In silico identification and validation of phenolic lipids as potential inhibitor against bacterial and viral strains.

The recurrence of coronavirus disease and bacterial resistant strains has drawn attention to naturally occurring bioactive molecules that can demonstrate broad-spectrum efficacy against bacteria as well as viral strains. The drug-like abilities of naturally available "anacardic acids" (AA) and their derivatives against different bacterial and viral protein targets through in-silico tools were explored. Three viral protein targets [P DB: 6Y2E (SARS-CoV-2), 1AT3 (Herpes) and 2VSM (Nipah)] and four bacterial protein targets [P DB: 2VF5 (Escherichia coli), 2VEG (Streptococcus pneumoniae), 1JIJ (Staphylococcus aureus) and 1KZN (E. coli)] were selected to evaluate the activity of bioactive AA molecules. The potential ability to inhibit the progression of microbes has been discussed based on the structure, functionality and interaction ability of these molecules on the selected protein targets for multi-disease remediation. The number of interactions, full-fitness value and energy of the ligand-target system were determined from the docked structure in SwissDock and Autodock Vina. In order to compare the efficacy of these active derivatives to that of commonly used drugs against bacteria and viruses, a few of the selected molecules were subjected to 100 ns long MD simulations. It was found that the phenolic groups and alkyl chains of AA derivatives are more likely to bind with microbial targets, that could be responsible for the improved activity against these targets. The results suggest that the proposed AA derivatives have demonstrated potential to become active drug ingredients against microbial protein targets. Further, experimental investigations are essential for clinical verification of the drug-like abilities of AA derivatives.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Prevalence and implications of microplastics in potable water system: An update.

Synthetic plastics, which are lightweight, durable, elastic, mouldable, cheap, and hydrophobic, were originally invented for human convenience. However, their non-biodegradability and continuous accumulation at an alarming rate as well as subsequent conversion into micro/nano plastic scale structures via mechanical and physio-chemical degradation pose significant threats to living beings, organisms, and the environment. Various minuscule forms of plastics detected in water, soil, and air are making their passage into living cells. High temperature and ambient humidity increase the degradation potential of plastic polymers photo-catalytically under sunlight or UV-B radiations. Microplastics (MPs) of polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene, polystyrene, polypropylene, and polyvinyl chloride have been detected in bottled water. These microplastics are entering into the food chain cycle, causing serious harm to all living organisms. MPs entering into the food chain are usually inert in nature, possessing different sizes and shapes. Once they enter a cell or tissue, it causes mechanical damage, induces inflammation, disturbs metabolism, and even lead to necrosis. Various generation routes, types, impacts, identification, and treatment of microplastics entering the water bodies and getting associated with various pollutants are discussed in this review. It emphasizes potential detection techniques like pyrolysis, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), micro-Raman spectroscopy, and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT IR) spectroscopy for microplastics from water samples.

Antibacterial and antiviral high-performance nanosystems to mitigate new SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern.

The increased severity of the COVID-19 infection due to new SARS-CoV-2 variants has resonated pandemic impact which made health experts to re-evaluate the effectiveness of pandemic management strategies. This becomes critical owing to the infection in large population and shortcomings in the existing global healthcare system worldwide. The designing of high-performance nanosystems (NS) with tunable performances seems to be the most efficient method to tackle infectious SARS-CoV-2 variants including recently emerged omicron mutation. In this direction, experts projects the versatile functionalized NS and their capabilities to mitigate SARS-CoV-2 propagation pathways by sensitization, antipathogenicity, photocatalysis, photothermal effects, immune response, developing efficient diagnostics assays or associated, selective biomarkers detection, and targeted drug delivery systems. To achieve these tasks, this opinion article project the importance of the fabrication of nano-enabled protective gear, masks, gloves, sheets, filtration units, nano-emulsified disinfectants, antiviral/bacterial paints, and therangostics to facilitate quarantine strategies via protection, detection, and treatment needed to manage COVID-19 pandemic in personalized manners. These functional protective high-performance antibacterial and antiviral NS can efficiently tackle the SARS-CoV-2 variants transmission through respiratory fluids and pollutants within water droplets, aerosols, air, and particulates along with their severe infection via neutralizing or eradicating the virus.

Iron nanoparticles augmented chemodynamic effect by alternative magnetic field for wound disinfection and healing.

