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Bioactive papers are advanced cellulose-based functional materials that incorporate biomolecules with specific recognition ability for analytes. Although there is a wide range of potential applications for these papers, only a few have reached the commercial stage. There are fundamental questions that have to be addressed before they can be developed in large scale. One of the central questions in bioactive paper development is the impact of the properties of the cellulosic support on both immobilization and functionality of biomolecules. This paper presents a literature review on inkjet printing of biomolecules for bioactive paper applications and reports recent progress made in understanding factors that affect the activity of enzymes physically immobilized on cellulosic supports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanotechnology offers excellent prospects for application in biology and medicine. It is used for detecting biological molecules, imaging, and as therapeutic agents. Due to nano-size (1-100 nm) and high surface-to-volume ratio, nanomaterials possess highly specific and distinct characteristics in the biological environment. Recently, the use of nanomaterials as sensors, theranostic, and drug delivery agents has become popular. The safety of these materials is being questioned because of their biological toxicity, such as inflammatory responses, cardiotoxicity, cytotoxicity, inhalation problems, etc., which can have a negative impact on the environment. This review paper focuses primarily on the toxicological effects of nanomaterials along with the mechanisms involved in cell interactions and the generation of reactive oxygen species by nanoparticles, which is the fundamental source of nanotoxicity. We also emphasize the greener synthesis of nanomaterials in biomedicine, as it is non-hazardous, feasible, and economical. The review articles shed light on the complexities of nanotoxicology in biosystems and the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) are known to possess unique characteristics, which allow them to overcome a number of issues that plague traditional fluorescence probes. UCNPs have been employed in a variety of applications, but it is arguably in the realm of optical sensors where they have shown the most promise. Biomolecule conjugated UCNPs-based fluorescence probes have been developed to detect and quantify a wide range of analytes, from metal ions to biomolecules, with great specificity and sensitivity. In this review, we have given much emphasis on the recent trends and progress in the preparation strategies of bioconjugated UCNPs and their potential application as fluorescence sensors in the trace level detection of food industry-based toxicants and adulterants. The paper discusses the preparation and functionalisation strategies of commonly used biomolecules over the surface of UCNPs. The use of different sensing strategies namely heterogenous and homogenous assays, underlying fluorescence mechanisms in the detection process of food adulterants are summarized in detail. This review might set a precedent for future multidisciplinary research including the development of novel biomolecules conjugated UCNPs for potential applications in food science and technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topological indices are molecular descriptors associated with the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the molecules. The main goal of this paper is to explore some mathematical properties of generalized irregular neighborhood related descriptor. Also, the particular cases of these descriptors are calculated for the molecular structure of some basic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) along with statistical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper, symmetrical configuration of dual material double gate dielectric modulated junctionless TFET (DM DG JLTFET) for biosensor applications is explored. The JLTFET consists of Si material with an intensely doped n-type substrate. In this work, the JLTFET utilizes the dielectric modulation method which aids the bio-transistor to recognize neutral and charged analytes (biomolecules). A double metal gate structure is designed by employing two dissimilar metal gate electrodes to reduce short channel impact on device characteristics. The proposed device includes a nanogap region (cavity) which is framed for biomolecules to immobilize. Surface potential and their sensitivity are examined for neutral and charged-neutral analytes. The effects of structure parameters such as nanogap region length and fill-in factor have been analyzed through simulation. The paper examines the behavior of DM DG JLTFET for biological molecules sensing via change in relative permittivity and charge density. The proposed device shows noticeable sensitivity results for charged biomolecules (especially for positively charged analytes). The present work has analyzed the different parameters affecting the sensitivity of the biosensor which includes structural geometric variations like change in cavity length, cavity thickness and fill-in factor. The sensitivity of the neutral biomolecules having higher dielectric constant is observed higher; the surface potential sensitivity of the Gelatin (k = 12) is estimated as 3.75 × 10 3 which is 45%, 55%, and 135% higher than the sensitivity of Keratin (k = 7), Bacteriophage T7 (k = 6), and Glucose Oxidase (k = 3), respectively at the cavity length of 7 nm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The textile processing and finishing industry is the mainstay for the apparel segment. The textile processing and finishing industry consume an enormous amount of chemicals and release harmful substances to the environment. Therefore rethinking and refinement of the practice adopted and the techniques involved in processing and finishing are very much significant. The consciousness toward environmental protection, pollution control, and user-friendliness are the reasons for emerging trends with sustainable concepts where natural materials, plant ingredients, plant extracts can be used for textile finishing. This review paper discusses the exploratory qualitative study about the natural ingredients, extraction processes, finishing on textiles for various applications, its effects, and results. The applications of textile finishing processes covered in this article are fragrance finish, bio-polishing, bio-stone washing, insect repellent, and UV protection. This article also deals with the various methods of finishing textiles using natural products such as pad-dry-cure, microencapsulation, exhaust method, spraying technique, etc., and its implications. The finishing process using natural products has obtained satisfactory results with various tests for analyzing the properties of textiles after finishing. The critical analysis of this article has revealed that the textile finishing process using natural products seem to be economical, sustainable, have control over environmental and health