Root-knot nematodes pose a serious threat to agriculture and forest systems, causing significant losses of the crop worldwide. A wide range of chemical nematicides has traditionally been used to manage phyto-nematodes. However, due to their ill effects on the environment, biological control agents (BCAs) like Purpureocillium lilacinum that exhibit antagonistic effects on root-knot nematodes are preferred. The current study focused on identifying nematicidal metabolites produced by the fungus Purpureocillium lilacinum cultivated on akaranja deoiled cake-based liquid medium through bioactivity-guided fractionation against Meloidogyne incognita. Column chromatography of the ethyl acetate extract of fungal filtrate exhibited the most potent fraction (fraction 14–15), giving 94.6% egg mass hatching inhibition on the 5th day and a maximum nematicidal activity of 62% against second-stage juveniles after 48 h at 5000 mg/L. Gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of this fraction revealed five major compounds, viz., 2-ethyl butyric acid, phenyl ethyl alcohol, benzoic acid, benzene acetic acid, and 3,5-Di-t-butylphenol. These biocompounds have potential biocontrol applications in agriculture, but further in vivo studies are warranted.

To recapitulate bio-physical properties and functional behaviour of native heart tissues, recent tissue engineering-based approaches are focused on developing smart/stimuli-responsive materials for interfacing cardiac cells. Overcoming the drawbacks of the traditionally used biomaterials, these smart materials portray outstanding mechanical and conductive properties while promoting cell–cell interaction and cell–matrix transduction cues in such excitable tissues. To date, a large number of stimuli-responsive materials have been employed for interfacing cardiac tissues alone or in combination with natural/synthetic materials for cardiac tissue engineering. However, their comprehensive classification and a comparative analysis of the role played by these materials in regulating cardiac cell behaviour and in vivo metabolism are much less discussed. In an attempt to cover the recent advances in fabricating stimuli-responsive biomaterials for engineering cardiac tissues, this review details the role of these materials in modulating cardiomyocyte behaviour, functionality and surrounding matrix properties. Furthermore, concerns and challenges regarding the clinical translation of these materials and the possibility of using such materials for the fabrication of bio-actuators and bioelectronic devices are discussed.

SgRNA/Cas9 ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) provide a site-specific robust gene-editing approach avoiding the mutagenesis and unwanted off-target effects. However, the high molecular weight (∼165 kDa), hydrophilicity and net supranegative charge (∼−20 mV) hinder the intracellular delivery of these RNPs. In the present study, we have prepared cationic RNPs lipopolymeric nanoplexes that showed a size of 117.3 ± 7.64 nm with +6.17 ± 1.04 mV zeta potential and >90% entrapment efficiency of RNPs. Further, these RNPs lipopolymeric nanoplexes showed good complexation efficiency and were found to be stable for 12 h with fetal bovine serum. These RNPs lipopolymeric nanoplexes did not induce any significant cytotoxicity in HEK293T cells, and were efficiently uptaken via a clathrin-mediated pathway with optimal transfection efficiency and nuclear localization after 48 h. Further, HEK293T cells having the mGFP insert were used as a cell line model for gene editing, wherein the loss of the mGFP signal was observed as a function of gene editing after transfection with mGFP targeting RNPs lipopolymeric nanoplexes. Further, the T7 endonuclease and TIDE assay data showed a decent gene editing efficiency. Additionally, the lipopolymeric nanoplexes were able to transfect muscle cells in vivo, when injected intra-muscularly. Collectively, this study explored the potential of cationic lipopolymeric nanoplexes for delivering gene-editing endonucleases.

Paclitaxel (PTX) is a first-line chemotherapeutic agent widely used in the treatment of multiple malignancies; however, its clinical utility is limited by