Biosynthesis of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles on l-Carnosine Biofunctionalized Polyacrylonitrile Nanofibers; a Biomimetic Wound Healing Material.

Multifunctional biohybrid nanofibers (NFs) that can simultaneously drive various cellular activities and confer antibacterial properties are considered desirable in producing advanced wound healing materials. In this study, a bionanohybrid formulation was processed as a NF wound dressing to stimulate the adhesion and proliferation of fibroblast and endothelial cells that play a major role in wound healing. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) electrospun NFs were hydrolyzed using NaOH and biofunctionalized with l-carnosine (CAR), a dipeptide which could later biosynthesize zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs) on the NFs surface. The morphological study verified that ZnO NPs are uniformly distributed on the surface of CAR/PAN NFs. Through EDX and XRD analysis, it was validated that the NPs are composed of ZnO and/or ZnO/Zn(OH)2. The presence of CAR and ZnO NPs brought about a superhydrophilicity effect and notably raised the elastic modulus and tensile strength of Zn-CAR/PAN NFs. While CAR ligands were shown to improve the viability of fibroblast (L929) and endothelial (HUVEC) cells, ZnO NPs lowered the positive impact of CAR, most likely due to their repulsive negative surface charge. A scratch assay verified that CAR/PAN NFs and Zn-CAR/PAN NFs aided HUVEC migration more than PAN NFs. Also, an antibacterial assay implied that CAR/PAN NFs and Zn-CAR/PAN NFs are significantly more effective in inhibiting Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) than neat PAN NFs are (1000 and 500%, respectively). Taken together, compared to the neat PAN NFs, CAR/PAN NFs with and without the biosynthesized ZnO NPs can support the cellular activities of relevance for wound healing and inactivate bacteria.

Could Nanotheranostics be the Answer to the Coronavirus Crisis?

The COVID-19 pandemic is expanding worldwide. This pandemic associated with COVID-19 placed the spotlight on how bacterial (e.g., methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) co-infections may impact responses to coronavirus. In this review the ways in which nanoparticles can contain and rapidly diagnose COVID-19 under the umbrella of nanotheranostics (i.e., smart, single agents combining nanodiagnostics and nanotherapeutics) are elaborated. The present work provides new insights into the promising incorporation of antiviral nanotheranostics into nanostructured materials, including electrospun fibers with tailored pore sizes and hydrophobicity, namely "superhydrophobic self-disinfecting electrospun facemasks/fabrics (SSEF)." SSEFs are proposed as smart alternatives to address the drawbacks of N95 respirators. The challenges of coronavirus containment are underscored, literature is reviewed, and "top-five suggestions" for containing COVID-19 are offered, including: i) preventive appraisals-avoiding needless hospital admission and practicing frequent hand washing (from 20 to 60 s). ii) Diagnostics-highly recommending nanodiagnostics, detecting COVID-19 within 10 min. iii) Therapeutics-expanding nanotherapeutics to treat COVID-19 and bacterial co-infections after safety assessments and clinical trials. iv) Multipronged and multinational, including China, collaborative appraisals. v) Humanitarian compassion to traverse this pandemic in a united way.