Integrating advanced techniques and machine learning for landfill leachate treatment: Addressing limitations and environmental concerns.

This review article explores the challenges associated with landfill leachate resulting from the increasing disposal of municipal solid waste in landfills and open areas. The composition of landfill leachate includes antibiotics (0.001-100 µg), heavy metals (0.001-1.4 g/L), dissolved organic and inorganic components, and xenobiotics including polyaromatic hydrocarbons (10-25 µg/L). Conventional treatment methods, such as biological (microbial and phytoremediation) and physicochemical (electrochemical and membrane-based) techniques, are available but face limitations in terms of cost, accuracy, and environmental risks. To surmount these challenges, this study advocates for the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to strengthen treatment efficacy through predictive analytics and optimized operational parameters. It critically evaluates the risks posed by recalcitrant leachate components and appraises the performance of various treatment modalities, both independently and in tandem with biological and physicochemical processes. Notably, physicochemical treatments have demonstrated pollutant removal rates of up to 90% for various contaminants, while integrated biological approaches have achieved over 95% removal efficiency. However, the heterogeneous nature of solid waste composition further complicates treatment methodologies. Consequently, the integration of advanced ML algorithms such as Support Vector Regression, Artificial Neural Networks, and Genetic Algorithms is proposed to refine leachate treatment processes. This review provides valuable insights for different stakeholders specifically researchers, policymakers and practitioners, seeking to fortify waste disposal infrastructure and foster sustainable landfill leachate management practices. By leveraging AI and ML tools in conjunction with a nuanced understanding of leachate complexities, a promising pathway emerges towards effectively addressing this environmental challenge while mitigating potential adverse impacts.

Production of biopolymers from food waste: Constrains and perspectives.

Food is an essential commodity for the survival of any form of life on earth. Yet generation of plethora of food waste has significantly elevated the global concern for food scarcity, human and environment deterioration. Also, increasing use of polymers derived from petroleum hydrocarbons has elevated the concerns towards the depletion of this non-renewable resource. In this review, the use of waste food for the production of bio-polymers and their associated challenges has been thoroughly investigated using scientometric analysis. Various categories of food waste including fruit, vegetable, and oily waste can be employed for the production of different biopolymers including polyhydroxyalkanoates, starch, cellulose, collagen and others. The advances in the production of biopolymers through chemical, microbial or enzymatic process that increases the acceptability of these biopolymers has been reviewed. The comprehensive compiled information may assist researchers for addressing and solving the issues pertaining to food wastage and fossil fuel depletion.

Deciphering the blackbox of omics approaches and artificial intelligence in food waste transformation and mitigation.

It is necessary to stop the wastage of food during any stage of food chain to resolve the challenge of starvation, hunger and malnutrition in the world. Inception of modern techniques like omics (metagenomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, wasteomics, diseaseomics etc), enzymatic treatments, and artificial intelligence in food waste reduction and management can bring a sustainable solution for food loss management, starvation and environmental challenges. Acceptance of modern techniques while policies formulation by government bodies can substantially strengthen the idea of waste reduction, food security and can easily save the life of around 25,000 children and adults dying of starvation every day. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can bestead current agriculture and food supply chain system to overcome the challenges of nutrition demand, resource depletion, climate change, population growth, and pollution. This communication provides a thorough examination of the concept of food waste management with omics approaches linkages. In addition, the notion of artificial intelligence in food waste transformation and mitigation, as well as present challenges and future prospects have been covered. Overall, this communication would assist decision-makers in identifying economically and environmentally appropriate biorefinery solutions ahead of time.

Characterization of a Novel Protease Inhibitor from the Edible Mushroom Agaricus bisporus.

BACKGROUND: Protease inhibitors inhibit the activity of protease enzymes; hence, they are essentially involved in the regulation of the metabolic processes involving protease enzymes and the protection of the host organism against external damage due to proteases. These inhibitors are abundantly present in all living organisms but have not been much reported in mushrooms. Mushrooms are one of the major food components of humans, with delicious taste and high nutritional value. Mushrooms also have therapeutic and economic significance. The edible mushrooms with medicinal properties are much in commercial demand. To date, the presence of protease inhibitors has not been reported much in edible mushrooms. The present study reports the characterization of a protease inhibitor isolated from the common white button mushroom Agaricus bisporus. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the present study is to characterize the novel protease inhibitor from Agaricus bisporus in order to determine its nature and activity under varying environmental conditions. METHODS: The protease inhibitor was characterized through SDS PAGE, gel filtration chromatography, and de novo sequencing in order to determine its molecular mass and sequence, respectively. The optimum pH, temperature, and thermal stability were studied to determine the optimum working range of the protease inhibitor. The protease inhibitory activity (%) was determined in the presence of metal ions, surfactants, oxidizing agents, and reducing agents. The kinetic parameters and the type of inhibition exhibited by the protease inhibitor were determined using casein and trypsin protease enzyme. RESULTS: The protease inhibitor was found to be a low molecular mass compound of 25 kDa. The de novo sequencing matched the inhibitor against a 227 amino acid containing peptide molecular mass of 24.6 kDa molecular mass. The protease inhibitory activity (%) was found highest at pH 7.0 and temperature 50 °C, and the inhibitor was stable from pH 4.0-9.0 and temperature 30-80 °C. In the presence of metal ions, the residual protease inhibitory activity (%) enhanced in the presence of Na+, Mg2+, and Fe3+. The residual activity increased in the presence of the surfactant SDS slightly in comparison to control, while it decreased in the case of Triton-X and Tween 20. The presence of oxidizing agents, hydrogen peroxide and dimethyl sulfoxide decreased the residual inhibitory activity. The protease inhibitor's activity was unaffected by the reducing agents, dithiothreitol and ß-mercaptoethanol, at up to 2mM concentration, but it decreased at higher concentrations. The inhibitor exhibited uncompetitive inhibition against trypsin with an inhibitory constant of 166 nM, indicating a strong affinity towards the protease, with a half-life of 93.90 minutes at 37 °C. CONCLUSION: Protease inhibitors isolated from mushrooms are generally small in size, more stable, and tolerant towards varying external conditions. The protease inhibitor isolated from Agaricus bisporus also exhibited similar characteristics.

