In this study, we reviewed state-of-the-art endogenous-based and exogenous-based stimuli-responsive drug delivery systems (DDS) for programmed site-specific release to overcome the drawbacks of conventional therapeutic modalities. This particular work focuses on the smart chemistry and mechanism of action aspects of several types of stimuli-responsive polymeric carriers that play a crucial role in extracellular and intracellular sections of diseased tissues or cells. With ever increasing scientific knowledge and awareness, research is underway around the globe to design new types of stimuli (external/internal) responsive polymeric carriers for biotechnological applications at large and biomedical and/or pharmaceutical applications, in particular. Both external/internal and even dual/multi-responsive behavior of polymeric carriers is considered an essential element of engineering so-called ‘smart’ DDS, which controls the effective and efficient dose loading, sustained release, individual variability, and targeted permeability in a sophisticated manner. So far, an array of DDS has been proposed, developed, and implemented. For instance, redox, pH, temperature, photo/light, magnetic, ultrasound, and electrical responsive DDS and/or all in all dual/dual/multi-responsive DDS (combination or two or more from any of the above). Despite the massive advancement in DDS arena, there are still many challenging concerns that remain to be addressed to cover the research gap. In this context, herein, an effort has been made to highlight those concerning issues to cover up the literature gap. Thus, the emphasis was given to the drug release mechanism and applications of endogenous and exogenous based stimuli-responsive DDS in the clinical settings.
In recent decades, environmental pollution has emerged as a core issue, around the globe, rendering it of fundamental concern to eco-toxicologists, environmental biologists, eco-chemists, pathologists, and researchers from other fields. The dissolution of polluting agents is a leading cause of environmental pollution of all key spheres including the hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere, among others. The widespread occurrence of various pollutants including toxic heavy metals and other emerging hazardous contaminants is a serious concern. With increasing scientific knowledge, socioeconomic awareness, human health problems, and ecological apprehensions, people are more concerned about adverse health outcomes. Against this background, several removal methods have been proposed and implemented with the aim of addressing environmental pollution and sustainable and eco-friendly development. Among them, the biosorption of pollutants using naturally inspired sources, e.g., marine algae, has considerable advantages. In the past few years, marine algae have been extensively studied due to their natural origin, overall cost-effective ratio, and effectiveness against a broader pollutant range; thus, they are considered a potential alternative to the conventional methods used for environmental decontamination. Herein, an effort has been made to highlight the importance of marine algae as naturally inspired biosorbents and their role in biosorption. Biosorption mechanisms and factors affecting biosorption activities are also discussed in this review. The utilization of marine algae as a biosorbent for the removal of numerous potentially toxic elements has also been reviewed.
Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) constitutes 90% of ovarian cancers (OC) and is the eighth most common cause of cancer-related death in women. The cancer histologically and genetically is very complex having a high degree of tumour heterogeneity. The pathogenic variability in OC causes significant impediments in effectively treating patients, resulting in a dismal prognosis. Disease progression is predominantly influenced by the peritoneal tumour microenvironment rather than properties of the tumor and is the major contributor to prognosis. Standard treatment of OC patients consists of debulking surgery, followed by chemotherapy, which in most cases end in recurrent chemoresistant disease. This review discusses the different origins of high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC), the major sub-type of EOC. Tumour heterogeneity, genetic/epigenetic changes, and cancer stem cells (CSC) in facilitating HGSOC progression and their contribution in the circumvention of therapy treatments are included. Several new treatment strategies are discussed including our preliminary proof of concept study describing the role of mitochondria-associated granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor signaling protein (Magmas) in HGSOC and its unique potential role in chemotherapy-resistant disease. of 35have been observed in OC patients but not in patients with benign and borderline tumours, and this hypomethylation correlates with advanced-stage disease and poor prognosis [48,49]. A genome-wide methylation profiling of blood cells from healthy controls and age-matched untreated OC patients identified CpG methylation of 2714 cancer-related genes, of which 56% were hypomethylated [50]. Ovarian Cancer Stem CellsCellular heterogeneity associated with genetic and epigenetic changes in tumours are linked with the initiation and expansion of CSCs, a population of cells within the tumour, which initiate tumour growth through self-renewal and differentiation processes [51,52]. These cells are more adaptive to the changing tumour microenvironment and tend to be more resistant to treatment. CSCs are highly plastic and a few numbers of isolated CSCs have been shown to be responsible for tumorgenesis and are more chemotherapy and radiation resistant due to their dormant state and a high expression of drug efflux pumps [53,54]. As a result, CSCs are able to adapt to different tumour microenvironments and survive due to their efficient DNA repair mechanisms and their capacity to evade host immune surveillance [55][56][57]. These inherent properties of CSCs suggest an active role in tumour relapse and emphasize the need to develop effective targeted therapies to improve clinical outcomes in patients [51][52][53][54][55][56][57].Stem cells have been identified in ovaries and fallopian tubes [58,59]. These cells express proteins including aldehyde dehydrogenase family 1 A2 (ALDH1A2), homeobox protein NANOG, LIM homeobox protein 9 (LHX9) and frizzled-related protein 1 (SRFP1) and have been observed in OSE, CIC and fimbria [2,[58][59][60][61][62]. In a...
The highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) for organic-inorganic perovskite solar cells based on lead is reported as 25.2% in 2019. Lead-based hybrid perovskite materials are used in several photovoltaics applications, but these are not highly favored due to the toxicity of lead and volatility of organic cations. On the other hand, hybrid lead-free double perovskite has no such harm. In this research study, SCAPS numerical simulation is utilized to evaluate and compare the results of perovskite solar cell based on double perovskite FA 2 BiCuI 6 and standard perovskite CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 as an active layer. The results show that the power conversion efficiency obtained in the case of FA 2 BiCuI 6 is 24.98%, while in the case of CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 , it is reported as 26.42%. This indicates that the hybrid organic-inorganic double perovskite FA 2 BiCuI 6 has the ability to replace hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 to expand next-generation lead-free harmless materials for solar cell applications.
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