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The global hazardous waste management market is expected to reach USD 987.51 million by 2027 at a CAGR of 14.48%. The early detection of corrosive, flammable, and infectious toxicants from natural sources or manmade contaminants from different environments is crucial to ensure the safety and security of the global living system. Even though the emergence of advanced science and technology continuously offers a more comfortable lifestyle, there are two sides of the coin in terms of opportunities and challenges, demanding solutions for greener applications and waste-to-wealth strategies. A modern analytical technique based on an electrochemical approach and microfluidics is one such emerging advanced solution for the early and effective detection of toxicants. This review attempts to highlight the different studies performed in the field of toxicant analysis, especially the fusion of electrochemistry and lab-chip model systems, promising for point-of-need analysis. The contents of this report are organised by classifying the types of toxicants and trends in electrochemical-integrated lab-chip assays that test for heavy-metal ions, food-borne pathogens, pesticides, physiological reactive oxygen/nitrogen species, and microbial metabolites. Future demands in toxicant analysis and possible suggestions in the field of microanalysis-mediated electrochemical (bio)sensing are summarised.

Sea cucumber has long been utilized as a treatment for a variety of ailments, including antibacterial, antifungal, immunomodulatory, and wound healing. As for the first time, the extracts of three sea cucumber species’ i.e, Actinopyga lecanora, Holothuria atra, and Stichopus vastus, were compared and tested on the cytotoxicity of cancer cells using MTT and Annexin V/Propidium Iodide assays. This study investigates the protection of sea cucumber extracts against the breast cancer cell line (T-47D). All three extracts were found to be actively declining the cancer cell progression, with the IC50 values of 6.25±0.50 µg/ml (A. lecanora), 7.5 ± 1.39 µg/ml (H. atra) and 3.25 ± 0.53 µg/ml (S. vastus). LC-MS/MS analysis was used to identify chemical compunds in the extracts. The 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), total phenolic and flavonoid contents, and anti-collagenase activity were also assessed in all the three extracts. The results demonstrated the absence of antioxidant and flavonoid chemicals in S. vastus, A. leconara and H. atra extracts. However, H. atra contained phenolic compounds (0.4794 mgGAE/g DW). Furthermore, all tested extracts showed significant anti-collagenase activity, which supported the reduction of cancer cell proliferation. However, more research into the mechanism of action of the extract is needed before sea cucumbers therapeutic characteristics may be used to combat breast cancer.

Conventional biomaterial is frequently used in the biomedical sector for various therapies, imaging, treatment, and theranostic functions. However, their properties are fixed to meet certain applications. Smart materials respond in a controllable and reversible way, modifying some of their properties because of external stimuli. However, protein-based smart materials allow modular protein domains with different functionalities and responsive behaviours to be easily combined. Wherein, these “smart” behaviours can be tuned by amino acid identity and sequence. This review aims to give an insight into the design of smart materials, mainly protein-based piezoelectric materials, shape-memory materials, and hydrogels, as well as highlight the current progress and challenges of protein-based smart materials in tissue engineering. These materials have demonstrated outstanding regeneration of neural, skin, cartilage, bone, and cardiac tissues with great stimuli-responsive properties, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and biofunctionality.

Cancer is the leading cause of death, acting as a global burden, severely impacting the patients’ quality of life and affecting the world economy despite the expansion of cumulative advances in oncology. The current conventional therapies for cancer which involve long treatment duration and systemic exposure of drugs leads to premature degradation of drugs, a massive amount of pain, side effects, as well as the recurrence of the condition. There is also an urgent demand for personalized and precision-based medicine, especially after the recent pandemic, to avoid future delays in diagnosis or treatments for cancer patients as they are very essential in reducing the global mortality rate. Recently, microneedles which consist of a patch with tiny, micron-sized needles attached to it have been quite a sensation as an emerging technology for transdermal application to diagnose or treat various illnesses. The application of microneedles in cancer therapies is also being extensively studied as they offer a myriad of benefits, especially since microneedle patches offer a better treatment approach through self administration, painless treatment, and being an economically and environmentally friendly approach in comparison with other conventional methods. The painless gains from microneedles significantly improves the survival rate of cancer patients. The emergence of versatile and innovative transdermal drug delivery systems presents a prime breakthrough opportunity for safer and more effective therapies, which could meet the demands of cancer diagnosis and treatment through different application scenarios. This review highlights the types of microneedles, fabrication methods and materials, along with the recent advances and opportunities. In addition, this review also addresses the challenges and limitations of microneedles in cancer therapy with solutions through current studies and future works to facilitate the clinical translation of microneedles in cancer therapies.

Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), a biodegradable and plastic-like biopolymer, has been receiving research and industrial attention due to severe plastic pollution, resource depletion, and global waste issues. This has spurred the isolation and characterisation of novel PHA-producing strains through cultivation and non-cultivation approaches, with a particular interest in genes encoding PHA synthesis pathways. Since sea sponges and sediment are marine benthic habitats known to be rich in microbial diversity, sponge tissues (Xestospongia muta and Aaptos aaptos) and sediment samples were collected in this study from Redang and Bidong islands located in the Malaysian Coral Triangle region. PHA synthase (phaC) genes were identified from sediment-associated bacterial strains using a cultivation approach and from sponge-associated bacterial metagenomes using a non-cultivation approach. In addition, phylogenetic diversity profiling was performed for the sponge-associated bacterial community using 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (16S rRNA) amplicon sequencing to screen for the potential presence of PHA-producer taxa. A total of three phaC genes from the bacterial metagenome of Aaptos and three phaC genes from sediment isolates (Sphingobacterium mizutaii UMTKB-6, Alcaligenes faecalis UMTKB-7, Acinetobacter calcoaceticus UMTKB-8) were identified. Produced PHA polymers were shown to be composed of 5C to nC monomers, with previously unreported PHA-producing ability of the S. mizutaii strain, as well as a 3-hydroxyvalerate-synthesising ability without precursor addition by the A. calcoaceticus strain.

Biomaterial scaffolds play crucial role to promote cell proliferation and foster the regeneration of new tissues. The progress in material science has paved the way for the generation of ingenious biomaterials. However, these biomaterials require further optimization to be effectively used in existing clinical treatments. It is crucial to develop biomaterials which mimics structure that can be actively involved in delivering signals to cells for the formation of the regenerated tissue. In this research we nanoengineered a functional scaffold to support the proliferation of myoblast cells. Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate) [P(3HB-co-4HB)] copolymer is chosen as scaffold material owing to its desirable mechanical and physical properties combined with good biocompatibility, thus eliciting appropriate host tissue responses. In this study P(3HB-co-4HB) copolymer was biosynthesized using Cupriavidus malaysiensis USMAA1020 transformant harboring additional PHA synthase gene, and the viability of a novel P(3HB-co-4HB) electrospun nanofiber scaffold, surface functionalized with RGD peptides, was explored. In order to immobilize RGD peptides molecules onto the P(3HB-co-4HB) nanofibers surface, an aminolysis reaction was performed. The nanoengineered scaffolds were characterized using SEM, organic elemental analysis (CHN analysis), FTIR, surface wettability and their in vitro degradation behavior was evaluated. The cell culture study using H9c2 myoblast cells was conducted to assess the in vitro cellular response of the engineered scaffold. Our results demonstrated that nano-P(3HB-co-4HB)-RGD scaffold possessed an average fiber diameter distribution between 200 and 300 nm, closely biomimicking, from a morphological point of view, the structural ECM components, thus acting as potential ECM analogs. This study indicates that the surface conjugation of biomimetic RGD peptide to the nano-P(3HB-co-4HB) fibers increased the surface wettability (15 ± 2°) and enhanced H9c2 myoblast cells attachment and proliferation. In summary, the study reveals that nano-P(3HB-co-4HB)-RGD scaffold can be considered a promising candidate to be further explored as cardiac construct for building cardiac construct.

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are biodegradable polymers that are considered able to replace synthetic plastic because their biochemical characteristics are in some cases the same as other biodegradable polymers. However, due to the disadvantages of costly and non-renewable carbon sources, the production of PHA has been lower in the industrial sector against conventional plastics. At the same time, first-generation sugar-based cultivated feedstocks as substrates for PHA production threatens food security and considerably require other resources such as land and energy. Therefore, attempts have been made in pursuit of suitable sustainable and affordable sources of carbon to reduce production costs. Thus, in this review, we highlight utilising waste lignocellulosic feedstocks (LF) as a renewable and inexpensive carbon source to produce PHA. These waste feedstocks, second-generation plant lignocellulosic biomass, such as maize stoves, dedicated energy crops, rice straws, wood chips, are commonly available renewable biomass sources with a steady supply of about 150 billion tonnes per year of global yield. The generation of PHA from lignocellulose is still in its infancy, hence more screening of lignocellulosic materials and improvements in downstream processing and substrate pre-treatment are needed in the future to further advance the biopolymer sector.

