Nanostructuring Biopolymers for Improved Food Quality and Safety

Virus Association with Bacteria and Bacterial Cell Components Enhance Virus Infectivity

The transmission and infection of enteric viruses can be influenced by co-existing bacteria within the environment and host. However, the viral binding ligands on bacteria and the underlying interaction mechanisms remain unclear. This study characterized the association of norovirus surrogate Tulane virus (TuV) and murine norovirus (MNV) as well as the human enteric virus Aichi virus (AiV) with six bacteria strains (Pantoea agglomerans, Pantoea ananatis, Bacillus cereus, Enterobacter cloacae, Exiguobacterium sibiricum, Pseudomonas spp.). At room temperature, the viruses bound to all bacteria in strain-dependent rates and remained bound for at least 2 h. The virus association with two gram-positive bacteria B. cereus and E. sibiricum was less efficient than gram-negative bacteria. Next, the bacterial envelope components including lipopolysaccharides (LPS), extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), and peptidoglycan (PG) from selected strains were co-incubated with viruses to evaluate their effect on virus infectivity. All the tested bacteria components significantly increased virus infection to variable degrees as compared to PBS. The LPS of E. coli O111:B4 resulted in the greatest increases of infection by 0.19 log PFU for TuV as determined by plaque assay. Lastly, bacterial whole cell lysate of B. cereus and E. cloacae was examined for their impact on the infectivity of MNV and TuV. The co-incubation with whole cell lysates significantly increased the infectivity of TuV by 0.2 log PFU but not MNV. This study indicated that both the individual bacteria components and whole bacterial cell lysate can enhance virus infectivity, providing key insights for understanding virus-bacteria interaction.

A, Adnan AS, Alqadhi AM, Abdullah CK, A.K. AS, Olaiya NG, Abdat M. The Role of Biopolymer-Based Materials in Obstetrics and Gynecology Applications: A Review

Biopolymers have gained tremendous attention in many daily life applications, including medical applications, in the past few years. Obstetrics and gynecology are two fields dealing with sensitive parts of the woman's body and her newborn baby, which are normally associated with many issues such as toxicity, infections, and even gene alterations. Medical professions that use screening, examination, pre, and post-operation materials should benefit from a better understanding of each type of material's characteristics, health, and even environmental effects. The underlying principles of biopolymer-based materials for different obstetric and gynecologic applications may discover various advantages and benefits of using such materials. This review presents the health impact of conventional polymer-based materials on pregnant women's health and highlights the potential use of biopolymers as a safer option. The recent works on utilizing different biopolymer-based materials in obstetric and gynecologic are presented in this review, which includes suture materials in obstetric and gynecologic surgeries, cosmetic and personal care products, vaginal health, and drug delivery; as well as a wound dressing and healing materials. This review highlights the main issues and challenges of biopolymers in obstetric and gynecologic applications.

Encapsulation of Plant-derived Bioactive Ingredients through Electrospraying for Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods Applications

The electrospraying technique, which consists of electrohydrodynamic atomization of polymeric fluids, can be used to generate dry nano- and microparticles by subjecting a polymer solution, suspension or melt to a high voltage (typically in the range of 7-20 kV) electric field. This potential can be exploited for developing nano- and microencapsulation structures under mild temperature conditions. Thus, it constitutes a promising alternative to conventional microencapsulation techniques for sensitive ingredients, like most plant-derived bioactive compounds, especially for their application in the food sector. Given the importance of plants as one of the major sources of dietary bioactive compounds, significant attention has been recently paid to research the encapsulation of phytochemicals through novel techniques such as electrospraying, aiming to provide new tools for the development of innovative functional food products and nutraceuticals. In this review, the latest advances in the application of electrospraying for nano- and microencapsulation of phytochemicals are discussed, with a focus on their potential use in the food sector.