hazard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indian system of medicine – Ayurveda says "When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use. When diet is correct, medicine is of no use". In this context, mushroom constitutes one of the major resources for nutraceuticals. Biomolecules of mushrooms have attracted the attention of researchers around the globe due to their proven healthy attributes. They have a plenitude of health-giving properties and these range from immunomodulatory, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, anticancer, anti-HIV, antidiabetic, anticholesterolic to antiarthritic activities. Mushrooms contain both primary and secondary metabolites. The primary metabolites provide energy while the secondary metabolite exhibits medicinal properties. Hence, the mushroom can be a recipe for human wellness and will play a significant role in fighting COVID-19 pandemics and other infectious diseases. The key findings suggested in this paper refer to the exploration of health and the healing traits of biomolecules of mushrooms. This article reviews the current status of the medicinal attributes of mushrooms and their biomolecules in different diseases such as cardiovascular, diabetes, reproductive diseases, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. The global malnutrition-related morbidity and mortality among children under five and lactating women presents a frightening picture and also a black spot on the human face. Malnutrition is responsible for more ill-health than any other cause. Mushrooms as a rich source of bioactive compounds can be claimed as "Best from the Waste" since they grow on the most abundant organic wastes of the Earth, the lignocellulosic substrate, and 'Best of the Rest' because they are excellent nutraceutical resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glycosylation is one of the structurally diverse and complex forms of post translational modifications observed in proteins which influence the effector functions of IgG-Fc. Although the glycosylation constitutes 2–3% of the total mass of the IgG antibody, a thorough assessment of glycoform distribution present on the antibody is a critical quality attribute (cQA) for the majority of novel and biosimilar monoclonal antibody (mAb) development. This review paper will highlight the impact of different glycoforms such as galactose, fucose, high mannose, NANA (N-acetylneuraminic acid), and NGNA (N-glycoylneuraminic acid) on the safety/immunogeneicity, efficacy/biological activity and clearance (pharmacodynamics/pharmacokinetic property (PD/PK)) of biological molecules. In addition, this paper will summarize routinely employed reliable analytical techniques such as hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC), high performance anion exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection (HPAEC-PAD) and mass spectrometry (MS) for characterizing and monitoring glycosylation in monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). The advantages and disadvantages of each of the methods are addressed. The scope of this review paper is limited to only N-linked and O-linked glycosylation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic remains from excavated sites include a wide range of materials, from distinct organisms ('ecofacts') to biomolecules. Biomolecules provide a variety of new research avenues, while ecofacts with longer histories of study are now being re-harnessed in unexpected ways. These resources are unlocking research potential, transcending what was previously imagined possible. However, this 'organics revolution' comes with a salutary corollary: our approaches to recovering and curating organics, and making accessible research data, are not developing as quickly as we need. In this paper, we review retention guidelines for institutions in Britain and Ireland, setting this against the backdrop of a 'curation crisis' that is affecting museums throughout Europe, and beyond. We suggest key themes, including the state of existing documentation and considerations of intrinsic and allied research potential, that should be used to open a discussion about the development of more comprehensive and standardised approaches to archiving in the future. Engaging in this conversation is the only way that we can hope to ensure the long-term retention and preservation of organics, while safeguarding associated research data. These changes are needed to ensure future global research collaborations across the academic, curatorial and professional archaeological sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production of worldwide nixtamalized products has increased in Latin American countries over the last years. For a better maize handling and exploitation of its nutritional elements, maize is subjected to a nixtamalization pretreatment protocol, which produces meaningful chemical, nutritional and quality changes in maize and its derived products, but large amounts of its primary by-product, well-known as 'nejayote', are also produced. Importantly, nejayote is usually discarded into the urbanized sewage with minimal treatment. Today, according to the recent research reports, new emerging techniques and protocols have been implemented to improve the nixtamalization products and by-products processing. New valorization approaches and biotechnological developments (including biotransformations) toward the reuse of nejayote have been developed according to its considerable content of biomolecules. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the main development works at assisting nixtamalization products and by-products processing. Herein, particular attention is paid to experimental insights dealing with the valorization of nejayote. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper-based lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs) are an interesting on site technique for detecting heavy metals. Pb(II) is one of the toxic heavy metals in polluted environmental water. This paper reports the synthesis and characterization of three Fe3O4-based nanoadsorbents that show different performance to Pb(II), Cu(II), Cd(II), Hg(II), As(V), Zn(II), Fe(III), Ca(II), Mg(II), Mn(II), and Al(III) when a GO or an amino group is introduced. Compared with Fe3O4, Fe3O4-GO showed higher adsorption percentage to many heavy metal ions under slightly acid condition. The negative surface on Fe3O4@NH2 had favourable interactions for four main divalent metal ion adsorption, which followed the order: Pb(II) > Cu(II) > Hg(II) > Cd(II). Combined with antibody-functionalized AuNPs showed high affinity and specificity toward Pb(II), an Fe3O4@NH2-based LFIA with five times greater sensitivity for detecting Pb(II) in lake water was developed. The cut-off value of this Fe3O4@NH2-combined LFIA method for detection Pb(II) in lake water was 20 ng/mL and the detection result for 10 ng/mL Pb(II) was obviously observable by the naked eye or a strip reader machine. This detection strategy could be readily adapted for other small molecules or biomolecules as an ultrasensitive