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Accelerated Molecular Aging In Neighborhood Poverty: A Racial/Ethnic Comparison, Jennifer Robinette, Jennifer Smith

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

In the US, racial/ethnic health disparities are undeniable and partially stem from residing in low SES neighborhoods. Associations between neighborhood SES and health may have some underlying molecular mechanisms reflected in the epigenome. Yet, neighborhood characteristics are not always experienced the same way for all residents, and questions remain regarding whether those most exposed to low SES neighborhoods build greater resilience to, or embody greater harmful and cumulative outcomes from, such neighborhoods. The present study tested the hypothesis that greater neighborhood poverty would relate to accelerated epigenetic aging on the Horvath, Hannum, PhenoAge, and GrimAge clocks, and that these associations …

Change In Community Composition And Structure On Subtidal Rock Walls In The Gulf Of Maine Over Four Decades Of Warming, Breck A. Mccollum

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The Gulf of Maine (GOM) has faced many changes over the last 47 years from overfishing of its iconic cod fish stocks to the introduction on non-native species, but no change has been as dramatic as the warming ocean temperatures that began to increase rapidly in the 2010s. This thermal shift is due largely to the northward movement of the Gulf Stream current mixing with Arctic meltwater before entering the GOM. Average summer temperatures jumped by 3.35°C between the periods of 1980-1985 and 2015-2020. This warming trend, combined with an increasing frequency of marine heat wave events, has led to …

Intercontinental Variation In Population Genetics And Life-History Traits In Native And Invasive Populations Of The Aquatic Plants Myriophyllum Spicatum And Myriophyllum Sibiricum, Anastasia V. Mozharova

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Biological invasions pose significant threats to freshwater ecosystems worldwide, and understanding their evolutionary, genetic, and biogeographic drivers is essential for effective management. My dissertation integrates microsatellite and ITS rDNA data to examine the dynamics of both invasive and native populations of two closely related aquatic plant species, Myriophyllum spicatum (Eurasian watermilfoil) and M. sibiricum (Northern watermilfoil).

Myriophyllum spicatum is native to Eurasia, where it inhabits a variety of freshwater aquatic habitats. Since its introduction to North America in the mid-20th century, it has become highly invasive, forming dense underwater mats that outcompete native vegetation, reduce biodiversity, and degrade water quality. …

Qs11 Reduces Kidney Damage In Renal Ischemia– Reperfusionn Injury Through Wnt Β Catenin Pathway Activation In Male Rats, Najah R.Hadi, Hyader Mohammed

Muthanna Medical Journal

Background: Renal ischemia-reperfusion injury (RIRI) constitutes a significant adverse consequence that may occur subsequent to renal transplantation, surgical interventions on the kidneys, or various pathological conditions that impair the perfusion to renal tissues. This pathological state engenders considerable injury to kidney parenchyma, which is mediated by the reparative processes. A comprehensive comprehension of transient ischemia and an investigation into the underlying mechanisms of RIRI, including oxidative stress, inflammatory responses, and cellular apoptosis pathways, are imperative for the advancement of efficacious therapeutic strategies. In this study, the efficacy of a specific Wnt activator, QS11, which facilitates the activation of the Wnt/β-catenin …

Thermal And Photonic Stress Effects On Pharmaceutical Medications: A Medical Physics Evaluation Using In-Vivo Models, Ammar Alhasan

Muthanna Medical Journal

Pharmaceutical stability is critical to ensuring medications efficacy and patient safety, particularly in prehospital environments where medication are exposed to extremely environmental conditions. This study evaluates the influence of temperature and light on medication permanency, focusing on medications that are frequently used in Advanced Life Support (ALS) settings, and inspects the medical physics belongings of degraded on liver and kidney functions as well as hematological considerations. Guidelines from the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) and Food and Drug administration (FDA) emphasize the significance of controlled storage conditions, nevertheless prehospital environments often exceed recommended temperature ranges (15–30°C). In vivo studies that compared fresh …

Prevalence And Etiological Bacterial Nosocomial Infections In Pediatric Patients In Al-Diwaniyah Hospitals, Shaimaa Shakir Jawad, Yahya Falih Mohamed

