Microbial infections are considered as one of the most important concerns of the world community. Developing drug delivery systems based on formulation of nanoparticles with antimicrobial agents have shown beneficial effectiveness against microbial infections and related antimicrobial resistance. In this study we prepared and characterized a chitosan based hydrogel loaded with zinc oxide nanoparticles for controlling the release of vancomycin and also improving its antibacterial effect. Characterization studies demonstrated that the developed biopolymeric hydrogel was able to sustained and controlled the release of vancomycin in response to acidic media for 96 hours. Furthermore, antimicrobial studies showed siginificant and efficient antibacterial activity of prepared hydrogel against S. aureus and P. aeruginosa. Based on obtained results, it can be concluded that the prepared chitosan hydrogel containing ZnO nanoparticles has a desirable activity for controlling the release of vancomycin and improving its antibacterial properties.

Binary Solvent Extraction of Microplastics from a Complex Environmental Matrix.Oluniyi O. Fadare1, Leisha Martin2, Nigel Lascelles1, Jessica T. Myers1, Karl Kaiser3, Wei Xu2, and Jeremy L. Conkle11Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, 6300 Ocean Drive, Unit 5892, Corpus Christi, Texas 78412, United States.2Department of Life Sciences, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, 6300 Ocean Drive, Unit 5892, Corpus Christi, Texas 78412, United States3Department of Marine and Coastal Environmental Science, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Galveston, TX 77553, United StatesAddress correspondence to Jeremy L. Conkle - Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, 6300 Ocean Drive, 78412, Texas, United States. Tel: +1 361.825.2862; Email: jeremy.conkle@tamucc.edu

Linum usitatissimum is one of the popular medicinal plants. The plant has many pharmaceutical uses in traditional medicine. In this study, cobalt nanoparticles were synthesized according to green chemistry rules using the aqueous extract of Linum usitatissimum. The green-synthesized CoNPs@ L. usitatissimum were characterized using different techniques such as EDX, FE-SEM, XRD, and FT-IR. The FE-SEM results confirm spherical morphology for the nanoparticles with size of 38.42 to 75.26 nm. The properties of CoNPs@ L. usitatissimum against common human esophageal cancer cell lines i.e. KYSE-270, OE33, ESO26 and FLO-1 were evaluated. The antioxidant test with DPPH free radical indicates the significant antioxidant properties of CoNPs@ L. usitatissimum. The IC50 of the CoNPs@ L. usitatissimum was 359, 176, 371, and 387 against KYSE-270, OE33, ESO26 and FLO-1, respectively. It seems that the anti-human esophageal cancer effect of cobalt nanoparticles mediated by Linum usitatissimum leaf aqueous extract is due to their antioxidant effects.

Rheum ribes L. is one of the popular fruits in Asian culture. R. ribes has many pharmaceutical applications in folklore medicine. In the present study, the extract of the dried leaf of R. ribes was used as a reducing agent for the green synthesis of silver nanoparticles. Various chemical methods such as FE-SEM, XRD, and FT-IR were used to characterize AgNPs. The results of XRD showed 28.19 nm for the crystal size of AgNPs. A spherical morphology was confirmed for the nanoparticles using FE-SEM images with an average size of 26.11 nm the nanoparticles. In the cellular and molecular part of the recent study, the treated cells with AgNPs were assessed by MTT assay for 48h about the cytotoxicity and anti-human oral cancer properties on normal (HUVEC) and oral cancer cell lines i.e. HSC-2, HSC-3, HSC-4, KB, BHY, HN, OECM-1, and Ca9-22. The IC50s of AgNPs were 220, 192, 174, 142, 125, 131, 250 and 219 µg/mL against HSC-2, HSC-3, HSC-4, KB, BHY, HN, OECM-1, and Ca9-22 cell lines, respectively. The viability of malignant oral cell lines reduced dose-dependently in the presence of AgNPs. It seems that the anti-human oral cancer effect of recent nanoparticles is due to their antioxidant effects.

In this study, vanadium nanoparticles were green synthesized using the aqueous extract of Salvia officinalis. Different techniques such as FE-SEM, XRD, FT-IR, and EDS analysis were used to characterize VNPs@Salvia officinalis. A 25.6 nm was obtained for the crystal size of the vanadium nanoparticles using XRD analysis. The FE-SEM images show a spherical morphology for VNPs@Salvia officinalis with the range size of 11.28 to 40.74 for the synthetic nanoparticles. In the antioxidant test, the IC50 of VNPs@Salvia officinalis and BHT against DPPH free radicals were 300 and 265 µg/mL, respectively. For anticancer activity evaluation the treated cells with VNPs@Salvia officinalis were assessed by MTT assay for 48h about the cytotoxicity and anti-colorectal cancer properties on normal (HUVEC) and colorectal cancer cell lines i.e., Caco-2, COLO 320, DLD-1‎, HCT-15‎, HCT-116‎, and HT-29. The IC50 of VNPs@Salvia officinalis were 213, 210, 297, 204, 160, and 125 µg/mL against Caco-2, COLO 320, DLD-1‎, HCT-15‎, HCT-116‎, and HT-29 cell lines, respectively. The viability of malignant colorectal cell lines reduced dose-dependently in the presence of VNPs@Salvia officinalis. It appears that the anti-colorectal cancer effect of VNPs@Salvia officinalis is due to their antioxidant effects.

