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•Microalgae are a source of insufficiently exploited bioactive molecules.•Nannochloropsis contains PUFAs, mainly EPA, polyphenols, carotenoids and vitamins.•Toxicological tests on ...animals confirm the safety of this microalga.•Nannochloropsis can be proposed as nutritional supplement for PUFAs and EPA intake.•Its introduction in human diet is eco-sustainable and can replace fishery products.
The richness of bioactive compounds in microalgae has long inspired their exploitation for human nutrition. However, very few species are authorized for this use to date. Microalgae of the genus Nannochloropsis are already exploited in aquaculture for their high content in PUFAs, carotenoids, polyphenols and vitamins. These molecules can contribute to delay aging processes and prevent the onset of many metabolic disorders triggered by unhealthy lifestyles and diets with an excess of saturated fatty acids. Moreover, Nannochloropsis is efficiently cultivated at an industrial scale in photobioreactors, without the use of pesticides and preventing biological or chemical contaminations. Here, information on its chemical composition, safety and toxicology is discussed. Nannochloropsis can be an eco-sustainable alternative to fishery products as source of bioactive compounds. Importantly, the daily consumption of few grams of biomass would result in a regular dietary intake of essential molecules for the prevention of cardiovascular pathologies and other disorders.
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•Organic nanosupports are highly biocompatible.•Organic nanosupports mainly increase Km an Vmax of immobilized enzymes.•Organic nanosupports mainly increase ΔH and ΔS values of ...immobilized enzymes.•Organic nanosupports mainly decrese ΔG value of immobilized enzymes.•Organic hybrid nano-support materials will be used extensively for enzyme immobilization.
A variety of organic nanomaterials and organic polymers are used for enzyme immobilization to increase enzymes stability and reusability. In this study, the effects of the immobilization of enzymes on organic and organic-inorganic hybrid nano-supports are compared. Immobilization of enzymes on organic support nanomaterials was reported to significantly improve thermal, pH and storage stability, acting also as a protection against metal ions inhibitory effects. In particular, the effects of enzyme immobilization on reusability, physical, kinetic and thermodynamic parameters were considered. Due to their biocompatibility with low health risks, organic support nanomaterials represent a good choice for the immobilization of enzymes. Organic nanomaterials, and especially organic-inorganic hybrids, can significantly improve the kinetic and thermodynamic parameters of immobilized enzymes compared to macroscopic supports. Moreover, organic nanomaterials are more environment friendly for medical applications, such as prodrug carriers and biosensors. Overall, organic hybrid nanomaterials are receiving increasing attention as novel nano-supports for enzyme immobilization and will be used extensively.
Marine organisms produce a large array of natural products with relevance in drug discovery. These compounds have biological activities such as antioxidant, antibacterial, antitumor, antivirus, ...anticoagulant, anti-inflammatory, antihypertensive, antidiabetic, and so forth. Consequently, several of the metabolites have made it to the advanced stages of clinical trials, and a few of them are commercially available. In this review, novel information on natural products isolated from marine microorganisms, microalgae, and macroalgae are presented. Given due research impetus, these marine metabolites might emerge as a new wave of promising drugs.
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) have emerged as a major threat to global health resulting in a decrease in life expectancy with respect to humans. Thrombosis is one of the foremost causes of CVDs, and ...it is characterized by the unwanted formation of fibrin clots. Recently, microbial fibrinolytic enzymes due to their specific features have gained much more attention than conventional thrombolytic agents for the treatment of thrombosis. Marine microorganisms including bacteria and microalgae have the significant ability to produce fibrinolytic enzymes with improved pharmacological properties and lesser side effects and, hence, are considered as prospective candidates for large scale production of these enzymes. There are no studies that have evaluated the fibrinolytic potential of marine fungal-derived enzymes. The current review presents an outline regarding isolation sources, production, features, and thrombolytic potential of fibrinolytic biocatalysts from marine microorganisms identified so far.
This review represents a comprehensive attempt to summarize and discuss various sensing applications of iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs), which have attracted a great deal of attention over recent ...years because of their easy preparation, biocompatibility, nontoxicity, and broad range of biomedical applications. We review the application potential of nanomagnetite based amperometic sensors possessing an intrinsic enzyme mimetic activity similar to that found in natural peroxidases. In addition, we discuss the properties and applications of enzymatic sensors exploiting glucose oxidase, tyrosinase, and other enzymes for sensing a variety of important biomedical species. Among iron oxide-based nanocomposites, we highlight the use of Fe3O4@Au hybrids for designing new electrochemical aptasensors with unique versatility for binding diverse targets, including proteins and peptides. Similarly, sensing applications of composites of iron oxide NPs with graphene derivatives and carbon nanotubes are reviewed. A large part of the review focuses on the development of DNA sensors and iron oxide based immunosensors for the detection of biological and chemical pathogens, contaminants, and other important analytes. Attention is also given to nonelectrochemical sensing, including various types of magnetic, fluorescence, and surface plasmon resonance sensors.
