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Topic Review
Nanomaterials in the Management of Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections
The exploration of multiplexed bacterial virulence factors is a major problem in the early stages of Escherichia coli infection therapy. Traditional methods for detecting Escherichia coli (E. coli), such as serological experiments, immunoassays, polymerase chain reaction, and isothermal microcalorimetry have some drawbacks. As a result, detecting E. coli in a timely, cost-effective, and sensitive manner is critical for various areas of human safety and health. Intelligent devices based on nanotechnology are paving the way for fast and early detection of E. coli at the point of care. Due to their specific optical, magnetic, and electrical capabilities, nanostructures can play an important role in bacterial sensors. Another one of the applications involved use of nanomaterials in fighting microbial infections, including E. coli mediated infections. Various types of nanomaterials, either used directly as an antibacterial agent such as metallic nanoparticles (NPs) (silver, gold, zinc, etc.), or as a nanocarrier to deliver and target the antibiotic to the E. coli and its infected area. Among different types, polymeric NPs, lipidic nanocarriers, metallic nanocarriers, nanomicelles, nanoemulsion/ nanosuspension, dendrimers, graphene, etc. proved to be effective vehicles to deliver the drug in a controlled fashion at the targeted site with lower off-site drug leakage and side effects.
  • 858
  • 20 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Developments in Innovative Detection Methods in Complex Samples
New microbiological quality control methods have emerged, some of which have been shown to deliver results in shorter periods than conventional ones, opening the possibility of earlier corrective actions. In particular, removing the culture step provides faster or even real-time results. Moreover, these new innovative techniques can improve the sensitivity, correlated with the limit of detection (LOD), and/or the specificity, i.e., reducing false positive. Other developments include facilitating automation or reducing either the size or the cost of the device.
  • 858
  • 27 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Antimicrobial Stewardship Optimization
Antimicrobials are a type of agent widely used to prevent various microbial infections in humans and animals. Antimicrobial resistance is a major cause of clinical antimicrobial therapy failure, and it has become a major public health concern around the world. Increasing the development of multiple antimicrobials has become available for humans and animals with no appropriate guidance. As a result, inappropriate use of antimicrobials has significantly produced antimicrobial resistance. However, an increasing number of infections such as sepsis are untreatable due to this antimicrobial resistance. In either case, life-saving drugs are rendered ineffective in most cases. The actual causes of antimicrobial resistance are complex and versatile. A lack of adequate health services, unoptimized use of antimicrobials in humans and animals, poor water and sanitation systems, wide gaps in access and research and development in healthcare technologies, and environmental pollution have vital impacts on antimicrobial resistance.
  • 857
  • 25 May 2022
Topic Review
Plant-Microbe Interactions under the Extreme Habitats
Plant-microbe associations define a key interaction and have significant ecological and biotechnological perspectives. In recent times, plant-associated microbes from extreme environments have been extensively explored for their multifaceted benefits to plants and the environment, thereby gaining momentum in global research. Plant-associated extremophiles highlight ubiquitous occurrences, inhabiting extreme habitats and exhibiting enormous diversity. The remarkable capacity of extremophiles to exist in extreme environmental conditions is attributed to the evolution of adaptive mechanisms in these microbes at genetic and physiological levels. In addition, the plant-associated extremophiles have a major impact in promoting plant growth and development and conferring stress tolerance to the host plant, thereby contributing immensely to plant adaptation and survival in extreme conditions.
  • 855
  • 04 Mar 2024
Topic Review
β-Glucosidase in Bioconversion of Ginsenosides in Panax ginseng
Ginsenosides are a group of bioactive compounds isolated from Panax ginseng. Conventional major ginsenosides have a long history of use in traditional medicine for both illness prevention and therapy. Bioconversion processes have the potential to create new and valuable products in pharmaceutical and biological activities, making them both critical for research and highly economic to implement. This has led to an increase in the number of studies that use major ginsenosides as a precursor to generate minor ones using β-glucosidase. Minor ginsenosides may also have useful properties but are difficult to isolate from raw ginseng because of their scarcity. Bioconversion processes have the potential to create novel minor ginsenosides from the more abundant major ginsenoside precursors in a cost-effective manner. While numerous bioconversion techniques have been developed, an increasing number of studies have reported that β-glucosidase can effectively and specifically generate minor ginsenosides. 
