Pulmonary drug delivery has garnered significant attention due to its targeted local lung action, minimal toxic side effects, and high drug utilization. However, the physicochemical properties of inhaled nanoparticles (NPs) used as drug carriers can influence their interactions with the pulmonary surfactant (PS) monolayer, potentially altering the fate of the NPs and impairing the biophysical function of the PS monolayer. Thus, the objective of this review is to summarize how the physicochemical properties of NPs affect their interactions with the PS monolayer. Initially, the definition and properties of NPs, as well as the composition and characteristics of the PS monolayer, are introduced. Subsequently, the coarse-grained molecular dynamics (CGMD) simulation method for studying the interactions between NPs and the PS monolayer is presented. Finally, the implications of the hydrophobicity, size, shape, surface charge, surface modification, and aggregation of NPs on their interactions with the PS monolayer and on the composition of biomolecular corona are discussed. In conclusion, gaining a deeper understanding of the effects of the physicochemical properties of NPs on their interactions with the PS monolayer will contribute to the development of safer and more effective nanomedicines for pulmonary drug delivery.

Saccharides and biocompounds as saccharide (sugar) complexes have various roles and biological functions in living organisms due to modifications via nucleophilic substitution, polymerization, and complex formation reactions. Mostly, mono-, di-, oligo-, and polysaccharides are stabilized to inactive glycosides, which are formed in metabolic pathways. Natural saccharides are important in food and environmental monitoring. Glycosides with various functionalities are significant in clinical and medical research. Saccharides are often studied with the chromatographic methods of hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography and anion exchange chromatograpy, but also with capillary electrophoresis and mass spectrometry with their on-line coupling systems. Sample preparation is important in the identification of saccharide compounds. The cases discussed here focus on bioscience, clinical, and food applications.

With the increasing environmental and ecological problems caused by petroleum-based packaging materials, the focus has gradually shifted to natural resources for the preparation of functional food packaging materials. In addition to biodegradable properties, nanocellulose (NC) mechanical properties, and rich surface chemistry are also fascinating and desired to be one of the most probable green packaging materials. In this review, we firstly introduce the recent progress of novel applications of NC in food packaging, including intelligent packaging, nano(bio)sensors, and nano-paper; secondly, we focus on the modification techniques of NC to summarize the properties (antimicrobial, mechanical, hydrophobic, antioxidant, and so on) that are required for food packaging, to expand the new synthetic methods and application areas. After presenting all the latest advances related to material design and sustainable applications, an overview summarizing the safety of NC is presented to promote a continuous and healthy movement of NC toward the field of truly sustainable packaging.

Chromatography is a robust and reliable separation method that can use various stationary phases to separate complex mixtures commonly seen in metabolomics. This review examines the types of chromatography and stationary phases that have been used in targeted or untargeted metabolomics with methods such as mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. General considerations for sample pretreatment and separations in metabolomics are considered, along with the various supports and separation formats for chromatography that have been used in such work. The types of liquid chromatography (LC) that have been most extensively used in metabolomics will be examined, such as reversed-phase liquid chromatography and hydrophilic liquid interaction chromatography. In addition, other forms of LC that have been used in more limited applications for metabolomics (e.g., ion-exchange, size-exclusion, and affinity methods) will be discussed to illustrate how these techniques may be utilized for new and future research in this field. Multidimensional LC methods are also discussed, as well as the use of gas chromatography and supercritical fluid chromatography in metabolomics. In addition, the roles of chromatography in NMR- vs. MS-based metabolomics are considered. Applications are given within the field of metabolomics for each type of chromatography, along with potential advantages or limitations of these separation methods.

Biofouling remains a persistent challenge within the domains of biomedicine, tissue engineering, marine industry, and membrane separation processes. Multifunctional hydrogels have garnered substantial attention due to their complex three-dimensional architecture, hydrophilicity, biocompatibility, and flexibility. These hydrogels have shown notable advances across various engineering disciplines. The antifouling efficacy of hydrogels typically covers a range of strategies to mitigate or inhibit the adhesion of particulate matter, biological entities, or extraneous pollutants onto their external or internal surfaces. This review provides a comprehensive review of the antifouling properties and applications of hydrogels. We first focus on elucidating the fundamental principles for the inherent resistance of hydrogels to fouling. This is followed by a comprehensive investigation of the methods employed to enhance the antifouling properties enabled by the hydrogels\' composition, network structure, conductivity, photothermal properties, release of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and incorporation of silicon and fluorine compounds. Additionally, we explore the emerging prospects of antifouling hydrogels to alleviate the severe challenges posed by surface contamination, membrane separation and wound dressings. The inclusion of detailed mechanistic insights and the judicious selection of antifouling hydrogels are geared toward identifying extant gaps that must be bridged to meet practical requisites while concurrently addressing long-term antifouling applications.

