Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) have piqued the curiosity of researchers all over the world due to their extensive biological activity. They are less toxic and biodegradable with the capacity to greatly boost pharmacophore bioactivity. ZnO-NPs are the most extensively used metal oxide nanoparticles in electronic and optoelectronics because of their distinctive optical and chemical properties which can be readily modified by altering the morphology and the wide bandgap. The biosynthesis of nanoparticles using extracts of therapeutic plants, fungi, bacteria, algae, etc., improves their stability and biocompatibility in many biological settings, and its biofabrication alters its physiochemical behavior, contributing to biological potency. As such, ZnO-NPs can be used as an effective nanocarrier for conventional drugs due to their cost-effectiveness and benefits of being biodegradable and biocompatible. This article covers a comprehensive review of different synthesis approaches of ZnO-NPs including physical, chemical, biochemical, and green synthesis techniques, and also emphasizes their biopotency through antibacterial, antifungal, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, antioxidant, antiviral, wound healing, and cardioprotective activity. Green synthesis from plants, bacteria, and fungus is given special attention, with a particular emphasis on extraction techniques, precursors used for the synthesis and reaction conditions, characterization techniques, and surface morphology of the particles.

https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/12/17/3066/pdf?version=1662432723

Current Research on Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Characterization, and Biomedical Applications

Mutations that arise in HIV-1 protease after exposure to various HIV-1 protease inhibitors have proved to be a difficult aspect in the treatment of HIV. Mutations in the binding pocket of the protease can prevent the protease inhibitor from binding to the protein effectively. In the present study, the crystal structures of 68 HIV-1 proteases complexed with one of the nine FDA approved protease inhibitors from the Protein Data Bank (PDB) were analyzed by (a) identifying the mutational changes with the aid of a developed mutation map and (b) correlating the structure of the binding pockets with the complexed inhibitors. The mutations of each crystal structure were identified by comparing the amino acid sequence of each structure against the HIV-1 wild-type strain HXB2. These mutations were visually presented in the form of a mutation map to analyze mutation patterns corresponding to each protease inhibitor. The crystal structure mutation patterns of each inhibitor (in vitro) were compared against the mutati...

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Computational Analysis of HIV-1 Protease Protein Binding Pockets

The recent growing energy crisis draws considerable attention to high‐performance thermoelectric materials. n‐type bismuth telluride is still irreplaceable at near room temperature for commercial application, and therefore, is worthy of further investigation. In this work, nanostructured Bi2Te3 polycrystalline materials with highly enhanced thermoelectric properties are obtained by alkali metal Na solid solution. Na is chosen as the cation site dopant for n‐type polycrystalline Bi2Te3. Na enters the Bi site, introducing holes in the Bi2Te3 matrix and rendering the electrical conductivity tunable from 300 to 1800 Scm–1. The solid solution limit of Na in Bi2Te3 exceeds 0.3 wt%. Owing to the effective solid solution, the Fermi level of Bi2Te3 is properly regulated, leading to an improved Seebeck coefficient. In addition, the scattering of both charge carriers and phonons is modulated, which ensured a high‐power factor and low lattice thermal conductivity. Benefitting from the synergistic optimization of both electrical and thermal transport properties, a maximum figure of merit (ZT) of 1.03 is achieved at 303 K when the doping content is 0.25 wt%, which is 70% higher than that of the pristine sample. This work disclosed an effective strategy for enhancing the performance of n‐type bismuth telluride‐based alloy materials.

Tunable Electrical Conductivity and Simultaneously Enhanced Thermoelectric and Mechanical Properties in n‐type Bi2Te3

Enzymatic synthesis of 2′-deoxyadenosine and 6-methylpurine-2′-deoxyriboside by Escherichia coli DH5α overexpressing nucleoside phosphorylases from Escherichia coli BL21

The use of Quantitative Structure–Activity Relationship models to address problems in drug discovery has a mixed history, generally resulting from the misapplication of QSAR models that were either poorly constructed or used outside of their domains of applicability. This situation has motivated the development of a variety of model performance metrics (r2, PRESS r2, F-tests, etc.) designed to increase user confidence in the validity of QSAR predictions. In a typical workflow scenario, QSAR models are created and validated on training sets of molecules using metrics such as Leave-One-Out or many-fold cross-validation methods that attempt to assess their internal consistency. However, few current validation methods are designed to directly address the stability of QSAR predictions in response to changes in the information content of the training set. Since the main purpose of QSAR is to quickly and accurately estimate a property of interest for an untested set of molecules, it makes sense to have a means a...

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Rank Order Entropy: why one metric is not enough

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) causes an acute, self-limiting hepatitis. The disease takes a severe form in pregnant women, leading to around 30% mortality. Zinc is an essential micronutrient that plays a crucial role in multiple cellular processes. Our earlier findings demonstrated the antiviral activity of zinc salts against HEV infection. Zinc oxide (ZnO) and its nanostructures have attracted marked interest due to their unique characteristics. Here we synthesized ZnO nanoparticles [ZnO(NP)] and tetrapod-shaped ZnO nanoparticles [ZnO(TP)] and evaluated their antiviral activity. Both ZnO(NP) and ZnO(TP) displayed potent antiviral activity against hepatitis E and hepatitis C viruses, with the latter being more effective. Measurement of cell viability and intracellular reactive oxygen species levels revealed that both ZnO(NP) and ZnO(TP) are noncytotoxic to the cells even at significantly higher doses, compared to a conventional zinc salt (ZnSO4). Our study paves the way for evaluation of the potential therapeutic benefit of ZnO(TP) against HEV and HCV.

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Antiviral Activity of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles and Tetrapods Against the Hepatitis E and Hepatitis C Viruses

The synergistic effect of decoupled thermoelectric parameters on the enhanced power output of a unicouple TEG.

Synergistic effect of Zn doping on thermoelectric properties to realize a high figure-of-merit and conversion efficiency in Bi2−xZnxTe3 based thermoelectric generators

Comparative Quantitative Structure−Activity Relationship Studies on Anti-HIV Drugs. (Chem. Rev. 1999, 99, 3525−3601. Published on the Web November 17, 1999).

and Asim Kumar Debnath

Papers

Antiviral Activity of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles and Tetrapods Against the Hepatitis E and Hepatitis C Viruses

Synergistic effect of Zn doping on thermoelectric properties to realize a high figure-of-merit and conversion efficiency in Bi2−xZnxTe3 based thermoelectric generators

Comparative Quantitative Structure−Activity Relationship Studies on Anti-HIV Drugs. (Chem. Rev. 1999, 99, 3525−3601. Published on the Web November 17, 1999).

Efficient oxygen reduction reaction of rare earth perovskite SmMnO3