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The medicinal plant Scutellaria baicalensis, commonly known as Chinese skullcap or Huang-Qin, has been used as a traditional medicine for several thousand years. The roots of this plant contain bioactive compounds, such as wogonin (WOG), wogonoside, baicalein, and baicalin. The aim of this article is to evaluate the therapeutic potential and mechanisms of action of WOG against different cancers. Numerous in vitro and in vivo studies have revealed that WOG exerts immense therapeutic potential against bladder cancer, breast cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, cervical cancer, colorectal cancer, gallbladder cancer, gastric cancer, glioblastoma, head and neck cancer, hepatic cancer, leukemia, lung cancer, lymphoma, melanoma, multiple myeloma, neuroblastoma, osteosarcoma, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer, and renal cancer by regulating various cell signaling pathways. WOG, in combination with established chemotherapeutic drugs, improves the efficacy of treatment and lowers toxicity. Nevertheless, human trials are warranted to validate these findings. Numerous preclinical studies, combined with an extensive margin of safety and no severe side effects, underscore WOG's therapeutic potential as an anticancer drug. These studies propound the use of WOG as a potential anticancer candidate; however, further high-quality studies are required to firmly establish the clinical efficacy of WOG for the prevention and treatment of human malignancies.

Green chemistry has been a growing multidisciplinary field in recent years showing great promise in biomedical applications, especially for cancer therapy. Chitosan (CS) is an abundant biopolymer derived from chitin and is present in insects and fungi. This polysaccharide has favorable characteristics, including biocompatibility, biodegradability, and ease of modification by enzymes and chemicals. CS-based nanoparticles (CS-NPs) have shown potential in the treatment of cancer and other diseases, affording targeted delivery and overcoming drug resistance. The current review emphasizes on the application of CS-NPs for the delivery of a chemotherapeutic agent, doxorubicin (DOX), in cancer therapy as they promote internalization of DOX in cancer cells and prevent the activity of P-glycoprotein (P-gp) to reverse drug resistance. These nanoarchitectures can provide co-delivery of DOX with antitumor agents such as curcumin and cisplatin to induce synergistic cancer therapy. Furthermore, co-loading of DOX with siRNA, shRNA, and miRNA can suppress tumor progression and provide chemosensitivity. Various nanostructures, including lipid-, carbon-, polymeric- and metal-based nanoparticles, are modifiable with CS for DOX delivery, while functionalization of CS-NPs with ligands such as hyaluronic acid promotes selectivity toward tumor cells and prevents DOX resistance. The CS-NPs demonstrate high encapsulation efficiency and due to protonation of amine groups of CS, pH-sensitive release of DOX can occur. Furthermore, redox- and light-responsive CS-NPs have been prepared for DOX delivery in cancer treatment. Leveraging these characteristics and in view of the biocompatibility of CS-NPs, we expect to soon see significant progress towards clinical translation. Gorka Orive wishes to thank the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness (PID2019-106094RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and technical assistance from the ICTS NANBIOSIS (Drug Formulation Unit, U10) at the University of the Basque Country. The authors also appreciate the support from the Basque Country Government (Grupos Consolidados, No ref: IT907-16). Ebrahim Mostafavi would like to acknowledge the support from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (5T32EB009035). Alan Prem Kumar was supported by a grant from the Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE-T2EP30120-0016).

Polybenzoxazines are high-performance materials capable of replacing conventional thermosets such as phenolics, epoxies, and bismaleimides in composites manufacturing due to their excellent thermomechanical and chemical behavior. Their versatility and compatibility with biobased precursors make them an attractive option as composite matrices. Like other thermosets, polybenzoxazines are not recyclable and cannot be reprocessed. Incorporating dynamic bonds in benzoxazine monomers can produce vitrimeric polybenzoxazines, which can potentially overcome this limitation and can be tuned to exhibit smart functionalities such as self-healing and shape memory. Dynamic bond exchange mechanisms for vitrimer development such as transesterification, imine bond, disulfide exchange, transamination, transcarbamoylation, transalkylation, olefin metathesis, transcarbonation, siloxane-silanol exchange, boronic ester, silyl ether exchange, and dioxaborolane metathesis are potentially applicable to benzoxazine chemistry, with disulfide bond and transesterification having successfully vitrimerized benzoxazines with topological transitions at −8.5 and 88 °C, respectively. Benzoxazine vitrimers featuring glass transitions of 193, 224, and 222–236 °C are now known. These place polybenzoxazines at the forefront of the development of reprocessable and recyclable thermosetting polymers and composite matrices.

