Human serum albumin (HSA) is a multi-domain macromolecule with diverse ligand binding capability because of its ability to allow allosteric modulation despite being a monomeric protein. Physiologically, HSA act as the primary carrier for various exogenous and endogenous compounds and fatty acids, and alter the pharmacokinetic properties of several drugs. It has antioxidant properties and is utilized therapeutically to improve the drug delivery of pharmacological agents for the treatment of several disorders. The flexibility of albumin in holding various types of drugs coupled with a variety of modifications makes this protein a versatile drug carrier with incalculable potential in therapeutics. This review provides a brief outline of the different structural properties of HSA, and its various binding sites, moreover, an overview of the genetic, biomedical, and allosteric modulation of drugs and drug delivery aspects of HSA is also included, which may be helpful in guiding advanced clinical applications and further research on the therapeutic potential of this extraordinary protein.

Despite more than 80 years of use in a number of conditions, including in critically ill patients, comments have recently arisen regarding the safety and efficacy of human serum albumin (HSA) as a therapeutic product and stabilizer/excipient in botulinum neurotoxins. This review summarizes the literature on the safety of HSA. Beyond decades of safe use, the largest clinical dataset of HSA safety is a large meta-analysis of HSA supplier data, which found only an extremely remote risk of serious adverse events across millions of doses of therapeutic concentrations of HSA. There is a paucity of literature identifying HSA-specific adverse events when used as a stabilizer/excipient; however, studies of HSA-containing botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) suggest that adverse events are not related to HSA. Polysorbates, which are synthetically produced and not physiologically inert, are contained in pending or new-to-market BoNT formulations. In contrast to HSA, evidence exists to suggest that polysorbates (particularly PS20/PS80) can cause serious adverse events (e.g., hypersensitivity, anaphylaxis, and immunogenicity).

BACKGROUND: To recognize the action of pharmacologically approved anticancer drugs in biological systems, information on its pharmacokinetics such as its transport within the plasma and delivery to its target site are essential. In this study, we have tried to collect and present complete information about how these drugs bind to human serum albumin [HSA] protein. HSA functions as the main transport protein for an enormous variety of ligands in the circulation and plays a vital role in the efficacy, metabolism, distribution, and elimination of these agents.
METHODS: Therefore, this study includes information about the quenching constant, the binding constant obtained from Stern-Volmer and Hill equations and molecular docking.
RESULTS: the molecular docking reports were carried out to detect the binding models of HSA-anticancer drugs and the binding site of the drugs in HSA, which further revealed the contribution of amino acid residues of HSA in anticancer drug complex binding.
CONCLUSIONS: The results of this review study showed that site I of the protein located in domain 2 can be considered as the most important binding site for anticancer drugs.

Breast cancer has been identified as one of the most common cancers diagnosed in women. Various nanotechnology platforms offering unique features are considered in breast cancer treatment. Albumin is a versatile biodegradable, biocompatible, non-toxic and non-immunogenic protein nanocarrier. These characteristics attracted strong attention to fabricate albumin nanoparticles to deliver chemotherapeutic agents without major adverse effects. Albumin nanoparticles can undergo surface modifications using different ligands promoting tumor-targeted drug delivery. Moreover, multifunctional albumin nanoparticle is an upcoming strategy to attain efficient cancer therapy. This review gives an account of the potential albumin nanoparticles developed for chemotherapeutic drug delivery and its targeted approach for breast cancer. It also covers different multifunctional therapies available using albumin nanoparticles as breast cancer theranostics.

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) may affect the functions of human serum albumin. Here we review reports of novel PTMs of human serum albumin. This study reviewed one hundred twenty-three recently reported novel O-phosphorylation, glycation, methylation, carbonylation, and acetylation of albumin. Furthermore, the potential impact of these PTMs on albumin functions is discussed. Knowledge of these PTMs of albumin is important for the use of albumin in medical applications, e.g., in transfusion, drug formulations, and remedies.

