Polydopamine coating is emerging as a useful method of surface functionalization due to the ability of this compound to form a nanometer-scale organic thin film on virtually any material surface to which proteins, peptides, oligonucleotides, metal ions or synthetic polymers are able to be attached. The unique properties of polydopamine make this technique suitable for nanomedicine. To facilitate the use of polydopamine, evaluation of toxicity is of great importance. In this article, we investigated the in vivo toxicity of polydopamine. We found that the polydopamine functions as a biocompatible layer, attenuating adverse biological responses caused by intrinsic properties of the coated material. One-step polydopamine coating greatly reduced the inflammatory response to poly-L-lactic acid surfaces and the immunological responses of blood on quantum dots were also reduced. Our results indicate that polydopamine provides a versatile platform that can reduce the in vivo toxicity of biomaterials that contact tissue or blood.

The limitations of conventional therapeutic drugs necessitate the importance of developing novel therapeutics to treat diverse diseases. Conventional drugs have poor blood circulation time and are not stable or compatible with the biological system. Nanomaterials, with their exceptional structural properties, have gained significance as promising materials for the development of novel therapeutics. Nanofibers with unique physiochemical and biological properties have gained significant attention in the field of health care and biomedical research. The choice of a wide variety of materials for nanofiber fabrication, along with the release of therapeutic payload in sustained and controlled release patterns, make nanofibers an ideal material for drug delivery research. Electrospinning is the conventional method for fabricating nanofibers with different morphologies and is often used for the mass production of nanofibers. This review highlights the recent advancements in the use of nanofibers for the delivery of therapeutic drugs, nucleic acids and growth factors. A detailed mechanism for fabricating different types of nanofiber produced from electrospinning, and factors influencing nanofiber generation, are discussed. The insights from this review can provide a thorough understanding of the precise selection of materials used for fabricating nanofibers for specific therapeutic applications and also the importance of nanofibers for drug delivery applications.

Rapid growth of nanotechnology is one of the most quickly emerging tendencies in cancer therapy. Gold nanoparticles roused a distinctive interest in the field, due to their incomparable light-to-thermal energy conversion efficiency, and their ability to load and deliver a variety of anticancer drugs. Therefore, simultaneous photothermal (PTT) and photodynamic (PDT) cancer therapy is available by the role of the thermal agent of the gold nanoparticle itself and the drug delivery carrier for photosensitizer (PS) transport. In this review, the physical, chemical, and biological properties of gold nanoparticle, which can promote PTT and PDT efficiency, are briefly demonstrated, and we highlight recent progression in the development of PS-containing gold nanocomposites for effective cancer therapy.

This report describes a simple method to prepare water-soluble chitosan derivative by conjugation of an enediol group, catechol. Chitosan functionalized with a catechol-containing compound, 3,4-dihydroxyhydrocinnamic acid, by a carbodiimide coupling method resulted in chitosan–catechol conjugates. This one-step chemical modification of high-molecular-weight chitosan (approximately 100 kDa) dramatically increased the water solubility of the chitosan derivative to 60 mg mL⁻¹ at pH 7.0. The degree of catechol conjugation was found critical in determining the solubility. The chitosan–catechol conjugates are not only water-soluble but are adhesive, due to the intrinsic adhesive properties of catechol. Also, the water-soluble chitosan derivative allows one to directly form chitosan hydrogel in neutral buffer solutions. The utility of both the water solubility and the adhesive property of the chitosan–catechol was demonstrated by the effective layer-by-layer assembly on substrates. The water-soluble chitosan–catechol is expected to be useful in many areas of surface functionalization, drug delivery, tissue engineering, and tissue adhesives.