Encapsulation of Vitamins Using Nanoliposome: Recent Advances and Perspectives.

Nowadays the importance of vitamins is clear for everyone. However, many patients are suffering from insufficient intake of vitamins. Incomplete intake of different vitamins from food sources due to their destruction during food processing or decrease in their bioavailability when mixing with other food materials, are factors resulting in vitamin deficiency in the body. Therefore, various lipid based nanocarriers such as nanoliposomes were developed to increase the bioavailability of bioactive compounds. Since the function of nanoliposomes containing vitamins on the body has a direct relationship with the quality of produced nanoliposomes, this review study was planned to investigate the several aspects of liposomal characteristics such as size, polydispersity index, zeta potential, and encapsulation efficiency on the quality of synthesized vitamin-loaded nanoliposomes.

Engineering viral genomics and nano-liposomes in microfluidic platforms for patient-specific analysis of SARS-CoV-2 variants.

New variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are continuing to spread globally, contributing to the persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Increasing resources have been focused on developing vaccines and therapeutics that target the Spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2. Recent advances in microfluidics have the potential to recapitulate viral infection in the organ-specific platforms, known as organ-on-a-chip (OoC), in which binding of SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) of the host cells occurs. As the COVID-19 pandemic lingers, there remains an unmet need to screen emerging mutations, to predict viral transmissibility and pathogenicity, and to assess the strength of neutralizing antibodies following vaccination or reinfection. Conventional detection of SARS-CoV-2 variants relies on two-dimensional (2-D) cell culture methods, whereas simulating the micro-environment requires three-dimensional (3-D) systems. To this end, analyzing SARS-CoV-2-mediated pathogenicity via microfluidic platforms minimizes the experimental cost, duration, and optimization needed for animal studies, and obviates the ethical concerns associated with the use of primates. In this context, this review highlights the state-of-the-art strategy to engineer the nano-liposomes that can be conjugated with SARS-CoV-2 Spike mutations or genomic sequences in the microfluidic platforms; thereby, allowing for screening the rising SARS-CoV-2 variants and predicting COVID-19-associated coagulation. Furthermore, introducing viral genomics to the patient-specific blood accelerates the discovery of therapeutic targets in the face of evolving viral variants, including B1.1.7 (Alpha), B.1.351 (Beta), B.1.617.2 (Delta), c.37 (Lambda), and B.1.1.529 (Omicron). Thus, engineering nano-liposomes to encapsulate SARS-CoV-2 viral genomic sequences enables rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 variants in the long COVID-19 era.

Lipid based self-assembled nanostructures for therapeutic delivery applications

The evolution of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) has been remarkably interesting and in beneficent directions for food and health industries working towards human well being. Since the discovery of the first-generation lipid based self-assembled nanostructures, i.e., liposomes in the 1960s, it has witnessed significant advances in their development and distinctive potential in different application domains. Based on the composition and structure, these lipid-based structures have varied from liposome to lipid nanoparticles, e.g., solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) & nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) to overcome certain limitation pertaining to their use in different fields. The outstanding application of LNPs as therapeutic delivery systems has made them key players to treat different human disorders including the fatal cancers. Their life-saving global contribution has recently been witnessed in the form of mRNA vaccines against deadly COVID-19. They have also significantly served purpose in other domains such as biomedical imaging, cosmetics, nutrition, and agriculture. Their prominent role is in the area of anticancer therapy as delivery vectors for nucleic acids and drugs. Some issues with respect to the cellular delivery of drugs and genes, such as circulation time and stability have been somewhat resolved, but the unmet goal of site-specific substantial delivery remains the main focus in LNPs development research. Despite the promise shown by LNPs in animal studies and the fact that technological advances in LNPs research have made the approval possible of a few formulations, therapeutic outcomes in human are not satisfactory. The LNPs technology has managed to survive due to possible tailoring of their properties by virtue of the possibility of altering the composition and modifying the surface. Therefore, enormous scientific endeavours are on the rise to transform lipid structures, composition along with tinkering with surface of LNPs. The alternative methods to guide LNPs coupled with advances in small molecule nucleic acid therapeutics and drug development technology to make the entry possible to specific cells may be effective in cancer therapy. The development is very promising;however enduring efforts are required till the goal is reached. © ScienceIn Publishing.

Methodical Design of Viral Vaccines Based on Avant-Garde Nanocarriers: A Multi-Domain Narrative Review.

The current health crisis caused by coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) and associated pathogens emphasize the urgent need for vaccine systems that can generate protective and long-lasting immune responses. Vaccination, employing peptides, nucleic acids, and other molecules, or using pathogen-based strategies, in fact, is one of the most potent approaches in the management of viral diseases. However, the vaccine candidate requires protection from degradation and precise delivery to the target cells. This can be achieved by employing different types of drug and vaccine delivery strategies, among which, nanotechnology-based systems seem to be more promising. This entry aims to provide insight into major aspects of vaccine design and formulation to address different diseases, including the recent outbreak of SARS-CoV-2. Special emphasis of this review is on the technical and practical aspects of vaccine construction and theranostic approaches to precisely target and localize the active compounds.