Perturbations in Microbiota Composition as a Novel Mediator in Neuropsychiatric, Neurological and Mental Disorders: Preventive and Therapeutic Complementary Therapies to Balance the Change.

Although microbiology and neurology are separate disciplines, they are linked to some infectious and neurological diseases. Today, microbiome is considered as one of the biomarkers of health by many researchers. This has led to the association of microbiome changes with many neurological diseases. The natural microbiota has many beneficial properties. If disrupted and altered, it can lead to irreversible complications and many neurological diseases. Therefore, according to previous studies, some preventive and therapeutic complementary therapies can prevent or restore microbiome dysbiosis and inflammation in the nervous system. With our current perception of the microbiological basis for different neurological disorders, both aspects of drug treatment and control of perturbations of the microbiome should be considered, and targeting them simultaneously will likely help to attain favorable results.

Plant-mediated synthesis of silver-doped zinc oxide nanoparticles and evaluation of their antimicrobial activity against bacteria cause tooth decay.

In this research, silver-doped zinc oxide (SdZnO) nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized in an environmental-friendly manner. The synthesized NPs were identified by UV-vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Finally, the antimicrobial activity of synthesized ZnO and SdZnO NPs was performed. It was observed that by doping silver, the size of ZnO NPs was changed. By adding silver to ZnO NPs, the antimicrobial effect of ZnO NPs was improved. Antibacterial test against gram-positive bacterium Streptococcus mutants showed that SdZnO NPs with a low density of silver had higher antibacterial activity than ZnO NPs; Therefore, SdZnO NPs can be used as a new antibacterial agent in medical applications. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Silver-doped zinc oxide nanoparticles were prepared using an eco-friendly synthesis method and their antimicrobial activity against bacteria causing tooth decay was studied.

Green synthesis of bimetallic ZnO-CuO nanoparticles and their cytotoxicity properties.

In this study, a simple and green strategy was reported to prepare bimetallic nanoparticles (NPs) by the combination of zinc oxide (ZnO) and copper oxide (CuO) using Sambucus nigra L. extract. The physicochemical properties of these NPs such as crystal structure, size, and morphology were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission gun scanning electron microscopy (FEG-SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results suggested that these NPs contained polygonal ZnO NPs with hexagonal phase and spherical CuO NPs with monoclinic phase. The anticancer activity of the prepared bimetallic NPs was evaluated against lung and human melanoma cell lines based on MTT assay. As a result, the bimetallic ZnO/CuO NPs exhibited high toxicity on melanoma cancer cells while their toxicity on lung cancer cells was low.