The most recent advancements in food science and technology include cold sterilization of food and fresh‐keeping packaging. Active packaging technology has received much interest due to the photocatalytic activity (PCA) of functional nanoparticles, including titanium dioxide (TiO₂) and ferric oxide (Fe₂O₃). However, there are still significant concerns about the toxicity and safety of these functional nanoparticles. This review emphasizes the bacteriostatic and fresh‐keeping properties of functional nanoparticles as well as their packaging strategies using the ultraviolet photo‐catalysis effect. High‐voltage electric field cold plasma (HVEF‐CP) is the most innovative method of cold‐sterilizing food. HVEF‐CP sterilizes by producing photoelectrons, ions, and active free radicals on food media, which come into contact with the bacteria's surface and destroy their cells. Next, this review also assesses the photocatalytic activity and bacteriostasis kinetics of nanosized TiO₂ and Fe₂O₃ in poultry, beef, and lamb. In addition, this review also emphasizes the importance of exploiting the complex interaction processes between TiO₂ and Fe₂O₃, along with dietary components and their utilization in the fresh meat industry.

Diagnosis and prediction of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are increasingly pressing in the early stage of the disease because the biomarker‐targeted therapies may be most effective. Diagnosis of AD largely depends on the clinical symptoms of AD. Currently, cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers and neuroimaging techniques are considered for clinical detection and diagnosis. However, these clinical diagnosis results could provide indications of the middle and/or late stages of AD rather than the early stage, and another limitation is the complexity attached to limited access, cost, and perceived invasiveness. Therefore, the prediction of AD still poses immense challenges, and the development of novel biomarkers is needed for early diagnosis and urgent intervention before the onset of obvious phenotypes of AD. Blood‐based biomarkers may enable earlier diagnose and aid detection and prognosis for AD because various substances in the blood are vulnerable to AD pathophysiology. The application of a systematic biological paradigm based on high‐throughput techniques has demonstrated accurate alterations of molecular levels during AD onset processes, such as protein levels and metabolite levels, which may facilitate the identification of AD at an early stage. Notably, proteomics and metabolomics have been used to identify candidate biomarkers in blood for AD diagnosis. This review summarizes data on potential blood‐based biomarkers identified by proteomics and metabolomics that are closest to clinical implementation and discusses the current challenges and the future work of blood‐based candidates to achieve the aim of early screening for AD. We also provide an overview of early diagnosis, drug target discovery and even promising therapeutic approaches for AD.

The ergosterol pathway is a prime antifungal target as it is required for fungal survival, yet is not involved in human homeostasis. Methods to study the ergosterol pathway, however, are often time-consuming. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) assay is a simple research tool that determines the lowest concentration at which a novel antimicrobial is active in vitro with limited scope to determine the mechanism of action for a drug. In this study, we show that by adding hydrogen peroxide, an oxidative stressor, or glutathione (GSH), an antioxidant, to modify a commonly performed MIC assay allowed us to screen selectively for new antifungal drugs that target ergosterol biosynthesis in fungi. A human pathogen and dermatophyte, Microsporum gypseum, was used as a test organism. When exposed to ergosterol targeting drugs, the hydrogen peroxide treatment significantly decreased fungal survival by reducing ergosterol in the cell wall, whereas GSH increased survival of M. gypseum. Further, by performing a series of experiments with M. gypseum and Trichophyton rubrum, it was determined that the oxidative stress from hydrogen peroxide causes cell death at different developmental stages based on fungal species. These findings allow us to describe a simple, high-throughput method for simultaneously screening new antifungal drugs for activity and effects on the ergosterol pathway. By using this tool, two isoquinoline alkaloids were discovered to be potent inhibitors of ergosterol biosynthesis in vitro by reducing the amount of ergosterol without affecting the expression of 1,3-β-glucan. Both compounds also significantly reduced the severity of acanthosis, hyperkeratosis, spongiosis and dermal edema in vivo.