Iodine-starch chromogenic nanoplatforms for photothermal precision and IDO-mediated colorectal cancer therapy.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains a significant global health challenge, as current treatments such as surgery and chemotherapy are limited by poor precision, severe side effects, and the complex tumor microenvironment. Photothermal therapy (PTT) offers a promising alternative; however, conventional photothermal agents largely rely on synthetic materials, raising concerns about stability, toxicity, and metabolic degradation. To overcome these limitations, this study aimed to develop a biocompatible photothermal nanoplatform using iodine (I)-loaded acetylated starch nanoparticles (ASt NPs).

Targeted nanoparticle delivery unleashes synergistic photothermal and immunotherapeutic effects against hepatocellular carcinoma.

The substantial mortality and morbidity of hepatocellular carcinoma, representing 90% of liver cancers, poses a significant health burden. The effectiveness of traditional hepatocellular carcinoma treatments such as surgical resection, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy is limited, underscoring the need for innovative therapeutic strategies. To this end, we synthesized phthalyl-pullulan nanoparticles encapsulating IR780 (an NIR-responsive heptamethine cyanine dye) and R848 (resiquimod; a TLR7/8 agonist) (PIR NPs).

Pullulan nanoparticles inhibit the pathogenicity of by regulating hypha-related gene expression.

Unlabelled: is a prevalent opportunistic pathogenic fungus that resides in the skin and gastrointestinal (GI) tract of humans. Under specific conditions, cells transition from a commensal to a pathogenic state, leading to both superficial and invasive infections. Although systemic candidiasis poses a life-threatening risk, a limited number of antifungal drugs are employed for its treatment.

Intranasal Immunization With Nanoparticles Containing an Protein Vaccine Candidate and a Polysorbitol Transporter Adjuvant Enhances Both Humoral and Cellular Immune Responses.

Scrub typhus, a mite-borne infectious disease, is caused by . Despite many attempts to develop a protective strategy, an effective preventive vaccine has not been developed. The identification of appropriate Ags that cover diverse antigenic strains and provide long-lasting immunity is a fundamental challenge in the development of a scrub typhus vaccine.

Progress on the pathological tissue microenvironment barrier-modulated nanomedicine.

Imbalance in the tissue microenvironment is the main obstacle to drug delivery and distribution in the human body. Before penetrating the pathological tissue microenvironment to the target site, therapeutic agents are usually accompanied by three consumption steps: the first step is tissue physical barriers for prevention of their penetration, the second step is inactivation of them by biological molecules, and the third step is a cytoprotective mechanism for preventing them from functioning on specific subcellular organelles. However, recent studies in drug-hindering mainly focus on normal physiological rather than pathological microenvironment, and the repair of damaged physiological barriers is also rarely discussed.

Progress of tissue adhesives based on proteins and synthetic polymers.

In recent years, polymer-based tissue adhesives (TAs) have been developed as an alternative to sutures to close and seal incisions or wounds owing to their ease of use, rapid application time, low cost, and minimal tissue damage. Although significant research is being conducted to develop new TAs with improved performances using different strategies, the applications of TAs are limited by several factors, such as weak adhesion strength and poor mechanical properties. Therefore, the next-generation advanced TAs with biomimetic and multifunctional properties should be developed.

Bone Morphogenic Protein-2-Conjugated Three-Dimensional-Printed Poly (L-Lactic Acid) (PLLA) Scaffold is likely Promising as an Effective Bone Substitute.

Bone morphogenic protein-2 (BMP-2)-conjugated three-dimensional (3-D)-printed poly (L-lactic acid)(PLLA) scaffold is likely promising as an effective bone substitute for enhancing bone regeneration of massive bone defects caused by tumor resection, traumatic injury, or congenital diseases. The authors developed a new bone substitute using a novel strategy composed of 3-D-printed PLLA scaffolds through a sequential coating of catechol-conjugated alginate (C-AL), BMP-2, and collagen (CO). The 3-D-printed PLLA scaffold was successfully obtained with 5 mm of diameter, 1 mm of thickness, 400 μm of pore size, 187-230 μm of grid thickness, and 82% of porosity.

Effect of microencapsulation of egg yolk immunoglobulin Y by sodium alginate/chitosan/sodium alginate on the growth performance, serum parameters, and intestinal health of broiler chickens.

Objective: Egg yolk immunoglobulin (IgY) is an antibiotic alternative to prevent and fight intestinal pathogenic infections. This study aimed to investigate the effects of sodium alginate/chitosan/sodium alginate IgY microcapsules on the growth performance, serum parameters, and intestinal health of broiler chickens.

Methods: One-day-old broilers (Ross 308) were divided into five treatments, each with 10 replicates of five chickens.

Enhancement of Immune Responses Elicited by Nanovaccines through a Cross-Presentation Pathway.

Numerous studies have aimed to develop novel advanced vaccines, in part because traditional vaccines have been unsuccessful in preventing rapidly emerging and reemerging viral and bacterial infections. There is a need for an advanced vaccine delivery system to ensure the successful induction of humoral and cellular immune responses. In particular, the ability of nanovaccines to modulate intracellular antigen delivery by inducing exogenous antigens (loaded onto major histocompatibility complex class 1 molecules) in CD8 T cells, the so-called cross-presentation pathway, has attracted a great deal of attention.

Progress of Polysaccharide-Contained Polyurethanes for Biomedical Applications.