screening tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multicomponent reactions (MCR) are an efficient and attractive synthetic strategy in which three or more reactants come together in a one-pot reaction to form a new complex molecule or biological product. In recent times, ferrite nanoparticles (MFe2O4 NPs; M = Cu, Co, Ni, Zn, Mn, etc.) have attracted the attention of many chemists or researchers due to unique properties such as high stability, high activity, and simple separation. In this paper, we discussed ferrite nanoparticles and their catalytic activity in a variety of organic transformations via MCR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monoclonal antibodies are proteinaceous in nature and are subject to instability issues. Stability testing of monoclonal antibodies is a critical regulatory requirement in their development and commercialization as therapeutic biological molecules. This article reviews the numerous drug manufacturing processes such as: upstream processing, downstream purification and aseptic filling along with physical and chemical factors such as protein concentration, structure, pH, temperature, light, agitation, deamidation, oxidation, glycation leading to instabilities in monoclonal antibodies and it spotlights the variety of analytical techniques employed to investigate and generate information on stability studies and henceforth, helps in developing the stability-indicating methods. In addition, this paper aims to discuss the ICH regulatory guideline (s) for the stability assessment of biological products (Drug Substance and Drug Product). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance of a sub-100-nm gate-length p-channel TFET-based biosensor (pTFET-BS) covering a wide range of protein-molecules is presented, and for the first time the optimized length-range of the nanogap cavity of the biosensor through the modeling of the presence of discrete number of biomolecules, followed by shift-saturation in corresponding transfer characteristics, is reported in this paper. Furthermore, considering a real time process related over-etching effect, a variability study on the random position of the conjugated protein-molecules within the cavity, followed by a corresponding statistical analysis, are carried out. Results show that 85% to 95% (65–85%) of total combinations produce beyond 50% of maximum Vth- (IDS-) sensitivity values, ensuring stability and hence reliability of the proposed sensor device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Present paper reports the synthesis of copper neem–urea (CNU) complex through reported methods and is characterised by elemental and spectroscopic techniques such as IR, NMR and ESR. The nanoparticles of ZnO and ZnO doped with SiO2 which was extracted from industrial ashes were synthesised by precipitation method and characterised by UV, SEM-EDX and XRD techniques. Kinetics of degradation for the synthesised complex in solid-state was studied using thermogravimetric analysis technique (TGA). For kinetic analysis, Freeman Carroll, Coats–Redfern, Horowitz–Metzger, Broido and Piloyan–Novikova equations have been used to calculate the energy of activation as well as other thermodynamic parameters, i.e. Gibbs free energy (∆G), enthalpy (∆H) and entropy (∆S). The photocatalytic degradation was carried out by irradiating the solutions of CNU containing ZnO by UV and sunlight in different solvents. Studies suggested that the use of photocatalyst may enhance the degradation rate of CNU at normal temperatures. The disappearance of copper surfactants follows a pseudo-first-order kinetics according to the Langmuir–Hinshelwood (L-H) model. A tentative mechanism has been proposed for the photodegradation of copper surfactants. The doped ZnO with SiO2 was found to be the best catalyst in comparison to nano and synthesised ZnO for photodegradation studies. Antibacterial and antifungal studies have been done to understand the biological applications of the molecule against some bacteria and fungi which may cause skin diseases. The toxicity patterns of CNU on Staphylococcus aureus, Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNs), Acinetobacter baumanii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Micrococcus bacteria and Candida tropicalis, Candida parapsilosis, Rhodotorula and Trichophytonrubrum fungi at varying concentrations using Mueller Hinton Agar plate's technique have been studied, analysed and also been reported here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug and biomolecule analysis with high precision, fast response, not expensive, and user-friendly methods have been very important for developing technology and clinical applications. Electrochemical methods are highly capable for assaying the concentration of electroactive drug or biomolecule and supply excellent knowledge concerning its physical and chemical properties such as electron transfer rates, diffusion coefficients, electron transfer number, and oxidation potential. Electrochemical methods have been widely applied because of their accuracy, sensitivity, cheapness, and can applied on-site determinations of various substances. The progress on electronics has allowed developing reliable, more sensitive and less expensive instrumentations, which have significant contribution in the area of drug development, drug and biomolecule analysis. The developing new sensors for electrochemical analysis of these compounds have growing interest in recent years. Screen-printed based electrodes have a great interest in electrochemical analysis of various drugs and biomolecules due to their easy manufacturing procedure of the electrode allow the transfer of electrochemical laboratory experiments for disposable on-site analysis of some compounds. Paper based electrodes are also fabricated by new technology. They can be preferred due to their easy, cheap, portable, disposable, and offering high sensitivity properties for many application field such as environmental monitoring, food quality control, clinical diagnosis, drug, and biomolecules analysis. In this review, the recent electrochemical drug and biomolecule (DNA, RNA, µRNA, Biomarkers, etc.) studies will be presented that involve new trend disposable electrodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The microbial transformation of artemisinic acid (1) using cell culture of endophytic fungus Trichothecium roseum was investigated. Previously, we have reported two major metabolites, 3β-hydroxyartemisinic acid (2) and 3β,15-dihydroxyartemisinic acid (3) from the biotransformation of artemisinic acid by the fungus T. roseum CIMAPN1. Here in the present paper, we obtained a new minor compound 4 (5.2% in yield) along with compounds 2 and 3 through scale-up of biotransformation process of artemisinic acid using the same fungus. The structure of compound 4 was established as 3-oxoartemisinic acid on the basis of its IR, ESI-MS, HRMS, 1 D (1H and 13C, DEPT), and 2 D (COSY, HSQC, HMBC) NMR spectral data analysis. The possible reaction mechanism of the formation of 3-oxoartemisinic acid from artemisinic acid was proposed. Furthermore, all the three metabolites along with the artemisinic acid were evaluated for their antifungal activity against the three fungal strains Candida albicans (ATCC 14053), Candida albicans clinical isolates and Candida kefyr (ATCC 204093). 