Algal Alginate in Biotechnology: Biosynthesis and Applications

Algae are recognized as the main producer of commercial alginate. Alginate produced using algae is located in the walls and intracellular regions of their cells. Its properties vary depending on the species, growing and harvesting seasons, and extraction methods. Alginate has attracted the attention of several industries, thanks to its unique properties such as its biodegradability, biocompatibility, renewability and lack of toxicity features. For example, it is considered a good encapsulation agent due to the transparent nature of the alginate matrices. Also, this biopolymer is recognized as a functional food in the food industry. It can be tolerated easily in human body and has the ability to reduce the risk of chronic diseases. Besides, it is used as an abrasive agent, antioxidant, and thickening and stabilizing agents in cosmetic and pharmaceutic industries. Generally, it is used in emulsion systems and wound dressing patches. Furthermore, this polysaccharide has the potential to be used in green nanotechnologies as a drug delivery vehicle via cell microencapsulation. Moreover, it is suitable to adopt as a coagulant due to its wide range of flocculation dose and high shear stability. In this chapter, the mentioned usage areas of algal alginate are explained in more detail

In Silico Bioactive Peptide Prediction from The Enzymatic Hydrolysates of Edible Seaweed Rubisco Large Chain

Seaweeds are one of the ancient food supplements on Earth. Especially Asian countries use seaweeds as the fundamental ingredient in their cuisine. Seaweeds are photosynthetic organisms living in aquatic ecosystems and in the coastal territories. Seaweeds out of farm areas are frequently observed as coastal wastes. However, seaweeds are outstanding sources for bioactive substances and investigation bioactive properties of seaweed RuBisCO has never been done. RuBisCO is the most abundant protein on Earth but a vast amount of RuBisCO goes through waste. In this study, bioactive peptide prediction of frequently consumed seaweed RuBisCO proteins were analyzed in silico to identify possible bioactive peptides as substitute or support for grain, meat, and dairy based bioactive peptides. A huge portion of peptides were di-, tri- peptides with IC50 values less than 300 mu M according to the comparison of BIOPEP database. Including gastric digestion, more than half of the peptides showed DDP-IV and ACE inhibitory activity followed by antioxidant properties. Also, novel anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer peptides were found through in silico analysis

Resource Recovery from Waste, Water and Wastewaters with Membrane Technologies

In this study, critical elements (Boron (B) and Rare Earth Elements (REE)) recovery is studied with membrane technologies. Concentrated boron can be recovered by using different technologies. Membrane technologies such as reverse osmosis have a potential to concentrate the boron. pH of the solution is very important if reverse osmosis is applied. Removal of boron at pH levels of 7 and 10 increases from 80% to 97% with reverse osmosis membranes. Another critical element is rare earth elements in the World. Rare earth elements (REE) is a group of elements that involve lanthanides, scandium and yttrium. A successful REE transport for wastewater was observed compared with the concentrate flow of the acidic waste slime.This study was financially supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) (Project no:117Y357), Istanbul Technical University (ITU) Scientific Research Project (Project ID: 41893) and Eti Mining Operations General Directorate. The authors would also like to thank Geochemistry Research Laboratory for XRF analysi

Role of quantitative hepatitis B surface antigen levels in predicting liver biopsy time in treatment-naive chronic hepatitis B patients

Aim of the study: The quantitative hepatitis B surface antigen (qHBsAg) level indicates the amount of transcriptional activity of covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) and integrated DNA in hepatocytes which plays a role in development of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and may help decide whether the treatment is necessary or not. The aim of this study is to evaluate the association between serum qHBsAg levels and viral replication and stage of liver fibrosis in treatment-naive CHB patients and to determine the role of qHBsAg levels in predicting when liver biopsy is necessary