Composite nano-in-micro drug delivery system for treatment of glaucoma: design strategies and research advances.

Glaucoma is a serious eye disease characterized by damage to the optic nerve, potentially leading to severe vision loss or even blindness. Lowering IOP is a crucial strategy in managing the disease. Although trabeculectomy is considered the gold standard in conventional treatment for preventing vision loss, surgical interventions often face challenges such as poor prognosis, high failure rates, and complications.

Preparation of cinnamon essential oil-micelles/blueberry anthocyanins-loaded PVA bifunctional electrospunning nanofibrous film for maintaining and monitoring shrimp freshness.

Shrimp are nutritious but highly perishable and initial spoilage is not easily recognized. This study developed the bifunctional film for the preservation and freshness monitoring of shrimp. Cinnamon essential oil (CEO) was loaded in PEG-PCL-micelle to improve the stability and long-time release for enhanced antimicrobial activity.

Cholesteric Contact Lenses for Diabetics-Related Noninvasive Glucose Monitoring and Eye Healthcare.

Blood sugar monitoring has crucial significance for diabetes mellitus diagnosis, and noninvasive continuous detection methods are the future development trend. Among various noninvasive detection methods, glucose detection in tears has the advantages of a high level of subject compliance, minimal pollution, and accuracy. However, sensors used for detecting glucose concentration in tears usually embed noble microelectrical components into contact lenses, making the process complicated and costly, and easily cause environmental pollution and resource wastage.

Oral barriers to food-derived active peptides and nano-delivery strategies.

Food-derived bioactive peptides are a class of peptides from natural protein. It may have biological effects on the human body and play a significant role in protecting human physiological health and regulating physiological metabolism, such as lowering blood pressure, lowering cholesterol, antioxidant, antibacterial, regulating immune activity, and so on. However, most of the natural food-derived functional peptides need to overcome a variety of barriers in the body to enter the blood circulation system and target to specific tissues to generate physiological activity.

Preparation of sodium alginate and chitosan modified curcumin liposomes and study on the formation of protein corona.

Curcumin (CUR) is a polyphenolic compound extracted from plants with a wide range of pharmacological activities. However, the low stability and bioavailability limits its practical application. This work utilized the chitosan (CH) and sodium alginate (SA) to modify the surface of the liposome to improve the stability of curcumin.

Controlled dual drug delivery system based on gelatin electrospinning membranes for wound healing promotion.

Skin wound repair is a complex dynamic process. Current dual-drug delivery systems struggle to adapt to the process of wound healing. Therefore, the construction of a dual-drug delivery system with intelligent responsiveness, controllable release, and understanding the repair mechanisms, is a current research challenge.

PLA tissue-engineered scaffolds loaded with sustained-release active substance chitosan nanoparticles: Modeling BSA-bFGF as the active substance.

The utilization of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in the development of tissue-engineered scaffolds is both challenging and imperative. In our pursuit of creating a scaffold that aligns with the natural healing process, we initially fabricated chitosan-bFGF nanoparticles (CS-bFGF NPs) through electrostatic spraying. Subsequently, polylactic acid (PLA) fiber was prepared using electrospinning technique, and the CS-bFGF NPs were uniformly embedded within the pores of porous PLA fibers.

Preparation of gastrodin modified P(VDF-TrFE)-Eudragit L100-AuNPs nanofiber membranes with piezoelectric property.

In recent years, electroactive nerve conduits made from a blend of P(VDF-TrFE) (poly (vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene)) with other materials have shown significant progress. However, research combining P(VDF-TrFE) conduits with drug delivery systems remains sparse. In this study, we developed a novel gastrodin-loaded P(VDF-TrFE)-Eudragit L100-gold nanoparticles (Gas@PT-EL100-AuNPs) nanofiber membrane.

Human cytomegalovirus in cancer: the mechanism of HCMV-induced carcinogenesis and its therapeutic potential.

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), a well-studied herpesvirus, has been implicated in malignancies derived from breast, colorectal muscle, brain, and other cancers. Intricate host-virus interactions are responsible for the cascade of events that have the potential to result in the transformed phenotype of normal cells.

