Biotransfomation products from Clarius batrachus oil

Biotransformation can be defined as an application that utilized natural and recombinant organisms’ enzymes secreted by yeast, fungi and bacteria or whole cells as catalyst in synthesis of organic compound. Therefore, Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacterium has been chosen to be the biocatalyst for biotransformation of ω fatty acids extracted from Malaysian catfish, Clarias batrachus emphasizing on bioconversion of arachidonic acid. In addition, arachidonic acid was one of prostaglandin precursor which exerts a variety of pharmacological effects on human and animals. In this study, the fatty acids were extracted from the catfish using modified Folch method where the fish flesh was freeze dried prior to homogenization with the chloroform and methanol system. Then, the crude lipid extract was added to the bacterial culture and incubated for 4 days. After incubation, the biotransformation product was extracted and analyzed by using gas chromatography and mass spectrometer (GC-MS) to identify the fatty acids and other compounds. It was found that several fatty acids, especially ω-fatty acids were converted to cholesterol. This indicates that ω-fatty acids can be used as starting materials for other bioactive metabolites for pharmaceutical purposes

Anti-cancer activities of β-mangostin against oral squamous cell carcinoma

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of malignant tumors with poor prognosis resulting in major morbidity and mortality. The actual curative treatment is usually chemotherapy with concurrent radiation, sometimes combined with surgery. Unfortunately, the strength of the drugs used in chemotherapy causes side effects that can bring discomfort and inconvenience. Herbal remedies have been used for thousands of years with very minimal side effects and clearly merit extended research for their ability to selectively kill cancer cells. The genus of Garcinia is well known as a medicinal plant in Southeast Asia. β-mangostin, a xanthone from the pericarps of various species of Garcinia has been shown to exhibit anti-cancer activities in various human cancer cells. However, no attempt has been made to explore the potential benefits of this xantone for treatment and/or prevention of OSCC. Here, we report that β- mangostin exhibits anti-proliferative effect and induces apoptosis in human oral squamous cell carcinoma cell lines HSC-3 and Ca-922. MTT assay showed that β-mangostin markedly inhibited proliferation of HSC-3 and Ca-922 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The apoptosis induced by β-mangostin was clearly detected by flow cytometry in both cell lines and confirmed by caspase activity assays. Moreover, quantitative RT-PCR revealed that apoptotic activity by β-mangostin in HSC-3 and Ca-922 cells is associated with an up-regulation of caspase - 8 and pro-apoptotic PUMA genes. These results identify β-mangostin as a potential therapeutic agent for human oral squamous cell carcinoma

Biotransformation of ω-fatty acid from Clarias gariepinus using Psuedomonas aeruginosa

Study on biotransformation of �-fatty acid from fish oil was carried out. Pseudomonas aeruginosa has been chosen to be the biocatalyst for biotransformation of w fatty acids extracted from Malaysian catfish, Clarias gariepinus. The lipid from freeze-dried catfish flesh was extracted using a modified Folch method and the mixture of chloroform and methanol was used as a solvent. The crude lipid substrate was added to the bacterial culture and incubated for 4 days. After conversion, the products were analyzed by using gas chromatography and mass spectrometer (GC-MS). The analytical result showed that several fatty acids and cholesterol were found in the product. However, the fatty acids and cholesterol contents before and after biotransformation were different. The cholesterol content increased while �-fatty acid contents decreased after biotransformation process. It can be concluded that the bacterial cells had oxidized the �-fatty acids to yield precursors which can be utilized as starting materials for the bioconversion to cholesterol

Microbial transformation of Clarias gariepinus oil by psuedomonas aeruginosa

Biotransformation of fatty acid from Malaysian catfish, Clarias gariepinus oil was carried out using Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The lipid from freeze-dried catfish flesh was extracted using a modified Folch method with chloroform-methanol mixture as an extracting solvent. The crude lipid substrate was added to P. aeruginosa culture and incubated for 4 days. After conversion, the products were analyzed by using GC-MS instrument. The result showed that 7,10-dihydroxy-8(E)-octadecenoic acid (DHOD) were abundantly found in the product. The hydroxyl derivative increased while fatty acid contents decreased after biotransformation process. It can be concluded that the bacterial cells had transformed the fatty acids to yield hydroxyl metabolite which can be utilized as starting materials for the bioconversion to pharmaceutical materials

PLGA-Chitosan nanoparticle-mediated gene delivery for oral cancer treatment: A brief review

Cancer becomes a serious issue on society with increasing of their growth and proliferation, either in well economic developed countries or not. Recent years, oral cancer is one of the most threatening diseases impairing the quality of life of the patient. Scientists have emphasised on application of gene therapy for oral cancer by using nanoparticle as transportation vectors as a new alternative platform in order to overcome the limitations of conventional approaches. In modern medicine, nanotechnologies’ application, such as nanoparticles-mediated gene delivery, is one of promising tool for therapeutic devices. The objective of this article is to present a brief review summarizes on the current progress of nanotechnology-based gene delivery treatment system targeted for oral cancer

Liposomes or Extracellular Vesicles: A Comprehensive Comparison of Both Lipid Bilayer Vesicles for Pulmonary Drug Delivery

