Iodocyclization of propargyl alcohols is an active area for the construction of hetero/carbocyclic iodides. Ambiphilic reactivity of propargyl alcohols made it more attractive to tune their ...reactivity towards the development of regioselective synthetic strategies. In general, iodocyclization reactions are atom and step economic, promoted by simple and readily available inexpensive electrophilic iodine reagents at ambient temperature. These compounds find potential applications in pharmaceutical and material sciences, because of the presence of a preinstalled reactive iodide functionality. Therefore, many researchers are actively involved in developing synthetic strategies towards iodocyclizations from propargyl alcohols for various applications. In this mini‐review, we emphasize the full list of synthetic endeavors made towards the “iodocyclization of propargyl alcohols, propargyl ethers and homopropargyl alcohols”.
Iodocyclization of propargyl alcohols is an active area for the construction of hetero/carbocyclic iodides. In general, iodocyclization reactions are atom and step economic, promoted by simple and readily available inexpensive electrophilic iodine reagents at ambient temperature. These compounds find potential applications in pharmaceutical and material sciences, because of the presence of a preinstalled reactive iodide functionality. Therefore, many researchers are actively involved in developing synthetic strategies towards iodocyclizations from propargyl alcohols for various applications. This mini‐review emphasizes the full list of synthetic endeavors made towards the odocyclization of propargyl alcohols, propargyl ethers, and homopropargyl alcohols.
Nanotechnology-based development of drug delivery systems is an attractive area of research in formulation driven R&D laboratories that makes administration of new and complex drugs feasible. It ...plays a significant role in the design of novel dosage forms by attributing target specific drug delivery, controlled drug release, improved, patient friendly drug regimen and lower side effects. Polysaccharides, especially chitosan, occupy an important place and are widely used in nano drug delivery systems owing to their biocompatibility and biodegradability. This review focuses on chitosan nanoparticles and envisages to provide an insight into the chemistry, properties, drug release mechanisms, preparation techniques and the vast evolving landscape of diverse applications across disease categories leading to development of better therapeutics and superior clinical outcomes. It summarizes recent advancement in the development and utility of functionalized chitosan in anticancer therapeutics, cancer immunotherapy, theranostics and multistage delivery systems.
Natural resources continue to be an invaluable source of new, novel chemical entities of therapeutic utility due to the vast structural diversity observed in them. The quest for new and better drugs ...has witnessed an upsurge in exploring and harnessing nature especially for discovery of antimicrobial, antidiabetic, and anticancer agents. Nature has historically provide us with potent anticancer agents which include vinca alkaloids vincristine (VCR), vinblastine, vindesine, vinorelbine, taxanes paclitaxel (PTX), docetaxel, podophyllotoxin and its derivatives etoposide (ETP), teniposide, camptothecin (CPT) and its derivatives (topotecan, irinotecan), anthracyclines (doxorubicin, daunorubicin, epirubicin, idarubicin), and others. In fact, half of all the anti-cancer drugs approved internationally are either natural products or their derivatives and were developed on the basis of knowledge gained from small molecules or macromolecules that exist in nature. Three new anti-cancer drugs introduced in 2007, viz. trabectedin, epothilone derivative ixabepilone, and temsirolimus were obtained from microbial sources. Selective drug targeting is the need of the current therapeutic regimens for increased activity on cancer cells and reduced toxicity to normal cells. Nanotechnology driven modified drugs and drug delivery systems are being developed and introduced in the market for better cancer treatment and management with good results. The use of nanoparticulate drug carriers can resolve many challenges in drug delivery to the cancer cells that includes: improving drug solubility and stability, extending drug half-lives in the blood, reducing adverse effects in non-target organs, and concentrating drugs at the disease site. This review discusses the scientific ventures and explorations involving application of nanotechnology to some selected plant derived molecules. It presents a comprehensive review of formulation strategies of phytoconstituents in development of novel delivery systems like liposomes, functionalized nanoparticles (NPs), application of polymer conjugates, as illustrated in the graphical abstract along with their advantages over conventional drug delivery systems supported by enhanced biological activity in
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Candidiasis is a fungal infection caused by yeasts that belong to the genus Candida. There are over twenty species of Candida yeasts that can cause infection in humans, the most ...common of which is Candida albicans. Candida yeasts normally reside in the intestinal tract and can be found on mucous membranes and skin without causing infection; however, overgrowth of these organisms can cause symptoms to develop. Presence of other diseases that compromises the patient’s immunity makes it more difficult to treat. Candidiasis is majorly divided into superficial infections (oral or vaginal) and systemic infections, also known as invasive candidiasis. The conventional therapeutic modalities used to treat candidiasis are associated with several side effects that limits the dose and dosing frequency. Development of novel drug delivery systems for reduction in dose and alleviation of side effects is an important strategy to improve the clinical efficacy and patient acceptability. This review gives a bird’s eye view of the classification and current therapeutic regime of candidiasis. It presents the varied types of drug delivery systems that have been exploited for delivery of antifungal agents with measurable benefits. It also touches upon echinocandins a relatively new class of drugs that are amenable for translation into novel dosage forms with application against biofilm producing and fluconazole resistant strains contributing to a better therapeutic management of candidiasis.