  • 853
  • 11 May 2023
Topic Review
Neglected Human Systemic Mycoses Diagnosis
Systemic mycoses have been viewed as neglected diseases and they are responsible for deaths and disabilities around the world. Rapid, low-cost, simple, highly-specific and sensitive diagnostic tests are critical components of patient care, disease control and active surveillance. 
  • 851
  • 29 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Tissue Engineering Challenges for Cultivated Meat
Cultivated meat (CM) technology has the potential to disrupt the food industry—indeed, it is already an inevitable reality. This new technology is an alternative to solve the environmental, health and ethical issues associated with the demand for meat products. The global market longs for biotechnological improvements for the CM production chain. CM, also known as cultured, cell-based, lab-grown, in vitro or clean meat, is obtained through cellular agriculture, which is based on applying tissue engineering principles. In practice, it is first necessary to choose the best cell source and type, and then to furnish the necessary nutrients, growth factors and signalling molecules via cultivation media.
  • 850
  • 07 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Kinetic Modeling of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Central Carbon Metabolism
Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a model organism in eukaryote cell research and the workhorse for the biotechnology industry. In nature and the industrial setup, environmental perturbations act as stressing factors which challenge regulation of metabolic flux and can also lead to reduced performance in industrial applications.
  • 847
  • 29 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Green Technologies for Nannochloropsis Fatty Acids Extraction
Nannochloropsis is a genus of microalgae widely recognized as potential sources of distinct lipids, particularly polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). These may be obtained through extraction, which has conventionally been performed using hazardous organic solvents. To substitute such solvents with “greener” alternatives, several technologies have been studied to increase their extraction potential. Distinct technologies utilize different principles to achieve such objective; while some aim at disrupting the cell walls of the microalgae, others target the extraction per se. While some methods have been utilized independently, several technologies have also been combined, which has proven to be an effective strategy.
  • 847
  • 05 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Bioactivities of Phenalenones
Phenaloenones are structurally unique aromatic polyketides that have been reported in both microbial and plant sources. They possess a hydroxy perinaphthenone three-fused-ring system and exhibit diverse bioactivities, such as cytotoxic, antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-HIV properties, and tyrosinase, α-glucosidase, lipase, AchE (acetylcholinesterase), indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1, angiotensin-I-converting enzyme, and tyrosine phosphatase inhibition. They have a rich nucleophilic nucleus that has inspired many chemists and biologists to synthesize more of these related derivatives. 
  • 845
  • 28 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Bioactive Molecules in Micro and Macroalgae
Many algae synthesize compounds that have exceptional properties of nutraceutical, pharmacological, and biomedical interest. Pigments, fatty acids, phenols, and polysaccharides are among the main compounds investigated so far. Polysaccharides are the most exploited compounds, widely used in pharmaceutical, food, and chemical industries, which are entering into more advanced applications by gaining importance, from a therapeutic point of view, as antioxidant, antimicrobial, antitumor, and immunomodulatory agents. Establishing algae as an alternative supplement would complement the sustainable and environmental requirements in the framework of human health and well-being. 
  • 844
  • 14 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Plant-Based CTB-INS Oral Vaccines
Oral delivery of tissue-specific autoantigens may be helpful for the clinical prevention of spontaneous autoimmune diabetes. However, the therapeutic potential has been restricted by the need for recurrent delivery of large amounts of autoantigen, and tolerance is often less successful in already sensitized hosts. These limitations were overcome by transporting chemically conjugated autoantigens for the induction of oral tolerance utilizing the nontoxic B subunit of cholera toxin (CTB).  
  • 842
  • 18 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Small Proteins in Cyanobacterial Biotechnology
In cyanobacteria, many enzymes and metabolic pathways are regulated differently compared to other bacteria. For instance, while glutamine synthetase in proteobacteria is mainly regulated by covalent enzyme modifications, the same enzyme in cyanobacteria is controlled by the interaction with unique small proteins. Other prominent examples, such as the small protein CP12 which controls the Calvin–Benson cycle, indicate that the regulation of enzymes and/or pathways via the attachment of small proteins might be a widespread mechanism in cyanobacteria. Hence, small proteins might pose a promising addition to the existing tool box for molecular engineering of cyanobacteria.
  • 839
  • 23 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Aptamers in Virology - HIV
Aptamers are oligonucleotides or peptide molecules that bind specifically to a variety of targets, often inhibiting protein–protein interactions. 