The rapid and non-invasive pulmonary drug delivery (PDD) has attracted great attention compared to the other routes. However, nanoparticle platforms, like liposomes (LPs) and extracellular vesicles (EVs), require extensive reformulation to suit the requirements of PDD. LPs are artificial vesicles composed of lipid bilayers capable of encapsulating hydrophilic and hydrophobic substances, whereas EVs are natural vesicles secreted by cells. Additionally, novel LPs-EVs hybrid vesicles may confer the best of both. The preparation methods of EVs are distinguished from LPs since they rely mainly on extraction and purification, whereas the LPs are synthesized from their basic ingredients. Similarly, drug loading methods into/onto EVs are distinguished whereby they are cell- or non-cell-based, whereas LPs are loaded via passive or active approaches. This review discusses the progress in LPs and EVs as well as hybrid vesicles with a special focus on PDD. It also provides a perspective comparison between LPs and EVs from various aspects (composition, preparation/extraction, drug loading, and large-scale manufacturing) as well as the future prospects for inhaled therapeutics. In addition, it discusses the challenges that may be encountered in scaling up the production and presents our view regarding the clinical translation of the laboratory findings into commercial products

Molecular docking study of naturally derived β- mangostin with antiapoptotic Bcl-2 proteins toward oral cancer treatment

Targeting the apoptosis-inducing pathway has drawn much attention in searching for a novel anticancer drug. Bcl-2 is the most studied anti- apoptotic protein, recognised in aiding in cell survival and overexpressed in most cancer cells resulting in cancer resistance toward conventional treatment. The inhibition of Bcl-2 proteins become the main target for inducing apoptosis in cancer cells. β-mangostin received minimum attention in investigating anticancer properties as compared to its family such α- mangostin. We performed molecular docking of β-mangostin, doxorubicin (in silico control) and ABT-737 (co-crystal Bcl-2 inhibitor) against antiapoptotic Bcl-2 protein using PyMol, Discovery Studio Biovia 2021, AutoDock Vina, and AutoDock Tools version 1.5.7. The result demonstrates for the first time that β-mangostin showed an optimum binding affinity with Bcl-2 (∆G −7.3 kcal/mol), similar to those shown by doxorubicin. The present results indicate that β-mangostin could potentially serve as Bcl-2 protein inhibitors, which would consequently lead to an apoptotic process in oral cancers. The present data warrant validation using in vitro and in vivo assays

2D LiDAR Based Reinforcement Learning for Multi-Target Path Planning in Unknown Environment

Global path planning techniques have been widely employed in solving path planning problems, however they have been found to be unsuitable for unknown environments. Contrarily, the traditional Q-learning method, which is a common reinforcement learning approach for local path planning, is unable to complete the task for multiple targets. To address these limitations, this paper proposes a modified Q-learning method, called Vector Field Histogram based Q-learning (VFH-QL) utilized the VFH information in state space representation and reward function, based on a 2D LiDAR sensor. We compared the performance of our proposed method with the classical Q-learning method (CQL) through training experiments that were conducted in a simulated environment with a size of 400 square pixels, representing a 20-meter square map. The environment contained static obstacles and a single mobile robot. Two experiments were conducted: experiment A involved path planning for a single target, while experiment B involved path planning for multiple targets. The results of experiment A showed that VFH-QL method had 87.06% less training time and 99.98% better obstacle avoidance compared to CQL. In experiment B, VFH-QL method was found to have an average training time that was 95.69% less than that of the CQL method and 83.99% better path quality. The VFH-QL method was then evaluated using a benchmark dataset. The results indicated that the VFH-QL exhibited superior path quality, with efficiency of 94.89% and improvements of 96.91% and 96.69% over CQL and SARSA in the task of path planning for multiple targets in unknown environments

Quantification of chlorophyll content in leaves of avicennia germinans, laguncularia racemosa, durio zibethinus, garcinia mangostana, spinacia oleracea, piper betle, piper sarmentosum and centella asiatica

This study aimed to determine chlorophyll concentrations in Avicennia germinans, Laguncularia racemosa, Durio zibethinus, Garcinia mangostana, Spinacia oleracea, Piper betle, Piper sarmentosum, and Centella asiatica. The analytical procedures required 250 mg of leaf sample to be macerated with 10 ml of 80% acetone using a pestle and mortar. The extract was centrifuged for 5 minutes at 5000 rpm. Then, the solution was transferred into a 25 ml volumetric flask and made up to 25 ml using 80% acetone. The steps were repeated by substituting with the rest of the leaf samples that would be tested. The colour intensity of green pigment was read at 645 and 663 nm for chlorophyll-a, chlorophyll-b, and total chlorophyll content using a spectrophotometer. The result revealed that the total chlorophyll content of all species ranged from 0.081-1.112 mg/g fresh weight. The chlorophyll-a concentration for all species ranged from 0.028-0.718 mg/g fresh weight; chlorophyll-b content ranged from 0.053-0.499 mg/g fresh weight. Piper sarmentosum was found to have the highest total chlorophyll content and chlorophyll-a, whereas Durio zibethinus had the highest content of chlorophyll-b. Chlorophyll has potential benefits, including improving health, boosting energy, and fighting illnesses. Additionally, chlorophyll has possible health benefits, including increased energy and the ability to fight infections