3-Oxoartemisinic acid was the most active (4 to 16 times more potent than artemisinic acid) with MIC ranges from 125 to 500 µg/mL among all tested compounds. This study suggested that the artemisinic acid molecule has a great potential to be exploited for further biotransformation by the different fungi and can produce chemically diverse molecules with better biological activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (nano-TiO2) are useful because of their unique physicochemical properties. The wide application of nano-TiO2 has raised concerns regarding its potential threat to organisms and the environment. Therefore, the production and application of nano-TiO2 in the global market is summarized in this paper. This review presents the adverse effects of nano-TiO2in vivo, including potential exposure routes such as transdermal, oral and inhalative exposure, risk evaluation of nanotoxicity in vitro using bacteria, microorganisms, cells and biological molecules), physicochemical characterization of nano-TiO2 regarding crystal structure, size, shape, surface characteristics and coatings, and the mechanisms of toxicity of nano-TiO2 based on environmentally relevant test species and cells. This review aims to fill deficiencies in toxicological research and to facilitate the assessment of the environmental risks by nano-TiO2 which is conducive to designing safer nanoproducts in our daily life. Presented the possible human health hazards related to nano-TiO2 exposure. Identified the current research deficiencies in this area. Summarized the underlying toxicity mechanisms. Summarized the compound toxicity of NPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We previously published a comprehensive review paper reviewing the Raman spectroscopy of biological molecules. This research area has expanded rapidly, which warranted an update to the existing review paper by adding the recently reported studies in literature. This article reviews some of the recent advances of Raman spectroscopy in relation to biomedical applications starting from natural tissues to cancer biology. Raman spectroscopy, an optical molecular detective, is a vibrational spectroscopic technique that has potential not only in cancer diagnosis but also in understanding progression of the disease. This article summarizes some of the most widely observed peak frequencies and their assignments. The aim of this review is to develop a database of molecular fingerprints, which will facilitate researchers in identifying the chemical structure of the biological tissues including most of the significant peaks reported both in the normal and cancerous tissues. It has covered a variety of Raman approaches and its quantitative and qualitative biochemical information. In addition, it covers the use of Raman spectroscopy to analyse a variety of different malignancies including breast, brain, cervical, gastrointestinal, lung, oral, and skin cancer. Multivariate analysis approaches used in these studies have also been covered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study a distributed optimal control problem of a coupled nonlinear system of reaction-diffusion equations. The system consists of three partial differential equations to represent cancer cell density, matrix-degrading enzymes concentration and oxygen concentration, and an ordinary differential equation to describe the extracellular matrix concentration. Our aim is to minimize the growth of cancer cells by controlling the production of matrix-degrading enzymes. First, we prove the existence and uniqueness of solutions of the direct problem. Then, we prove the existence of an optimal control. Finally, we derive the first-order optimality conditions and prove the existence of weak solutions of the adjoint problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The detection and quantification of biomarkers is gaining attention in medical research and diagnostics communities. Biomarkers cover a range from gases to biological macromolecules. Because of the nanomolar range levels of typical biomarkers in plasma, blood, urine, exhalation samples, and other biological fluids as well as complex matrix of biological media, adequate sample preparation methods should be used for quantification of biomarkers. The performance of an analytical method for biomarkers should support reproducible and accurate data. In the present paper, recent progress in well-established solid phase microextraction (SPME) methods for the clinical analysis are reviewed and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Timely tissue vascularization and integration of engineered tissues into a patient plays an important role in the successful translation of engineered tissues into clinically relevant therapies. To decrease the time needed to vascularize an engineered adipose tissue, suitable local microenvironments provided by hydrogels to support cell-based functional vascular network formation have been investigated. Using the same biomolecule in solution, two types of hydrogels can be obtained: a "physical hydrogel" which is thermal-induced self-assemble fibril initiation and growth, due to amino and carboxyl telopeptides on collagen chains, and a "chemical hydrogel" which results from the covalently cross-linking of the side chains induced by one step enzyme mediation in aqueous solution. In this paper, we compare the capability of engineering vascular network and large-sized vascularized adipose tissue in vivo in different types of collagen hydrogels, physical and chemical crosslinking. The relationships between vascular network formation and hydrogel properties for the two types of hydrogels are discussed. Finally, we successfully engineered a vascularized adipose tissue construct (∼877.6 adipocytes/mm2; 94% area of a construct) in the absence of exogenous cytokines in chemical covalently crosslinking cell-laden hydrogel. These results show manipulating the polymerized methods of a hydrogel could not only modulate vascular network formation, but also regenerate adipose tissue in vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbohydrates present on cell surfaces mediate cell behavior through interactions with other biomolecules. Due to their structural complexity, diversity, and heterogeneity, it is difficult to fully characterize a variety of carbohydrates and their binding partners. As a result, novel technologies for glycomics applications have been developed, including carbohydrate microarrays and label-free detection methods. In this paper, we report using the combination of oligosaccharide microarrays and the label-free oblique-incidence reflectivity difference microscopy for real-time characterization of oligosaccharide-binding proteins. Aminated human milk oligosaccharides were immobilized on epoxy-coated glass substrates as