Amyloids are highly ordered aggregates of misfolded proteins, related to a large number of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, type II diabetes and many other debilitating disorders. The misfolded proteins are most commonly [Formula: see text]-sheet rich fibrillar aggregates, and one of the most common therapeutic approaches for the treatment of these disorders is inhibiting the formation of fibrillar aggregates. To date, a myriad of compounds have been introduced for this purpose, however poor water solubility and low bioavailability are major restrictions to achieve this purpose. To overcome these limitations, polymeric materials could be a great choice because of their many unique properties. Furthermore, oxidative stress is a key factor associated with the aforementioned disorders. In this context, natural polyphenolic compounds are attracting attention due to their abundance, potential antioxidant activities and nontoxic nature. Considering the importance of antioxidant agents in preventing the protein aggregation process, the design of novel antioxidant polymers has become a challenging task nowadays. Based on these perspectives, this review aims to provide an overall idea about the protein misfolding process, mechanistic pathway, and therapeutic approaches. The main focus of this review is the use of antioxidant molecules and the integration of natural polyphenol-based antioxidants with polymers for designing next-generation potential anti-amyloidogenic agents.
Macromolecular engineering presents a pleasant tactic for planning the construction of desired molecular architectures from nano to macro configurations. The mechanistic pathways and synthetic features of macromolecular designs mostly rely on the precursor composition, topology, functionality, and complexity in architectures. Specifically, macromolecular design with biomolecular conjugation has attracted remarkable attention due to its typical biochemical and physiological affirmative traits. In this review article, it is intended to highlight the major progress on the macromolecular designs and synthesis of polymers comprising bile acid (BA) as the biomolecular colleague. BAs are steroidal biocomposites, produced through cholesterol metabolism in the bile of mammals and vertebrates. They are low priced, biocompatible, abundant, trivially toxic, and structurally unique for facewise amphiphilicity, which make them suitable for designing BA-based polymers (BAPs) to be utilized in biomedical fields. The major aim of this review article is to summarize the recent progress (2015-present) on the requisite necessity of BA in BAPs toward design and synthetic avenues. In particular, the design of various polymers with primary and secondary BAs at side chain, main chain, chain end, crosslinking zone, and core confined area are illustrated in this review article via numerous reported methods.
Transition metal
dichalcogenides (TMDs) are an emergent class of
low-dimensional materials with growing applications in the field of
nanoelectronics. However, efficient methods for synthesizing large
monocrystals of these systems are still lacking. Here, we describe
an efficient synthetic route for a large number of TMDs that were
obtained in quartz glass ampoules by sulfuric vapor transport and
liquid sulfur. Unlike the sublimation technique, the metal enters
the gas phase in the form of molecules, hence containing a greater
amount of sulfur than the growing crystal. We have investigated the
physical properties for a selection of these crystals and compared
them to state-of-the-art findings reported in the literature. The
acquired electronic properties features demonstrate the overall high
quality of single crystals grown in this work as exemplified by CoS2, ReS2, NbS2, and TaS2. This
new approach to synthesize high-quality TMD single crystals can alleviate
many material quality concerns and is suitable for emerging electronic
devices.
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