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Globally, there is significant apprehension surrounding food safety and security. Addressing the formidable challenge of ensuring a sustainable provision of nutrient-dense and safe food is imperative. Nanotechnology emerges as a promising avenue, offering substantial opportunities to revolutionize food safety practices and elevate agricultural productivity in a sustainable manner. By leveraging nanomaterials and advanced techniques, nanotechnology provides precision in detecting and mitigating contaminants in the food supply chain. Moreover, it holds the potential to extend the shelf life of perishable goods, contributing to reduced food waste and a more sustainable use of resources. An overview of how nanotechnology can be applied to precision farming, food packaging, and the detection of contaminants is presented. At the same time, the role of nanotechnology is explored to address agricultural challenges, water management, adsorption of harmful substances, delivery of nutrients, and detection of contaminants. The application of nanotechnology in this context aims to tackle health risks and costs associated with its extensive industrial use. Additionally, the importance of applying nanotechnology to food safety and security is emphasized. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancer is one of the chief causes of death in the world, and there are various treatment modalities for cancer. Most of them cause adverse side effects, and to overcome these limitations, plant-based extracts are studied for their anticancer property. In the present study, we have extracted the ethanolic extract of Passiflora incarnata leaves and nanoformulated it with synthesized liposomes, characterized the nanoformulation using different photophysical tools, and compared the anticancer activity of the nanoformulated ethanolic extract and ethanolic extract of Passiflora incarnata leaves in various cancer cell lines. The nanoformulated ethanolic extract was found to be reduced in size and more stable than the ethanolic extract. We have found that the nanoformulated ethanolic extract isolated from Passiflora incarnata leaves induced necrosis in cancer cells and the nanoformulation has a dose-dependent effect on the inhibition of cancer cell growth. The nanoformulation of the Passiflora incarnata leaves ethanolic extract reduced the toxicity of normal cells compared to the ethanolic extract. Biocompatibility was tested by in vivo studies using a zebrafish model, where we found that both the ethanolic extract and nanoformulated ethanolic extract of Passiflora incarnata leaves did not induce any developmental deformity up to 100 μg/ml concentration, making the formulation biocompatible. Thus, the nanoformulated ethanolic extract of Passiflora incarnata leaves can be proposed as a potent anticancer agent. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) or multidrug resistance (MDR) is becoming increasingly prevalent within the health care industry as a result of the overuse of antibiotics, which is posing a major challenge to health care providers. A possible alternative for overcoming these effects is to use probiotics as part of the treatment. In recent years, probiotics have acquired significant attention because of their potential benefits in a wide range of biomedical applications, including antimicrobial protection, treating diseases, and aiding in tissue repair. The surrounding tissues are greatly affecting the viability and activity of these probiotics, making it difficult to maintain their stability in targeted locations for a prolonged duration. Multiple strategies have been proposed to overcome this problem, including nanoencapsulating probiotics within biomaterials to increase their activity and stability. The encapsulation of probiotics using biomaterials not only protects their vitality but also makes it easier for them to get delivered to their targeted location. Moreover, we underscore the importance of employing biomaterial-based encapsulation techniques for probiotics in various biomedical applications, including but not limited to the gastrointestinal tract, oral cavity, skin, and vagina. This article aims to thoroughly investigate the materials and methods employed in the encapsulation of probiotics within biomaterials while also delving into recent advancements in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Biosensors consist of a biocatalyst that can detect a biological element and a transducer which can convert the combination event of the biocatalyst and the biological element into a detectable parameter. The biocatalyst can be biomolecules like, enzyme, DNA, RNA, metabolites, cells, oligonucleotides etc., and the transducers can be electrochemical, optical, piezoelectric, acoustics, calorimetric etc. In disease diagnostics biosensors utilizing immobilized cells, enzymes, nucleic acids have come into the field in recent years. Nanobiosensors exploiting the ultrasmall size and unique properties have also been used for engineering disease diagnostic biosensors. The use of biosensors can rapidly assess the health status, onset of the disease and its progression and can help to plan treatment for many diseases with the aid of multidisciplinary combination of chemistry, medical science and nanotechnology. The devices are cost effective, highly sensitive, rapid, user friendly and can be produced in bulk for human use. This review focuses on the different biosensors for the diagnosis of three major diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is explicitly used in sunscreens and cosmetic products; however, its effect in vivo is toxic in some cases. The UV blocking efficacy of ZnO nanoparticles is lost due to photocatalysis. To isolate a lower toxic species of sunblockers, ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized and coated with chitosan – a natural polymer (ZnO–CTS) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) – a synthetic polymer (ZnO–PEG). Coating with CTS and PEG circumvented the photocatalytic activity, increased the stability and improved the UV absorption efficacy. The effect of ZnO, ZnO–CTS and ZnO–PEG nanoparticles in vivo on zebrafish embryo revealed lower deposition of ZnO–CTS and ZnO–PEG nanoparticles atop the eggs compared to ZnO. The survival of zebrafish embryos was always found to be higher in case of ZnO–CTS with respect to ZnO-treated ones. PEG coating exhibited better UV attenuation, but, in vivo it induced delayed hatching. Thus, one of the reasons for better survival could be attributed to lower aggregation of ZnO–CTS nanoparticles atop eggs thereby facilitating the breathing of embryos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Amyloid-β (Aβ) is the major constituent of senile plaques in the brains of Alzheimer''s disease patients. In order to develop an efficient in vitro system for studying the interaction of cells with Aβ aggregates, we have prepared a synthetic amyloid lawn by immobilizing Aβ peptides over a functionalized glass surface and subsequently incubating the template in a fresh Aβ solution. On the top of different types of amyloid lawns (e.g. monomeric, oligomeric, and fibrillar), we cultivated PC12 cells, creating physical contacts between the cells and the lawns. Results indicated that cell viability was differentially affected when grown atop different Aβ lawns while cells were well adhered onto the surface of these Aβ lawns. The mode of cell death by Aβ lawn was confirmed to be apoptotic rather than necrotic, showing that cells undergo suicide by just contact with Aβ lawn. While conventional ‘solution-based’ methods for testing amyloid toxicity suffer from problems such as lot-to-lot variations, continued fibrillation, and heterogeneous population of aggregates, our ‘surface-based’ lawn system is suitable for high-throughput analysis of amyloid toxicity, which may enable high-throughput screening of potential drug candidates for treating amyloid diseases with the goal of reducing the cell death on the lawn. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Cells conditioned by repeated treatments with low doses of H2O2, were compared with its parental V79 cells for expression of ND1 and ND4 subunits of NADH dehydrogenase, a mitochondrial gene. It was found that ND1 and ND4 subunits were overexpressed in these conditioned cells. These cells were also found to be resistant to killing upon γ-irradiation through suppression of apoptotic cell death. On irradiation, the expression of both subunits decreased in both cell types, but overall there was more expression of both subunits in the conditioned cells. These findings indicate alteration in the expression of NADH dehydrogenase, a mitochondrial gene, could be involved in the recovery of γ-irradiated cells through inhibition of apoptosis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The present study demonstrates the synthesis of cerium oxide nanoclusters (CeO 2 -NC) and its application towards detection of reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS are generated due to exogenous exposure to oxidants, car smoke, pollutants etc. as well as endogenously as a byproduct of metabolism that can cause cellular damage. Although, protective antioxidant molecules and antioxidant enzymes are present to combat these oxidative damages in vivo , the overload of oxidants may lead to escape this combat pathway and expose us with a chronic low dose of oxidants creating oxidative stress. Thus, detection of ROS in biological fluids may lead us to combat the possible damage caused by the oxidant. Our synthesized nanoclusters are of extremely low size, highly stable and have a very high fluorescent property. Moreover, CeO 2 nanostructures have been known to exhibit dual property; to act as a prooxidant as well as a free radical scavenger. We have utilized these properties to design a nanobiosensor which can detect ROS with high sensitivity. We have used hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2) as a ROS generator and ascorbic acid as a free radical scavenger to react with the synthesized CeO 2 -NC and monitored the fluorescence intensity change. Our CeO 2 -NC exerted oxidants thereby increased the fluorescence intensity with H 2 O 2 and decreased fluorescence with ascorbic acid. The fold increase or decrease in fluorescence intensity was linear. Thus, with the results obtained we can propose that CeO 2 -NC can act as an ROS nanobiosensor. • Oxidative stress is caused due to chronic low dose exposure to oxidants. • Detection of ROS by conventional method is expensive and time consuming. • Nanoclusters are ultrasmall structures having different optoelectronic properties. • Cerium oxide nanoclusters were synthesized and used as ROS sensors. • Cerium oxide Nanocluster used sensor can be a better option for early, cost effective fluorescence based ROS sensor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional chemotherapeutic drugs are used for cancer management, but recently nanoparticles have also been shown to contribute towards controlling cancer cell proliferation. In the present study, we focussed on analyzing the combinatorial effect of Cerium oxide (CeO 2) nanoparticles and Doxorubicin (Dox) on melanoma cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. We entrapped CeO 2 , Dox, and CeO 2 +Dox in a hybrid polymer matrix of alginate and chitosan (Alg-Cs) and used them in both in vitro and in vivo studies to compare their anticancer effect. Scratch assay using A549 lung cancer cells showed delayed wound healing when exposed to a low and high dose of CeO 2 +Dox, compared to individual components. In order to determine a safe dose of the nanoformulations, zebrafish embryos were used. Further, i n vivo, testing was done on Swiss albino female mice where the melanoma was induced by applying Benzopyrene followed by UV irradiation. The animals were treated with CeO 2 , Dox, and CeO 2 + Dox that were entrapped in Alg-Cs for further 21 days. From both in vivo and in vitro results, we concluded that CeO 2 and Dox in combination had superior therapeutic efficiency in cancer cells and animals than the nude drugs. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The protein misfolded structure called amyloids is related with extensive range of pathologies like local amyloidosis and neurodegenerative diseases. Several studies have reported the potential of insulin to generate local amyloidosis under certain state. Reports also showed that fibrils of insulin generated local amyloid mass due to continuous subcutaneous injection in mouse as well as rat. The present study was designed to examine the consequence of insulin fibril injections in rats, as well as the ability of enzymes, Lumbrokinase (LK) and Serratiopeptidase (SP) in diminishing this amyloid mass progression. The results showed that insulin fibrils generated amyloid masses in rats after subcutaneous injection for two weeks which was significantly condensed in size for the groups injected with insulin fibrils combined with LK or SP. At higher doses of LK and SP, the absence of amyloid structure was observed in histopathological studies. Light microscopy, polarized microscopy as well as Lumia live in vivo imaging system was used to analyze the results. In conclusion, the overall outcome of this study showed the anti-amyloid potential of enzyme LK and SP in the attenuation of local amyloidosis. Unlabelled Image [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]