Conventional and advanced detection approaches of fluoride in water: a review.

Fluorine is a naturally occurring element found in soil, water, food materials, and natural minerals such as fluorapatite, sellaite, and cryolite and exists as fluoride compounds with other elements because of high reactivity. The exposure of fluoride to the environment and human beings are industrial factors, food, water, and geogenic factors that impact the health of millions of human beings worldwide. Overexposure to fluoride exceeding the permissible limit (1.5 mg/l as per WHO) causes several diseases in human beings, such as teeth mottling, thyroid inflammation, dental fluorosis, skeletal fluorosis, lesions in the kidney, and other organs. To overcome the deleterious impact of fluoride, its detection at an early stage is very much required. Therefore, feeling the importance of the same, immense efforts have been made to the selective and sensitive determination of fluoride in water by numerous researchers. This review paper summarizes the various conventional methods such as spectroscopic, ion chromatography, ICP-OES, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, their advantages, and drawbacks leading to the development of advanced ready-to-use detection strategies such as stamartphones for on-the-spot fluoride detection. This review paper also discusses future directions, which will assist scientists in achieving a new benchmark in developing a reliable, cost-effective, and user-friendly fluoride detector.

Comparison of Virosome vs. Liposome as drug delivery vehicle using HepG2 and CaCo2 cell lines.

AIM: The present work involves encapsulation of herbal drug nanocurcumin into the virosomes and compared with a liposome in terms of their in vitro anti-proliferative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-migratory efficacy. METHODS: The anti-proliferative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-migratory efficacy of virosome and liposome were compared in HepG2 and CaCo2 cells by using MTT, Nitric oxide scavenging, and Wound healing assay, respectively. RESULTS: Size of the optimised NC-Virosome and NC-Liposome was 70.06 ± 1.63 and 265.80 ± 1.64 nm, respectively. The prepared NC-Virosome can be stored at -4 °C up to six months. The drug encapsulation efficiency of NC-Virosome and NC-Liposome was found to be 84.66 ± 1.67 and 62.15 ± 1.75% (w/w). The evaluated minimum inhibitory concentration (IC50 value) for NC-Virosome was 102.7 µg/ml and 108.1 µg/ml, while NC-Liposome showed 129.2 µg/ml and 160.1 µg/ml for HepG2 and CaCo2 cells, respectively. Morphological examination depicts detachment of the cells from substratum after exposure to NC-Virosome for 48 h. CONCLUSION: The prepared NC-Virosome provides remarkable in vitro efficacy in both the cell lines with site-specific drug-targeting potential as compared to the liposome, results proved its potential as a drug delivery vehicle for future therapy with reduced toxicity.

An overview of advancement in aptasensors for influenza detection.

INTRODUCTION: The platforms for early identification of infectious diseases such as influenza has seen a surge in recent years as delayed diagnosis of such infections can lead to dreadful effects causing large numbers of deaths. The time taken in detection of an infectious disease may vary from a few days to a few weeks depending upon the choice of the techniques. So, there is an urgent need for advanced methodologies for early diagnosis of the influenza. AREAS COVERED: The emergence of "Aptasensor" synergistically with biosensors for diagnosis has opened a new era for sensitive, selective and early detection approaches. This review described various conventional as well as advanced methods based on artificial immunogenic nucleotide sequences complementing a part of the virus, i.e., aptamers based aptasensors for influenza diagnosis and the challenges faced in their commercialization. EXPERT OPINION: Although numerous traditional methods are available for influenza detection but mostly associated with low sensitivity, specificity, high cost, trained personnel, and animals required for virus culture/ antibody raising as the major drawbacks. Aptamers can be manufactured invitro as 'chemical antibodies' at commercial level, no animal required. Following these advantages, aptamers can pave the way for an efficient diagnostic technique as compared to other existing conventional methods..

Preparation and characterization of nanocurcumin based hybrid virosomes as a drug delivery vehicle with enhanced anticancerous activity and reduced toxicity.

