Nanoscale metal-organic frameworks as an advanced tool for medical applications: Challenges and recent progress

Recently, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have received a lot of interest for application in many fields ranging from catalysis, energy storage, and gas sensing to chemosensory and biomedicine owed to their flexible composition, tunable porosity, and easy functionalization ability. In particular, nanoscale MOFs have been broadly investigated as carriers for the delivery of therapeutics to cancerous organs owed to their high encapsulating capacity and controlled cargo release, versatility, biodegradability, and good biocompatibility. Several methods such as solvothermal, mechanochemical, electrochemical, microwave, and ultrasound have been utilized to fabricate MOFs via custom-made synthesis. Many efforts have been made to functionalize MOFs through "post-synthetic modification," by adjusting the nature, size, and charge of the linkers or tuning its main components. Herein, a comprehensive literature review on recent papers dealing with drug-loaded MOFs for the detection and treatment of cancer as well as bacterial, fungal, and viral infections is presented. Different types of MOFs applied as carriers in drug delivery systems and biosensing platforms are described. Furthermore, perspectives and challenges for future research in the field, particularly for cancer therapy, are discussed. Thus, very limited literature is available on in vitro and in vivo toxicity of nanoscale MOFs. Besides, their biological stability and long-term safety are crucial factors that should be further investigated. Based on the reviewed papers, zeolite imidazolate framework (ZIF) and Materials of Institute Lavoisier (MIL) families have been the main focus for drug delivery and diagnosis applications, respectively, while many types of MOFs have exhibited antibacterial and antifungal properties regardless of their cargo.Comunidad de Madri

Cow Urine Mediated Green Synthesis of Nanomaterial and Their Applications: A State-of-the-art Review

Nowadays, green syntheses have received crucial attention as a reliable, developing and eco-benevolent protocol for synthesizing a broad range of nanomaterials (NMs) including metal/metal oxides NMs, bio-inspired materials and hybrid/composite NMs. As such, biogenic synthesis is regarded as a significant tool to mitigate the destructive impacts associated with the conventional approaches of synthesis for NMs generally utilized in industry and laboratory. In this review, we summed up the general protocols and mechanisms of green synthesis routes, especially for silver (Ag), silver oxide (Ag2O), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), copper ferrite (CuFe2O4), palladium (Pd), aceprophyline, cellulose and graphene nanomaterials/nanoparticles using cow urine. Importantly, we explored the main role of biological constituents which is existed in cow urine. These essential biomolecules act as reducing/stabilizing agents in solvent systems. The stability, phase formation and surface morphology of NMs using characterization techniques are also discussed. Finally, we covered the eclectic applications of such synthesized NMs in terms of anti-asthma, antimicrobial, antituberculosis, antioxidant, anticancer activity, catalytic activity and removal of pollutants dyes

Nanocarriers for methotrexate delivery/codelivery in the frame of cancer diagnostics and treatment: a review

Cancer is one of the most life-threatening family of diseases that cause death worldwide. As a highly researched and successful therapeutic agent, methotrexate (MTX) treats many solid tumours, hematologic malignancies, and autoimmune illnesses. Despite many benefits, methotrexate induces drug resistance and limits plasma half-life due to its poor pharmacokinetics. The variable biological availability have prompted researchers to investigate innovative delivery strategies for enhancing its therapeutic qualities. To develop more suitable methotrexate formulations, nanoparticles (NPs) have recently gained a significant interest. A wide range of nanoparticles, including polymer-based nanoparticles, carbon-based nanoparticles, lipid-based nanoparticles, as well as inorganic nanoparticles, can be deliver cancer chemotherapeutics such as methotrexate. Loading methotrexate into NPs can provide a delivery system that has shown great promise to carcinoma therapy. In this review, we will describe the feasibility of NP-based strategies to deliver methotrexate in cancer therapy, outlining the current state of the art and the challenges/promises for the future

Enhanced multifunctionality of CuO nanoparticles synthesized using aqueous leaf extract of Vernonia amygdalina plant

We report the synthesis of medicinal plant, Vernonia amygdalina Del. mediated green copper oxide nanoparticles (VeA-CuO NPs). The presence of two absorbance maxima, λmax 1 and λmax 2 at 436 nm and 452 nm, respectively confirms a mixture of biomolecules surface amalgamated CuO NPs with different morphological features. The FT-IR spectra of the plant leaf extract and VeA-CuO confirmed the efficient role of biomolecules as capping and stabilising agents. The XRD patterns of NPs approved high crystallinity of CuO. The purity of the NPs was corroborated by SEM-EDAX analysis. The average particle size of the NPs was found to be 19.68 nm. In addition, the combined TEM, HRTEM and SAED analysis substantiated the presence of CuO with a d-spacing value of 0.2854 nm, which conformed to CuO (1 1 1). The antibacterial assay revealed that VeA-CuO NPs were synergistic in their influence versus bacterial strains, S. aureus, E. coli, P. aeruginosa, and E. aerogenes. The uppermost zone of inhibition of 15 mm was observed for E. aerogenes. The bioactive compounds capped around the CuO NPs served the effective role in disrupting the cell wall of bacterial strains. The degradation efficiencies for Indigo carmine (IC) and Malachite green (MG) dyes by NPs were found to be 95% and 91%, respectively. The lowest degradation half-life was recorded to be 16.55 min for MG dye. In addition, the better electrode stability revealed by CV and EIS studies, confirms the multi-functional nature of VeA-CuO NPs, these CuO NPs exhibited multifunctional applications

