Precision-engineered metal and metal-oxide nanoparticles for biomedical imaging and healthcare applications

The growing field of nanotechnology has witnessed numerous advancements over the past few years, particularly in the development of engineered nanoparticles. Compared with bulk materials, metal nanoparticles possess more favorable properties, such as increased chemical activity and toxicity, owing to their smaller size and larger surface area. Metal nanoparticles exhibit exceptional stability, specificity, sensitivity, and effectiveness, making them highly useful in the biomedical field. Metal nanoparticles are in high demand in biomedical nanotechnology, including Au, Ag, Pt, Cu, Zn, Co, Gd, Eu, and Er. These particles exhibit excellent physicochemical properties, including amenable functionalization, non-corrosiveness, and varying optical and electronic properties based on their size and shape. Metal nanoparticles can be modified with different targeting agents such as antibodies, liposomes, transferrin, folic acid, and carbohydrates. Thus, metal nanoparticles hold great promise for various biomedical applications such as photoacoustic imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography (CT), photothermal, and photodynamic therapy (PDT). Despite their potential, safety considerations, and regulatory hurdles must be addressed for safe clinical applications. This review highlights advancements in metal nanoparticle surface engineering and explores their integration with emerging technologies such as bioimaging, cancer therapeutics and nanomedicine. By offering valuable insights, this comprehensive review offers a deep understanding of the potential of metal nanoparticles in biomedical research.

State of the Art on Developments of (Bio)Sensors and Analytical Methods for Rifamycin Antibiotics Determination

This review summarizes the literature data reported from 2000 up to the present on the development of various electrochemical (voltammetric, amperometric, potentiometric and photoelectrochemical), optical (UV-Vis and IR) and luminescence (chemiluminescence and fluorescence) methods and the corresponding sensors for rifamycin antibiotics analysis. The discussion is focused mainly on the foremost compound of this class of macrocyclic drugs, namely rifampicin (RIF), which is a first-line antituberculosis agent derived from rifampicin SV (RSV). RIF and RSV also have excellent therapeutic action in the treatment of other bacterial infectious diseases. Due to the side-effects (e.g., prevalence of drug-resistant bacteria, hepatotoxicity) of long-term RIF intake, drug monitoring in patients is of real importance in establishing the optimum RIF dose, and therefore, reliable, rapid and simple methods of analysis are required. Based on the studies published on this topic in the last two decades, the sensing principles, some examples of sensors preparation procedures, as well as the performance characteristics (linear range, limits of detection and quantification) of analytical methods for RIF determination, are compared and correlated, critically emphasizing their benefits and limitations. Examples of spectrometric and electrochemical investigations of RIF interaction with biologically important molecules are also presented.

Electroanalysis of isoniazid and rifampicin: Role of nanomaterial electrode modifiers

Thanks to operational simplicity, speediness, possibility of miniaturization and real-time nature, electrochemical sensing is a supreme alternative for non-electrochemical methodologies in drug quantification. This review, highlights different nanotech-based sensory designs for electroanalysis of isoniazid and rifampicin, the most important medicines for patients with tuberculosis. We first, concisely mention analyses with bare electrodes, associated impediments and inspected possible strategies and then critically review the last two decades works with focus on different nano-scaled electrode modifiers. We organized and described the materials engaged in several categories: Surfactants modifiers, polymeric modifiers, metallic nanomaterials, carbon based nano-modifiers (reduced graphene oxide, multi-walled carbon nanotubes, ordered mesoporous carbon) and a large class of multifarious nano composites-based sensors and biosensors. The main drawbacks and superiorities associated with each array as well as the current trend in the areas is attempted to discuss. Summary of 79 employed electrochemical approaches for analysis of isoniazid and rifampicin has also been presented.

A Chitosan-Carbon Nanotube-Modified Microelectrode for In Situ Detection of Blood Levels of the Antipsychotic Clozapine in a Finger-Pricked Sample Volume

The antipsychotic clozapine is the most effective medication available for schizophrenia and it is the only antipsychotic with a known efficacious clinical range. However, it is dramatically underutilized due to the inability to test clozapine blood levels in finger-pricked patients' samples. This prevents obtaining immediate blood levels information, resulting in suboptimal treatment. The development of an electrochemical microsensor is presented, which enables, for the first time, clozapine detection in microliters volume whole blood. The sensor is based on a microelectrode modified with micrometer-thick biopolymer chitosan encapsulating carbon nanotubes. The developed sensor detects clozapine oxidation current, in the presence of other electroactive species in the blood, which generate overlapping electrochemical signals. Clozapine detection, characterized in whole blood from healthy volunteers, displays a sensitivity of 32 ± 3.0 µA cm^-2 µmol^-1 L and a limit-of-detection of 0.5 ± 0.03 µmol L^-1 . Finally, the developed sensor displays a reproducible electrochemical signal (0.6% relative standard deviation) and high storage stability (9.8% relative standard deviation after 8 days) in serum samples and high repeatability (9% relative standard deviation for the 5th repetition) in whole blood samples. By enabling the rapid and minimally invasive clozapine detection at the point-of-care, an optimal schizophrenia treatment is provided.

Preparation of yolk–shell structured Ag@Cu particles and their application in high performance electrochemical sensing of p-aminobenzoic acid

In this work, the Ag@Cu particles with yolk–shell nanostructure was prepared by facile solvothermal method, which was modified on glassy carbon electrode (GCE) to fabricate electrochemical sensor for the convenient and fast determination of p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA). The surface morphology and electrochemical properties of the as-prepared Ag@Cu nanocomposite modified electrode were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, chronocoulometry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Further, the electrochemical sensing of PABA was performed on the Ag@Cu/GCE using cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry techniques, showing high catalytic activity. Under the optimal conditions, the sensor exhibited a wide linear range, high sensitivity, and low detection limit of 0.315 μmol/L for PABA. The developed sensor was also successfully applied for PABA detection in anesthetic and cosmetics with satisfactory results.