Amyloid fibrils are highly stable protein fibrillar aggregates believed to be involved in various neurodegenerative diseases, which include Alzheimer\'s disease, Parkinson\'s disease, and prion diseases. Inhibiting the aggregation process is a potential strategy to prevent diseases caused by amyloid formation. In this regard, nanoparticles have emerged as promising candidates owing to their unique physical/chemical properties of small size, large surface area, biocompatibility, biodegradability, non-toxicity, and ease of functionalization. Human Serum Albumin (HSA) is a soluble multidomain monomeric protein that interacts with various ligands and hormones, aiding in their transport, distribution, metabolism in the circulatory system, and also plays a vital role in extracellular fluid volume stabilization. Under certain in vitro conditions, HSA has been reported to undergo conformational changes leading to fibril formation and hence acts as a suitable model for studying amyloidogenesis. In this review, we have explored the effects of various nanoparticles on HSA aggregation and their mechanism of action. The study will throw light on the mechanistic details of nanoparticle-mediated amyloid modulation, which will help in the development of effective therapeutics against amyloidosis.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) keeps on destroying normal social integrity worldwide, bringing about extraordinary medical services, cultural and financial interruption. Individuals with diabetes have been demonstrated to be at higher risk of complications and even death when exposed to SARS-CoV-2. Regardless of pandemic scale infection, there is presently limited comprehension on the potential impact of SARS-CoV-2 on individuals with diabetes. Human serum albumin (HSA) is the most abundant circulating plasma protein in human serum and attracted more interest from researchers because most susceptible to non-enzymatic glycation reactions. Albumin down-regulates the expression of ACE2 that is the target receptor of COVID-19. Hypoalbuminemia, coagulopathy, and vascular disease have been connected in COVID-19 and appear to predict outcomes independent of age and morbidity. This review discusses the most recent evidence that the ACE/ACE2 ratio could influence by human serum albumin both the susceptibility of individuals to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the outcome of the COVID-19 disease.

Extensive medical research showed that patients, with high protein concentration in urine, have various kinds of kidney diseases, referred to as proteinuria. Urinary protein biomarkers are useful for diagnosis of many health conditions - kidney and cardio vascular diseases, cancers, diabetes, infections. This review focuses on the instrumental quantification (electrophoresis, chromatography, immunoassays, mass spectrometry, fluorescence spectroscopy, the infrared spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy) of proteins (the most of all albumin) in human urine matrix. Different techniques provide unique information on what constituents of the urine are. Due to complex nature of urine, a separation step by electrophoresis or chromatography are often used for proteomics study of urine. Mass spectrometry is a powerful tool for the discovery and the analysis of biomarkers in urine, however, costs of the analysis are high, especially for quantitative analysis. Immunoassays, which often come with fluorescence detection, are major qualitative and quantitative tools in clinical analysis. While Infrared and Raman spectroscopies do not give extensive information about urine, they could become important tools for the routine clinical diagnostics of kidney problems, due to rapidness and low-cost. Thus, it is important to review all the applicable techniques and methods related to urine analysis. In this review, a brief overview of each technique\'s principle is introduced. Where applicable, research papers about protein determination in urine are summarized with the main figures of merits, such as the limit of detection, the detectable range, recovery and accuracy, when available.

The high frequency of using engineered nanoparticles in various medical applications entails a deep understanding of their interaction with biological macromolecules. Molecular docking simulation is now widely used to study the binding of different types of nanoparticles with proteins and nucleic acids. This helps not only in understanding the mechanism of their biological action but also in predicting any potential toxicity. In this review, the computational techniques used in studying the nanoparticles interaction with biological macromolecules are covered. Then, a comprehensive overview of the docking studies performed on various types of nanoparticles will be offered. The implication of these predicted interactions in the biological activity and/or toxicity is also discussed for each type of nanoparticles.

The combination of low molecular weight, reversible human serum albumin (HSA) binders with targeted radiopharmaceuticals in dual-targeted radioconjugates holds great promise, in particular for endoradiotherapy. Attachment of HSA-binders to radiopharmaceuticals extends their blood circulation time and results in an enhanced tumour uptake as well as often in an improved pharmacokinetic profile. In this mini-review, an overview of currently pursued approaches of this novel strategy is provided.