The indiscriminate use of organophosphate pesticides causes serious environmental and human health problems. This study aims the biodegradation of chlorpyrifos, methyl parathion and profenofos with ...the proposal of new biodegradation pathways employing marine-derived fungi as biocatalysts. Firstly, a growth screening was carried out with seven fungi strains and Aspergillus sydowii CBMAI 935 was selected. For chlorpyrifos, 32% biodegradation was observed and the metabolites tetraethyl dithiodiphosphate, 3,5,6-trichloropyridin-2-ol, 2,3,5-trichloro-6-methoxypyridine, and 3,5,6-trichloro-1-methylpyridin-2(1H)-one were identified. Whereas 80% methyl parathion was biodegraded with the identification of isoparathion, methyl paraoxon, trimethyl phosphate, O,O,O-trimethyl phosphorothioate, O,O,S-trimethyl phosphorothioate, 1-methoxy-4-nitrobenzene, and 4-nitrophenol. For profenofos, 52% biodegradation was determined and the identified metabolites were 4-bromo-2-chlorophenol, 4-bromo-2-chloro-1-methoxybenzene and O,O-diethyl S-propylphosphorothioate. Moreover, A. sydowii CBMAI 935 methylated different phenolic substrates (phenol, 2-chlorophenol, 6-chloropyridin-3-ol, and pentachlorophenol). Therefore, the knowledge about the fate of these compounds in the sea was expanded, and the marine-derived fungus A. sydowii CBMAI 935 showed potential for biotransformation reactions.
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•Biodegradation of organophosphate pesticides and their metabolites was observed.•Biotransformation proceeded by methylation, hydrolysis, and condensation reactions.•Knowledge about the fate of these pesticides in marine environment was expanded.•A. sydowii CBMAI 935 can be a source of methyltransferases and phosphoesterases.•Phenol, 2-chlorophenol, 6-chloropyridin-3-ol, pentachlorophenol were methylated.
Melanogenesis is a biosynthetic pathway for the formation of the pigment melanin in human skin. A key enzyme in the process of pigmentation through melanin is tyrosinase, which catalyzes the first ...and only limiting step in melanogenesis. Since the discovery of its methanogenic properties, tyrosinase has been the focus of research related to the anti-melanogenesis. In addition to developing more effective and commercially safe inhibitors, more studies are required to better understand the mechanisms involved in the skin depigmentation process. However, in vivo assays are necessary to develop and validate new drugs or molecules for this purpose, and to accomplish this, zebrafish has been identified as a model organism for in vivo application. In addition, such model would allow tracking and studying the depigmenting activity of many bioactive compounds, important to genetics, medicinal chemistry and even the cosmetic industry. Studies have shown the similarity between human and zebrafish genomes, encouraging their use as a model to understand the mechanism of action of a tested compound. Interestingly, zebrafish skin shares many similarities with human skin, suggesting that this model organism is suitable for studying melanogenesis inhibitors. Accordingly, several bioactive compounds reported herein for this model are compared in terms of their molecular structure and possible mode of action in zebrafish embryos. In particular, this article described the main metabolites of
fungi, in addition to substances from natural and synthetic sources.
Baicalein (BA) is a flavonoid with wide-ranging pharmacological activity. However, its biological evaluation is hampered by its low solubility in aqueous medium, making forms of incorporation that ...improve its solubility necessary. In the present study, BA was combined with a solution of silk fibroin protein (SF), a biomaterial used too as a drug carrier, to evaluate the anti-inflammatory potential of this combination, in vivo, in an experimental model, zebrafish (
Danio rerio
). Baicalein-silk fibroin (BASF) improved the DPPH (2,2‐diphenyl‐1‐picryl‐hydrazyl‐hydrate) free radical scavenging rate (95%) in comparison with BA in solution. The acute toxicity study and histopathological analysis in zebrafish showed that BASF has low cytotoxic potential, except for the maxim dose of 2000 mg/kg. The use of BA in combination with SF enhanced the anti-inflammatory effect of flavonoids by inducing inflammatory peritoneal edema through carrageenan and achieved 77.6% inhibition of abdominal edema at a dose of 75 mg/kg. The results showed that the BASF, significantly increases the bioavailability and therapeutic effect of flavonoids and several results observed in this study may help in the development of new drugs.