In recent years, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has emerged as the most aggressive subtype of breast cancer and is usually associated with increased mortality worldwide. The severity of TNBC is primarily observed in younger women, with cases ranging from approximately 12%-24% of all breast cancer cases. The existing hormonal therapies offer limited clinical solutions in completely circumventing the TNBC, with chemoresistance and tumor recurrences being the common hurdles in the path of TNBC treatment. Accumulating evidence has correlated the dysregulation of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) with increased cell proliferation, invasion, migration, tumor growth, chemoresistance, and decreased apoptosis in TNBC. Various clinical studies have revealed that aberrant expression of lncRNAs in TNBC tissues is associated with poor prognosis, lower overall survival, and disease-free survival. Due to these specific characteristics, lncRNAs have emerged as novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for TNBC treatment. However, the underlying mechanism through which lncRNAs perform their actions remains unclear, and extensive research is being carried out to reveal it. Therefore, understanding of mechanisms regulating the modulation of lncRNAs will be a substantial breakthrough in effective treatment therapies for TNBC. This review highlights the association of several lncRNAs in TNBC progression and treatment, along with their possible functions and mechanisms.

In the present investigation, the role of rhizobacteria in alleviating the deleterious effects of drought on mustard was assessed. The plants were exposed to short-term water shortages, during the vegetative and reproductive growth stages. Drought stress in both stages had a negative effect on growth, physiological, and biochemical parameters of mustard. Both the root and shoot biomass were significantly reduced in plants exposed to drought, but rhizobacterial inoculation resulted in better plant biomass than uninoculated plants. The ameliorative effects of inoculation were also indicated by improved relative water content, membrane stability index, total chlorophyll content, and photosynthetic parameters. Similarly, inoculation resulted in enhanced activity of antioxidative enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase, and catalase in both stages of growth which possibly increased stress tolerance by maintaining reactive oxygen species (ROS) homeostasis. There was a significant reduction in the accumulation of H2 O2 , proline and total soluble sugar in rhizobacteria treated plants under drought, suggesting that the treated plants did not encounter much stress and could maintain better plant health than uninoculated plants. Expression analysis of the BjP5CSB and BjFeSOD genes was conducted during both the growth stages. Expression of the BjP5CSB gene was significantly down-regulated in inoculated plants under drought, while BjFeSOD gene transcript levels were upregulated. The vegetative stage was more responsive to rhizobacterial inoculations than the reproductive stage under drought. Principal component analysis indicated a differential response by the two growth stages to inoculation. Hence, results indicate that these rhizobacteria reduce the negative impacts of drought in mustard by maintaining ROS homeostasis.

Funder: European Regional Development Fund; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100008530, Over 80% of wastewater worldwide is released into the environment without proper treatment. Whilst environmental pollution continues to intensify due to the increase in the number of polluting industries, conventional techniques employed to clean the environment are poorly effective and are expensive. MXenes are a new class of 2D materials that have received a lot of attention for an extensive range of applications due to their tuneable interlayer spacing and tailorable surface chemistry. Several MXene-based nanomaterials with remarkable properties have been proposed, synthesized, and used in environmental remediation applications. In this work, a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art research progress on the promising potential of surface functionalized MXenes as photocatalysts, adsorbents, and membranes for wastewater treatment is presented. The sources, composition, and effects of wastewater on human health and the environment are displayed. Furthermore, the synthesis, surface functionalization, and characterization techniques of merit used in the study of MXenes are discussed, detailing the effects of a range of factors (e.g., PH, temperature, precursor, etc.) on the synthesis, surface functionalization, and performance of the resulting MXenes. Finally, the limits of MXenes and MXene-based materials as well as their potential future research directions, especially for wastewater treatment applications are highlighted.