Smart Therapeutics Synergistic Combinations

Natural substances are increasingly used in combination with synthetic drugs, because the resulting combinations are often less toxic, and more effective than either natural or synthetic drugs alone. Historically, the use of natural medicine was followed by the discovery of synthetic drugs, and in recent years, a resurgence in the use of natural substances - which may have fewer negative side-effects, when compared with synthetic drugs. However, the amounts of phytochemicals in natural drugs is often insufficient unless combined with synthetic chemicals. At the same time, such combinations represent enormous complexity. Smart Therapeutics-Synergistic Combinations presents the state-of-the-art on such smart therapeutics, helping researchers develop new approaches for less toxic and more effective drug combinations. The book demonstrates that highly-toxic synthetic drugs may be rendered safe through synergistic combination with natural products. The volume consists in six parts, giving a historical overview; and covering drug development; drug interactions; synergic relations in drug discovery and combination therapy; calculations in designing synergistic combinations; and clinical approaches to synergistic combinations. This volume presents the latest work in combining natural and synthetic drugs for more effective, less toxic pharmaceuticals of use in clinical practice. Presents the history, development, design, and clinical uses of combined natural and synthetic drugs Details new drug combinations that are less toxic but more active than natural or synthetic drugs alone Presents interaction mechanisms, including both synergistic and antagonistic interactions Informs new pharmaceutical and drug development studies into the use of natural and synthetic products Considers clinical approaches to synergistic combinations

This book discusses the efficacy of nanomaterial-based X-rays enhancers against cancer therapy and imaging in both in vitro and in vivo systems. Also, synthesis, mechanism, and the related biological effects are given. Moreover, nanoparticle-based contrast agents to enhance the image quality are compiled. Finally, special nanoparticle-based contrast agents to enhance the contrast for targeted cancer therapy are covered and discussed.

Combination Drug Delivery Approach as an Effective Therapy for Various Diseases explores the use of bioengineering tools in combination drug delivery approaches to control various diseases at different clinical stages of synergistic action, varying mechanisms of action, and during the suppression of drug resistance. The book presents fundamental knowledge on the experiential and experimental aspects of drug combination approaches in order to equip rational applications in preventing the emergence of resistance during the treatment of various diseases. It provides a holistic understanding of the principles behind formation, characterization, applications, regulations, toxicity, challenges and future perspectives of combination drug delivery approaches. It will be of interest to researchers and advanced graduate students in pharmaceutical science, chemistry, biology and medicine, as well as pharmaceutical companies and scientific organizations. Provides an accounting of vital aspects on various combination drug delivery approaches, presenting next generation diagnostics and therapeutics Discusses the perspectives of current technologies in highly organized tables, illustrative figures and flow charts Defines major gaps in knowledge that can lead to significant scientific discoveries

This book is based on the Special Issue of the journal Molecules on “Smart and Functional Polymers”. The collected research and review articles focus on the synthesis and characterization of advanced functional polymers, polymers with specific structures and performances, current improvements in advanced polymer-based materials for various applications, and the opportunities and challenges in the future. The topics cover the emerging synthesis and characterization technology of smart polymers, core−shell structure polymers, stimuli-responsive polymers, anhydrous electrorheological materials fabricated from conducting polymers, reversible polymerization systems, and biomedical polymers for drug delivery and disease theranostics. In summary, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the latest synthesis approaches, representative structures and performances, and various applications of smart and functional polymers. It will serve as a useful reference for all researchers and readers interested in polymer sciences and technologies.

Advances in Smart Nanomaterials and their Applications brings together the latest advances and novel methods in the preparation of smart nanomaterials for cutting-edge applications. The book covers fundamental concepts of nanomaterials, including fabrication methods, processing, application areas, specific applications of smart nanomaterials across a range of areas, such as biomedicine, pharmaceuticals, food science and packaging, sensing, cosmetics and dermatology, gas, oil, energy, wastewater and environment, textiles, agriculture, and forestry sectors. In each case, possible challenges, recent trends, and potential future developments are addressed in detail. The book also discusses various considerations for the utilization of smart nanomaterials, including environmental safety and legal requirements. The book is suitable for graduate students as a textbook and simultaneously be useful for both novices and experienced scientists or researchers, medical biologists, nanobiotechnologists, nanoengineers, agricultural scientists, and general biologists as a reference book as well as inspires some industrialists and policy makers involved in the investigation of smart nanomaterials. Introduces fundamentals of smart nanomaterials, including theory, fabrication methods, processing and properties Opens the door to a broad range of multifaceted applications across agriculture, food science, biomedicine, energy and other areas Considers environmental safety, risk assessment, legal requirements and sustainability issues

Nanobiomaterials in Cancer Therapy presents the major applications of nanobiomaterials in oncology, offering an up-to-date overview of the latest research in this field. Utilizing nanobiomaterials, novel therapeutic approaches enable significant improvements in drug-loading capacity, formulation stability and drug efficiency. In this book, leading researchers from around the world share their expertise and unique insights. The book covers the fabrication methods of platforms for multimodal and combinatorial therapeutic options, along with simultaneous and real-time cancer imaging, and innovative approaches for oncology by passive or active pathways of multifunctional nanocarriers. The work also classifies and discusses engineered nanobiosystems for cancer therapy, prevention, and low cancer recurrence or relapse. This book will be of interest to postdoctoral researchers, professors and students engaged in the fields of materials science, biotechnology and applied chemistry. It will also be highly valuable to those working in industry, including pharmaceutics and biotechnology companies, medical researchers, biomedical engineers and advanced clinicians. A comprehensive resource for researchers, practitioners and students working in biomedical, biotechnological and engineering fields A valuable guide to recent scientific progress and the latest application methods Discusses novel opportunities and ideas for developing or improving technologies in nanomedicine and nanobiology

Prolonged life expectancy along with the increasing complexity of medicine and health services raises health costs worldwide dramatically. Whilst the smart health concept has much potential to support the concept of the emerging P4-medicine (preventive, participatory, predictive, and personalized), such high-tech medicine produces large amounts of high-dimensional, weakly-structured data sets and massive amounts of unstructured information. All these technological approaches along with “big data” are turning the medical sciences into a data-intensive science. To keep pace with the growing amounts of complex data, smart hospital approaches are a commandment of the future, necessitating context aware computing along with advanced interaction paradigms in new physical-digital ecosystems. The very successful synergistic combination of methodologies and approaches from Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD) offers ideal conditions for the vision to support human intelligence with machine learning. The papers selected for this volume focus on hot topics in smart health; they discuss open problems and future challenges in order to provide a research agenda to stimulate further research and progress.