Advances in Large Gap Peripheral Nerve Injury Repair and Regeneration with Bridging Nerve Guidance Conduits.

Peripheral nerve injury is a common complication of accidents and diseases. The traditional autologous nerve graft approach remains the gold standard for the treatment of nerve injuries. While sources of autologous nerve grafts are very limited and difficult to obtain.

Multifunctional electrospun membranes with hydrophilic and hydrophobic gradients property for wound dressing.

Achieving sustained and stable release of macromolecular antibacterial agents and unidirectional transport of liquids in targeted environment is still a challenge to be addressed in the management of wounds with large amounts of tissue exudates. In this work, a multilayer electrospun membrane (ethylcellulose-ethylcellulose/gelatin-quercetin/Eudragit L-100/polyethylene glycol, EC-EC/Gel-Q/EL/PEG) was designed with hydrophobic-hydrophilic gradients and drug sustained-release properties controlled by self-pumping effect and prepared using sequential electrospinning technology. The capillary force of different layers in the multilayer membrane could be controlled by precisely tuning the polymer concentrations of the inner and middle layers to extract water directly from hydrophobic inner ethylcellulose (EC) layer to hydrophilic middle ethylcellulose/gelatin (EC/Gel) layer.

Rationally designed synthetic vectors for therapeutic nucleic acid delivery against human cytomegalovirus infection.

RNA therapy represents a great way to precisely regulate cellular processes by modulating the gene expression. Despite this potential, a profound gap exists in our knowledge of how to subsequently deliver these RNAs into the specific target cells and turn therapeutically active RNAs into practical medicines. An advanced series of interlocked, thermodynamically self-regulated processes that enable the precise assembly of functional synthetic carriers of siRNA to the target cells in vivo was developed.

Effects of Various Marine Toxins on the Mouse Intestine Organoid Model.

Because of their trace existence, exquisite structure and unique role, highly toxic marine biotoxins have always led to the development of natural product identification, structure and function research, chemistry and biosynthesis, and there are still many deficiencies in the injury and protection of highly toxic organisms, toxin biosynthesis, rapid detection, poisoning and diagnosis and treatment. In this study, a mouse intestine organoid (MIO) model was constructed to explore the effects of the marine toxins okadaic acid (OA) and conotoxin (CgTx) on MIO. The results showed that the cell mortality caused by the two toxins at middle and high concentrations was significantly higher than the cell mortality of the control group, the ATPase activity in each group exposed to OA was significantly lower than the ATPase activity of the control group, all the CgTx groups were significantly higher than that of the control group, and the number of apoptotic cells was not significantly higher than the number of apoptotic cells of the control group.

The role of essential oils in maintaining the postharvest quality and preservation of peach and other fruits.

Fruits are highly susceptible to postharvest losses induced majorly by postharvest diseases. Peach are favored by consumers because of their high nutritional value and delicious taste. However, it was easy to be affected by fungal infection.

Preparation of curcumin-loaded cochleates: characterisation, stability and antioxidant properties.

Curcumin (CUR) has a wide range of applications in functional foods. However, it has some disadvantages such as poor water solubility and stability. To solve these problems, CUR was encapsulated into cochleates with an encapsulation efficiency of 83.

A brief history of testicular organoids: from theory to the wards.

In recent years, researchers have successfully generated many human and mammalian organoid models, including organoids representing the intestine, prostate, ovary, bladder, liver, and brain. Therefore, organoids have become an important research model in the fields of regenerative medicine, drug research, and gene therapy, acting as a bridge between in vivo and in vitro experiments. In addition, testicular organoids (TOs) represent the highest level of in vitro culture of spermatogenic cells in a simulated testicular environment.

The Antioxidant Effect of the Metal and Metal-Oxide Nanoparticles.

Inorganic nanoparticles, such as CeO, TiO and FeO could be served as a platform for their excellent performance in antioxidant effect. They may offer the feasibility to be further developed for their smaller and controllable sizes, flexibility to be modified, relative low toxicity as well as ease of preparation. In this work, the recent progress of these nanoparticles were illustrated, and the antioxidant mechanism of the inorganic nanoparticles were introduced, which mainly included antioxidant enzyme-mimetic activity and antioxidant ROS/RNS scavenging activity.

