Advancing sustainable agriculture: a critical review of smart and eco-friendly nanomaterial applications

Undoubtedly, nanoparticles are one of the ideal choices for achieving challenges related to bio sensing, drug delivery, and biotechnological tools. After gaining success in biomedical research, scientists are exploring various types of nanoparticles for achieving sustainable agriculture. The active nanoparticles can be used as a direct source of micronutrients or as a delivery platform for delivering the bioactive agrochemicals to improve crop growth, crop yield, and crop quality. Till date, several reports have been published showing applications of nanotechnology in agriculture. For instance, several methods have been employed for application of nanoparticles; especially metal nanoparticles to improve agriculture. The physicochemical properties of nanoparticles such as core metal used to synthesize the nanoparticles, their size, shape, surface chemistry, and surface coatings affect crops, soil health, and crop-associated ecosystem. Therefore, selecting nanoparticles with appropriate physicochemical properties and applying them to agriculture via suitable method stands as smart option to achieve sustainable agriculture and improved plant performance. In presented review, we have compared various methods of nanoparticle application in plants and critically interpreted the significant differences to find out relatively safe and specific method for sustainable agricultural practice. Further, we have critically analyzed and discussed the different physicochemical properties of nanoparticles that have direct influence on plants in terms of nano safety and nanotoxicity. From literature review, we would like to point out that the implementation of smaller sized metal nanoparticles in low concentration via seed priming and foliar spray methods could be safer method for minimizing nanotoxicity, and for exhibiting better plant performance during stress and non-stressed conditions. Moreover, using nanomaterials for delivery of bioactive agrochemicals could pose as a smart alternative for conventional chemical fertilizers for achieving the safer and cleaner technology in sustainable agriculture. While reviewing all the available literature, we came across some serious drawbacks such as the lack of proper regulatory bodies to control the usage of nanomaterials and poor knowledge of the long-term impact on the ecosystem which need to be addressed in near future for comprehensive knowledge of applicability of green nanotechnology in agriculture

Comprehensive Genome Analysis on the Novel Species Sphingomonas panacis DCY99(T) Reveals Insights into Iron Tolerance of Ginseng

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria play vital roles not only in plant growth, but also in reducing biotic/abiotic stress. Sphingomonas panacis DCY99(T) is isolated from soil and root of Panax ginseng with rusty root disease, characterized by raised reddish-brown root and this is seriously affects ginseng cultivation. To investigate the relationship between 159 sequenced Sphingomonas strains, pan-genome analysis was carried out, which suggested genomic diversity of the Sphingomonas genus. Comparative analysis of S. panacis DCY99(T) with Sphingomonas sp. LK11 revealed plant growth-promoting potential of S. panacis DCY99(T) through indole acetic acid production, phosphate solubilizing, and antifungal abilities. Detailed genomic analysis has shown that S. panacis DCY99(T) contain various heavy metals resistance genes in its genome and the plasmid. Functional analysis with Sphingomonas paucimobilis EPA505 predicted that S. panacis DCY99(T) possess genes for degradation of polyaromatic hydrocarbon and phenolic compounds in rusty-ginseng root. Interestingly, when primed ginseng with S. panacis DCY99(T) during high concentration of iron exposure, iron stress of ginseng was suppressed. In order to detect S. panacis DCY99(T) in soil, biomarker was designed using spt gene. This study brings new insights into the role of S. panacis DCY99(T) as a microbial inoculant to protect ginseng plants against rusty root disease

A comprehensive and systemic review of ginseng-based nanomaterials: Synthesis, targeted delivery, and biomedical applications

Among 17 Panax species identified across the world, Panax ginseng (Korean ginseng), Panax quinquefolius (American ginseng), and Panax notoginseng (Chinese ginseng) are highly recognized for the presence of bioactive compound, ginsenosides and their pharmacological effects. P. ginseng is widely used for synthesis of different types of nanoparticles compared to P. quinquefolius and P. notoginseng. The use of nano-ginseng could increase the oral bioavailability, membrane permeability, and thus provide effective delivery of ginsenosides to the target sites through transport system. In this review, we explore the synthesis of ginseng nanoparticles using plant extracts from various organs, microbes, and polymers, as well as their biomedical applications. Furthermore, we highlight transporters involved in transport of ginsenoside nanoparticles to the target sites. Size, zeta potential, temperature, and pH are also discussed as the critical parameters affecting the quality of ginseng nanoparticles synthesis