In this study, Syzygium aromaticum extract as a stabilizing and reducing agent was utilized to synthesize copper nanoparticles in the aqueous medium. Various techniques containing UV-Vis. spectroscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry (EDS) were used to characterize the synthesized nanoparticles (CuNPs). On the other hand, the MTT assay was run to evaluate anti lung cancer activity of CuNPs. The crystal size of CuNPs, according to the XRD analysis, was 30.73 nm. Moreover, the uniform spherical morphology ranging from 19.55 to 69.70 nm was detected in the SEM images for the biosynthesized nanoparticles. In the cellular and molecular part of the recent study, the treated cells with CuNPs@Syzygium aromaticum were assessed by MTT assay for 48 h about the cytotoxicity and anti-human lung adenocarcinoma properties on normal (HUVEC) and lung adenocarcinoma cell lines i.e. HLC-1, LC-2/ad, and PC-14. In the antioxidant test, the IC50 of CuNPs@Syzygium aromaticum and BHT against DPPH free radicals were 119 and 69 µg/mL, respectively. The viability of malignant lung cell line reduced dose-dependently in the presence of CuNPs@Syzygium aromaticum. The IC50 of CuNPs@Syzygium aromaticum were 443, 500, and 377 µg/mL against LC-2/ad, HLC-1, and PC-14 cell lines, respectively.

We herein demonstrate the biogenic nanoarchitechtonics of silver nanoparticles template over chitosan/starch mixed hydrogel having excellent reducing ability. The two biopolymers also had the capacity to stabilize as-synthesized Ag NPs. Physicochemical and structural features of the nanocomposite biomaterial was assessed by several techniques like FT-IR, SEM, TEM, EDX and XRD. TEM study revealed the mean diameter of the spherical shaped Ag NPs/CS-Starch material was in the range of 5-15 nm. Thereafter, the Ag NPs/CS-Starch bio-composite material was exploited in the study of cytotoxicity and anti-leukemia effects against diverse leukemia cell lines like acute myeloid leukemia (32D-FLT3-ITD and Human HL-60/vcr), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (MOLT-3 and TALL-104), and acute T cell leukemia (Jurkat, Clone E6-1 and J.RT3-T3.5) in situ. Interestingly, the nano-drug could resist significantly against those cell lines in a time and concentration-dependent manner, assessed by MTT method. The corresponding IC50 values of the bio-composite were 203, 301, 250, 227, 102, and 193 µg/mL respectively against the cell lines. Furthermore, antioxidant potential of the material was investigated by DPPH radical scavenging method. A significantly high IC50 value suggested the high antioxidant capacity of Ag NPs/CS-Starch nanomaterial.

Chronic lesion has become a major biological burden for individual patients and health organizations. Using nanoparticles as drug delivery systems is remarkable nowadays. The unique properties of chitosan without any toxicity for living creations make it a suitable option for drug delivery. Epidermal growth factor (EGF) is one of the important agents for wound healing, cellular proliferation, extracellular matrix formation, and skin remodeling. A combination of these properties can accelerate the wound healing process. In this study, rh-EGF is embedded into the chitosan nanoparticles by the Ion-gelation method. Nanoparticles are characterized by TEM microscopy and the DLS method and conjugation efficacy is measured by FT-IR radiation. The antibacterial effect of manipulated nanoparticles was estimated by MIC/MBC methods. The cytotoxicity and proliferation were measured by MTT assay on the HFF-1 human fibroblast cell line. Migration assay was accomplished by in vitro scratch model and the gene expression analysis for TGF-β, VEGF, and PDGF were manipulated by the real time-PCR method. The obtained results were considered statistically significant with P < 0.05. Obtained results illustrated no toxic effect on the HFF-1 cell line treated with Chitosan-EGF (CS-EGF). In cellular proliferation and migration assays, CS-EGF nanoparticles demonstrated a better effect than free rh-EGF. For the duration of 72h of the experiment, the whole scratch was covered by fibroblasts. The real time-PCR analysis also showed upregulation of all TGF-β, VEGF, and PDGF genes. As CS-EGF nanoparticles in the acceleration of the skin remodeling process showed promising results, subsequent studies might be useful.