Background In recent years, the field of nanotechnology and nanomedicine has transformed the pharmaceutical industry with the development of novel drug delivery systems that overcome the shortcomings of traditional drug delivery systems. Nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs), also known as the second-generation lipid nanocarriers, are one such efficient and targeted drug delivery system that has gained immense attention all across due to their myriad advantages and applications. Scientific advancements have revolutionized our health system, but still, brain diseases like brain tumour have remained formidable owing to poor prognosis and the challenging drug delivery to the brain tissue. In this review, we highlighted the application and potential of NLCs in brain-specific delivery of chemotherapeutic agents. Main body NLCs are lipid-based formulations with a solid matrix at room temperature and offer advantages like enhanced stability, low toxicity, increased shelf life, improved drug loading capacity, and biocompatibility over other conventional lipid-based nanocarriers such as nanoemulsions and solid lipid nanoparticles. This review meticulously articulates the structure, classification, components, and various methods of preparation exemplified with various research studies along with their advantages and disadvantages. The concept of drug loading and release has been discussed followed by a brief about stability and strategies to improve stability of NLCs. The review also summarizes various in vitro and in vivo research studies on NLCs encapsulated with cytotoxic drugs and their potential application in brain-specific drug delivery. Conclusion NLCs are employed as an important carrier for the delivery of food, cosmetics, and medicines and recently have been used in brain targeting, cancer, and gene therapy. However, in this review, the applications and importance of NLCs in targeting brain tumour have been discussed in detail stating examples of various research studies conducted in recent years. In addition, to shed light on the promising role of NLCs, the current clinical status of NLCs has also been summarized. Graphical Abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

This study reports the synthesis of three types of carbon dots (CDs) prepared using citric acid as a carbon source and three different biomolecules (L‐serine, L‐threonine, and adenine) individually as an amine source. The obtained nanomaterials were characterized by powder XRD, TEM, FTIR, 13C NMR, distortionless enhancement by polarization transfer using a 135‐degree decoupler pulse (DEPT 135), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and Small‐Angle X‐ray Scattering (SAXS) techniques. After ensuring the formation of desired structures, prepared CDs were used for exploring the detection capabilities of different reactive nitrogen species and reactive oxygen species. Following the screening of their detection capabilities specifically for nitric oxide, different sensing parameters viz the limit of detection, quenching constant, and interferences were evaluated. Among the synthesized CDs, the lowest detection limit of 0.1 μM was determined for the serine‐derived dots while 0.12 and 0.19 μM was obtained for adenine and threonine‐derived dots, respectively. Eventually, a possible sensing mechanism for the detection of NO by the prepared nanomaterials is proposed.