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Natural evolution has nurtured a series of active molecules that play vital roles in physiological systems, but their further applications have been severely limited by rapid deactivation, short cycle time, and potential toxicity after isolation. For instance, the instability of structures and properties has greatly descended when sanshool is derived from Zanthoxylum xanthoxylum. Herein, natural polyphenols are employed to boost the key properties of sanshool by fabricating a series of nanoparticles (NPs). The intracellular evaluation and in vivo animal model are conducted to demonstrate the decreased photodamage score and skin‐fold thickness of prepared NPs, which can be attributed to the better biocompatibility, improved free radical scavenging, down‐regulated apoptosis ratios, and reduced DNA double‐strand breaks compared to naked sanshool. This work proposes a novel strategy to boost the key properties of naturally occurring active molecules with the assistance of natural polyphenol‐based platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor prognosis is often expected after the treatment of intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) when the approach lacks effective neuroprotective interventions. Minocycline (Mino) is a promising clinical neuroprotective candidate for acute ICH therapy that mainly inhibits activation of microglia/macrophages. However, to address iron neurotoxicity, ferroptosis, and oxidative stress‐induced multiple neuroinjury mechanisms, the neuroprotective effect of minocycline still urgently needs to be enhanced. To address this issue, procyanidins (PACs), typical natural polyphenols, is used to improve the neuroprotective effect of Mino by constructing PACs‐Mino nanoparticles (NPs) using 3‐aminophenylboronic acid as the crosslinker. The yielding NPs possessed improved antioxidant and iron‐removing capacities in vitro. More importantly, PACs‐Mino NPs exerted excellent therapeutic effects on ICH, showing improved neuroprotective activity and resulting in neurobehavioral recovery, in an in vitro cellular model and an in vivo ICH rat model. This study can provide a general strategy that uses natural polyphenols to boost the performance of drugs for ICH treatment, and the results may be further extended to other injuries of the central nervous system, such as brain injury and spinal cord injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacterial infections represent one of the serious human healthcare threats, and ≈80% of bacterial infections are related to biofilm. So far, there are extensive investigations on the development of robust biomaterials toward the elimination of biofilms and synergistic antibacterial applications. Despite the progress made, concerns have always been raised regarding the sophisticated synthesis and pre‐modification of hybrid materials, complicated purification and high‐cost work. In this study, a series of robust and integrative nanoparticles (NPs) assembled from two types of natural building blocks (natural polyphenols and tobramycin antibiotics) is successfully fabricated via a one‐pot integration approach, which can efficiently destruct the biofilm structure and kill bacteria via enhanced antibiotic infiltration. Notably, natural polyphenols and tobramycin can release from the formed NPs in an on‐demand manner in the bacterial‐induced environment. The former ones can inhibit quorum sensing within bacteria through competitive combination with autoinducer‐2 (AI‐2) to remove the existing biofilm, and the latter antibiotics exert high antibacterial activity both in vitro and in vivo. This study provides new inspirations toward robust and synergistic antimicrobial and antibiofilm nanomaterials via the facile integration of naturally occurring molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although smart bio‐glues have been well documented, the development of internal bio‐glues for non‐invasive or minimally invasive surgery is still met with profound challenges such as safety risk and the lack of deep tissue penetration stimuli for internal usage. Herein, a series of smart internal bio‐glues are developed via the integration of o‐nitrobenzene modified biopolymers with up‐conversion nanoparticles (UCNPs). Upon irradiation by near‐infrared (NIR) light, the prepared smart bio‐glues can undergo a gelation process, which may further induce strong adhesion between tissues under both dry and wet conditions based on multi‐interactions. Moreover, those NIR light‐responsive bio‐glues with deeper tissue penetration ability demonstrate good biocompatibility, excellent hemostatic performance, and the potent ability to accelerate wound healing for both external and internal wounds. This work provides new opportunities for minimally invasive surgery, especially in internal wound healing using smart and robust