Silver and Hyaluronic Acid-Coated Gold Nanoparticles Modulate the Metabolism of a Model Human Gut Bacterium Lactobacillus casei

An updated landscape on nanotechnology-based drug delivery, immunotherapy, vaccinations, imaging, and biomarker detections for cancers: recent trends and future directions with clinical success

The recent development of nanotechnology-based formulations improved the diagnostics and therapies for various diseases including cancer where lack of specificity, high cytotoxicity with various side effects, poor biocompatibility, and increasing cases of multi-drug resistance are the major limitations of existing chemotherapy. Nanoparticle-based drug delivery enhances the stability and bioavailability of many drugs, thereby increasing tissue penetration and targeted delivery with improved efficacy against the tumour cells. Easy surface functionalization and encapsulation properties allow various antigens and tumour cell lysates to be delivered in the form of nanovaccines with improved immune response. The nanoparticles (NPs) due to their smaller size and associated optical, physical, and mechanical properties have evolved as biosensors with high sensitivity and specificity for the detection of various markers including nucleic acids, protein/antigens, small metabolites, etc. This review gives, initially, a concise update on drug delivery using different nanoscale platforms like liposomes, dendrimers, polymeric & various metallic NPs, hydrogels, microneedles, nanofibres, nanoemulsions, etc. Drug delivery with recent technologies like quantum dots (QDs), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), protein, and upconverting NPs was updated, thereafter. We also summarized the recent progress in vaccination strategy, immunotherapy involving immune checkpoint inhibitors, and biomarker detection for various cancers based on nanoplatforms. At last, we gave a detailed picture of the current nanomedicines in clinical trials and their possible success along with the existing approved ones. In short, this review provides an updated complete landscape of applications of wide NP-based drug delivery, vaccinations, immunotherapy, biomarker detection & imaging for various cancers with a predicted future of nanomedicines that are in clinical trials.

Direct and gut microbiota-mediated toxicities of environmental antibiotics to fish and aquatic invertebrates

The accumulation of antibiotics in the environment has ecological impacts that have received less attention than the human health risks of antibiotics, although the effects could be far-reaching. This review discusses the effects of antibiotics on the health of fish and zooplankton, manifesting in direct or dysbiosis-mediated physiological impairment. Acute effects of antibiotics in these organism groups are usually induced at high concentrations (LC₅₀ at ∼100-1000 mg/L) that are not commonly present in aquatic environments. However, when exposed to sub-lethal, environmentally relevant levels of antibiotics (ng/L-μg/L) disruption of physiological homeostasis, development, and fecundity can occur. Antibiotics at similar or lower concentrations can induce dysbiosis of gut microbiota which can affect the health of fish and invertebrates. We show that the data about molecular-level effects of antibiotics at low exposure concentrations are limited, hindering environmental risk assessment and species sensitivity analysis. Fish and crustaceans (Daphnia sp.) were the two groups of aquatic organisms used most often for antibiotic toxicity testing, including microbiota analysis. While low levels of antibiotics impact the composition and function of gut microbiota in aquatic organisms, the correlation and causality of these changes to host physiology are not straightforward. In some cases, negative or lack of correlation have occurred, and, unexpectedly, gut microbial diversity has been unaffected or increased upon exposure to environmental levels of antibiotics. Efforts to incorporate functional analyses of gut microbiota are beginning to provide valuable mechanistic information, but more data is needed for ecological risk assessment of antibiotics.

Nanomaterials and Microorganisms: From Green Synthesis to Antibacterial Applications in Medicine and Agriculture

Nanomaterial-based solutions for microorganism-related issues are gaining interest in medical fields, consumer applications, and agriculture [...].