Search

The widespread use of pesticides and their consequential presence in the environment is a growing concern due to the harmful health effects associated with pesticide exposure. For clinical and toxicology laboratories, a method for simultaneously determining these compounds and their metabolic products in body fluids, such as blood and urine, is important. In the present study, a rapid, sensitive and simultaneous LC-QToF-MS method for detecting multiclass pesticides and metabolites in blood and urine samples has been developed and validated. Four sample preparation procedures, protein precipitation and three different variants of QuEChERS-based extraction were evaluated to find a suitable, simple, and effective sample pretreatment technique. The final optimized sample preparation method (acetonitrile; 400 μl, MgSO 4 ; 40 mg and NaCl; 10 mg) was validated for accuracy, precision, matrix effect, recovery, stability, carryover, and dilution integrity. Analyte recoveries ranged from 75.40 to 113.54 % while accuracy was evaluated in the range of 71.41-108.26 % and precision (%RSD) in the range of 0.01 %-16.85 %. The limit of quantification (LOQ) for all compounds was established in the range of 0.82-7.05 ng mL - 1 . The developed reliable, robust, and sensitive method was successfully applied for the quantification of target pesticides and metabolites in human blood and urine samples. Evaluated samples resulted in detection of eleven analytes (seven pesticides and four metabolites)., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Akhilesh K Yadav reports financial support was provided by CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research. Akhilesh K Yadav reports a relationship with CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research that includes: employment. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Exploration of medicinal plants for bioactive-producing endophytic fungi is a relatively unmapped source of pharmaceutically important compounds. In this study, the endophytic fungus Curvularia lunata AREF029 isolated from the medicinal plant Cymbopogon citratus (known as lemongrass) was assessed for its biological activity. The methanolic extract of AREF029 had minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) ranging from 38 to 174 µg/ml against phytopathogenic fungi Alteranria solani, Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizoctonia solani. Furthermore, the AREF029 methanolic extract displayed a broad-spectrum MIC of 25 µg/ml in the case of Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhimurium and MRSA (methicillin-resistant S. aureus). In vitro cytotoxicity analysis with murine macrophage cell line RAW 264.7 determined 56% nitric oxide inhibition activity at 200 µg/ml concentration of the extract and more than 99% cell viability. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and Liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) analyses showed the presence of methoxy-5-methyl-4-oxo-2,5-hexadienoic acid (penicillic acid), phthalic acid, bis (7-methyloctyl) ester, 8-hydroxyquinoline, tetroquinone, curvulamine, Curvuleremophilane B/D, Chromonilinc acid A/C and other putative bioactive compounds in the extract. The current investigation supports the significance of the endophytic fungus C. lunata as a source of potent antibacterial, antifungal and anti-inflammatory compounds., (© 2024. The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Sociedade Brasileira de Microbiologia.)

Bacosides are dammarane-type triterpenoidal saponins in Bacopa monnieri and have various pharmacological applications. All the bacosides are diversified from two isomers, i.e., jujubogenin and pseudojujubogenin. The biosynthetic pathway of bacoside is not well elucidated. In the present study, we characterized a UDP-glycosyltransferase, UGT79A18, involved in the glycosylation of pseudojujubogenin. UGT79A18 shows higher expression in response to 5 h of wounding, and 3 h of MeJA treatment. The recombinant UGT79A18 shows in vitro activity against a wide range of flavonoids and triterpenes and has a substrate preference for protopanaxadiol, a dammarane-type triterpene. Secondary metabolite analysis of overexpression and knockdown lines of UGT79A18 in B. monnieri identify bacopasaponin D, bacopaside II, bacopaside N2 and pseudojujubogenin glucosyl rhamnoside as the major bacosides that were differentially accumulated. In the overexpression lines of UGT79A18, we found 1.7-fold enhanced bacopaside II, 8-fold enhanced bacopasaponin D, 3-fold enhanced pseudojujubogenin glucosyl rhamnoside, and 1.6-fold enhanced bacopaside N2 content in comparison with vector control plant, whereas in the knockdown lines of UGT79A18, we found 1.4-fold reduction in bacopaside II content, 3-fold reduction in the bacopasaponin D content, 2-fold reduction in the pseudojujubogenin glucosyl rhamnoside content, and 1.5-fold reduction in bacopaside N2 content in comparison with vector control. These results suggest that UGT79A18 is a significant UDP glycosyltransferase involved in glycosylating pseudojujubogenin and enhancing the pseudojujubogenin-derived bacosides., (© 2024 Scandinavian Plant Physiology Society.)

Bioelectrodes with low carbon footprint can provide an innovative solution to the surmounting levels of e-waste. Biodegradable polymers offer green and sustainable alternatives to synthetic materials. Here, a chitosan-carbon nanofiber (CNF) based membrane has been developed and functionalized for electrochemical sensing application. The surface characterization of the membrane revealed crystalline structure with uniform particle distribution, and surface area of 25.52 m 2 /g and pore volume of 0.0233 cm 3 /g. The membrane was functionalized to develop a bioelectrode for the detection of exogenous oxytocin in milk. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was employed to determine oxytocin in a linear concentration range of 10 to 10 5 ng/mL. The developed bioelectrode showed an LOD of 24.98 ± 11.37 pg/mL and sensitivity of 2.77 × 10 -10 Ω / log ng mL -1 /mm 2 for oxytocin in milk samples with 90.85-113.34 percent recovery. The chitosan-CNF membrane is ecologically safe and opens new avenues for environment-friendly disposable materials for sensing applications., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The presence of antibiotics in the aqueous environment has been a serious concern primarily due to the development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in diverse microbial populations. To overcome the rising AMR concerns, antibiotic decontamination of the environmental matrices may play a vital role. The present study investigates the use of zinc-activated ginger-waste derived biochar for the removal of six antibiotics belonging to three different classes, viz., β-lactams, fluoroquinolones, and tetracyclines from the water matrix. The adsorption capacities of activated ginger biochar (AGB) for the concurrent removal of the tested antibiotics were investigated at different contact times, temperatures, pH values, and initial concentrations of the adsorbate and adsorbent doses. AGB demonstrated high adsorption capacities of 5.00, 17.42, 9.66, 9.24, 7.15, and 5.40 mg/g for amoxicillin, oxacillin, ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin, chlortetracycline, and doxycycline, respectively. Further, among the employed isotherm models, the Langmuir model fitted well for all the antibiotics except oxacillin. The kinetic data of the adsorption experiments followed the pseudo-second order kinetics suggesting chemisorption as the preferred adsorption mechanism. Adsorption studies at different temperatures were conducted to obtain the thermodynamic characteristics suggesting a spontaneous exothermic adsorption phenomenon. AGB being a waste-derived cost-effective material shows promising antibiotic decontamination from the water environment., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)