Search

We have studied the technique for efficient prolong the shelf-life of fruit. To prolong the shelf-life of fruit, one of the most important factor is the concentration of oxygen (O₂) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) produced by the fruits inside the packaging. Therefore, to create the right environment, it recommended creating pores which O₂ and CO₂ can be exchanged. We utilize electrospinning technique for easy electrohydrodynamic fabrication of nanofibers by electric force to fabricate nano-sized fibers with high porosity. Additionally, use of essential oil is very appropriate to reduce postharvest disease cause of their antibacterial and like-pesticide properties. In this study, we fabricated different structural packaging types using nanofibers and essential oil to compare the efficacy. After that, we observed the percentage of corruption is significantly reduced by using peach as a kind of fruits. These packaging techniques will overcome the limitation of fruits life with postharvest disease not only field of fruit packaging techniques.

Phenolics from plant materials have garnered attention in nanomedicine research, due to their various medicinal properties. Caffeic acid, a phenolic compound that is abundant in coffee beans, has been proven to have anticancer effects, due to its reactive oxygen species (ROS)-inducing properties. Here, a supramolecular nanomedicine was designed using caffeic acid molecule and the synthetic anticancer drug bortezomib, via catechol&ndash, boronic acid conjugation and Fe(III) ion crosslinking. Bortezomib is a proteasome-inhibiting drug and its boronic acid functional group can bind to caffeic acid&rsquo, s catechol moiety. By having a nanoparticle formulation that can deliver bortezomib via intracellular endocytosis, the catechol&ndash, boronic acid conjugation can be dissociated, which liberates the boronic acid functional group to bind to the 26S proteasome of the cell. The ROS-inducing property of caffeic acid also complements the bortezomib payload, as the latter suppresses the survival mechanism of the cell through NF-&kappa, B inhibition.

Poly (ethyl-2) cyanoacrylate was used to create an adhesion-free biocompatible non-woven material reinforced by polyurethane core via a co-axial electrospinning set-up. The effect of relative humidity (RH) of (18, 30, 40, 60, and 68) % on the electrospinning process was examined, and found that in order to achieve well defined core-shell fiber structure, the optimal RH was 18%. If the RH is >18%, a phenomenon called Taylor cone cyclic destabilization occurs, which results in unfavorable surface and mechanical properties of the mat. The developed composite electrospun mat has the potential to be used in medical devices, such as repairing the viscera layer for intraperitoneal hernia mesh implants, which require the attenuation of biological elements, and adequate mechanical properties.

A new nano air filter for fine dust filtration with antibacterial and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) adsorption properties was fabricated using a bottom-up, high-speed electrospinning system. To optimize production, polyurethane fibers were electrospun at various voltages on polypropylene nonwoven fabrics, and results show that fiber diameter decreased as voltage increased. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and Activated Carbon (AC) were used as antimicrobials and VOC-reducing agents. FTIR, SEM, and EDS were performed to analyze the resulting filter fabricated by electrospinning. FTIR and EDS results show that the AgNPs and activated carbon added to the PU fibers were successfully integrated into the PP nonwoven fabric.

Chemothermal brachytherapy seeds have been developed using a combination of polymeric dual drug chemotherapy and alternating magnetic field induced hyperthermia. The synergistic effect of chemotherapy and hyperthermia brachytherapy has been investigated in a way that has never been performed before, with an in-depth analysis of the cancer cell inhibition property of the new system. A comprehensive in vivo study on athymic mice model with SCC7 tumor has been conducted to determine optimal arrays and specifications of the chemothermal seeds. Dual drug chemotherapy has been achieved via surface deposition of polydopamine that carries bortezomib, and also via loading an acidic pH soluble hydrogel that contains 5-Fluorouracil inside the chemothermal seed; this increases the drug loading capacity of the chemothermal seed, and creates dual drug synergism. An external alternating magnetic field has been utilized to induce hyperthermia conditions, using the inherent ferromagnetic property of the nitinol alloy used as the seed casing. The materials used in this study were fully characterized using FESEM, H1 NMR, FT-IR, and XPS to validate their properties. This new approach to experimental cancer treatment is a pilot study that exhibits the potential of thermal brachytherapy and chemotherapy as a combined treatment modality.

The editorial team greatly appreciates the reviewers who have dedicated their considerable time and expertise to the journal’s rigorous editorial process over the past 12 months, regardless of whether the papers are finally published or not [...]

