Recent advances in zwitterionic nanoscale drug delivery systems to overcome biological barriers

Nanoscale drug delivery systems(nDDS)have been employed widely in enhancing the therapeutic efficacy of drugs against diseases with reduced side effects.Although several nDDS have been successfully approved for clinical use up to now,biological barriers between the administration site and the target site hinder the wider clinical adoption of nDDS in disease treatment.Polyethylene glycol(PEG)-modification(or PEGylation)has been regarded as the gold standard for stabilising nDDS in complex biological environment.However,the accelerated blood clearance(ABC)of PEGylated nDDS after repeated injections becomes great challenges for their clinical applications.Zwitterionic polymer,a novel family of antifouling materials,have evolved as an alternative to PEG due to their super-hydrophilicity and biocompatibility.Zwitterionic nDDS could avoid the generation of ABC phenomenon and exhibit longer blood circulation time than the PEGylated analogues.More impressively,zwitterionic nDDS have recently been shown to overcome multiple biological barriers such as nonspecific organ distribution,pressure gradients,impermeable cell membranes and lysosomal degradation without the need of any complex chemical modifications.The realization of overcoming multiple biological barriers by zwitterionic nDDS may simplify the current overly complex design of nDDS,which could facilitate their better clinical translation.Herein,we summarise the recent progress of zwitterionic nDDS at overcoming various biological barriers and analyse their underlyingmechanisms.Finally,prospects and challenges are introduced to guide the rational design of zwitterionic nDDS for disease treatment.

Unraveling the biological link between diabetes mellitus and prostate cancer:Insights and implications

This article is a comprehensive study based on research on the connection between diabetes mellitus(DM)and prostate cancer(PCa).It investigates the potential role of DM as an independent risk factor for PCa,delving into the biological links,including insulin resistance and hormonal changes.The paper critically analyzes previous studies that have shown varying results and introduces mendelian randomization as a method for establishing causality.It emphasizes the importance of early DM screening and lifestyle modifications in preventing PCa,and proposes future research directions for further understanding the DM-PCa relationship.

Risk of infections associated with biological treatment in inflammatory bowel disease

Tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α)inhibitors are biological agents introduced in the late 1990s for the treatment of different immune-mediated diseases as inflammatory bowel disease,rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis.The most commonly used TNF-αantagonists are infliximab,adalimumab,and certolizumab pegol,and though highly effective in lowering inflammation,the efficacy must be weighed against the potential for adverse events.The treatment-induced immunosuppression is suspected to increase the risk of infections,including the risk of reactivation of latent tuberculosis,as the TNF-αcytokine plays an important role in the immune function.In this topic highlight a short overview of the infection risk associated with TNF-αinhibiter therapy is outlined with a focus on the overall risk of serious infections,mycobacterial infection and latent viral infections.

Biological treatments as a mean to improve feed utilization in agriculture animals——An overview

As a result of agriculture practices, million tons of agriculture are produced as a secondary or by-products; however, with low nutritive values. Many methods are applied to improve the nutritive value and increase its utilization in ruminant＇s nutrition. The biological treatments are the most common with more safe-treated products. In most cases, the biological treatments are paralleled with decreased crude fiber and fiber fractions content with increased crude protein content. Direct-fed microbial and exogenous enzymes to animal are other ways of biological methods for improving nutritive value of feeds. Here in this review, we will try to cover the biological treatments of by-products from different sides view with different types of animals and different animal end-products.

Treatment of Slightly Polluted Wastewater in an Oil Refinery Using a Biological Aerated Filter Process

The slightly polluted wastewater from oil refinery contains some COD, oil pollutants and suspended solids （SS）. A small-scale fixed film biological aerated filter （BAF） process was used to treat the wastewater. The influences of hydraulic retention time （HRT）, air/water volume flow ratio and backwashing cycle on treatment efficiencies were investigated. The wastewater was treated by the BAF process under optimal conditions： the HRT of 1.0 h, the air/water volume flow ratio of about 5 ： 1 and the backwashing cycle of every 4-7 days. The results showed that the average removal efficiency of COD, oil pollutants and SS was 84.5%, 94.0% and 83.4%, respectively. And the average effluent concentration of COD, oil pollutants and SS was 12.5, 0.27, 14.5 mg·L^-1, respectively. The experimental results demonstrated that the BAF process is a suitable and highly efficient method to treat the wastewater.

Combination treatment of inflammatory bowel disease:Present status and future perspectives

The treatment of patients with inflammatory bowel disease(IBD),especially those with severe or refractory disease,represents an important challenge for the clinical gastroenterologist.It seems to be no exaggeration to say that in these patients,not only the scientific background of the gastroenterologist is tested,but also the abundance of“gifts”that he should possess(insight,intuition,determ-ination,ability to take initiative,etc.)for the successful outcome of the treatment.In daily clinical practice,depending on the severity of the attack,IBD is treated with one or a combination of two or more pharmaceutical agents.These combin-ations include not only the first-line drugs(e.g.,mesalazine,corticosteroids,antibiotics,etc)but also second-and third-line drugs(immunosuppressants and biologic agents).It is a fact that despite the significant therapeutic advances there is still a significant percentage of patients who do not satisfactorily respond to the treatment applied.Therefore,a part of these patients are going to surgery.In recent years,several small-size clinical studies,reviews,and case reports have been published combining not only biological agents with other drugs(e.g.,immunosuppressants or corticosteroids)but also the combination of two biologi-cal agents simultaneously,especially in severe cases.In our opinion,it is at least a strange(and largely unexplained)fact that we often use combinations of drugs in a given patient although studies comparing the simultaneous administration of two or more drugs with monotherapy are very few.As mentioned above,there is a timid tendency in the literature to combine two biological agents in severe cases unresponsive to the applied treatment or patients with severe extraintestinal manifestations.The appropriate dosage,the duration of the administration,the suitable timing for checking the clinical and laboratory outcome,as well as the treatment side-effects,should be the subject of intense clinical research shortly.In this editorial,we attempt to summarize the existing data regarding the already applied combination therapies and to humbly formulate thoughts and suggestions for the future application of the combination treatment of biological agents in a well-defined category of patients.We suggest that the application of biomarkers and artificial intelligence could help in establishing new forms of treatment using the available modern drugs in patients with IBD resistant to treatment.

