Comparative study on the valorization of Sargassum from the Mexican Caribbean coast and Gulf of California as an ingredient on healthy diets for shrimp farming

Funding: This work received the financial support of the project GCRFNGR4/1388 "Algae bloom: waste resource for aquaculture and bioenergy industry in Mexico".Sargassum biomass is a potential ingredient for aquaculture formulations due to its high nutritional value and availability, as it contains a variety of essential nutrients including proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins, antioxidants, fiber, and minerals, which are essential for aquatic growing, development and health parameters including digestibility and immune response against diseases. Therefore, in this work, five experimental diets were formulated considering 2.5 % and 5 % levels of inclusion of Sargassum spp. from the Mexican Caribbean coasts (SC), and from the Gulf of California (SG), and one reference diet as a control. The characterization of the raw material and the proximal analysis of the five diets were evaluated according to standard reference methods. A 35-day feeding trial was conducted using juvenile Litopenaeus vannamei showed a shrimp survival rate of 97 ± 6 % (p > 0.05) on SC. Excellent weight gain (WG) performance of SC and SG diets at 2.5 % of inclusion resulted in >10 % WG compared to the control. The specific activity of amylase, lipase, trypsin, and chymotrypsin showed a significant increase by including Sargassum in diets, compared with the reference diet. Incorporating Sargassum at 2.5 % in feed formulations for shrimps showed a great opportunity to use it as an ingredient and improved production yields. The digestion and absorption parameters were represented by the enzymatic activity in which the diets based on Sargassum spp. from the Mexican Caribbean coast (SC) have resulted in the best performance.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Environmental persistence, detection, and mitigation of endocrine disrupting contaminants in wastewater treatment plants – a review with a focus on tertiary treatment technologies

Endocrine disrupting chemicals are a group of contaminants that have severe effects on humans and animals when exposed, like cancer and alterations to the nervous and reproductive systems. The increasing concentrations of several endocrine disrupting chemicals in the environment are strongly related to anthropogenic activities, and as the population grows this problem becomes more relevant. Thus, wastewater is one of the main sources of endocrine disrupting chemicals, and the technologies employed during primary and secondary treatment in wastewater treatment plants cannot remove these contaminants. Due to this, researchers have tried to develop more efficient technologies for tertiary treatment of wastewater and reduce the concentration of endocrine disrupting chemicals discharged into the environment. Some of the most promising technologies include adsorption, ultrafiltration, advanced oxidation processes and biodegradation. The use of nanomaterials as adsorbents, catalysts, membranes and supports has played a key role in enhancing the efficiency of these technologies. The results showed that these technologies have great potential on the lab-scale, and even some of them have already been employed at some wastewater treatment plants. However, there are still some challenges to achieving a global implementation of these technologies, related to reducing the costs of materials and enhancing their current performance. The use of biomass/waste derived carbon materials and implementing hybrid technologies are accessible approaches for their implementation in tertiary treatment.This work is part of the project entitled “Contaminantes emergentes y prioritarios en las aguas reutilizadas en agricultura: riesgos y efectos en suelos, producción agrícola y entorno ambiental” funded by CSIC-Tecnológico de Monterrey under the i-Link + program (LINKB20030). The author “Jesús Alfredo Rodríguez-Hernández” acknowledges Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT) for awarding a scholarship for a PhD in nanotechnology (CVU: 924193). CONACyT is thankfully acknowledged for partially supporting this work under the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (SNI) program awarded to Rafael G. Araújo (CVU: 714118), Juan Eduardo Sosa-Hernández (CVU: 375202), Elda M. Melchor-Martínez (CVU: 230784), Manuel Martinez-Ruiz (CVU: 418151), Hafiz M. N. Iqbal (CVU: 735340) and Roberto Parra-Saldívar (CVU: 35753). The authors are also thankful to “Programa Iberoamericano de Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo” in the Latin American development network “Lacasas Inmovilizadas para la Degradación de Compuestos Aromáticos en Aguas Residuales” (LIDA, project 318RT0552). All listed authors are also grateful to their representative universities/institutes for providing literature facilities and the Biorender online program for the elaboration of the graphical abstract and Fig. 1–5.Peer reviewe

Recent Advances in Prodigiosin as a Bioactive Compound in Nanocomposite Applications

Bionanocomposites based on natural bioactive entities have gained importance due to their abundance; renewable and environmentally benign nature; and outstanding properties with applied perspective. Additionally, their formulation with biological molecules with antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anticancer activities has been produced nowadays. The present review details the state of the art and the importance of this pyrrolic compound produced by microorganisms, with interest towards Serratia marcescens, including production strategies at a laboratory level and scale-up to bioreactors. Promising results of its biological activity have been reported to date, and the advances and applications in bionanocomposites are the most recent strategy to potentiate and to obtain new carriers for the transport and controlled release of prodigiosin. Prodigiosin, a bioactive secondary metabolite, produced by Serratia marcescens, is an effective proapoptotic agent against bacterial and fungal strains as well as cancer cell lines. Furthermore, this molecule presents antioxidant activity, which makes it ideal for treating wounds and promoting the general improvement of the immune system. Likewise, some of the characteristics of prodigiosin, such as hydrophobicity, limit its use for medical and biotechnological applications; however, this can be overcome by using it as a component of a bionanocomposite. This review focuses on the chemistry and the structure of the bionanocomposites currently developed using biorenewable resources. Moreover, the work illuminates recent developments in pyrrole-based bionanocomposites, with special insight to its application in the medical area.This work was funded by CSIC-Tecnológico de Monterrey under i-Link+program (LINKB20030) for a project entitled “Contaminantes emergentes y prioritarios en las aguas reutilizadas en agricultura: riesgos y efectos en suelos, producción agrícola y entorno ambiental”.Peer reviewe

