Curcumin Loading on Alginate Nano-Micelle for Anti-Infection and Colonic Wound Healing

Biomaterials for neuroengineering: applications and challenges

Neurological injuries and diseases are a leading cause of disability worldwide, underscoring the urgent need for effective therapies. Neural regaining and enhancement therapies are seen as the most promising strategies for restoring neural function, offering hope for individuals affected by these conditions. Despite their promise, the path from animal research to clinical application is fraught with challenges. Neuroengineering, particularly through the use of biomaterials, has emerged as a key field that is paving the way for innovative solutions to these challenges. It seeks to understand and treat neurological disorders, unravel the nature of consciousness, and explore the mechanisms of memory and the brain's relationship with behavior, offering solutions for neural tissue engineering, neural interfaces and targeted drug delivery systems. These biomaterials, including both natural and synthetic types, are designed to replicate the cellular environment of the brain, thereby facilitating neural repair. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview for biomaterials in neuroengineering, highlighting their application in neural functional regaining and enhancement across both basic research and clinical practice. It covers recent developments in biomaterial-based products, including 2D to 3D bioprinted scaffolds for cell and organoid culture, brain-on-a-chip systems, biomimetic electrodes and brain-computer interfaces. It also explores artificial synapses and neural networks, discussing their applications in modeling neural microenvironments for repair and regeneration, neural modulation and manipulation and the integration of traditional Chinese medicine. This review serves as a comprehensive guide to the role of biomaterials in advancing neuroengineering solutions, providing insights into the ongoing efforts to bridge the gap between innovation and clinical application.

Sprayable, thermosensitive hydrogels for promoting wound healing based on hollow, porous and pH-sensitive ZnO microspheres

A solvothermal method and the subsequent heat treatment process were developed to fabricate hollow ZnO particles with hierarchical pores on a large scale. The as-obtained hollow, porous ZnO microspheres with tunable sizes, high specific surface areas, pH sensitivity, antibacterial properties, and high adsorption capacities showed significant advantages for drug delivery. Sprayable hydrogels containing hollow, porous ZnO microspheres and curcumin nanoparticles (CNPs) were prepared to accelerate wound healing. The water-dispersed CNPs promoted both the migration of fibroblasts and angiogenesis and an aqueous solution of Pluronic F127 (a temperature-sensitive phase-change hydrogel material) was shown to be an effective choice for medical dressings. The experimental data suggest that hollow, porous ZnO microspheres can be loaded with additional CNPs to achieve continuous long-term therapeutic effects.

Immunoregulatory effects of nanocurcumin in inflammatory milieu: Focus on COVID-19

The use of natural compounds, such as curcumin, to treat infections caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, inflammatory diseases, and various types of cancer is an active and dynamic area of research. Curcumin has a long history of use in the food industry, and there is currently a growing interest in its therapeutic applications. Numerous clinical trials have consistently shown that curcumin, a polyphenolic compound, is safe and well-tolerated even at high doses. There is no toxicity limit. However, the clinical efficacy of curcumin has been limited by its constraints. However, scientific evidence indicates that the use of adjuvants and carriers, such as nanoparticles, exosomes, micelles, and liposomes, can help overcome this limitation. The properties, functions, and human benefits of using nanocurcumin are well-supported by scientific research. Recent evidence suggests that nanocurcumin may be a beneficial therapeutic modality due to its potential to decrease gene expression and secretion of specific inflammatory biomarkers involved in the cytokinestorm seen in severe COVID-19, as well as increase lymphocyte counts. Nanocurcumin has demonstrated the ability to improve clinical manifestations and modulate immune response and inflammation in various autoinflammatory diseases. Additionally, its efficacy, affordability, and safety make it a promising replacement for residual cancer cells after tumor removal. However, further studies are necessary to evaluate the safety and efficacy of nanocurcumin as a new therapeutic in clinical trials, including appropriate dosage, frequency, and duration.

Nanocarrier-mediated curcumin delivery: An adjuvant strategy for CNS disease treatment