microarrays for reactions with Family 1 of solute-binding proteins fromBifidobacterium longumsubsp.infantis(B. infantis). Binding affinities of these protein–oligosaccharide interactions showed preferences of Family 1 of solute-binding proteins to host glycans, which helps in characterizing the complex process of human milk oligosaccharides foraging byB. infantis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a comparative study regarding the impact behavior between two biocomposites with different matrices, polypropylene and furan resins, reinforced with the same volume fractions of hemp shires. Also the paper analyzes the influence of the volume fraction of the hemp shires on the impact properties of polypropylene-based biocomposites, a comparison of the impact properties for these biocomposites is made in order to show which type of biocomposite is more suitable to be used in terms of impact properties in different areas of use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a new all-atom Monte Carlo (MC) simulation program for RNAs. The core numerical engine of this program is powered exclusively by inverse kinematic loop closures. The new simulation program called Loops MC is aimed at the high-efficiency sampling of large-scale conformational rearrangements in long-chain biomolecules including nucleic acids and proteins. The program and its source codes are available at http://tyrosine.usc.edu. The details of the loop closure algorithm and how it is implemented in Loops MC, as well as the various features of the program are discussed in this paper. Results of a large-scale unfolding study of the Schistosoma hammerhead ribozyme using Loops MC and their implications on the hammerhead's possible folding pathway are reported here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human mitochondrial (mt) DNA is commonly described as a small, maternally inherited molecule that encodes 13 protein components of the oxidative phosphorylation system and 24 structural RNAs required for their translation. However, recent studies indicate that the human mtDNA has a larger functional repertoire than previously believed. This paper briefly summarizes these studies, which suggest to reconsider our way to describe the human mitochondrial DNA as it may code for more than 13 proteins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbeads have wide applications in biomedical engineering field that include drug delivery, encapsulation of biomolecules, tissue padding and tissue regeneration. In this paper, we report a simple, yet efficient, flicking technique to produce microcapsules of calcium alginate at a narrow distribution of size. The system consists of an infusion pump and a customised flicker that taps the syringe needle for dispersing microcapsules of sodium alginate that polymerised in the calcium chloride solution. The flow rate of the syringe pump and the velocity of the flicker were studied to achieve a well controlled and tunable size distribution of microbeads ranging from 200 to 400 μm. At a flow rate of 4 μl/min and flicking rate of 80 rpm, a narrow size distribution of microbeads were produced. Via this technique, HaCaT cells were encapsulated in calcium alginate microbeads that grown into microtissues with a size ranging from 100 to 300 μm after two weeks of culture. These microtissues could be potentially useful for pharmacological application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of home processing on the residues of spirotetramat and its four metabolites (B-enol, B-glu, B-mono and B-keto) in citrus marmalade is comprehensively investigated in this paper by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). A five-fold recommended dose of spirotetramat was applied to citrus fruit under field conditions and the processing included five steps: washing, peeling, pre-treatment for peel, mixing and boiling. The results showed that spirotetramat was the predominant component detected in unprocessed citrus, accounting for 64%. All the detected residues were primarily deposited on citrus peel, except for B-enol which was also present in the citrus pulp. Washing reduced spirotetramat, B-enol, B-glu and B-keto by 83%, 56%, 41% and 16%, respectively, and pre-treatment of the peel removed between 42% and 68% of the residues. Four compounds were all below the limit of detection after the mixing step. In the final product, only B-keto was detected at the concentration of 0.010 mg kg–1. After the whole process, the processing factors for spirotetramat, B-enol, B-glu and B-keto were < 0.041, < 0.125, < 0.294 and 0.313, respectively, which indicated that home processing can significantly reduce residues of spirotetramat and its metabolites in citrus marmalade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We briefly review experimental and computational studies of room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) interacting with important classes of biomolecules, including phospholipids, peptides and proteins, nucleic acids and carbohydrates. Most of these studies have been driven by the interest for RTILs applications as solvents. Thus, available experimental data cover primarily thermodynamic properties such as the reciprocal solubility of RTILs and bio-molecules, as well as phase boundaries. Less extensive data are also available on transport properties such as diffusion and viscosity of homogeneous binary (RTILs/biomolecules) and ternary (RTIL/biomolecules/water) solutions. Most of the structural information at the atomistic level, of interest especially for biochemical, pharmaceutical and nanotechnology applications, has been made available by molecular dynamics simulations. Major exceptions to this statement are represented by the results from NMR and circular dichroism spectroscopy, by selected neutron and X-ray scattering data, and by recent neutron reflectometry measurements on lipid bilayers on surfaces, hydrated by water-RTIL solutions. A final section of our paper summarizes new developments in the field of RTILs based on amino acids, that combine in themselves the two main aspects of our discussion, i.e. ionic liquids and bio-molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The presence of piezoelectricity, pyroelectricity and ferroelectricity in biological samples has been envisaged since the 1950s, the earliest studies being done on wood, bones, collagen, etc. Pioneer work reporting piezoelectricity in bones, tendons, dentin, etc. has been in existence for quite some time however it was only in the recent past that ferroelectricity was suggested to be present in bio-species like aortic wall, nail and certain form of shells. Recent focus of uncovering bio-ferroelectricity has progressed into natural and artificial bio-molecules such as glycine, peptides, tubulin, etc due to the advancement in instrumentation with nanoscale measurement capabilities. This paper makes an attempt to discuss the chronological developments in the field of ferroelectricity in biological samples, recent upsurge in this field of science with the aid of better resources and our