Traditional methods of drug delivery present several drawbacks, mainly due to off-target effects that may originate severe side and toxic effect to healthy tissues. Parallel to the development of novel more effective drugs, particular effort has been dedicated to develop and optimize drug delivery vehicles capable of specifically targeting the required tissue/organ and to deliver the cargo only where and when it is needed. New drug delivery systems based on nanoscale devices showing new and improved pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics properties like enhanced bioavailability, high drug loading or systemic stability have surged in the past decade as promising solutions to the required therapeutic efficacy. Amongst these nanoscale vectors, nanoparticles for drug delivery, such as polymeric, lipidbased, ceramic or metallic nanoparticles, have been at the forefront of pharmaceutical development. The interest in nanomedicine for treatment and diagnosis is clearly reflected on the increasing number of publications and issued patents every year. Here, we provide a broad overview of novel nanoparticle based drug delivery systems, ranging from polymeric systems to metal nanoparticles, while simultaneously listing the most relevant related patents.

Nanotechnology has emerged as a {"}disruptive technology{"} that may provide researchers with new and innovative ways to diagnose, treat and monitor cancer. In fact, nanomedicine approaches have delivered several strategies, such as new imaging agents, real-time assessments of therapeutic and surgical efficacy, multifunctional, targeted devices capable of bypassing biological barriers to target and silence specific pathways in tumours. Of particular interest, has been the increased capability to deliver multiple therapeutic agents directly to bulk cancer cells and cancer stem cells that play a critical role in cancer growth and metastasis. These multifunctional targeted nanoconjugates are also capable of avoiding cancer resistance and monitor predictive molecular changes that open the path for preventive action against pre-cancerous cells, minimizing costs and incidence of relapses. A myriad of nanoconjugates with effective silencing and site-targeting moieties can be developed by incorporating a diverse selection of targeting, diagnostic, and therapeutic components. A discussion of the integrative effort of nanotechnology systems with recent developments of biomolecular interactions in cancer progression is clearly required. Here, we will update the state of the art related to the development and applications of nanoscale platforms and novel biomolecular players in cancer diagnosis, imaging and treatment.

The use of agar-based biomaterials for the development of emerging areas, such as tissue engineering or ‘smart materials’ production has recently gained great interest. Understanding how these gel-forming polysaccharides self-organise in aqueous media and how these associations can be tuned to meet the specific needs of each application is thus of great relevance. As an extension of previous pioneering research concerning the application of the microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) technique in the recovery of native (NA) and alkali-modified (AA) agars, this article focuses on the different molecular assemblies assumed by these novel NA and AA when using different MAE routes. The molecular architectures in dilute (5, 10, 50 and 100 mg mL
1) and concentrated (1.5% (w/w)) aqueous media were imaged by AFM and cryoSEM, respectively. Relevant structural and physicochemical properties were investigated to support the microscopic data. Different extraction routes led to polysaccharides with unique properties, which in turn resulted in different molecular assemblies. Even at 5 mg mL
1, AFM images included individual fibers, cyclic segments, aggregates and local networks. At higher polymer concentrations, the structures further aggregated forming multilayer polymeric networks for AA. The more compact and denser 3D networks of AA, imaged by cryoSEM, and their higher resistance to large deformations matched the 2D-shapes observed by AFM. Depending on the nature of the AA chains, homogeneous or heterogeneous growth of assemblies was seen during network formation. The obtained results support well the view of double helix formation followed by intensive double helix association proposed for agar gelation.

The present work focuses on a qualitative analysis of localised I-V characteristics based on the nanostructure morphology of highly dense arrays of p-type NiO nano-pillars (NiO-NPs). Vertically aligned NiO-NPs have been grown on different substrates by using a glancing angle deposition (GLAD) technique. The preferred orientation of as grown NiO-NPs was controlled by the deposition pressure. The NiO-NPs displayed a polar surface with a microscopic dipole moment along the (111) plane (Tasker's type III). Consequently, the crystal plane dependent surface electron accumulation layer and the lattice disorder at the grain boundary interface showed a non-uniform current distribution throughout the sample surface, demonstrated by a conducting AFM technique (c-AFM). The variation in I-V for different points in a single current distribution grain (CD-grain) has been attributed to the variation of Schottky barrier height (SBH) at the metal-semiconductor (M-S) interface. Furthermore, we observed that the strain produced during the NiO-NPs growth can modulate the SBH. Inbound strain acts as an external field to influence the local electric field at the M-S interface causing a variation in SBH with the NPs orientation. This paper shows that vertical arrays of NiO-NPs are potential candidates for nanoscale devices because they have a great impact on the local current transport mechanism due to its nanostructure morphology.

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Over the past decade, the capability of double-stranded RNAs to interfere with gene expression has driven new therapeutic approaches. Since small interfering RNA (siRNAs, 21 base pair double-stranded RNA) was shown to be able to elicit RNA interference (RNAi), efforts were directed toward the development of efficient delivery systems to preserve siRNA bioactivity throughout the delivery route, from the administration site to the target cell. Here we provide evidence of RNAi triggering, specifically silencing c-myc protooncogene, via the synthesis of a library of novel multifunctional gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The efficiency of the AuNPs is demonstrated using a hierarchical approach including three biological systems of increasing complexity: in vitro cultured human cells, in vivo invertebrate (freshwater polyp, Hydra), and in vivo vertebrate (mouse) models. Our synthetic methodology involved fine-tuning of multiple structural and functional moieties. Selection of the most active functionalities was assisted step-by-step through functional testing that adopted this hierarchical strategy. Merging these chemical and biological approaches led to a safe, nonpathogenic, self-tracking, and universally valid nanocarrier that could be exploited for therapeutic RNAi.

The enzymatic (tyrosinase) and chemical (NaIO4, Ag2O or Fremys's salt) oxidation of biologically relevant catecholamines, such as dopamine (DA), N-acetyldopamine (NADA) and the Ecstasy metabolites (alpha-MeDA and N-Me-alpha-MeDA) generates the corresponding o-quinone which can be trapped with nitrogen bionucleophiles such as N-acetyl-histidine and imidazole in a regioselective reaction that takes place predominantly at the 6-position of the catecholamine. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.