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Graphene quantum dot (GQD) integration into hydrogel matrices has become a viable approach for improving drug delivery and bioimaging in cancer treatment in recent years. Due to their distinct physicochemical characteristics, graphene quantum dots (GQDs) have attracted interest as adaptable nanomaterials for use in biomedicine. When incorporated into hydrogel frameworks, these nanomaterials exhibit enhanced stability, biocompatibility, and responsiveness to external stimuli. The synergistic pairing of hydrogels with GQDs has created new opportunities to tackle the problems related to drug delivery and bioimaging in cancer treatment. Bioimaging plays a pivotal role in the early detection and monitoring of cancer. GQD-based hydrogels, with their excellent photoluminescence properties, offer a superior platform for high-resolution imaging. The tunable fluorescence characteristics of GQDs enable real-time visualization of biological processes, facilitating the precise diagnosis and monitoring of cancer progression. Moreover, the drug delivery landscape has been significantly transformed by GQD-based hydrogels. Because hydrogels are porous, therapeutic compounds may be placed into them and released in a controlled environment. The large surface area and distinct interactions of graphene quantum dots (GQDs) with medicinal molecules boost loading capacity and release dynamics, ultimately improving therapeutic efficacy. Moreover, GQD-based hydrogels' stimulus-responsiveness allows for on-demand medication release, which minimizes adverse effects and improves therapeutic outcomes. The ability of GQD-based hydrogels to specifically target certain cancer cells makes them notable. Functionalizing GQDs with targeting ligands minimizes off-target effects and delivers therapeutic payloads to cancer cells selectively. Combined with imaging capabilities, this tailored drug delivery creates a theranostic platform for customized cancer treatment. In this study, the most recent advancements in the synergistic use of GQD-based hydrogels are reviewed, with particular attention to the potential revolution these materials might bring to the area of cancer theranostics.

Ganoderma lucidum methanolic extract (GLME) has attracted tremendous attention due to its exceptional antimicrobial and anticancer properties that can be delicately tuned by controlling the initial extraction's content and concentration. Herein, we detailed the characterization, antimicrobial, and cytotoxic performance of GLME as a potential multi-functional therapeutic agent. Accordingly, FTIR, XRD, FESEM, EDX, and HPLC analyses were employed to assess the samples, followed by disc diffusion and microdilution broth methods to test its antibacterial effects against four Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains, viz., Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. MTT assay was applied to determine the cytotoxic activity of GLME against PDL and Hek-293 normal cell lines and MCF-7 and K-562 cancer cell lines. The IC50 values of 598 µg mL -1 and 291 µg mL -1 were obtained for MCF-7 and K-562 cancer cell lines, which confirmed the stronger anticancer activity of the GLME against blood cancer cells than breast cancer cells. This is while the IC50 of normal Hek-293 cells is 751 µg mL -1 , and the lowest toxicity was observed for normal PDL cells with more than 57% survival at a concentration of 3000 µg mL -1 . The results showed that the antibacterial property of this product against E.coli bacteria was higher than streptomycin, so the zone of inhibition was observed as 44 ± 0.09 mm and 30 ± 0.11 mm, respectively. These data provide valuable insights into the therapeutic usage of GLME for treating breast and blood cancers. This work is motivated by research studies looking for pharmacological products to address chronic and acute diseases, where further resources and studies are required to explore such products' adverse effects and toxicity., (© 2023. Springer Nature Limited.)