Utilizing the iron-carrying nanomaterials for Fenton chemistry mediation to catalyze decomposition of hydrogen peroxide and generate toxic hydroxyl radical (OH) has drawn much attention in antimicrobial therapy field. However, these nanomaterials are usually with unsatisfactory catalytic efficacy and lack of the capacity to modulate the catalytic activity, which may give the bacteria opportunity in developing resistance against the antibacterial treatment. Herein, we systematically investigated the influence of alternating magnetic field (AMF) on the catalytic activity and antibacterial efficiency of the amorphous iron nanoparticles (AIronNPs). With rapidly ionized and the AMF augmented chemodynamic effect, the AIronNPs can convert low concentration of H2O2 into more OH, the possible mechanism might be attributed to the accelerated ferrous iron ions releasing with AMF exposure. As a proof of concept, the AIronNPs and AMF synergetic antibacterial system have shown excellent broad-spectrum antimicrobial properties, 91.89% antibacterial efficiency is shown toward Escherichia coli and 92.65% toward Staphylococcus aureus. It also facilitated the formation of granulation tissue and accelerated wound healing on in vivo infected model, whereas AIronNPs alone have limited effect. We believe this work will broaden the thoughts for spatiotemporally manipulating the catalytic activity of nanomaterials and advance the development of magnetic nano-antibiotics in the antibacterial field.

Physicochemical and Pharmacokinetic Analysis of Anacardic Acid Derivatives.

Anacardic acid (AA) and its derivatives are well-known for their therapeutic applications ranging from antitumor, antibacterial, antioxidant, anticancer, and so forth. However, their poor pharmacokinetic and safety properties create significant hurdles in the formulation of the final drug molecule. As a part of our endeavor to enhance the potential and exploration of the anticancer activities, a detailed study on the properties of selected AA derivatives was performed in this work. A comprehensive analysis of the drug-like properties of 100 naturally occurring AA derivatives was performed, and the results were compared with certain marketed anticancer drugs. The work focused on the understanding of the interplay among eight physicochemical properties. The relationships between the physicochemical properties, absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion attributes, and the in silico toxicity profile for the set of AA derivatives were established. The ligand efficacy of the finally scrutinized 17 AA derivatives on the basis of pharmacokinetic properties and toxicity parameters was further subjected to dock against the potential anticancer target cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (PDB ID: 1W98). In the docked complex, the ligand molecules (AA derivatives) selectively bind with the target residues, and a high binding affinity of the ligand molecules was ensured by the full fitness score using the SwissDock Web server. The BOILED-Egg model shows that out of 17 scrutinized molecules, 3 molecules exhibit gastrointestinal absorption capability and 14 molecules exhibit permeability through the blood-brain barrier penetration. The analysis can also provide some useful insights to chemists to modify the existing natural scaffolds in designing new anacardic anticancer drugs. The increased probability of success may lead to the identification of drug-like candidates with favorable safety profiles after further clinical evaluation.

Impact of Nanoclay on the pH-Responsiveness and Biodegradable Behavior of Biopolymer-Based Nanocomposite Hydrogels.

This research work deployed free radical polymerization for the development of pH-responsive hybrid nanocomposite hydrogels (NCHs) with the formation of improved interpenetrating networks (IPN). The crosslinked biopolymeric system was composed of (chitosan (CH)/guar gum (GG)/polyol) and a nanofiller (Cloisite 30B). The study was aimed to investigate the role of Cloisite 30B as a nanofiller and linseed oil-derived polyol to induce stable interpenetrating networks in chitosan‒guar gum-based hydrogels. FT-IR analysis confirmed the formation of crosslinked networks with the formation of hydrogen bonds in the synthesized NCHs. Thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry revealed high thermal stability of the NCHs. The hydrolytic and soil burial degradation tests confirmed the biodegradability of the synthesized NCHs. An extraordinarily high swelling capacity in a buffer solution of pH 4.0 and 7.4 demonstrated their pH-responsive behavior. It has been demonstrated that even the minimal addition of polyol to the guar gum-based hydrogels has influenced the stability and characteristic features such as high swelling capacity owing to the formation of interpenetrating networks and the biodegradability of the hydrogels.

Erratum: Tiwari, S., et al. Biosensors for Epilepsy Management: State-of-Art and Future Aspects. Sensors 2019, 19, 1525.

The authors wish to make the following correction to the above-mentioned published paper [...].

Composition-Tunable Ultrasmall Manganese Ferrite Nanoparticles: Insights into their In Vivo T1 Contrast Efficacy.

