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Posidonia oceanica waste biomass has been valorized to develop bioactive multifunctional cellulosic aerogels (HCAG) by simpler and greener protocols. Hydrophobization of cellulosic aerogels was achieved through PLA coating, while bioactivity was imparted by the incorporation of hydrophilic (E2) and hydrophobic extracts (E3) produced from the same biomass. The incorporation of extracts led to denser aerogels, with less porous structures. These aerogels showed outstanding water and oil sorption capacities (1500-1900%), being able to release the adsorbed liquid almost completely after 7 days. Interestingly, all the aerogels showed a positive inhibition effect (23-91%) on the β-carotene bleaching assay. Moreover, the aerogels loaded with extracts, especially when combining E2 and E3, were able to reduce the oxidation of lipids and oxymyoglobin in red meat after 10 days of storage. This evidences the potential of these multifunctional aerogels as bioactive adsorbing pads to preserve the quality of fresh packaged foods.Historically, lignin has been produced as a waste by-product in industrial processes. In this study, lignosulfonate nanoparticles were fabricated and freeze-dried for use as a precursor material for carbonization. The use of the carbonized lignins for the adsorption of textile effluent as a value-added application is demonstrated. Characterization of the as received lignin (LN) and the developed nano-based freeze-dried lignin (NFLN) were performed prior to and after carbonization at 600, 750, 900 and 1050 °C. Using probe sonication, lignosulfonates were broken down into nanoparticles with lower weight-average molecular weight as verified by dynamic and static light scattering techniques. The difference between the LN and the NFLN was determined to be primarily morphological as the sonication and freeze-drying process imparted a platelet-like shape to the NFLN biocarbons and an increased surface area, while the remaining functionality was similar. The adsorption behaviour of methylene blue (MB), a synthetic cationic dye, was investigated using adsorption isotherm and kinetic models, with the NFLN exhibiting a maximum adsorption capacity of 109.77 mg/g. Overall, electrostatic attraction and hydrogen bonding contribute significantly to the MB adsorption. Further preliminary work was also performed demonstrating the coating of polyurethane foam for the adsorption of MB. These renewable biocarbons show promising properties for use as additive in adsorbent, coating, pigment or as a filler in polymer composite applications.Mandarin (Citrus reticulata L.) essential oil (MEO) reportedly displays excellent antimicrobial properties. In this study, MEO was loaded into chitosan nanoparticles (CSNPs). The characteristics, antibacterial properties and benefit in pork preservation of MEO-CSNPs were evaluated. The MEO-CSNPs displayed an excellent encapsulation efficiency (EE) (67.32%-82.35%), the particle size values of 131.3 nm-161.9 nm, and the absolute zeta potential values above 30 mV. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed that the MEO was incorporated into CSNPs without requiring a chemical reaction, the antibacterial activity of the MEO remained. Furthermore, the damage of MEO-chitosan nanoemulsions (MEO-CSs) to the cell membranes of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) was confirmed by the change of bacterial cell morphology. The anti-biofilm assays verified that the MEO-CSs substantially inhibited biofilm formation and destroyed the mature biofilms. MEO-CSs were also applied to pork, proving a great potential for pork preservation. This study provides a potential approach for developing and utilizing MEO-CSs as natural antimicrobial agents in the food industry.Hepatic cancer is one of the most widespread maladies worldwide that requires urgent therapies and thus reliable means for testing anti-cancer drugs. The switch from two-dimensional (2D) to three-dimensional (3D) cell cultures produced an improvement in the in vitro outcomes for testing anti-cancer drugs. We aimed to develop a novel hyaluronic acid (HA)-based 3D cell model of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2 cells) for drug testing and to assess comparatively in 3D vs. find more 2D, the cytotoxicity and the apoptotic response to the anti-tumor agent, cisplatin. The 3D model was developed by seeding HepG2 cells in a HA/poly(methylvinylether-alt-maleic acid) (HA3P50)-based scaffold. Compared to 2D, the cells grown in the HA3P50 scaffold proliferate into larger-cellular aggregates that exhibit liver-like functions by controlling the release of hepatocyte-specific biomarkers (albumin, urea, bile acids, transaminases) and the synthesis of cytochrome-P450 (CYP)7A1 enzyme. Also, growing the cells in the scaffold sensitize the hepatocytes to the anti-tumor effect of cisplatin, by a mechanism involving the activation of ERK/p38α-MAPK and dysregulation of NF-kB/STAT3/Bcl-2 pathways. In conclusion, the newly developed HA-based 3D model is suitable for chemotherapeutic drug testing on hepatocellular carcinoma. Moreover, the system can be adapted and employed as experimental platform functioning as a proper tissue/tumor surrogate.This paper presents a new thermal sensitive hydrogel system based on cystamine-functionalised sodium alginate-g-pluronic F127 (ACP). The introduction of cystamine to the alginate backbone not only creates a covalent bond with pluronic F127 but also provides intrinsic anti-bacterial activity for the resultant hydrogel. The amount of water uptake inside the hydrogel remained ~200% for 6 days and the degradation was completed in 12 days in physiological media. The ACP copolymer solution could form a hydrogel at body temperature (~37 °C) and could return to the solution phase if the temperature decreased below 25o °C. Fibroblast encapsulated in situ in the ACP hydrogel maintained their viability (≥90% based