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Active components of natural products, which include paclitaxel, curcumin, gambogic acid, resveratrol, triptolide and celastrol, have promising anti-inflammatory, antitumor, anti-oxidant, and other pharmacological activities. However, their clinical application is limited due to low solubility, instability, low bioavailability, rapid metabolism, short half-life, and strong off-target toxicity. To overcome these drawbacks, cell membrane-based biomimetic nanosystems have emerged that avoid clearance by the immune system, enhance targeting, and prolong drug circulation, while also improving drug solubility and bioavailability, enhancing drug efficacy, and reducing side effects. This review summarizes recent advances in the preparation and coating of cell membrane-coated biomimetic nanosystems and in their applications to disease for targeted natural products delivery. Current challenges, limitations, and prospects in this field are also discussed, providing a research basis for the development of multifunctional biomimetic nanosystems for natural products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To control hypertension, long-term continuous antihypertensive therapeutics are required and five classes of antihypertensive drugs are frequently involved, including diuretics, β-blockers, calcium channel blockers, angiotensin II receptor blockers, and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors. Although with demonstrated clinical utility, there is still room for the improvement of many antihypertensive drugs in oral tablet or capsule dosage form, in terms of reducing systemic side effects and first-pass hepatic drug uptake. Meanwhile, nanocarrier-mediated transdermal drug delivery systems have emerged as a powerful tool for various disease treatments. With benefits such as promoting patient compliance for long-time administration, enhancing skin permeability, and reducing systemic side effects, these systems are reasonably investigated and developed for the transdermal delivery of multiple antihypertensive drugs. This review aims to summarize the literature relating to nanosystem-based transdermal antihypertensive drug delivery and update recent advances in this field, as well as briefly discuss the challenges and prospects of engineering transdermal delivery nanosystems for hypertension treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polysaccharide-based nanosystem is an umbrella term for many areas within research and technology dealing with polysaccharides that have at least one of their dimensions in the realm of a few hundreds of nanometers. Nanoparticles, nanocrystals, nanofibers, nanofilms, and nanonetworks can be fabricated from many different polysaccharide resources. Abundance in nature, cellulose, starch, chitosan, and pectin of different molecular structures are widely used to fabricate nanosystems for versatile industrial applications. This review presents the dissolution and modification of polysaccharides, which are influenced by their different molecular structures and applications. The dissolution ways include conventional organic solvents, ionic liquids, inorganic strong alkali and acids, enzymes, and hydrothermal treatment. Rheological properties of polysaccharide-based nano slurries are tailored for the purpose functions of the final products, e.g., imparting electrostatic functions of nanofibers to reduce viscosity by using lithium chloride and octenyl succinic acid to increase the hydrophobicity. Nowadays, synergistic effects of polysaccharide blends are increasingly highlighted. In particular, the reinforcing effect of nanoparticles, nanocrystals, nanowhiskers, and nanofibers to hydrogels, aerogels, and scaffolds, and the double network hydrogels of a rigid skeleton and a ductile substance have been developed for many emerging issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pain remains a global health challenge affecting approximately 1.5 billion people worldwide. Pain has been an implicit variable in the equation of human life for many centuries considering different types and the magnitude of pain. Therefore, developing an efficacious drug delivery system for pain management remains an open challenge for researchers in the field of medicine. Lack of therapeutic efficacy still persists, despite high throughput studies in the field of pain management. Research scientists have been exploiting different alternatives to curb the adverse side effects of pain medications or attempting a more substantial approach to minimize the prevalence of pain. Various drug delivery systems have been developed such as nanoparticles, microparticles to curb adverse side effects of pain medications or minimize the prevalence of pain. This literature review firstly provides a brief introduction of pain as a sensation and its pharmacological interventions. Second, it highlights the most recent studies in the pharmaceutical field for pain management and serves as a strong base for future developments. Herein, we have classified drug delivery systems based on their sizes such as nano, micro, and macro systems, and for each of the reviewed systems, design, formulation strategies, and drug release performance has been discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to develop novel topical drug delivery systems of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac diethylamine (DDEA). Toward this objective, DDEA was loaded into two nanosystems, the oil in water (O/W) nanoemulsion (DDEA–NE) and the gold nanorods (GNR) that were conjugated to DDEA, forming DDEA–GNR. The DDEA–NE and DDEA–GNR were characterized in terms of particle size, zeta potential, morphology, thermodynamic stability, DDEA loading efficiency, and UV–Vis spectroscopy. These nanosystems were then incorporated into the biphasic gel-based formulations (bigels) for topical delivery. The rheological characterization and release studies of the DDEA NE– and DDEA GNR–incorporated bigels were performed and compared to those of DDEA traditional bigel. DDEA–NE exhibited a droplet size 15.2 ± 1.5 nm and zeta potential −0.37 ± 0.06 mV. The particle size of GNR was approximately 66 nm × 17 nm with an aspect ratio of approximately 3.8. The bigels showed composition–dependent viscoelastic properties, which in turn play a vital role in determining the rate and mechanism of DDEA release from the bigels. Bigels showed a controlled-release pattern where 61.6, 91.7, and 50.0% of the drug was released from DDEA traditional bigel, DDEA NE–incorporated bigel, and DDEA GNR–incorporated