Topic Review
2-Phenylethanol
2-Phenylethanol (2-PE), also known as 2-phenethyl alcohol, is a higher aromatic alcohol characterized by one of the most popular and desired fragrances, which is the rosy scent.
  • 1.5K
  • 13 Jan 2022
Topic Review
3D Bioprinted Vascularized Tumour
An in vitro screening system for anti-cancer drugs cannot exactly reflect the efficacy of drugs in vivo, without mimicking the tumour microenvironment (TME), which comprises cancer cells interacting with blood vessels and fibroblasts. Additionally, the tumour size should be controlled to obtain reliable and quantitative drug responses. Herein, we report a bioprinting method for recapitulating the TME with a controllable spheroid size. The TME was constructed by printing a blood vessel layer consisting of fibroblasts and endothelial cells in , alginate, and fibrinogen, followed by seeding multicellular tumour spheroids (MCTSs) of glioblastoma cells (U87 MG) onto the blood vessel layer. Under MCTSs, sprouts of blood vessels were generated and surrounding MCTSs thereby increasing the spheroid size. The combined treatment involving the anti-cancer drug temozolomide (TMZ) and the angiogenic inhibitor sunitinib was more effective than TMZ alone for MCTSs surrounded by blood vessels, which indicates the feasibility of the TME for in vitro testing of drug efficacy. These results suggest that the bioprinted vascularized tumour is highly useful for understanding tumour biology, as well as for in vitro drug testing.
  • 1.1K
  • 29 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Abundance and Significance of L-Ara as a Bioresource
The exploration of natural substrates for microbial conversion to synthesize industrial platform and fuel chemicals seems to be inevitable within a circular bioeconomy context. Hemicellulose is a natural carbohydrate polymer consisting of a variety of pentose (C5) sugar monomers such as arabinose, mannose, erythrose, and xylose. Among the C5 sugars, L-arabinose (L-Ara) is the second-most-abundant pentose sugar in the lignocellulosic biomass after xylose. L-Ara has been used as an industrial carbon source to produce several value-added chemicals such as putrescine, which is used to synthesize polymers in the textile industry; sugar alcohols that are used as sweeteners in diet foods; and amino acids such as L-lysine, L-glutamate, L-arginine, and L-ornithine, which are used in nutritional supplements, fertilizers, and other products in the food and beverage industries. L-Ara, a natural non-caloric sweetener, is used as a substitute in the food and beverage industry, when the risk of blood sugar and lipid levels could be reduced. Major use of L-Ara is also found in the medical and pharmaceutical sectors to treat several conditions, including mineral absorption disorder, constipation, and diabetes, among others.
  • 175
  • 07 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Action of Cardiac Glycosides
Cardiac glycosides are natural sterols and constitute a group of secondary metabolites isolated from plants and animals.
  • 682
  • 31 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Active Compounds from Antrodia cinnamomea
Antrodia cinnamomea is a precious and popular edible and medicinal mushroom. It has attracted increasing attention due to its various and excellent bioactivities, such as hepatoprotection, hypoglycemic, antioxidant, antitumor, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulation, and gut microbiota regulation properties. To elucidate its bioactivities and develop novel functional foods or medicines, numerous studies have focused on the isolation and identification of the bioactive compounds of A. cinnamomea. 
  • 519
  • 11 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Adjuvants for New Anti-Tuberculosis Vaccines
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) that sits in the top 10 leading causes of death in the world today and is the current leading cause of death among infectious diseases. Although there is a licensed vaccine against TB, the Mycobacterium bovis bacilli Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine, it has several limitations, namely its high variability of efficacy in the population and low protection against pulmonary tuberculosis. New vaccines for TB are needed. The World Health Organization (WHO) considers the development and implementation of new TB vaccines to be a priority. Subunit vaccines are promising candidates since they can overcome safety concerns and optimize antigen targeting. Nevertheless, these vaccines need adjuvants in their formulation in order to increase immunogenicity, decrease the needed antigen dose, ensure a targeted delivery and optimize the antigens delivery and interaction with the immune cells. 
  • 645
  • 10 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Advanced Hydrogels as Wound Dressings
Skin is the largest organ of the human body, protecting it against the external environment. Despite high self-regeneration potential, severe skin defects will not heal spontaneously and need to be covered by skin substitutes. Tremendous progress has been made in the field of skin tissue engineering, in recent years, to develop new skin substitutes. Among them, hydrogels are one of the candidates with most potential to mimic the native skin microenvironment, due to their porous and hydrated molecular structure. They can be applied as a permanent or temporary dressing for different wounds to support the regeneration and healing of the injured epidermis, dermis, or both. Based on the material used for their fabrication, hydrogels can be subdivided into two main groups—natural and synthetic. Moreover, hydrogels can be reinforced by incorporating nanoparticles to obtain “in situ” hybrid hydrogels, showing superior properties and tailored functionality. In addition, different sensors can be embedded in hydrogel wound dressings to provide real-time information about the wound environment. This review focuses on the most recent developments in the field of hydrogel-based skin substitutes for skin replacement. In particular, we discuss the synthesis, fabrication, and biomedical application of novel “smart” hydrogels.
  • 1.3K
  • 31 Aug 2020
Topic Review
Advances in COVID-19 Treatment
COVID-19, which emerged in December 2019, was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020. The disease was caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It has caused millions of deaths worldwide and caused social and economic disruption. While clinical trials on therapeutic drugs are going on in an Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) public–private partnership collaboration, current therapeutic approaches and options to counter COVID-19 remain few. Therapeutic drugs include the FDA-approved antiviral drugs, Remdesivir, and an immune modulator, Baricitinib. Hence, therapeutic approaches and alternatives for COVID-19 treatment need to be broadened. 
  • 359
  • 02 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Advances in the Biosynthesis of L-Cysteine
L-Cysteine is a widely used unique sulfur-containing amino acid with wide application in the food, pharmaceutical, and agricultural industries.
  • 252
  • 28 Sep 2023
Topic Review
Advantages/Disadvantages/Limitations of Chemotaxis Assays for Campylobacter spp.
Chemotaxis directed motility of intestinal bacteria such as Campylobacter jejuni could enable the cells to move toward favourable conditions and away from hazardous ones. Reproducible qualitative and quantitative assessment of bacterial chemotactic motility, particularly in response to chemorepellent effectors, is experimentally challenging. Several established chemotaxis assays currently used to investigate Campylobacter jejuni chemotaxis are compared, with the aim of improving the correlation between different studies and establishing the best practices.
  • 663
  • 11 Feb 2022
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