Emerging therapies for the treatment of ungual onychomycosis

Introduction: Onychomycosis, a common fungal infection in the finger and toe nails, affects approximately 2–8% of the worldwide population. Fungal infection is more complicated in those who suffer from conditions, such as diabetes, peripheral vascular diseases and compromised immune diseases.

Area covered: Onychomycosis treatment has been classified on the basis of location of infection in the toes and fingers and infectious agents (dermatophytes fungi, yeast and non-dermatophyte molds). In this review, the available therapies (traditional and device based) and their limitations for the treatment of onychomycosis have been discussed.

Expert opinion: The success rate with topical nail products has been minimal. The main reason for this poor success rate could be attributed to the lack of complete understanding of the pathophysiology of the disease and clinical pharmacokinetic data of drugs in the infected nail apparatus.     

Tuning the Properties of Ba-M Hexaferrite BaFe11.5Co0.5O19: A Road Towards Diverse Applications

The development of hexaferrite nanoparticles is scrutinized as potential sorbents for the removal of chromium (Cr) ions from aqueous chromium-containing solutions in a batch adsorption experiment. The transition metal Co doped BaFe₁₂O₁₉ hexaferrite compounds (BHF) have been synthesized successfully via citrate auto combustion technique. The structure, surface morphology and magnetic properties of the samples were studied. X-ray diffraction pattern ratifies the existence of hexagonal phase as a main phase for the prepared samples. The average crystallite sizes are found in the range of 47–49 nm. The high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), as well as the Fourier, transform infrared spectrophotometry results confirm an M-type hexagonal structure existing. The χ-T indicates the temperature-dependent ferromagnetic behavior of BHF nanoparticles. The derivative shows a single transition temperature Tc at 698 °C, and 710 °C for BHF and BCHF respectively. The prepared samples are utilized as an adsorbent for the removal of Cr (VI) from the aqueous solution. The maximum adsorption capacity (qm) of Cr (VI) on the nano hexaferrite is higher than that of various other adsorbents testified in the literature. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model gives a better fit to the experimental data.

     

Harnessing Topology and Stereochemistry of Glycidylamine-Derived Lipid Nanoparticles for in Vivo mRNA Delivery to Immune Cells in Spleen and Their Application for Cancer Vaccination

mRNA lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) have reached an inflection point and are now paving the way for a new wave of precision therapies. The design of nonhepatocyte RNA delivery systems without targeting ligands, however, remains a challenge. It is reported that the development of ligand-free glycidylamine (GA) derivatives containing LNPs (GA-LNPs) that preferentially deliver mRNA to immune cells in the spleen. Notably, it is demonstrated that the stereochemistry of GA-lipids has a significant impact on their self-assembly and in vitro and in vivo RNA delivery efficiency and tropism. This impact is dependent on the monomeric structure of GA and number of stereogenic centers. Furthermore, the nonlinear topology of GA lipid derivatives induced a sevenfold improvement in mRNA delivery efficiency. The top-performing estriol-GA05-30 LNPs elicited strong antitumor activity in a therapeutic and prophylactic cancer model and are well tolerated in mice. These results highlight the significance of the chemistry of ionizable lipids for extrahepatic RNA delivery and indicated a promising direction for the development of next-generation mRNA immunotherapies.     

Advanced Catalyst for CO2 Photo-Reduction: From Controllable Product Selectivity by Architecture Engineering to Improving Charge Transfer Using Stabilized Au Clusters

Despite enormous progress and improvement in photocatalytic CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR), the development of photocatalysts that suppress H₂ evolution reaction (HER), during CO₂RR, remains still a challenge. Here, new insight is presented for controllable CO₂RR selectivity by tuning the architecture of the photocatalyst. Au/carbon nitride with planar structure (p Au/CN) showed high activity for HER with 87% selectivity. In contrast, the same composition with a yolk@shell structure (Y@S Au@CN) exhibited high selectivity of carbon products by suppressing the HER to 26% under visible light irradiation. Further improvement for CO₂RR activity was achieved by a surface decoration of the yolk@shell structure with Au₂₅(PET)₁₈ clusters as favorable electron acceptors, resulting in longer charge separation in Au@CN/Au_c Y@S structure. Finally, by covering the structure with graphene layers, the designed catalyst maintained high photostability during light illumination and showed high photocatalytic efficiency. The optimized Au@CN/Au_c/G Y@S structure displays high photocatalytic CO₂RR selectivity of 88%, where the CO and CH₄ generations during 8 h are 494 and 198 µmol/gcat., respectively. This approach combining architecture engineering and composition modification provides a new strategy with improved activity and controllable selectivity toward targeting applications in energy conversion catalysis.