Designer bioemulsifiers based on combinations of different polysaccharides with the novel emulsifying esterase AXE from Bacillus subtilis CICC 20034

Abstract Background Bioemulsifiers are surface-active compounds, which exhibit advantages including low toxicity, higher biodegradability and biocompatibility over synthetic chemical surfactants. Despite their potential benefits, some obstacles impede the practical applications of bioemulsifiers, including low yields and high purification costs. Here, we aimed to exploit a novel protein bioemulsifier with efficient emulsifying activity and low-production cost, as well as proposed a design-bioemulsifier system that meets different requirements of industrial emulsification in the most economical way. Results The esterase AXE was first reported for its efficient emulsifying activity and had been studied for possible application as a protein bioemulsifier. AXE showed an excellent emulsification effect with different hydrophobic substrates, especially short-chain aliphatic and benzene derivatives, as well as excellent stability under extreme conditions such as high temperature (85 °C) and acidic conditions. AXE also exhibited good stability over a range of NaCl, MgSO4, and CaCl2 concentrations from 0 to 1000 mM, and the emulsifying activity even showed a slight increase at salt concentrations over 500 mM. A design-bioemulsifier system was proposed that uses AXE in combination with a variety of polysaccharides to form efficient bioemulsifier, which enhanced the emulsifying activity and further lowered the concentration of AXE needed in the complex. Conclusions AXE showed a great application potential as a novel bioemulsifier with excellent emulsifying ability. The AXE-based-designer bioemulsifier could be obtained in the most economical way and open broad new fields for low-cost, environmentally friendly bioemulsifiers.

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Soft Spherical Tensegrity Robot Design Using Rod-Centered Actuation and Control

Volume 5A: 40th Mechanisms and Robotics Conference ◽

10.1115/detc2016-60550 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Lee-Huang Chen ◽

Kyunam Kim ◽

Ellande Tang ◽

Kevin Li ◽

Richard House ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Degrees Of Freedom ◽

Low Cost ◽

Space Exploration ◽

Robot Design ◽

The Novel ◽

Flexible Design ◽

Spherical Robot ◽

Potential Benefits ◽

And Performance ◽

And Control

This paper presents the design, analysis and testing of a fully actuated modular spherical tensegrity robot for co-robotic and space exploration applications. Robots built from tensegrity structures (composed of pure tensile and compression elements) have many potential benefits including high robustness through redundancy, many degrees of freedom in movement and flexible design. However to fully take advantage of these properties a significant fraction of the tensile elements should be active, leading to a potential increase in complexity, messy cable and power routing systems and increased design difficulty. Here we describe an elegant solution to a fully actuated tensegrity robot: The TT-3 (version 3) tensegrity robot, developed at UC Berkeley, in collaboration with NASA Ames, is a lightweight, low cost, modular, and rapidly prototyped spherical tensegrity robot. This robot is based on a ball-shaped six-bar tensegrity structure and features a unique modular rod-centered distributed actuation and control architecture. This paper presents the novel mechanism design, architecture and simulations of TT-3, the first untethered, fully actuated cable-driven six-bar tensegrity spherical robot ever built and tested for mobility. Furthermore, this paper discusses the controls and preliminary testing performed to observe the system’s behavior and performance.

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Lead-Free Perovskite Single Crystals: A Brief Review

Crystals ◽

10.3390/cryst11111329 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (11) ◽

pp. 1329

Author(s):

Xianfang Zhou ◽

Yansong Wang ◽

Chuangye Ge ◽

Bin Tang ◽

Haoran Lin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Single Crystals ◽

Diffusion Length ◽

Low Cost ◽

Lead Free ◽

The Novel ◽

Preparation Methods ◽

Light Emitting ◽

Practical Applications ◽

Interfacial Engineering ◽

Remarkable Progress

Lead-free perovskites have received remarkable attention because of their nontoxicity, low-cost fabrication, and spectacular properties including controlled bandgap, long diffusion length of charge carrier, large absorption coefficient, and high photoluminescence quantum yield. Compared with the widely investigated polycrystals, single crystals have advantages of lower trap densities, longer diffusion length of carrier, and extended absorption spectrum due to the lack of grain boundaries, which facilitates their potential in different fields including photodetectors, solar cells, X-ray detectors, light-emitting diodes, and so on. Therefore, numerous research focusing on the novel properties, preparation methods, and remarkable progress in applications of lead-free perovskite single crystals (LFPSCs) has been extensively studied. In this review, the current advancements of LFPSCs are briefly summarized, including the synthesis approaches, compositional and interfacial engineering, and stability of several representative systems of LFPSCs as well as the reported practical applications. Finally, the critical challenges which limit the performance of LFPSCs, and their inspiring prospects for further developments are also discussed.

