Analgesic nanomedicines for the treatment of chronic pain

Chronic pain is a major cause of suffering that often accompanies diseases and therapies,affecting approximately 20%of individuals at some point in their lives.However,current treatment modalities,such as anesthetic and antipyretic analgesics,have limitations in terms of efficacy and side effects.Nanomedical technology offers a promising avenue to overcome these challenges and introduce new therapeutic mechanisms.This article reviews the recent research on nanomedicine analgesics,integrating analyses of neuroplasticity changes in neurons and pathways related to the transition from acute to chronic pain.Furthermore,it explores potential future strategies using nanomaterials,aiming to provide a roadmap for new analgesic development and improved clinical pain management.By leveraging nanotechnology,these approaches hold the potential to revolutionize pain treatment by delivering targeted and effective relief while minimizing side effects.

Sperm quality metrics were improved by a biomimetic microfluidic selection platform compared to swim-up methods

Sperm selection is an essential component of all assisted reproductive treatments(ARTs)and is by far the most neglected step in the ART workflow in regard to technological innovation.Conventional sperm selection methodologies typically produce a higher total number of sperm with variable motilities,morphologies,and levels of DNA integrity.Gold-standard techniques,including density gradient centrifugation(DGC)and swim-up(SU),have been shown to induce DNA fragmentation through introducing reactive oxygen species(ROS)during centrifugation.Here,we demonstrate a 3D printed,biologically inspired microfluidic sperm selection device(MSSP)that utilizes multiple methods to simulate a sperms journey toward selection.Sperm are first selected based on their motility and boundary-following behavior and then on their expression of apoptotic markers,yielding over 68%more motile sperm than that of previously reported methods with a lower incidence of DNA fragmentation and apoptosis.Sperm from the MsSP also demonstrated higher motile sperm recovery after cryopreservation than that of sU or neat semen.Experiments were conducted side-by-side against conventional SU methods using human semen(n=33)and showed over an 85%improvement in DNA integrity with an average 90%reduction in sperm apoptosis.These results that the platform is easy-to-use for sperm selection and mimics the biological function of the female reproductive tract during conception.

Frequency-domain diagonal extension imaging

The pixel size of a charge-coupled device(CCD)camera plays a major role in the image resolution,and the square pixels are attributed to the physical anisotropy of the sampling frequency.We synthesize the high sampling frequency directions from multiple frames acquired with different angles to enhance the resolution by 1.4×over conventional CCD orthogonal sampling.To directly demonstrate the improvement of frequency-domain diagonal extension(FDDE)microscopy,lens-free microscopy is used,as its resolution is dominantly determined by the pixel size.We demonstrate the resolution enhancement with a mouse skin histological specimen and a clinical blood smear sample.Further,FDDE is extended to lens-based photography with an ISO 12233 resolution target.This method paves a new way for enhancing the image resolution for a variety of imaging techniques in which the resolution is primarily limited by the sampling pixel size,for example,microscopy,photography,and spectroscopy.