on the live/dead assay) for 7 days, demonstrating the good biocompatibility of the ACP hydrogel for long-term cell cultivation. In addition, three-dimensional (3D) culture showed that fibroblast attached to the hydrogels and successfully mimicked the porous structure of the ACP hydrogel after 5 days of culture. Fibroblast cells could migrate from the cell-ACP clusters and form a confluent cell layer on the surface of the culture dish. Altogether, the obtained results indicate that the thermal-responsive ACP hydrogel synthesised in this study may serve as a cellular delivery platform for diverse tissue engineering applications.The effects of a novel Flammulina velutipes polysaccharide (FVP) on intestinal microbiota, immune repertoire and heart transcriptome were investigated in this study. The results showed that FVP treatment could effectively regulate the abundance of colonic microbiota. And FVP exhibited obvious immunoregulatory effect by influencing V gene and J gene fragments usage on TCRα chain. The usage frequency of TRBV1, TRBJ1-6 and TRBJ1-5 were significantly altered, and 41 V-J pairs were identified with obvious difference after FVP treatment. Furthermore, the mRNA of mice heart was analyzed by transcriptome assay. Total 525 genes and 1587 mRNA were significantly changed after FVP treatment. KEGG annotation indicated that the up-regulated mRNA was enriched in 17 pathways including adherens junction, mTOR signaling pathway, insulin signaling pathway, mitophagy, tight junction, PPAR signaling pathway and TNF signaling pathway, etc. Meanwhile, the down-regulated mRNA was gathered in AMPK signaling pathway, metabolism of xenobiotics by cytochrome P450, apelin signaling pathway, PPAR signaling pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, insulin signaling pathway, cardiac muscle contraction, adrenergic signaling in cardiomyocytes, Fc gamma R-mediated phagocytosis, etc. The great potential exhibited by FVP could make it an ideal candidate as complementary medicine or functional food for promotion of health.Chitosan microspheres (CMS) by the emulsion-chemical cross-linking method with and without lysozyme immobilization were synthesized and characterized. The technique conditions were adjusted, and spherical particles with approximate diameters of 3.74 ± 1.08 μm and 0. 29 ± 0.029 μm to CMS and chitosan-lysozyme microspheres (C-LMS), respectively, were obtained. The microspheres were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Spectroscopy Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and zeta potential. Particle size was identified by laser light scattering (DLS) and the thermal properties by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Thermogravimetry (TGA) were determined. By the lysis of Micrococcus lysodeikticus, the activity of the microspheres was determined, and the results correlated with the amount of lysozyme used in the immobilization process and the enzyme loading efficiency was 67%. Finally, release tests pointed out the amount of enzyme immobilized on the microsphere surface. These results showed that chitosan microspheres could be used as material for lysozyme immobilization by cross-linking technique. The antimicrobial activity was tested by inhibition percent determination, and it evidenced both chitosan microspheres (CMS) and chitosan-lysozyme microspheres (C-LMS) positive antimicrobial activity to Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.The exopolysaccharide preparation of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens amy-1 (EPS) regulates glycemic levels and promotes glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) secretion in vivo and in vitro. This study aimed to identify the molecular mechanism underlying EPS-induced GLP-1 secretion. HEK293T cells stably expressing human Gα-gustducin were used as a heterologous system for expressing the genes of human bitter taste receptor (T2R) 10, 14, 30, 38 (PAV), 38 (AVI), 43, and 46, which were expressed as recombinant proteins with an N-terminal tag composed of a Lucy peptide and a human somatostatin receptor subtype 3 fragment for membrane targeting and a C-terminal red fluorescent protein for expression monitoring. EPS induced a dose-dependent calcium response from the human NCI-H716 enteroendocrine cell line revealed by fluorescent calcium imaging, but inhibitors of the G protein-coupled receptor pathway suppressed the response. EPS activated heterologously expressed T2R14 and T2R38 (PAV). shRNAs of T2R14 effectively inhibited EPS-induced calcium response and GLP-1 secretion in NCI-H716 cells, suggesting the involvement of T2R14 in these effects. The involvement of T2R38 was not characterized because NCI-H716 cells express T2R38 (AVI). In conclusion, the activation of T2Rs mediates EPS-induced GLP-1 secretion from enteroendocrine cells, and T2R14 is a critical target activated by EPS in these cells.Advanced melanoma patients that are not included in common genetic classificatory groups lack effective and safe therapeutic options. Chemotherapy and immunotherapy show unsatisfactory results and devastating adverse effects for these called triple wild-type patients. New approaches exploring the intrinsic antitumor properties of gold nanoparticles might reverse this scenario as a safer and more effective alternative. Therefore, we investigated the efficacy and safety of a composite made of gum arabic-functionalized gold nanorods (GA-AuNRs) against triple wild-type melanoma. The natural polymer gum arabic successfully stabilized the nanorods in the biological environment and was essential to improve their biocompatibility. In vivo results obtained from treating triple wild-type melanoma-bearing mice showed that GA-AuNRs remarkably reduced primary tumor growth by 45%. Furthermore, GA-AuNRs induced tumor histological features associated with better prognosis while also reducing superficial lung metastasis depth and the incidence of intrapulmonary metastasis.