Muthanna Medical Journal

Background: Nosocomial infection is one significant factor influencing a patient's outcome. Patient safety is at risk since they are the most frequent adverse occurrences in healthcare. They have a major impact on patients, their families, and healthcare systems regarding mortality, morbidity, and economic hardship. Aims: Screening the prevalence and etiological bacteria of nosocomial infections in pediatric patients in Al-Diwaniyah hospitals, Iraq. Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, a total of 105 different clinical samples were collected from hospitalized pediatric patients in Al-Diwaniyah hospitals who aged from 10 days till the age of 14 years old during August 2025 to December …

Autistic Adults In-Session Experiences In Psychotherapy: A Qualitative Meta-Analysis Of Helpful And Harmful Factors From First-Person Perspectives, Elizabeth Kilgallon

Graduate Masters Theses

Autistic adults face heightened mental health needs yet encounter significant barriers in psychotherapy. Research on psychotherapy has often emphasized quantitative trials of specific modalities, while little attention has been paid to autistic adults’ own perspectives about in-session therapeutic processes. There is a need for clinical guidance that foregrounds autistic clients’ lived experiences of therapy, with emphasis on identifying what they find helpful or harmful, to inform accessible and affirming practice. In the present study, I conducted a qualitative meta-analysis that investigates autistic adults’ first-person accounts of psychotherapy. Thirty-three studies were included in the analysis. I used critical-constructivist grounded theory to …

Empowering Youth In A Changing Climate: Design, Implementation, And Evaluation Of A Salt Marsh Summer Science Program, Dan Levesque

Graduate Masters Theses

Climate change presents not only environmental challenges but also emotional challenges for today’s youth. This thesis documents the design, implementation, and evaluation of a field-based summer science program aimed at empowering adolescents with coastal salt marsh ecology while addressing climate change emotions and science identity development. The program, based in a Massachusetts salt marsh, was adapted from existing public environmental curricula and guided by place- and experience-based learning principles. Over Spring and Summer 2025, 13 students (ages 13-18) participated in extra-curricular field trips, hands-on research activities, and reflective discussions about the environment and the emotions it brings forth. Pre- and …

Disruption Of Protein-Protein Interaction Hotspots In The C-Terminal Domain Of Mlh1 Confers Mismatch Repair Deficiency, Keri M. Fishwick, Diego Gomez Vieito, Giada Greco, Giulio Collotta, Marco Gatti, Anastasija A. Kulik, Raphaël Guérois, Ivan Corbeski, Ashutosh S. Phadte, Issam Senoussi, Petr Cejka, Anna Pluciennik, Antonio Porro, Alessandro A. Sartori

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Faculty Papers

MutLα, a heterodimer of MLH1 and PMS2, plays a key role in DNA mismatch repair (MMR), which maintains genomic stability by correcting replication errors. Loss of MLH1 function causes MMR deficiency (MMRd), leading to elevated mutation rates and increased cancer susceptibility. However, MMRd can offer a therapeutic advantage, as high tumour mutational burden enhances the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibition. MMR also drives somatic expansion of CAG repeats linked to Huntington’s disease (HD) pathogenesis. The C-terminal domain (CTD) of MLH1 contains at least two distinct protein–protein interaction (PPI) sites. The S1 site supports heterodimerization with the PMS2 endonuclease, whereas the …

Frailty, Home Accessibility, And Falls In Later Life, Bonnie Albright

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

As more people remain in their homes as they age, the risk of living at home with frailty and reduced function increases, which may also increase the risk for falls in the home. The scientific literature shows that frail people are more likely to experience falls, which leads to many negative outcomes, such as hospitalization, placement in a skilled nursing facility, and even death. The preference to age-in-place (AIP) is more likely to be met if older people live in accessible housing. Accessible homes may mitigate the risk for falls and promote AIP, especially among frail older people.

