Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Curcumin is a well-established anticancer agent in vitro but its efficacy is yet to be proven in clinical trials. Poor bioavailability of curcumin is the principal reason behind the lack of efficiency of curcumin in clinical trials. Many studies prove that the bioavailability of curcumin can be improved by administering it through nanoparticle drug carriers. This review focuses on the efforts made in the field of nanotechnology to improve the bioavailability of curcumin. Nanotechnologies of curcumin come in various shapes and sizes. The simplest curcumin nanoparticle that increased the bioavailability of curcumin is the curcumin–metal complex. On the other hand, we have intricate thermoresponsive nanoparticles that can release curcumin upon stimulation (analogous to a remote control). Future research required for developing potent curcumin nanoparticles is also discussed.

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal malignancy of the female reproductive system and the fifth leading cause of cancer death in women. In the year 2012 alone, United States had 22,280 new ovarian cancer cases and 15,500 deaths were reported. About 7%-10% of ovarian cancers result from an inherited tendency to develop the disease. Ovarian cancer has the ability to escape the immune system because of its pathological interactions between cancer cells and host immune cells in the tumor microenvironment create an immunosuppressive network that promotes tumor growth, protects the tumor from immune system. The levels of immune suppressive elements like regulatory T cells, plasmacytoid dendritic cells and cytokines such as IL-10, IL-6, TNF-α, and TGF-β are elevated in the tumor microenvironment. Vascular endothelial growth factor is known to have an immune suppressing role besides its angiogenic role in the tumor microenvironment. Ovarian cancer is associated with high mortality partly due to difficulties in early diagnosis and development of metastases. These problems may overcome by developing accurate mouse models that should mimic the complexity of human ovarian cancer. Such animal models are better suited to understand pathophysiology, metastases, and also for preclinical testing of targeted molecular therapeutics. Immunotherapy is an area of active investigation and off late many clinical trials is ongoing to prevent disease progression. The main aim of dendritic cells vaccination is to stimulate tumor specific effector T cells that can reduce tumor size and induce immunological memory to prevent tumor relapse.

Fibronectin type III domain containing 5 (FNDC5) is a transmembrane protein. Upon cleavage, it yields a peptide called irisin that is supposedly bind to an unknown receptor and facilitates browning of white adipose tissue (WAT). Increased levels of irisin are associated with increased levels of energy expenditure markers PGC-1α, UCP-1, besides abundance of beige adipocytes in WAT. Though varied sizes of irisin were reported in humans and rodents it is not yet clear about the actual size of the irisin produced physiologically. Hence, we cloned and expressed human irisin (32-143 aa of FNDC5) in Escherichia coli based on the proposed cleavage site that yields 12.5 kDa peptide to study its antigenicity and other biological functions in vitro. We purified recombinant human irisin (rh-irisin) to 95% homogeneity with simple purification method with a yield of 25 mg/g wet cell pellet. rh-irisin has been detected by commercially available antibodies from different sources with similar antigenicity. Biological activity of the rh-irisin was confirmed by using 3T3-L1 pre-adipocyte differentiation by Oil red O staining. Further, rh-irisin treatment on pre-adipocytes showed increased expression of markers associated with energy expenditure. As it is involved in energy expenditure process, it could be considered as potential therapeutic option for various metabolic diseases.