A fast and effective wound healing process would substantially decrease medical costs, wound care supplies, and hospitalization significantly improving the patients’ quality of life. The search for effective therapeutic approaches seems to be imperative in order to avoid the aggravation of chronic wounds. In spite of all the efforts that have been made during the recent years towards the development of artificial wound dressings, none of the currently available options combine all the requirements necessary for quick and optimal cutaneous regeneration. Therefore, technological advances in the area of temporary and permanent smart dressings for wound care are required. The development of nanoscience and nanotechnology can improve the materials and designs used in topical wound care in order to efficiently release antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and regenerative compounds speeding up the endogenous healing process. Nanostructured dressings can overcome the limitations of the current coverings and, separately, natural origin components can also overcome the drawbacks of current antibiotics and antiseptics (mainly cytotoxicity, antibiotic resistance, and allergies). The combination of natural origin components with demonstrated antibiotic, regenerative, or anti-inflammatory properties together with nanostructured materials is a promising approach to fulfil all the requirements needed for the next generation of bioactive wound dressings. Microbially compromised wounds have been treated with different essential oils, honey, cationic peptides, aloe vera, plant extracts, and other natural origin occurring antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and regenerative components but the available evidence is limited and insufficient to be able to draw reliable conclusions and to extrapolate those findings to the clinical practice. The evidence and some promising preliminary results indicate that future comparative studies are justified but instead of talking about the beneficial or inert effects of those natural origin occurring materials, the scientific community leads towards the identification of the main active components involved and their mechanism of action during the corresponding healing, antimicrobial, or regenerative processes and in carrying out systematic and comparative controlled tests. Once those natural origin components have been identified and their efficacy validated through solid clinical trials, their combination within nanostructured dressings can open up new avenues in the fabrication of bioactive dressings with outstanding characteristics for wound care. The motivation of this work is to analyze the state of the art in the use of different essential oils, honey, cationic peptides, aloe vera, plant extracts, and other natural origin occurring materials as antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and regenerative components with the aim of clarifying their potential clinical use in bioactive dressings. We conclude that, for those natural occurring materials, more clinical trials are needed to reach a sufficient level ...

This study analysed the contribution of each omega-3 desaturase to the cold response in soybean. Exposure to cold temperatures (5 °C) did not result in great modifications of the linolenic acid content in leaf membrane lipids. However, an increase in the GmFAD3A transcripts was observed both in plant leaves and soybean cells whereas no changes in GmFAD3B or GmFAD3C expression levels were detected. This increase was reversible and accompanied by the accumulation of an mRNA encoding a truncated form of GmFAD3A (GmFAD3A-T), which originated from alternative splicing of GmFAD3A in response to cold. When the expression of plastidial omega-3 desaturases was analysed, a transient accumulation of GmFAD7-2 mRNA was detected upon cold exposure in mature soybean trifoliate leaves while GmFAD7-1 transcripts remained unchanged. No modification of the GmFAD8-1 and GmFAD8-2 transcripts was observed. The functionality of GmFAD3A, GmFAD3B, GmFAD3C and GmFAD3A-T was examined by heterologous expression in yeast. No activity was detected with GmFAD3A-T, consistent with the absence of one of the His boxes necessary for desaturase activity. The linolenic acid content of Sacharomyces cerevisiae cells overexpressing GmFAD3A or GmFAD3B was higher when the cultures were incubated at cooler temperatures, suggesting that reticular desaturases of the GmFAD3 family, and more specifically GmFAD3A, may play a role in the cold response, even in leaves. The data point to a regulatory mechanism of omega-3 fatty acid desaturases in soybean affecting specific isoforms in both the plastid and the endoplasmic reticulum to maintain appropriate levels of linolenic acid under low temperature conditions.

The x3 fatty-acid desaturases: FAD7 and FAD8 (plastid) and FAD3 (reticular) are responsible for trienoic fatty-acid (TA) production in plants. The expression of these enzymes seemed to be regulated differently in response to light. Darkness leads to a decrease in total TA level. Under such conditions, FAD3 and FAD8 transcript levels were undetectable but increased after re-illumination concomitant with TA levels, indicating a transcriptional control. On the contrary, FAD7 transcript levels were similar to illuminated control cells, suggesting the presence of a post-transcriptional control mechanism. Furthermore, FAD7 mRNA stability increased dramatically in darkness. Analysis of FAD7 protein accumulation using specific antibodies revealed that FAD7 was very stable whatever the light or darkness conditions. These results indicate that FAD7 enzyme availability is not limiting for 18:3 production in darkness. Our data point to an additional post-translational regulatory mechanism that controls the activity of FAD7 in response to light.