While there …

How What We Feel Is Associated With What We Hear Early In Development: The Role Of Vision In Audio-Tactile Association, Shibo Cao

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Sound-shape correspondences, also known as bouba-kiki effect, is the preferential mapping of nonsense sound like “baluma” to rounded abstract shapes while mapping nonsense sound like “takete” to spiky abstract shapes. Such association was seen for auditory and visual stimuli (AV), and auditory and tactile stimuli, which are touched but not seen (AT). Literature comparing typically-developing and early-blind adults showed AT association differ as a function of level of visual experience, and similar finding was also found comparing typically-developing adult and children. Specifically, typically-developing younger children benefited from prior AV experience of abstract shapes and nonsense sounds. While these findings suggest …

Navigating The Role Of Ai In Research In The Global South: A Collective Autoethnography From Researchers In The Philippines, Iraq, And Malaysia, Louie Giray, Ahmed Alkhaqani, Nurliana Kamaruddin

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

This paper investigates the transformative impact and ethical dilemmas of integrating artificial intelligence into the workflows of researchers from the Global South, specifically the Philippines, Iraq, and Malaysia. Through collective autoethnography, the authors analyze how AI tools function as both equalizers and disruptors in resource-constrained academic environments. The findings reveal that AI significantly enhances productivity by dismantling language barriers for non-native English speakers, streamlining literature searches, and democratizing access to global scholarship. However, these benefits are accompanied by profound challenges, including the risk of over-reliance, the proliferation of AI hallucinations, and the potential erosion of critical thinking skills. The authors …

Netrin-1 Promotes Pancreatic Tumorigenesis And Innervation Through Neo1, Hiroki Kobayashi, Yosuke Ochiai, Junya Arai, Masahiro Hata, Feijing Wu, Masaki Sunagawa, Tadashi Iida, Taisuke Baba, Ermanno Malagola, Takayuki Tanaka, Zhengyu Jiang, Ruth A White, Xiaofei Zhi, Jin Qian, Quin T Waterbury, Ruhong Tu, Biyun Zheng, Yi Zeng, Hualong Zheng, Puran Zhang, Shuang Li, Leah B Zamechek, Jonathan S Labella, Takahiro Sugie, Atsushi Enomoto, Holger K Eltzschig, Carmine F Palermo, Iok In Christine Chio, Kenneth P Olive, Timothy C Wang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Nerves can regulate tumorigenesis and cancer progression. However, clarification of the role of axon guidance molecules in tumorigenesis, innervation, and metastasis is required to better understand the tumor-promoting functions of nerves. Using murine KrasG12D-mutant pancreatic organoids, we screened axon guidance molecules and identified netrin-1 upregulation. Netrin-1 was also upregulated in vivo during pancreatic tumorigenesis in humans and mice. Mutant KRAS and β-adrenergic signaling upregulated netrin-1 and its receptor NEO1 in epithelial cells in part through the MAPK pathway. Ex vivo culture of celiac ganglia showed that netrin-1 promoted the axonogenesis of sympathetic neurons through nerve NEO1. In the Pdx1-Cre;LSL-KrasG12D/+ model, …

Speeding Up Interval Estimation For R2-Based Mediation Effect Of High-Dimensional Mediators Via Cross-Fitting, Zhichao Xu, Chunlin Li, Sunyi Chi, Tianzhong Yang, Peng Wei

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Mediation analysis is a useful tool in investigating how molecular phenotypes such as gene expression mediate the effect of exposure on health outcomes. However, commonly used mean-based total mediation effect measures may suffer from cancellation of component-wise mediation effects in opposite directions in the presence of high-dimensional omics mediators. To overcome this limitation, we recently proposed a variance-based R-squared total mediation effect measure that relies on the computationally intensive nonparametric bootstrap for confidence interval estimation. In the work described herein, we formulated a more efficient two-stage, cross-fitted estimation procedure for the R2 measure. To avoid potential bias, we performed …

Biomarker And Age At Onset Endophenotypes Offer New Insights Into The Genetic Etiology Of Alzheimer’S Disease, Joseph Bradley

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) remains among the top 10 causes of death in the United States and is projected to affect nearly 14 million people by 2050. To this point, studies of Alzheimer’s genetics and endophenotypes have yielded a bounty of results that culminated in the first disease-modifying drugs, lecanemab and donanemab, in 2022. Most of the genetic studies for Alzheimer’s disease to date have been focused on late-onset AD or Autosomal dominant AD, leaving a critical need for studying sporadic early-onset AD (EOAD; ~10% of cases). Furthermore, the demand for clinical portability has created a need for high-sensitivity proteomic …

