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Healthcare textiles serve as key reservoirs for pathogen proliferation, demanding an urgent call for innovative interventions. Here, a new class of Smart Fabrics (SF) is introduced with integrated "Repel, Kill, and Detect" functionalities, achieved through a blend of hierarchically structured microparticles, modified nanoparticles, and an acidity‐responsive sensor. SF exhibit remarkable resilience against aerosol and droplet‐based pathogen transmission, showcasing a reduction exceeding 99.90% compared to uncoated fabrics across various drug‐resistant bacteria, Candida albicans, and Phi6 virus. Experiments involving bodily fluids from healthy and infected individuals reveal a significant reduction of 99.88% and 99.79% in clinical urine and feces samples, respectively, compared to uncoated fabrics. The SF's colorimetric detection capability coupled with machine learning (96.67% accuracy) ensures reliable pathogen identification, facilitating accurate differentiation between healthy and infected urine and fecal contaminated samples. SF holds promise for revolutionizing infection prevention and control in healthcare facilities, providing protection through early contamination detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) originated from different cells of approximately all kinds of organisms, recently got more attention because of their potential in the treatment of diseases and reconstructive medicine. To date, lots of studies have been performed on mammalian-derived vesicles, but little attention has been paid to algae and marine cells as valuable sources of EVs. Proving the promising role of EVs in medicine requires sufficient resources to produce qualified microvesicles. Algae, same as its other sister groups, such as plants, have stem cells and stem cell niches. Previous studies showed the EVs in plants and marine cells. So, this study was set out to talk about algal extracellular vesicles. EVs play a major role in cell-to-cell communication to convey molecules, such as RNA/DNA, metabolites, proteins, and lipids within. The components of EVs depends on the origin of the primitive cells or tissues and the isolation method. Sufficient resources are needed to produce high-quality, stable, and compatible EVs as a drug or drug delivery system. Plant stem cells have great potential as a new controllable resource for the production of EVs. The EVs secreted from stem cells can easily be extracted from the cell culture medium and evaluated for medicinal uses. In this review, the aim is to introduce algae stem cells as well as EVs derived from algal cells. In the following, the production of the EVs¸ the properties of EVs extracted from these sources and their antimicrobial effects will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sirolimus (rapamycin) is a mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor with immunosuppressive, antiproliferative, antiangiogenic, antifungal, anti-restenosis and anti-inflammatory properties. However, its clinical application is often hampered by poor aqueous solubility, first-pass metabolism, transport by p-glycoprotein efflux pump, limited oral bioavailability and nonspecific distribution in off-target sites. Recently, various formulation strategies have emerged to overcome these limitations. Among these, pharmaceutical nanotechnology with numerous advantages has great potential for sirolimus delivery. Up to now, the only nanoparticle based FDA approved formulation in the market is Rapamune® tablet which is composed of drug nanocrystals. This review focuses on recent studies that have been investigated various nanostructured carriers such as liposomes, micelles, polymeric nanoparticles, nanocrystals, magnetic nanoparticles, albumin nanoparticles, solid dispersion nanoparticles and niosomes for sirolimus delivery (in organ transplantation, cancer, vascular restenosis, etc.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paleozoic lamprophyres exhibit good exposures in the western part of the Central-East Iranian microcontinent. These rocks crop out as volcanoes, dykes, and plugs. The constituent minerals are amphibole, clinopyroxene, plagioclase, K-feldspar, olivine, Cr-spinel, titanite, biotite, and ilmenite. The main textures in volcanic lamprophyres are porphyritic, trachytic, microlithic, and variolitic, whereas in dykes and plugs, intergranular texture is common. These lamprophyres are regionally metamorphosed in some areas. Petrographical and geochemical characteristics of the studied rocks suggest that they are classified as alkaline lamprophyres and camptonites. They are enriched in alkalis (Na2O + K2O), large ion lithophile elements, and light rare earth elements, and the features of trace element concentrations are similar to those of within-plate basalts. This study suggests that the lamprophyres were derived from different degrees of partial melting of metasomatized