Rutin-Loaded Nanovesicles for Improved Stability and Enhanced Topical Efficacy of Natural Compound

Rutin is a natural compound with several pharmacological effects. Among these, antioxidant activity is one of the best known. Despite its numerous benefits, its topical application is severely limited by its physicochemical properties. For this reason, the use of suitable systems could be necessary to improve its delivery through skin, thus enhancing its pharmacological effects. In this regard, the aim of this work is to optimize the ethosomal dispersion modifying both lipid and ethanol concentrations and encapsulating different amounts of rutin. Characterization studies performed on the realized systems highlighted their great stability properties. Studies of encapsulation efficiency and loading degree allowed us to identify a better formulation (EE% 67.5 ± 5.2%, DL% 27 ± 1.7%), which was used for further analyses. The data recorded from in vitro studies showed that the encapsulation into these nanosystems allowed us to overcome the photosensitivity limitation of rutin. Indeed, a markable photostability of the loaded formulation was recorded, compared with that reported from the free rutin solution. The efficacy of the nanosystems was finally evaluated both in vitro on keratinocyte cells and in vivo on human healthy volunteers. The results confirmed the potentiality of rutin-loaded nanosystems for skin disease, mainly related to their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects.

Degradation of Oxytetracycline by Persulfate Activation Using a Magnetic Separable Iron Oxide Catalyst Derived from Hand-Warmer Waste

Oxytetracycline (OTC) is a tetracycline antibiotic that is widely used in the drug therapy and livestock industry and may threaten human health and ecosystems when released into the environment. In this study, a catalyst was prepared from hand-warmer waste using a simple magnetic separation method. The prepared hand-warmer waste catalyst (HWWC) was used as a persulfate (PS) activator for OTC removal. Characterization methods, such as X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry, were used to investigate the crystal structure, surface morphology, and weight ratios of the elements in the HWWC. The degradation efficiency of OTC in the presence of the catalyst and PS was studied, and the radical generation mechanism of the catalyst was investigated. The removal ratio of OTC by PS activation was greater than 99% for a reaction time of 24 min at a pH of 6. The effects of the HWWC dosage, PS concentration, and solution pH on OTC degradation were also investigated. The reuse test revealed that HWWC can be reused for eight cycles with great stability. These results suggest that PS activation using hand-warmer waste can be an efficient strategy for the degradation of antibiotics.

Are Metallacyclopentadienes Always Non-Aromatic?

Even though metallacyclopentadienes (MCPs) are among the most common metallacycles, their electron delocalization (aromaticity) has received far less attention than other metallacycles, such as metallabenzenes. We systematically studied the aromaticity of MCPs with energetic (isomerization stabilization energy), density (delocalization index) and magnetic (current density) aromaticity indices. The indices agree that metallacyclopentadienes are, in general, weakly aromatic at most. The 18e− complexes showed the expected weak aromaticity, and only the d8 molecules are somewhat anti-aromatic. However, the theoretical account of the aromaticity of the 16e− MCPs is more convoluted. We find that the aromatic criteria for a 16e−d4 ruthenacyclopentadiene disagree. The lack of agreement shows that significant electron delocalization is not always related to great stability or to strong diatropic currents.

Inhibition of Listeria monocytogenes by bacteriocin-producing Bacillus velezensis isolated from silage

The aim of this study was to investigate the production of anti-Listeria bacteriocins by naturally occurring bacteria on silage and to characterize the most promising bacteriocin. The production of bacteriocins was evaluated by the spot-on-lawn method. The presence of interfering factors and the sensitivity to proteinase K were analyzed. The spectrum of activity was determined and the most promising bacteriocin-producing isolate was identified, being selected for the subsequent experiments. The antimicrobial peptide was extracted, analyzed regarding temperature and pH sensitivities, and purified. Of the 37 isolates evaluated, seven showed anti-Listeria activity. The presence of bacteriophages and production of acidic compounds were not detected. The selected antimicrobial compound was sensitive to proteinase K and the producing-bacterium was identified as Bacillus velezensis. The crude extract maintained the antimicrobial activity in different temperatures and pH conditions. In conclusion, the bacteriocin produced by Bacillus velezensis showed strong activity against Listeria monocytogenes, and great stability to elevated temperature and adverse pH, desirable features for future biotechnological applications.

