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In the last decades, gene therapy has become a novel therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment, including immunologic and molecular approaches. Among molecular avenue, the design of efficient and effective gene delivery systems, like cationic liposomes and niosomes, has been widely investigated and proposed as the most promising research area. The advantages of cationic vesicles rely on their natural ability to form complexes with anionic genetic molecules and deliver them into the cells via the endosomal pathway. Obviously, cationic vesicles- mediated gene delivery is affected by numerous factors, in particular composition, that strongly affects vesicle physical-chemistry characteristics and transfection effectiveness. This review will analyse the potential of cationic nanocarriers in cancer gene therapy, focusing on the role of liposomes and niosomes as vesicular devices and giving an exhaustive collection of the most representative investigations.

The use of nanodevices to transport active compounds like small-molecular drugs, peptides, or genes found an increased attention throughout the different fields of natural sciences. Moreover, recent research trends are focused on the employment of smart nanocarriers able to react on certain internal or external applied stimuli, in order to achieve temporal and site-specific drugs/gene release. In contrast to traditional biodegradable nanocarriers that slowly release drugs inside the cells, these smart nanosystems are able to quickly release or even dump drugs in response to a specific biological signal in the target cancer cells such lower pH, high redox potential or over expression of enzymes or to external stimuli such as temperature, light, ultrasounds and magnetic field. This review gives a brief overview about some types of stimuli-responsive nanocarriers, with the main focus on magnetic fieldresponsive devices obtained from natural polymers. The concept of magnetic field-sensitive nanocarriers, their advantages and disadvantages, the methods of preparation and applications in various fields of drug delivery will be explored, giving an exhaustive collection of the findings of recent investigations.

Nanotechnology encompasses the production and applications of physical, chemical, and biological systems at scales ranging from individual atoms or molecules to around 100 nanometres, as well as the integration of the resulting nanostructures into larger systems. Nanomaterials differ from bulk materials for their relatively larger surface-area-to-mass ratio, consequently they become more chemically reactive and can show different optical, magnetic and electrical behaviours. In recent years, engineered nanomaterials have gained a particular attention in some fields such as environmental protection (soil, air and water remediation/treatment) and medicine (bio-sensing, imaging, and drug delivery). Nanoparticles can be used to monitor in real-time some pollutants (including heavy metal ions, organic compounds, microbiological pathogens, etc.) present even at extremely low concentrations in different environments. The use of nanomaterials for waste remediation/treatment results in a technology more cost-effective and rapid than current conventional approaches thanks to their enhanced surface area, transport properties, and sequestration characteristics. In addition, the integration of molecular biology and medicine with nanotechnology has resulted in new active nanostructures able to interact with biological systems. Nanocarriers based on carbon nanotubes, fumed silica (SiO2), titanium dioxide (TiO2), and magnetite and maghemite (Fe3O4, and γ-Fe2O3) nanoparticles have a distinct advantage over other drug carriers as they can be opportunely designed to reach the desired targets. As a consequence, such nanostructures can represent an important platform for enhanced medical imaging and controlled drug delivery. Here, some applications of nanomaterials as water purifying agents and drug delivery systems are reported.

Photostability tests applied on topical commercial formulations containing non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have demonstrated a clear degradation of the active compounds when exposed to light. The photodegradation profile of these drugs is usually monitored by spectrophotometric or chromatographic techniques according to the international ICH rules for photostability testing. In the last years, the data are processed ever more by multivariate analysis, as principal component analysis, partial least squares, multivariate curve resolution. These techniques have proved to be able to resolve the complex data sets from evolving chemical processes, by estimating the number of the involved components, their pure spectra and concentration profiles. When applied to the study of drug photodegradation, the multivariate approach has been able to define completely the reaction mechanisms and kinetics parameters. Several novel pharmaceutical formulations have been described to improve the photostability of NSAIDs in topical formulations. The common use of light protective packaging has recently been replaced or supplemented by incorporating suitable excipients in the drug formulations. The addition of UV absorbent agents, deactivating quench reactions that are either singlet oxygen-driven or involve free radicals, has had good success. A clear improvement in the light protection has been shown by entrapping the drugs into supramolecular matrices as cyclodextrins, liposomes, niosomes and other host-guest matrices. The present review gives an updated overview on the stability-indicating methods adopted for a series of NSAIDs in topical formulations and the supramolecular matrices designed to minimize the drug photodegradation.