Immunological axis of berberine in managing inflammation underlying chronic respiratory inflammatory diseases

© 2020 Inflammatory responses play a remarkable role in the mechanisms of acute and chronic respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, pulmonary fibrosis and lung cancer. Currently, there is a resurgence in the use of drugs from natural sources for various ailments as potent therapeutics. Berberine, an alkaloid prominent in the Chinese traditional system of medicine has been reported to exert therapeutic properties in various diseases. Nevertheless, the number of studies focusing on the curative potential of berberine in inflammatory diseases involving the respiratory system is limited. In this review, we have attempted to discuss the reported anti-inflammatory properties of berberine that function through several pathways such as, the NF-κB, ERK1/2 and p38 MAPK pathways which affect several pro-inflammatory cytokines in the pathophysiological processes involved in chronic respiratory diseases. This review would serve to provide valuable information to researchers who work in this field and a new direction in the field of drug discovery with respect to respiratory diseases

Green Synthesis and Potential Antibacterial Applications of Bioactive Silver Nanoparticles: A Review

Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using biological resources is the most facile, economical, rapid, and environmentally friendly method that mitigates the drawbacks of chemical and physical methods. Various biological resources such as plants and their different parts, bacteria, fungi, algae, etc. could be utilized for the green synthesis of bioactive AgNPs. In recent years, several green approaches for non-toxic, rapid, and facile synthesis of AgNPs using biological resources have been reported. Plant extract contains various biomolecules, including flavonoids, terpenoids, alkaloids, phenolic compounds, and vitamins that act as reducing and capping agents during the biosynthesis process. Similarly, microorganisms produce different primary and secondary metabolites that play a crucial role as reducing and capping agents during synthesis. Biosynthesized AgNPs have gained significant attention from the researchers because of their potential applications in different fields of biomedical science. The widest application of AgNPs is their bactericidal activity. Due to the emergence of multidrug-resistant microorganisms, researchers are exploring the therapeutic abilities of AgNPs as potential antibacterial agents. Already, various reports have suggested that biosynthesized AgNPs have exhibited significant antibacterial action against numerous human pathogens. Because of their small size and large surface area, AgNPs have the ability to easily penetrate bacterial cell walls, damage cell membranes, produce reactive oxygen species, and interfere with DNA replication as well as protein synthesis, and result in cell death. This paper provides an overview of the green, facile, and rapid synthesis of AgNPs using biological resources and antibacterial use of biosynthesized AgNPs, highlighting their antibacterial mechanisms

Structural modifications and biomedical applications of π-extended, π-fused, and non-fused tetra-substituted imidazole derivatives

In this present study, we have designed, synthetized twenty three tetra-substituted-imidazole-based fluorescent dyes that belongs to three different families of π-extended, π-fused, and non-fused tetra-substituted derivatives, to investigate their photophysical and biological properties namely anti-cancer and urease inhibitory activity. The impact of structural variation on photophysical properties, and their association with solvent’s polarity, and proticity were throughly examined by comparing with their analogues of blocked ESIPT functionality. Further, they were studied experimentally by means of absorption and fluorescence spectra monitoring through different solvent systems as well as theoretically by density functional theory/time dependent-density functional theory (DFT/TDDFT) calculations, respectively. For the evaluation of biological properties of imidazole molecules, urease inhibitory activity of the imidazole derivatives against urease protein 4H9M was investigated through docking and in vitro studies. Among the synthesized compounds, AHPI-Br and POMPI-F showed the most effective urease inhibitory activity with IC50 values of 0.0288 ± 0.0034 and 0.0289 ± 0.0025 μM and provided the highest docking scores. Moreover, anti-cancer activity of PHPI-I and PHPI-CI imidazole derivatives was confirmed by cytotoxic, and flurorescene analysis in stomach cancer cell lines (AGS). Our results demonstrated that PHPI-I, PHPI-Cl exhibited significant apoptotic mediated cell death compared to all other imidazole groups in both in vitro and in silico analysis. Our present study concluded that synthesis of imidazole derivatives have ability to inhibit urease enzyme activity and anti-cancer activity in vitro and can act as a potential therapeutic targets and warrants in vivo studies

Chitosan, chitosan nanoparticles and modified chitosan biomaterials, a potential tool to combat salinity stress in plants