perspective of bio-ferroelectricity/bio-multiferroicity along with experimental results on some selected biological materials. This is a brief review of the field of biological ferroelectricity since its birth to its present state of affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An active area of research in bioinformatics is finding structural similarity of proteins by alignment. Among many methods, the popular one is to find the similarity based on statistical features. This method involves gathering information from the complex biomolecule structure and obtaining the best alignment by maximizing the number of matched features. In this paper, after reviewing statistical models for matching the structural biomolecule, it is shown that local alignment based on the Delaunay tetrahedralization (DT) can be used for Bayesian alignment of proteins. In this method, we use DT to add a priori structural information of protein in the Bayesian methodology. We demonstrate that this method shows advantages over competing methods in achieving a global alignment of proteins, accelerating the convergence rate and improving the parameter estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Swift heavy ions induce a Gaussian temperature distribution Θ(r) in insulators which depend neither on the physical properties of the solid nor on the kind of the projectiles. In this paper, we show that all experimental data suitable for analysis confirm the validity of Θ(r). The same result is obtained for ZrSiO4, MgAl2O4, KTiOPO4, Al2O3and Y2O3, where systematic experiments have not been performed yet. The analysis demonstrates that Θ(r) may be valid in biomolecular targets and in high-Tcsuperconductors as well. The Fourier equation cannot reproduce the relation Θ(r); thus, it is not suitable for the estimation of the ion-induced temperatures. The consequences of the uniformity in track formation must also affect other radiation-induced effects. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we propose a method to create the 60-dimensional feature vector for protein sequences via the general form of pseudo amino acid composition. The construction of the feature vector is based on the contents of amino acids, total distance of each amino acid from the first amino acid in the protein sequence and the distribution of 20 amino acids. The obtained cosine distance metric (also called the similarity matrix) is used to construct the phylogenetic tree by the neighbour joining method. In order to show the applicability of our approach, we tested it on three proteins: 1) ND5 protein sequences from nine species, 2) ND6 protein sequences from eight species, and 3) 50 coronavirus spike proteins. The results are in agreement with known history and the output from the multiple sequence alignment program ClustalW, which is widely used. We have also compared our phylogenetic results with six other recently proposed alignment-free methods. These comparisons show that our proposed method gives a more consistent biological relationship than the others. In addition, the time complexity is linear and space required is less as compared with other alignment-free methods that use graphical representation. It should be noted that the multiple sequence alignment method has exponential time complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The olfactory system is responsible for the discrimination and identification of myriad odorant molecules at very low concentrations. On the basis of the gene super family encoding olfactory receptors, it has led to the rapid development of cell based olfactory biosensors. Attempts are currently made not only to imitate the mechanism of the biological nose but also to utilize some of its sensor molecules as functional unities in olfactory biosensors. Recently, the development of olfactory biosensors has achieved rapid advances by using protein molecules and cells, even biological organs as functional elements, that is, odorant binding proteins (OBPs) and olfactory receptors (ORs) at the molecular level, cell based gene engineered cells or olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs), and mammalian olfactory organs. With using the living cells expressing olfactory signal proteins as sensing elements, the cell based biosensors have a naturally evolved selectivity to odorant molecules. Furthermore, the biosensors also have the capacity to respond to odorant in a physiologically relevant manner. In this paper, we briefly introduce the molecular basis of olfaction and summarize the cell based olfactory biosensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is the first X-ray free electron laser to achieve lasing at subnanometer wavelengths (6 Å). LCLS is poised to reach even shorter wavelengths (1.5 Å) and thus holds the promise of single molecular imaging at atomic resolution. The initial operation at a photon energy of 2 keV provides the possibility to perform the first experiments on damage to biological particles, and to assess the limitations to coherent imaging of biological samples, which are directly relevant at atomic resolution. In this paper we theoretically investigate the damage formation and detection possibilities for a biological crystal, by employing and comparing two different damage models with complementary strengths. Molecular dynamics provides a discrete approach which investigates structural details at the atomic level by tracking all atoms in the real space. Our continuum model is based on a non-local thermodynamics equilibrium code with atomic kinetics and radiation transfer and can treat hydrodynamic expansion of the entire system. The latter approach captures the essential features of atomic displacements, without taking into account structural information and intrinsic atomic movements. This proves to be a powerful computational tool for many samples, including biological crystals, which will be studied with X-ray free electron lasers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dietary polyphenols are substrates for colonic microbiota. They and their metabolites contribute to the maintenance of gastrointestinal health by interacting with epithelial cells, and largely by modulating the gut microbial composition. Polyphenols may act as promoting factors of growth, proliferation, or survival for beneficial gut bacteria-mainly Lactobacillus strains-and thus, exerting prebiotic actions and inhibiting the proliferation of some pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella and Helicobacter pylori species. To date the interactions affecting metabolic pathways and numerous metabolites of dietary polyphenols have been widely documented. However, the effects of dietary polyphenols on the modulation of the intestinal ecology and on the growth of gut microbial species are still poorly understood. This paper summarizes data on the influence of dietary polyphenols on gut microbiota and the main interactions between dietary polyphenols and beneficial and pathogenic intestinal bacteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we provided a self-assembly strategy