Nanobiotechnology has undoubtedly influenced major breakthroughs in medical sciences. Application of nanosized materials has made it possible for researchers to investigate a broad spectrum of treatments for diseases with minimally invasive procedures. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been a subject of investigation for numerous applications in agriculture, water treatment, biosensors, textiles, and the food industry as well as in the medical field, mainly due to their antimicrobial properties and nanoparticle nature. In general, AgNPs are known for their superior physical, chemical, and biological properties. The properties of AgNPs differ based on their methods of synthesis and to date, the biological method has been preferred because it is rapid, nontoxic, and can produce well-defined size and morphology under optimized conditions. Nevertheless, the common issue concerning biological or biobased production is its sustainability. Researchers have employed various strategies in addressing this shortcoming, such as recently testing agricultural biowastes such as fruit peels for the synthesis of AgNPs. The use of biowastes is definitely cost-effective and eco-friendly; moreover, it has been reported that the reduction process is simple and rapid with reasonably high yield. This review aims to address the developments in using fruit- and vegetable-based biowastes for biologically producing AgNPs to be applied as antimicrobial coatings in biomedical applications.

Herein, fluorinated thioureas with various substituents (F1-F3) were synthesized and characterized spectroscopically and analytically to investigate their properties as antibacterial agents. Prior to experimental studies, Density Functional Theory (DFT) modeling was performed at B3LYP/6-31G (d,p) to complement and offer comparative overview with the experimental findings. With regards to all theoretical analyses, the Frontier Molecular Orbital (FMO) demonstrated a desirable low HOMO-LUMO gap for all three designated derivatives, particularly F1 (1.60 eV), which is consistent with its GCRDs values, namely its high electronegativity and low hardness values that corresponds to low LUMO energy, suggesting higher bacterial activity. Agar diffusion assay was used for the preliminary screening of in-vitro antibacterial activity against pathogenic Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. All three derivates successfully inhibit at least two bacterial strains (B. cereus, S. aureus), but none were able to penetrate into E. coli. The highest inhibition rate was exhibited by F3 at 33.33 ± 0.71% against S. aureus, whilst F1 only managed to gain 29.63 ± 0.00% of inhibition rate for the same bacterium. Meanwhile, the lowest penetration rate was recorded at 1.53 ± 0.35% by F2 against B. cereus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, accounting for almost one-third of all deaths. The risk factors for developing this disease include high levels of serum total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL), alongside low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL). Dietary linoleic acid has been suggested to reduce these risk factors. This study aims to determine the effects of linoleic acid on cholesterol levels, liver function tests, and structural changes in liver tissue in comparison with fenofibrate in a hypercholesterolemic rat model. Thirty-six male Sprague Dawley rats (150–180 g) were divided into non-hypercholesterolemic and hypercholesterolemic groups. Hypercholesterolemia was induced in the rats by feeding them with a high-fat diet for two weeks. After two weeks, the non-hypercholesterolemic and hypercholesterolemic rats were equally divided into six groups (n = 6): control non-hypercholesterolemic rats, non-hypercholesterolemic rats treated with fenofibrate (60 mg/kg), non-hypercholesterolemic rats treated with linoleic acid (5 mg/kg), control hypercholesterolemic rats, hypercholesterolemic rats treated with fenofibrate (60 mg/kg), and hypercholesterolemic rats treated with linoleic acid (5 mg/kg). The changes in the rats' body weight, serum lipid profiles, atherogenic indices, and liver function test results were obtained. The rats' liver tissues were stained for histopathological analysis. The linoleic acid-treated hypercholesterolemic rats exhibited significantly reduced serum TC, TG, LDL, aspartate aminotransferase, and alanine aminotransferase levels, as well as increased HDL levels compared with the control hypercholesterolemic rats. These linoleic acid effects were comparable to those in the fenofibrate-treated hypercholesterolemic rats. In conclusion, linoleic acid possesses early anti-hypercholesterolemic properties, which may be due to the reductions in serum cholesterol levels and mild early structural changes in the liver tissues of hypercholesterolemic rats. Therefore, continued studies on linoleic acid in atherosclerotic and/or obese animal models are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]