Oscillatory phenomena and linear/nonlinear interactions across different oscillatory frequencies are commonly seen between the elements of complex systems. One particular form of interaction that is ...widely encountered is the modulation of the amplitude of broadband high-frequency oscillations by the phase of low-frequency oscillations, defined as phase-amplitude coupling (PAC). Conventional methods for assessing PAC mostly rely on the Hilbert transform. Previous studies have shown that this method produces biased or spurious PAC estimates as it is highly dependent on the parameters of the bandpass filter used to extract narrowband signals from broadband signals. Recently, wavelet-based methods have been proposed to address some of these limitations. In this letter, we provide a thorough comparison between wavelet-based PAC measures and our recently introduced Reduced Interference Rihaczek (RID-Rihaczek) distribution based PAC both analytically and through simulations. The proposed method is shown to yield higher frequency resolution PAC estimates compared to wavelet-based methods.
The aim of cancer immunotherapy is to reactivate autoimmune responses to combat cancer cells. To stimulate the immune system, immunomodulators, such as adjuvants, cytokines, vaccines, and checkpoint ...inhibitors, are extensively designed and studied. Immunomodulators have several drawbacks, such as drug instability, limited half-life, rapid drug clearance, and uncontrolled immune responses when used directly in cancer immunotherapy. Several strategies have been used to overcome these limitations. A simple and effective approach is the loading of immunomodulators onto gold-based nanoparticles (GNPs). As gold is highly biocompatible, GNPs can be administered intravenously, which aids in increasing cancer cell permeability and retention time. Various gold nanoplatforms, including nanospheres, nanoshells, nanorods, nanocages, and nanostars have been effectively used in cancer immunotherapy. Gold nanostars (GNS) are one of the most promising GNP platforms because of their unusual star-shaped geometry, which significantly increases light absorption and provides high photon-to-heat conversion efficiency due to the plasmonic effect. As a result, GNPs are a useful vehicle for delivering antigens and adjuvants that support the immune system in killing tumor cells by facilitating or activating cytotoxic T lymphocytes. This review represents recent progress in encapsulating immunomodulators into GNPs for utility in a cancer immunotherapeutic regimen.
Upconverting luminescent nanoparticles (UCNPs) are "new generation fluorophores" with an evolving landscape of applications in diverse industries, especially life sciences and healthcare. The ...anti-Stokes emission accompanied by long luminescence lifetimes, multiple absorptions, emission bands, and good photostability, enables background-free and multiplexed detection in deep tissues for enhanced imaging contrast. Their properties such as high color purity, high resistance to photobleaching, less photodamage to biological samples, attractive physical and chemical stability, and low toxicity are affected by the chemical composition; nanoparticle crystal structure, size, shape and the route; reagents; and procedure used in their synthesis. A wide range of hosts and lanthanide ion (Ln
) types have been used to control the luminescent properties of nanosystems. By modification of these properties, the performance of UCNPs can be designed for anticipated end-use applications such as photodynamic therapy (PDT), high-resolution displays, bioimaging, biosensors, and drug delivery. The application landscape of inorganic nanomaterials in biological environments can be expanded by bridging the gap between nanoparticles and biomolecules via surface modifications and appropriate functionalization. This review highlights the synthesis, surface modification, and biomedical applications of UCNPs, such as bioimaging and drug delivery, and presents the scope and future perspective on Ln-doped UCNPs in biomedical applications.