to prepare surface molecularly imprinted polyaniline (PANI) nanofiber. The route provides simplicity, convenience, low cost, and high-productivity due to the omission of the template guided materials and their post-treatment. The molecularly imprinted PANI nanofibers could selectively bind the template (4-hydroxybenzoic acid) molecules, and the nanofibers have large adsorption capacity and fast uptake kinetics for target species. The PANI nanofibers could provide a good material for imprinting various organic or biological molecules toward applications in chemical/biological sensors and bioassay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many methods developed for estimating the reliability of protein-protein interactions are based on the topology of protein-protein interaction networks. This paper describes a new reliability measure for protein-protein interactions, which does not rely on the topology of protein interaction networks, but expresses biological information on functional roles, sub-cellular localisations and protein classes as a scoring schema. The new measure is useful for filtering many spurious interactions, as well as for estimating the reliability of protein interaction data. In particular, the reliability measure can be used to search protein-protein interactions with the desired reliability in databases. The reliability-based search engine is available at http://yeast.hpid.org. We believe this is the first search engine for interacting proteins, which is made available to public. The search engine and the reliability measure of protein interactions should provide useful information for determining proteins to focus on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Cinobufagin (1) is a major bufadienolide in ChanSu (a traditional Chinese medicine) with a wide range of pharmacological activities. In this paper, the in vivo metabolites of 1 in rats were studied. 2. Nine metabolites were isolated from the bile of rats, and their structures were identified as: desacetylcinobufagin (2), 3-ketodesacetylcinobufagin (3), 3-epi-desacetylcinobufagin (4); 5β-hydroxy-3-epi-desacetylcinobufagin (5), 1a-hydroxy-3-epi-desacetylcinobufagin (6), 12β-hydroxy- 3-epi-desacetylcinobufagin (7), 1β-hydroxy-3-epi-desacetylcinobufagin (8), 1a,5a-dihydroxy-3-epidesacetylcino- bufagin (9), and 2a, 5β-dihydroxy-3-epi-desacetylcinobufagin (10), respectively, on the basis of widely spectroscopic studies including two-dimensional-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Among them, metabolites 6-10 are new compounds. 3. The results show that hydroxylation is the main reaction involved in metabolism of 1, and the preferred hydroxylation sites were C-1 and C-5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in ellagitannins and ellagic acid has increased over the past few years due to its properties as a micronutrient. Ellagitannins are complex plant polyphenols composed of hexahydroxydiphenoyl moieties esterified to a sugar. Fruits (especially berries and nuts) are rich sources of ellagitannins and ellagic acid, a hydrolytic product of ellagitannins. These secondary metabolites give the characteristic taste to the fruits and their products, and also play an important role in food processing. This paper reviews research about occurrence in foods, change during process, and antioxidant activity of ellagitannins and ellagic acid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inferring the functional relationships among proteins remains a challenging task in the post-genomics. With the increasing number of completed genomes and comparative genomics methods, application of phylogenetic profiles as a predictor of protein function has been proven to be a promising strategy for inferring the relationship of the proteins. This paper reviews important progress made in recent years towards understanding protein function by the application of the phylogenetic profile method. At the same time, some of the major challenges faced by protein function prediction are highlighted. The aim of this review is to emphasize the prospect of comparative genomic strategy that may be used to reach the important objective of protein function prediction. Furthermore, several important informatics resources currently available in this field are summarized. It is believed that these resources and methods can be utilized and integrated with other computational methods to provide valuable insight into elucidating the function of molecular networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the chemical modification of a cell-repellent poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-based polymer to enhance its hydrophilicity with sulfonate groups, and its application in the fabrication of a cell microarray. First, a polymer comprised of a methyl methacrylate (MMA) backbone with PEG side-chains (PMMA-b-PEG) was synthesized from three monomers by radical polymerization and purified. Despite the hydrophilic side-groups in the amphiphilic polymer, the backbone structure's hydrophobicity allows for local adsorption of biomolecules in incubation media with or without serum. To enhance the hydrophilicity of the polymer, we tethered sulfonate groups to the hydroxyl groups on the PEG side chains (PMMA-b-PEG-SO3). The sulfate groups' physical and mechanical movement competitively repels biomolecules approaching the PMMA-b-PEG surface. Polymers modified with sulfonate were characterized by contact angle measurement, FT-IR, NMR, AFM and GPC. PMMA-b-PEG and PMMA-b-PEG-SO3 were successfully micropatterned on polystyrene and glass surfaces, and cell attachment was performed in either serum-free or serum-containing media, resulting in highly resolved cell micropatterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modelling, sharing and transmission of three-dimensional (3D) graphics data of biomolecules are essential in many bio visualization tasks from collaborative research and education to molecular simulation and drug discovery. In the current paper, modelling and representing of bio-molecular structure for virtual and physical rapid prototyping is presented. Our aim is to devise a uniform solution for visualizing, browsing, interacting and prototyping of bio-molecules in various environments including internet, immersive virtual reality (VR), and rapid manufacturing. To do so, we use non uniform rational B-spline surfaces (NURBS) to represent protein secondary structure and surface structure. NURBS protein structures are then tessellated to form bio-molecular graphics models. Their triangular mesh representation is next extracted from their scene graph. A geometric optimization process is followed to make data compatible for their formatting in compact and consistent VR standard to support protein internet browsing, protein VR visualization, protein 3D rapid prototyping and crystal sub-surface laser engraving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Imidafenacin (IM), 4-(2-methyl-1H-imidazol-1-yl)-2,2-diphenylbutanamide, is a newly synthesized antimuscarinic drug developed for the treatment of