A REVIEW ON NUTRITIONAL VALUE AND THERAPEUTIC PROPERTIES OF TILA (SESAMUM INDICUM)

Tila (Sesamum indicum L.) consists of dried seeds of Sesamum indicum Linn. (Fam, Pedaliaceae), a rich source of edible oil. It is belonging to the family Pedaliaceaeis cultivated throughout the plains of India. Most of the oils used in Ayurvedic medicines has sesame oil as a base. Sesame was a major oilseed in the ancient world because of its ease of abstraction, its great stability, and its drought resistance. Sesame seeds have an excellent nutritional value. The seeds are especially high in copper, manganese, calcium, and magnesium. Tila is having Guru, Snigdha guna, madhu rasa, ushna veerya and having Madhur Vipak. The Bhavaprakasha Nighantu de- scribes three types of Tila seeds, viz., black, white and red. Black and white among white variety sesame seeds contain more quantity of lignin compounds. The black sesame seeds are rich in B vitamins and iron. It is also rich in calcium and zinc. These minerals help to support healthy bones, muscles, blood, and nervous system. Keywords: Tila, Rasa, Veerya, Sesamum indicum, Sesame.

Nanoscale Metal-Organic Frameworks as Fluorescence Sensors for Food Safety

Food safety has attracted attention worldwide, and how to detect various kinds of hazardous substances in an efficient way has always been a focus. Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are a class of hybrid porous materials formed by organic ligand and metal ions. Nanoscale MOFs (NMOFs) exhibit great potential in serving as fluorescence sensors for food safety due to their superior properties including high accuracy, great stability, fast response, etc. In this review, we focus on the recent development of NMOFs sensing for food safety. Several typical methods of NMOFs synthesis are presented. NMOFs-based fluorescence sensors for contaminants and adulterants, such as antibiotics, food additives, ions and mycotoxin etc. are summarized, and the sensing mechanisms are also presented. We explore these challenges in detail and provide suggestions about how they may be surmounted. This review could help the exploration of NMOFs sensors in food related work.

Norepinephrine derived carbon dots for live-cell imaging and effective hemoglobin determination

Recently, carbon dots (CDs) have attracted wide attention for their potential use as fluorescence probes in biological and analytical chemistry due to their great stability and high fluorescence quantum yields....

Interconvertible Hydrochlorothiazide–Caffeine Multicomponent Pharmaceutical Materials: A Solvent Issue

The design of new multicomponent pharmaceutical materials that involve different active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), e.g., drug-drug cocrystals, is a novel and interesting approach to address new therapeutic challenges. In this work, the hydrochlorothiazide-caffeine (HCT–CAF) codrug and its methanol solvate have been synthesized by mechanochemical methods and thoroughly characterized in the solid state by powder and single crystal X-ray diffraction, respectively, as well as differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analyses and infrared spectroscopy. In addition, solubility and stability studies have also been performed looking for improved physicochemical properties of the codrug. Interestingly, the two reported structures show great similarity, which allows conversion between them. The desolvated HCT–CAF cocrystal shows great stability at 24 h and an enhancement of solubility with respect to the reference HCT API. Furthermore, the contribution of intermolecular forces on the improved physicochemical properties was evaluated by computational methods showing strong and diverse H-bond and π–π stacking interactions.

Identifying Systemically Important Banks and Firms Based on a Multilayer DebtRank Model

The stability of the financial system plays a crucial role in the sustainable economic development. Hence, to identify systemically important banks and firms, we take lending relationships with different loan terms and common asset relationships with different investment cycles into consideration to present a multilayer DebtRank model of the bank-firm system. In the light of simulation research, we can obtain the following results. First, the bank-firm system constructed displays a significant core-periphery structure, which exists in the actual financial system. Then, only very few banks and firms show systemically important characteristics, where “important” subjects hold very high net assets and profits, while "fragile" subjects possess negative net assets and serious losses. Furthermore, the bank-firm multilayer DebtRank model presents a great stability to a certain extent. Overall, the multilayer DebtRank model constructed in this paper has certain theoretical reference value for the supervisory authorities to extract the internal characteristics of systemically important banks and firms and identify them effectively.