Ocular diseases such as cataract, refractive error, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy significantly impact vision and quality of life worldwide. Despite advances in conventional treatments, challenges like limited bioavailability, poor patient compliance, and invasive administration methods hinder their effectiveness. Nanomedicine offers a promising solution by enhancing drug delivery to targeted ocular tissues, enabling sustained release, and improving therapeutic outcomes. This review explores the journey of nanomedicine from bench to bedside, focusing on key nanotechnology platforms, preclinical models, and case studies of successful clinical translation. It addresses critical challenges, including pharmacokinetics, regulatory hurdles, and manufacturing scalability, which must be overcome for successful market entry. Additionally, this review highlights safety considerations, current marketed and FDA-approved nanomedicine products, and emerging trends such as gene therapy and personalized approaches. By providing a comprehensive overview of the current landscape and future directions, this article aims to guide researchers, clinicians, and industry stakeholders in advancing the clinical application of nanomedicine in ophthalmology.

Infectious ocular diseases like keratitis, conjunctivitis, and endophthalmitis pose significant clinical challenges due to the complexities of delivering drugs to the eye. Recent advancements in drug delivery systems offer promising improvements for treating these conditions. Key strategies include targeted delivery through physicochemical modifications, magnetic nanoparticles, and ligand-receptor interactions. This review explores the safety and biocompatibility of ocular drug delivery systems through in vivo ocular toxicity studies, in vitro cytotoxicity assays, hemocompatibility studies, ocular tolerance tests, and genotoxicity assays. It also examines combination therapies and stimuli-responsive delivery systems for their potential to enhance therapeutic efficacy. Furthermore, we discuss tailored and optimized drug delivery approaches for infectious ocular diseases, outlining current challenges and future directions for developing effective ocular drug delivery systems.

Youth mentoring programs are active across the globe. Yet, most of the formal research on mentoring has been conducted in Western countries. This article focuses on the impact of a mentoring staff training within a large, multi-site youth mentoring program in India. The focus is on how the cross-cultural application of the Mentoring FAN, a model of attunement, influences staff skills and experience of relationship within the program. Additionally, the research aims to understand what is culturally consonant and discordant in this approach, and how such tension may influence participants’ application of the training. Using a mixed methods design, survey results (n = 15) suggest that staff developed an increase in empathy following the intervention, as well as growth in mindfulness and attunement skills. Qualitative findings from reflective practice and focus groups (n = 13) suggest that while staff found these practices were not consonant with Indian culture and therefore initially challenging to implement, the Mentoring FAN helped them use their roles more productively, and uncover difficulties within the relationships they oversee. Supportive relationships moved from asymmetrical and prescriptive, toward more open and collaborative. Findings have implications for social service practice and research, particularly in terms of culturally responsive adaptation of relationship-based interventions.

Shigella species account for the second-leading cause of deaths due to diarrheal diseases among children of less than 5 years of age. The emergence of multi-drug-resistant Shigella isolates and the lack of availability of Shigella vaccines have led to the pertinence in the efforts made for the development of new therapeutic strategies against shigellosis. Consequently, designing small-interfering RNA (siRNA) candidates against such infectious agents represents a novel approach to propose new therapeutic candidates to curb the rampant rise of anti-microbial resistance in such pathogens. In this study, we analyzed 264 conserved sequences from 15 different conserved virulence genes of Shigella sp., through extensive rational validation using a plethora of first-generation and second-generation computational algorithms for siRNA designing. Fifty-eight siRNA candidates were obtained by using the first-generation algorithms, out of which only 38 siRNA candidates complied with the second-generation rules of siRNA designing. Further computational validation showed that 16 siRNA candidates were found to have a substantial functional efficiency, out of which 11 siRNA candidates were found to be non-immunogenic. Finally, three siRNA candidates exhibited a sterically feasible three-dimensional structure as exhibited by parameters of nucleic acid geometry such as: the probability of wrong sugar puckers, bad backbone confirmations, bad bonds, and bad angles being within the accepted threshold for stable tertiary structure. Although the findings of our study require further wet-lab validation and optimization for therapeutic use in the treatment of shigellosis, the computationally validated siRNA candidates are expected to suppress the expression of the virulence genes, namely: IpgD (siRNA 9) and OspB (siRNA 15 and siRNA 17) and thus act as a prospective tool in the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway. However, the findings of our study require further wet-lab validation and optimization for regular therapeutic use for treatment of shigellosis.