Polyurethane (PU) has been widely examined and used for biomedical applications, such as catheters, blood oxygenators, stents, cardiac valves, drug delivery carriers, dialysis devices, wound dressings, adhesives, pacemaker, tissue engineering, and coatings for breast implants due to its mechanical flexibility, high tear strength, biocompatibility, and tailorable foams although bio-acceptability, biodegradability and controlled drug delivery to achieve the desired properties should be considered. Especially, during the last decade, the development of bio-based PUs has raised public awareness because of the concern with global plastic waste for creating more environmentally friended materials. Therefore, it is desirable to discuss polysaccharide (PS)-contained PU for the wound dressing and bone tissue engineering among bio-based PUs because PS has several advantages, such as biocompatibility, reproducibility from the natural resources, degradability, ease of incorporation of bioactive agents, ease of availability and cost-effectiveness, and structural feature of chemical modification to meet the desired needs to overcome the disadvantages of PU itself by containing the PS into the PU.

In vitro photodynamic therapy of methylene blue-loaded acetyl resistant starch nanoparticles.

Background: Combination therapies comprising multiple methods, such as photodynamic therapy have been applied to be complements chemotherapy as they increase the therapeutic efficiency by enabling the intelligent drug delivery to target sites by exposing the photosensitizer to light and activating it in the tumor tissue. This study evaluated in vitro photodynamic therapy of methylene blue (MB)-loaded acetyl resistant starch (ARS) nanoparticles (NPs).

Methods: ARS was synthesized by the reaction between resistant starch (RS) and acetic anhydride.

Synbiotics Containing Nanoprebiotics: A Novel Therapeutic Strategy to Restore Gut Dysbiosis.

A new formulation, nanoprebiotics [e.g., phthalyl pullulan nanoparticles (PPNs)], was demonstrated to enhance the antimicrobial activity of probiotics [e.

Mucosal Vaccine Delivery Using Mucoadhesive Polymer Particulate Systems.

Vaccination has been recently attracted as one of the most successful medical treatments of the prevalence of many infectious diseases. Mucosal vaccination has been interested in many researchers because mucosal immune responses play part in the first line of defense against pathogens. However, mucosal vaccination should find out an efficient antigen delivery system because the antigen should be protected from degradation and clearance, it should be targeted to mucosal sites, and it should stimulate mucosal and systemic immunity.

Nanoparticles to Improve the Efficacy of Vaccines.

This editorial aims to summarize the nine scientific papers that contributed to the Special Issue entitled 'Nanoparticles to Improve the Efficacy of Vaccines'.

Additive anti-inflammation by a combination of conjugated linoleic acid and α-lipoic acid through molecular interaction between both compounds.

Alpha lipoic acid (LA) and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) have been well-documented on a variety of functional effects in health foods. The main purpose of this study was focused on the additive anti-inflammatory activity of the combination of LA and CLA in vitro. Raw 264.

Enhanced Efficacy of Immunization with a Foot-and-Mouth Disease Multi-Epitope Subunit Vaccine Using Mannan-Decorated Inulin Microparticles.

Background: Despite the many advantages of recombinant subunit vaccines, they have critical weaknesses that include a low efficacy for promoting cellular and humoral immune responses against antigens because of their poor immunogenicity, and a rapidly cleared properties as a result of proteolytic enzymes in the body. To circumvent these problems, we developed mannan-decorated inulin acetate microparticles (M-IA MPs) that functioned as carriers and adjuvants for immunization with the recombinant foot-and-mouth disease multi-epitope subunit vaccine (M5BT).

Methods: The M5BT-loaded M-IA MPs were obtained by a double-emulsion solvent-evaporation method.

Engineered Nanodelivery Systems to Improve DNA Vaccine Technologies.

DNA vaccines offer a flexible and versatile platform to treat innumerable diseases due to the ease of manipulating vaccine targets simply by altering the gene sequences encoded in the plasmid DNA delivered. The DNA vaccines elicit potent humoral and cell-mediated responses and provide a promising method for treating rapidly mutating and evasive diseases such as cancer and human immunodeficiency viruses. Although this vaccine technology has been available for decades, there is no DNA vaccine that has been used in bed-side application to date.

Enhancement of antigen-specific humoral immune responses and protein solubility through conjugation of bacterial flagellin, FlaB, to the N-terminus of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus surface protein antigen S0.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) is a highly contagious enteric swine disease. The large economic impact of PED on the swine industry worldwide has made the development of an effective PED vaccine a necessity. S0, a truncated region of the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) spike protein, has been suggested as a candidate antigen for PED subunit vaccines; however, poor solubility problems when the protein is expressed in , and the inherent problems of subunit vaccines, such as low immunogenicity, remain.

Elicitation of Th1/Th2 related responses in mice by chitosan nanoparticles loaded with Brucella abortus malate dehydrogenase, outer membrane proteins 10 and 19.

Brucella spp. is the causative agent of brucellosis, one of the worldwide diseases. The pathogen infects humans and animals mainly through the digestive or respiratory tract.

pH-sensitive and specific ligand-conjugated chitosan nanogels for efficient drug delivery.

Nanogels have been recently attracted attentions because they exhibit significantly different behaviors compared with nanoparticles. Among them, chitosan (CS) nanogels have gained considerable attentions from researchers for in vivo applications due to bioactivity, biodegradability, mucoadhesiveness, and biocompatibility of CS. In this review, we have summarized the applications of CS nanogels for efficient drug delivery.