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Psoriasis is a chronic, relapsing inflammatory skin disorder that is associated with substantial physical and psychosocial comorbidity. Although biologic agents have offered transformative therapeutic advantages to those unresponsive to traditional treatments, data from recent literature indicate significant undertreatment of certain populations, highlighting potential barriers to access. This review aims to comprehensively elucidate barriers to biological therapy, addressing a recognized gap in the current literature. A search was conducted using MEDLINE, Embase, and Web of Science to investigate the obstacles and disparities that prevent access to biologic treatments in biologic‐naïve psoriatic patients. Emergent themes were then systematically categorized into five primary domains: patient‐level, prescriber‐level, medicine‐level, organizational‐, and external environment‐level factors. Our results demonstrate pronounced barriers and disparities encompassing increased age, race, socioeconomic status, rural location, cost and insurance, and insufficient knowledge that may hinder access to biologic treatments among psoriatic patients. Further research on how these barriers can be effectively addressed is needed to optimize treatment outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the barriers to accessing biologic treatments for moderate-to-severe adult atopic dermatitis (AD). Despite the effectiveness and safety of biologics, prescription rates remain low, indicating potential barriers to access. The study conducted a systematic literature search and identified 10 studies that explored the barriers to accessing biologics in AD. The identified barriers included patient-level factors (such as lack of education and concerns about insurance coverage), prescriber-level factors (such as limited experience and unfamiliarity with prescription guidelines), and medication-level factors (such as cost and concerns about safety and efficacy). The study highlights the need for further research to better understand these barriers and improve treatment outcomes for AD patients. [Extracted from the article]

Sophorolipids are a group of surface‐active glycolipid compounds that can be synthesized by several yeasts, especially the Candida genera. Soap stock is a by‐product of vegetable oils refinery that enriches mono‐unsaturated fatty acids, and its application is interesting as a low‐cost industrial residue in sophorolipid production. In this study, the sophorolipid production was evaluated by Candida catenulate KP324968, using sunflower oil soap stock and glucose as the hydrophobic and hydrophilic carbon sources, respectively. The results indicated the ratio of hydrophobic to a hydrophilic carbon source, initial pH, and type of nitrogen source had significant roles in the performance of the cells. The highest specific biomass growth rate was about 0.0447 ± 0.0013 h−1 and a sophorolipid production rate of 49.96 ± 0.33 mg L−1 h−1 was obtained at a soap stock‐to‐glucose ratio of 1, initial pH of 5.5, and temperature of 30°C. The addition of organic nitrogen sources such as yeast extract and urea obtained a higher sophorolipid production in comparison with ammonium nitrate and potassium nitrate as the mineral nitrogen sources. Usage of both yeast extract and urea increased the sophorolipid production rate by 4.4% and 6.9%, in comparison with separate usage of yeast extract and urea, respectively. The characterization of the sophorolipid confirmed an emulsification index of about 30 ± 2.9% for diesel‐in‐water and 50 ± 3.5% for sunflower oil‐in‐water systems. The critical micelle concentration was determined at 280 mg L−1. The produced sophorolipid at a concentration of 500 mg L−1 showed an antibacterial capacity about of 95.4 ± 1.1%, and 44.7 ± 0.8% against Bacillus subtilis (Gram‐positive) and Escherichia coli (Gram‐negative) bacteria, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The focus in the present work was on the continuous β‐carotene production from free fatty acids supplied by the soap stock as a sole carbon source for Rhodotorula rubra cells in an airlift bioreactor. The effects of dilution rate on the cell growth and β‐carotene production were studied by both freely suspended‐ and immobilized‐cell systems in the chemostat operations. The results showed that the immobilization of the cell on natural sponge of loofah significantly increased the optimum and maximum dilution rates from 0.0375 to 0.05 hr−1 and 0.055 to 0.150 hr−1, respectively. The immobilization process has practical role in balancing of cell proliferation in the matrix and wash out the grown cells containing β‐carotene from the bioreactor where β‐carotene productivity was enhanced from 5.4 to 23.4 mg L−1 hr−1 using the immobilized cell technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The degradation of phenol and formaldehyde (FA) at different concentrations as single or binary systems were experimentally investigated by a pure culture of Ralstonia eutropha in a batch mixed bioreactor operated at 30°C, initial pH 6.5, an aeration rate of 0.5 vvm, and 200 rpm, to determine the kinetics parameters of the processes. In single substrate experiments, the results of the kinetics studies with the Andrews and Noack equation showed that phenol and FA had a self-inhibitory effect on their biodegradation when the initial concentration was higher than 284.1 and 215.4 mg L−1, respectively. In addition, kinetics studies indicated that partial non-competitive enzyme inhibition could be used to describe the interactional effects of phenol and FA in the simultaneous biodegradation process. According to the non-competitive inhibition kinetics applied, the inhibitory constant of phenol on FA biodegradation ( KI 1→2) and partiality factor ( β1→2) were estimated to be 81.31 mg L−1 and 0.357. In order to describe the effect of FA concentration on the phenol biodegradation, the following results were obtained: KI 2→1 = 37.63 and β2→1 = 0.171 mg L−1. The prediction capacity of the estimated parameters was examined using a model which could describe the dynamic feature of the bioprocesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-metabolic degradation of p-nitrophenol (PNP) and phenol by kissiris-immobilized Ralstonia eutropha cells was studied in a batch bioreactor operated in recycling mode (30°C, initial pH of 7.7, aeration rate of 0.5 vvm, and recycling flow rate of 25 mL min−1). Decreasing trends of specific degradation rates of phenol ( qSg) and PNP ( qSng) with an increase of initial PNP concentration, were mathematically modeled considering the competitive inhibition between growth and non-growth substrates and self-inhibition of non-growth substrate. A non-linear regression on the equations used in defining of qSg, and qSng, was used to estimate the relevant kinetic parameters. On the best fitted curve, the kinetic parameters were qmax Sg = 0.032 g Phenol g Cell−1 h−1, Km Sg = 442.9 mg L−1, qmax Sng = 0.0056 g Phenol g Cell−1 h−1, Km Sng = 181.2 mg L−1, and KSng = 0.489 mg L−1. These parameters were used for dynamic prediction of the substrates concentration feature during co-metabolic degradation experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aerobic degradation of methylene blue by a pure culture of Ralstonia eutropha was studied by both freely suspended cells and kissiris‐immobilized packed bed reactors. Kissiris as a cell support matrix favored the retention of the cells in the packed bed reactor during of the methylene blue biodegradation process. The biodegradation experiments showed that the kissiris‐packed bed reactor had higher performance in removal of the dyestuff for initial concentrations equal or higher than 150 mg L−1 when compared with the freely suspended cells. To evaluate the effect of mass transfer phenomena in the immobilized system, mass balance of methylene blue for a single kissiris piece was applied to derive expressions correlating the methylene blue concentration in the bulk liquid medium and inside of the bioparticle. Kinetics studies revealed a self‐inhibitory effect of methylene blue on its biodegradation at concentrations higher than 85.76 mg L−1 in the free cell and 190.1 mg L−1 for immobilized system. The mass transfer modeling indicated the protective role of the support from cells against the inhibitory role of methylene blue is related to both external and internal mass transfer limitations in the immobilized system. In the kissiris packed bed reactor, the effectiveness value was higher than unity for initial methylene blue concentration of 150 mg L−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]