  • 837
  • 13 Oct 2021
Topic Review
PGPB and Microalgae for Restoration of Degraded Soil
Plant-growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) are bacterial strains isolated from diverse environments with the potential to positively influence the growth and yield of diverse plants, mostly of agricultural importance. Microalgae (including cyanobacteria) and PGPB can be used as promoters of soil recovery.
  • 836
  • 29 May 2023
Topic Review
Influenza A (H7N9) Human Adaptation
Avian influenza virus A (H7N9), after circulating in avian hosts for decades, was identified as a human pathogen in 2013. Herein, we focus on the quantification of the virus diversity and the identification of amino acid substitutions that are possibly essential for human adaptation.
  • 835
  • 14 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Microfluidic Devices for Isolation of Circulating Tumor Cells
CTCs (circulating tumor cells) are well-known for their use in clinical trials for tumor diagnosis. Capturing and isolating these CTCs from whole blood samples has enormous benefits in cancer diagnosis and treatment. In general, various approaches are being used to separate malignant cells, including immunomagnets, macroscale filters, centrifuges, dielectrophoresis, and immunological approaches. These procedures, on the other hand, are time-consuming and necessitate multiple high-level operational protocols. In addition, considering their low efficiency and throughput, the processes of capturing and isolating CTCs face tremendous challenges. Meanwhile, recent advances in microfluidic devices promise unprecedented advantages for capturing and isolating CTCs with greater efficiency, sensitivity, selectivity and accuracy. In a very short span of time, microfluidics has emerged in several technological advancements. There are a variety of materials for microfluidic device fabrication, each with different properties according to the requirements. Based on the required specific characteristics of the fabrication material and product requirements, different techniques are used for the development of the device. Another major aspect is the cost of the involved material. In most cases, used devices are disposed of. Thus, the method involved should be economically feasible.
  • 834
  • 21 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Tackling Colorants Sustainability
Colors play a key role in our lives: our clothes, our cars, and the furniture in our houses come with a wide range of choices when it comes to hues, inks, and paints. Since the accidental synthesis of the first synthetic aniline dye, mauveine, by William Perkin in 1856, the range of dye molecules available has widened and entered not only the textile, food, and cosmetic fields but also the pharmaceutical, plastics, ink, and packaging industries. As consumers, we mainly see them as a way of expressing our personal taste, mood, or personality and usually pay little attention to their origin and production process. As scientists, we are fascinated by the chemical processes behind them and, at the same time, mindful of the hazards they pose to the environment. This research highlights the importance not only of biotechnological approaches but also of a sustainable leadership to achieve a future-proof fashion industry. Science has been producing sustainable alternatives to counter the issue of dyes, but this is not enough. A change in the business attitude and leadership approach of the organizations that operate in the industry is needed. Only through the successful combination of new technologies and forward-looking decision-making will it be possible to alter the status quo and deal with the multiple environmental challenges that businesses are and will be facing.
  • 834
  • 07 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Nucleic Acid Drugs Delivery Carriers
Nucleic acid drugs are not readily permeable through cell membranes and often exhibit poor blood serum stability, rapid renal clearance and poor endosomal escape/cytoplasmic escape. Therefore, they are commonly used in combination with drug delivery system (DDS) carriers. The drug carrier plays an important role in the process of drug delivery. 
  • 832
  • 04 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Alveolar NLRP3 Inflammasome Regulators
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), is a successful intracellular pathogen that is responsible for the highest mortality rate among diseases caused by bacterial infections. During early interaction with the host innate cells, M. tuberculosis cell surface antigens interact with Toll like receptor 4 (TLR4) to activate the nucleotide-binding domain, leucine-rich-repeat containing family, pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) canonical, and non-canonical inflammasome pathways. NLRP3 inflammasome activation in the alveoli has been reported to contribute to the early inflammatory response that is needed for an effective anti-TB response through production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including those of the Interleukin 1 (IL1) family. However, overstimulation of the alveolar NLRP3 inflammasomes can induce excessive inflammation that is pathological to the host. Several studies have explored the use of medicinal plants and/or their active derivatives to inhibit excessive stimulation of the inflammasomes and its associated factors, thus reducing immunopathological response in the host. This review describes the molecular mechanism of the NLRP3 inflammasome activation in the alveoli during M. tuberculosis infection. Furthermore, the mechanisms of inflammasome inhibition using medicinal plant and their derivatives will also be explored, thus offering a novel perspective on the alternative control strategies of M. tuberculosis-induced immunopathology. 
  • 832
  • 24 Nov 2021
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