An Advanced Multi-Branch Recurrent Deep Learning Model For Predicting The Antibacterial Capacity Of Nanoparticles With Shap-Based Explainability, Shaimaa M.S. Zainulabdeen, Najee B. Haifaa, Iman Ali Atiyah

Muthanna Medical Journal

The antibacterial properties of nanoparticles play a crucial role in industries such as textiles, water disinfection, pharmaceuticals, and food packaging. Given the rising concerns over antibiotic resistance, metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) have emerged as a promising alternative. While machine learning techniques in nano informatics have shown encouraging results in predicting the antibacterial efficacy of nanoparticles, the application of deep learning methods in this domain remains limited. This study introduces a novel predictive model based on a multi-branch recurrent neural network, incorporating three types of recurrent cells: LSTM, BiLSTM, and GRU, to estimate the antibacterial effectiveness of nanoparticles. The proposed model …

Viral Etiologies Of Urinary Tract Infections: A Comprehensive Review, Husam Hussein Lazim

Muthanna Medical Journal

While urinary tract infections (UTIs) are predominantly caused by bacteria, this review highlights the significant and often overlooked role of viruses as etiological agents, particularly in immunocompromised populations. Viruses such as BK polyomavirus, adenovirus, cytomegalovirus (CMV), and herpes simplex virus (HSV) can directly infect the urothelium, causing conditions like hemorrhagic cystitis, dysuria, and sterile pyuria that closely mimic bacterial UTIs. Other viruses, including JC polyomavirus, varicella-zoster virus (VZV), and SARS-CoV-2, are associated with urinary tract dysfunction through different mechanisms, such as asymptomatic viruria, neurogenic pathways, or post-viral inflammation. In contrast, systemic viruses like filoviruses and hantaviruses cause acute kidney injury …

Purified Β-Glucan From Enterococcus Faecium As Antibacterial And Antibiofilm Agent Against Mdr Gram-Positive Wound Infections Causative Bacteria, Entissar Hussain Abdulhameed, Jehan Abdul Sattar Salman

Muthanna Medical Journal

Background: The investigation focused on MDR- gram positive isolated from wounds infections and assessed their ability for biofilm formation. The effect of purified β- glucan produced from E. faecium on the growth and biofilm of MDR wound isolates was studied. Methods: One hundred and thirty-five samples were collected from hospitals in Baghdad, Iraq, resulting in the isolation of nine isolates of Staphylococcus spp. and Streptococcus spp., which were grown, examined microscopically, biochemically, and identified by Vitek2. Their susceptibility to ten antibiotics were evaluated, and their capacity to produce biofilms were examined. The antibiofilm impact of pure β-glucan was evaluated after …

Study The Metabolic And Hormonal Changes In Obese And Non-Obese Women With Polycystic Overy Syndrome: Case-Control Study, Hawraa Shakir Issa, Hanaa Addai Ali

Hilla University College Journal For Medical Science

Background: Women with PCOS experience pathological symptoms like diabetes and insulin resistance (IR), obesity and being overweight, infertility, and irregular menstruation due to hormonal abnormalities.

Objectives: Study the association between metabolic and hormonal changes in PCOS.

Materials and methods: Forty-five Iraqi women with newly diagnosed PCOS, aged between 20–40 years, were divided into two groups X Obese Women with PCOS, Y Non-Obese PCOS. The samples were collected from private labs, Al-Sadr Teaching Hospital, and Al-Zahraa Hospital in the Najaf Governorate. Each was tested using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the subject’s reproductive hormones and by colorimetric methods used to …

Assessment Of Serum Levels Of Na, K, Mg, Fe+2, And Se As Potential Risk Markers In Women With Breast Cancer, Fatima Hussein Mahdi, Muthana Saleh Mashkour, Seyed Omid Ranaei Siadat, Hanaa Addai Ali, Abdulkadhim A. Hawi

Hilla University College Journal For Medical Science

Background: Breast cancer is a malignant neoplasm characterized by uncontrolled proliferation of breast epithelial cells, with potential for metastasis.

Objectives: To follow the change in the level of trace elements (TEs) and the extent to which these changes are related to the risk of breast cancer before taking chemotherapy or removing the tumor.

