Chemotherapy has seen great progress in the development of performant treatment strategies. Nanovesicles such as liposomes and polymersomes demonstrated great potential in cancer therapy. However, these nanocarriers deliver their content passively, which faces a lot of constraints during blood circulation. The main challenge resides in degradation and random delivery to normal tissues. Hence, targeting drug delivery using specific molecules (such as antibodies) grafted over the surface of these nanocarriers came as the answer to overcome many problems faced before. The advantage of using antibodies is their antigen/antibody recognition, which provides a high level of specificity to reach treatment targets. This review discusses the many techniques of nanocarrier functionalization with antibodies. The aim is to recognize the various approaches by describing their advantages and deficiencies to create the most suitable drug delivery platform. Some methods are more suitable for other applications rather than drug delivery, which can explain the low success of some proposed targeted nanocarriers. In here, a critical analysis of how every method could impact the recognition and targeting capacity of some nanocarriers (liposomes and polymersomes) is discussed to make future research more impactful and advance the field of biomedicine further.

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Real-time detection of substance use is an approach of high interest leading to the optimization of behavioral interventions and drug abuse intervention. The current methods in use suffer many limitations and need high logistical and laboratory requirements. Biosensors have shown a great potential in overcoming these limitations. In the present study, the electrochemical biosensor composed of a screen-printed electrode (SPE) was designed for the detection of synthetic cannabinoid (SC). Antibody-immobilized magnetic nanoparticles were also used to create a surface on the transducer with magnetic interactions in order to detect JWH-073 as a SC model. The use of immobilized magnetic nanoparticles to create working surfaces makes the electrode a reusable SPE which can be reutilized after the cleansing. To examine and observe any possible changes on the surface due to its interaction with the analyte, different electrochemical techniques such as differential pulse voltammetry, cyclic voltammetry, and electrochemical impedance spectrometry were applied. Based on the obtained results, the linearity of the biosensor was found between 5 and 400 ng/mL, and the detection limit was calculated as 22 ng/mL (n = 6) using the 3 Sb/m formula. The biosensor functionality was studied in the presence of some related interferents that showed lower responses than JWH-073, thus demonstrating the good selectivity of the prepared biosensor. Finally, the sensory platform was used to test synthetic urine sample, and the results were compared with obtained results from liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF/MS), which showed that the proposed method could be utilized to identify abuse drugs.

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As COVID-19 has reached pandemic status and the number of cases continues to grow, widespread availability of diagnostic testing is critical in helping identify and control the emergence of this rapidly spreading and serious illness. However, a lacking in making a quick reaction to the threat and starting early development of diagnostic sensing tools has had an important impact globally. In this regard, here we will review critically the current developed diagnostic tools in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and compare the different types through the discussion of their pros and cons such as nucleic acid detection tests (including PCR and CRISPR), antibody and protein-based diagnosis tests. In addition, potential technologies that are under development such as on-site diagnosis platforms, lateral flow, and portable PCR units are discussed. Data collection and epidemiological analysis could also be an interesting factor to incorporate with the emerging technologies especially with the wide access to smartphones. Lastly, a SWOT analysis and perspectives on how the development of novel sensory platforms should be treated by the different decision-makers are analyzed.