TiO2/PEG as smart anticorrosion and drug-eluting platforms in inflammatory conditions.

The failure of a titanium implant is often attributed to inflammatory reactions following implantation. This study focuses on the synthesis of a polyethylene glycol (PEG) layer on porous titanium dioxide (TiO2) coatings using plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO). This PEG layer serves as a foundation for a drug-eluting platform designed to respond to pH stimuli during inflammation. Betamethasone (BET), a widely used anti-inflammatory drug, was loaded onto the pH-responsive functional PEG layers. The application of the PEG-BET layer onto TiO2 coatings through the vacuum dip coating method resulted in a pH-sensitive sustained release of BET over a 30-day period. Notably, the release rates were 81% at pH 5.0 and 55% at pH 7.2. Electrochemical corrosion tests conducted in both normal and acidic inflammatory solutions demonstrated that duplex composite coatings offer superior protection compared to simple oxide coatings. In a pH 5.0 solution, corrosion current density measurements revealed values of 1.75 µA cm-2 (PEO/PEG-BET), 8.87 µA cm-2 (PEO), and 49.17 µA cm-2 (bare titanium). These results highlight the effectiveness of the PEO/PEG-BET layer in sealing pores within PEO coatings, subsequently reducing the infiltration of corrosive ions in inflammatory environments.

Palladium anchored to BisPyP@bilayer-SiO2@NMP organic-inorganic hybrid as an efficient and recoverable novel nanocatalyst in suzuki and stille C-C coupling reactions.

The palladium anchored to BisPyP@bilayer-SiO2@NMP organic-inorganic hybrid was employed as an effective and recyclable organometallic catalyst in Suzuki and Stille C-C coupling reactions. The structure of this magnetic nanocatalyst was determined using various techniques such as SEM, TEM, FT-IR, EDS, ICP-OES, VSM, N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms, XRD, and TGA. In both of the mentioned coupling paths, the yields of the products were very favorable and ranged from 90 to 98%. Also, they had significant features compared to previous reports, such as very short reaction time (5-15 and 7-20 min respectively in the Suzuki and Stille reactions), easy work-up, broad substrate scope, ease of separation of the catalyst using a magnet, suitable reproducibility of the catalyst in 6 runs, heterogeneous nature of the catalyst and not washing it during consecutive runs with confirmation of hot filtration and ICP-OES methods.

CRISPR/Cas-based colorimetric biosensors: a promising tool for the diagnosis of bacterial foodborne pathogens in food products.

Some physical phenomena and various chemical substances newly introduced in nanotechnology have allowed scientists to develop valuable devices in the field of food sciences. Regarding such progress, the identification of foodborne pathogenic microorganisms is an imperative subject nowadays. These bacterial species have been found to cause severe health impacts after food ingestion and can result in high mortality in acute cases. The rapid detection of foodborne bacterial species at low concentrations is in high demand in recent diagnostics. CRISPR/Cas-mediated biosensors possess the potential to overcome several challenges in classical assays such as complex pretreatments, long turnaround time, and insensitivity. Among them, colorimetric nanoprobes based on the CRISPR strategy afford promising devices for POCT (point-of-care testing) since they can be visualized with the naked eye and do not require diagnostic apparatus. In this study, we briefly classify and discuss the working principles of the different CRISPR/Cas protein agents that have been employed in biosensors so far. We assess the current status of the CRISPR system, specifically focusing on colorimetric biosensing platforms. We discuss the utilization of each Cas effector in the detection of foodborne pathogens and examine the restrictions of the existing technology. The challenges and future opportunities are also indicated and addressed.

Biochemical and thermodynamic properties of de novo synthesized urease from Vicia sativa seeds with enhanced industrial applications.

Urease is one of the most significant enzymes in the industry. The objective of this research was to isolate and partially purify urease from Vicia sativa seeds with urease characterization. With a 6.4 % yield, the purification fold was 9.0. By using chromatography, it was determined that the isolated urease had a molecular weight of 55 kDa. The maximum urease activity was found following a 60-s incubation period at 40 °C and pH 8. The activity of urease was significantly boosted by a mean of calcium, barium, DL-dithiothreitol, Na2EDTA, and citrate (16.9, 26.6, 18.6, 13.6, and 31 %), respectively. But nickel and mercury caused inhibitory effects and completely inhibited urease activity, indicating the presence of a thiol (-SH) group in the enzyme active site. The Arrhenius plot was used to analyze the thermodynamic constants of activation, Ea, ΔH*, ΔG*, and ΔS*. The results showed that the values were 30 kJ/mol, 93.14 kJ/mol, 107.17 kJ/mol/K, and -40.80 J/mol/K, respectively. The significance of urease extraction from various sources may contribute to our understanding of the metabolism of urea in plants. The current report has novelty as it explained for the first time the kinetics and thermodynamics of hydrolysis of urea and inactivation of urease from V. sativa seeds.

Biological investigation of a novel nanocomposite based on xanthan gum-alginate hydrogel/PVA, incorporated with ZnMnFe2O4 nanoparticles.

In light of the need to create new materials that are safe for use in biomedical applications like wound healing and tissue engineering, a unique nanocomposite was formulated and produced in the current investigation. A biocompatible hydrogel was created using natural polymers xanthan gum (XG) and alginate (Alg). In order to enhance the mechanical characteristics of the natural polymer-based hydrogels, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) was added to the hydrogel matrix. Subsequently, the XG-Alg hydrogel/PVA structure was combined with ZnMnFe2O4 nanoparticles in order to augment the antibacterial efficacy of the biomaterial. The XG-Alg hydrogel/PVA/ZnMnFe2O4 nanocomposite was analyzed using XRD, EDX, FT-IR, TGA, and FE-SEM techniques to determine its properties. In addition, the mechanical properties of the pure hydrogel were compared to those of the XG-Alg hydrogel/PVA/ZnMnFe2O4 nanocomposite. The nanocomposite exhibited a biocompatibility of 96.45 % and 94.32 % with HEK293T cell lines after 24 h and 48 h of incubation, respectively, in biological evaluations. Furthermore, a significant antibacterial efficacy was demonstrated against both gram-positive S. aureus and gram-negative E. coli bacteria. The findings suggest that the developed XG-Alg hydrogel/PVA/ZnMnFe2O4 nanocomposite has promising qualities for use in biomedical fields, such as tissue engineering.