Shathar Alobeidat

Gold nanorods (AuNRs) present a promising alternative to silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) applications due to their improved biocompatibility, chemical stability, and tunable optical properties. However, the cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) surfactant typically required for AuNR synthesis introduces significant spectral and physical interferences that inhibit analyte detection. This study systematically compares reductive and oxidative electrochemical cleaning protocols to remove CTAB from AuNR-modified screen-printed electrodes. Electrochemical cleaning effectively removes CTAB, enabling detection of metabolites such as uric acid (0.15 mM) and nicotinic acid (10.0 mM). Reductive cleaning preserves the AuNR morphology, while oxidative cleaning induces surface restructuring that alters molecular adsorption behavior on the metal surface. Both cleaning methods retain strong SERS activity originating from the AuNRs, which is improved compared to uncleaned substrates. Oxidative cleaning enhances SERS intensity by increasing surface roughness and hot-spot density, thereby improving electrochemical SERS performance relative to AgNP-based platforms.

Nanoliposomes are lipid bilayer nanostructures recently gaining popularity as drug delivery vehicles. Their biocompatibility, safety, high entrapment efficiency and drug release profiles have made them suitable candidates for biomedical applications. The treatment of fungal infec-tions is one of the most significantly researched fields in which nanoliposomes (NLPs) find a variety of uses. Although this topic has been referenced in several general reviews, it has never been thoroughly discussed. In our review, we give a detailed summary of the recent advance-ments made in this field, with a focus on encapsulated synthetic and natural antifungal agents for oral, parenteral, and transdermal applications, and the numerous advantages they have over con-ventional antifungal therapies, recent strategies at site-specific targeting using targeting moieties, as well as highlighting the safety concerns associated with NLP nanocarriers.