Acrylamide toxicity and its biodegradation

Acrylamide is a synthetic monomer that has been classified as toxic and carcinogenic apart from its diverse application in the industry. Its application is in the formation of polyacrylamide. Polyacrylamide usage is diverse and is found as herbicide formulation, as soil treatment agent and in water treatment plants. Deaths and sickness due to the accidental exposure to acrylamide has been reported while chronic toxicity is also a source of problem. This review highlight on the toxic effect of acrylamide to various organism like human, animal and plant. This review also discusses on the potential use of biological technologies to remediate acrylamide pollution in the environment and the degradation pathways these microorganisms utilize to assimilate acrylamide as a nitrogen, carbon or both as carbon and nitrogen sources

Isolation and characterization of a metal-reducing Pseudomonas sp. strain 135 with amide-degrading capability

The presence of both heavy metals and organic xenobiotic pollutants in a contaminated site justifies the application of either a multitude of microbial degraders or microorganisms having the capacity to detoxify a number of pollutants at the same time. Molybdenum is an essential heavy metal that is toxic to ruminants at a high level. Ruminants such as cow and goats experience severe hypocuprosis leading to scouring and death at a concentration as low as several parts per million. In this study, a molybdenum-reducing bacterium with amide-degrading capacity has been isolated from contaminated soils. The bacterium, using glucose as the best electron donor reduces molybdenum in the form of sodium molybdate to molybdenum blue. The maximal pH reduction occurs between 6.0 and 6.3, and the bacterium showed an excellent reduction in temperatures between 25 and 40 oC. The reduction was maximal at molybdate concentrations of between 15 and 25 mM. Molybdenum reduction incidentally was inhibited by several toxic heavy metals. Other carbon sources including toxic xenobiotics such as amides were screened for their ability to support molybdate reduction. Of all the amides, only acrylamide can support molybdenum reduction. The other amides; such as acetamide and propionamide can support growth. Analysis using phylogenetic analysis resulted in a tentative identification of the bacterium as Pseudomonas sp. strain 135. This bacterium is essential in remediating sites contaminated with molybdenum, especially in agricultural soil co-contaminated with acrylamide, a known soil stabilizer

Optimization of ultrasonic-assisted extraction of phenolic compound from golden chicken fern (Cibotium barometz) rhizome via response surface methodology

There are a lot of medical potentials from Cibotium Barometz that can be exploited due to its secondary metabolites, specifically the phenolic compounds. Therefore, numerous studies have been employed to study the optimization of phenolic compounds extraction from other medical beneficial plants. However, until today there are no definite experiment has been conducted to study the optimization of phenolic compounds extraction of C. Barometz. Hence, this study was designed to systemically optimize the extraction process of phenolic compounds from C. Barometz by using response surface methodology (RSM). The variables were evaluated by using three-factor Box-Behnken experimental design. The three process variables were; ethanol concentration (20-100%), extraction time (10-60 min) and solid-to-liquid ratio (1:20 - 1:100; g: mL) while the independent variable is the total phenolic content (TPC). The optimum extraction condition obtained from RSM are 38.99% ethanol concentration, 47.51 min extraction time, and 1:59.68 (g: mL) ratio under ultrasonic assisted extraction (UAE). Net antioxidant activity was determined by scavenging activity of 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical, where the lowest IC50 obtained was from ethanol extract via RSM approach (IC50 value 817.87±23.75 μg/mL) which values lie within the range of standard error of the standard (IC50 value 242.53±22.76 μg/mL). The results show that the extraction of C. Barometz can be systemically optimized by using the variables obtained from the RSM method

Gut microbial metabolome: regulation of host metabolism by SCFAs

There is increasing evidence demonstrating a determinant role of gut microbiota in host health, and one underlying mechanism is via gut-microbial metabolites-host interaction in modulating host’s cellular functions. SCFAs, main fermentation products of dietary fibres by gut microbiota in GI tract, are considered to be generally beneficial to the host. It has been shown that SCFAs act as substrates for energy metabolism, receptor agonists, and as histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors. However, there are still gaps in the knowledge of their biological effects. It has been hypothesised that SCFAs may act as substrate for energy metabolism as well as ligand for several GPCRs, thus play roles in many cellular functions. Combining 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy with multivariate statistical analysis of the effect of SCFAs on the hepatic cancer metabolic network identified a metabolic signature associated dose- and time- related SCFA exposure. TCA cycle intermediate, α-keto-β-methylvalerate was strongly correlated with the treatment of SCFAs suggesting the preferential of the cells to SCFAs for energy production. This signature further confirms that SCFAs play direct role in host energy metabolism. Having implemented a harmonised pharmacological assessment of a comprehensive SCFA panel on FFAR2, FFAR3, and GPR109A, this study is the first to reveal that isobutyrate and isovalerate are novel partial agonists for GPR109A. Furthermore, niacin, a classical agonist for GPR109A also has been shown to activate FFAR2 and FFAR3 but with much lower affinity. In another study, the effect of SCFAs on 3T3-L1 adipogenesis and adipocytes lipolysis has been characterised. Dosing the 3T3-L1 cells with isobutyrate, valerate, and isovalerate significantly induce the adipogenesis of the cells. In contrast, other SCFAs have no effect of the 3T3-L1 cell differentiation. Subsequent study focused on the effect of SCFAs on basal adipocyte lipolysis. Mature adipocytes were treated with 100 µM of SCFAs for 3hr and glycerol release was measured. This study revealed the anti-lipolytic property of propionate, butyrate, and valerate by significantly inhibits lipolysis in mature 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Thus, the role of SCFAs in regulating adipocytes functions may be particular important and beneficial in regulating plasma lipid profile and possibly aspects of metabolic syndrome. Together, these data enhance our understanding on the role of SCFAs on important metabolic tissues, which are hepatocyte and adipocyte.Open Acces