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Progress and Trend on the Regulation Methods for Nanozyme Activity and Its Application

Catalysts ◽

10.3390/catal9121057 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (12) ◽

pp. 1057 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Li Hou ◽

Gaoyan Jiang ◽

Ying Sun ◽

Xuanhan Zhang ◽

Juanjuan Huang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Catalytic Activity ◽

Low Cost ◽

Catalytic Efficiency ◽

Research Process ◽

Research Progress ◽

Practical Applications ◽

High Purification ◽

Natural Enzyme ◽

Application Fields ◽

Made In

Natural enzymes, such as biocatalysts, are widely used in biosensors, medicine and health, the environmental field, and other fields. However, it is easy for natural enzymes to lose catalytic activity due to their intrinsic shortcomings including a high purification cost, insufficient stability, and difficulties of recycling, which limit their practical applications. The unexpected discovery of the Fe3O4 nanozyme in 2007 has given rise to tremendous efforts for developing natural enzyme substitutes. Nanozymes, which are nanomaterials with enzyme-mimetic catalytic activity, can serve as ideal candidates for artificial mimic enzymes. Nanozymes possess superiorities due to their low cost, high stability, and easy preparation. Although great progress has been made in the development of nanozymes, the catalytic efficiency of existing nanozymes is relatively low compared with natural enzymes. It is still a challenging task to develop nanozymes with a precise regulation of catalytic activity. This review summarizes the classification and various strategies for modulating the activity as well as research progress in the different application fields of nanozymes. Typical examples of the recent research process of nanozymes will be presented and critically discussed.

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Soft Spherical Tensegrity Robot Design Using Rod-Centered Actuation and Control

Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics ◽

10.1115/1.4036014 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Lee-Huang Chen ◽

Kyunam Kim ◽

Ellande Tang ◽

Kevin Li ◽

Richard House ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Degrees Of Freedom ◽

Low Cost ◽

Space Exploration ◽

Robot Design ◽

The Novel ◽

Flexible Design ◽

Preliminary Testing ◽

Potential Benefits ◽

And Performance ◽

And Control

This paper presents the design, analysis, and testing of a fully actuated modular spherical tensegrity robot for co-robotic and space exploration applications. Robots built from tensegrity structures (composed of pure tensile and compression elements) have many potential benefits including high robustness through redundancy, many degrees-of-freedom in movement and flexible design. However, to take full advantage of these properties, a significant fraction of the tensile elements should be active, leading to a potential increase in complexity, messy cable, and power routing systems and increased design difficulty. Here, we describe an elegant solution to a fully actuated tensegrity robot: The TT-3 (version 3) tensegrity robot, developed at UC Berkeley, in collaboration with NASA Ames, is a lightweight, low cost, modular, and rapidly prototyped spherical tensegrity robot. This robot is based on a ball-shaped six-bar tensegrity structure and features a unique modular rod-centered distributed actuation and control architecture. This paper presents the novel mechanism design, architecture, and simulations of TT-3, an untethered, fully actuated cable-driven six-bar spherical tensegrity robot. Furthermore, this paper discusses the controls and preliminary testing performed to observe the system's behavior and performance and is evaluated against previous models of tensegrity robots developed at UC Berkeley and elsewhere.

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Cellular Uptake and Magneto-Hyperthermia Induced Cytotoxicity using Photoluminescent Fe3O4 Nanoparticle/Si Quantum Dot Hybrids

10.26434/chemrxiv.13138427 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Morteza Javadi ◽

Van A. Ortega ◽

Alyxandra Thiessen ◽

Maryam Aghajamali ◽

Muhammad Amirul Islam ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Radio Frequency ◽

Biomedical Applications ◽

Short Term ◽

Water Dispersible ◽

Optical Responses ◽

Si Quantum Dot ◽

Real World Applications ◽

Potential Benefits ◽

Low Toxicity ◽

Si Quantum Dots

The design and fabrication of Si-based multi-functional nanomaterials for biological and biomedical applications is an active area of research. The potential benefits of using Si-based nanomaterials are not only due to their size/surface-dependent optical responses but also the high biocompatibility and low-toxicity of silicon itself. Combining these characteristics with the magnetic properties of Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) multiplies the options available for real-world applications. In the current study, biocompatible magnetofluorescent nano-hybrids have been prepared by covalent linking of Si quantum dots to water-dispersible Fe3O4 NPs via dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC) coupling. We explore some of the properties of these magnetofluorescent nano-hybrids as well as evaluate uptake, the potential for cellular toxicity, and the induction of acute cellular oxidative stress in a mast cells-like cell line (RBL-2H3) by heat induction through short-term radio frequency modulation (10 min @ 156 kHz, 500 A). We found that the NPs were internalized readily by the cells and also penetrated the nuclear membrane. Radio frequency activated nano-hybrids also had significantly increased cell death where > 50% of the RBL-2H3 cells were found to be in an apoptotic or necrotic state, and that this was attributable to increased triggering of oxidative cell stress mechanisms.