The present study represents a formulation of nanocurcumin based hybrid virosomes (NC-virosome) to deliver drugs at targeted sites. Curcumin is a bioactive component derived from Curcuma longa and well-known for its medicinal property, but it exhibits poor solubility and rapid metabolism, which led to low bioavailability and hence limits its applications. Nanocurcumin was prepared to increase the aqueous solubility and to overcome all the limitations associated with curcumin. Influenza virosomes were prepared by solubilization of the viral membrane with 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycerol-3-phosphocholine (DSPC). During membrane reconstitution, the hydrophilic nanocurcumin was added to the solvent system, followed by overnight dialysis to obtain NC-virosomes. The same was characterized using a transmission electron microscope (TEM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM), MTT assay was used to evaluate it's in vitro-cytotoxicity using MDA-MB231 and Mesenchyme stem cells (MSCs). The results showed NC-virosomes has spherical morphology with size ranging between 60 and 90 nm. It showed 82.6% drug encapsulation efficiency. The viability of MDA-MB231 cells was significantly inhibited by NC-virosome in a concentration-dependent manner at a specific time. The IC50 for nanocurcumin and NC-virosome was 79.49 and 54.23 µg/ml, respectively. The site-specific drug-targeting, high efficacy and non- toxicity of NC-virosomes proves its future potential as drug delivery vehicles.

A novel approach to detect barium in gunshot residue using a handheld device: a forensic application.

The present manuscript describes an innovative handheld device for the rapid detection of barium (Ba2+) in Gunshot Residue (GSR) based on the use of gold nanomaterials capped with sodium malonate. The method depends on a shift in the Light Scattering Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) peak of malonate capped gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) from 526 nm to 610.5 nm, due to the carboxylate ion aggregation between the metal and the nanoparticles leading to a change in the color. Qualitative detection was realized by the change in the color, while for quantitative analysis a handheld device has been fabricated in-house. The results were then correlated with those of standard known methods such as UV-Vis Spectroscopy and Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES). The results showed better correlation between the fabricated device and standard methods with R2 = 0.98. It shows a linearity range from 0.01 mg mL-1 to 5 mg mL-1 with a Limit of Detection (LOD) of 0.2 mg mL-1. Furthermore, GSR samples were collected from cloth piece set at different range of shooting (i.e. 1 ft to 16.40 ft) using different ammunition to detect the presence of Ba2+ with the help of the developed device and results were found similar to those of the known methods. The hand-held device was found to be unaffected by other interfering agents (i.e. Pb2+, Sb3+, Ca2+, Cu2+, Hg2+, Mg2+, As3+, Cr3+, etc.). The results demonstrated here shows high selectivity, sensitivity and rapid method for Ba2+ detection in GSR, showing its greater potentiality in future.

COVID-19 diagnostic approaches: different roads to the same destination.

"SARS-CoV2", a previously unknown strain of coronaviruses caused a severe respiratory disease called Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) which emerged from Wuhan city of China on 30 December 2019, and declared as Global health problem by World Health Organisation within a month. In less than two and half months (11 March, 2020) it was declared as a pandemic disease due to its rapid spreading ability, it covered more than 211 countries infecting around 1.7 million persons and claiming around 1.1 lakhs lives within merely 100 days of its emergence. Containment of the infection of this virus is the only available measure to control the disease as no vaccine or specific antiviral treatment is available. Confirmed detection of the virus followed by isolation of the infected person at the earliest possible is the only measure to prevent this disease. Although there are number of methods available for detection of virus and to combat this disease in the present pandemic situation, but these available diagnostic methods have their own limitations. The speedy and exponential global spread of this disease strongly urges the fast and economic diagnostics tools. Additional to the available diagnostic methods, there is a sudden surge for development of various of methods and platforms to diagnose the COVID-19. The review summarized the advantage and disadvantage of various diagnostic approaches being used presently for COVID-19, newer detection methods in developmental stage and the feasibility of advanced platforms like newer nano-sensor based on-the-spot detection technologies.