Chitosan being non-toxic, biocompatible, and biodegradable gained considerable interest among agriculturists. Our research review discusses about the role of Cs, chitosan nanoparticles (CsNPs), and modified chitosan biomaterials (CsBMs) under salt stress to improve growth parameters such as plant height, weight, stem width, fruit yield, pigments such as chlorophyll a, b, total chlorophyll, and carotenoid contents, as well as antioxidant and non-antioxidative enzymes. Upon Cs treatment and salt stress, total aminoacids (TAA), glutamic acids, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) were increased. Furthermore, Cs activated SOS1 pathway and increased various gene transcripts involved in sodium compartmentalization, proton motive force, energy production, and phenol metabolism. On the other hand, CsNPs and modified CsBMs treated plants under salinity stress increased indole terpene alkaloid metabolism, defense related genes, decreased ROS production by enhancing JA signaling, increased essential oil, anthocyanins, membrane stability, alkaloids, and diterpene glycosides. This is the first review that specifically brings insights about the physiological and biochemical parameters of the plants by comparing Cs/CsNPs/modified CsBMs treatment options under salt stress and encourages the use of CsNPs and modified CsBMs compared to Cs for better plant function under salinity stress

Citral Induced Apoptosis through Modulation of Key Genes Involved in Fatty Acid Biosynthesis in Human Prostate Cancer Cells: In Silico and In Vitro Study

The isomers of citral (cis-citral and trans-citral) were isolated from the Cymbopogon citratus (DC.) Stapf oil demonstrates many therapeutic properties including anticancer properties. However, the effects of citral on suppressing human prostate cancer and its underlying molecular mechanism have yet to be elucidated. The citral was isolated from lemongrass oil using various spectroscopic analyses, such as electron ionized mass spectrometry (EI-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy respectively. We carried out 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay to evaluate the cell viability of citral in prostate cancer cells (PC-3 and PC3M). Furthermore, to confirm that PC3 undergoes apoptosis by inhibiting lipogenesis, we used several detection methods including flow cytometry, DNA fragmentation, Hoechst staining, PI staining, oil staining, qPCR, and Western blotting. Citral impaired the clonogenic property of the cancer cells and altered the morphology of cancer cells. Molecular interaction studies and the PASS biological program predicted that citral isomers tend to interact with proteins involved in lipogenesis and the apoptosis pathway. Furthermore, citral suppressed lipogenesis of prostate cancer cells through the activation of AMPK phosphorylation and downregulation of fatty acid synthase (FASN), acetyl coA carboxylase (ACC), 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMGR), and sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP1) and apoptosis of PC3 cells by upregulating BAX and downregulating Bcl-2 expression. In addition, in silico studies such as ADMET predicted that citral can be used as a safe potent drug for the treatment of prostate cancer. Our results indicate that citral may serve as a potential candidate against human prostate cancer and warrants in vivo studies

Bacterial mediated green synthesis of silver nanoparticles and their antibacterial and antifungal activities against drug-resistant pathogens

In the healthcare sector, the production of bioactive silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with antimicrobial properties is of great importance. In this study, a novel bacterial strain, Paenibacillus sp. MAHUQ-63, was identified as a potential candidate for facile and rapid biosynthesis of AgNPs. The synthesized AgNPs were used to control the growth of human pathogens, Salmonella Enteritidis and Candida albicans. The bacterial culture supernatant was utilized to synthesize the nanoparticles. FE-TEM examination showed spherical-shaped nanoparticles with 15 to 55 nm in size. FTIR analysis identified various functional groups. The synthesized AgNPs demonstrated remarkable activity against S. Enteritidis and C. albicans. The zone of inhibition (ZOI) for 100 µL (0.5 mg/mL) of AgNPs against S. Enteritidis and Candida albicans were 18.0 ± 1.0 and 19.5 ± 1.3 mm, respectively. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were 25.0 and 12.5 μg/mL against S. Enteritidis and Candida albicans, respectively. Additionally, the minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBC) were 25.0 μg/mL against both pathogenic microbes. The FE-SEM analysis showed that the treatment of AgNPs caused morphological and structural damage to both S. Enteritidis and Candida albicans. Therefore, these AgNPs can be used as a new and effective antimicrobial agent.Funding provided by: National Research Foundation of KoreaCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100003725Award Number