நானோ அறிவியல் இதழ்: தற்போதைய ஆராய்ச்சி

Nanotechnology is the science related to understanding matter at approximately 1 to 100 nanometers. However, nanotechnology is not merely working with matter at the Nano scale, but also research and development of materials, devices, and systems that have novel properties and functions due to their Nano scale dimensions or components. It has not left any branch untouched be it medicine, dentistry or to be precise it exists all around us. Hence, the need today is to comprehend their properties to be able to control them before the reverse happens. Thus, it represents a perfect paradox challenging its judicious use to shape our future-Good or bad.

Terbinafine HCl (TBH) is a broad spectrum antifungal agent used against dimorphic fungi, yeast, molds, dematiaceous fungi and dermatophytes. However, the poor solubility of this potential molecule renders it efficacy limited. So, the combinations of oral and topical doses are prescribed. Hence, the aim of the current study was to increase the solubility of TBH by incorporating into Nanoemulsion gel (NEG) and to investigate it’s in vitro antifungal activity using Candida albicans as a fungal inoculum. The TBH nanoemulsion was prepared using high speed homogenization technique and evaluated for its micromeritcs. The particles results revealed that acceptable globule size of 11.47 nm with a PDI of 0.556. The obtained nanoemulsion was converted in to NEG and evaluated for in vitro permeation and in vitro antifungal activity. The permeation studies reveled that NEG (76.23 ± 2.81%) has higher permeation, when compared to marketed cream (MC 29.37 ± 1.82%). In vitro Antifungal studies showed that the prepared NEG (0.66 ± 0.17 mm) has high zone of inhibition (p<0.01) almost to that of pure drug solution (0.91 ± 0.07 mm) compared to MC (0.13 ± 0.05 mm). Hence, the formulated NEG of TBH may best suitable for delivery of poorly soluble drugs like TBH, which are intended for topical antifungal application.

A facile, safe and low cost thermal approach was developed to regulate wettability of graphene-based surfaces from superhydrophilicity to superhydrophobicity, which promises mass production on surface technology in various industrial applications. The long-lasting stable superhydrophobicity was attained by hydrogenating graphene with chem-absorbed functional groups. Meanwhile, the approach paves the way for producing fully hydrogenated graphene, which is an entirely novel material called graphene.

Computing in molecular-scale has been explored from the era of pre genomics with a limitation in Moore's law for devices based on silicon. The development of in vivo computation requires low energy consumption in molecularscale. The concept of DNA computing has rationalized the basic Boolean functions into multi-layered circuits. In the Recent year, the concept of RNA nanotechnology has emerged as an alternative approach because the RNA nanoparticles are emerging as a promising medium for a nanodevice with a platform for computing in molecularscale. In RNA computing, the varieties of small RNA sequences can work antagonistically to carry out computational logic in circuits to execute the process of in vivo computation. Though RNA computation is promising in most cases, but it is still in the infant stage and there are many challenges to collaborations between the people in RNA nanotechnology and computer science to carry out the necessary advancement in performing in vivo computation by RNA Nanotechnology.