The impact of e-cigarette exposure on different organ systems: A review of recent evidence and future perspectives.

The use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) is rapidly increasing worldwide and is promoted as a smoking cessation tool. The impact of traditional cigs on human health has been well-defined in both animal and human studies. In contrast, little is known about the adverse effects of e-cigs exposure on human health. This review summarizes the impact of e-cigs exposure on different organ systems based on the rapidly expanding recent evidence from experimental and human studies. A number of growing studies have shown the adverse effects of e-cigs exposure on various organ systems. The summarized data in this review indicate that while e-cigs use causes less adverse effects on different organs compared to traditional cigs, its long-term exposure may lead to serious health effects. Data on short-term organ effects are limited and there is no sufficient evidence on long-term organ effects. Moreover, the adverse effects of secondhand and third hand e-cigs vapour exposure have not been thoroughly investigated in previous studies. Although some studies demonstrated e-cigs used as a smoking cessation tool, there is a lack of strong evidence to support it. While some researchers suggested e-cigs as a safer alternative to tobacco smoking, their long-term exposure health effects remain largely unknown. Therefore, more epidemiological and prospective studies including mechanistic studies are needed to address the potential adverse health effects of e-cigs to draw a firm conclusion about their safe use. A wide variation in e-cigs products and the lack of standardized testing methods are the major barriers to evaluating the existing data. Specific regulatory guidelines for both e-cigs components and the manufacturing process may be effective to protect consumer health.

Determination of the bioavailability of zinc oxide nanoparticles using ICP-AES and associated toxicity.

Advancement in nanotechnology has brought abundant number of products and materials in multiple fields including biomedicine owing to their unique physico-chemical properties. This further necessitates toxicity assessment of nanoparticles (NPs) before they are employed for product fabrication, medicinal, environmental or industrial purposes. Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) belong to the category of metal oxide NPs and hold quite a lot of possibilities to be applied in aforementioned scenarios. Present study addresses the probable outcomes of bio-nano interaction of ZnONPs with healthy adult Wistar rats. Sphere head shaped ZnONPs were synthesized via wet chemical method. Physico-chemical characterization was performed using number of sophisticated techniques including HR-TEM, Zeta potential analysis, TGA and XRD. Size of the particles was found to be 43 nm and ensured homogenous distribution with high purity. For in vivo studies, as synthesized NPs were administered into rats via intravenous (i.v.) and intraperitoneal (i.p.) routes. Animals were sacrificed on 3rd, 14th and 21st day of exposure. Metabolically relevant tissues like brain, liver, kidneys and spleen were isolated and analyzed for different parameters like gross pathology, haematology, neurotoxicity, target organ toxicity, immunotoxicity etc. Results suggests that ZnONPs did not elicit significant toxic responses in rat except a few anomalies with histology, ion content and antioxidant system within liver; thereby confirming potent hepatotoxicity. Hence the study recommends adopting surface functionalization strategies for reducing toxic response of ZnONPs during various application rationales.

Comprehensive biology of antipyretic pathways.

Pyrogens, the fever inducing substances accidently enter into a human body through contamination from medical or pharmaceutical products may create mild to severe complications including septicaemia and shocking syndromes. To avoid such drastic situations all the pharmaceuticals and medical devices are analysed for presence of pyrogens prior to their release into market. The entry of exogenous pyrogens like bacterial endotoxins induces the release of endogenous pyrogens or inflammatory cytokines that activate immune system to defend against these pathogens. Generation of heat is considered as one of the important defence mechanism of body achieved through receptor mediated interaction of endogenous pyrogens at the thermoregulatory centre of hypothalamus. However, uncontrolled fever and febrile reaction may cause lethal effects to the subject itself. So a well sophistically functioning antipyretic mechanism is necessary to achieve thermoregulation. The coordinated interaction of antipyretic cytokines and other mediators are active in human immune system which play a crucial role in maintaining thermal homeostasis. The multiple interacting antipyretic signals and their mechanism are the major subjects of this review.

2D materials for next generation healthcare applications.

2 dimensional (2D) materials are budding new class of materials with exciting potential in optical, electrical, chemical and biomedical applications. Inspired by the attractive properties of graphene attributing to its 2D structure has stimulated researchers to hunt for new 2D materials. Unique characteristics like high surface-volume ratio, shape, surface charge, anisotropic nature and tunable functionalities of 2D structures opens up its application scope further. 2D materials have marked their impact on a wide range of area notably material science, optoelectronics, engineering and biomedical science. Currently, researchers are focusing on developing new 2D materials and functionalizing 2D materials to achieve desired properties. This review underlines the recent renovations done to 2D materials so as improve its functionality and biocompatibility. Growing trend towards exploring the potential of 2D materials for biomedical applications including targeted drug delivery, imaging, photothermal therapy, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine emphasize the need to consider its biosafety. Large surface area of 2D materials increases chances of exposure of these materials towards cells which in turn shoots up the possibility for cellular interactions augmenting chances of potential toxicity. The present review concludes that the 2D materials are promising choice for next generation biomedical device development.