Supercritical fluid technology as a sustainable alternative method for textile dyeing: An approach on waste, energy, and CO2 emission reduction

The clothing industry is considered one of the most polluting industries on the planet due to the high consumption of water, energy, chemicals/dyes, and high generation of solid waste and effluents. Faced with environmental concerns, the textile ennoblement sector is the most critical of the textile production chain, especially the traditional dyeing processes. As an alternative to current problems, dyeing with supercritical CO2 (scCO2) has been presented as a clean and efficient process for a sustainable textile future. Supercritical fluid dyeing (SFD) has shown a growing interest due to its significant impact on environmental preservation and social, economic, and financial gains. The main SFD benefits include economy and reuse of non-adsorbed dyes; reduction of process time and energy expenditure; capture of atmospheric CO2 (greenhouse gas); use and recycling of CO2 in SFD; generation of carbon credits; water-free process; effluent-free process; reduction of CO2 emission and auxiliary chemicals. Despite being still a non-scalable and evolving technology, SFD is the future of dyeing. This review presented a comprehensive overview of the environmental impacts caused by traditional processes and confronted the advantages of SFD. The SFD technique was introduced, along with its latest advances and future perspectives. Financial and environmental gains were also discussed.

Investigation of the anti-inflammatory effects of stigmasterol in mice: insight into its mechanism of action

Stigmasterol is a phytosterol that presents pharmacologic properties. However, its anti-inflammatory mechanism and antinociceptive effect are not yet elucidated. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive activities of stigmasterol and its mechanism of action in mice. The antinociceptive activity was assessed by the acetic acid-induced writhing test, formalin test, and hot plate test. The anti-inflammatory activity was investigated by carrageenan-induced peritonitis and paw edema induced by arachidonic acid. The involvement of glucocorticoid receptors in the mechanism of stigmasterol anti-inflammatory action was investigated by molecular docking, also by pretreating mice with RU-486 (glucocorticoid receptor antagonist) in the acetic acid-induced writhing test. Mice motor coordination was evaluated by the rota-rod test and the locomotor activity by the open field test. The lowest effective dose of stigmasterol was standardized at 10 mg/kg (p.o.). It prevented abdominal writhes and paw licking, but it did not increase the latency time in the hot plate test, suggesting that stigmasterol does not show an antinociceptive effect in response to a thermal stimulus. Stigmasterol decreased leukocyte infiltration in peritonitis assay and reduced paw edema elicited by arachidonic acid. Molecular docking suggested that stigmasterol interacts with the glucocorticoid receptor. Also, RU-486 prevented the effect of stigmasterol in the acetic-acid abdominal writhing test, which might indicate the contribution of glucocorticoid receptors in the mechanism of stigmasterol action. Stigmasterol reduced the number of crossings but did not impair mice's motor coordination. Our results show that stigmasterol presents anti-inflammatory effects probably mediated by glucocorticoid receptors.

Corrigendum to: Computational Modeling of Environmental Co-exposure on Oil-Derived Hydrocarbon Overload by Using Substrate-Specific Transport Protein (TodX) with Graphene Nanostructures

Due to an oversight of the publisher, Page no 2310 was missing in the published paper and page no 2311 repeated twice in the article entitled "Computational Modeling of Environmental Co-exposure on Oil-Derived Hydrocarbon Overload by Using Substrate-Specific Transport Protein (TodX) with Graphene Nanostructures, 2020, 20(25), 2308-2325 [1]. The page no 2310 is added in the article and the repetition of page no 2311 is corrected. The original article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.2174/1568026620666200820145412.

Computational Modeling of Environmental Co-exposure on Oil-Derived Hydrocarbon Overload by Using Substrate-Specific Transport Protein (TodX) with Graphene Nanostructures

BACKGROUND

Bioremediation is a biotechnology field that uses living organisms to remove contaminants from soil and water; therefore, they could be used to treat oil spills from the environment.

METHODS

Herein, we present a new mechanistic approach combining Molecular Docking Simulation and Density Functional Theory to modeling the bioremediation-based nanointeractions of a heterogeneous mixture of oil-derived hydrocarbons by using pristine and oxidized graphene nanostructures and the substrate-specific transport protein (TodX) from Pseudomonas putida.

RESULTS

The theoretical evidences pointing that the binding interactions are mainly based on noncovalent bonds characteristic of physical adsorption mechanism mimicking the "Trojan-horse effect".

CONCLUSION

These results open new horizons to improve bioremediation strategies in over-saturation conditions against oil-spills and expanding the use of nanotechnologies in the context of environmental modeling health and safety.