Neurological disorders are a major global challenge, which counts for a substantial slice of disease burden around the globe. In these, the challenging landscape of central nervous system (CNS) diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, and neuro-AIDS, demands innovative and novel therapeutic approaches. Curcumin, a versatile natural compound with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, shows great potential as a CNS adjuvant therapy. However, its limited bioavailability and suboptimal permeability to the blood-brain barrier (BBB) hamper the therapeutic efficacy of curcumin. This review explores how nanocarrier facilitates curcumin delivery, which has shown therapeutic efficacy for various non-CNS diseases, for example, cancers, and can also revolutionize the treatment outcomes in patients with CNS diseases. Toward this, intranasal administration of curcumin as a non-invasive CNS drug delivery route can also aid its therapeutic outcomes as an adjuvant therapy for CNS diseases. Intranasal delivery of nanocarriers with curcumin improves the bioavailability of curcumin and its BBB permeability, which is instrumental in promoting its therapeutic potential. Furthermore, curcumin's inhibitory effect on efflux transporters will help to enhance the BBB and cellular permeability of various CNS drugs. The therapeutic potential of curcumin as an adjuvant has the potential to yield synergistic effects with CNS drugs and will help to reduce CNS drug doses and improve their safety profile. Taken together, this approach holds a promise for reshaping CNS disease management by maximizing curcumin's and other drugs' therapeutic benefits.

Curcumin-based nanoformulations alleviate wounds and related disorders: A comprehensive review

Despite numerous advantages, curcumin's (CUR) low solubility and low bioavailability limit its employment as a free drug. CUR-incorporated nanoformulation enhances the bioavailability and angiogenesis, collagen deposition, fibroblast proliferation, reepithelization, collagen synthesis, neovascularization, and granulation tissue formation in different wounds. Designing nanoformulations with controlled-release properties ensure the presence of CUR in the defective area during treatment. Different nanoformulations encompassing nanofibers, nanoparticles (NPs), nanospray, nanoemulsion, nanosuspension, nanoliposome, nanovesicle, and nanomicelle were described in the present study comprehensively. Moreover, for some other systems which contain nano-CUR or CUR nanoformulations, including some nanofibers, films, composites, scaffolds, gel, and hydrogels seems the CUR-loaded NPs incorporation has better control of the sustained release, and thereby, the presence of CUR until the final stages of wound healing is more possible. Incorporating CUR-loaded chitosan NPs into nanofiber increased the release time, while 80% of CUR was released during 240 h (10 days). Therefore, this system can guarantee the presence of CUR during the entire healing period. Furthermore, porous structures such as sponges, aerogels, some hydrogels, and scaffolds disclosed promising performance. These architectures with interconnected pores can mimic the native extracellular matrix, thereby facilitating attachment and infiltration of cells at the wound site, besides maintaining a free flow of nutrients and oxygen within the three-dimensional structure essential for rapid and proper wound healing, as well as enhancing mechanical strength.

Scientometric Research on Trend Analysis of Nano-Based Sustained Drug Release Systems for Wound Healing

Nanomaterials, such as the nanoparticle (NP), nanomicelle, nanoscaffold, and nano-hydrogel, have been researched as nanocarriers for drug delivery more and more recently. Nano-based drug sustained release systems (NDSRSs) have been used in many medical fields, especially wound healing. However, as we know, no scientometric analysis has been seen on applying NDSRSs in wound healing, which could be of great importance to the relevant researchers. This study collected publications from 1999 to 2022 related to NDSRSs in wound healing from the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) database. We employed scientometric methods to comprehensively analyze the dataset from different perspectives using CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and Bibliometrix. The results indicated that China published the most significant number of documents in the last two decades, Islamic Azad Univ was the most productive institution, and Jayakumar, R was the most influential author. Regarding the analysis of keywords, trend topics indicate that "antibacterial", "chitosan (CS)", "scaffold", "hydrogel", "silver nanoparticle", and "growth factors (GFs)" are the hot topics in recent years. We anticipate that our work will provide a comprehensive overview of research in this field and help scholars better understand the research hotspots and frontiers in this area, thus inspiring further explorations in the future.

Wound-Healing Effects of Curcumin and Its Nanoformulations: A Comprehensive Review

Wound healing is an intricate process of tissue repair or remodeling that occurs in response to injury. Plants and plant-derived bioactive constituents are well explored in the treatment of various types of wounds. Curcumin is a natural polyphenolic substance that has been used since ancient times in Ayurveda for its healing properties, as it reduces inflammation and acts on several healing stages. Several research studies for curcumin delivery at the wound site reported the effectiveness of curcumin in eradicating reactive oxygen species and its ability to enhance the deposition of collagen, granulation tissue formation, and finally, expedite wound contraction. Curcumin has been widely investigated for its wound healing potential but its lower solubility and rapid metabolism, in addition to its shorter plasma half-life, have limited its applications in wound healing. As nanotechnology has proven to be an effective technique to accelerate wound healing by stimulating appropriate mobility through various healing phases, curcumin-loaded nanocarriers are used for targeted delivery at the wound sites. This review highlights the potential of curcumin and its nanoformulations, such as liposomes, nanoparticles, and nano-emulsions, etc. in wound healing. This paper emphasizes the numerous biomedical applications of curcumin which collectively prepare a base for its antibiofilm and wound-healing action.