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Nano Phytomedicine Based Delivery System for CNS Disease

Current Drug Metabolism ◽

10.2174/1389200221666200523161003 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 21 (9) ◽

pp. 661-673 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mohammed Asadullah Jahangir ◽

Chettupalli Anand ◽

Abdul Muheem ◽

Sadaf Jamal Gilani ◽

Mohamad Taleuzzaman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Herbal Medicine ◽

Low Cost ◽

Herbal Medicines ◽

Herbal Drugs ◽

Widespread Acceptance ◽

The Central Nervous System ◽

Low Toxicity ◽

Ancient Times ◽

Plant Sources ◽

Herbal Formulations

Herbal medicines are being used since ancient times and are an important part of the alternative and traditional medicinal system. In recent decades, scientists are embracing herbal medicines based on the fact that a number of drugs that are currently in use are derived directly or indirectly from plant sources. Moreover, herbal drugs have lesser side effects, albeit are potentially strong therapeutic agents. The herbal medicine market is estimated to be around US $62 billion globally. Herbal medicine has gained widespread acceptance due to its low toxicity, low cost, ease of accessibility and efficacy in treating difficult diseases. Safety and efficacy are another important factors in the commercialization process of herbal medicines. Nanotechnology has been shown to be potentially effective in improving the bioactivity and bioavailability of herbal medicines. Development of nano-phytomedicines (or by reducing the size of phytomedicine), attaching polymers with phytomedicines and modifying the surface properties of herbal drugs, have increased the solubility, permeability and eventually the bioavailability of herbal formulations. Novel formulations such as niosomes, liposomes, nanospheres, phytosomes etc., can be exploited in this area. This article reviews herbal medicines, which have prominent activity in the Central Nervous System (CNS) disorders and reported nano-phytomedicines based delivery systems.

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Recent Advances on Therapeutic Peptides for Breast Cancer Treatment

Current Protein and Peptide Science ◽

10.2174/1389203721999201117123616 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 21 ◽

Author(s):

Samad Beheshtirouy ◽

Farhad Mirzaei ◽

Shirin Eyvazi ◽

Vahideh Tarhriz

Keyword(s):

Breast Cancer ◽

Cancer Cells ◽

Tumor Cells ◽

Breast Cancer Cells ◽

Specific Binding ◽

High Specificity ◽

The Novel ◽

Anti Cancer ◽

Therapeutic Peptides ◽

Low Toxicity

: Breast cancer is a heterogeneous malignancy which is the second cause of mortality among women in the world. Increasing the resistance to anti-cancer drugs in breast cancer cells persuades researchers to search the novel therapies approaches for the treatment of the malignancy. Among the novel methods, therapeutic peptides which target and disrupt tumor cells have been of great interest. Therapeutic peptides are short amino acids monomer chains with high specificity to bind and modulate a protein interaction of interest. Several advantages of peptides such as specific binding on tumor cells surface, low molecular weight and low toxicity on normal cells make the peptides as an appealing therapeutic agents against solid tumors, particularly breast cancer. Also, National Institutes of Health (NIH) describes therapeutic peptides as suitable candidate for the treatment of drug-resistant breast cancer. In this review, we attempt to review the different therapeutic peptides against breast cancer cells which can be used in treatment and diagnosis of the malignancy. Meanwhile, we presented an overview of peptide vaccines which have been developed for the treatment of breast cancer.