Materials and Methods: The case-control group had 90 Iraqi women with newly diagnosed breast cancer, alongside 90 healthy women who were matched for age and body mass index. Elements and electrolytes in the serum, such as iron, sodium, potassium, magnesium, and selenium, were measured using a spectrophotometer. …

The Role Of Interleukin 2 And Interleukin 15 In Diagnosis And Prognosis Of Celiac Disease In Children, Mustafa Ali H. Khalaf, Israa Ketab H. Al-Yasiri, Karrar Abdil-Aziz A. Beg

Hilla University College Journal For Medical Science

Background: Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune condition that affects the small intestine, triggered by the intake of gluten and related prolamines in genetically predisposed individuals. The anti-tissue tTG-IgA transglutaminase test is a primary screening method for suspected celiac disease.

Materials and Methods: Forty-five children with celiac disease were enrolled in the study, with an age range between 2–14 years, and 43 healthy subjects as the control group in the Medical City Hospital in Baghdad. The diagnosis of the disease was confirmed by Anti tissue transglutaminase (tTG) IgA and IgG antibodies, IL-2, and IL-15 using the enzyme-linked immunoassay technique (ELISA). …

Role Of Serum Chemerin In Predicting Cardiometabolic Risk: Correlation With Lipid Profile In Metabolic Syndrome, Goljameen Midhat Abdulla, Ammar Hatem Abdullateef

Hilla University College Journal For Medical Science

Background: Chemerin, is regarded as an adipose-derived hormone regulating insulin sensitivity, lipid homeostasis, adipogenesis and inflammatory responses. It has previously been shown that serum chemerin levels are linked to metabolic syndrome and cardio-metabolic risk. More knowledge of its associations with lipid profile components might improve early cardiometabolic risk stratification.

Objective: To evaluate the association of serum chemerin as a possible biomarker for Cardiometabolic Risk (CMR) and to correlate it with lipidogram parameters in the adult population with metabolic syndrome.

Methods: A case-control study with 45 individuals with metabolic syndrome and 45 healthy controls matched for age and sex. Serum chemerin …

Membrane Il-18 Identifies A Human Macrophage Subset With Distinct Proteomic And Functional Traits, Chiara Vitale, Marco Colonna, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

This study contributes to the characterization of human macrophages in normal and pathological conditions such as cancer. We characterized a macrophage population expressing membrane-associated IL-18 (mIL-18) that shows peculiar proteomic, phenotypic, ultrastructural, and functional properties. mIL-18+ macrophages exhibit increased levels of key proteins involved in pathogen recognition, activation, migration, and endocytosis. They also display specialized functions in vesicle and actin filament transport and lipid metabolism, and have typical mitochondrial traits. Importantly, mIL-18+ cells dominate the peritoneal fluid of adult cancer patients and are present in the bone marrow of children with neuroblastoma. They express high levels of TREM2 but display …

Gender Representation In Automotive Safety: The Role Of Female Crash Test Dummies, Gökçe Hilal Yavuz, Emre Arabaci, Ajab Khan Kasi

Platform: A Journal of Engineering (PAJE)

Vehicle testing is conducted to evaluate safety, durability, environmental compliance, and performance. Various tests, such as crash, performance, durability, environmental impact, and chemical safety, are conducted to ensure that vehicles meet regulatory and quality standards. In crash testing, anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs), commonly referred to as dummies, are used to simulate the effects of collisions on the human body and to assess injury risks. These dummies differ in terms of gender representation and design; for example, the Hybrid III model represents an average male, EvaRID represents a female, and WorldSID is used for side-impact evaluations. Anatomical and biomechanical differences between …

Opening Paths: Subjective And Professional Trajectories In Psychosocial Intervention For Victims Of The Armed Conflict In Colombia, Edwin Alexander Hernandez Zapata, Diana Vanessa Vivares Porras, Juan David Soto-Fadul