Emerging Bioactive Agent Delivery-Based Regenerative Therapies for Lower Genitourinary Tissues

Injury to lower genitourinary (GU) tissues, which may result in either infertility and/or organ dysfunctions, threatens the overall health of humans. Bioactive agent-based regenerative therapy is a promising therapeutic method. However, strategies for spatiotemporal delivery of bioactive agents with optimal stability, activity, and tunable delivery for effective sustained disease management are still in need and present challenges. In this review, we present the advancements of the pivotal components in delivery systems, including biomedical innovations, system fabrication methods, and loading strategies, which may improve the performance of delivery systems for better regenerative effects. We also review the most recent developments in the application of these technologies, and the potential for delivery-based regenerative therapies to treat lower GU injuries. Recent progress suggests that the use of advanced strategies have not only made it possible to develop better and more diverse functionalities, but also more precise, and smarter bioactive agent delivery systems for regenerative therapy. Their application in lower GU injury treatment has achieved certain effects in both patients with lower genitourinary injuries and/or in model animals. The continuous evolution of biomaterials and therapeutic agents, advances in three-dimensional printing, as well as emerging techniques all show a promising future for the treatment of lower GU-related disorders and dysfunctions.

Applications of Alginate-Based Nanomaterials in Enhancing the Therapeutic Effects of Bee Products

Since the ancient times, bee products (i.e., honey, propolis, pollen, bee venom, bee bread, and royal jelly) have been considered as natural remedies with therapeutic effects against a number of diseases. The therapeutic pleiotropy of bee products is due to their diverse composition and chemical properties, which is independent on the bee species. This has encouraged researchers to extensively study the therapeutic potentials of these products, especially honey. On the other hand, amid the unprecedented growth in nanotechnology research and applications, nanomaterials with various characteristics have been utilized to improve the therapeutic efficiency of these products. Towards keeping the bee products as natural and non-toxic therapeutics, the green synthesis of nanocarriers loaded with these products or their extracts has received a special attention. Alginate is a naturally produced biopolymer derived from brown algae, the desirable properties of which include biodegradability, biocompatibility, non-toxicity and non-immunogenicity. This review presents an overview of alginates, including their properties, nanoformulations, and pharmaceutical applications, placing a particular emphasis on their applications for the enhancement of the therapeutic effects of bee products. Despite the paucity of studies on fabrication of alginate-based nanomaterials loaded with bee products or their extracts, recent advances in the area of utilizing alginate-based nanomaterials and other types of materials to enhance the therapeutic potentials of bee products are summarized in this work. As the most widespread and well-studied bee products, honey and propolis have garnered a special interest; combining them with alginate-based nanomaterials has led to promising findings, especially for wound healing and skin tissue engineering. Furthermore, future directions are proposed and discussed to encourage researchers to develop alginate-based stingless bee product nanomedicines, and to help in selecting suitable methods for devising nanoformulations based on multi-criteria decision making models. Also, the commercialization prospects of nanocomposites based on alginates and bee products are discussed. In conclusion, preserving original characteristics of the bee products is a critical challenge in developing nano-carrier systems. Alginate-based nanomaterials are well suited for this task because they can be fabricated without the use of harsh conditions, such as shear force and freeze-drying, which are often used for other nano-carriers. Further, conjunction of alginates with natural polymers such as honey does not only combine the medicinal properties of alginates and honey, but it could also enhance the mechanical properties and cell adhesion capacity of alginates.

Nano-Derived Therapeutic Formulations with Curcumin in Inflammation-Related Diseases

Due to its vast therapeutic potential, the plant-derived polyphenol curcumin is utilized in an ever-growing number of health-related applications. Here, we report the extraction methodologies, therapeutic properties, advantages and disadvantages linked to curcumin employment, and the new strategies addressed to improve its effectiveness by employing advanced nanocarriers. The emerging nanotechnology applications used to enhance CUR bioavailability and its targeted delivery in specific pathological conditions are collected and discussed. In particular, new aspects concerning the main strategic nanocarriers employed for treating inflammation and oxidative stress-related diseases are reported and discussed, with specific emphasis on those topically employed in conditions such as wounds, arthritis, or psoriasis and others used in pathologies such as bowel (colitis), neurodegenerative (Alzheimer's or dementia), cardiovascular (atherosclerosis), and lung (asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) diseases. A brief overview of the relevant clinical trials is also included. We believe the review can provide the readers with an overview of the nanostrategies currently employed to improve CUR therapeutic applications in the highlighted pathological conditions.