Aiming at creating smart nanomaterials for biomedical applications, nanotechnology aspires to develop a new generation of nanomaterials with the ability to recognize different biological components ...in a complex environment. It is common opinion that nanomaterials must be coated with organic or inorganic layers as a mandatory prerequisite for applications in biological systems. Thus, it is the nanomaterial surface coating that predominantly controls the nanomaterial fate in the biological environment. In the last decades, interdisciplinary studies involving not only life sciences, but all branches of scientific research, provided hints for obtaining uncoated inorganic materials able to interact with biological systems with high complexity and selectivity. Herein, the fragmentary literature on the interactions between bare abiotic materials and biological components is reviewed. Moreover, the most relevant examples of selective binding and the conceptualization of the general principles behind recognition mechanisms were provided. Nanoparticle features, such as crystalline facets, density and distribution of surface chemical groups, and surface roughness and topography were encompassed for deepening the comprehension of the general concept of recognition patterns.
Iron oxide nanomaterials are considered promising tools for improved therapeutic efficacy and diagnostic applications in biomedicine. Accordingly, engineered iron oxide nanomaterials are increasingly ...proposed in biomedicine, and the interdisciplinary researches involving physics, chemistry, biology (nanotechnology) and medicine have led to exciting developments in the last decades. The progresses of the development of magnetic nanoparticles with tailored physico-chemical and surface properties produced a variety of clinically relevant applications, spanning from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), drug delivery, magnetic hyperthermia, to in vitro diagnostics. Notwithstanding the wellknown conventional synthetic procedures and their wide use, along with recent advances in the synthetic methods open the door to new generations of naked iron oxide nanoparticles possessing peculiar surface chemistries, suitable for other competitive biomedical applications. New abilities to rationally manipulate iron oxides and their physical, chemical, and biological properties, allow the emersion of additional possibilities for designing novel nanomaterials for theranostic applications.
Immobilized enzyme-based catalytic constructs could greatly improve various industrial processes due to their extraordinary catalytic activity and reaction specificity. In recent decades, ...nano-enzymes, defined as enzyme immobilized on nanomaterials, gained popularity for the enzymes’ improved stability, reusability, and ease of separation from the biocatalytic process. Thus, enzymes can be strategically incorporated into nanostructured materials to engineer nano-enzymes, such as nanoporous particles, nanofibers, nanoflowers, nanogels, nanomembranes, metal–organic frameworks, multi-walled or single-walled carbon nanotubes, and nanoparticles with tuned shape and size. Surface-area-to-volume ratio, pore-volume, chemical compositions, electrical charge or conductivity of nanomaterials, protein charge, hydrophobicity, and amino acid composition on protein surface play fundamental roles in the nano-enzyme preparation and catalytic properties. With proper understanding, the optimization of the above-mentioned factors will lead to favorable micro-environments for biocatalysts of industrial relevance. Thus, the application of nano-enzymes promise to further strengthen the advances in catalysis, biotransformation, biosensing, and biomarker discovery. Herein, this review article spotlights recent progress in nano-enzyme development and their possible implementation in different areas, including biomedicine, biosensors, bioremediation of industrial pollutants, biofuel production, textile, leather, detergent, food industries and antifouling.
The rapid aging of the Western countries’ populations makes increasingly necessary the promotion of healthy lifestyles in order to prevent/delay the onset of age-related diseases. The use of ...functional foods can significantly help to achieve this aim, thanks to the contribution of biologically active compounds suitable to protect cellular and metabolic homeostasis from damage caused by stress factors. Indeed, the excessive production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), favored by incorrect eating and behavioral habits, are considered causal elements of oxidative stress, which in turn favors tissue and organism aging. Microalgae represent a convenient and suitable functional food because of their extraordinary ability to concentrate various active compounds, comprising omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, sterols, phenolic compounds, carotenoids and others. Within cells, mitochondria are the cellular organelles most affected by the accumulation of molecular damage produced by oxidative stress. Since, in addition to producing the chemical energy for cellular metabolism, mitochondria control numerous cell cycle regulation processes, including intrinsic apoptosis, responses to inflammatory signals and other biochemical pathways, their dysfunction is considered decisive for many pathologies. Among these, some degenerative diseases of the nervous system, cardiovascular system, kidney function and even cancer are found. From this viewpoint, bioactive compounds of microalgae, in addition to possessing high antioxidant properties, can enhance mitochondrial functionality by modulating the expression of numerous protective factors and enzymes, which in turn regulate some essential biochemical pathways for the preservation of the functional integrity of the cell. Here, we summarize the current knowledge on the role played by microalgal compounds in the regulation of the mitochondrial life cycle, expression of protective and reparative enzymes, regulation of intrinsic apoptosis and modulation of some key biochemical pathways. Special attention was paid to the composition of some cultivable microalgae strains selected for their high content of active compounds suitable to protect and improve mitochondrial functions.
Biodiversity is a reservoir of potential sources of novel food and feed ingredients with suitable compositions for the improvement of the diet and well-being of humans and farmed animals. The ...halophyte Atriplex portulacoides occurs in habitats that are exposed to seawater inundations, and shows biochemical adaptations to saline and oxidative stresses. Its composition includes long chain lipids, sterols, phenolic compounds, glutathione and carotenoids. These organic compounds and micronutrients, such as Fe, Zn, Co and Cu, make this plant suitable as an optimal functional food that is potentially able to reduce oxidative stress and inflammatory processes in humans and animals. Indeed, many of these compounds have a protective activity in humans against cardiovascular pathologies, cancer, and degenerative processes related to aging. The analysis of its history as food and forage, which dates back thousands of years, attests that it can be safely consumed. Here, the limits of its chemical and microbiological contamination are suggested in order to comply with the European regulations. The productivity of A. portulacoides in natural environments, and its adaptability to non-saline soils, make it a potential crop of high economic interest.
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