ABSTRACT
Nanotechnology, an upcoming field of science dealing with nanoparticles (109), has a wide range of biomedical applications in prophylaxis, diagnosis, and therapy of infectious diseases and cancer. Similarly, nutraceuticals (nutritional and pharmaceutical hybrid) play a key role as immunomodulators, thereby acting as a defense mechanism to fight against microbial pathogens and cancer. Owing to nonspecificity and major adverse reactions of the conventional antimicrobial and anticancer drugs, there exists a pertinent search for novel naturally occurring nutraceuticals that are target specific and devoid of toxicity. Hence, recent research focus is on the combination of nutraceutical with nanotechnology to produce nanonutraceuticals. This chapter deals with nanonutraceutical classification, formulations in drug designing, its delivery to the target site, mechanism involved in immunomodulating and anti-inflammatory effect, utilization in medical imaging, and chemotherapy of cancer and infectious diseases. Additionally, pharmacological and toxicological aspects of nanonutraceuticals and its possible utilization in COVID-19 therapy, with special emphasis on its advantages over repurposing drugs, will be explored. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: For students and trainees, COVID-19 has restricted opportunities for training and development. We sought to develop a virtual network to facilitate remote engagement and training in surgical research during COVID-19. RoboSurg aims to conduct a series of systematic reviews, to summarise and critique the reporting of studies of robot-assisted surgery across seven upper gastrointestinal procedures. Methods: A protocol was developed based on previously published work. Searches were undertaken to identify studies evaluating robotic pancreas, liver, oesophagus, stomach, gallbladder, bariatric and antireflux surgery. Participants were identified through social media and collaborative research networks. Abstracts were screened for inclusion by two participants. Data extraction is completed by teams of collaborators, entered into a bespoke REDCap database and verified by senior team member. Changes are logged, with rationale and feedback provided to collaborators and reviewed by a third reviewer to assess consistency. Results of each review will be summarised in narrative syntheses. Results: A total of 134 collaborators have registered, with 73 active participants. Collaborators range from second year medical students to surgical registrars across the UK. To date, 9444 abstracts and 1653 full texts have been screened with 422 eligible articles identified. Data extraction for two systematic reviews, including 193 articles, has been completed using this approach. Conclusion: RoboSurg has developed a network and methodological framework for the remote conduction of complex systematic reviews, which can be utilised to engage and train students and trainees in surgical research.