Acyrlamide degrader and method of utilizing the same

The present invention relates to a newly isolated biogically pure culture of Rhodotorula sp. Strain MBH23 with accession number KCTC 11960BP. The biogically pure culture is capable of degrading acrylamide compound up to 1500 mg/L. Furthermore, the present invention provides a method of treating acrylamide pollution by utilizing the biogically pure culture. The biogically pure culture is contacted with the acrylamide compound resulting in the conversion of toxic acrylamide to non-toxic product

Discovery of antimalarial drugs from streptomycetes metabolites using a metabolomic approach

Natural products continue to play an important role as a source of biologically active substances for the development of new drug. Streptomyces, Gram-positive bacteria which are widely distributed in nature, are one of the most popular sources of natural antibiotics. Recently, by using a bioassay-guided fractionation, an antimalarial compound, Gancidin-W, has been discovered from these bacteria. However, this classical method in identifying potentially novel bioactive compounds from the natural products requires considerable effort and is a time-consuming process. Metabolomics is an emerging “omics” technology in systems biology study which integrated in process of discovering drug from natural products. Metabolomics approach in finding novel therapeutics agent for malaria offers dereplication step in screening phase to shorten the process. The highly sensitive instruments, such as Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrophotometry (LC-MS), Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrophotometry (GC-MS), and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1 H-NMR) spectroscopy, provide a wide range of information in the identification of potentially bioactive compounds. The current paper reviews concepts of metabolomics and its application in drug discovery of malaria treatment as well as assessing the antimalarial activity from natural products. Metabolomics approach in malaria drug discovery is still new and needs to be initiated, especially for drug research in Malaysia

Biofunctional characteristics of dietary fibre from Malaysian Ziziphus mauritiana leaves

Ziziphus mauritiana derived from Rhamnaceae family plant (known as Bidara tree in Malaysia) has been consumed by Malaysian through processing the fruit into pickles or eating it fresh, while the leaves are commonly used in traditional medicine especially in Islamic medicine. However, Z. mauritiana plants are still underutilized in Malaysia as a lack of scientific information about its health promoting effect. Hence the study was aimed to investigate several properties related to its nutritional quality of the new cheap sources of dietary fiber (mucilage) which is needed in developing countries to maintain population health, especially in controlling diabetes. The extraction yield of mucilage was investigated from Z. mauritiana fruit pulp and leaves. The higher mucilage yield was obtained from the leaves with 1.24%, while the mucilage from the pulp yielded 0.34%. The mucilage of Z. mauritiana leaves with good hydration properties of swelling capacity (6.867ml/g ± 0.231), water holding capacity (3.960g/g ± 0.200), oil holding capacity (0.507g/g ± 0.083) and its emulsifying properties including emulsifying activity (56.0% ± 4.00) and emulsifying stability (70.87 % ± 2.31) indicate that it may have the capability in controlling the diabetes. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis revealed the structural characteristic of the extracted Z. mauritiana mucilage. These properties make the crude mucilaginous fraction from Z. mauritiana leaves a remarkable candidate as potential dietary fiber for functional food and nutraceutical

Comparing the behaviour of human and rodent beta cell lines for in vitro diabetes mellitus study

For the past 30 years, considerable effort has been made to generate useful rodent and human insulin-secreting cell lines to understand the complexity and functionality of the pancreatic beta cells. Since then, numerous types of research have been carried out using these cell lines to assess the pathology of diabetes mellitus. Among them, the cell lines INS-1, MIN6, 1.1B4 and EndoC-βH1 are the most widely used due to their stability and appropriate response to glucose stimulation. With multiple choices of cell lines available, there is a question of which cell line can be the best cell model for in vitro pancreatic beta cell study. The characterisation of each of these cell lines has already been vigorously studied, but there is still the need to understand how rodent and human cell lines differ from each other in order to choose the most appropriate cell model for a specific study. In this review, we explore the differences between human and rodent insulin-secreting cell lines in terms of their culturing condition, glucose-stimulated insulin secretion and reaction toward oxidative stress. Together, it is hoped that these comparisons could provide new perspectives for researchers in dealing with the available insulin-secreting cell lines for their in vitro diabetic studies

Short-chain fatty acids: possible regulators of insulin secretion

The benefits of gut microbiota-derived short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) towards health and metabolism have been emerging since the past decade. Extensive studies have been carried out to understand the mechanisms responsible in initiating the functionalities of these SCFAs towards body tissues, which greatly involves the SCFA-specific receptors free fatty acid receptor 2 (FFAR2) and free fatty acid receptor 3 (FFAR3). This review intends to discuss the potential of SCFAs particularly in regulating insulin secretion in pancreatic β-cells, by explaining the production of SCFAs in the gut, the fate of each SCFAs after their production, involvement of FFAR2 and FFAR3 signalling mechanisms and their impacts on insulin secretion. Increased secretion of insulin after SCFAs treatments were reported in many studies, but contradicting evidence also exist in several other studies. Hence, no clear consensus was achieved in determining the true potential of SCFA in regulating insulin secretion. In this review, we explore how such differences were possible and hopefully be able to shed some perspectives in understanding SCFAs-signalling behaviour and preferences