overactive bladder. To predict clinically relevant drug interactions in the metabolism of IM, the paper investigated: (1) the major enzymes responsible for the metabolism of IM, (2) the effects of concomitant drugs on the inhibition of metabolism of IM, and (3) the effects of IM and its metabolites on the inhibition of human cytochrome P450 (CYP). The elimination of IM and production of oxidative metabolites were mainly catalysed by recombinant CYP3A4, and the elimination of IM by human liver microsomes (HLM) was markedly inhibited by co-incubation with ketoconazole. The production of the N-glucuronide metabolite was only catalysed by recombinant UGT1A4. Clinically established CYP3A4 inhibitors including itraconazole, ketoconazole, erythromycin and clarithromycin inhibited the elimination of IM in HLM. IM and its major metabolites did not affect the activities of CYP enzymes in vitro. The results suggest that the major enzymes responsible for the metabolism of IM are CYP3A4 and UGT1A4, and oxidative metabolism of IM is reduced by concomitant administration of CYP3A4 inhibitors. In contrast, IM and its metabolites have no inhibitory effect on the CYP-mediated metabolism of concomitant drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper briefly reviews the ideas leading to ligand-receptor interaction being a central topic of research in the biological sciences, especially in pharmacology. The simulation methods for studying ligand-receptor interaction dynamically through ligand unbinding are reviewed, together with the analysis methods devised to examine the unbinding trajectory. Examples of applying DL_POLY in these simulations are given; they include retinol unbinding from the retinol-binding protein, and of serotonin and granisetron unbinding from the 5-HT3 receptor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper briefly reviews the ideas leading to ligand-receptor interaction being a central topic of research in the biological sciences, especially in pharmacology. The simulation methods for studying ligand-receptor interaction dynamically through ligand unbinding are reviewed, together with the analysis methods devised to examine the unbinding trajectory. Examples of applying DL_POLY in these simulations are given; they include retinol unbinding from the retinol-binding protein, and of serotonin and granisetron unbinding from the 5-HT3 receptor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is important to determine the cytochrome P450 (CYP) contribution of certain drugs by taking into consideration the attrition due to issues such as genetic polymorphism and inter-individual variation. In many cases in the early discovery stage, the metabolites of a new chemical have not been identified. Therefore, the present paper devised an approach in which the in vitro intrinsic clearance (CL int ) value for new chemicals was determined by measuring substrate depletion. The following prediction methods were compared to calculate CL int using data from recombinant CYP enzymes: (1) the relative CYP content in human liver microsomes; (2) the relative activity factor (RAF) based on the V max value; and (3) the RAF value based on the CL int value. The most accurate prediction method was RAF based on CL int . This method would be useful in the early drug-discovery process in cases in which the main metabolite is not identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on studies of the fragmentation dynamics of multicharged (A + ) 55 Morse clusters, where the variation of the range of the Morse potential parameters induces cluster fission for a long-range potential and Coulomb explosion for a short-range potential. The multidimensional energy landscapes for these fragmentation processes were explored by constructing reduced coordinates utilizing the principal component analysis (PCA), which was previously applied for the energy landscapes and folding dynamics of biomolecules. The distance-matrix based PCA was applied to study the effects of the potential on the fragmentation dynamics and to explore the structural diversity of the fragmentation processes. The first principal coordinate (which captures 95% of the dynamic information content for each trajectory) constitutes an appropriate reaction coordinate for both fission and Coulomb explosion and was used to determine the temperature-dependent fragmentation rates. These obey the Arrhenius law, with the barrier for fission (0.36?eV) being higher than for Coulomb explosion (0.22?eV). Structural and energetic information on the radius of gyration and on the potential energy for small values of the reaction coordinate manifest considerably larger fluctuations for fission than for Coulomb explosion, indicating that in the former case the cluster shrinks and swells prior to dissociation. The joint projection of multiple trajectories for each fragmentation process allows for the description of the energy landscapes and fragmentation pathways in terms of two principal coordinates, which manifest a form of ‘ski slopes’. Different collective coordinates describe the spatially isotropic Coulomb explosion and the spatially unisotropic fission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we aim at summarizing the current definitions of resilience in systems ecology with particular attention towards microbial systems. The recent advances of biomolecular techniques have provided scientists with new tools to investigate these systems in greater detail and with higher resolution. Therefore existing concepts and hypotheses have been revisited and discussed with respect to their applicability for ecosystems ruled by microbial processes. This review has also led to some reflections on the suitability of the term “resilience” as a general goal in environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The undeclared addition of soybean proteins to milk products is forbidden and a method is needed for food control and enforcement. This paper reports the development of a chromatographic method for routine analysis enabling the detection of the addition of soybean proteins to dairy products. A perfusion chromatography column and a linear binary gradient of acetonitrile-water-0.1% (v/v) trifluoroacetic acid at a temperature of 60°C were used. A very simple sample treatment consisting of mixing the sample with a suitable solvent (Milli-Q water or bicarbonate buffer (pH?=?11)) and centrifuging was used. The method enabled the separation of soybean proteins from milk proteins in less than 4?min (at a flow-rate of 3?ml/min). The method has been successfully applied to the detection of soybean proteins in milk, cheese, yogurt, and enteral formula. The correct quantitation of these vegetable proteins has also been possible in milk adulterated at origin with known sources of soybean proteins. The application of the method to samples adulterated at origin also leads to interesting conclusions as to the effect of the processing conditions used for the preparation of each dairy product on the determination of soybean proteins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]