Nanomedicine Based on Natural Products: Improving Clinical Application Potential

Natural products have antitumor, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and other pharmacological activities and are an important source of drugs for prevention and treatment of various diseases. However, the inherent defects of natural products in physiological media such as poor solubility and stability and short biological half-life limit their clinical application. In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to the science of drug delivery by nanoscale materials. A large number of in vitro and in vivo studies have further confirmed the efficacy and safety of nanomedicine based on natural products in preclinical models of various diseases. In this review, we summarized the achievements of nanomaterials in improving the efficacy of natural products, introduced the research progress in several key fields of natural product-based nanomedicine in medical application, and discussed the challenges and prospects of clinical transformation of nanomedicine.

Highly Sensitive Flexible Modulus Sensor for Softness Perception and Clinical Application

The wearable sensors for softness measuring are emerging as a solution of softness perception, which is an intrinsic function of human skin, for electronic skin and human-machine interaction. However, these wearable sensors suffer from a key challenge: the modulus of an object can not be characterized directly, which originates from the complicated transduction mechanism. To address this key challenge, we developed a flexible and wearable modulus sensor that can simultaneously measure the pressure and modulus without mutual interference. The modulus sensing was realized by merging the electrostatic capacitance response from the pressure sensor and the ionic capacitance response from the indentation sensor. Via the optimized structure, our sensor exhibits high modulus sensitivity of 1.9 × 102 in 0.06 MPa, a fast dynamic response time of 100 ms, and high mechanical robustness for over 2500 cycles. We also integrated the sensor onto a prosthetic hand and surgical probe to demonstrate its capability for pressure and modulus sensing. This work provides a new strategy for modulus measurement, which has great potential in softness sensing and medical application.

Nanoparticles: tech trends in healthcare

Nanotechnology is the use of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale for various purposes. Nanotechnology field of application is very much diverse which includes surface science, organic chemistry, molecular biology, semiconductor physics, energy storage, engineering, microfabrication, and molecular engineering. Its medical application ranges from biological devices, nano-electronic biosensors, and to future biological machines. The main issue nowadays for nanomedicine involve understanding the issues related to toxicity and environmental impact of nanoscale materials. Lot more functionalities can be added to nanomaterials by interfacing them with biological structures. The size of nanomaterials is similar most biological molecules and so useful for both in vivo and in vitro biomedical research and applications. The integration of nanomaterials with biology had paved path to the development of diagnostic devices, contrast agents, analytical tools, physical therapy applications and drug delivery vehicles.

Co-creation methodology with Smart technologies in Health and well-being to enable communication between isolated and disperse small communities: a literature review

Objective: The objective is to determine reported cases of co-creation methodology about the use of smart technologies in public spaces in order to create new forms of social interactions and practices, which in turn creates new socio-spatial relations and promotes interactions and communication between isolated and disperse communities. Methods: The literature published in the last 5 years (2016-2020) has been reviewed. Searches on Co-creation methodology and ICTs in Health and Biomedicine, on topics such as interaction among users, ICT and social behaviour, spatial analyses, planning methodologies and public involvement, on-line gaming, self‐learning, and the prevention of risky habbits are made manually. Results: Search strategies developed through electronic databases and manual search identified a total of 180 references, included in the supplementary material. They have been divided by the technologies used in the studies, co-creation methodology, and according to the type of socio-medical application. This research highlights the penetration of ICT in social and healthcare environments and clearly demonstrates the high number of publications that have come out over recent years and a lack of publications that evaluate co-creation methodology in this field. Conclusions: Most of the papers included only partially cover the subject matter of ICT in Health and Biomedicine and how to use smart technologies to transform public spaces in small communities into people-friendly human environments. The research carried out for this paper clearly demonstrates the high number of publications concerning technology assessment. However, there is a distinct lack of publications that evaluate co-creation methodology.

Pulsatilla alba: analytical review of spread, chemical composition, biological activity and medical application

The object of analytical study is the medicinal plant Pulsatilla alba. This species is rare, the stocks of herbal raw materials are limited, and there are no Pulsatilla alba-based medicines on the Ukrainian market. The aim of study was to analyze and summarize data on the range, content of biologically active compounds and the spectrum of use in pharmacy and medicine Pulsatilla alba. Materials and methods. Literary and electronic sources of information on the distribution, chemical composition and pharmacological activity of Pulsatilla alba. Results. Pulsatilla alba is a plant of the Ranunculaceae family, characterized by a high content of biologically active organic compounds, namely organic acids, traces of alkaloids, vitamins, resinous and tannins, about 20 different macro-and micronutrients, essential oils, γ-lactones, triterpenoids, sterols, chelidonic acid, coumarins, as well as giving it protection status make it an interesting object for research. Analysis of scientific publications revealed that plants of the family Ranunculaceae, in particular, Pulsatilla alba contain a significant amount of biologically active substances, have numerous pharmacological activities, have long been used in folk medicine, and is a promising raw material for the production of phytopreparations. The volume of processing of medicinal plant raw materials in Ukraine in one year is from 5 to 6 thousand tons, the amount of raw materials for export reaches more than 3 thousand tons per year. About 1,000 tons of raw materials consumed in Ukraine are imported and 1,500 tons are domestically produced. Conclusions. Therefore, as populations of rare low-competitive species of the Ranunculaceae family are particularly endangered, displaced by tree, shrub and highly competitive trivial violent herbaceous species due to the widespread use of Pulsatilla alba in folk medicine as an antitumor, hypnotic, hypnotic, antifungal, antifungal research which should be continued

