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Cancer has a high rate of incidence and mortality throughout the world. Although several conventional approaches have been developed for the treatment of cancer, such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and thermal therapy, they have remarkable disadvantages which result in inefficient treatment of cancer. For example, immunogenicity, prolonged treatment, non-specificity, metastasis and high cost of treatment, are considered as the major drawbacks of chemotherapy. Therefore, there is a fundamental requirement for the development of breakthrough technologies for cancer suppression. Polysaccharide-based drug delivery systems (DDSs) are the most reliable drug carriers for cancer therapy. Polysaccharides, as a kind of practical biomaterials, are divided into several types, including chitosan, alginates, dextran, hyaluronic acid, cyclodextrin, pectin, etc. Polysaccharides are extracted from different natural resources (like herbal, marine, microorganisms, etc.). The potential features of polysaccharides have made them reliable candidates for therapeutics delivery to cancer sites; the simple purification, ease of modification and functionalization, hydrophilicity, serum stability, appropriate drug loading capacity, biocompatibility, bioavailability, biodegradability and stimuli-responsive and sustained drug release manner are considerable aspects of these biopolymers. This review highlights the practical applications of polysaccharides-based DDSs in pharmaceutical science and cancer therapy.

The process of wound healing consists of multiple phases, and any disruptions in these phases can lead to the wound becoming chronic and impose heavy financial and psychological costs on the patient and a huge economic burden on the country's healthcare system. Various treatments such as drugs, matrix and scaffolds, blood products, cell therapy, and a combination of these treatments are used for wound healing. The use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is one of these methods that have produced appropriate responses in the healing of patients' wounds. MSCs by secreting growth factors, cytokines, chemokines, and RNAs elicit changes in cell proliferation, migration, growth, signaling, immunomodulation, and wound re-epithelialization process, and as a result, accelerate wound closure and wound healing. These cells can be isolated from different body sources with different cell characteristics and used directly on the wound site or by injection. In addition, MSCs-derived exosomes have attracted growing attention due to circumventing concerns relating to the direct use of MSCs. To increase the performance of MSCs, they can be used together with other compounds such as platelets, matrices, or scaffolds. This study examined the functions of MSCs in wound healing, as well as the vesicles they secrete, cellular and molecular mechanisms, and combined treatments with MSCs for wound healing., Competing Interests: Compliance with Ethical Standards Conflict of Interest The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Malignant tumors are complicated structures of cancer cells that are constantly in communication with their local and distant environment. Exosomes are released by tumor cells and can facilitate the cell-cell interaction within the local microenvironment and the primary tumor. In fact, exosomes are secreted by both tumor and non-tumor cells, to provide a mutual communication network between cells and their micro- and/or macro-environments. Exososmes can contain a variety of biological cargos mostly based on their originated cells. Uptake of these exosomes by their recipient cells results in the alterations that their cargo can exert. MicroRNAs are identified as one of the most critical exosomal components, considering their pivotal regulatory roles in distinct biological process, including metastasis. Release and absorbance of exosomal microRNAs is possible by various cells within the host, and can have distinct biological consequences. Therefore, in this review we will discuss the role of exosomal microRNAs derived from tumor cells and untransformed cells within their micro- and macroenvironment in cancer progression and metastasis., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests. Fahad Alsaikhan reports financial support was provided by Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University. If there are other authors, they 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 © 2024 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

The emerging function of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in Parkinson's disease (PD) has been investigated in this article. SCFAs, which are generated via the fermentation of dietary fiber by gut microbiota, have been associated with dysfunction of the gut-brain axis and, neuroinflammation. These processes are integral to the development of PD. This article examines the potential therapeutic implications of SCFAs in the management of PD, encompassing their capacity to modulate gastrointestinal permeability, neuroinflammation, and neuronal survival, by conducting an extensive literature review. As a whole, this article emphasizes the potential therapeutic utility of SCFAs as targets for the management and treatment of PD., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The development of a new Neodymium/Dysprosium metal-organic framework, referred to as Nd/Dy-BTC MOF, based on benzene-1,2,4-tricarboxylic acid, has been achieved through an in situ growth process on 2D transition metal carbides (MXene) surfaces. This synthesis was conducted via a solvothermal method utilizing a solvent mixture of water, ethanol, and dimethylformamide. The primary objective of this research is to investigate the framework's efficacy as a photocatalyst for the degradation of anionic dye, as well as its potential for sensing certain explosives. The Nd/Dy-MOF@MXene has been characterized by various analysis techniques. The prepared Nd/Dy-MOF@MXene was utilized as catalyst in selective degradation of methyl orange dye. The study examined the influence of pH and catalyst concentration, revealing that the catalyst achieves peak efficiency of 93.55% when exposed to sunlight in an acidic medium. The reusability of the catalyst shows the highest efficient photocatalyst after four cycles of reusability. The detection of explosives, specifically 2,4,6-trinitrophenol, through photoluminescence techniques has been conducted, utilizing the Stern-Volmer equation to evaluate the quenching efficiency. The findings indicated remarkable efficiency and selectivity of Nd/Dy-MOF@MXene for 2,4,6-trinitrophenol, achieving a quenching efficiency of 91%. Furthermore, the reusability tests demonstrated that Nd/Dy-MOF@MXene exhibits outstanding recyclability, maintaining performance over five cycles. The antibacterial activity of Nd/Dy-MOF@MXene was investigated against Gram-positive and Gram-negative strains due to indication of medicine properties of Nd/Dy-MOF@MXene. These results paves a way for manufacturing innnovation in near future., 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 © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Polysaccharides, the most abundant biopolymers in nature, have attracted the attention of researchers and clinicians due to its practicality in biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences. These biomaterials have high bioavailability and play structural and functional roles in living organisms. Polysaccharides are classified into several groups based on their origin, including plant polysaccharides and marine polysaccharides (like chitosan, hyaluronic acid, dextran, alginates, etc.) with specific applications. These biopolymers possess unique physicochemical (such as surface functional groups, solubility, and stability), mechanical (like mechanical strength and tensile), and biomedical (such as antioxidant activity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, renewability, and non-immunogenicity) characteristics which have made them excellent platforms for a wide variety of biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. Ease of extraction and different preparation approaches are mentioned as other potential properties of polysaccharides that further improved their practicality in biomedical sciences. They have high drug/bioactive encapsulation capacity and sustained/controlled release manner in in vivo microenvironments. The anti-inflammatory and immunomodulation, stimuli-responsive drug/bioactive release, and passive and active drug/bioactive delivery are considered the potential features of these biopolymers in pharmaceutical sciences. Polysaccharides have indicated practical applications in biomedical sciences, including biosensors, tissue engineering, implantation, wound healing, vascular grafting, and vaccines. This review highlights the advances of polysaccharide-based materials in biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences., (© 2024 Deutsche Pharmazeutische Gesellschaft.)

Desulfurative functionalization of organosulfur compounds to form various carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds has become established as a powerful tool in organic chemistry. In this context, desulfurative carboxylation of this class of compounds using carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) as a sustainable and renewable source of carboxyl has recently been developed as an efficient option for the synthesis of carboxylic acid derivatives. The aim of this Focus Review is to summarize the major progress in this appealing research field with particular emphasis on the mechanistic features of the reactions. Literature has been surveyed until the end of February 2024, according to the data collected using SciFinder and Google Scholar engines., Competing Interests: There are no confilicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)