significantly enhanced gel strength and controllable release of methylprednisolone (MP) and curcumin (CUR), serving as an anti-inflammatory drug and a mucosal healing agent, compared to native ALG or ALG/HA hydrogel beads without LDHs. The physicochemical properties of the synthesized LDHs and hydrogel beads were characterized using various techniques, including scanning electron microscopy, zeta potential measurement, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. In vitro release studies of MP and CUR under simulated gastrointestinal tract (GIT) conditions demonstrate the superior controlled release property of the nanocomposite hydrogel bead, particularly in minimizing premature drug release in the upper GIT environment while sustaining release of over 82 % of drugs in the colonic environment. Thus, the modularly engineered carrier designed for oral colon targeting holds promise as a potential candidate for the treatment of ulcerative colitis.

Short Tandem Repeats Used in Preimplantation Genetic Testing of Β-Thalassemia: Genetic Polymorphisms For 15 Linked Loci in the Vietnamese Population.

BACKGROUND: ß-thalassemia is one of the most common monogenic diseases worldwide. Preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) of ß-thalassemia is performed to avoid affected pregnancies has become increasingly popular worldwide. In which, the indirect analysis using short tandem repeat (STRs) linking with HBB gene to detect different ß-globin (HBB) gene mutation is a simple, accurate, economical and also provides additional control of contamination and allele-drop-out ADO. AIM: This study established microsatellite markers for PGT of Vietnamese ß-thalassemia patient. METHODS: Fifteen (15) STRs gathered from 5 populations were identified by in silico tools within 1 Mb flanking the HBB gene. The multiplex PCR reaction was optimized and performed on 106 DNA samples from at-risk families. RESULTS: After estimating, PIC values were ≥ 0.7 for all markers, with expected heterozygosity and observed heterozygosity values ranged from 0.81 to 0.92 and 0.53 to 0.86, respectively. One hundred percent of individuals had at least seven heterozygous markers and were found to be heterozygous for at least two markers on either side of the HBB gene. CONCLUSION: In general, a pentadecaplex marker (all < 1 Mb from the HBB gene) assay was constituted for ß-thalassemia PGT on Vietnamese population.

EVpedia: a community web portal for extracellular vesicles research.

MOTIVATION: Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are spherical bilayered proteolipids, harboring various bioactive molecules. Due to the complexity of the vesicular nomenclatures and components, online searches for EV-related publications and vesicular components are currently challenging. RESULTS: We present an improved version of EVpedia, a public database for EVs research. This community web portal contains a database of publications and vesicular components, identification of orthologous vesicular components, bioinformatic tools and a personalized function. EVpedia includes 6879 publications, 172 080 vesicular components from 263 high-throughput datasets, and has been accessed more than 65 000 times from more than 750 cities. In addition, about 350 members from 73 international research groups have participated in developing EVpedia. This free web-based database might serve as a useful resource to stimulate the emerging field of EV research. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: The web site was implemented in PHP, Java, MySQL and Apache, and is freely available at http://evpedia.info.