Leishmaniasis encompasses a cluster of neglected tropical diseases triggered by kinetoplastid phatogens belonging to the genus Leishmania. Current therapeutic approaches are toxic, expensive, and ...require long-term treatment. Nanoparticles are emerging as a new alternative for the treatment of neglected tropical diseases. Silk Fibroin is a biocompatible and amphiphilic protein that can be used for formulating nanoemulsions, while kojic acid is a secondary metabolite with antileishmanial actions. Thus, this study evaluated the efficacy of a nanoemulsion, formulated with silk fibroin as the surfactant and containing kojic acid (NanoFKA), against promastigote and amastigote forms of
(
)
. The NanoFKA had an average particle size of 176 nm, Polydispersity Index (PDI) of 0.370, and a Zeta Potential of -32.3 mV. It presented inhibitory concentration (IC
) values of >56 μg/mL and >7 μg/mL for the promastigote and amastigote forms, respectively. Ultrastructural analysis, cell cycle distribution and phosphatidylserine exposure showed that NanoFKA treatment induces apoptosis-like cell death and cell cycle arrest in
(
)
. In addition, NanoFKA exhibited no cytotoxicity against macrophages. Given these results, NanoFKA present leishmanicidal activity against
(
)
.
The consumption of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have increased significantly in the last years (2020–2022), especially for patients in COVID-19 treatment. NSAIDs such as diclofenac, ...ibuprofen, and paracetamol are often available without restrictions, being employed without medical supervision for basic symptoms of inflammatory processes. Furthermore, these compounds are increasingly present in nature constituting complex mixtures discarded at domestic and hospital sewage/wastewater. Therefore, this review emphasizes the biodegradation of diclofenac, ibuprofen, and paracetamol by pure cultures or consortia of fungi and bacteria at
in vitro
,
in situ
, and
ex situ
processes. Considering the influence of different factors (inoculum dose, pH, temperature, co-factors, reaction time, and microbial isolation medium) relevant for the identification of highly efficient alternatives for pharmaceuticals decontamination, since biologically active micropollutants became a worldwide issue that should be carefully addressed. In addition, we present a quantitative bibliometric survey, which reinforces that the consumption of these drugs and consequently their impact on the environment goes beyond the epidemiological control of COVID-19.
This work developd nanomaterials formulated from annatto seed oily extract (ASE), myristic acid (tetradecanoic acid), and their fatty acid esters. The annatto seed oily extract was obtained using ...only soybean oil (ASE + SO) and Brazil nut oil (ASE + BNO). The UV/VIS analysis of the oily extracts showed three characteristic peaks of the bixin molecule at 430, 456 and 486 nm. The lipid nanoparticles obtained using myristic acid and ASE + BNO or only BNO showed better results than the oil soybean extract, i.e., the particle size was <200 nm, PDI value was in the range of 0.2−0.3, and had no visual physical instability as they kept stable for 28 days at 4 °C. Lipid nanoemulsions were also produced with esters of myristic acid and ASE + BNO. These fatty acid esters significantly influenced the particle size of nanoemulsions. For instance, methyl tetradecanoate led to the smallest particle size nanoemulsions (124 nm), homogeneous size distribution, and high physical stability under 4 and 32 °C for 28 days. This work demonstrates that the chemical composition of vegetable oils and myristic acid esters, the storage temperature, the chain length of fatty acid esters (FAE), and their use as co-lipids improve the physical stability of lipid nanoemulsions and nanoparticles from annatto seed oily extract.
This study aims to compare the effectiveness of several low-cost reagents in obtaining high-quality diatom slides for microphytobenthos research. We evaluated the performance of eight reagents in ...sediment samples of beach intertidal zones. For each of the tested reagents, different pre-treatment conditions (pre-washed; non-washed) and three different temperatures (room temperature at 26 °C, 60 °C, and 100 °C) were also evaluated. For each treatment (combinations between reagents, temperatures, and pre-treatment conditions), we counted diatoms cells that met the criteria necessary for taxonomic identification (Whole/Half frustules or valves without cell material) in 30 randomly chosen fields of view in definitive preparations made from the treated samples. We also compared the treatments regarding species richness and diversity observed in the definitive preparations. The reagents influenced more the conditions of diatoms cells than the temperature and pre-treatment. H2O2, HNO3, NaClO were the methods that had the best performance in relation to the number of identifiable items. The six treatments with H2O2 presented similar amounts of identifiable items, regardless of pre-treatment and temperature. HNO3 presented a higher number of identifiable items in non-washed and pre-washed treatments at 60 °C and non-washed at 100 °C. NaClO had its best performance the following treatments: non-washed at room temperature and non-washed and pre-washed at 60 °C. H2O2 and HNO3 also showed better results for diatom species richness and diversity, followed by NaClO. The use of H2O2 was more robust since it obtained good results regardless of temperature and pre-treatments and should be preferred. HNO3 and NaClO should be used only with the appropriate temperatures, and pre-washing should be avoided.