Valorization of citrus peel waste for the sustainable production of value-added products.

Globally the generation and mismanagement of waste from fruit processing and post-harvest impose a severe burden on waste management strategies along with environmental pollution, health hazards. Citrus waste is one of such worrying fruit waste, which is rich in several value-added chemicals, including pectin. Pectin is a prebiotic polysaccharide possessing a multitude of health benefits. Citrus pectin has excellent gelling, thickening, water holding capacity, and encapsulating properties, which pave its functionality in versatile industrial fields including food processing and preservation, drug and therapeutic agents, cosmetics, and personal care products. The utilization of citrus wastes to derive valuable bioproducts can offer an effective approach towards sustainable waste management. With the ever-increasing demand, several strategies have been devised to increase the efficiency of pectin recovery from citrus waste. This review article discusses the sources, effect, and technology-mediated valorization of citrus waste, the functional and nutritive application of pectin along with its socio-economic and environmental perspective.

Effect of protease inhibitor from Agaricus bisporus on glucose uptake and oxidative stress in 3T3-L1 adipocytes

Objective: To explore the effect of the protease inhibitor from Agaricus bisporus (J.E. Lange) Imbach (AbPI) on glucose uptake and oxidative stress in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Methods: Adipocytes were differentiated and stained with Oil-Red-O staining to confirm adipogenesis. The toxic/protective effect of AbPI on the adipocytes was determined by MTT assay, intracellular reactive oxygen species generation through flow cytometry, and morphologically through confocal microscopy using propidium iodide, 4,6-diamino-2-phenylindol dihydrochloride, and 2',7'-dichlorofluorescein diacetate dyes. The uptake of fluorescent glucose analog, 2-[N-(7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazol-4-yl) amino]-2-deoxy-d-glucose by adipocytes was also studied through confocal microscopy. Results: MTT assay showed that the cell survival rate was (28.00±3.00)％, (92.33±2.60)％, and (71.34±2.10)％ in the presence of 2 mM H2O2, AbPI alone, and AbPI and H2O2 both, respectively, in comparison to the control. Oil-Red-O staining indicated that AbPI enhanced adipogenesis. AbPI stimulated the glucose uptake by adipocytes similar to the drug rosiglitazone, and showed insulin-sensitizing effect in the presence of insulin, but failed to stimulate the uptake in the absence of insulin. Intracellular reactive oxygen species generation was reduced in differentiating adipocytes upon AbPI treatment. Confocal microscopy showed that the damaged cell population rose to 3.50％, 117.84％, and 261.50％ in the presence of AbPI alone, AbPI with H2O2, and H2O2 alone, respectively. Conclusions: The protease inhibitor enhances glucose uptake by adipocytes and exhibits a cytoprotective effect on them.

Protective effect of a protease inhibitor from Agaricus bisporus on Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells against oxidative stress.

Protease inhibitors are known to resist damage to host organisms against external threats, hence form a part of their defense system. This property of protease inhibitors was studied on protecting oxidatively stressed Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast cells. The protease inhibitor was extracted from Agaricus bisporus, an edible mushroom. The inhibitor showed the presence of antioxidant activity as the purified inhibitor fraction gave an IC50 value of 45.13 ± 0.88 µg/mL and 33.30 ± 1.5 µg/mL when checked, respectively, by 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl, DPPH and 2, 2'-azo-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6- sulfonic acid), ABTS•+ scavenging activity. The yeast cells' survival rate (%), was determined through 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl) - 2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide, MTT assay, and it was found that in the presence of 2 mM H2O2 cell survival decreased to 26.33%, whereas when the experiment was conducted in the presence of protease inhibitor and 2 mM H2O2 cell survival percentage rose to 74%. The protease inhibitor's effect on the oxidatively stressed yeast cells was further studied by using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Confocal Microscopy to understand the morphological changes. The viable and non-viable cell populations were quantified using Fluorescence Assorted Cell Sorting (FACS) using propidium iodide, PI, 4', 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole, DAPI and 2', 7'-dichlorofluorescein, DCF dyes.

Production of a protease inhibitor from edible mushroom Agaricus bisporus and its statistical optimization by response surface methodology.

The production of a protease inhibitor from Agaricus bisporus through solid-state fermentation was studied. The purpose was to produce protease inhibitor from natural, cheap, and readily available carbon and nitrogen sources. Solid-state fermentation enhanced the mycelia growth and also gave a higher yield of the product. Further, fungal growth and other production parameters were statistically optimized. The specificity of the inhibitor was tested and was effective against trypsin. Screening of significant factors (wheat bran, cyanobacterial biomass, initial pH, temperature, incubation period, and moisture content and inoculum size) was performed using Plackett-Burman design. Central composite design was used to determine the optimized values of the significant variables which were found to be temperature (27.5°C), incubation time (156 hr), cyanobacterial biomass (1 g), and moisture content (50%) and gave a statistical yield of 980 PIU/g which was 25.6% higher than experimental yield (780 PIU/g). The inhibitor was purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation and diethylaminoethyl (DEAE) cellulose chromatography (yield 43.89% and 0.21%, respectively) and subjected to reversed-phase HPLC to validate its identity. Since protease inhibitors act against proteases, finding ample therapeutic roles; the isolated protease inhibitor from A. bisporus can also be a probable medicinal agent after its further characterization.