Tag: tapping mode

Pectin Interaction with Immune Receptors is Modulated by Ripening Process in Papayas

Dietary fibers have been shown to exert immune effects via interaction with pattern recognition receptors (PRR) such as toll-like receptors (TLR) and nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptors. Pectin is a dietary fiber that interacts with PRR depending on its chemical structure. Papaya pectin retains different chemical structures at different ripening stages. How this influences PRR signalling is unknown.*

The aim of the article “Pectin Interaction with Immune Receptors is Modulated by Ripening Process in Papayas” by Samira B. R. Prado, Martin Beukema, Eva Jermendi, Henk A. Schols, Paul de Vos and João Paulo Fabi was to determine how ripening influences pectin structures and their ability to interact with TLR2, 3, 4, 5 and 9, and NOD1 and 2.*

Papaya ripening is an enzymatic, biochemically driven process that occurs over a short period of time (five days) and involves the mobilization of pectin and the alteration of its chemical composition.

The authors evaluated the interaction of the water-soluble fractions rich in pectin extracted from unripe to ripe papayas. The pectin extracted from ripe papayas activated all the TLR and, to a lesser extent, the NOD receptors. The pectin extracted from unripe papayas also activated TLR2, 4 and 5 but inhibited the activation of TLR3 and 9.*

During papaya ripening, profound changes in pectin structures lead to differences in the biological effects. The data presented in the paper show that papaya pectin extracted from fruit pulp at different ripening points differently interacted with PRR in a ripening-dependent way. The longer chains of HG from unripe papayas pectin, which were less methyl-esterified, inhibited the activation of TLR3 and 9 and activated TLR2 and 4, in contrast to the ripe papaya’s pectin, which have smaller HG chains with medium methyl esterification thus activating TLR2, 3, 4, 5 and 9.*

This variation may represent new biological features of papaya pectin structures in addition to anticancer activities, possibly creating new and cost-effective approaches to extracting papaya pectin with desirable structural and biological features.*

These findings might lead to selection of ripening stages for tailored modulation of PRR to support or attenuate immunity in consumers.*

The changes in Molecular weight ( Mw ) can also be visualized by Atomic Force Microscopy (see Fig. 1C in the paper.)

The AFM images presented in the paper were acquired in tapping mode using an NanoWorld Pointprobe® NCHR AFM probe with a typical spring constant of 42 N/m and typically 320 kHz resonance frequency. The scan speed and scanning resolution were 0.5 Hz and 512 × 512 points, respectively.*

Figure 1 C from “Pectin Interaction with Immune Receptors is Modulated by Ripening Process in Papayas” by Samira B. R. Prado et al. 2020:
(C) Representative topographical AFM images of Un-1-WSF and R-2-WSF. White arrow indicates linear structures, black arrow aggregates and grey arrow the smaller structure from the R-2-WSF. Un-1-WSF: unripe – papaya from 1st day after harvest – water-soluble fraction; Un-2-WSF: unripe – papaya from 2nd day after harvest – water-soluble fraction; I-WSF: intermediate ripening time point – papaya from 3rd day after harvest – water-soluble fraction; R-1-WSF: ripe – papaya from 4th day after harvest – water-soluble fraction; R-2-WSF: ripe – papaya from 5th day after harvest – water-soluble fraction. Please have a look at the full article for the full figure.

*Samira B. R. Prado, Martin Beukema, Eva Jermendi, Henk A. Schols, Paul de Vos and João Paulo Fabi
Pectin Interaction with Immune Receptors is Modulated by Ripening Process in Papayas
Nature Scientific Reports volume 10, Article number: 1690 (2020)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58311-0

Please follow this external link to read the full article https://rdcu.be/b3Fnb .

Open Access The article “ Pectin Interaction with Immune Receptors is Modulated by Ripening Process in Papayas “ by Samira B. R. Prado, Martin Beukema, Eva Jermendi, Henk A. Schols, Paul de Vos and João Paulo Fabi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Graphene Quantum Dots as Nanozymes for Electrochemical Sensing of Yersinia enterocolitica in Milk and Human Serum

Yersinia enterocolitica is a gram-negative bacillus shaped bacterium that leads to a zootonic disease called yersiniosis. The infection is demonstrated as mesenteric adenitis, acute diarrhea, terminal ileitis, and pseudoappendicitis. Rarely, it can even result in sepsis. According to the 2017 report of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Y. enterocolitica has been realized as the third most common foodborne-zoonotic disease after campylobacteriosis and salmonellosis in the European Union.*