It is known that the behavior of a drug released from a supporting carrier is influenced by the surrounding environment and the carrier. In this study, we investigated the drug behavior of a swellable electrospun nanofibrous membrane. Nanofibrous mats with different swelling ratios were prepared by mixing cellulose acetate (CA) and polyurethane (PU). CA has excellent biocompatibility and is capable of high water uptake, while PU has excellent mechanical properties. Paclitaxel (PTX) was the drug of choice for observing drug release behavior, which was characterized by UV-spectroscopy. FE-SEM was used to confirm the morphology of the nanofibrous mats and to measure the average fiber diameters. We observed a noticeable increase in the total volume of the nanofibrous membrane when it was immersed in water. Also, the drug release behavior increased proportionally with increasing swelling rate of the composite nanofibrous mat. Biocompatibility testing of nanofiber materials was confirmed by CCK-8 assay and cell morphology was observed. Based on these results, we propose nanofibrous mats as promising candidates in wound dressing and other drug carrier applications.

Stainless steel as a biomedical implant material has been studied in various fields and in various forms, such as vascular stents, bone plates, dental screws, and artificial hip and bone material. In this study, we used polycaffeic acid (PCA), a natural phenolic compound, to coat the surface of medical grade stainless steel to provide added potential medicinal effects by virtue of its inherent anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antifibrosis, antithrombosis, and antihypertensive characteristics. We did this via UV irradiation under an alkaline state to solve the cost and time problems of other existing coating methods. The physicochemical properties of the samples were investigated through field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), contact angle, FTIR, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Surface bioactivity using NIH-3T3 cell lines were observed in vitro. We expect that the proposed methodology may contribute to the field of study of implantable metallic devices.

Vascular stenting is an effective way of reviving the circulation to the affected limb or organ. However, restenosis and platelet accumulation are still a recurring issue on the said biomedical device. Here, we present a way to prevent these issues by creating a drug free coating on vascular stents that prevent cellular and platelet adhesion. This is done via co-axial electrospinning of Poly-ethyl2-cyanoacrylate (PECA) and Polyurethane (PU). Utilizing the macrozwitterionic surface of the polymeric mat via the PECA shell and mechanical strength of the PU core. The drug-free stent coating (DFSC) polymer is characterized via Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) to analyse its morphology while tensile testing is provided to ensure adequate mechanical strength to prove that the material can withstand the radial force that the stent will provide to the mat. An in-vitro cell and platelet adhesion proved that the material repel biological elements even without addition of anti-platelet and anti-proliferative drugs.

The natural phenolic molecule caffeic acid, show promising effects on biological systems as an anti/pro-oxidant, anti-cancer, and anti-inflammatory agent. In nanoparticle functionalization designs, most organic nanoparticle coatings are utilized only for their ability to carry chemotherapeutics and targeting ligand. In this study, UV-light and auto-oxidation polymerization of caffeic acid on top of as-prepared gold nanoparticles was utilized to bring about a 5 nm multifunctional coating. The resulting polycaffeic acid (PCA) coating was used to conjugate both boronic acid containing compounds, chemotherapeutic bortezomib (BTZ) and cancer targeting ligand folate, while inducing mitochondrial reactive oxygen species that can damage intracellular proteins and DNA. This complements the drug payload, bortezomib's cell survival inhibition properties. The drug, targeting ligand, and coating complexation are all pH cleavable under acidic pH condition (5.0) which can be found in a tumor and endosomal microenvironment. The in vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrated cancer cytotoxicity and tumor inhibiting properties of the developed nanomedicine.

Biomedical implants had been a standard in the medical field for treating, alleviating, correcting, and curing diseases. However, as promising as the technology as it may seem, several shortcomings have plagued this field. Complications may arise when you introduce new devices and implants in the human body as it is still considered as a foreign material and could definitely cause severe and detrimental problems, from bacterial infection of bone implants to restenosis and migration on stents. Considerable efforts must be done to improve this field of medicine, this is to help clinicians and the patients achieve better outcomes of treatment.

We have successfully extracted cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) from seaweed by removing unwanted materials via our modified process. The prepared CNCs were mixed with two biocompatible polymers (polyethylene oxide (PEO)/Eudragit S100). We used the most popular electrospinning method to fabricate a micro/nano-net membrane. The formation of nano-webs between fundamental micro/nanofibers was observed via SEM and TEM, according to the mixing ratio of the solution (PEO:Eudragit: 1:1, 2:1, 3:1 wt:wt%) with 0, 5, 10% CNCs per polymer weight. We found the optimal condition to fabricate nano-net in the membrane and expect it to be applicable for wound healing, tissue engineering, and various filter applications.