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Chemical Modification of Combusted Coal Gangue for U(VI) Adsorption: Towards a Waste Control by Waste Strategy

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13158421 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (15) ◽

pp. 8421

Author(s):

Yuan Gao ◽

Jiandong Huang ◽

Meng Li ◽

Zhongran Dai ◽

Rongli Jiang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Structural Analysis ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Low Cost ◽

Chemical Activation ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Coal Gangue ◽

Order Kinetic ◽

Practical Applications ◽

Detailed Structural Analysis ◽

Alkaline Conditions

Uranium mining waste causes serious radiation-related health and environmental problems. This has encouraged efforts toward U(VI) removal with low cost and high efficiency. Typical uranium adsorbents, such as polymers, geopolymers, zeolites, and MOFs, and their associated high costs limit their practical applications. In this regard, this work found that the natural combusted coal gangue (CCG) could be a potential precursor of cheap sorbents to eliminate U(VI). The removal efficiency was modulated by chemical activation under acid and alkaline conditions, obtaining HCG (CCG activated with HCl) and KCG (CCG activated with KOH), respectively. The detailed structural analysis uncovered that those natural mineral substances, including quartz and kaolinite, were the main components in CCG and HCG. One of the key findings was that kalsilite formed in KCG under a mild synthetic condition can conspicuous enhance the affinity towards U(VI). The best equilibrium adsorption capacity with KCG was observed to be 140 mg/g under pH 6 within 120 min, following a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. To understand the improved adsorption performance, an adsorption mechanism was proposed by evaluating the pH of uranyl solutions, adsorbent dosage, as well as contact time. Combining with the structural analysis, this revealed that the uranyl adsorption process was mainly governed by chemisorption. This study gave rise to a utilization approach for CCG to obtain cost-effective adsorbents and paved a novel way towards eliminating uranium by a waste control by waste strategy.

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Preparation and photocatalytic performance of metallic Nb0.9Ta0.1S2/2D-C3N4 composite

Oxford Open Materials Science ◽

10.1093/oxfmat/itab005 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Hanxiang Chen ◽

Jianjian Yi ◽

Zhao Mo ◽

Yanhua Song ◽

Wenshu Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Separation Efficiency ◽

Low Cost ◽

Metal Sulfide ◽

Electron Hole ◽

Practical Applications ◽

Energy And Environment ◽

Photocatalytic Application ◽

Light Utilization ◽

Ternary Metal ◽

Key Issues

Abstract Photocatalysis technology has potential application in the field of energy and environment. How to expand visible light utilization and promote the separation efficiency of the carriers are the key issues for the high active photocatalysts preparation and future practical applications. In this work, a ternary metal sulfide Nb0.9Ta0.1S2 was prepared and used as an electron collector in the photocatalytic application. As a result, the generated electrons are quickly transferred to the surface of the composite to participate in the reaction. It was demonstrated that the photocatalytic activity of 2D-C3N4 was enhanced after the modification of Nb0.9Ta0.1S2. The Nb0.9Ta0.1S2/2D-C3N4 composite material was synthesized by solvothermal method. The composition of 5% Nb0.9Ta0.1S2/2D-C3N4 showed the highest H2 evolution rate of 1961.6 μmolg−1h−1, which was 6.6 times that of 2D-C3N4. The 15% Nb0.9Ta0.1S2/2D-C3N4 exhibited the best activity in Rhodamine B degradation rate of 97% in 2 h, which is 50% higher than that of 2D-C3N4. Nb0.9Ta0.1S2/2D-C3N4 can be used as electron trap to promote the effective separation of electron–hole pairs. This work provides benchmarks in exploring low-cost and efficient cocatalyst.

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Rapid and Sensitive Detection of miRNA Based on AC Electrokinetic Capacitive Sensing for Point-of-Care Applications

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21123985 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (12) ◽

pp. 3985

Author(s):

Nan Wan ◽

Yu Jiang ◽

Jiamei Huang ◽

Rania Oueslati ◽

Shigetoshi Eda ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Limit Of Detection ◽

Point Of Care ◽

Low Cost ◽

Clinical Diagnostics ◽

Detection Methods ◽

Capacitive Sensing ◽

Application Potential ◽

Mirna Detection ◽

Mirna 25 ◽

Low Sensitivity

A sensitive and efficient method for microRNAs (miRNAs) detection is strongly desired by clinicians and, in recent years, the search for such a method has drawn much attention. There has been significant interest in using miRNA as biomarkers for multiple diseases and conditions in clinical diagnostics. Presently, most miRNA detection methods suffer from drawbacks, e.g., low sensitivity, long assay time, expensive equipment, trained personnel, or unsuitability for point-of-care. New methodologies are needed to overcome these limitations to allow rapid, sensitive, low-cost, easy-to-use, and portable methods for miRNA detection at the point of care. In this work, to overcome these shortcomings, we integrated capacitive sensing and alternating current electrokinetic effects to detect specific miRNA-16b molecules, as a model, with the limit of detection reaching 1.0 femto molar (fM) levels. The specificity of the sensor was verified by testing miRNA-25, which has the same length as miRNA-16b. The sensor we developed demonstrated significant improvements in sensitivity, response time and cost over other miRNA detection methods, and has application potential at point-of-care.

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