The FAD7 gene encodes a ω3 fatty acid desaturase which catalyses the production of trienoic fatty acids (TAs) in plant chloroplasts. A novel GmFAD7 gene (named GmFAD7-2) has been identified in soybean, with high homology to the previously annotated GmFAD7 gene. Genomic sequencing analysis together with searches at the soybean genome database further confirmed that both GmFAD7 genes were located in two different loci within the soybean genome, suggesting that the soybean ω3 plastidial desaturase FAD7 is encoded by two different paralogous genes. Both GmFAD7-1 and GmFAD7-2 genes were expressed in all soybean tissues examined, displaying their highest mRNA accumulation in leaves. This expression profile contrasted with GmFAD3A and GmFAD3B mRNA accumulation, which was very low in this tissue. These results suggested a concerted control of plastidial and reticular ω3 desaturase gene expression in soybean mature leaves. Analysis of GmFAD7 protein distribution in different soybean tissues showed that, in mature leaves, two bands were detected, coincident with the higher expression level of both GmFAD7 genes and the highest 18:3 fatty acid accumulation. By contrast, in seeds, where FAD7 activity is low, specific GmFAD7 protein conformations were observed. These GmFAD7 protein conformations were affected in vitro by changes in the redox conditions of thiol groups and iron availability. These results suggest the existence of tissue-specific post-translational regulatory mechanisms affecting the distribution and conformation of the FAD7 enzymes related with the control of its activity.

The ability of pathogenic bacteria to develop resistance mechanisms to avoid the antimicrobial potential of antibiotics has become an increasing problem for the healthcare system. The search for more effective and selective antimicrobial materials, though not harmful to mammalian cells, seems imperative. Herein we propose the use of gold-chitosan nanocomposites as effective bactericidal materials avoiding damage to human cells. Nanocomposites were obtained by taking advantage of the reductive and stabilizing action of chitosan solutions on two different gold precursor concentrations. The resulting nanocomposites were added at different final concentrations to a coculture model formed by Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) or Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) bacteria and human macrophages. Gold-chitosan colloids exhibited superior bactericidal ability against both bacterial models without showing cytotoxicity on human cells at the concentrations tested. Morphological and in vitro viability studies supported the feasibility of the infection model here described to test novel bactericidal nanomaterials. Flow cytometry and scanning electron microscopy analyses pointed to the disruption of the bacterial wall as the lethal mechanism. Data obtained in the present study suggest that gold-chitosan nanocomposites are powerful and promising nanomaterials for reducing bacteria-associated infections, respecting the integrity of mammalian cells, and displaying high selectivity against the studied bacteria.

Dual drug encapsulation in biodegradable nanoparticles is always challenging and often requires strenuous optimization of the synthesis–encapsulation processes.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) not only can be differentiated into different cell types but also have tropism towards injured or inflamed tissues serving as repair cells. Here we have demonstrated that MSCs containing gold nanoparticles (GNPs) whose surface has been functionalized with PEG show accelerated cell migration, successful scaffold colonization and regeneration. We report the impact of GNPs on the migration (by the wound healing assay), and proliferation (by flow cytometry analysis and by the detection of metabolic mitochondrial activity) on the behaviour of different cell lines including MSCs, HeLa cells, and human dermal fibroblasts. We conclude that GNPs are easily internalized by MSCs causing an increase in their migration rate, mediated by actin and tubulin with a 4-fold increased expression level of those proteins. We also demonstrate that MSCs containing GNPs are able to successfully colonize fibrin and PCL-based scaffolds and that an enhanced osteoblastic differentiation is reached when using the nanoparticle-laden cells compared to untreated cells used as a control. These results highlight the potential use of MSCs as therapeutic nanoparticle-carriers in regenerative medicine.

Pain is a widespread and growing health problem worldwide that exerts a considerable social and economic impact on both patients and healthcare systems and, therefore, on society in general. Although current treatment modalities include a wide variety of pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches, due to the complexity of pain and individual differences in clinical response these options are not always effective in mitigating and relieving pain. In addition, some pain drugs such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), local anesthetics and opioids show several unfavorable side effects. Therefore, current research advances in this medical field are based on the development of potential treatments to address many of the unmet needs and to overcome the existing limitations in pain management. Nanoparticle drug delivery systems present an exciting opportunity as alternative platforms to improve efficacy and safety of medications currently in use. Herein, we review a broad range of nanoparticle formulations (organic nanostructures and inorganic nanoparticles), which have been developed to encapsulate an array of painkillers, paying special attention to the key advantages that these systems offer, (compared to the use of the free drug), as well as to the more relevant results of preclinical studies in animal models. Additionally, we will briefly discuss the impact of some of these nanoformulations in clinical trials.