Nanomedicine at the Pulmonary Frontier: Immune-Centric Approaches for Respiratory Disease Treatment.

Respiratory diseases (RD) are a group of common ailments with a rapidly increasing global prevalence, posing a significant threat to humanity, especially the elderly population, and imposing a substantial burden on society and the economy. RD represents an unmet medical need that requires the development of viable pharmacotherapies. While various promising strategies have been devised to advance potential treatments for RD, their implementation has been hindered by difficulties in drug delivery, particularly in critically ill patients. Nanotechnology offers innovative solutions for delivering medications to the inflamed organ sites, such as the lungs. Although this approach is enticing, delivering nanomedicine to the lungs presents complex challenges that require sophisticated techniques. In this context, we review the potential of novel nanomedicine-based immunomodulatory strategies that could offer therapeutic benefits in managing this pressing health condition.

Advanced Overview of Biomarkers and Techniques for Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease.

The development of early non-invasive diagnosis methods and identification of novel biomarkers are necessary for managing Alzheimer's disease (AD) and facilitating effective prognosis and treatment. AD has multi-factorial nature and involves complex molecular mechanism, which causes neuronal degeneration. The primary challenges in early AD detection include patient heterogeneity and lack of precise diagnosis at the preclinical stage. Several cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood biomarkers have been proposed to show excellent diagnosis ability by identifying tau pathology and cerebral amyloid beta (Aß) for AD. Intense research endeavors are being made to develop ultrasensitive detection techniques and find potent biomarkers for early AD diagnosis. To mitigate AD worldwide, understanding various CSF biomarkers, blood biomarkers, and techniques that can be used for early diagnosis is imperative. This review attempts to provide information regarding AD pathophysiology, genetic and non-genetic factors associated with AD, several potential blood and CSF biomarkers, like neurofilament light, neurogranin, Aß, and tau, along with biomarkers under development for AD detection. Besides, numerous techniques, such as neuroimaging, spectroscopic techniques, biosensors, and neuroproteomics, which are being explored to aid early AD detection, have been discussed. The insights thus gained would help in finding potential biomarkers and suitable techniques for the accurate diagnosis of early AD before cognitive dysfunction.

A Path of Novelty from Nanoparticles to Nanobots: Theragnostic Approach for Targeting Cancer Therapy.

Pharmaceutical development of cancer therapeutics is a dynamic area of research. Even after decades of intensive work, cancer continues to be a dreadful disease with an ever-increasing global incidence. The progress of nanotechnology in cancer research has overcome inherent limitations in conventional cancer chemotherapy and fulfilled the need for target-specific drug carriers. Nanotechnology uses the altered patho-physiological microenvironment of malignant cells and offers various advantages like improved solubility, reduced toxicity, prolonged drug circulation with controlled release, circumventing multidrug resistance, and enhanced biodistribution. Early cancer detection has a crucial role in selecting the best drug regime, thus, diagnosis and therapeutics go hand in hand. Furthermore, nanobots are an amazing possibility and promising innovation with numerous significant applications, particularly in fighting cancer and cleaning out blood vessels. Nanobots are tiny robots, ranging in size from 1 to 100 nm. Moreover, the nanobots would work similarly to white blood cells, watching the bloodstream and searching for indications of distress. This review articulates the evolution of various organic and inorganic nanoparticles and nanobots used as therapeutics, along with their pros and cons. It also highlights the shift in diagnostics from conventional methods to more advanced techniques. This rapidly growing domain is providing more space for engineering desired nanoparticles that can show miraculous results in therapeutic and diagnostic trials.

Highlighting the Potential Role of Exosomes as the Targeted Nanotherapeutic Carrier in Metastatic Breast Cancer.

Breast cancer, being the second most common type of cancer, is a leading cause of death in the female population. Of all the available treatments existing for breast cancer, exosomes appear as an important medium for the site targeted delivery of the drugs. Exosomes, unlike all the other extracellular vesicles, play a vital role in the transport of numerous biomolecules throughout the body and can easily be detected because of the presence of specific biomarkers. Apart from playing a wide variety of roles in the progression of many diseases, they are also responsible for tumor progression and metastasis in breast cancer. Exosomes and related engineering strategies are being discussed as nano-carrier for the delivery of different drugs in the case of breast cancer. Overall, we have discussed in this review the role of exosomes in breast cancer and the engineering strategies being devised for making them an efficient drug delivery system.

Development of magnetic nanoparticle assisted aptamer-quantum dot based biosensor for the detection of Escherichia coli in water samples.

The contamination of food and potable water with microorganisms may cause food-borne and water-borne diseases. The common contaminants include Escherichia coli (E. coli), Salmonella sp. etc. The conventional methods for monitoring the water quality for the presence of bacterial contaminants are time-consuming, expensive, and not suitable for rapid on-spot detection in field conditions. In the current study, super paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) were synthesized and conjugated with E. coli specific Aptamer I to detect E. coli cells qualitatively as well as quantitatively. The sludge consisting of E. coli- SPION complex was separated via magnetic separation. The presence of E. coli cells was confirmed with the help of standard techniques and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) employing Aptamer II conjugated CdTe-MPA quantum dots (QDs). Finally, an ATmega 328P prototype biosensor based on Aptamer II conjugated CdTe MPA QDs exhibited quantitative and qualitative abilities to detect E.coli. This prototype biosensor can even detect low bacterial counts (up to 1 × 102 cfu) with the help of a photodiode and plano-convex lens. Further, the prototype biosensor made up of ultraviolet light-emitting diode (UV LED), liquid crystal display (LCD) and ATmega328Pmicrocontroller offers on-spot detection of E.coli in water samples with high resolution and sensitivity. Similarly, this in-house developed prototype biosensor can also be utilized to detect bacterial contamination in food samples.