bio‐glues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND The growing consumer demand for healthy products has encouraged the development of low‐salt meat products. In this study, to develop low‐salt restructured tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) meat products, citric acid was used to improve the properties of restructured tilapia products. RESULTS: In comparison with control restructured fish products (RP) and surimi products (SP), 0.2% citric acid‐treated restructured fish products (RPC) and surimi products (SPC) showed a significant decrease in expressible water and water activity and a remarkable increase in whiteness, dry matter, hardness, chewiness, gumminess, and acceptability. Mechanistic studies suggested that citric acid significantly changed the content of total protein and myofibrillar proteins and promoted degradation of heavy myosin chains. Fourier‐transform infrared and Raman spectra revealed the citric acid‐mediated alteration in the peak intensities of amide I and amide II bands, which changed the secondary structures of RPC and SPC. CONCLUSION: It is feasible to prepare low‐salt restructured tilapia meat products using citric acid, which offers a means of using muscle by‐products and exploiting new functional products with an added commercial value. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reactive oxygen species (ROS), the byproducts of aerobic metabolism, is a class of crucial molecules in physiological processes, nevertheless, would induce a series of inflammatory responses when overexpression. Excessive or inappropriate inflammation contributes to a range of acute and chronic human inflammatory diseases. In recent years, ROS scavenging agents have been widely regarded as a kind of potential therapeutic substances due to their abilities of delaying and/or inhibiting the oxidative stress in physiological microenvironments. ROS scavenging biopolymers are a group of agents that commonly have strong ROS scavenging ability and pharmacokinetic potential compared to similar low molecular weight agents. In this review, the generation and clearance of ROS in physiological processes, as well as the effects of ROS inflammatory diseases are introduced. Furthermore, the classification, macromolecular structure, and scavenging mechanism of those antioxidant polymers are systematically described and discussed, which aim to provide a guiding theoretical reference of designing effectively ROS scavenging biopolymers for anti‐inflammatory disease therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Head and neck cancer ( HNC) is common in several regions and is associated with high morbidity and mortality worldwide. This review summarizes the recent progress in the development of targeted nanoparticle systems for HNC therapy. WIREs Nanomed Nanobiotechnol 2017, 9:e1469. doi: 10.1002/wnan.1469 For further resources related to this article, please visit the . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Porcine acellular dermal matrix (PADM) has been investigated widely as a natural biomaterial. However, the success of PADM has been limited by insufficient stability and poor physicochemical properties. In our work, alginate dialdehyde (ADA) with various oxidation degrees (OD = 25%, 45%, and 65%) were explored to modify PADM, while glutaraldehyde (GA), dehydrathermal treatment (DHT), and carbodiimide (EDC) were used as the control. The efficacy of ADA on modifying PADM increased along with the rising of oxidation degree. The ADA (OD = 65% and 45%) groups showed better mechanical and thermal stability, crosslink density, and resistance to enzymatic degradation than ADA (OD = 25%) and DHT + EDC group. Meanwhile, the structure of PADM crosslinked by ADA (OD = 45% and 65%) were maintained largely. Further, ADA (OD = 45%) group revealed better cytocompatibility than DHT + EDC, ADA (OD = 65%) and GA group. Considering the balance of cytocompatibility and physicochemical behavior, ADA (OD = 45%) was more suitable as a natural derived crosslinker to modify PADM in tissue engineering. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 43550. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Collagen, a prominent biopolymer, which is famous for its excellent biological activity, has been used extensively for tissue engineering applications. In this study, a novel solvent system for collagen was developed with an ionic liquid, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([EMIM][Ac]), solvent system. A series of sodium salts were introduced into this solvent system to enhance collagen's dissolution procedure. The results show that the solubility of collagen was significantly influenced by the temperature and sodium salts. The solubility reached up to approximately 11% in the [EMIM][Ac]/Na2HPO4 system at 45°C. However, the structure of the regenerated collagen (Col-regenerated) may have been damaged. Hence, we focused on the structural