Applications of Green Nanomaterials in Biomedical Treatment

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Nanotechnology and Applied Nanosciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 January 2022) | Viewed by 21568

Special Issue Editors

Institute for the Organic Synthesis and Photoreactivity, Italian National Research Council, 40129 Bologna, Italy
Interests: cancer treatment; nanomedicine; drug discovery; drug delivery; organic chemistry; targeted therapy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Institute for the Organic Synthesis and Photoreactivity (ISOF), National Research Council (CNR), 40129 Bologna, Italy
Interests: cancer treatment; nanomedicine; drug discovery; drug delivery; organic chemistry; targeted therapy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the field of nanotechnology, the development of safe, ecofriendly nanomaterials is currently encountering growing interest due to the promising properties of these compounds, such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, and non-toxicity, as well as non-immunogenic behavior. During recent years, different “green” materials, such as fibroin, keratin, gelatin, chitosan, zein, and soy proteins, have been extensively investigated in order to develop ideal candidates for various biomedical applications. Indeed, current research for novel nanomaterials has had increasing focus on renewable and biodegradable proteins, polysaccharides, and lipids or their combinations for the production of effective and versatile nano-biomedical systems for the treatment of different pathologies.

The aim of this Special Issue of Applied Sciences is to collect full-length articles, reviews and communications on the development, characterization (including biological), and potential wide range of applications of green nanomaterials, including imaging, drug delivery, antimicrobial treatment, and tissue engineering. Particular attention will be given to the use of low-cost and environmentally friendly procedures for nanoparticle preparation.

Dr. Greta Varchi
Dr. Claudia Ferroni
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • nanomaterials
  • eco-friendly procedures
  • biomedical applications
  • targeted therapy
  • chemotherapy
  • multimodal strategies
  • imaging
  • theranostic systems

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 3652 KiB  
Article
Biomimetic Amorphous Titania Nanoparticles as Ultrasound Responding Agents to Improve Cavitation and ROS Production for Sonodynamic Therapy
by Joana C. Matos, Marco Laurenti, Veronica Vighetto, Laura C. J. Pereira, João Carlos Waerenborgh, M. Clara Gonçalves and Valentina Cauda
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(23), 8479; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10238479 - 27 Nov 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2565
Abstract
Conventional therapies to treat cancer often exhibit low specificity, reducing the efficiency of the treatment and promoting strong side effects. To overcome these drawbacks, new ways to fight cancer cells have been developed so far focusing on nanosystems. Different action mechanisms to fight [...] Read more.
Conventional therapies to treat cancer often exhibit low specificity, reducing the efficiency of the treatment and promoting strong side effects. To overcome these drawbacks, new ways to fight cancer cells have been developed so far focusing on nanosystems. Different action mechanisms to fight cancer cells have been explored using nanomaterials, being their remote activation one of the most promising. Photo- and sonodynamic therapies are relatively new approaches that emerged following this idea. These therapies are based on the ability of specific agents to generate highly cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) by external stimulation with light or ultrasounds (US), respectively. Crystalline (TiO2) and amorphous titania (a-TiO2) nanoparticles (NPs) present a set of very interesting characteristics, such as their photo-reactivity, photo stability, and effective bactericidal properties. Their production is inexpensive and easily scalable; they are reusable and demonstrated already to be nontoxic. Therefore, these NPs have been increasingly studied as promising photo- or sonosensitizers to be applied in photodynamic/sonodynamic therapies in the future. However, they suffer from poor colloidal stability in aqueous and biological relevant media. Therefore, various organic and polymer-based coatings have been proposed. In this work, the role of a-TiO2 based NPs synthesized through a novel, room-temperature, base-catalyzed, sol-gel protocol in the generation of ROS and as an enhancer of acoustic inertial cavitation was evaluated under ultrasound irradiation. A novel biomimetic coating based on double lipidic bilayer, self-assembled on the a-TiO2-propylamine NPs, is proposed to better stabilize them in water media. The obtained results show that the biomimetic a-TiO2-propylamine NPs are promising candidates to be US responding agents, since an improvement of the cavitation effect occurs in presence of the developed NPs. Further studies will show their efficacy against cancer cells. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Green Nanomaterials in Biomedical Treatment)
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18 pages, 3280 KiB  
Article
Microbial Mediated Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles by Lactobacillus Plantarum TA4 and its Antibacterial and Antioxidant Activity
by Hidayat Mohd Yusof, Nor’Aini Abdul Rahman, Rosfarizan Mohamad and Uswatun Hasanah Zaidan
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(19), 6973; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10196973 - 05 Oct 2020
Cited by 36 | Viewed by 6645
Abstract
The present study aimed to investigate the ability of Lactobacillus plantarum TA4 in tolerating Ag+ and its ability to produce silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). The biosynthesized AgNPs were characterized using UV–Visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis), dynamic light scattering (DLS), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), and high-resolution transmission [...] Read more.
The present study aimed to investigate the ability of Lactobacillus plantarum TA4 in tolerating Ag+ and its ability to produce silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). The biosynthesized AgNPs were characterized using UV–Visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis), dynamic light scattering (DLS), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), and high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM). The cell biomass of L. plantarum TA4 demonstrated the ability to tolerate Ag+ at a concentration of 2 mM, followed by the formation of AgNPs. This was confirmed by the visual observation of color changes and a presence of maximum UV–Vis absorption centered at 429 nm. HR-TEM analysis revealed that the AgNPs were spherical with an average size of 14.0 ± 4.7 nm, while the SEM-EDX analysis detected that the particles were primarily located on the cell membrane of L. plantarum TA4. Further, DLS analysis revealed that the polydispersity index (PDI) value of biosynthesized AgNPs was 0.193, implying the monodispersed characteristic of NPs. Meanwhile, the FTIR study confirmed the involvement of functional groups from the cell biomass that involved in the reduction process. Moreover, biosynthesized AgNPs exhibited antibacterial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens in a concentration-dependent manner. Furthermore, the antioxidant property of biosynthesized AgNPs that was evaluated using the DPPH assay showed considerable antioxidant potential. Results from this study provide a sustainable and inexpensive method for the production of AgNPs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Green Nanomaterials in Biomedical Treatment)
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Review