Objectives: Considering the prevalence of oral mucositis, we aimed to use the analgesic effects of doxepin with chitosan's antimicrobial and bio-adhesive nature to fabricate a nano-formulation for treating chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis., Materials and Methods: Nanogel was fabricated via ionic gelation and characterized. Sixty patients were randomly divided and received four different treatments for 14 days: diphenhydramine + aluminum-magnesium mouthwash (control), doxepin mouthwash (DOX MW), chitosan nanogel (CN), and doxepin/chitosan nanogel (CN + DOX). Lesions were assessed with four indices, National Cancer Institute (NCI), World Health Organization (WHO), World Conference on Clinical and Research in Nursing (WCCNR) and visual analog scale (VAS) before and 3, 7, and 14 days after interventions. Kruskal-Wallis test was used for pairwise comparison., Results: CN had semisolid consistency, uniform spherical shape, an average size of 47.93 ± 21.69 nm, and a zeta potential of + 1.02 ± 0.16 mV. CN + DOX reduced WHO, WCCNR, and VAS scores significantly more than the control three days after the intervention. Seven days after the intervention, CN + DOX reduced NCI and WCCNR considerably more than the control; it reduced WCCNR significantly more than CN. Fourteen days after the intervention, CN + DOX decreased NCI markedly more than the control., Conclusion: Chitosan-based doxepin nano-formulation might be a promising alternative for routine treatments of oral mucositis., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)

The undesirable side effects of conventional chemotherapy are one of the major problems associated with cancer treatment. Recently, with the development of novel nanomaterials, tumor-targeted therapies have been invented in order to achieve more specific cancer treatment with reduced unfavorable side effects of chemotherapic agents on human cells. However, the clinical application of nanomedicines has some shortages, such as the reduced ability to cross biological barriers and undesirable side effects in normal cells. In this order, bioinspired materials are developed to minimize the related side effects due to their excellent biocompatibility and higher accumulation therapies. As bioinspired and biomimetic materials are mainly composed of a nanometric functional agent and a biologic component, they can possess both the physicochemical properties of nanomaterials and the advantages of biologic agents, such as prolonged circulation time, enhanced biocompatibility, immune modulation, and specific targeting for cancerous cells. Among the nanomaterials, asymmetric nanomaterials have gained attention as they provide a larger surface area with more active functional sites compared to symmetric nanomaterials. Additionally, the asymmetric nanomaterials are able to function as two or more distinct components due to their asymmetric structure. The mentioned properties result in unique physiochemical properties of asymmetric nanomaterials, which makes them desirable materials for anti-cancer drug delivery systems or cancer bio-imaging systems. In this review, we discuss the use of bioinspired and biomimetic materials in the treatment of cancer, with a special focus on asymmetric nanoparticle anti-cancer agents.

This study reports the synthesis and biological investigation of three series of novel monocyclic β-lactam derivatives bearing a morpholine ring substituent on the nitrogen. The resulting β-lactam adducts were synthesized via Staudinger's [2 + 2]-ketene-imine cycloaddition reaction. New synthesized products were fully characterized by spectral data and elemental analyses, and then evaluated for anti-inflammatory activity toward human inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cytotoxicity toward HepG2 cell line. The compounds 3e, 3h, 3k, 5c, 5f, 6c, 6d and 6f showed higher activity with anti-inflammatory ratio values of 38, 62, 51, 72, 51, 35, 55 and 99, respectively, in comparison to the reference compound dexamethasone having an anti-inflammatory ratio value of 32. Hence, these compounds can be considered as potent iNOS inhibitors. They also exhibited IC50 values of 0.48 ± 0.04 mM, 0.51 ± 0.01 mM, 0.22 ± 0.02 mM, 0.12 ± 0.00 mM, 0.25 ± 0.05 mM, 0.82 ± 0.07 mM, 0.44 ± 0.04 mM and 0.60 ± 0.04 mM, respectively, in comparison with doxorubicin (IC50 < 0.01 mM) against HepG2 cells, biocompatibility and nontoxic behavior. In silico prediction of drug-likeness characteristic indicated that the compounds are compliant with the Lipinski and Veber rules. Molecular docking experiments showed a good correlation between the experimental activity and the calculated binding affinity to human inducible nitric oxide synthase, the enzymatic target for the anti-inflammatory response., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Nowadays, magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have been rapidly investigated and attracted worldwide attention due to their great potential as mediators of heat for treating hyperthermia and their possibility to deliver drugs at specific locations, which can thereby limit systematic effects. Cancer therapy via MNPs proposes novel properties rather than normal methods such as almost zero side effects and a high-efficiency rate of effectiveness. The key aim of targeted drug delivery is to reduce side effects of the main cancer treatment that other usual chemotherapies will attend to the body, and thus controlling the effectiveness of the drug on a specific location that tumoral tissue exist. Herein, the high potential of MNPs has been studied, and different examples of their effectiveness on drug delivery and hypothermia therapy have been provided.