integrity of the collagen regenerated from the [EMIM][Ac] solvent system by the methods of sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, ultrasensitive differential scanning calorimetry, atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and circular dichroism because its signature biological and physicochemical properties were based on its structural integrity. Meanwhile, a possible dissolution mechanism was proposed. The results show that the triple-helical structure of collagen regenerated from the [EMIM][Ac] solvent system below 35°C was retained to a large extent. The biocompatibility of Col-regenerated was first characterized with a fibroblast adhesion and proliferation model. It showed that the Col-regenerated had almost the same good biological activity as nature collagen, and this indicated the potential application of [EMIM][Ac] in tissue engineering. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 130: 2245-2256, 2013 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BSTRACT The flavonoids in mulberry leaves have good antioxidant activities. In this study, ultrasound-assisted extraction was used to obtain the crude flavonoids, and the macroporous resin adsorption technology was further employed to purify the flavonoids. The nonpolar resin labeled as H-103 was selected from eight kinds of macroporous resins as the adsorbent. Static and dynamic adsorption-desorption were tested to optimize the operation parameters. The experimental results show that the purity of the total flavonoids can be 36.3%, with a recovery of 83.4% under the optimum conditions. The flavonoids of rutin and isoquercitrin in the extract were detected by high-performance liquid chromatography, and their recoveries were above 80%. The devised method of isolation of the flavonoids from mulberry leaves may be used to develop a new process for medicinal purpose. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Flavonoids are important active components in mulberry leaves, which can effectively inhibit the oxidative modification of human lipoprotein. The maroporous resin adsorption method used for isolating and purifying flavonoids from mulberry leaves is advanced than the conventional ones for its lower cost, higher efficiency and procedural simplicity, and this procedure may be used to develop a new preparative process for medicinal purpose. In addition, the optimized results can be transposed to predict design parameters in fixed-bed adsorption systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although bio‐adhesives have achieved many progresses, creating robust bio‐glues that could withstand the complex physiological microenvironment remains a significant challenge such as limited bioadhesion strength and stability, as well as slow adhesion speed caused by pH, enzymes, salt, and bacteria. Herein, a series of strong bio‐glues are successfully fabricated using a polyphenol–acrylamide–ruthenium crosslinking (PARC) reaction under visible light irradiation, involving acrylamides radical polymerization, polyphenols (extracts) coupling reaction, and ruthenium‐mediated photochemistry. The resulting bio‐glues underwent rapid sol–gel transition and exhibited adhesive properties within a short of time (≈5 s), which could quickly bond to various bio‐tissues. Moreover, these bioadhesives demonstrate high adhesion strength and stability with mucosal tissue in the oral environment, effectively promoting rat and pig oral mucosal wound healing. It is anticipated that this class of visible light‐responsive polyphenolic bio‐glues could serve as a robust tool for addressing oral mucosal defects in the clinic, offering a promising alternative to traditional treatments for oral mucosal disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Double network (DN) hydrogels, a kind of promising soft and tough hydrogels, are produced by two unique contrasting networks with designed network entanglement burst into the field of materials science as versatile functional systems for a very broad range of applications. A part of the DN hydrogels is characterized by extraordinary mechanical properties providing efficient biocompatible and high strength for holding considerable promise in tissue engineering. Following DN hydrogels principles and consideration of biomedical applications, we provide an overall view of the present various DN hydrogels and look forward to the future of DN hydrogels for tissue engineering. In this review, the preparation methods, structure, properties, current situation, and challenges are mainly discussed for the purpose of tissue engineering. This article is categorized under: Implantable Materials and Surgical Technologies > Nanomaterials and ImplantsImplantable Materials and Surgical Technologies > Nanotechnology in Tissue Repair and Replacement Double network hydrogels for tissue engineering [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]