amphibole-bearing spinel lherzolite. Subduction of Paleo-Tethys oceanic crust from the Early to late Paleozoic resulted in enrichment in fluids in the mantle, and lamprophyric magmatism occurred along the minor and major faults. This limited but typical lamprophyric magmatism in a broad area of Central Iran suggests that, in spite of the long length of the Paleozoic (∼250 my), it was a relatively calm era from the viewpoint of magmatism in Central Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three‐dimensional (3D) hierarchical wrinkled materials built with biological entities have so far remained exclusive to nature. Herein, multiscale functional ultraporous 3D bio‐networks of bioprinted phage‐built wrinkled microarrays are created through establishing a universal heat‐ and solvent‐independent substrate‐shrinkage method induced by high‐pressure carbon dioxide (HPCD). This method results in diverse wrinkled patterns on soft materials and is particularly powerful for solvent‐ and heat‐sensitive biomaterials, for which other methods have failed. The phage nanofilaments (7 nm width) self‐assemble into orderly‐aligned submicron bundles (100 nm width), which crimp into tunable microscale wrinkles (0.7–5.0 µm width) on size‐controllable micro‐arrays (200–600 µm width) exhibiting a four‐level hierarchical nano‐reticular structure. The HPCD method also protects the bioactivity of biorecognition molecules loaded into the microarrays, leading to the design of bacteria‐sensing chips, made with in‐house deoxyribozyme‐loaded 3D phage microarrays. The developed bacteria‐sensing chips achieve a limit of detection that is 100 × more sensitive with greater reproducibility compared to two‐dimensional (2D) microdot arrays and correctly identify Legionella pneumophila in contaminated water samples collected from industrial cooling towers, highlighting phage‐built wrinkled networks as a platform for bottom‐up assembly of biological building blocks into biofunctional material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing cost-effective, consumer-accessible platforms for point-of-use environmental and clinical pathogen testing is a priority, to reduce reliance on laborious, time-consuming culturing approaches. Unfortunately, a system offering ultrasensitive detection capabilities in a form that requires little auxiliary equipment or training has remained elusive. Here, a colorimetric DNAzyme-crosslinked hydrogel sensor is presented. In the presence of a target pathogen, DNAzyme cleavage results in hydrogel dissolution, yielding the release of entrapped gold nanoparticles in a manner visible to the naked eye. Recognizing that Escherichia coli holds high relevance within both environmental and clinical environments, an E. coli-responsive DNAzyme is incorporated into this platform. Through the optimization of the hydrogel polymerization process and the discovery of bacteriophage-induced DNAzyme signal amplification, 10 1 CFU mL -1 E. coli is detected within real-world lake water samples. Subsequent pairing with an artificial intelligence model removed ambiguity in sensor readout, offering 96% true positive and 100% true negative accuracy. Finally, high sensor specificity and stability results supported clinical use, where 100% of urine samples collected from patients with E. coli urinary tract infections are accurately identified. No false positives are observed when testing healthy samples. Ultimately, this platform stands to significantly improve population health by substantially increasing pathogen testing accessibility., (© 2024 The Author(s). Advanced Materials published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Surface-mediated transmission of pathogens is a major concern with regard to the spread of infectious diseases. Current pathogen prevention methods on surfaces rely on the use of biocides, which aggravate the emergence of antimicrobial resistance and pose harmful health effects. In response, a bifunctional and substrate-independent spray coating is presented herein. The bifunctional coating relies on wrinkled polydimethylsiloxane microparticles, decorated with biocidal gold nanoparticles to induce a "repel and kill" effect against pathogens. Pathogen repellency is provided by the structural hierarchy of the microparticles and their surface chemistry, whereas the kill mechanism is achieved using functionalized gold nanoparticles embedded on the microparticles. Bacterial tests with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa reveal a 99.9% reduction in bacterial load on spray-coated surfaces, while antiviral tests with Phi6─a bacterial virus often used as a surrogate to SARS-CoV-2─demonstrate a 98% reduction in virus load on coated surfaces. The newly developed spray coating is versatile, easily applicable to various surfaces, and effective against various pathogens, making it suitable for reducing surface contamination in frequently touched, heavy traffic, and high-risk surfaces.