Enhanced Acid-Catalyzed Biomass Conversion to Hydroxymethylfurfural Following Cellulose Solvent- and Organic Solvent-Based Lignocellulosic Fractionation Pretreatment

Enhanced Acid-Catalyzed Biomass Conversion to Hydroxymethylfurfural Following Cellulose Solvent- and Organic Solvent-Based Lignocellulosic Fractionation Pretreatmen

Neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree for <i>Alcaligenes aquatilis</i> strain F8 and related species based on 16S rDNA sequences.

<p>Bootstrap values (percentages of 1,000 replications) are shown at the branch points. Scale bar = 0.01 substitutions per nucleotide position (evolutionary distance).</p

Average amounts of different wheat bran components added back to the acid-treated bran included in the immobilization of <i>Alcaligenes aquatilis</i> strain F8.

<p>CMC: sodium carboxymethylcellulose</p><p>CVs: composite vitamins</p><p>Cellulose consisted of xylan and CMC; CVs were a mixture of B₁, B₂, B₃, B₆, B₉, E, and biotin.</p><p>^aunit: g</p><p>^bunit: mg</p><p>Average amounts of different wheat bran components added back to the acid-treated bran included in the immobilization of <i>Alcaligenes aquatilis</i> strain F8.</p

Composition and average content of 100 g of wheat bran.

<p>^aunit: g</p><p>^bunit: mg</p><p>Composition and average content of 100 g of wheat bran.</p

Effects of individual vitamins on the algicidal rate and growth of <i>Alcaligenes aquatilis</i> strain F8 immobilized with acid-treated bran.

<p>‘Control’: strain F8 immobilized with acid-treated bran; ‘+B₁, +B₂,…+E’: adding back of the respective individual vitamins to acid-treated bran during the immobilization of strain F8. Data represent the mean of three independent experiments with the SD indicated by an error bar. Red and blue dotted lines represent the control values of algicidal rate and bacterial growth (OD₆₀₀), respectively. Different lowercase letters above the columns represent statistically significant differences in growth of strain F8 under different treatments, and in the algicidal rate among treatment groups at different treatment times for strain F8 against <i>Microcystis aeruginosa</i> (<i>p</i> < 0.05).</p

Algicidal characteristics of strain F8 under different immobilization conditions.

<p>Data represent the mean of three independent experiments with the SD indicated by an error bar. Different lowercase letters above the columns represent statistically significant differences in algicidal rate among treatment groups at different treatment times for strain F8 against <i>M</i>. <i>aeruginosa</i> (<i>p</i> < 0.05).</p

Effects of added-back ingredients on the algicidal rate and growth of <i>Alcaligenes aquatilis</i> strain F8 immobilized with acid-treated bran.

<p>(a) Ingredients added back to acid-treated bran during the immobilization of strain F8. Control (‘C’): no addition; ‘C + Starch’, ‘C + Cellulose’, and ‘C + Vitamins’ represent the addition of starch, cellulose, or vitamins, respectively. (b) Ingredients added back as sole carbon sources. Data represent the mean of three independent experiments with the SD indicated by an error bar. Different lowercase letters above the columns represent statistically significant differences in growth of strain F8 under different treatments, and in algicidal rate among treatment groups at different treatment times for strain F8 against <i>Microcystis aeruginosa</i> (<i>p</i> < 0.05).</p

Transforming a Toxic Non-Ionizable Drug into an Efficacious Liposome via Ionizable Prodrug and Remote Loading Strategies against Malignant Breast Tumors

Liposomes (lipos), one of the most successful nanotherapeutics in the clinic, have made a rapid advance over the past few years. However, still, several challenges exist for lipos for clinical practice, such as low drug loading and premature drug leakage during in vivo circulation. Paclitaxel (PTX), a commonly used first-line drug for cancer chemotherapy, was chosen as the model drug. Due to its non-ionizable and water-insoluble characteristics, the drug-loading efficiency of the marketable PTX lipos, Lipusu, is only 6.76%. Herein, we designed an ionizable PTX prodrug (PTXP) by modifying phenylboronic acid on the C2′ hydroxyl group of PTX for the remote loading of liposomal formulations through the pH gradient method. Compared with Lipusu, PTXP lipos displayed a 34% higher loading efficiency and an encapsulation efficiency of approximately 95%. A series of in vitro/vivo experiments indicated that PTXP lipos possess colloidal stability, prolonged blood circulation, high tumor site accumulation, potent anti-tumor effects, and safety. A combination of ionizable prodrugs and remote loading has proved to be an effective and simple strategy to achieve high liposomal encapsulation efficiency of poorly soluble non-ionizable drugs for clinical application

Ball Milling for Biomass Fractionation and Pretreatment with Aqueous Hydroxide Solutions

A promising approach in the selective separation and modification of cellulose from raw biomass under a mild alkali process was proposed. In our study, ball milling was applied to wheat straw prior to alkali treatment. With ball milling, ultrafine powder formed an amorphous microstructure and displayed a level of solubilization in aqueous NaOH higher than that of general ground samples. Alkali-treated ultrafine powder resulted in up to 93.76% removal of hemicellulose and 86.14% removal of lignin, whereas cellulose remains largely undissolved. A high glucose yield (98.48%) was obtained via a 72 h enzymatic hydrolysis. X-ray diffraction and solid state ¹³C cross-polarization magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance analysis revealed evidence of the transformation of crystalline cellulose I to cellulose II in alkali-treated ultrafine wheat straw. Prolonging the alkaline treatment time can significantly decrease the level of cellulose hydrogen bonding and increase the hydrolysis yield. The combination of ultrafine ball milling and low-severity alkali treatment played a significant role in the cellulose supramolecular change, which can then be used for downstream biorefinery processes or as a feedstock for the biomaterial industry

Atomic-Level Structure Characterization of Biomass Pre- and Post-Lignin Treatment by Dynamic Nuclear Polarization-Enhanced Solid-State NMR

Lignocellulosic biomass is a promising sustainable feedstock for the production of biofuels, biomaterials, and biospecialty chemicals. However, efficient utilization of biomass has been limited by our poor understanding of its molecular structure. Here, we report a dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP)-enhanced solid-state (SS)­NMR study of the molecular structure of biomass, both pre- and postcatalytic treatment. This technique enables the measurement of 2D homonuclear ¹³C–¹³C correlation SSNMR spectra under natural abundance, yielding, for the first time, an atomic-level picture of the structure of raw and catalytically treated biomass samples. We foresee that further such experiments could be used to determine structure–function relationships and facilitate the development of more efficient, and chemically targeted, biomass-conversion technologies