MXene-modified molecularly imprinted polymers as an artificial bio-recognition platform for efficient electrochemical sensing: progress and perspectives.

The development of efficient electrochemical sensors of exceptional features, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), has been extensively utilized due to their great vitality as an alternative to bio-recognition elements. MIPs as an artificial bio-recognition element are getting significant attention due to their affordability, easy processability, and scaling-up capabilities. However, the challenge of longer stability and higher sensitivity associated with MIP-based sensing technology is still a remaining challenge. This can be addressed by modifying MIPs with electro-active nano-systems. Correspondingly, MXene is an emerging material of choice to make MIP-based sensing platforms more efficient and develop a bio-active-free sensing system. This review highlights state-of-the-art MXene-modified MIP electrochemical sensing platforms to overcome the associated limitations of pristine MIPs. As a proof-of-concept, the sensitive and selective detection of markers for health monitoring can be efficiently fulfilled by the high-performance MXene-MIP nanocomposite-based electrochemical sensor. Moreover, the challenges associated with this research area along with the potential solutions are also discussed. An attempt has been made to explore MXene-MIP nanocomposites as a next-generation sensing platform suitable for point-of-care testing (POCT) applications.

Exploring Curcumin-Loaded Lipid-Based Nanomedicine as Efficient Targeted Therapy for Alzheimer's Diseases.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurological condition currently with 47 million people suffering from it globally. AD might have many reasons such as genetic issues, environmental factors, and Aß accumulation, which is the biomarker of the disease. Since the primary reason is unknown, there is no targeted treatment at the moment, but ongoing research aims to slow its progression by managing amyloid-beta peptide production rather than symptomatic improvement. Since phytochemicals have been demonstrated to possess antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective properties, they may target multiple pathological factors and can reduce the risk of the disease. Curcumin, as a phytochemical found in turmeric known for its antioxidant, free radical scavenging properties, and as an antiamyloid in treating AD, has come under investigation. Although its low bioavailability limits its efficacy, a prominent drug delivery system (DDS) is desired to overcome it. Hence, the potency of lipid-based nanoparticles encapsulating curcumin (LNPs-CUR) is considered in this study as a promising DDS. In vivo studies in animal models indicate LNPs-CUR effectively slow amyloid plaque formation, leading to cognitive enhancement and reduced toxicity compared to free CUR. However, a deeper understanding of CUR's pharmacokinetics and safety profile is crucial before LNPs-CUR can be considered as a medicine. Future investigations may explore the combination of NPs with other therapeutic agents to increase their efficacy in AD cases. This review provides the current position of CUR in the AD therapy paradigm, the DDS suggestions for CUR, and the previous research from the point of analytical view focused on the advantages and challenges.

Electron Beam-Supported Fabrication of Biocompatible Silver/iota-Carrageenan for Wound Healing Application.

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are a potent antibacterial agent, especially when used to treat bacteria that are multidrug resistant. However, it is challenging to eliminate the hazardous reducing agents that remain in AgNPs produced by the conventional chemical reduction process. To overcome these challenges, the presented research demonstrates the fabrication of AgNPs using iota-carrageenan (ι-carra) as a carbohydrate polymer using electron beam (EB) irradiation. Well-characterized ι-carra@AgNPs have a face-centered cubic (FCC) structure with spherical morphology and an average size of 26 nm. Herein we explored the approach for fabricating ι-carra@AgNPs that is suitable for scaling up the production of nanoparticles that exhibit excellent water stability. Further, the optimized ι-carra@AgNPs exhibited considerable antibacterial activity of 40% and 30% inhibition when tested with Gram-negative Escherichia coli ATCC 43895 and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) (ATCC 6538), respectively, and low cytotoxicity at 10-50 µg/mL. To establish the potential biomedical application, as proof of the concept, the ι-carra@AgNPs showed significant antibiofilm activity at 20 µg/mL and also showed 95% wound healing abilities at 50 µg/mL compared to the nontreated control groups. Electron beam assisted ι-carra@AgNPs showed significant beneficial effects against specific bacterial strains and may provide a guide for the development of new antibacterial materials for wound dressing for large-scale production for biomedical applications.

Chitosan-Grafted-Poly(N-vinylcaprolactam)-Decorated Fe3O4@SiO2 Core-Shell Nanoformulation as an Efficient Drug Delivery System for Poorly Soluble Drugs.