Proteins are essential to human health with enormous food applications. Despite their advantages, plant and animal proteins often exhibit limited molecular flexibility and poor solubility due to hydrogen bonds, hydrophobic interactions, and ionic interactions within their molecular structures. Thus, there is an urgent need to modify the rigid structure of proteins to enhance their stability and functional properties. Ultrasound-assisted ionic liquid (UA-IL) treatment for developing compound modification and producing proteins with excellent functional properties has received interest. However, no review specifically addresses the interactions between UA-ILs and proteins. Hence, this review focused on recent research advancements concerning the effects and potential reaction mechanisms of UA-ILs on the physicochemical properties (including particle size; primary, secondary, and tertiary structure; and surface morphology) as well as the functionality (such as solubility, emulsifying properties, and foaming ability) of proteins. Moreover, the safety evaluation of modified proteins was also discussed from various perspectives, such as acute and chronic toxicity, genotoxicity, cytotoxicity, and environmental and microbial toxicity. This review demonstrated that UA-IL treatment-induced protein structural changes significantly impact the functional characteristics of proteins. This treatment approach efficiently promotes protein structure stretching and spatial rearrangement through cavitation, thermal effects, and ionic interactions. As a result, the functional properties of modified proteins exhibited an obvious enhancement, thereby bringing more opportunities to utilize modified protein products in the food industry. Potential future directions for protein modification using UA-ILs were also proposed.

In a rapidly growing world, petroleum is used extensively in various industries, and the extraction, processing, and transportation of petroleum generates large amounts of petroleum-containing wastewater. Conventional oil/water separation methodologies are often ineffective and costly. Nanocellulose-based aerogels (NA) have emerged as a possible solution to this problem. However, hydrophobic modification is required for effective use in oil/water separation. This review on materials commonly used in these processes and outlines the requirements for adsorbent materials and methods for creating unique lipophilic surfaces. New trends in hydrophobization methods for NA are also discussed. Additionally, it includes the development of composite nanocellulose aerogels (CNAs) and cellulose based membrane specially developed for oil/water (o/w) separation considering different separation requirements. This analysis also examines how CNAs have evolved by introducing special properties that facilitate oil collection or make the adsorbent recyclable. We also discuss the difficulties in creating effective NAs for these important applications in a changing society, as well as the difficulties in creating oil recovery equipment for oil spill cleanup.

Bile acids play important roles in the human body, and changes in their pool can be used as markers for various liver pathologies. In addition to their functional effects in modulating inflammatory responses and cellular survivability, the unconjugated or conjugated, secondary, or primary nature of bile acids accounts for their various ligand effects. The common hydrophilic bile acids have been used successfully as local treatment to resolve drug-induced cell damage or to ameliorate hearing loss. From various literature references, bile acids show concentration and tissue-dependent effects. Some hydrophobic bile acids act as ligands modulating vitamin D receptors, muscarinic receptors, and calcium-activated potassium channels, important proteins in the inner ear system. Currently, there are limited resources investigating the therapeutic effects of bile acid on hearing loss and little to no information on detecting bile acids in the remote ear system, let alone baseline bile acid levels and their prevalence in healthy and disease conditions. This review presents both hydrophilic and hydrophobic human bile acids and their tissue-specific effects in modulating cellular integrity, thus considering the possible effects and extended therapeutic applicability of bile acids to the inner ear tissue.

Recent advancements in bioengineering and medical devices have been greatly influenced and dominated by synthetic polymers, particularly polyurethanes (PUs). PUs offer customizable mechanical properties and long-term stability, but their inherent hydrophobic nature poses challenges in practically biological application processes, such as interface high friction, strong protein adsorption, and thrombosis. To address these issues, surface modifications of PUs for generating functionally hydrophilic layers have received widespread attention, but the durability of generated surface functionality is poor due to irreversible mechanical wear or biodegradation. As a result, numerous researchers have investigated bulk modification techniques to incorporate zwitterionic polymers or groups onto the main or side chains of PUs, thereby improving their hydrophilicity and biocompatibility. This comprehensive review presents an extensive overview of notable zwitterionic PUs (ZPUs), including those based on phosphorylcholine, sulfobetaine, and carboxybetaine. The review explores their wide range of biomedical applications, from blood-contacting devices to antibacterial coatings, fouling-resistant marine coatings, separation membranes, lubricated surfaces, and shape memory and self-healing materials. Lastly, the review summarizes the challenges and future prospects of ZPUs in biological applications.

The most common drawback of the existing and novel drug molecules is their low bioavailability because of their low solubility. One of the most important approaches to enhance the bioavailability in the enteral route for poorly hydrophilic molecules is amorphous solid dispersion (ASD). The solubility of compounds in amorphous form is comparatively high because of the availability of free energy produced during formulation. This free energy results in the change of crystalline nature of the prepared ASD to the stable crystalline form leading to the reduced solubility of the product. Due to the intrinsic chemical and physical uncertainty and the restricted knowledge about the interactions of active molecules with the carriers making, this ASD is a challenging task. This review focused on strategies to stabilize ASD by considering the various theories explaining the free-energy concept, physical interactions, and thermal properties. This review also highlighted molecular modeling and machine learning computational advancement to stabilize ASD.