Parkinson's disease (PD) patients regularly exhibit abnormal gait patterns. Automated differentiation of abnormal gait from normal gait can serve as a potential tool for early diagnosis as well as ...monitoring the effect of PD treatment. The aim of current study is to differentiate PD patients from healthy controls, on the basis of features derived from plantar vertical ground reaction force (VGRF) data during walking at normal pace. The current work presents a comprehensive study highlighting the efficacy of different machine learning classifiers towards devising an accurate prediction system. Selection of meaningful feature based on sequential forward feature selection, the swing time, stride time variability, and center of pressure features facilitated successful classification of control and PD gaits. Support Vector Machine (SVM), K-nearest neighbor (KNN), random forest, and decision trees classifiers were used to build the prediction model. We found that SVM with cubic kernel outperformed other classifiers with an accuracy of 93.6%, the sensitivity of 93.1%, and specificity of 94.1%. In comparison to other studies, utilizing same dataset, our designed prediction system improved the classification performance by approximately 10%. The results of the current study underscore the ability of the VGRF data obtained non-invasively from wearable devices, in combination with a SVM classifier trained on meticulously selected features, as a tool for diagnosis of PD and monitoring effectiveness of therapy post pathology.
The rapidly evolving landscape of Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis (ABSA) in the realm of natural language processing necessitates innovative approaches to comprehend and interpret the intricate ...nature of sentiments expressed in textual data. Traditional ABSA methods have often struggled with the nuanced sentiments inherent in various textual sources, limited in their ability to adapt to domainspecific vernacular and context. This study introduces a novel approach that synergizes rule mining with advanced deep learning techniques, aiming to address these limitations and enhance the precision and contextual understanding in sentiment analysis. Our proposed model integrates rule-based systems with deep learning Transformers, a method recognized for its effectiveness in extracting structured, domainspecific insights. This integration results in a significant enhancement in the model's ability to capture nuanced sentiments, as demonstrated by an 8.5% increase in aspect-based sentiment analysis precision and an 8.3% improvement in accuracy over existing methods. The model employs a combination of techniques including Bi-LSTM, BiGRU-CRF with RNNs, and ontology mapping operations, forming a Hybrid Multi-Level Architecture that effectively captures both sequential data relationships and semantic context. Additionally, the model incorporates Cross-Domain Transfer Learning, utilizing BERT-based pre-trained models with added layers for contextual semantics, which has shown notable generalization capabilities across various domains. Furthermore, this study refines evaluation parameters, tailoring metrics such as domain-specific accuracy, recall, and precision to more accurately assess model performance in particular domains. This is especially pertinent in our analysis of Twitter datasets specific to industries like finance and healthcare. The inclusion of Temporal Dynamics and Aspect Summarization, using techniques like the VARMAx process, provides insights into the evolution of sentiments and aspects over time, an aspect crucial for longitudinal sentiment analysis. The comprehensive testing of our model on diverse spatial and temporal datasets reveals not only improved precision and accuracy in sentiment analysis but also a reduction in delay, demonstrating its efficiency and responsiveness. The study's findings indicate that our approach could significantly impact fields reliant on sentiment analysis, such as market analysis, public opinion research, and social media monitoring, providing a more nuanced and accurate understanding of consumer sentiments and trends. This paper's contribution lies in its innovative amalgamation of rule-based and deep learning techniques, tailored evaluation metrics, and its emphasis on temporal dynamics, setting a new precedent in the field of ABSA and opening avenues for further research and application in real-world scenarios.
Food packaging plays a key role in offering safe and quality food products to consumers by providing protection and extending shelf life. Food packaging is a multifaceted field based on food science ...and engineering, microbiology, and chemistry, all of which have contributed significantly to maintaining physicochemical attributes such as color, flavor, moisture content, and texture of foods and their raw materials, in addition to ensuring freedom from oxidation and microbial deterioration. Antimicrobial food packaging systems, in addition to their function as conventional food packaging, are designed to arrest microbial growth on food surfaces, thereby enhancing food stability and quality. Nanomaterials with unique physiochemical and antibacterial properties are widely explored in food packaging as preservatives and antimicrobials, to extend the shelf life of packed food products. Various nanomaterials that are used in food packaging include nanocomposites composing nanoparticles such as silver, copper, gold, titanium dioxide, magnesium oxide, zinc oxide, mesoporous silica and graphene-based inorganic nanoparticles; gelatin; alginate; cellulose; chitosan-based polymeric nanoparticles; lipid nanoparticles; nanoemulsion; nanoliposomes; nanosponges; and nanofibers. Antimicrobial nanomaterial-based packaging systems are fabricated to exhibit greater efficiency against microbial contaminants. Recently, smart food packaging systems indicating the presence of spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms have been investigated by various research groups. The present review summarizes recent updates on various nanomaterials used in the field of food packaging technology, with potential applications as antimicrobial, antioxidant equipped with technology conferring smart functions and mechanisms in food packaging.
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