Enhanced edible plant production using nano-manganese and nano-iron fertilizers: Current status, detection methods and risk assessment.

Background: Nanotechnology offers many benefits in the globally important field of food production and human nutrition, particularly by implementing agricultural nanoproducts. Of these, edible plant fertilizers enriched with nanosized forms of essential metals, Mn and Fe, are growing in importance with the advantages of enhanced action on plant roots.

Scope And Approach: This review focuses on the importance of tracking the bioaccumulation and biodistribution of these pertinent nanofertilizers.

The 10th anniversary of MXenes: Challenges and prospects for their surface modification toward future biotechnological applications.

A broad family of two-dimensional (2D) materials - carbides, nitrides, and carbonitrides of early transition metals, called MXenes, became a newcomer in the flatland at the turn of 2010 and 2011 (over ten years ago). Their unique physicochemical properties made them attractive for many applications, highly boosting the development of various fields, including biotechnological. However, MXenes' functional features that impact their bioactivity and toxicity are still not fully well understood.

Soapwort ( L.) Extract vs. Synthetic Surfactants-Effect on Skin-Mimetic Models.

Our skin is continuously exposed to different amphiphilic substances capable of interaction with its lipids and proteins. We describe the effect of a saponin-rich soapwort extract and of four commonly employed synthetic surfactants: sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), sodium laureth sulfate (SLES), ammonium lauryl sulfate (ALS), cocamidopropyl betaine (CAPB) on different human skin models. Two human skin cell lines were employed: normal keratinocytes (HaCaT) and human melanoma cells (A375).

On the rapid in situ oxidation of two-dimensional VCT MXene in culture cell media and their cytotoxicity.

The plethora of emerging two-dimensional (2D) materials exhibit wide potential application in novel technologies and advanced devices. However, their stability in environmental conditions could be an issue, affecting their application possibilities and posing health risks. Moreover, their decomposed leftovers can also induce a negative influence on human health.

Engineering of 2D TiC MXene Surface Charge and Its Influence on Biological Properties.

Current trends in the field of MXenes emphasize the importance of controlling their surface features for successful application in biotechnological areas. The ability to stabilize the surface properties of MXenes has been demonstrated here through surface charge engineering. It was thus determined how changing the surface charges of two-dimensional (2D) TiC MXene phase flakes using cationic polymeric poly-L-lysine (PLL) molecules affects the colloidal and biological properties of the resulting hybrid 2D nanomaterial.

A simple, low-cost and green method for controlling the cytotoxicity of MXenes.

MXene phases are a member of the intriguing 2D material family, beyond graphene. They are good candidates for many applications, however, their potential toxicity is of crucial importance for future development. Herein, we present a simple, low-cost and fully green approach for controlling the potential cytotoxicity of 2D MXenes after delamination by harnessing the interactions that occur between the surface of MXene phases and natural biomacromolecule - collagen.

Multilayered stable 2D nano-sheets of TiNT MXene: synthesis, characterization, and anticancer activity.

Background: The biological activity of MXenes has been studied for several years because of their potential biomedical applications; however, investigations have so far been limited to 2D titanium carbides. Although monolayered TiNT MXene has been expected to have biological activity, experimental studies revealed significant difficulties due to obstacles to its synthesis, its low stability and its susceptibility to oxidation and decomposition.

Results: In this paper, we report our theoretical calculations showing the higher likelihood of forming multilayered TiNT structures during the preparation process in comparison to single-layered structures.

Future Applications of MXenes in Biotechnology, Nanomedicine, and Sensors.

The past few years have seen significant developments in the chemistry and potential biological applications of 2D materials. This review focuses on recent advances in the biotechnological and biomedical applications of MXenes, which are 2D carbides, nitrides, and carbonitrides of transition metals. Nanomaterials based on MXenes can be used as therapeutics for anticancer treatment, in photothermal therapy as drug delivery platforms, or as nanodrugs without any additional modification.

Magnetic field-assisted selective delivery of doxorubicin to cancer cells using magnetoliposomes as drug nanocarriers.

Magnetoliposomes are promising candidates for the development of selective drug delivery systems in the treatment of cancer. Those nanosystems were tested as carriers of a strong chemotherapeutic agent, doxorubicin, which is used against breast cancer. Herein, the magnetic properties of hydrophobic iron oxide nanoparticles located exclusively in the lipid bilayer were used to release this drug from the magnetoliposomes.

Ion Chromatographic Fingerprinting of STC-1 Cellular Response for Taste Sensing.

Taste sensing is of great importance in both the pharmaceutical and foodstuff industries, and is currently mainly based on human sensory evaluation. Many approaches based on chemical sensors have been proposed, leading to the development of various electronic tongue systems. However, this approach is limited by the applied recognition methods, which do not consider natural receptors.

2D TiC (MXene) as a novel highly efficient and selective agent for photothermal therapy.

Photothermal therapy (PTT) has shown significant potential for anti-cancer modality. In this report, according to our best knowledge, we explore for the first time TiC-based MXene as a novel, highly efficient and selective agent for photothermal therapy (PTT). TiC superficially modified with PEG was obtained from the layered, commercially available TiAlC MAX phase in the process of etching aluminum layers using concentrated HF, and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HREM) as well as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA-XPS).

In vitro studies on cytotoxicity of delaminated TiC MXene.

MXenes are a novel family of 2D materials, the biological activity of which has been largely unexplored. The present study, for the first time, shows some aspects of the in vitro toxicity of 2D sheets of TiC MXene. The TiAlC MAX phase was used in an expansion and delamination process to obtain TiC material in the form of 2D sheets.