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Topic Review
Cardiac Glycosides
Cardiac glycosides (CG’s) are naturally occurring biologically active small molecules, used to diagnose a diversity of heart diseases such as congestive heart failure and cardiac arrhythmia. The story of CG’s started over 100 years ago when Sir William Withering reported the use of foxglove plant for treating “dropsy” associated with congestive heart failure and the foxglove plant (Digitalis purpurea) was still in the use for the extraction of Digoxin, a cardiac glycoside used to treat congestive heart failures (Johnson., 2012). The core structure of CGs comprises a steroid nucleus attached to a five-membered lactone ring (cardenolide) or six-membered lactone rings (bufadienolides) along with sugar moieties. Major plant-derived CGs were obtained from plant families of Apocynaceae, Scrophulariaceae, and Asparagaceae (Thevitia neriifolia, Neerium oleander, Digitalis purpurea, Digitalis lanata, Urginea maritime, and Strophanthus kombe). Structurally, all these contain a core steroid nucleus connected with sugar moiety at C3 position and lactone moiety at C17 position (Figure 1.3). The pharmacological significance of all the CG’s lies in the core steroid confirmation that contains A/B and C/D cis- portions and the properties such as pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics lie between the confined sugars molecules (Pongrakhananon., 2013). Apart from the plant sources, CG’s were also isolated from several animal species such as bufadienolide was isolated from frogs, and also mammalian tissues contain a cardiac glycoside which is similar to endogenous digitalis (Melero et al., 2000). Quite a few studies have conveyed that the human body does contain a lot more CG’s in different parts. For example, the plasma membrane contains Ouabain and Proscillaridin A and human urine contains digoxin and marinobufagenin whereas human lenses consist of 19-norbufalin (Schoner and Scheiner-Bobis., 2007). In the year 1785, William Withering was the first person to use a digitalis compound from Digitalis purpurea to treat congestive heart failures. Currently, Digoxin is used for treating congestive heart failures. The mechanism of action of Digoxin is that it can inhibit the sodium-potassium pump (Na+/K+-ATPase). Living organisms maintain more percentage of K+ within the cell and less percentage of Na+. However, the scenario at the outside of the cell is quite opposite to the intracellular conditions where a high percentage of Na+ and less percentage of K+ will be maintained. Hence, there is a concentration incline that exists between the outside and inside cellular environments, which will be maintained by sodium-potassium pump. The Na+/K+-ATPase is recognized as a transmembrane protein whose functions are to maintain ionic balance in the heart tissue. Na+/K+-ATPase utilizes ATP as the whole energy source, to exchange two K+ ions inside the cell and pushes three Na+ ions outside to maintain intra cellular homeostasis. Also, Na+/K+-ATPase transports glucose and amino acids by keeping less concentration of Na+ within the cell and helps in the maintenance of electrochemical incline. The increment of the Na+ level inside the cell retort to CGs fortifies the ion exchange mechanism. This leads to the expansion of intracellular Ca2+ percentage which therefore promotes organelle instances such as myocardial contractibility, and generates optimistic inotropic effects in the heart cell with CGs (Kaplan., 2002).  
  • 1.9K
  • 12 Aug 2020
Topic Review
High-Throughput Sequencing in Aptamer selection
Aptamers, short single-stranded DNA or RNA molecules capable of specific binding to a target of interest, are gaining in research interest due to their versatile application potential as analytical, diagnostic, and therapeutics agents.
  • 1.9K
  • 05 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Methanogens in industrial wastewater treatment
Anaerobic biotechnology is commonly used for treating high-strength wastewaters from different industries. Properties of wastewater vary across industries and significantly affect microbiome composition in the anaerobic reactor. Methanogenic archaea play a crucial role during anaerobic wastewater treatment.
  • 1.9K
  • 22 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Biosensors for Malaria Biomarkers
This entry discusses recent advances in the development of biosensors for the purposes of malaria diagnostics. It underscore relevant challenges that have defined the gap between biosensor development and their successful utilization in routine clinical practice within resource-limitted settings. It proposes a way to think about developing biosensors that are suitable for biomedical diagnostics applications.
  • 1.8K
  • 30 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Lactic Acid Production Technologies
The lactic acid annual global market in 2020 was valued at 1.1 billion US dollars and is expected to have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8% from 2021 to 2028. Lactic acid usage in end-use industries such as pharmaceuticals, biomedicals, foods, and beverages drives demand over the forecast period. Lactic acid is produced through chemical or microbial fermentative processes.
  • 1.8K
  • 10 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Synthetic Biology and Its Application in Bioremediation
Synthetic biology is a scientific field based on biology and engineering principles, with the purpose of redesigning and restructuring microorganisms to optimize or create new biological systems with enhanced features. Developing innovative, fast, safe, and cost-effective techniques for elimination of pollutants is of great importance. For this reason, the use of this discipline offers improvement of bioremediation processes. 
