Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a natural, linear, endogenous polysaccharide that plays important physiological and biological roles in the human body. Nowadays, among biopolymers, HA is emerging as an appealing starting material for hydrogels design due to its biocompatibility, native biofunctionality, biodegradability, non-immunogenicity, and versatility. Since HA is not able to form gels alone, chemical modifications, covalent crosslinking, and gelling agents are always needed in order to obtain HA-based hydrogels. Therefore, in the last decade, different strategies for the design of physical and chemical HA hydrogels have been developed, such as click chemistry reactions, enzymatic and disulfide crosslinking, supramolecular assembly via inclusion complexation, and so on. HA-based hydrogels turn out to be versatile platforms, ranging from static to smart and stimuli-responsive systems, and for these reasons, they are widely investigated for biomedical applications like drug delivery, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, cell therapy, and diagnostics. Furthermore, the overexpression of HA receptors on various tumor cells makes these platforms promising drug delivery systems for targeted cancer therapy. The aim of the present review is to highlight and discuss recent advances made in the last years on the design of chemical and physical HA-based hydrogels and their application for biomedical purposes, in particular, drug delivery. Notable attention is given to HA hydrogel-based drug delivery systems for targeted therapy of cancer and osteoarthritis.

Fast-accumulating scientific evidence from many studies has revealed that fruits and vegetables are the main source of bioactive compounds; in most cases, wastes and byproducts generated by the food processing industry present similar or a higher content of antioxidant compounds. In recent years, the ever-growing amount of agricultural and food wastes has raised serious concerns from an environmental point of view. Therefore, there is an increasing interest in finding new ways for their processing toward safely upgrading these wastes for recovering high-value-added products with a sustainable approach. Among food waste, the abundance of bioactive compounds in byproducts derived from tomato suggests possibility of utilizing them as a low-cost source of antioxidants as functional ingredients. This contribution gives an overview of latest studies on the extraction methods of carotenoids from tomato waste, along with an evaluation of their antioxidant activity, as well as their industrial applications.

New strategies are being investigated to ameliorate the efficacy and reduce the toxicity of the drugs currently used in colorectal cancer (CRC), one of the most common malignancies in the Western world. Data have been accumulated demonstrating that the antineoplastic therapies with either conventional or single-targeted drugs could take advantage from a combined treatment with omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega-3 PUFA). These nutrients, shown to be safe at the dosage generally used in human trials, are able to modulate molecules involved in colon cancer cell growth and survival. They have also the potential to act against inflammation, which plays a critical role in CRC development, and to increase the anti-cancer immune response. In the present study, omega-3 PUFA were encapsulated in solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) having a lipid matrix containing resveratrol esterified to stearic acid. Our aim was to increase the efficiency of the incorporation of these fatty acids into the cells and prevent their peroxidation and degradation. The Resveratrol-based SLN were characterized and investigated for their antioxidant activity. It was observed that the encapsulation of omega-3 PUFA into the SLN enhanced significantly their incorporation in human HT-29 CRC cells in vitro, and their growth inhibitory effects in these cancer cells, mainly by reducing cell proliferation.

Melanoma is one of the most aggressive forms of skin cancer, with few possibilities for therapeutic approaches, due to its multi-drug resistance and, consequently, low survival rate for patients. Conventional therapies for treatment melanoma include radiotherapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy, which have various side effects. For this reason, in recent years, pharmaceutical and biomedical research has focused on new sito-specific alternative therapeutic strategies. In this regard, nanotechnology offers numerous benefits which could improve the life expectancy of melanoma patients with very low adverse effects. This review aims to examine the latest advances in nanotechnology as an innovative strategy for treating melanoma. In particular, the use of different types of nanoparticles, such as vesicles, polymers, metal-based, carbon nanotubes, dendrimers, solid lipid, microneedles, and their combination with immunotherapies and vaccines will be discussed.

Owing to a growing awareness toward environmental impact, the use of safer and eco-friendly solvents like deep eutectic solvents (DESs), has recently undergone important growth in the pharmaceutical field, with regard to their application as non-aqueous liquid administration vehicles, since they do not carry the same risks of toxicity and handling as traditional organic solvents. Major attention has been given to the development of advantageous transdermal drug delivery systems, because of their ease of use and better acceptability. Here, we report the use of two different DESs, based on choline chloride, used as hydrogen bond acceptor (HBA), and ascorbic acid or propylene glycol, used as hydrogen bond donors (HBDs), able to enhance the solubility and the topical delivery of dapsone, representing a class IV drug. The interactions between the DESs’ components and the drug were studied by performing DSC, FT-IR, and NMR analysis of the eutectic systems and the pure drug, confirming the establishment of H-bonds between the drug and the DESs’ components. Diffusion and permeability studies, carried out in a Franz cell, showed an increase in permeability, highlighting the great potential of DESs as dissolution and permeation enhancers in the development of novel and more effective drug delivery systems in topical administration.

The exploitation and use of alternative synthetic methods, in the face of classical procedures that do not conform to the ethics of green chemistry, represent an ever-present problem in the pharmaceutical industry. The procedures for the synthesis of benzimidazoles have become a focus in synthetic organic chemistry, as they are building blocks of strong interest for the development of compounds with pharmacological activity. Various benzimidazole derivatives exhibit important activities such as antimicrobial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic activities, and some of the already synthesized compounds have found very strong applications in medicine praxis. Here we report a selective and sustainable method for the synthesis of 1,2-disubstituted or 2-substituted benzimidazoles, starting from o-phenylenediamine in the presence of different aldehydes. The use of deep eutectic solvent (DES), both as reaction medium and reagent without any external solvent, provides advantages in terms of yields as well as in the work up procedure of the reaction.