Hydrocortisone, a commonly used anti-inflammatory drug, has limited aqueous solubility and several side effects. To address this challenge, as a proof-of-concept, this article demonstrates the development of a controlled-release drug delivery system (DDS) for hydrocortisone using chitosan-grafted poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) (CS-g-PNVCL)-coated core-shell Fe3O4@SiO2 nanoformulations (NFs). Reported magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized and modified with silica, PNVCL, and CS precursors to enhance the biocompatibility of DDS and drug-loading efficiency. The release rate of hydrocortisone from Fe3O4@SiO2@CS-g-PNVCL NFs was observed to be higher at lower pH values, and the smart polymer coating demonstrated temperature responsiveness, facilitating drug release at higher temperatures. Fe3O4@SiO2@CS-g-PNVCL NFs exhibited a cell viability of around 97.2 to 87.3% (5-100 µg/mL) after 24-48 h, while the hydrocortisone-NFs had a cell viability of around 93.2 to 82.3%. Our findings suggest that CS-g-PNVCL-coated Fe3O4@SiO2 NPs effectively enhance the solubility, loading capacity, and targeted delivery of poorly soluble drugs, thereby improving their therapeutic efficacy and bioavailability.

Ultrasensitive and Reusable Graphene Oxide-Modified Double-Interdigitated Capacitive (DIDC) Sensing Chip for Detecting SARS-CoV-2.

This research reveals the promising functionalization of graphene oxide (GrO)-glazed double-interdigitated capacitive (DIDC) biosensing platform to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) spike (S1) proteins with enhanced selectivity and rapid response. The DIDC bioactive surface consisting of Pt/Ti featured SiO2 substrate was fabricated using GrO/EDC-NHS/anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (Abs) which is having layer-by-layer interface self-assembly chemistry method. This electroactive immune-sensing platform exhibits reproducibility and sensitivity with reference to the S1 protein of SARS-CoV-2. The outcomes of analytical studies confirm that GrO provided a desired engineered surface for Abs immobilization and amplified capacitance to achieve a wide detection range (1.0 mg/mL to 1.0 fg/mL), low limit of detection (1 fg/mL) within 3 s of response time, good linearity (18.56 nF/g), and a high sensitivity of 1.0 fg/mL. Importantly, the unique biochip was selective against blood-borne antigens and standby for 10 days at 5 °C. Our developed DIDC-based SARS-CoV-2 biosensor is suitable for point-of-care (POC) diagnostic applications due to portability and scaling-up ability. In addition, this sensing platform can be modified for the early diagnosis of severe viral infections using real samples.

Electrochemical SARS-CoV-2 Sensing at Point-of-Care and Artificial Intelligence for Intelligent COVID-19 Management.

To manage the COVID-19 pandemic, development of rapid, selective, sensitive diagnostic systems for early stage ß-coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) virus protein detection is emerging as a necessary response to generate the bioinformatics needed for efficient smart diagnostics, optimization of therapy, and investigation of therapies of higher efficacy. The urgent need for such diagnostic systems is recommended by experts in order to achieve the mass and targeted SARS-CoV-2 detection required to manage the COVID-19 pandemic through the understanding of infection progression and timely therapy decisions. To achieve these tasks, there is a scope for developing smart sensors to rapidly and selectively detect SARS-CoV-2 protein at the picomolar level. COVID-19 infection, due to human-to-human transmission, demands diagnostics at the point-of-care (POC) without the need of experienced labor and sophisticated laboratories. Keeping the above-mentioned considerations, we propose to explore the compartmentalization approach by designing and developing nanoenabled miniaturized electrochemical biosensors to detect SARS-CoV-2 virus at the site of the epidemic as the best way to manage the pandemic. Such COVID-19 diagnostics approach based on a POC sensing technology can be interfaced with the Internet of things and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques (such as machine learning and deep learning for diagnostics) for investigating useful informatics via data storage, sharing, and analytics. Keeping COVID-19 management related challenges and aspects under consideration, our work in this review presents a collective approach involving electrochemical SARS-CoV-2 biosensing supported by AI to generate the bioinformatics needed for early stage COVID-19 diagnosis, correlation of viral load with pathogenesis, understanding of pandemic progression, therapy optimization, POC diagnostics, and diseases management in a personalized manner.

Tailored Biofunctionalized Biosensor for the Label-Free Sensing of Prostate-Specific Antigen.

The increase in the demand and popularity of smart biosensors has brought a novel and innovative concept to develop a diverse range of semen mutual biomarker (i.e., prostate-specific antigen, PSA)-based biodevices for our daily life applications. Using a versatile strategy, here we have developed a next-generation miniaturized capacitive biomarker-based sensor, which facilitates a direct, rapid quantitation and ultrafast detection of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) selectively. To fabricate an affordable PSA biosensor, an interdigitated capacitor (IDC) was functionalized and to detect PSA at concentrations varying from 0.1 to 10 µL/mL, with a response time of 3 s. Moreover, the PSA biosensor showed a high level of selectivity due to the successful probing of the capacitive response-generated biomolecular interactions using external stimuli at the bioelectrode. The resulting IDC-based PSA biosensors are capable of excellent reproducibility and reusability, which are required for real-time biosensing of any targeted biomolecules where low-concentration detection is a key for point-of-care, on-site sensing applications. We anticipate that this research could open exciting opportunities for PSA detection at a low concentration level.