Expanding the Scope of Nanobiocatalysis and Nanosensing: Applications of Nanomaterial Constructs

The synergistic interaction between advanced biotechnology and nanotechnology has allowed the development of innovative nanomaterials. Those nanomaterials can conveniently act as supports for enzymes to be employed as nanobiocatalysts and nanosensing constructs. These systems generate a great capacity to improve the biocatalytic potential of enzymes by improving their stability, efficiency, and product yield, as well as facilitating their purification and reuse for various bioprocessing operating cycles. The different specific physicochemical characteristics and the supramolecular nature of the nanocarriers obtained from different economical and abundant sources have allowed the continuous development of functional nanostructures for different industries such as food and agriculture. The remarkable biotechnological potential of nanobiocatalysts and nanosensors has generated applied research and use in different areas such as biofuels, medical diagnosis, medical therapies, environmental bioremediation, and the food industry. The objective of this work is to present the different manufacturing strategies of nanomaterials with various advantages in biocatalysis and nanosensing of various compounds in the industry, providing great benefits to society and the environment.This work was supported by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT) and Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico under Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (SNI) program awarded to Rafael Gomes Araújo (CVU: 714118), Manuel Martínez Ruiz (CVU: 418151), Juan Eduardo Sosa Hernández (CVU: 375202), Roberto Parra Saldívar (CVU: 35753), and Hafiz M.N. Iqbal (CVU: 735340).Peer reviewe

Immobilized Enzyme-based Novel Biosensing System for Recognition of Toxic Elements in the Aqueous Environment

Access to secure water sources has become one of the biggest challenges for human sustainability. Climate change and associated droughts make it difficult to guarantee the usual water source and move to groundwater use or to the re-use of treated wastewater remains unviable due the lack on the capacity of monitoring water quality. Moreover, reusing treated wastewater from repositories near anthropogenic sources represents a risk of high concentrations of emerging contaminants. The strategies involve a higher risk of encountering toxic elements with a heavy burden on human and environmental health. New accessible and reliable tools are required to detect any hazard from the waterbodies in real time to ensure safe management and also to decrease mismanagement or ilegal water discharges. One of the available options is to look into enzyme-based biosensors that can detect toxic elements in the water. The proposed biosensors require sensible elements to be accessible and durable for their proper function. The present revision shows in first place, the actual need of real time monitoring due the different sources and effects of emergent pollutants. Secondly, describes how enzymes can be immobilized for its application in biosensors and the rol enzymes play as bioreceptor element in biosensing. Thirdly, describes the transduction methods that can be observed, and finally the actual application of enzyme biosensors for the detection of different toxic elements. According to the presented literature enzyme-based biosensors have been successfully applied for the detection of a wide number of pollutants reaching detection limits comparable to traditional methods such as up to 0.018 nM of mercury. Furthermore, laccase seems to be the more applied enzyme in literature, but positive results are not limited to this enzyme and other candidates have been explored showing good detection rate. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].This research was funded by Fundación FEMSA project entitled “Unidad de respuesta rápida al monitoreo de COVID19 por agua residual” (Grant Number NA).Peer reviewe

Detection and Tertiary Treatment Technologies of Poly-and Perfluoroalkyl Substances in Wastewater Treatment Plants

PFAS are a very diverse group of anthropogenic chemicals used in various consumer and industrial products. The properties that characterize are their low degradability as well as their resistance to water, oil and heat. This results in their high persistence in the environment and bioaccumulation in different organisms, causing many adverse effects on the environment as well as in human health. Some of their effects remain unknown to this day. As there are thousands of registered PFAS, it is difficult to apply traditional technologies for an efficient removal and detection for all. This has made it difficult for wastewater treatment plants to remove or degrade PFAS before discharging the effluents into the environment. Also, monitoring these contaminants depends mostly on chromatography-based methods, which require expensive equipment and consumables, making it difficult to detect PFAS in the environment. The detection of PFAS in the environment, and the development of technologies to be implemented in tertiary treatment of wastewater treatment plants are topics of high concern. This study focuses on analyzing and discussing the mechanisms of occurrence, migration, transformation, and fate of PFAS in the environment, as well the main adverse effects in the environment and human health. The following work reviews the recent advances in the development of PFAS detection technologies (biosensors, electrochemical sensors, microfluidic devices), and removal/degradation methods (electrochemical degradation, enzymatic transformation, advanced oxidation, photocatalytic degradation). Understanding the risks to public health and identifying the routes of production, transportation, exposure to PFAS is extremely important to implement regulations for the detection and removal of PFAS in wastewater and the environment.This work is part of the project entitled “Contaminantes emergentes y prioritarios en las aguas reutilizadas en agricultura: riesgos y efectos en suelos, producción agrícola y entorno ambiental” funded by CSIC-Tecnológico de Monterrey under i-Link + program (LINKB20030).Peer reviewe

Spatio-spectral classification of hyperspectral images for brain cancer detection during surgical operations.