  • 1.8K
  • 15 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Fungal Pellets Towards Heavy Metals
The biosorption on fungal pellets is getting attention as an attractive water remediation technique, as it offers an enhanced biomass separation and a high resilience in severe environmental conditions. In this entry, biosorption capacity of fungal pellets towards heavy metals was reviewed. Available data about the adsorption capacity of pellets, their removal efficiency, and the operational conditions used were collected and synthesized. It was found that the biosorption of complex mixtures of pollutants on fungal pellets is scarcely studied, as well as the interfering effect of anions commonly found in water and wastewater. Furthermore, there is a lack of research with real wastewater and at pilot and large scale. These topics need to be further explored to take full advantage of fungal pellets on improving the quality of aquatic systems.
  • 1.8K
  • 04 May 2021
Topic Review
Microalgae
Recently, microalgal biotechnology has received increasing interests in producing valuable, sustainable and environmentally friendly bioproducts. The development of economically viable production processes entails resolving certain limitations of microalgal biotechnology, and fast evolving genetic engineering technologies have emerged as new tools to overcome these limitations. 
  • 1.8K
  • 05 May 2022
Topic Review
Cyanobacteria: Model Microorganisms and Beyond
Cyanobacteria, also formerly called “blue-green algae”, are photosynthetic prokaryotes with ~3500 million years of existence on the planet earth. They live in a diverse range of environments, from freshwater and marine to terrestrial ecosystems. Cyanobacteria can tolerate and live in the most extreme habitats including geothermal habitats, frozen systems, and hypersaline environments.
  • 1.8K
  • 13 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Applications and Action Mechanisms of Probiotic-Based Multi-Components
Probiotic-based multi-component preparations refer to a mixture of bioactive agents, containing probiotics or postbiotics as main functional ingredients, and prebiotics, protectants, stabilizers, encapsulating agents, and other compounds as additional constituents.
  • 1.8K
  • 13 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Therapeutic Monoclonal Antibodies
Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) target specifically antigens and have proven their efficacy in many human diseases, especially autoimmune diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel diseases), cancers (breast, lung, colorectal, and hematological cancers). Their humanization has greatly enhanced their biocompatibility and decreased their side effects such as immunogenicity. The clinical success of mAbs has expanded their application domain to other pathologies such as infectious, migraine, asthma, and hereditary diseases.
  • 1.7K
  • 18 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Classification of Polyphenols
Polyphenols are the secondary metabolites synthesized by the plants as a part of defense machinery. Owing to their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancerous, antineoplastic, and immunomodulatory effects, natural polyphenols have been used for a long time to prevent and treat a variety of diseases. Polyphenols are plant secondary metabolites, with over 8000 polyphenolic compounds discovered to date, and have a variety of complicated structures. The most common and abundant polyphenols are phenolic acids, phenolic alcohols, flavonoids, lignans, and stiblins, which are available in the plant kingdom.
  • 1.7K
  • 04 May 2023
Topic Review
Engineered Extracellular Vesicles
Engineered Extracellular Vesicles are devices obtained through the surface modification of natural extracellular vesicles, both using direct and indirect methods, i.e. engineering of the parental cells. The aim of their production is to obtain extracellular vesicles that are more reliable in terms of reproducibility and that present some desired features, that can change depending on the application.
  • 1.7K
  • 02 Sep 2020
Topic Review
Type I Collagen
Type I collagen, the predominant protein of vertebrates, assembles into fibrils that orchestrate the form and function of bone, tendon, skin, and other tissues. Collagen plays roles in hemostasis, wound healing, angiogenesis, and biomineralization, and its dysfunction contributes to fibrosis, atherosclerosis, cancer metastasis, and brittle bone disease.
  • 1.7K
  • 26 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Bioethanol Production Using Seawater
  Bioethanol has many environmental and practical benefits as a transportation fuel. It is one of the best alternatives to replace fossil fuels due to its liquid nature, which is similar to the gasoline and diesel fuels traditionally used in transportation. In addition, bioethanol production technology has the capacity for negative carbon emissions, which is vital for solving the current global warming dilemma. However, conventional bioethanol production takes place based on an inland site and relies on freshwater and edible crops (or land suitable for edible crop production) for production, which has led to the food vs. fuel debate. Establishing a coastal marine biorefinery (CMB) system for bioethanol production that is based on coastal sites and relies on marine resources (seawater, marine biomass and marine yeast) could be the ultimate solution. In this paper, we aim to evaluate the environmental impact of using seawater for bioethanol production at coastal locations as a step toward the evaluation of a CMB system. Hence, a life cycle assessment for bioethanol production was conducted using the proposed scenario, named Coastal Seawater, and compared to the conventional scenario, named Inland Freshwater (IF). The impact of each scenario in relation to climate change, water depletion, land use and fossil depletion was studied for comparison. The Coastal Seawater scenario demonstrated an improvement upon the conventional scenario in all the selected impact categories. In particular, the use of seawater in the process had a significant effect on water depletion, showing an impact reduction of 31.2%. Furthermore, reductions were demonstrated in natural land transformation, climate change and fossil depletion of 5.5%, 3.5% and 4.2%, respectively. This indicates the positive impact of using seawater and coastal locations for bioethanol production and encourages research to investigate the CMB system.
