Evaluating the Anticarcinogenic Activity of Surface Modified/Functionalized Nanochitosan: The Emerging Trends and Endeavors

Advances in bio-polymer coatings for probiotic microencapsulation: chitosan and beyond for enhanced stability and controlled release

This review paper analyzes recent advancements in bio-polymer coatings for probiotic microencapsulation, with a particular emphasis on chitosan and its synergistic combinations with other materials. Probiotic microencapsulation is essential for protecting probiotics from environmental stresses, enhancing their stability, and ensuring effective delivery to the gut. The review begins with an overview of probiotic microencapsulation, highlighting its significance in safeguarding probiotics through processing, storage, and gastrointestinal transit. Advances in chitosan-based encapsulation are explored, including the integration of chitosan with other bio-polymers such as alginate, gelatin, and pectin, as well as the application of nanotechnology and innovative encapsulation techniques like spray drying and layer-by-layer assembly. Detailed mechanistic insights are integrated, illustrating how chitosan influences gut microbiota by promoting beneficial bacteria and suppressing pathogens, thus enhancing its role as a prebiotic or synbiotic. Furthermore, the review delves into chitosan's immunomodulatory effects, particularly in the context of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and autoimmune diseases, describing the immune signaling pathways influenced by chitosan and linking gut microbiota changes to improvements in systemic immunity. Recent clinical trials and human studies assessing the efficacy of chitosan-coated probiotics are presented, alongside a discussion of practical applications and a comparison of in vitro and in vivo findings to highlight real-world relevance. The sustainability of chitosan sources and their environmental impact are addressed, along with the novel concept of chitosan's role in the gut-brain axis. Finally, the review emphasizes future research needs, including the development of personalized probiotic therapies and the exploration of novel bio-polymers and encapsulation techniques.

Functionalized chitosan-inspired (nano)materials containing sulfonic acid groups: Synthesis and application

Nature-inspired chitosan (CS) materials show a high potential for the design/fabrication of sustainable heterogeneous (nano)materials with extraordinary structural/physical features, such as superior biodegradability/biocompatibility, simplicity of chemical modification, environmental safety, high availability, cost-effectiveness, high electrochemical activity, good film-forming ability, and antioxidant, antimicrobial/antibacterial, and anticoagulant activities. Industrialization and growth of industrial wastes or by-products induce an increasing demand for the development of clean, low-cost, and renewable natural systems to minimize or eliminate the utilization of environmentally toxic compounds. The preparation of novel heterogeneous functionalized polysaccharide-inspired bio(nano)materials via chemical modifications of natural CS to improve its physicochemical/biochemical properties has recently become tremendously attractive for many researchers. The most abundantly available and cost-effective functionalized CS-inspired (nano)materials are considerably valuable in terms of the economic aspects of production of (nano)catalysts, (nano)hydrogels, (nano)composite/blend membranes, and thus their commercialization. In this respect, the preparation of functionalized CS-inspired (nano)materials containing -SO3H groups has been represented as a valid alternative to the homogenous unmodified biomaterials for various applications. Sulfonated derivatives of CS-inspired (nano)materials may possess huge surface areas, catalytic activity, adsorption, and biological/biomedical properties. This review article is aimed at the investigation of different methods and potential applications of sulfonated CS-inspired (nano)materials in catalysis, fuel cells, adsorption of ions, membranes, and biological applications.

Chitosan: An overview of biological activities, derivatives, properties, and current advancements in biomedical applications

The second and most often utilized natural polymer is chitosan (CS), a naturally existing amino polysaccharide that is produced by deacetylating chitin. Numerous applications have been the subject of in-depth investigation due to its non-hazardous, biologically compatible, and biodegradable qualities. Chitosan's characteristics, such as mucoadhesion, improved permeability, controlled release of drugs, in situ gelation process, and antibacterial activity, depend on its amino (-NH2) and hydroxyl groups (-OH). This study examines the latest findings in chitosan research, including its characteristics, derivatives, preliminary research, toxic effects, pharmaceutical kinetics and chitosan nanoparticles (CS-NPs) based for non-parenteral delivery of drugs. Chitosan and its derivatives have a wide range of physical and chemical properties that make them highly promising for use in the medicinal and pharmaceutical industries. The characteristics and biological activities of chitosan and its derivative-based nanomaterials for the delivery of drugs, therapeutic gene transfer, delivery of vaccine, engineering tissues, evaluations, and other applications in medicine are highlighted in detail in the current review. Together with the techniques for binding medications to nanoparticles, the application of the nanoparticles was also dictated by their physical properties that were classified and specified. The most recent research investigations on delivery of drugs chitosan nanoparticle-based medication delivery methods applied topically, through the skin, and through the eyes were considered.