•Chemical reagents influence the abundance and diversity in diatoms samples.•Pre-whashing reduce the quality of samples for diatom identification.•H2O2 and HNO3 kept the largest number of frustules and valves in the samples.•NaClO proved to be efficient in cleaning diatoms intertidal samples.•Cheap chemical reagents are viable alternatives for cleaning diatom samples.
Glioblastoma is an aggressive primary tumor of the central nervous system (CNS). Is the most aggressive among infiltrative gliomas arising from the CNS. This tumor has low patient survival rate and ...several studies aiming at developing new drugs have increased. Patients with this cancer type face significant morbidity and mortality. This study evaluated the antineoplastic activity of synthetic chalcones (3a-3f) using in vitro glioblastoma models and molecular modeling. Cytotoxicity assay showed that Astrocitoma Hospital Ofir Loyola No 1 (AHOL1) and Uppsala 87 neoplastic glioblastoma lines (U87) cellular viability were significantly reduced compared to Healthy human fibroblasts cell lines (AN27) when exposed to chalcones. Interaction with the serine amino acid was present in the most promising and the reference binder docking, suggesting its importance inhibiting cell growth. Comparative analysis between the reference ligands and the molecules showed that the amino acid LYS352 present in all fittings, suggesting that this is the main amino acid for interaction with tubulin and are consistent with those in cytotoxicity assay, suggesting antineoplastic potential in glioblastoma. Long trajectory molecular dynamics studies were also carried out in order to investigate stability and conformations amongst the chalcones bound tubulin as well, in comparison to doxorubicin (here used as control), however future studies are needed to further assess the mechanism of inhibition of chalcones used in this investigation.
Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma
Mosquitoes can be vectors of pathogens and transmit diseases to both animals and humans. Species of the genus Culex are part of the cycle of neglected diseases, especially Culex quinquefasciatus, ...which is an anthropophilic vector of lymphatic filariasis. Natural products can be an alternative to synthetic insecticides for vector control; however, the main issue is the poor water availability of some compounds from plant origin. In this context, nanoemulsions are kinetic stable delivery systems of great interest for lipophilic substances. The objective of this study was to investigate the larvicidal activity of the Hyptis suaveolens essential oil nanoemulsion on Cx. quinquefasciatus. The essential oil showed a predominance of monoterpenes with retention time (RT) lower than 15 min. The average size diameter of the emulsions (sorbitan monooleate/polysorbate 20) was ≤ 200 nm. The nanoemulsion showed high larvicidal activity in concentrations of 250 and 125 ppm. CL50 values were 102.41 (77.5253−149.14) ppm and 70.8105 (44.5282−109.811) ppm after 24 and 48 h, respectively. The mortality rate in the surfactant control was lower than 9%. Scanning micrograph images showed changes in the larvae’s integument. This study achieved an active nanoemulsion on Cx. quinquefasciatus through a low-energy-input technique and without using potentially toxic organic solvents. Therefore, it expands the scope of possible applications of H. suaveolens essential oil in the production of high-added-value nanosystems for tropical disease vector control.
Palm fatty acid distillate PFAD is an example of potential low-cost palm biofuel second generation feedstock, most used as a source of fatty acid for non-food applications in industry. Catalytic ...application of Oxone® salt was used in the present study for the esterification reaction of PFAD for biodiesel production for the first time. After optimizing the conversion rate, was possible to observe that, among the process variables studied Oxone® concentration (%), temperature (°C) and reaction time (h), Oxone® concentration was the only significant variable for the fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs) generation response variable. A > 90% conversion rate was reached with 15% Oxone® at 42 °C, using a PFAD:ethanol molar ratio of 1:5 at 12 h reaction time. The reaction system has a series of advantages, such as mild conditions, simple operation, green and high conversion. As alternative for make the biodiesel production as sustainable as possible.
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