Natural bone constitutes a complex and organized structure of organic and inorganic components with limited ability to regenerate and restore injured tissues, especially in large bone defects. To improve the reconstruction of the damaged bones, tissue engineering has been introduced as a promising alternative approach to the conventional therapeutic methods including surgical interventions using allograft and autograft implants. Bioengineered composite scaffolds consisting of multifunctional biomaterials in combination with the cells and bioactive therapeutic agents have great promise for bone repair and regeneration. Cellulose and its derivatives are renewable and biodegradable natural polymers that have shown promising potential in bone tissue engineering applications. Cellulose-based scaffolds possess numerous advantages attributed to their excellent properties of non-toxicity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, availability through renewable resources, and the low cost of preparation and processing. Furthermore, cellulose and its derivatives have been extensively used for delivering growth factors and antibiotics directly to the site of the impaired bone tissue to promote tissue repair. This review focuses on the various classifications of cellulose-based composite scaffolds utilized in localized bone drug delivery systems and bone regeneration, including cellulose-organic composites, cellulose-inorganic composites, cellulose-organic/inorganic composites. We will also highlight the physicochemical, mechanical, and biological properties of the different cellulose-based scaffolds for bone tissue engineering applications.

This review highlights how smart nanomaterials overcome biological barriers by enhancing targeting, reducing off-target effects, and enabling controlled drug release. Created in BioRender. Orash, A. (2025) https://BioRender.com/g97k271

Over the last decade, scientists have shifted their focus to the development of smart carriers for the delivery of chemotherapeutics in order to overcome the problems associated with traditional chemotherapy, such as poor aqueous solubility and bioavailability, low selectivity and targeting specificity, off-target drug side effects, and damage to surrounding healthy tissues. Nanofiber-based drug delivery systems have recently emerged as a promising drug delivery system in cancer therapy owing to their unique structural and functional properties, including tunable interconnected porosity, a high surface-to-volume ratio associated with high entrapment efficiency and drug loading capacity, and high mass transport properties, which allow for controlled and targeted drug delivery. In addition, they are biocompatible, biodegradable, and capable of surface functionalization, allowing for target-specific delivery and drug release. One of the most common fiber production methods is electrospinning, even though the relatively two-dimensional (2D) tightly packed fiber structures and low production rates have limited its performance. Forcespinning is an alternative spinning technology that generates high-throughput, continuous polymeric nanofibers with 3D structures. Unlike electrospinning, forcespinning generates fibers by centrifugal forces rather than electrostatic forces, resulting in significantly higher fiber production. The functionalization of nanocarriers on nanofibers can result in smart nanofibers with anticancer capabilities that can be activated by external stimuli, such as light. This review addresses current trends and potential applications of light-responsive and dual-stimuli-responsive electro- and forcespun smart nanofibers in cancer therapy, with a particular emphasis on functionalizing nanofiber surfaces and developing nano-in-nanofiber emerging delivery systems for dual-controlled drug release and high-precision tumor targeting. In addition, the progress and prospective diagnostic and therapeutic applications of light-responsive and dual-stimuli-responsive smart nanofibers are discussed in the context of combination cancer therapy.

Cancer immunotherapies have advanced treatment, but low response rates and side effects remain. 3D hydrogels offer new strategies to overcome these barriers, enhance immunotherapy, and improve outcomes. This review explores hydrogel-based immunotherapy advances and future directions.

Corneal transplantation is considered a convenient strategy for various types of corneal disease needs. Even though it has been applied as a suitable solution for most corneal disorders, patients still face several issues due to a lack of healthy donor corneas, and rejection is another unknown risk of corneal transplant tissue. Corneal tissue engineering (CTE) has gained significant consideration as an efficient approach to developing tissue-engineered scaffolds for corneal healing and regeneration. Several approaches are tested to develop a substrate with equal transmittance and mechanical properties to improve the regeneration of cornea tissue. In this regard, bioprinted scaffolds have recently received sufficient attention in simulating corneal structure, owing to their spectacular spatial control which produces a three-cell-loaded-dimensional corneal structure. In this review, the anatomy and function of different layers of corneal tissue are highlighted, and then the potential of the 3D bioprinting technique for promoting corneal regeneration is also discussed.