MgO nanoparticles: Synthesis, characterization, and applications as a catalyst for organic transformations

Currently, the size and shape selective synthesis of nanoparticles (NPs) and their varied catalytic applications are gaining significant enthusiasm in the field of nanochemistry. Homogeneous catalysis is crucial due to its inherent benefits like high selectivity and mild reaction conditions. Nevertheless, it endures with serious disadvantages of catalysts and/or product separation/recycles compared to their heterogeneous counterparts restricting their catalytic applications. The utilization of catalysts in the form of nano-size is an elective methodology for the combination of merits of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. Magnesium oxide (MgO) NPs are important as they find applications for catalysis, organic transformation, and synthesis of fine chemicals and organic intermediates. The applications of MgO NPs in diverse organic transformations including oxidation, reduction, epoxidation, condensation, and C-C, C-N, C-O, C-S bond formation in a variety of notable heterocyclic reactions are also discussed. The use of MgO NPs in organic transformation is advantageous as it mitigates the use of ligands; the procurable separation of catalyst for recyclability makes the protocol heterogeneous and monetary. MgO NPs gave efficacious catalytic performance towards the desired products due to high surface area. By considering these efficient merits, scientists have focused their attentions towards stupendous applications of MgO NPs in selective organic transformation. In the current review article, we summarized the synthesis of MgO NPs and numerous characterization techniques, whereas the application section illustrates their utility as a catalyst in several organic transformations. We believe this decisive appraisal will provide imperative details to further advance the application of MgO NPs in selective catalysis

Spatial variability analysis of soil quality parameters in a watershed of Sub-Himalayan Landscape - A case study

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a key component in maintaining soil quality. Mapping the local scale variations in the distribution and stratification of SOC and other soil quality parameters across different layers has always been a challenging task, in the current global scenario of changing climates. The study was aimed to investigate the spatial distribution of SOC and other soil quality parameters including SOC stratification ratio and CN ratio in a small hilly watershed (̴ 10 km2) located in the mid Himalayan region of Himachal Pradesh, India. Soil samples were collected in November 2015, from 75 points at two depths (0-15 cm and 15-30cm), along with their geographical coordinates using a Global Positioning System (GPS). The results revealed that SOC concentration (g kg-1) decreased with increasing soil depth, throughout the study area and differed significantly (P75. The overall results indicated that a higher degree of soil quality existed at the higher elevation regions of the watershed. Majority of the soils in the watershed accounted for only 60% of the maximum possible value of SQI, which necessitates the adoption of better management practices for improving the soil quality

A review on environmentally benevolent synthesis of CdS nanoparticle and their applications

The word ‘Nano’ received great attention of world, due to their fabulous and novel applications in numerous fields. Cadmium sulphide nanoparticles (CdS NPs) are unique in their properties due the size and shape, and are popular in the area of biosensor, bio-imaging, nano-medicine, molecular pathology, antimicrobial activities, photovoltaic cells, semiconductor, and drug delivery, etc. Due to its fascinating applications, it was synthesized using several methods and explored for its all possible applications. The most affordable, efficient, friendly and biocompatible way of creation of CdS NPs is biogenic synthesis using microorganisms such as bacteria, fungus, algae, enzymes, proteins and parts of plants. In biogenic synthesis of CdS, cadmium undergoes bio-reduction by the variety of natural products present in microorganism as well as in plants. In present review, inclusive study was piloted on the nano-synthesis, characterization and various applications of CdS NPs made using different plant sources and microorganism

An investigation of the antimicrobial and antioxidant efficacy of copper oxide (I) nanoparticles: A green approach from Myrica esculenta fruit extract

The current research emphasized the creation of copper oxide nanoparticles (Cu2O NPs) employing aqueous and methanol fruit extracts of Myrica esculenta, which were applied as a capping and reducing agent. Advanced characterization techniques like XRD, FTIR, FESEM, TEM, Raman, and UV–Vis spectroscopy were applied to ascertain the structure and characteristics of the Cu2O NPs. The results revealed the synthesis of uniformly spherical Cu2O NPs in both aqueous and methanol extracts, with the latter showing particles embedded in a sheet-like structure. The mean crystallite sizes were determined to be 25.45 and 22.04 nm for Cu2O NPs derived from the aqueous and methanol extracts. Furthermore, the antioxidant potential of the extracts and as-prepared Cu2O NPs was assessed using a DPPH assay. At the same time, their antimicrobial activity was accessed through the disc diffusion technique (for bacteria), poisoned food method (for fungi), and minimum inhibitory concentration assay. The results revealed that Cu2O NPs derived from the methanol extract exhibited significant antioxidant potential (IC50 of 57.38 µg/mL) compared to those derived from the aqueous extract (IC50 of 71.60 µg/mL). The methanol extract-based Cu2O NPs displayed higher antimicrobial efficacy against Bacillus subtilis (15.62 µg/mL) and Staphylococcus aureus (31.25 µg/mL). In contrast, aqueous extract-based Cu2O NPs exhibited similar and higher activity against B. subtilis (31.25 µg/mL). Additionally, Cu2O NPs of methanol extract showed higher antifungal potential than aqueous extract-mediated NPs. These findings highlight the immense potential of these bio-inspired NPs for various biomedical applications, owing to their exceptional biological properties