The impact of COVID-19 threats, and preventive chain of action: molecule to medicine

The emergence of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) had affected us significantly from the individual level, to nationwide and global with a big loss of finances, and the freezing of various factories, schools, and transportation in communities The pandemic started with anxiety and a loss of health guidance and policies due to the unknown causes of viral transmission to human features as well as a high infection rate with low mortality It remains the original source of Covid-19 where it comes from and what is the reality of real viral entities and its origin such as natural born and recombinant viral variants in the case of COVID-19 pandemic. This sentence is unclear. In this short perspective article, we address some issues of risk assessment and management issues using molecular-based decision tools which may benefit or provide future drills to counteract health and clinic safety against a viral pandemic. Every pandemic gives us life threatening lessons on previous and disconnected human networks due to uncertainty of viral infection, which we learned from this COVID-19 pandemic case as well. It gives us some insight on how to rebuild our community regarding the strength of public health and the integration of science tools into the early phase of medical application, such as the role of molecular diagnostics through educational engagement. To promote the value of awareness with solid knowledge-based communication and to develop resilient preventive solutions for supply chains or prevention, the systematic practice of connectivity through visual format using multidimensional data outcomes could help reconsider the leverage of molecules as a bridge for the improvement and application of updated scientific tools of prediction precisely to identify unknown pathogens encompass rigor community-based activity likelihood sensitivity and resistance to pathogen infiltrated society in the future.

Innovative Differential Magnetic Localization Method for Capsule Endoscopy to Prevent Interference Caused by the Geomagnetic Field

Wireless capsule endoscopy is an established medical application for the examination of the gastrointestinal tract. However, the robust and precise localization of these capsules is still in need of further scientific investigation. This paper presents an innovative differential magnetic localization method for capsule endoscopy to prevent interference caused by the geomagnetic field. The effect of changing the orientation of the capsule on the localization process was also examined. Simulations using COMSOL Multiphysics with the superimposed geomagnetic field were performed. The Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm was applied in MATLAB to estimate the position and orientation of the capsule. Comparing the proposed differential method with the absolute magnetic localization method under ideal conditions, the mean position and orientation errors were reduced by three orders in magnitude to less than 0.1 mm and 0.1∘ respectively. Even if sensor non-idealities are considered, the simulation-based results reveal that our proposed method is competitive with state-of-the-art geomagnetic compensation methods for static magnetic localization of capsule endoscopes. The achieved localization accuracy by applying the differential method is not dependent on the rotation of the localization system relative to the geomagnetic flux density under the made assumptions and the impact of the magnet orientation is neglectable. It is concluded that the proposed method is capable of preventing all interference whose components are approximately equal at all sensors with identical orientation.

Hat-Top Beams for Generating Tunable THz Radiations Using a Medium of Conducting Nanocylinders

There are a large number of studies for terahertz (THz) radiation generation, but tunable THz sources are still a challenge since it is difficult to tune frequency, focus and intensity of the radiation simultaneously. The present work proposes the THz generation by the interaction of two hat-top laser beams with a host medium of argon gas containing graphite nanocylinders, as these beams result in highly nonlinear interaction because of a smooth dip in their peak intensity and a fast rise and fall in the overall intensity pattern. Such an interaction produces nonlinear current (6.7 × 108 A/m2) because of the electron cloud of the nanocylinders, which can be modulated by the laser and medium properties for realizing tunable THz radiation. The orientation of basal planes of nanocylinders is shown to be important for this mechanism, though it may be challenging for the experimentalists. The resonant excitation takes place when the plasmon frequency matches the beating frequency of the laser beams, and in the proposed mechanism one can have longitudinal surface plasmon resonance (~12 THz) and transverse surface plasmon resonance (~40 THz), leading to frequency-tunable THz radiation. The role of height and inter particle distance between the adjacent nanocylinders on the THz field amplitude and the efficiency of the mechanism is uncovered by controlling the aspect ratio in the nanocylinders. For example, reducing the inter particle distance from 180 nm to 60 nm leads to the enhancement of THz field from 1´108 V/m to 5.48´108 V/m. The profile of the emitted THz radiation is investigated in detail under the effect of various parameters in order to prove the practicality of the proposal. The proposed design and mechanism would be attractive for electromagnetic and communication societies which are dealing with millimeter-waves and THz components in addition to its medical application.