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Graphic Abstract Vaccines are designed to leverage the immune system and produce long-lasting protection against specific diseases. Peptide vaccines are regarded as safe and effective way of circumventing problems such as mild allergic reactions associated with conventional vaccines. The biggest challenges associated with formulation of peptide vaccines are stability issues and conformational changes which lead to destruction of their activity when exposed to lyophilization process that may act as stressors. Lyophilization process is aimed at removal of water which involves freezing, primary drying and secondary drying. To safeguard the peptide molecules from such stresses, cryoprotectants are used to offer them viability and structural stability. This paper is an attempt to understand the physicochemical properties of peptide vaccines, mechanism of cryoprotection under the shed of water replacement, water substitution theory and cation-pi interaction theory of amino acids which aims at shielding the peptide from external environment by formation of hydrogen bonds, covalent bonds or cation-pi interaction between cryoprotectant and peptide followed by selection criteria of cryoprotectants and their utility in peptide vaccines development along with challenges and opportunities.

This work investigates the synergistic potential of the nanostructured lipid carrier (NLC) gel of Ibrutinib with Curcumin as a repurposing strategy to treat psoriasis. In the present work, various components such as liquid lipid, solid lipid, and surfactant were selected and optimized based on the solubility of each drug, size, and polydispersity index. The optimized NLC consists of Capryol PGMC as liquid lipid, Glyceryl Mono Stearate as solid lipid, and Pluronics-F-127 as a surfactant. The prepared NLCs have a particle size of 95.12 ± 3.39 nm with PDI of 0.285 ± 0.009, exhibiting high entrapment efficiency (86.04 ± 2.86% for IBR and 87.25 ± 2.14% for CUR) with spherical geometry. CI value of 0.283 suggests synergism. Carbopol 940 was used as a gelling agent and has shown improved flux compared to plain drug gel. Anti-psoriatic studies in BALB/c mice indicated negligible skin irritation and improved histopathological features of psoriasis. Moreover, a reduced amount of inflammatory markers (TNF-alpha, IL-6, IL-22, and IL-23), and psoriasis severity score was observed with prepared gel than the IMQ group. The study suggested integrated benefits of repurposing Ibrutinib with Curcumin as NLC topical gel and it could possibly reduce remission of Psoriasis like inflammation and merit additional investigation.

Neurodegenerative disorders which affects a larger population pose a great clinical challenge. These disorders impact the quality of life of an individual by damaging the neurons, which are the unit cells of the brain. Clinicians are faced with the grave challenge of inhibiting the progression of these diseases as available treatment options fail to meet the clinical demand. Thus, treating the disease/disorder symptomatically is the Hobson's choice. The goal of the researchers is to introduce newer therapies in this segment and introducing a new molecule will take long years of development. Hence, drug repurposing/repositioning can be a better substitute in comparison to time consuming and expensive drug discovery and development cycle. Presently, a paradigm shift towards the re-purposing of drugs can be witnessed. Statins which have been previously approved as anti-hyperlipidemic agents are in the limelight of research for re-purposed drugs. Owing to their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant nature, statins act as neuroprotective in several brain disorders. Further they attenuate the amyloid plaques and protein aggregation which are the triggering factors in the Alzheimer's and Parkinson's respectively. In case of Huntington disease and Multiple sclerosis they help in improving the psychomotor symptoms and stimulate remyelination thus acting as neuroprotective. This article reviews the potential of statins in treating neurodegenerative disorders along with a brief discussion on the safety concerns associated with use of statins and human clinical trial data linked with re-tasking statins for neurodegenerative disorders along with the regulatory perspectives involved with the drug repositioning., Graphical abstract Image 1, Highlights • Neurodegenerative disease is one of the most prevailing disease sector. • Available therapy options provide only symptomatic relief and are incompetent. • The pleotropic actions of statins are efficient in treating neurodegenerative diseases. • Repurposing of drug offers a cheap, safer and quicker option to De-novo synthesis.