bigel, respectively, after 24 h. The ex vivo permeation studies showed that the amount of DDEA permeated through excised skin was relatively low, between 2.7% and 18.2%. The results suggested that the incorporation of the nanosystems NE and GNR into bigels can potentially improve the topical delivery of DDEA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novel protamine-based nanosystems have been studied for cyclosporine-A (CsA) skin delivery. Core-shell structure systems have been developed to this end. These vehicles have particles sizes of 200–300 nm, a low polydispersity index and a zeta potential which varies between −16 mV and +35 mV. The resulting four nanosystems efficiently encapsulated CsA in their oily nucleus (60–80%) and released this drug in a controlled manner. These formulations have shown a high stability in aqueous suspension in storage conditions at 4 °C (for at least 21 months) and in acetate buffer at a physiological temperature of 37 °C (for at least 24 h). Ex vivo transdermal diffusion experiments using Franz diffusion cells and 2- to 3-day-old pig skin as a biological barrier were performed. All nanoformulations designed produced an increase in CsA transdermal delivery and two of these nanosystems presented a marked promoting effect; the more relevant parameters were smaller particle size (200 ± 7 nm) and negative superficial charge. Finally, the ability of these nanosystems to enhance retention of CsA in the skin was also studied. The protamine disposition in the shell influenced CsA skin retention. Therefore, the incorporation of CsA into the nanosystems studied here makes them suitable vehicles for CsA transdermal administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanotechnology is an emerging field with a strong potential to revolutionize the agri/food sector. Precision farming, nanofertilizers, nanoarray-based genetic manipulation, site specific drug and gene delivery at the cellular level, are some prime areas where Nanotechnology can be applied. The food sector could be greatly benefited from the smart systems of processing, packaging, and monitoring of food system security. Healthy food can reach the grassroots and contribute towards health of the nation provided appropriate measures are undertaken to combat the associated critical challenges. There is indeed a crucial requisite to undertake Nanotechnology based measures to enhance the quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the past few years, nanoparticles and their role in drug delivery have been the centre of attraction as new drug delivery systems. Various forms of nanosystems have been designed, such as nanoclays, scaffolds and nanotubes, having numerous applications in areas such as drug loading, target cell uptake, bioassay and imaging. The present study discusses various types of nanoparticles, with special emphasis on ceramic nanocarriers. Ceramic materials have high mechanical strength, good body response and low or non-existing biodegradability. In this article, the various aspects concerning ceramic nanoparticles, such as their advantages over other systems, their cellular uptake and toxicity concerns are discussed in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines and analyzes how various leadership styles affect the introduction of nanotechnology with respect to its implementation to products and services. Focused on how nanotechnology intrusions become disruptive on a global scale. Irrespective of how scholarship critics comes up with competing hypotheses, the fact remains that nanotechnology permeates all spheres of human existence. The research question thus asked how is nanotechnology implemented and how does global leadership view and accept it’s impact on human lives? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The local equilibrium hypothesis is a very successful basis for non-equilibrium thermodynamics over a wide range of phenomena and physical situations. However, the increasing interest in small systems in nanotechnology, in rarefied gases in high-altitude aeronautics, in high-frequency behaviour in information processing, or the search for new materials with sophisticated internal microstructures and tailored thermal properties have led one to ask about the limits of validity of this hypothesis, and to go beyond it. Here we do so in a constructive way, i.e. not only pointing out at these limits, but also embedding the local-equilibrium theory in a more general framework which explicitly exhibits these limits and suggests how to go beyond them, in search for a wider range of applications and a deeper understanding of the foundations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge of self-assembling molecules such as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and dendritic systems can provide beneficial insights for the development of tailor-made nano-scale devices. Another important category of nanosystems is molecular systems that provide a mechanism of molecular propulsion such a myosin, kinesin and adenosine triphosphate synthase (ATPase). Work on these so-called 'molecular motors' has been led largely by experimental investigations. The application of rigorous theoretical techniques such as molecular simulation is a considerable computational challenge. However, the reward for accepting the challenge can be a greatly improved theoretical insight, which benefits the development of nanotechnologies. In this work, we discuss recent progress in improving the theoretical understanding of an important molecular motor, ATPase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanosystems represent new opportunities, new research and development efforts and new possibilities for advanced materials. Many industrial scientists are focusing on nanotechnology and many chemical industries are indeed funding ambitious but valuable efforts. These efforts are based on the belief and realization that nanosystems are basic and important blocks for building new businesses. Industrial computational experts find themselves at the right intersect: an intersect where their technology is uniquely capable to access understanding, to stimulate thoughts and possibilities, to run "what-if" scenarios, and to "truly" discover new nanosystems capable of providing the advanced material capability that future businesses foresee. This paper will focus on describing computational methodologies that we are currently using. The paper will also extend to cover the application of these methods to aromatics, in particular, pentacenes and benzene derivatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]