Impact of environmental biofilms: Industrial components and its remediation

The growth of technology and requirements globally for various commodities has brought about new challenges. Biofilms are aggregations of microbial cells, which contaminate and spoil industrial components and environments. These microbial cells with extracellular polymeric substances colonize living and nonliving surfaces and pose a serious problem for all industries, affecting their processes, leading to a reduction of product quality and economic loss. Industries, such as medical, food, water, dairy, wine, marine, power plants are exposed to biofilm formation. Pipe blockages, waterlogging and reduction of the heat-transfer efficiency, hamper the operating system of plants. Many industries do not set up remedial measures to control biofilm formation as they are not aware of this threat. Various conventional methods to control these biofilms are adopted by industries in their regular workflow, but these are temporary solutions. This calls for further research into remediation of the biofilm and its control for industrial components. This review article addresses the problems of biofilms and proposes solutions for various industrial components. Nanotechnology promises several options, and bring about a new aspect into the industrial economy, by solving the problems of environmental biofilms.     

On the Production of Chitosan-Coated Polycaprolactone Nanoparticles in a Confined Impinging Jet Reactor

This work is focused on the synthesis of polycaprolactone nanoparticles, coated with chitosan, in a confined impinging jet reactor using the solvent displacement method. The role of the various reacting species was investigated, evidencing that a biocompatible polymer, for example, polycaprolactone, is required to support chitosan to obtain a monomodal particle size distribution, with low particle diameters. A surfactant is required to reduce the nanoparticle size (down to a mean diameter of about 260 nm) and obtain a positive zeta potential (about +31 mV), perfectly suitable for pharmaceutical applications. Different surfactants were tested, and Poloxamer 388 appeared to be preferable to polyvinyl alcohol. The effect of the concentration of Poloxamer 388 (in the range 0.5-5 mg mL^?1) and of chitosan (in the range 1.5-5 mg mL^?1) on both the mean particle size and zeta potential was also investigated, evidencing that chitosan concentration has the strongest effect on both parameters. Finally, the effect of solvent evaporation, quenching and feed flow rate was investigated, showing that the evaporation stage does not affect particle characteristics, quenching is required to avoid particle aggregation, and a minimum liquid flow rate of 80 mL min^?1 is required in the considered reactor to minimize the particle size.     

Drug delivery targets and systems for targeted treatment of rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an immune-mediated inflammatory disease that selectively attacks human joints. The common non-targeted treatment approaches lead to obvious side effect and systemtic complication for RA patients. Therefore, targeted drug delivery for treatment of RA has gained much attetntion in the past few years. In this paper, we reviewed the potential targets (folate receptor, angiogenesis, matrix metalloproteases, selectins, vasoactive intestinal peptide receptor andFc-γ receptor) that could be utilised to facilitate the specific delivery of drugs to the inflammed synovium and also presented different drug delivery systems for targeting RA, including the liposomes, various types of nanoparticles, polymeric micelles and the macromolecular prodrugs. The strategies combining nanotechnologies and ligand mediated active targeting for RA would be emphatically illustrated, which was expected to be helpful for identifying technologies and drug delivery methods for targeted treatment of RA.     

Strategies to improve quality of life in patients with head and neck cancer: microvascular surgery to nanotechnology

Educational Objectives: 1. Learn selection of microvascular free flaps to improve functional outcome.     

Phytochemical constituents,biological activities,and health‐promoting effects of the genus Origanum

Origanum species are mostly distributed around the Mediterranean, Euro‐Siberian, and Iran‐Siberian regions. Since time immemorial, the genus has popularly been used in Southern Europe, as well as on the American continent as a spice now known all over the world under the name “oregano” or “pizza‐spice.” Origanum plants are also employed to prepare bitter tinctures, wines, vermouths, beer, and kvass. The major components of Origanum essential oil are various terpenes, phenols, phenolic acids, and flavonoids with predominant occurrence of carvacrol and thymol (with reasonable amounts of p‐cymen and ‐terpinene) or of terpinene‐4‐ol, linalool, and sabinene hydrate. Many species of Origanum genus are used to treat kidney, digestive, nervous, and respiratory disorders, spasms, sore throat, diabetes, lean menstruation, hypertension, cold, insomnia, toothache, headache, epilepsy, urinary tract infections, etc. Origanum essential oil showed potent bioactivities owing to its major constituents' carvacrol, thymol, and monoterpenes. Several preclinical studies evidenced its pharmacological potential as antiproliferative or anticancer, antidiabetic, antihyperlipidemic, anti‐obesity, renoprotective, antiinflammatory, vasoprotective, cardioprotective, antinociceptive, insecticidal, and hepatoprotective properties. Its nanotechnological applications as a promising pharmaceutical in order to enhance the solubility, physicochemical stability, and the accumulation rate of its essential oils have been investigated. However, Origanum has been reported causing angioedema, perioral dermatitis, allergic reaction, inhibition of platelet aggregation, hypoglycemia, and abortion. Conclusive evidences are still required for its clinical applications against human medical conditions. Toxicity analyses and risk assessment will aid to its safe and efficacious application. In addition, elaborate structure–activity studies are needed to explore the potential use of Origanum‐derived phytochemicals as promising drug candidates.     

