Medical bioadhesive glues are transforming surgery, trauma care, and regenerative medicine by enabling rapid tissue adhesion and promoting healing. They offer alternatives to sutures and staples, which can prolong operative time, damage tissue, and provoke foreign body reactions. However, clinical translation remains limited by challenges in long-term safety assessment, standardized evaluation, and adaptation to complex surgical settings. Drawing on a comprehensive search of PubMed and Web of Science, this review traces the evolution of bioadhesives from natural materials to biomimetic designs and smart materials. We examine the fundamental relationships among chemical composition, biocompatibility, and mechanical properties; discuss innovations in material architecture, fabrication strategies, and adhesion mechanisms; and review applications in surgery, trauma care, and tissue engineering. We also outline future directions for personalized systems, stimulus-responsive platforms, and multifunctional materials, alongside unresolved challenges in biosafety, standardization, and performance. This review provides a mechanistic basis for the rational design and clinical translation of next-generation medical bioadhesive glues.
Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) are prevalent musculoskeletal conditions affecting the orofacial region. Wearable monitoring of mandibular motion may facilitate clinical assessment of TMDs. To satisfy this critical demand, this work proposes a highly stretchable and sensitive sensing strategy via the integration of a graphite nanosheet conductive ink with flexible fibers featuring a unique helical architecture, enabling the construction of a stretchable helical fiber sensor (HFS). The effective integration between the conductive layer and the fiber substrate was confirmed by microscopic morphological characterization. Performance evaluations demonstrated that the HFS possesses a low strain-detection limit of 0.5%, a rapid response time of 33 ms, and excellent stability over 10,000 deformation cycles. In practical demonstrations, the HFS recorded different motion-related signals from blinking to jumping and mandibular-motion-related strain signals in three illustrative cases (one with bilaterally normal temporomandibular joints and two with unilateral disc displacement with reduction). These findings support the preliminary feasibility of the HFS as a wearable tool for the adjunctive assessment of TMD-related mandibular motion, although validation in larger cohorts using established reference methods is required.
BackgroundMiddle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) continues to cause sporadic zoonotic infections with a case-fatality rate of approximately 35%, with recent 2025 surveillance confirming ongoing activity internationally. No specific antivirals or vaccines have been approved. Viral papain-like protease (PLpro) is essential for polyprotein processing making it a high-priority biochemical lead. Fisetin has been tested in clinical trials for its senolytic and anti-inflammatory activity and has demonstrated inhibitory activity against other coronavirus enzymes. However, it has not been evaluated as inhibitor for MERS-CoV PLpro. This study investigates fisetin as a novel MERS-CoV PLpro inhibitor.MethodsRecombinant MERS-CoV PLpro was expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3) and purified by Ni-NTA chromatography. Fisetin’s inhibitory potency was quantified by fluorogenic protease assay (Z-RLRGG-AMC substrate) and thermal shift assay (TSA). The binding interface was characterised by 100 ns all-atom MD simulations from both closed and open PLpro conformations, and independently cross-validated by AI co-folding using Boltz-2.ResultsFisetin inhibited MERS-CoV PLpro with an IC50 of 40.58 µM. TSA revealed concentration-dependent destabilisation (ΔTm −7.66 to −20.09 °C), a signature distinct from our previously characterised inhibitors. Contact frequency analysis localised stable fisetin engagement to a catalytic-domain pocket (residues 164–209; frequency 0.71–1.00) enclosed, while open conformation showed only diffuse surface sampling. Boltz-2 independently placed fisetin at the same pocket, with five of six predicted contacts overlapping the MD set (Jaccard 0.545; Spearman ρ = 0.43, p < 10−15).ConclusionFisetin is a dietary-derived MERS-CoV PLpro inhibitor engaging a catalytic-domain pocket distinct from the binding regions identified for our previously characterised inhibitors. Available human safety and pharmacokinetic data support further investigation of fisetin, particularly through cellular antiviral validation, formulation optimization, and combination studies.
A novel magnetic nanocatalyst, denoted as GO@AlFe2O4@SO3H, has been successfully designed and applied as an efficient and sustainable heterogeneous catalyst for the synthesis of 5-phenyl-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-amines. This one-pot methodology involves the direct cyclocondensation reaction of readily available benzoic acid derivatives with thiosemicarbazide, employing phosphorus oxychloride (POCl3) as a cyclodehydrating agent. Remarkably, the reaction proceeds smoothly in water as a green solvent at a mild temperature of 50 °C, completing within 30 min. The protocol demonstrates excellent substrate generality, affording a diverse library of 19 target heterocyclic compounds in consistently high yields ranging from 87% to 96%. The robust GO@AlFe2O4@SO3H nanocomposite, which integrates the high surface area of functionalized graphene oxide (GO) with the superparamagnetic properties of aluminium-doped iron oxide (AlFe2O4) and Brønsted-acidic sulfonic sites (-SO3H), facilitates straightforward magnetic separation from the reaction mixture. This feature underpins the catalyst’s exceptional reusability, as it could be recovered and successively reused for up to seven consecutive cycles without a significant loss in its catalytic performance. The presented work underscores a sustainable, rapid, and practical approach for accessing biologically relevant 1,3,4-thiadiazole frameworks, highlighting the advantages of magnetically recoverable nanocatalyst in promoting sustainable synthetic methodologies.
Water-insolubility strongly limits the application of many highly luminescent lanthanide complexes in aqueous environments. Here, we demonstrate a simple polymer-assisted strategy for preparing stable and optically transparent aqueous dispersions of hydrophobic β-diketonate complexes using only a small amount of poly (vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP). Representative Tb(acac)3(H2O)2 and Eu(ttfac)3(H2O)2 complexes (acac = pentane-2,4-dionate; ttfac = 4,4,4-trifluoro-1-(thiophen-2-yl)butane-1,3-dionate) retained their characteristic photoluminescence and exhibited pronounced temperature-dependent emission in water. The maximum relative thermal sensitivities reached 2.4%∙oC-1 for Tb(acac)3@PVP at 45 °C and 3.9%∙oC-1 for Eu (ttfac)3@PVP at 55 °C. The corresponding minimum estimated temperature resolutions were 0.224 °C and 0.138 °C, respectively. The aqueous processability of the stabilized complexes further enabled the straightforward preparation of dual-emissive Tb3+/Eu3+ systems, providing ratiometric sensitivities of 1.3%–1.7%∙oC-1 within the physiologically relevant 30 °C–45 °C range. A hybrid Tb (acac)3@PVP/Rhodamine 6G system was also demonstrated as an alternative ratiometric platform. The Tb3+/Eu3+ and Tb3+/Rhodamine 6G systems yielded minimum temperature resolutions of 0.31 °C and 0.37 °C, respectively. Cytotoxicity studies indicated good biocompatibility of the developed dispersions. These results establish PVP-assisted dispersion as a simple and versatile route toward water-compatible molecular lanthanide thermometers.