Preparation of Polyvinylidene Fluoride-Gold Nanoparticles Electrospinning Nanofiber Membranes.

In this work, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and curcumin drug were incorporated in polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanofibers by electrospinning as a novel tissue engineering scaffold in nerve regeneration. The influence of AuNPs on the morphology, crystallinity, and drug release behavior of nanofiber membranes was characterized. A successful composite nanofiber membrane sample was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

Study on the Preparation, Characterization, and Stability of Freeze-Dried Curcumin-Loaded Cochleates.

Curcumin (CUR), a polyphenolic substance extracted from plants, has extensive pharmacological activities. However, CUR is difficult to be absorbed in the body due to its poor stability and low solubility. Studies have found that cochleates can be used as a new delivery system to encapsulate bioactive agents for the purpose of improving its stability and bioavailability.

Chitosan nanoparticles embedded with curcumin and its application in pork antioxidant edible coating.

Curcumin (Cur) exhibits low water solubility and insufficient dispersibility in food systems, and cannot exert its excellent antioxidant properties. In this work, Chitosan (CS) nanoparticles were prepared by ionic crosslinking method using chitosan as carrier and sodium tripolyphosphate (TPP) as crosslinking agent, then Cur was loaded to obtain curcumin nanoparticles (CNPs). CNPs presented a spherical morphology with average size of 278.

Rationale and Application of PEGylated Lipid-Based System for Advanced Target Delivery of siRNA.

RNA interference (RNAi) technology has become a powerful tool in application of unraveling the mechanism of disease and may hold the potential to be developed for clinical uses. Small interfering RNA (siRNA) can bind to target mRNA with high specificity and efficacy and thus inhibit the expression of related protein for the purpose of treatment of diseases. The major challenge for RNAi application is how to improve its stability and bioactivity and therefore deliver therapeutic agents to the target sites with high efficiency and accuracy.

Tumor-Microenvironment- Responsive Size-Shrinkable Drug-Delivery Nanosystems for Deepened Penetration Into Tumors.

Over the years, the manipulation and clinical application of drug-delivery nanosystems for cancer diseases have attracted a rapid growth of academic research interests, and some nanodrugs have been approved for clinic application. Although encouraging achievements have been made, the potency of nanomedicines in cancer treatment is far from satisfaction, and one significant reason is the inefficient penetration of nanoparticles into solid tumors. Particle size is one of the most significant features that influence diffusion ability of the drug-delivery system in tumors.

1,2,4-Triazole hybrids with potential antibacterial activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has developed numerous mechanisms of virulence and strategies to evade the human immune system, and it can be transmitted between humans, animals, and the environment. Thus, MRSA is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in both hospitals and in the community, creating an urgent demand for the development of novel anti-MRSA candidates. The 1,2,4-triazole nucleus is a bioisostere of amide, ester, and carboxylic acid, and the 1,2,4-triazole ring is found in many compounds with diverse biological effects.

Advances in Synthesis and Applications of Self-Healing Hydrogels.

Background: Hydrogels, a type of three-dimensional (3-D) crosslinked network of polymers containing a high water concentration, have been receiving increasing attention in recent years. Self-healing hydrogels, which can return to their original structure and function after physical damage, are especially attractive. Some self-healable hydrogels have several kinds of properties such as injectability, adhesiveness, and conductivity, which enable them to be used in the manufacturing of drug/cell delivery vehicles, glues, electronic devices, and so on.

Effects of the crystallinity on quercetin loaded the Eudragit L-100 electrospun nanofibers.

The quercetin loaded Eudragit L-100 nanofiber membrane with high ductility and a desired drug release rate was prepared in this work. The morphological characteristics of the Eudragit L-100 nanofibers with different drug loadings amount were observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). After adding Polyethylene glycol-4000 (PEG-4000), the degree of the fiber breakage decreased and the fiber length increased.