The development of a highly efficient, low-toxicity, ultrasmall ferrite nanoparticle-based T1 contrast agent for high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is highly desirable. However, the correlations between the chemical compositions, in vitro T1 relaxivities, in vivo nano-bio interactions and toxicities remain unclear, which has been a challenge in optimizing the in vivo T1 contrast efficacy. Methods: Ultrasmall (3 nm) manganese ferrite nanoparticles (MnxFe3-xO4) with different doping concentrations of the manganese ions (x = 0.32, 0.37, 0.75, 1, 1.23 and 1.57) were used as a model system to investigate the composition-dependence of the in vivo T1 contrast efficacy. The efficacy of liver-specific contrast-enhanced MRI was assessed through systematic multiple factor analysis, which included the in vitro T1 relaxivity, in vivo MRI contrast enhancement, pharmacokinetic profiles (blood half-life time, biodistribution) and biosafety evaluations (in vitro cytotoxicity testing, in vivo blood routine examination, in vivo blood biochemistry testing and H&E staining to examine the liver). Results: With increasing Mn doping, the T1 relaxivities initially increased to their highest value of 10.35 mM-1s-1, which was obtained for Mn0.75Fe2.25O4, and then the values decreased to 7.64 m M-1s-1, which was obtained for the Mn1.57Fe1.43O4 nanoparticles. Nearly linear increases in the in vivo MRI signals (ΔSNR) and biodistributions (accumulation in the liver) of the MnxFe3-xO4 nanoparticles were observed for increasing levels of Mn doping. However, both the in vitro and in vivo biosafety evaluations suggested that MnxFe3-xO4 nanoparticles with high Mn-doping levels (x > 1) can induce significant toxicity. Conclusion: The systematic multiple factor assessment indicated that the MnxFe3-xO4 (x = 0.75-1) nanoparticles were the optimal T1 contrast agents with higher in vivo efficacies for liver-specific MRI than those of the other compositions of the MnxFe3-xO4 nanoparticles. Our work provides insight into the optimization of ultrasmall ferrite nanoparticle-based T1 contrast agents by tuning their compositions and promotes the translation of these ultrasmall ferrite nanoparticles for clinical use of high-performance contrast-enhanced MRI.

Magnetic Hydrogel with Optimally Adaptive Functions for Breast Cancer Recurrence Prevention.

Engineering biocompatible hydrogels using functional nanoparticles has attracted considerable attention because of their uniquely appealing cooperative effects that can enable multimodality imaging and treatment with improved efficacy against serious diseases. However, the effects of high-content nanoparticle dopants on the rheological properties of hydrogels frequently lead to an unsatisfactory therapeutic result, which is particularly notable in the design of magnetic hydrogel formulations for cancer therapy. Herein is reported a novel magnetic hydrogel functionalized by ferromagnetic vortex-domain iron oxide (FVIOs) with optimally adaptive functions for prevention of breast cancer recurrence. The FVIOs can perfectly incorporate into the dynamic hydrogel networks with an extremely low concentration (0.6 mg mL-1 ), 17 times lower than that of conventional superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles with sufficient heating capacity. Such magnetic hydrogels exhibit high inductive heating and remarkable rheological properties simultaneously. Moreover, the self-healing, self-conformal ability, controlled release of loaded doxorubicin, biodegradation, and pH-responsiveness of the magnetic hydrogel project their efficient sustainable therapeutic ability. In vivo postoperative treatment has further demonstrated the high efficacy of FVIO-based magnetic hydrogels, as evidenced by the significant suppression of the local tumor recurrences compared to chemotherapy or hyperthermia alone. This unique magnetic hydrogel formulation with optimally adaptive functions shows strong potential in preventing relapses of various cancers.

Biosensors for Epilepsy Management: State-of-Art and Future Aspects.

Epilepsy is a serious neurological disorder which affects every aspect of patients' life, including added socio-economic burden. Unfortunately, only a few suppressive medicines are available, and a complete cure for the disease has not been found yet. Excluding the effectiveness of available therapies, the timely detection and monitoring of epilepsy are of utmost priority for early remediation and prevention. Inability to detect underlying epileptic signatures at early stage causes serious damage to the central nervous system (CNS) and irreversible detrimental variations in the organ system. Therefore, development of a multi-task solving novel smart biosensing systems is urgently required. The present review highlights advancements in state-of-art biosensing technology investigated for epilepsy diseases diagnostics and progression monitoring or both together. State of art epilepsy biosensors are composed of nano-enabled smart sensing platform integrated with micro/electronics and display. These diagnostics systems provide bio-information needed to understand disease progression and therapy optimization timely. The associated challenges related to the development of an efficient epilepsy biosensor and vision considering future prospects are also discussed in this report. This review will serve as a guide platform to scholars for understanding and planning of future research aiming to develop a smart bio-sensing system to detect and monitor epilepsy for point-of-care (PoC) applications.

Nonmagnetic Hypertonic Saline-Based Implant for Breast Cancer Postsurgical Recurrence Prevention by Magnetic Field/pH-Driven Thermochemotherapy.