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have proven to be very effective carriers for drug delivery in various biological applications. In recent years, the development of hybrid nanostructures has made significant progress, including developing an innovative MOF-loaded nanocomposite with a highly porous structure and low toxicity that can be used to fabricate core-shell nanocomposites by combining complementary materials. This review study discusses using MOF materials in cancer treatment, imaging, and antibacterial effects, focusing on oral cancer cells. For patients with oral cancer, we offer a regular program for accurately designing and producing various anticancer and antibacterial agents to achieve maximum effectiveness and the lowest side effects. Also, we want to ensure that the anticancer agent works optimally and has as few side effects as possible before it is tested in vitro and in vivo. It is also essential that new anticancer drugs for cancer treatment are tested for efficacy and safety before they go into further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing rate of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and the undesirable side effects of anticancer agents have enhanced the demand for the development of efficient, detectable, and targeted anticancer systems. Saponins are a diverse family of natural glycosides that have recently been evaluated as an effective compound for the targeted therapy of squamous cell carcinoma. Due to their porous nature and stable structure, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are a well-known substance form for various biological applications, such as drug delivery. In this study, we fabricated a novel hybrid, highly porous and low-toxic saponin-loaded nanostructure by modifying graphene oxide (GO)/reduced GO (rGO) with aluminum fumarate (AlFu) as MOF core–shell nanocomposite. The characterization of the nanostructures was investigated by FTIR, TEM, EDX, FESEM, and BET. MTT assay was used to investigate the anticancer activity of these compounds on OSCC and PDL normal dental cells. The effect of the nanocomposites on OSCC was then investigated by studying apoptosis and necrosis using flow cytometry. The GO/rGO was decorated with a saponin–AlFu mixture to further investigate cytotoxicity. The results of the MTT assay showed that PDL cells treated with AlFu–GO–saponin at a concentration of 250 μg/mL had a viability of 74.46 ± 16.02%, while OSCC cells treated with this sample at a similar concentration had a viability of only 38.35 ± 19.9%. The anticancer effect of this nanostructure on OSCC was clearly demonstrated. Moreover, the number of apoptotic cells in the AlFu–GO–saponin and AlFu–rGO–saponin groups was 10.98 ± 2.36%–26.90 ± 3.24% and 15.9 ± 4.08%–29.88 ± 0.41%, respectively, compared with 2.52 ± 0.78%–1.31 ± 0.62% in the untreated group. This significant increase in apoptotic effect observed with AlFu–rGO–saponin was also reflected in the significant anticancer effect of saponin-loaded nanostructures. Therefore, this study suggests that an effective saponin delivery system protocol for the precise design and fabrication of anticancer nanostructures for OSCC therapy should be performed prior to in vivo evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The utilization of medicinal plants and their derivatives in treating illnesses is more appropriately recognized as herbal remedy than traditional medicine. For centuries, medicinal herbs have been used for the treatment of diseases in many countries. Malva sylvestris L. is a kind of mallow derived from Malvaceae species and is recognized as common mallow. This amazing plant has antimicrobial, hepatoprotective, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties and is considered as one of the most promising herbal medicinal species. This plant's traditional use in treating many diseases and preparing pharmaceutical compounds can show us how to know in depth the plant origin of drugs used to produce antibiotics and other therapeutic agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kombucha is a valuable traditional natural tea that contains beneficial compounds like organic acids, minerals, different vitamins, proteins, polyphenols, and several anions. Kombucha possesses anticancer, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and antifungal activity as well as hepatoprotective effects. Considering the unique properties of Kombucha, several investigations have already been conducted on its nutritional properties. In this review, an effort has been devoted to pool recent literature on the biomedical application of Kombucha under the objectives, including the chemical composition of Kombucha and industrial production, and highlight different properties of Kombucha. Finally, we explain its adverse effects and prospect. This review is an active, in-depth, and inclusive report about Kombucha and its health benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]