State-of-the-art advancement in tara gum polysaccharide (Caesalpinia spinosa) modifications and their potential applications for drug delivery and the food industry

In preference to synthetic or petroleum-based materials, current research in food and pharmaceutical industries has focused on the development of biodegradable and sustainable materials due to their low toxicity, and biocompatibility. In particular, the natural water-soluble polysaccharide tara gum (Caesalpinia spinosa) has been widely used as a food-grade and drug-delivery agent due to its biodegradability, and biocompatibility. Moreover, owing to its easily modifiable hydroxy groups, tara gum, and its derivatives have been employed as food packaging films and pharmaceutical materials. In the present critical review, facile grafting methods of tara gum are reviewed, and an up-to-date comprehensive application of tara gum polysaccharides revealed their uses in pH-sensitive food packaging. In addition, modified tara gum materials exhibited improved drug delivery applications with biocompatible properties. The non-toxic nature and non-Newtonian, pseudoplastic rheological properties as well as the synergistic behavior of tara gum with other polysaccharides explore its further industrial applications in several fields. Additionally, several approaches for improving tara gum for use as a stabilizer and thickener for food items, and monitoring food spoilage, have provided notable customized characteristics. In brief, its many advantages make tara gum polysaccharide a promising material for applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

γ-Radiation induced L-glutamic acid grafted highly porous, pH-responsive chitosan hydrogel beads: A smart and biocompatible vehicle for controlled anti-cancer drug delivery

In the present work, highly porous, pH-responsive, and biocompatible chitosan-based hydrogel beads were prepared through gamma-irradiated graft copolymerization technique using L-glutamic acid as the monomer. The glutamic acid grafted chitosan (CH-g-GA) hydrogel beads, loaded with the anti-cancer drug (Doxorubicin, Dox), were exploited for their potential application as anti-cancer drug delivery system. The grafting conditions were optimized by varying irradiation dose (kGy) and monomer concentration. Further, the hydrogel beads were analysed using FTIR, XRD, SEM, TGA/DSC, Zeta potential studies, BET analysis and their strength was determined using rheological analysis. The swelling characteristics of the beads were studied at various simulated body pH (2.1, 5.8, and 7.4) to study their pH-responsive behaviour. The in-vitro drug release from the beads was thus evaluated at pH 5.8, 7.4 using UV-visible spectroscopy. The highest swelling ratio (426%) and drug release (81.33% in 144 h) was observed at the pH of 5.8. The MTT assay was performed on HEK-293 cell-line to check their cytocompatibilty and the cell proliferation of Dox-loaded beads was studied on MCF-7 cell-line. A significant cytotoxicity against the cancer-cells was observed which further established their promising use in the controlled delivery of anti-cancer agents for localized cancer therapy.

Efficient Adsorption Performance of Lithium Ion onto Cellulose Microspheres with Sulfonic Acid Groups

The separation of Li+ from an aqueous solution has received much attention in recent years because of its wide application in batteries and nuclear energy. A cellulose microsphere adsorbent with sulfonic acid groups (named as CGS) was successfully prepared by the pre-irradiation-induced emulsion graft polymerization of glycidyl methacrylate onto cellulose microspheres through subsequent sulfonation and protonation. The adsorption performance of Li+ onto the CGS adsorbent is investigated in detail. The as-prepared CGS adsorbent exhibited fast adsorption kinetics and a high adsorption capacity of Li+ (16.0 mg/g) in a wide pH range from 4 to 10. The existence of K+ and Na+ was found to have the ability to affect the adsorption capacity of Li+ due to the cation-exchange adsorption mechanism, which was further confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The column adsorption experiment indicated that the adsorption capacity of CGS agreed well with the batch adsorption, and a fast desorption could be obtained in 10 min. It is expected that CGS has potential usage in the adsorption separation of Li+ from an aqueous solution.

Biomodification Strategies for the Development of Antimicrobial Urinary Catheters: Overview and Advances

Microbial burden associated with medical devices poses serious health challenges and is accountable for an increased number of deaths leading to enormous medical costs. Catheter-associated urinary tract infections are the most common hospital-acquired infections with enhanced patient morbidity. Quite often, catheter-associated bacteriuria produces apparent adverse outcomes such as urosepsis and even death. Taking this into account, the methods to modify urinary catheters to control microbial infections with relevance to clinical drug resistance are systematically evaluated in this review. Technologies to restrict biofilm formation at initial stages by using functional nanomaterials are elucidated. The conventional methodology of using single therapeutic intervention for developing an antimicrobial catheter lacks clinically meaningful benefit. Therefore, catheter modification using naturally derived antimicrobials such as essential oils, curcumin, enzymes, and antimicrobial peptides in combination with synthetic antibiotics/nanoantibiotics is likely to exert sufficient inhibitory effect on uropathogens and is extensively discussed. Futuristic efforts in this area are projected here that demand clinical studies to address areas of uncertainty to avoid development of bacterial resistance to the new generation therapy with minimum discomfort to the patients.