Emerging advances of nanotechnology in drug and vaccine delivery against viral associated respiratory infectious diseases (VARID)

Viral-associated respiratory infectious diseases are one of the most prominent subsets of respiratory failures, known as viral respiratory infections (VRI). VRIs are proceeded by an infection caused by viruses infecting the respiratory system. For the past 100 years, viral associated respiratory epidemics have been the most common cause of infectious disease worldwide. Due to several drawbacks of the current anti-viral treatments, such as drug resistance generation and non-targeting of viral proteins, the development of novel nanotherapeutic or nano-vaccine strategies can be considered essential. Due to their specific physical and biological properties, nanoparticles hold promising opportunities for both anti-viral treatments and vaccines against viral infections. Besides the specific physiological properties of the respiratory system, there is a significant demand for utilizing nano-designs in the production of vaccines or antiviral agents for airway-localized administration. SARS-CoV-2, as an immediate example of respiratory viruses, is an enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus belonging to the coronaviridae family. COVID-19 can lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome, similarly to other members of the coronaviridae. Hence, reviewing the current and past emerging nanotechnology-based medications on similar respiratory viral diseases can identify pathways towards generating novel SARS-CoV-2 nanotherapeutics and/or nano-vaccines. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Polyurethane composite adsorbent using solid phase extraction method for preconcentration of metal ion from aqueous solution

Polyurethane composite adsorbent polymeric material was prepared and investigated for selected solid-phase extraction for metal ions, prior to its determination by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. The surface characterisation was done using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The separation and preconcentration conditions of the analytes investigated includes influence of pH, sample loading flow rate, elution flow rate, type and concentration of eluents. The optimum pH for the highest efficient recoveries for all metal ions, which ranged from 70 to 85 %, is pH 7. The metal ions were quantitatively eluted with 5 mL of 2 mol/L HNO3. Common coexisting ions did not interfere with the separation. The percentage recovery of the metal ions ranged between 70 and 89 %, while the results for the limit of detection and limit of quantification ranged from 0.249 to 0.256 and 0.831 to 0.855, respectively. The experimental tests showed good preconcentration results of trace levels of metal ions using synthesised polyurethane polymer adsorbent composite

Electrochemical fabrication of Cu/Pd multilayer nanowires in polycarbonate template

In this work,copper/palladium (Cu/Pd) multilayer nanowires were successfully prepared by electrodeposition method using polycarbonate template. The fabrication of Pd/Cu multilayer nanowires was controlled by analyzing the current–time transient during electrodeposition using potentiostat. The morphological properties of the nanowires were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and result showed that almost each nanowire had the same length of ≈ 4 μm and the diameter of 90 nm .X-ray diffraction pattern showed that Pd and Cu grow in their face-centered-cubic (fcc) lattice structures.The chemical composition was determined by examination of the energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectra