Marine-Origin Polysaccharides and Their Chemically Modified Derivatives as Sources of Advanced Biofunctional Materials for Biomedical Applications.

Marine polysaccharides are widely available sustainable renewable macromolecules, which have attracted considerable attention owing to their enhanced biocompatibility, biodegradability, noncytotoxic, nonimmunogenic properties, and close similarity to the native cellular microenvironment of tissues and organs. Herein, a comprehensive overview of the main sources and properties of most studied cationic, anionic, and neutral marine-origin polysaccharides, their main chemical functionalization strategies, as well as their processing into advanced biofunctional materials/devices is provided. Several recent examples are given on the bottom-up processing of marine-origin polysaccharide-based biomaterials in the form of nano-/microparticles and capsules, nanofibers, thin films, membranes, hydrogels, cryogels, and (bio)inks to be used as high added-value antimicrobial coatings, adhesives, and wound dressings, or in food packaging, cosmetics, controlled drug delivery, disease modeling, or tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Towards targeted cancer therapy: Synthesis, characterization, and biological activity of a new Cu(II)-ibuprofen-2,2'-dipyridylamine metal complex.

This work reports the synthesis of a copper metal complex with the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) ibuprofen, and 2,2'-dipyridylamine employing microwave-assisted synthesis (MWAS). To the best of authors knowledge, this is the first study reporting a NSAID-based complex achieved through MWAS. The coordination compound was characterised by elemental analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetry, and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry.

In-Bath 3D Printing of Anisotropic Shape-Memory Cryogels Functionalized with Bone-Bioactive Nanoparticles.

Cryogels exhibit unique shape memory with full recovery and structural stability features after multiple injections. These constructs also possess enhanced cell permeability and nutrient diffusion when compared to typical bulk hydrogels. Volumetric processing of cryogels functionalized with nanosized units has potential to widen their biomedical applications, however this has remained challenging and relatively underexplored.

In situ generated hemostatic adhesives: From mechanisms of action to recent advances and applications.

Conventional surgical closure techniques, such as sutures, clips, or skin closure strips, may not always provide optimal wound closure and may require invasive procedures, which can result in potential post-surgical complications. As result, there is a growing demand for innovative solutions to achieve superior wound closure and improve patient outcomes. To overcome the abovementioned issues, in situ generated hemostatic adhesives/sealants have emerged as a promising alternative, offering a targeted, controllable, and minimally invasive procedure for a wide variety of medical applications.

Marine-origin polysaccharides-based free-standing multilayered membranes as sustainable nanoreservoirs for controlled drug delivery.

The layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly technology has been widely used to functionalise surfaces and precisely engineer robust multilayered bioarchitectures with tunable structures, compositions, properties, and functions at the nanoscale by resorting to a myriad of building blocks exhibiting complementary interactions. Among them, marine-origin polysaccharides are a sustainable renewable resource for the fabrication of nanostructured biomaterials for biomedical applications owing to their wide bioavailability, biocompatibility, biodegradability, non-cytotoxicity, and non-immunogenic properties. Chitosan (CHT) and alginate (ALG) have been widely employed as LbL ingredients to shape a wide repertoire of size- and shape-tunable electrostatic-driven multilayered assemblies by exploring their opposite charge nature.

Unveiling the Assembly of Neutral Marine Polysaccharides into Electrostatic-Driven Layer-by-Layer Bioassemblies by Chemical Functionalization.

Marine-origin polysaccharides, in particular cationic and anionic ones, have been widely explored as building blocks in fully natural or hybrid electrostatic-driven Layer-by-Layer (LbL) assemblies for bioapplications. However, the low chemical versatility imparted by neutral polysaccharides has been limiting their assembly into LbL biodevices, despite their wide availability in sources such as the marine environment, easy functionality, and very appealing features for addressing multiple biomedical and biotechnological applications. In this work, we report the chemical functionalization of laminarin (LAM) and pullulan (PUL) marine polysaccharides with peptides bearing either six lysine (K) or aspartic acid (D) amino acids via Cu(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition to synthesize positively and negatively charged polysaccharide-peptide conjugates.

NSAID-Based Coordination Compounds for Biomedical Applications: Recent Advances and Developments.

After the serendipitous discovery of cisplatin, a platinum-based drug with chemotherapeutic effects, an incredible amount of research in the area of coordination chemistry has been produced. Other transition metal compounds were studied, and several new relevant metallodrugs have been synthetized in the past few years. This review is focused on coordination compounds with first-row transition metals, namely, copper, cobalt, nickel or manganese, or with zinc, which have potential or effective pharmacological properties.