Magnetic-mediated hyperthermia (MMT) is emerging as one of the promising techniques, which could synergistically treat cancer along with current treatment techniques such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy and trigger on-demand release of therapeutic macromolecules. However, the low specific absorption rate and potential in vivo toxicity of magnetic nanomaterials as the MMT mediators restrict the new advancements in MMT treatment. Herein, for the first trial, the unique inductive heating property of hypertonic saline (HTS), a clinically applied solution exhibiting several physiological effects under alternative magnetic field (AMF), was systematically investigated. Though without magnetic property, due to the dipolar polarization under the electromagnetic radiation, HTS can induce enough high and rapid temperature increase upon exposure under AMF. Based on such an observation, PEG-based HTS hydrogel was fabricated for the inhibition of unwanted diffusion of ions so as to ensure the ideal temperature rise at the targeted region for a longer time. Furthermore, an anticancer drug (doxorubicin) was also incorporated into the hydrogel to achieve the magnetic field/pH stimuli-responsive drug-sustainable release as well as synergistic thermochemotherapy. The potential application of the drug-loaded HTS-PEG-injectable hydrogel for breast cancer postsurgical recurrence prevention is demonstrated. Significant in vivo suppression of two kinds of breast cancer models was achieved by the hybrid hydrogel system. This work explores a new biomedical use of clinical HTS and a promising cancer treatment protocol based on HTS-PEG hydrogel for magnetic hyperthermia combined with stimuli-responsive chemotherapy for breast cancer postsurgical recurrence prevention.

Synthesis of graphenized Au/ZnO plasmonic nanocomposites for simultaneous sunlight mediated photo-catalysis and anti-microbial activity.

Sunlight mediated photo-degradation and anti-bacterial activity of hetero junctioned plasmonic binary (Au/ZnO, RGO/ZnO) and ternary (RGO/Au/ZnO) nanocomposites (NC) have been reported. Higher photo-charge carrier generation, increased charge separation, improved active sites for catalysis, enhanced LSPR and larger photo-response regions have been achieved. Decoration with Au nanoparticles (ca. 11 ±â€¯3 and 48 ±â€¯5 nm) and RGO of ZnO (3D/1D) microstructures (aspect ratio 15.18) provides ternary NCs an edge over mono/bi component catalysts. The ternary NC have shown improved dye degradation capacity with 100% efficiency (5 µM MB solution) and average adsorption degradation capacity (Q°) of 83.34 mg/g within 30 min of sunlight exposure (900 ±â€¯30 Wm-2). Elaborated studies by varying reaction parameters like initial dye concentration, contact time, type of NCs and initial loading of NCs reveals pseudo first order degradation kinetics. 100% microbial killing of Gram positive S.aureus strain with 60 µg/ml of NC using sunlight as activator has proven the simultaneous multiple functionality of the NC. Further, facile green one pot hydrothermal synthesis with water as reaction medium, absence of photo-corrosion of NCs, regeneration ability (ca. 90% for 10 µM solution) of NCs, projects a broader potential application of the synthesized NCs and could reduce the continuous requirement of such material, limiting the environmental toxicity.

Advances in Carbon Nanotubes-Hydrogel Hybrids in Nanomedicine for Therapeutics.

In spite of significant advancement in hydrogel technology, low mechanical strength and lack of electrical conductivity have limited their next-level biomedical applications for skeletal muscles, cardiac and neural cells. Host-guest chemistry based hybrid nanocomposites systems have gained attention as they completely overcome these pitfalls and generate bioscaffolds with tunable electrical and mechanical characteristics. In recent years, carbon nanotube (CNT)-based hybrid hydrogels have emerged as innovative candidates with diverse applications in regenerative medicines, tissue engineering, drug delivery devices, implantable devices, biosensing, and biorobotics. This article is an attempt to recapitulate the advancement in synthesis and characterization of hybrid hydrogels and provide deep insights toward their functioning and success as biomedical devices. The improved comparative performance and biocompatibility of CNT-hydrogels hybrids systems developed for targeted biomedical applications are addressed here. Recent updates toward diverse applications and limitations of CNT hybrid hydrogels is the strength of the review. This will provide a holistic approach toward understanding of CNT-based hydrogels and their applications in nanotheranostics.

Nanocomposite Hydrogels: Advances in Nanofillers Used for Nanomedicine.

The ongoing progress in the development of hydrogel technology has led to the emergence of materials with unique features and applications in medicine. The innovations behind the invention of nanocomposite hydrogels include new approaches towards synthesizing and modifying the hydrogels using diverse nanofillers synergistically with conventional polymeric hydrogel matrices. The present review focuses on the unique features of various important nanofillers used to develop nanocomposite hydrogels and the ongoing development of newly hydrogel systems designed using these nanofillers. This article gives an insight in the advancement of nanocomposite hydrogels for nanomedicine.