Smart Bioinks for the Printing of Human Tissue Models

3D bioprinting has tremendous potential to revolutionize the field of regenerative medicine by automating the process of tissue engineering. A significant number of new and advanced bioprinting technologies have been developed in recent years, enabling the generation of increasingly accurate models of human tissues both in the healthy and diseased state. Accordingly, this technology has generated a demand for smart bioinks that can enable the rapid and efficient generation of human bioprinted tissues that accurately recapitulate the properties of the same tissue found in vivo. Here, we define smart bioinks as those that provide controlled release of factors in response to stimuli or combine multiple materials to yield novel properties for the bioprinting of human tissues. This perspective piece reviews the existing literature and examines the potential for the incorporation of micro and nanotechnologies into bioinks to enhance their properties. It also discusses avenues for future work in this cutting-edge field.

Conventional agrochemicals towards nano-biopesticides: an overview on recent advances

Pesticides are classified into several groups based on their structure, including fungicides, insecticides, herbicides, bactericides, and rodenticides. Pesticides are toxic to both humans and pests. For pest control, a very small amount of pesticides reach their target pests. Therefore, nearly all pesticides move through the environment and exert adverse effects on beneficial biota and public health. These chemicals pollute the water, soil, and atmosphere of the ecosystem. Agricultural workers in greenhouses and open fields, exterminators of house pests, and workers in the pesticide industry are occupationally exposed to pesticides. Pesticide exposure in the general population primarily happens through the consumption of food and water contaminated with pesticide residues; however, substantial exposure can also occur outside or inside the house. Currently, intelligent, responsive, biodegradable, and biocompatible materials have attracted considerable interest for the formulation of green, safe, and efficient pesticides. It was indicated that utilizing nanotechnology to design and prepare targeted pesticides with an environmentally responsive controlled release via chemical modifications and compounds offers great potential for creating new formulations. Furthermore, biopesticides include microbial pesticides, which are naturally happening biochemical pesticides. In addition, pesticidal substances generated by plants with added genetic materials, i.e., plant-incorporated protectants (PIPs), have emerged. Based on the foregoing evidence, various types of pesticides are summarized in this review for the first time. Here, new pesticides including nano-pesticides and biopesticides are discussed while focusing on the most recent findings on targeted and safe nano-formulated biopesticides and nano-pesticides. Graphical Abstract

Lignin Nanoparticles Deliver Novel Thymine Biomimetic Photo-Adducts with Antimelanoma Activity

We report here the synthesis of novel thymine biomimetic photo-adducts bearing an alkane spacer between nucleobases and characterized by antimelanoma activity against two mutated cancer cell lines overexpressing human Topoisomerase 1 (TOP1), namely SKMEL28 and RPMI7951. Among them, Dewar Valence photo-adducts showed a selectivity index higher than the corresponding pyrimidine-(6-4)-pyrimidone and cyclobutane counterpart and were characterized by the highest affinity towards TOP1/DNA complex as evaluated by molecular docking analysis. The antimelanoma activity of novel photo-adducts was retained after loading into UV photo-protective lignin nanoparticles as stabilizing agent and efficient drug delivery system. Overall, these results support a combined antimelanoma and UV sunscreen strategy involving the use of photo-protective lignin nanoparticles for the controlled release of thymine dimers on the skin followed by their sacrificial transformation into photo-adducts and successive inhibition of melanoma and alert of cellular UV machinery repair pathways.