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The leading cause of increased mortality rates is infections from implanted medical devices, with catheters accounting for more than 80% of these infections. Polypropylene (PP) composites with antimicrobial properties were developed by adding binary mixed oxide (CuO-TiO2). The outcomes demonstrated that the spreading and encapsulation of CuO-TiO2 particles in the PP matrix was much better with the incorporation of PP-g-MAH compatibilizer. Matrix crystallinity is affected by the addition of compatibilizers, the amount of CuO-TiO2, and heat treatments. The synergy effect of CuO-TiO2 as antimicrobial agents was analyzed. The antibacterial efficacy's reliance on matrix crystallinity is elucidated in relation with various heat treatments, PP-g-MAH compatibilizer, and amount of CuO-TiO2. PP made of binary mixed oxides (e.g., CuO and TiO2) and 3 wt% PP-g-MAH that was processed with a low degree of crystallinity increased the material's capability of effectively rendering plausible antimicrobial species (e.g., •O2−, •OH−, and Cu2+) with excellent antimicrobial efficacy towards Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). This innovative composite, CuO-TiO2-PP, offers new perspectives on managing bloodstream infections associated with catheter use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polymer-based appliances are vulnerable to bacterial infections and pose a significant concern in biomedical field. Potential sources of infections have been found to be two categories of strain, namely Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli), necessitating a comprehensive exploration of innovative materials and strategies to mitigate this issue. Accordingly, this work targeted to determine the effect of 1% and 7% Cu-TiO2 on the antibacterial activity of PP composite against S. aureus and E. coli. In this work, oval-shaped Cu-TiO2 were fabricated by a hydrothermal method and then incorporated into the PP by internal mixing. Subsequently, XRD, TEM, FESEM, and EDS were used to characterize the Cu-TiO2-PP composite. The structural properties of PP composite were greatly altered with dispersion of Cu-TiO2. Antibacterial tests demonstrated that the bactericidal efficiency of Cu-TiO2-PP composite on microorganisms greatly improved with metal-ionic systems compared with pure PP. This work throws some new insight in addressing catheter-related blood-stream infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer is one of the major issues in the field of oncology, reported with a higher prevalence rate in women worldwide. In attempt to reveal the potential biomarkers for breast cancer, the findings of differentially glycosylated haptoglobin and osteonectin in previous study have drawn our attention towards glycoproteins of secretome from the MCF-7 cancer cell line. In the present study, further analyses were performed on the medium of MCF-7 cells by subjecting it to two-dimensional analyses followed by image analysis in contrast to the medium of human mammary epithelial cells (HMEpC) as a negative control. Carboxypeptidase A4 (CPA4), alpha-1-antitrypsin (AAT), haptoglobin (HP), and HSC70 were detected in the medium of MCF-7, while only CPA4 and osteonectin (ON) were detected in HMEpC medium. In addition, CPA4 was detected as upregulated in the MCF-7 medium. Further analysis by lectin showed that CPA4, AAT, HP, and HSC70 were secreted as N-glycan in the medium of MCF-7, with HP also showing differentially N-glycosylated isoforms. For the HMEpC, only CPA4 was detected as N-glycan. No O-glycan was detected in the medium of HMEpC but MCF-7 expressed O-glycosylated CPA4 and HSC70. All these revealed that glycoproteins could be used as glycan-based biomarkers for the prognosis of breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]