Surgery for brain cancer is a major problem in neurosurgery. The diffuse infiltration into the surrounding normal brain by these tumors makes their accurate identification by the naked eye difficult. Since surgery is the common treatment for brain cancer, an accurate radical resection of the tumor leads to improved survival rates for patients. However, the identification of the tumor boundaries during surgery is challenging. Hyperspectral imaging is a non-contact, non-ionizing and non-invasive technique suitable for medical diagnosis. This study presents the development of a novel classification method taking into account the spatial and spectral characteristics of the hyperspectral images to help neurosurgeons to accurately determine the tumor boundaries in surgical-time during the resection, avoiding excessive excision of normal tissue or unintentionally leaving residual tumor. The algorithm proposed in this study to approach an efficient solution consists of a hybrid framework that combines both supervised and unsupervised machine learning methods. Firstly, a supervised pixel-wise classification using a Support Vector Machine classifier is performed. The generated classification map is spatially homogenized using a one-band representation of the HS cube, employing the Fixed Reference t-Stochastic Neighbors Embedding dimensional reduction algorithm, and performing a K-Nearest Neighbors filtering. The information generated by the supervised stage is combined with a segmentation map obtained via unsupervised clustering employing a Hierarchical K-Means algorithm. The fusion is performed using a majority voting approach that associates each cluster with a certain class. To evaluate the proposed approach, five hyperspectral images of surface of the brain affected by glioblastoma tumor in vivo from five different patients have been used. The final classification maps obtained have been analyzed and validated by specialists. These preliminary results are promising, obtaining an accurate delineation of the tumor area

Light Intensity and Nitrogen Concentration Impact on the Biomass and Phycoerythrin Production by Porphyridium purpureum

Several factors have the potential to influence microalgae growth. In the present study, nitrogen concentration and light intensity were evaluated in order to obtain high biomass production and high phycoerythrin accumulation from Porphyridium purpureum. The range of nitrogen concentrations evaluated in the culture medium was 0.075–0.450 g L−1 and light intensities ranged between 30 and 100 μmol m−2 s−1. Surprisingly, low nitrogen concentration and high light intensity resulted in high biomass yield and phycoerythrin accumulation. Thus, the best biomass productivity (0.386 g L−1 d−1) and biomass yield (5.403 g L−1) were achieved with NaNO3 at 0.075 g L−1 and 100 μmol m−2 s−1. In addition, phycoerythrin production was improved to obtain a concentration of 14.66 mg L−1 (2.71 mg g−1 of phycoerythrin over dry weight). The results of the present study indicate that it is possible to significantly improve biomass and pigment production in Porphyridium purpureum by limiting nitrogen concentration and light intensity

Multicentric study of cervical cancer screening with human papillomavirus testing and assessment of triage methods in Latin America : the ESTAMPA screening study protocol

Q1Q1Introduction Human papillomavirus (HPV) testing is replacing cytology in primary screening. Its limited specificity demands using a second (triage) test to better identify women at high-risk of cervical disease. Cytology represents the immediate triage but its low sensitivity might hamper HPV testing sensitivity, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), where cytology performance has been suboptimal. The ESTAMPA (EStudio multicéntrico de TAMizaje y triaje de cáncer de cuello uterino con pruebas del virus del PApiloma humano; Spanish acronym) study will: (1) evaluate the performance of different triage techniques to detect cervical precancer and (2) inform on how to implement HPV-based screening programmes in LMIC. Methods and analysis Women aged 30–64 years are screened with HPV testing and Pap across 12 study centres in Latin America. Screened positives have colposcopy with biopsy and treatment of lesions. Women with no evident disease are recalled 18 months later for another HPV test; those HPV-positive undergo colposcopy with biopsy and treatment as needed. Biological specimens are collected in different visits for triage testing, which is not used for clinical management. The study outcome is histological high-grade squamous intraepithelial or worse lesions (HSIL+) under the lower anogenital squamous terminology. About 50 000 women will be screened and 500 HSIL+ cases detected (at initial and 18 months screening). Performance measures (sensitivity, specificity and predictive values) of triage techniques to detect HSIL+ will be estimated and compared with adjustment by age and study centre. Ethics and dissemination The study protocol has been approved by the Ethics Committee of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and by those in each participating centre. A Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) has been established to monitor progress of the study, assure participant safety, advice on scientific conduct and analysis and suggest protocol improvements. Study findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at scientific meetings. Trial registration number NCT01881659Revista Internacional - Indexad