Gastrointestinal malignancies have been a tremendous problem in the medical field and cover a wide variety of parts of the system, (i.e. esophagus, duodenum, intestines, and rectum). Usually, these malignancies are treated with palliation with the use of non-vascular nitinol stents. However, stenting is not a perfect solution for these problems. While it can enhance the quality of life of the patient, in time the device will encounter problems such as re-occlusion due to the rapid growth of the tumor. In this study, we propose a functionalization technique using electropolymerization of polydopamine directly onto the nitinol stent struts for the combined application of hyperthermia and chemotherapy. The coating was characterized using FESEM, XPS, and FT-IR. Drug release studies show that facile release of the anticancer drug BTZ from the surface of the polydopamine-coated stent could be achieved by the dissociation between catechol groups of polydopamine and the boronic acid functionality of BTZ in a pH-dependent manner. The anti-cancer property was also evaluated, and cytotoxicity on ESO26 and SNU-5 cancer cell lines were observed. Our results suggest that the introduced approach can be considered as a potential method for therapeutic stent application.

Polydopamine can be formed and deposited on the surface of titanium substrates either by classical dip coating (d-pdopa) or by electropolymerization (e-pdopa), which has been recently developed. In contrast to the classical approach, dopamine electropolymerization leads to the formation of continuous, smooth films on the surface of the substrate. We further studied the applicability of the polydopamine films by examining their ability to spontaneously reduce silver ions into metal nanoparticles. A simple bacterial inhibition test was conducted with Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria to examine the differences in the antibacterial efficiency of both e-pdopa and d-pdopa films coated with silver nanoparticles. The e-pdopa samples contained clearer inhibition zones than the d-pdopa samples, which is indicative of the silver nanoparticles being immobilized on e-pdopa film in a more efficient manner for the antimicrobial functionalization of metal implants.

An oesophageal stent durability/migration testing device was developed based on the mathematical analysis of durability mechanism of an oesophageal stent and oesophageal motility, in which the oesophageal stent was assumed to be under simulated in vivo pre compression load, in vivo creep load and internal environment. Hardware and software simulating an oesophageal tube movement was developed, which consists of six sensors, an Arduino MEGA and LabVIEW LIFO interface. Accurate detection of stent migration in an oesophageal model using camera imageprocessing analysis and Flexi force Pressure Sensor (FPS) combine was done. The control board for the real time monitoring of non-vascular oesophageal stents used Arduino MEGA2560. LabVIEW was used to monitor in real time the FPS and bend sensor,camera image processing on the stent durability/migration testing device. The testing results can verify the design of stent’s fatigue life and to ensure the records for the optimization of oesophagus stent design, this can ensure the trustworthiness of oesophagus stent implantation in vivo. This device could further evaluate the effectivity for all type of stents on non-vascular applications and also to test experimental materials on stents. Also, the said device can be modified and applied to test the migration and fatigue life of other GI stents.

A nanofiber composite mat of PU and Eudragit(®) L100-55 was created using electrospinning process. The pH dependent release of paclitaxel was successfully done with the use of PU/EL100-55 nanocomposite mats as the controlling platform. The morphology of the nanofiber composites was surveyed using FESEM and ratios of the polymers affects the diameter of the nanofiber. Characterization of the nanofiber composite mat was done using FTIR, DSC-TGA method. The release rate of paclitaxel was determined and analyzed by in vitro drug release method. In order to mimic the condition of a human duodenum, the fibers were submersed on PBS of different pH levels (4.0, 6.0,) respectively, and then analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Composite mats submersed in PBS with pH 4.0 showed lesser release profile compared to mats submersed in PBS with pH of 6.0. The composite mat has adequate mechanical properties and in vitro cell biocompatibility indicating that the material can be used for drug eluting stent cover application.

Gastrointestinal malignancies have been a tremendous problem in the medical field and cover a wide variety of parts of the system, (i.e. esophagus, duodenum, intestines, and rectum). Usually, these malignancies are treated with palliation with the use of non-vascular nitinol stents. However, stenting is not a perfect solution for these problems. While it can enhance the quality of life of the patient, in time the device will encounter problems such as re-occlusion due to the rapid growth of the tumor. In this study, we propose a functionalization technique using electropolymerization of polydopamine directly onto the nitinol stent struts for the combined application of hyperthermia and chemotherapy. The coating was characterized using FESEM, XPS, and FT-IR. Drug release studies show that facile release of the anticancer drug BTZ from the surface of the polydopamine-coated stent could be achieved by the dissociation between catechol groups of polydopamine and the boronic acid functionality of BTZ in a pH-dependent manner. The anti-cancer property was also evaluated, and cytotoxicity on ESO26 and SNU-5 cancer cell lines were observed. Our results suggest that the introduced approach can be considered as a potential method for therapeutic stent application.