Several studies suggested that the bacterium cannot survive after a proper pasteurization process, although contrary findings were also reported. The quick and accurate detection of the bacterium from food products or the body fluids of infected individuals is, therefore, important.*

Biosensors offer strong alternatives to the already existing detection techniques for rapid and sensitive quantification of Y. enterocolitica.*

In their paper “Graphene Quantum Dots as Nanozymes for Electrochemical Sensing of Yersinia enterocolitica in Milk and Human Serum” Sumeyra Savas and Zeynep Altintas describe a novel immunosensor approach using graphene quantum dots (GQDs) as enzyme mimics in an electrochemical sensor set up to provide an efficient diagnostic method for Y. enterecolitica.*

The developed method can be used for any pathogenic bacteria detection for clinical and food samples without pre-sample treatment. Offering a very rapid, specific and sensitive detection with a label-free system, the GQD-based immunosensor can be coupled with many electrochemical biosensors.*

The bare gold, GQD-laminated, and antibody-immobilized sensor surfaces were characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM) using NanoWorld Pointprobe® NCLR AFM probes.*

Figure 4 from “Graphene Quantum Dots as Nanozymes for Electrochemical Sensing of Yersinia enterocolitica in Milk and Human Serum“ by S. Savas and Z. Altintas:
AFM analysis of bare (A), GQD-laminated (B), and antibody-immobilized (C) sensor surfaces.

*Sumeyra Savas and Zeynep Altintas
Graphene Quantum Dots as Nanozymes for Electrochemical Sensing of Yersinia enterocolitica in Milk and Human Serum
Materials 2019, 12(13), 2189
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12132189

Please follow this external link to read the full article: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/12/13/2189

Open Access The article “Graphene Quantum Dots as Nanozymes for Electrochemical Sensing of Yersinia enterocolitica in Milk and Human Serum “ by Sumeyra Savas and Zeynep Altintas is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Cellulose carbamate derived cellulose thin films: preparation, characterization and blending with cellulose xanthate

Despite being rather old, the Viscose process still is the most important and frequently used technology for the production of regenerated wood based fibers with annual production volumes exceeding 3.5 million tons, mainly for the textile industry.*

However, there are several environmental drawbacks of this technology. For instance, the necessity to use CS2 to form the cellulose precursor material (cellulose xanthate, CX), as well as the development of volatile sulfur containing compounds (e.g. H2S, COS) during the regeneration procedure requires complex recovery technologies, which manifest into higher prices of the final fiber products.*

Another technology that has raised attention in recent years is the Carbacell process. The Carbacell process relies on cellulose carbamate (CC), which is easily obtained by reacting cellulose with urea. CC is soluble in cold alkali and can be subjected to wet spinning processes similar to those in viscose plants.*

In their article: “Cellulose carbamate derived cellulose thin films: preparation, characterization and blending with cellulose xanthate” Michael Weißl, Mathias Andreas Hobisch, Leena Sisko Johansson, Kay Hettrich, Eero Kontturi, Bert Volkert and Stefan Spirk introduce a new system for manufacturing cellulose thin films based on ecofriendly CC. *

Since CC is water soluble, the use of organic solvents is omitted compared to the other often employed cellulose derivative, TMSC. In addition, CC can be synthesized in large scale via environmentally friendly procedures. The regeneration process itself does not require any additional treatment but is induced by increasing the NaOH concentration during the spin-coating via evaporation of the water, as confirmed by IR and XPS spectroscopy.*

Atomic Force Microscopy in tapping mode using a NanoWorld Arrow-NCR AFM probe was employed to gain further information about the surface morphology and structure of the CC films.

Fig. 3 from “Cellulose carbamate derived cellulose thin films: preparation, characterization and blending with cellulose xanthate” by Michael Weißl et al.:
2 × 2 µm2 AFM height (upper row) and phase (lower row) images of CC based thin films after spin coating and rinsing with water; starting with concentrations from 1.0 to 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 wt%

*Michael Weißl, Mathias Andreas Hobisch, Leena Sisko Johansson, Kay Hettrich, Eero Kontturi, Bert Volkert, Stefan Spirk
Cellulose carbamate derived cellulose thin films: preparation, characterization and blending with cellulose xanthate
Cellulose, August 2019, Volume 26, Issue 12, pp 7399–7410
Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-019-02600-z

Please follow this external link to read the full article: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10570-019-02600-z

Open Access: The paper « Cellulose carbamate derived cellulose thin films: preparation, characterization and blending with cellulose xanthate » by Michael Weißl, Mathias Andreas Hobisch, Leena Sisko Johansson, Kay Hettrich, Eero Kontturi, Bert Volkert and Stefan Spirk is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.