Negative biomarker-based male fertility evaluation: sperm phenotypes associated with molecular-level anomalies

Biomarker-based sperm analysis elevates the treatment of human infertility and ameliorates reproductive performance in livestock. The negative biomarker-based approach focuses on proteins and ligands unique to defective spermatozoa, regardless of their morphological phenotype, lending itself to analysis by flow cytometry (FC). A prime example is the spermatid specific thioredoxin SPTRX3/TXNDC8, retained in the nuclear vacuoles and superfluous cytoplasm of defective human spermatozoa. Infertile couples with high semen SPTRX3 are less likely to conceive by assisted reproductive therapies (ART) and more prone to recurrent miscarriage while low SPTRX3 has been associated with multiple ART births. Ubiquitin, a small, proteolysis-promoting covalent posttranslational protein modifier is found on the surface of defective posttesticular spermatozoa and in the damaged protein aggregates, the aggresomes of spermiogenic origin. Semen ubiquitin content correlates negatively with fertility and conventional semen parameters, and with sperm binding of lectins LCA (Lens culinaris agglutinin; reveals altered sperm surface) and PNA (Arachis hypogaea/peanut agglutinin; reveals acrosomal malformation or damage). The Postacrosomal Sheath WWI Domain Binding Protein (PAWP), implicated in oocyte activation during fertilization, is ectopic or absent from defective human and animal spermatozoa. Consequently, FC-parameters of PAWP correlate with ART outcomes in infertile couples and with fertility in bulls. Assays based on the above biomarkers have been combined into multiplex FC semen screening protocols, and the surface expression of lectins and ubiquitin has been utilized to develop nanoparticle-based bull semen purification method validated by field artificial insemination trials. These advances go hand-in-hand with the innovation of FC-technology and genomics/proteomics-based biomarker discovery.     

Exploitation of microbial forensics and nanotechnology for the monitoring of emerging pathogens

Emerging infectious diseases remain among the leading causes of global mortality. Traditional laboratory diagnostic approaches designed to detect and track infectious disease agents provide a framework for surveillance of bio threats. However, surveillance and outbreak investigations using such time-consuming approaches for early detection of pathogens remain the major pitfall. Hence, reasonable real-time surveillance systems to anticipate threats to public health and environment are critical for identifying specific aetiologies and preventing the global spread of infectious disease. The current review discusses the growing need for monitoring and surveillance of pathogens with the same zeal and approach as adopted by microbial forensics laboratories, and further strengthening it by integrating with the innovative nanotechnology for rapid detection of microbial pathogens. Such innovative diagnostics platforms will help to track pathogens from high risk areas and environment by pre-emptive approach that will minimize damages. The various scenarios with the examples are discussed where the high risk associated human pathogens in particular were successfully detected using various nanotechnology approaches with potential future prospects in the field of microbial forensics.     

Current status of micro/nanomotors in drug delivery

Abstract

Synthetic micro/nanomotors (MNMs) are novel, self-propelled nano or microscale devices that are widely used in drug transport, cell stimulation and isolation, bio-imaging, diagnostic and monitoring, sensing, photocatalysis and environmental remediation. Various preparation methods and propulsion mechanisms make MNMs “tailormade” nanosystems for the intended purpose or use. As the one of the newest members of nano carriers, MNMs open a new perspective especially for rapid drug transport and gene delivery. Although there exists limited number of in-vivo studies for drug delivery purposes, existence of in-vitro supportive data strongly encourages researchers to move on in this field and benefit from the manoeuvre capability of these novel systems. In this article, we reviewed the preparation and propulsion mechanisms of nanomotors in various fields with special attention to drug delivery systems.     

Nanotechnology for targeted cancer therapy

Cancer nanotechnology is currently under intense development for applications in cancer imaging, molecular diagnosis and targeted therapy. The basic rationale is that nanometer-sized particles, such as biodegradable micelles, semiconductor quantum dots and iron oxide nanocrystals, have functional or structural properties that are not available from either molecular or macroscopic agents. When linked with biotargeting ligands, such as monoclonal antibodies, peptides or small molecules, these nanoparticles are used to target malignant tumors with high affinity and specificity. In the ‘mesoscopic’ size range of 5–100 nm in diameter, nanoparticles also have large surface areas and functional groups for conjugating to multiple diagnostic (e.g., optical, radioisotopic or magnetic) and therapeutic (e.g., anticancer) agents. Recent advances have led to multifunctional nanoparticle probes for molecular and cellular imaging, nanoparticle drugs for targeted therapy, and integrated nanodevices for early cancer detection and screening. These developments have opened exciting opportunities for personalized oncology in which cancer detection, diagnosis and therapy are tailored to each individual’s molecular profile, and also for predictive oncology, in which genetic/molecular information is used to predict tumor development, progression and clinical outcome.