Titanium implants are extensively used in biomedical applications due to their excellent biocompatibility, corrosion resistance, and superb mechanical stability. In this work, we present the use of polycaffeic acid (PCA) to immobilize metallic silver on the surface of titanium materials to prevent implant bacterial infection. Caffeic acid is a plant-derived phenolic compound, rich in catechol moieties and it can form functional coatings using alkaline buffers and with UV irradiation. This combination can trigger oxidative polymerization and deposition on the surface of metallic substrates. Using PCA can also give advantages in bone implants in decreasing inflammation by decelerating macrophage and osteoclast activity. Here, chemical and physical properties were investigated using FE-SEM, EDS, XPS, AFM, and contact angle. The in vitro biocompatibility and antibacterial studies show that PCA with metallic silver can inhibit bacterial growth, and proliferation of MC-3T3 cells was observed. Therefore, our results suggest that the introduced approach can be considered as a potential method for functional implant coating application in the orthopedic field.

A functional cover made up of core-shell nanofibers with a unique combination of thermoresponsive polymeric shell and stretchable polymeric core for non-vascular nitinol stents that uses an alternating magnetic field (AMF) to induce heat in the stent for hyperthermia therapy and simultaneously release 5-fluorouracil and/or paclitaxel was designed. Varying the ratios of NIPAAm to HMAAm monomer resulted in different LCST properties for the synthesized copolymer and further utilized for an on-demand drug release. Biocompatibility test using NIH-3T3 fibroblast cells indicates that the composite with drug content is biocompatible and the in-vitro cancer cytotoxicity test using ESO26 and OE21 cancer cells proved that the material shows cancer cytotoxic properties via combination of dual drug and hyperthermia therapy. With this functional material, we propose a tailorable and on-demand drug release with more control that can be employed for a combination drug therapy/single drug therapy combined with hyperthermia therapy for cancer cytotoxicity effect.

This study reports on an intelligent composite hydrogel with both pH-dependent drug release in a cancer environment and heat generation based on NIR laser exposure, for the combined application of photothermal therapy (PTT) and multidrug chemotherapy. For the first time in the literature, Dopamine nanoparticle (DP) was incorporated as a highly effective photothermal agent as well as anticancer drug, bortezomib (BTZ) carrier inside a stimuli responsive pNIPAAm-co-pAAm hydrogel. When light is applied to the composite hydrogel, DP nanoparticle absorbs the light, which is dissipated locally as heat to impact cancer cells via hyperthermia. On the other hand, facile release of the anticancer drug BTZ from the surface of DP encapsulated hydrogel could be achieved due to the dissociation between catechol groups of DP and the boronic acid functionality of BTZ in typical acidic cancer environment. In order to increase the synergistic effect by dual drug delivery, Doxorubicin (DOXO) were also loaded to pNIPAAm-co-pAAm/DP-BTZ hydrogel and the effect of monotherapy as well as combined therapy were detailed by a complete characterization. Our results suggest that these mussel inspired nanocomposite with excellent heating property and controllable multidrug release can be considered as a potential material for cancer therapy.

Scaffolds made of aligned nanofibers are favorable for nerve regeneration due to their superior nerve cell attachment and proliferation. However, it is challenging not only to produce a neat mat or a conduit form with aligned nanofibers but also to use these for surgical applications as a nerve guide conduit due to their insufficient mechanical strength. Furthermore, no studies have been reported on the fabrication of aligned nanofibers and randomly-oriented nanofibers on the same mat. In this study, we have successfully produced a mat with both aligned and randomly-oriented nanofibers by using a novel electrospinning set up. A new conduit with a highly-aligned electrospun mat is produced with this modified electrospinning method, and this proposed conduit with favorable features, such as selective permeability, hydrophilicity and nerve growth directional steering, were fabricated as nerve guide conduits (NGCs). The inner surface of the nerve conduit is covered with highly aligned electrospun nanofibers and is able to enhance the proliferation of neural cells. The central part of the tube is double-coated with randomly-oriented nanofibers over the aligned nanofibers, strengthening the weak mechanical strength of the aligned nanofibers.