Misuse of antibiotics has recently been considered a global issue because of its harmful effects on human health. Since conventional methods have numerous limitations, it is necessary to develop fast, simple, sensitive, and reproducible methods for the detection of antibiotics. Among numerous recently developed methods, aptasensors are fascinating because of their good specificity, sensitivity and selectivity. These kinds of biosensors combining aptamer with colorimetric applications of gold nanoparticles to recognize small molecules are becoming more popular owing to their advantageous features, for example, low cost, ease of use, on-site analysis ability using naked eye and no prerequisite for modern equipment. In this review, we have highlighted the recent advances and working principle of gold nanoparticles based colorimetric aptasensors as promising methods for antibiotics detection in different food and environmental samples (2011–2020). Furthermore, possible advantages and disadvantages have also been summarized for these methods. Finally, the recent challenges, outlook, and promising future perspectives for developing novel aptasensors are also considered.

Psoriasis is one of the most influential and fastest-growing inflammatory diseases of the skin. Curcumin (CRC) is an effective antipsoriatic drug that is often carried by nanoparticles or liposomes mainly administered via the skin. However, the therapeutic effectiveness and bioavailability of this drug are restricted due to the functions of the skin barrier to liposomes. Herein, we proposed a peptide-modified curcumin-loaded liposome (CRC–TD–Lip) to expedite the transdermal delivery of curcumin and enhance the inhibition of psoriasis. CRC–TD–Lip was prepared and dispersed uniformly with high stability and high curcumin encapsulation efficiency. We confirmed the improved intracellular uptake of CRC–TD–Lip, the increased inhibitory effect of CRC–TD–Lip on HaCaT cells, and the heightened transdermal ability of CRC–TD–Lip. Then, the enhanced antipsoriatic ability of CRC–TD–Lip was evaluated in vivo using an imiquimod-induced psoriasis mouse model. The results indicated that the developed CRC–TD–Lip can effectively improve the delivery of curcumin across the skin and enhance the antipsoriasis efficiency. This work can provide a strategy for enhancing the transdermal delivery efficiency of drugs for various skin diseases.

The emerging threat of multi-drug resistance (MDR) in a wide range of diseases is a major public health problem, which prolongs treatment, imposes disabilities and reduces the expected life span. MDR is common in urinary tract infections (UTI). Due to recent dramatic change in antimicrobial activity spectrum, we evaluated the current spectrum of antimicrobials activity in UTIs. We observed 33% infection rate in cultures and positive cultures were followed by the Kirby–Bauer technique for sensitivity testing. We evaluated that females are 3.71 folds more infected than males. We observed Escherichia coli (E. coli) as the most frequent and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) as the least (9.1%). Further, we noted that E. coli infection in males is 4.75 times of males. Moreover, Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) and E. coli are 2.33 and 7.67 times more prevalent than P. aeruginosa respectively. Our sensitivity results indicate that E. coli and K. pneumoniae are resistant to the most tested antimicrobials. However, P. aeruginosa is susceptible to only few of the tested drugs which include Amikacin, Piperacillin+Tazobactam (in combination), and Ceftriaxone. We conclude, due to MDR strains we need to imitate the current strategies and propose neoadjuvant and other therapies like applied in cancer.