Non-Ionic surfactant based vesicles, also known as niosomes, have attracted much attention in pharmaceutical fields due to their excellent behavior in encapsulating both hydrophilic and hydrophobic agents. In recent years, it has been discovered that these vesicles can improve the bioavailability of drugs, and may function as a new strategy for delivering several typical of therapeutic agents, such as chemical drugs, protein drugs and gene materials with low toxicity and desired targeting efficiency. Compared with liposomes, niosomes are much more stable during the formulation process and storage. The required pharmacokinetic properties can be achieved by optimizing components or by surface modification. This novel delivery system is also easy to prepare and scale up with low production costs. In this paper, we summarize the structure, components, formulation methods, quality control of niosome and its applications in chemical drugs, protein drugs and gene delivery.

In recent years, Pickering emulsions have emerged as a new method and have attracted much attention in the fields of food sciences. Unlike conventional emulsions, Pickering emulsions are stabilized by solid particles, which can irreversibly adsorb on the oil-water interface to form a dense film to prevent the aggregation of droplets. The research and development of food-grade solid particles are increasingly favored by scientific researchers. Compared with conventional emulsions, Pickering emulsions have many advantages, such as fewer using amounts of emulsifiers, biocompatibility and higher safety, which may offer feasibility to have broad application prospects in a wide range of fields. In this article, we review the preparation methods, stabilization mechanism, degradation of Pickering emulsions. We also summarize its applications in food sciences in recent years and discuss its future prospects and challenges in this work.

Micro/nanorobot, as a research field, has attracted interest in recent years. It has great potential in medical treatment, as it can be applied in targeted drug delivery, surgical operation, disease diagnosis, etc. Differently from traditional drug delivery, which relies on blood circulation to reach the target, the designed micro/nanorobots can move autonomously, which makes it possible to deliver drugs to the hard-to-reach areas. Micro/nanorobots were driven by exogenous power (magnetic fields, light energy, acoustic fields, electric fields, etc.) or endogenous power (chemical reaction energy). Cell-based micro/nanorobots and DNA origami without autonomous movement ability were also introduced in this article. Although micro/nanorobots have excellent prospects, the current research is mainly based on in vitro experiments; in vivo research is still in its infancy. Further biological experiments are required to verify in vivo drug delivery effects of micro/nanorobots. This paper mainly discusses the research status, challenges, and future development of micro/nanorobots.

Inorganic nanoparticles, such as CeO₃, TiO₂ and Fe₃O₄ could be served as a platform for their excellent performance in antioxidant effect. They may offer the feasibility to be further developed for their smaller and controllable sizes, flexibility to be modified, relative low toxicity as well as ease of preparation. In this work, the recent progress of these nanoparticles were illustrated, and the antioxidant mechanism of the inorganic nanoparticles were introduced, which mainly included antioxidant enzyme-mimetic activity and antioxidant ROS/RNS scavenging activity. The antioxidant effects and the applications of several nanoparticles, such as CeO₃, Fe₃O₄, TiO₂ and Se, are summarized in this paper. The potential toxicity of these nanoparticles both in vitro and in vivo was well studied for the further applications. Future directions of how to utilize these inorganic nanoparticles to be further applied in some fields, such as medicine, cosmetic and functional food additives were also investigated in this paper.

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), a well-studied herpesvirus, has been implicated in malignancies derived from breast, colorectal muscle, brain, and other cancers. Intricate host-virus interactions are responsible for the cascade of events that have the potential to result in the transformed phenotype of normal cells. The HCMV genome contains oncogenes that may initiate these types of cancers, and although the primary HCMV infection is usually asymptomatic, the virus remains in the body in a latent or persistent form. Viral reactivation causes severe health issues in immune-compromised individuals, including cancer patients, organ transplants, and AIDS patients. This review focuses on the immunologic mechanisms and molecular mechanisms of HCMV-induced carcinogenesis, methods of HCMV treatment, and other studies. Studies show that HCMV DNA and virus-specific antibodies are present in many types of cancers, implicating HCMV as an important player in cancer progression. Importantly, many clinical trials have been initiated to exploit HCMV as a therapeutic target for the treatment of cancer, particularly in immunotherapy strategies in the treatment of breast cancer and glioblastoma patients. Taken together, these findings support a link between HCMV infections and cellular growth that develops into cancer. More importantly, HCMV is the leading cause of birth defects in newborns, and infection with HCMV is responsible for abortions in pregnant women.