Nanomedicine, the application of nanotechnology to medicine, is being increasingly used to improve and exploit the advantages of efficient drug delivery. Different nanodevices have been developed in recent years, among them protein-based nanoparticles which have gained considerable interest. Albumin is a versatile protein carrier with several characteristics that make it an ideal candidate for drug delivery, such as its availability, its biocompatibility, its biodegradability, and its lack of toxicity and immunogenicity. This review embodies an overview of different methods available for production of albumin-based nanoparticles, with focus on high-energy emulsification methods. A comparison between production by using sonication, which involves acoustic cavitation, and the high pressure homogenization method, where occurs hydrodynamic cavitation, is presented. Taking into account important properties of nanoparticles required for intravenous administration, the use of poloxamers, tri-block copolymer surfactants is discussed as it improves blood circulation time and bioavailability of nanoparticles. Thus, nanoparticles can be engineered to provide adequate features to therapeutic applications, in which can be included surface functionalization with targeting agents. Different albumin-based formulations and their therapeutic applications are presented in this review, with emphasis on applications in cancer therapy, where albumin-based strategies are promising for targeted drug delivery in innovative clinical strategies.

There is an emerging environmental awareness and social concern regarding the environmental impact of the textile industry, highlighting the growing need for developing green and sustainable approaches throughout this industry’s supply chain. Upstream, due to population growth and the rise in consumption of textile fibers, new sustainable raw materials and processes must be found. Cellulose presents unique structural features, being the most important and available renewable resource for textiles. The physical and chemical modification reactions yielding fibers are of high commercial importance today. Recently developed technologies allow the production of filaments with the strongest tensile performance without dissolution or any other harmful and complex chemical processes. Fibers without solvents are thus on the verge of commercialization. In this review, the technologies for the production of cellulose-based textiles, their surface modification and the recent trends on sustainable cellulose sources, such as bacterial nanocellulose, are discussed. The life cycle assessment of several cellulose fiber production methods is also discussed.

Microspheres of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and silk fibroin are produced by applying ultrasound in a biphasic system consisting of an aqueous protein solution and an organic solvent. The protein microspheres are dispersed in an aqueous media where the protein remains at the interface covering the organic solvent. This only occurs when high shear forces are applied that induce changes to force the protein to the interface. Fourier transform infrared results indicate a large increase in the content of the β-sheet during the formation of silk fibroin microspheres. Molecular dynamics simulations show a clear adaption on the 3D structure of BSA when stabilized at the interface, without major changes in secondary structure. Further studies demonstrate that high water content, oil solvents, and larger peptides with separated and clear hydrophobic and hydrophilic areas lead to more stable and smaller spheres. This is the first time that these results are presented. We also present herein the rationale to produce tailored protein microspheres with a controlled size, controlled charge, and increased stability.

Human hair has an important and undeniable relevance in society due to its important role in visual appearance and social communication. Hair is mainly composed of structural proteins, mainly keratin and keratin associated proteins and lipids. Herein, we report a comprehensive study of the content and distribution of the lipids among ethnic hair, African, Asian and Caucasian hair. More interestingly, we also report the study of the interaction between those two main components of hair, specifically, the influence of the hair internal lipids in the structure of the hair keratin. This was achieved by the use of a complete set of analytical tools, such as thin layer chromatography-flame ionization detector, X-ray analysis, molecular dynamics simulation and confocal microscopy. The experimental results indicated different amounts of lipids on ethnic hair compositions and higher percentage of hair internal lipids in African hair. In this type of hair, the axial diffraction of keratin was not observed in X-ray analysis, but after hair lipids removal, the keratin returned to its typical packing arrangement. In molecular dynamic simulation, lipids were shown to intercalate dimers of keratin, changing its structure. From those results, we assume that keratin structure may be influenced by higher concentration of lipids in African hair.