The Qualitative Report

In this study, we analyzed the affective experiences and labor subjectivation processes of community psychologists working in intervention programs implemented by state institutions in Colombia for victims of the armed conflict, a conflict that remains ongoing in various regions of the country. By labor subjectivation processes, we refer (drawing on Foucault) to the ways in which individuals come to relate to themselves and to others through the norms, discourses, and practices that shape their roles within a given historical and institutional context—in this case, the field of psychosocial labor. To conduct this research, we used discourse analysis and semi-structured interviews …

Future Teachers’ Views On Their Science Teachers: A Case Of Turkey, Mehmet Karakaş

The Qualitative Report

Here future elementary and middle school teachers reflect on their experiences with science teachers encountered throughout their education and highlight their characteristics. The aim of the study was to create a program where teachers were given the explicit opportunity to reflect on their experiences through journaling that promoted reflective thought. Participants were 173 non-science and 120 science major prospective teachers enrolled in a small university in northeastern Turkey. Data were collected using document analysis. Findings show that effective science teachers do experiments, use teaching materials, and show special interest in students; also, their positive personality affected students’ positive attitude towards …

Diagnostic Significance Of Aspartate Transaminase And Alanine Transaminase In Hepatitis C Patients, Mohammed N. Fenjan, Ahmed Abdulhadi Jabbar

AUIQ Conference Proceedings

Background: Hepatitis C infection is spreading worldwide at an alarming rate. Hepatitis C is a viral infection that affects the liver. It is caused by the hepatitis C virus and can lead to liver damage, cirrhosis, and even liver cancer if left untreated. The virus is usually spread through contact with infected blood, such as through sharing needles or receiving a blood transfusion, antiviral medications can be used to treat the infection. AST (aspartate aminotransferase) and ALT (alanine aminotransferase) are enzymes that are primarily found in liver cells. The present study aimed to assess the relationship between liver enzymes aspartate …

Effects Of Different Chitosan Coated Tio2 Nanoparticles Concentrations On The Antibacterial Activities, Ali M. Ghazi, Murtadha H. Hashem, Hyder K. Abbood

AUIQ Conference Proceedings

This study aimed to determine how the composition and antibacterial properties of chitosan-based coating solution when treated with varying amounts of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (NPs). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis showed that the modified TiO2 NPs were evenly distributed throughout the chitosan matrix. UV-V_spectra, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analyses demonstrated that the chitosan interacted with TiO2 NPs and possessed good compatibility. When tested against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, the chitosan-TiO2 nanocomposite proved to be an effective growth inhibitor. The inhibition zone for the antibacterial activity of the chitosan-TiO2 nanocomposites was (19.86 …

Studying The Properties Of Titanium Oxide Nanoparticles Synthesized By Laser Slow Burning Method In Liquid To Remove Heavy Metals, Mohammad R. Hantehzadeh, Elham Darabi, Hossein Algharghouli

AUIQ Conference Proceedings

Water contamination with toxic heavy metals such as lead (Pb²⁺) and cadmium (Cd²⁺) poses serious risks to human health, plants, and ecosystems, making their effective removal a global challenge. Conventional treatment methods often exhibit limited efficiency; therefore, nanotechnology-based approaches are increasingly being explored. In this study, titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO₂ NPs) incorporated into polylactic acid (PLA) nanoparticless were synthesized via electrospinning, a simple and cost-effective technique that eliminates the need for harmful chemical reagents. The nanocomposite was characterized using SEM, TEM, EDX, UV–Vis spectroscopy, XRD, FTIR, and TGA analyses. The results demonstrated uniform nanoparticles morphology …

Nanotechnology-Based Non-Vaccine Prevention And Therapeutics: Advances In Antimicrobial Nanomaterials And Targeted Drug Delivery Systems, Yasmina Khane, Salim Albukhaty

AUIQ Conference Proceedings

Infectious diseases represent a massive one-health issue that needs concerted efforts. One of the most important of these efforts involves investing in nanotechnology and the physical, chemical, and biological properties of nanomaterials to contribute to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of infectious diseases. Non-vaccine nanotechnology approaches can enhance conventional methods by blocking infection pathways and bolstering the immune system. This review emphasizes two main aspects: nanomaterials with a natural capability to kill microorganisms—focusing on antimicrobial and antiviral actions—and nano-carrier systems for controlled drug delivery, immune modulation, and inflammation management. It details the functioning of these nanomaterials and their applications, before …