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23 pages, 4525 KiB  
Review
Keratin-Based Nanoparticles as Drug Delivery Carriers
by Claudia Ferroni and Greta Varchi
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(20), 9417; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11209417 - 11 Oct 2021
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 4887
Abstract
Keratin is a structural protein of mammalian tissues and birds, representing the principal constituent of hair, nails, skin, wool, hooves, horns, beaks, and feathers, and playing an essential role in protecting the body from external harassment. Due to its intrinsic features such as [...] Read more.
Keratin is a structural protein of mammalian tissues and birds, representing the principal constituent of hair, nails, skin, wool, hooves, horns, beaks, and feathers, and playing an essential role in protecting the body from external harassment. Due to its intrinsic features such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, responsiveness to specific biological environment, and physical–chemical properties, keratin has been extensively explored in the production of nanocarriers of active principles for different biomedical applications. In the present review paper, we aimed to give a literature overview of keratin-based nanoparticles produced starting from human hair, wool, and chicken feathers. Along with the chemical and structural description of keratin nanoparticles, selected in vitro and in vivo biological data are also discussed to provide a more comprehensive framework of possible fields of application of this protein. Despite the considerable number of papers describing the production and use of keratin nanoparticles as carries of anticancer and antimicrobial drugs or as hemostatic and wound healing materials, still, efforts are needed to implement keratin nanoparticles towards their clinical application. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Green Nanomaterials in Biomedical Treatment)
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20 pages, 3030 KiB  
Review
Green Approaches to Carbon Nanostructure-Based Biomaterials
by Simone Adorinni, Maria C. Cringoli, Siglinda Perathoner, Paolo Fornasiero and Silvia Marchesan
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(6), 2490; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11062490 - 11 Mar 2021
Cited by 25 | Viewed by 6389
Abstract
The family of carbon nanostructures comprises several members, such as fullerenes, nano-onions, nanodots, nanodiamonds, nanohorns, nanotubes, and graphene-based materials. Their unique electronic properties have attracted great interest for their highly innovative potential in nanomedicine. However, their hydrophobic nature often requires organic solvents for [...] Read more.
The family of carbon nanostructures comprises several members, such as fullerenes, nano-onions, nanodots, nanodiamonds, nanohorns, nanotubes, and graphene-based materials. Their unique electronic properties have attracted great interest for their highly innovative potential in nanomedicine. However, their hydrophobic nature often requires organic solvents for their dispersibility and processing. In this review, we describe the green approaches that have been developed to produce and functionalize carbon nanomaterials for biomedical applications, with a special focus on the very latest reports. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Green Nanomaterials in Biomedical Treatment)
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