  • 1.7K
  • 21 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Microbial Dynamics and Preservation of Kunu Drink
Kunu is a fermented non-alcoholic beverage consumed all over Nigeria. The drink is served as an alternative to alcohol due to its perceived extreme nourishing and therapeutic properties. Varieties of this beverage are determined mostly by the type of grain, the supplements, sensory additives used, and the process employed during its production. Dietary quality is paramount in nutritional well-being and a key factor in human overall health development. The nutritional quality of grains utilised for Kunu production makes the drink more appealing to a large growing population when compared to some other drinks. Some use Kunu drink as an infant weaning drink, thus serving as a priming beverage for infants due to its rich probiotic and nutritional properties. 
  • 1.7K
  • 28 Feb 2023
Topic Review
Extrusion Bioprinting for Skin Applications
Skin is a large and complex organ that serves protective and regulatory functions and is responsible for communication between the external environment and the inner organism. To fulfill these functions, skin has evolved as an organ with a complex anatomy derived from both the ectoderm (epidermis) and mesoderm (dermis). The skin includes not only these two major compartments but also important appendages, including hair follicles, sweat and sebaceous glands, nerve endings, and blood vessels, all of which have intricate spatial arrangements that render fabrication of the full skin organ challenging.
  • 1.7K
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Biogas as Energy in Rural Sector and Significance
In rural areas, where access to conventional energy sources is limited, alternative energy options such as biogas production offer tremendous potential. The sustainable utilization of biowaste resources for biogas production is a promising solution for meeting rural bioenergy requirements. Biowaste, such as agricultural residues, food waste, and animal manure, represents a significant source of organic material that can be converted into biogas through anaerobic digestion.
  • 1.7K
  • 27 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Nanotechnology in the Food Industry
The efficient progress in nanotechnology has transformed many aspects of food science and the food industry with enhanced investment and market share. Recent advances in nanomaterials and nanodevices such as nanosensors, nano-emulsions, nanopesticides or nanocapsules are intended to bring about innovative applications in the food industry. In this entry, the current applications of nanotechnology for packaging, processing, and the enhancement of the nutritional value and shelf life of foods are targeted. In addition, the functionality and applicability of food-related nanotechnologies are also highlighted and critically discussed in order to provide an insight into the development and evaluation of the safety of nanotechnology in the food industry.
  • 1.7K
  • 13 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Algal Synthesis of Metallic Nanoparticles
Metal nanoparticles (NPs) have received much attention for potential applications in medicine (mainly in oncology, radiology and infectiology), due to their intriguing chemical, electronical, catalytical, and optical properties such as surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect. They also offer ease in controlled synthesis and surface modification (e.g., tailored properties conferred by capping/protecting agents including N-, P-, COOH-, SH-containing molecules and polymers such as thiol, disulfide, ammonium, amine, and multidentate carboxylate), which allows (i) tuning their size and shape (e.g., star-shaped and/or branched) (ii) improving their stability, monodispersity, chemical miscibility, and activity, (iii) avoiding their aggregation and oxidation over time, (iv) increasing their yield and purity. The bottom-up approach, where the metal ions are reduced in the NPs grown in the presence of capping ligands, has been widely used compared to the top-down approach. Besides the physical and chemical synthesis methods, the biological method is gaining much consideration. Indeed, several drawbacks have been reported for the synthesis of NPs via physical (e.g., irradiation, ultrasonication) and chemical (e.g., electrochemisty, reduction by chemicals such as trisodium citrate or ascorbic acid) methods (e.g., cost, and/ortoxicity due to use of hazardous solvents, low production rate, use of huge amount of energy). However, (organic or inorganic) eco-friendly NPs synthesis exhibits a sustainable, safe, and economical solution. Thereby, a relatively new trend for fast and valuable NPs synthesis from (live or dead) algae (i.e., microalgae, macroalgae and cyanobacteria) has been observed, especially because of its massive presence on the Earth's crust and their unique properties (e.g., capacity to accumulate and reduce metallic ions, fast propagation).  This work highlights affordable, fast, eco-friendly, efficient and safe strategies to produce nanoparticles for theranostic purposes. 
  • 1.7K
  • 27 Oct 2020
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