Curcumin has various beneficial effects on human health, but its efficacy is yet to be proven in clinical trials. Curcumin has poor bioavailability, low solubility, and rapid metabolism which become the principal reasons behind the lack of curcumin efficiency in clinical trials. This review aimed to focus on nanotechnologies to improve the bioavailability of curcumin inhalation formulations. Many studies were done to improve curcumin's bioavailability by administering through nanoparticle drug carriers. Pulmonary drug delivery has some advantages such as giving a rapid onset of action and bypassing the first hepatic metabolism. Lungs also have a large area for absorption. So far, there are various methods to produce curcumin nanoformulations that are proper, stable, and effective, and are suitable to enhance curcumin pulmonary delivery in the form of liposomes, polymeric and solid lipid nanoparticles, nano suspensions, and cyclodextrin formulations. Therefore, analysis of the various methods, to conclude the best method for curcumin pulmonary delivery is needed. In conclusion, the best method to make nanocurcumin formulation is the one that gives the most advantage and lowest toxicity. Therefore the best choices for curcumin nanoformulations are curcumin nanosuspension and cyclodextrin formulated nanocurcumin/proliposomes.

In integrated pest management systems, the usage of repellents has a lot of unrealized potential. Modern insect repellent technologies have greatly benefited from the development of plant essential oils, in particular. As a result, it appears that plant chemicals may one day be used in place of or in addition to chemical insecticides to protect agricultural products. These compounds do not harm the environment and are safer than chemical insecticides. One of the most important plant compounds that is currently getting a lot of attention is plant essential oils. In order to decrease reapplications, toxicity, and cost, research efforts have concentrated on formulations with lower concentrations of active substances and sustained release technologies. Currently, there is a remarkable interest in the development of eco-friendly, secure, and effective pesticides using intelligent, responsive, biodegradable, and biocompatible materials. It was stated that when using nanotechnology to develop and create targeted pesticides with an environmentally sensitive controlled release through chemical modifications and compounds, there is a great potential for developing new formulations.

Nanotechnology has enabled the preparation of various materials for overcoming the rapid clearance of drugs, nonspecific uptake or actions, and poor tumor penetration. Based on the significance of using biomimetic substances, silk fibroin nanoparticles (SF-NPs) have been increasingly prepared for the delivery of therapeutics. Meanwhile, aggregation and low stability in the biological medium may negatively affect their efficiency. This prompted us to coat SF-NPs with polydopamine (PDA), and for efficient accumulation and increasing therapeutic efficiency against breast cancer, paclitaxel (PTX)-loaded PDA-coated SF-NPs were conjugated with targeting peptide, iRGD (iRGD-PDA-PTX-SF-NPs). The peptide impacts on the cellular uptake, cytotoxicity, tumor penetrability of NPs, and their antitumor effects were evaluated. iRGD-PDA-PTX-SF-NPs with suitable physicochemical characteristics and drug loading released PTX in a controlled manner, and efficient cellular uptake was observed. Improved pharmacological profile of PTX was revealed by increased anticancer effects in vitro and in tumor-bearing Balb/c mice, including the delayed growth of the tumor and enhanced rate of survival. The prepared NPs showed no toxic effects against the healthy tissues indicating the histocompatibility and safety of these biomimetic and long-circulating nanoplatforms. The peptide-based SF-NPs could be considered as promising biomimetic nanoformulation against breast cancer.

Introduction: Tumor endothelial marker 1 (TEM1) is expressed by tumor vascular endothelial cells in various cancers. Methods: Here, we developed poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles (NPs) PEGylated with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and functionalized with anti-TEM1 antibody fragment (78Fc) and loaded them with necroptosis-inducing agent shikonin (SHK) (78Fc-PLGA-SHK NPs). Results: The nanoformulation showed a smooth spherical shape (~120 nm; the ζ potential of-30 mV) with high drug entrapment and bioconjugation efficiencies (~92% and ~90%, respectively) and a sustained-release profile in serum. Having significant toxicity in vitro (e. g., MS1 and TC1 cells), the nanoformulation dramatically increased the cytotoxicity in the TC1 murine lung carcinoma subcutaneous and intravenous/metastatic models as aggressive tumor models. The injection of the 78Fc-PLGA-SHK NPs to the MS1-xenograft mice resulted in significantly higher accumulation and effects in the TEM1-positive tumor targets, while they were excreted via urine track without retaining in the liver/spleen. In the TC1 subcutaneous model, C57/BL6 mice treated with the 78Fc-PLGA-SHK NPs revealed a significant therapeutic effect. The mice, which were tumor-free after receiving the nanoformulation, were re-challenged with the TC1 cells to investigate the immune response. These animals became tumor-free a week after the injection of TC1 cells. Conclusion: Based on these findings, we propose the 78Fc-PLGA-SHK NPs as a highly effective immunostimulating nanomedicine against the TEM1-expressing cells for targeted therapy of solid tumors including ovarian cancer.

In December 2019, a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was detected in Wuhan, China, which was accompanied by symptoms of fever, dry cough, weak-ness of immune system with reduction of the white blood cells. Afterwards, coronavirus has speared and affected many countries in worldwide. Coronaviruses are subgroup of enveloped, single-stranded, positive-sense RNA genome, phylogenetical-ly associated with acute respiratory syndrome corona-virus (SARS-CoV-2) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) which are close-ly related to lung disease leading to Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS)...

Ginger is one of the commonly used spices that has been exhibited to have pharmaceutical activities. These therapeutic properties are mainly attribute to gingerols and shogaols. In this study, the bioactive compounds of ginger rhizome were extracted. Silica gel column chromatography was employed to isolate gingerol. Gingerol obtained with acceptable purity. In order to enhance gingerol bioavailability, chitosan nanoparticles containing gingerol were prepared. Encapsulation efficiency was 80%. AFM and DLS analysis were performed to evaluate size and size distribution of nanoparticles. Results show that the nanoparticles have spherical morphology, narrow size distribution with average particle size of 21.11 nm. Cellular toxicity of nanoparticles in MCF-7 cell line was calculated using MTT method. The results indicate that chitosan nanoparticles containing gingerol, have good inhibitory effect on the growth of cancer cells. The nanoparticles eliminated 90% of cancer cells in 48 hours.