Nanochitosan from crustacean and mollusk byproduct: Extraction, characterization, and applications in the food industry

Crustaceans and mollusks are widely consumed around the world due to their delicacy and nutritious value. During the processing, only 30-40 % of these shellfish are considered edible, while 70-60 % of portions are thrown away as waste or byproduct. These byproducts harbor valuable constituents, notably chitin. This chitin can be extracted from shellfish byproducts through chemical, microbial, enzymatic, and green technologies. However, chitin is insoluble in water and most of the organic solvents, hampering its wide application. Hence, chitin is de-acetylated into chitosan, which possesses various functional applications. Recently, nanotechnology has proven to improve the surface area and numerous functional properties of metals and molecules. Further, the nanotechnology principle can be extended to nanochitosan formation. Therefore, this review article centers on crustaceans and mollusks byproduct utilization for chitosan, its nano-formation, and their food industry applications. The extensive discussion has been focused on nanochitosan formation, characterization, and active site modification. Lastly, nanochitosan applications in various food industries, including biodegradable food packaging, fat replacer, bioactive compound carrier, and antimicrobial agent have been reported.

A Comprehensive Compilation of Graphene/Fullerene Polymer Nanocomposites for Electrochemical Energy Storage

Electricity consumption is an integral part of life on earth. Energy generation has become a critical topic, addressing the need to fuel the energy demands of consumers. Energy storage is an offshoot of the mainstream process, which is now becoming a prime topic of research and development. Electrochemical energy storage is an attractive option, serving its purpose through fuel cells, batteries and supercapacitors manipulating the properties of various materials, nanomaterials and polymer substrates. The following review presents a comprehensive report on the use of carbon-based polymer nanocomposites, specifically graphene and fullerene-based polymer nanocomposites, towards electrochemical energy storage. The achievements in these areas, and the types of polymer nanocomposites used are listed. The areas that lack of clarity and have a dearth of information are highlighted. Directions for future research are presented and recommendations for fully utilizing the benefits of the graphene/fullerene polymer nanocomposite system are proposed.

Fabrication and assessment of potent anticancer nanoconjugates from chitosan nanoparticles, curcumin, and eugenol

In cancer management and control, the most challenging difficulties are the complications resulting from customized therapies. The constitution of bioactive anticancer nanoconjugates from natural derivatives, e.g., chitosan (Ct), curcumin (Cur), and eugenol (Eug), was investigated for potential alternatives to cancer cells' treatment. Ct was extracted from Erugosquilla massavensis (mantis shrimp); then, Ct nanoparticles (NCt) was fabricated and loaded with Cur and/or Eug using crosslinking emulsion/ionic-gelation protocol and evaluated as anticancer composites against CaCo2 "colorectal adenocarcinoma" and MCF7 "breast adenocarcinoma" cells. Ct had 42.6 kDa molecular weight and 90.7% deacetylation percentage. The conjugation of fabricated molecules/composites and their interactions were validated via infrared analysis. The generated nanoparticles (NCt, NCt/Cur, NCt/Eug, and NCt/Cur/Eug composites) had mean particle size diameters of 268.5, 314.9, 296.4, and 364.7 nm, respectively; the entire nanoparticles carried positive charges nearby ≥30 mV. The scanning imaging of synthesized nanoconjugates (NCt/Cur, NCt/Eug, and NCt/Cur/Eug) emphasized their homogenous distributions and spherical shapes. The cytotoxic assessments of composited nanoconjugates using the MTT assay, toward CaCo2 and MCF7 cells, revealed elevated anti-proliferative and dose-dependent activities of all nanocomposites against treated cells. The combined nanocomposites (NCt/Eug/Cur) emphasized the highest activity against CaCo2 cells (IC₅₀ = 11.13 μg/ml), followed by Cur/Eug then NCt/Cur. The exposure of CaCo2 cells to the nanocomposites exhibited serious DNA damages and fragmentation in exposed cancerous cells using the comet assay; the NCt/Eug/Cur nanocomposite was the most forceful with 9.54 nm tail length and 77.94 tail moment. The anticancer effectuality of innovatively combined NCt/Cur/Eug nanocomposites is greatly recommended for such biosafe, natural, biocompatible, and powerful anticancer materials, especially for combating colorectal adenocarcinoma cells, with elevated applicability, efficiency, and biosafety.