Recent Advances and Implication of Bioengineered Nanomaterials in Cancer Theranostics.

Cancer is one of the most common causes of death and affects millions of lives every year. In addition to non-infectious carcinogens, infectious agents contribute significantly to increased incidence of several cancers. Several therapeutic techniques have been used for the treatment of such cancers. Recently, nanotechnology has emerged to advance the diagnosis, imaging, and therapeutics of various cancer types. Nanomaterials have multiple advantages over other materials due to their small size and high surface area, which allow retention and controlled drug release to improve the anti-cancer property. Most cancer therapies have been known to damage healthy cells due to poor specificity, which can be avoided by using nanosized particles. Nanomaterials can be combined with various types of biomaterials to make it less toxic and improve its biocompatibility. Based on these properties, several nanomaterials have been developed which possess excellent anti-cancer efficacy potential and improved diagnosis. This review presents the latest update on novel nanomaterials used to improve the diagnostic and therapeutic of pathogen-associated and non-pathogenic cancers. We further highlighted mechanistic insights into their mode of action, improved features, and limitations.

Chitin and its derivatives: Structural properties and biomedical applications.

Chitin, a polysaccharide that occurs abundantly in nature after cellulose, has attracted the interest of the scientific community due to its plenty of availability and low cost. Mostly, it is derived from the exoskeleton of insects and marine crustaceans. Often, it is insoluble in common solvents that limit its applications but its deacetylated product, named chitosan is found to be soluble in protonated aqueous medium and used widely in various biomedical fields. Indeed, the existence of the primary amino group on the backbone of chitosan provides it an important feature to modify it chemically into other derivatives easily. In the present review, we present the structural properties of chitin, and its derivatives and highlighted their biomedical implications including, tissue engineering, drug delivery, diagnosis, molecular imaging, antimicrobial activity, and wound healing. We further discussed the limitations and prospects of this versatile natural polysaccharide.

Functionalization of natural gum: an effective method to prepare iodine complex.

To overcome the drawbacks associated with iodine e.g. insolubility in water, etc., it has been complexed with polymers that have the ability to bind it. In this study, gum arabic (GA), a natural gum was functionalized to introduce new reactive groups that can easily interact with small molecules followed by iodination in ethanol solution to prepare an iodine complex. The samples were characterized by FTIR, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The synthesized iodine complex was found reddish-brown in colour and stable at room temperature. The interaction of free available iodine with functionalized GA was also studied and established by UV-vis spectrophotometer. The amount of iodine released in water was measured by iodometric titration method and its value compared with the available iodine complex, polyvinylpyrrolidone-iodine complex. The antimicrobial activity of iodine complex was tested against Escherichia coli (Gram negative bacteria) and found to be effective against it.