United membrane biological reactor in the treatment of wastewater

The united membrane biological reactor(UMBR) was studied for the treatment of some simulate and municipal wastewater. The removal efficiency for COD and turbidity are greater than 80% and 99% respectively. Effluent COD is less than 100 mg/L while turbidity less than 5 The removal of LAS in bath wastewater is greater than 70%. In treatment of dinning hall wastewater, removal of fatty oil is greater than 90%, and its concentration in effluent is less than 5 mg/L. The match of biological reactor and the membrane separation component were calculated. The stable performance of wastewater treatment can be maintained by the optimization of operation conditions and the cleanout of membranes.

A review of physicochemical and biological contaminants in drinking water and their impacts on human health

Clean drinking water is one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.Despite significant progress in the water purification technology,many regions still lack access to clean water.This paper provides a review of selected water contaminants and their impacts on human health.The World Health Organization(WHO)guidelines and regional standards for key contaminants were used to characterise water quality in the European Union and UK.The concept of safe drinking water was explained based on the non-observed adverse effect level,threshold concentrations for toxic chemicals,and their total daily intake.Various techniques for monitoring water contaminants and the drinking water standards from five different countries,including the UK,USA,Canada,Pakistan and India,were compared to WHO recommended guidelines.The literature on actual water quality in these regions and its potential health impacts was also discussed.Finally,the role of public water suppliers in identifying and monitoring drinking water contaminants in selected developed countries was presented as a potential guideline for developing countries.This review emphasised the need for a comprehensive understanding of water quality and its impacts on human health to ensure access to clean drinking water worldwide.

Kinetic Performance of Oil-field Produced Water Treatment by Biological Aerated Filter

The biological aerated filter(BAF)was used to treat the oil-field produced water.The removal effi- ciency for oil,COD,BOD and suspended solids(SS)was 76.3%—80.3%,31.6%—57.9%,86.3%—96.3%and 76.4%—82.7%,respectively when the hydraulic loading rates varied from 0.6m.h- 1to 1.4m.h -1.The greatest part of removal,for example more than 80%of COD removal,occurred on the top 100cm of the media in BAF.The ki- netic performance of BAF indicated that the relationship of BOD removal efficiency with the hydraulic loading rates in biological aerated filters could be described by cr/ci=1-exp(-2.44/L 0.59).This equation could be used to predict the BOD removal efficiency at different hydraulic loading rates.

Fluidized-Bed Bioreactor Applications for Biological Wastewater Treatment： A Review of Research and Developments

污水处理是保护环境和人类健康的重要过程。目前,最经济有效的污水处理方法为生物处理法,如运行时间较长的活性污泥法。然而,随着人口的增长,对新型高效污水处理技术的需求越来越迫切,流态化技术虽然已展示出能够提高许多化学与生化处理过程的效率,但尚未在大型污水处理过程中得到广泛的应用。循环流化床生物反应器(CFBBR)污水处理技术的研究始于加拿大西安大略大学,在该技术中,载体颗粒表面会形成一层含细菌与其他微生物的生物膜,并在反应器中呈流化状态;流态化固有的良好混合和质量传递特性,使得该技术在生活污水和工业污水处理过程中均具优势。实验室阶段和中试阶段的研究均证实了CFBBR可去除污水中90%以上的碳源、80%以上的氮源,且污泥产量少于活性污泥法的1/3。由于该技术的高效性,CFBBR还可被用于传统方法难以处理的高有机碳污水处理,且具有占地面积小的优势。同时,CFBBR在动态负荷试验(进水量和进水浓度变化)中也展现了良好的抗冲击和恢复性能。总的来说,CFBBR是一种高效的污水处理方法,可在较短的水力停留时间和较小的反应器体积内处理更多的污水。此外,该反应器的紧凑设计将有助于在偏僻地区建造独立的污水处理系统。

Removal of Pesticides from Water Using Anaerobic-Aerobic Biological Treatment

包含优先级污染物质杀虫剂的废水的 biodegradability [Vydine 或 triadimenol (C14H18CLN3O2 )] 在不同生物反应器，配置被调查。二实验室规模生物反应堆被采用：在在厌氧的状况下面的氧气的状况和其它下面的一个反应堆。氧气的反应堆在周围的温度被操作[(22 ? 敢挠牡楲摥漠瑵愠 ? 敲慬楴敶祬栠杩 ? ?数晲捩慩? 敶潬楣祴 ????? 挠 ?? 蟳纥寜 ?????

Enhancing Biological Wastewater Treatment with Chitosan

Chitin and chitosan have been applied to biological wastewater treatment.From a number of parallel comparison experiments,it can be concluded that the application of chitin and chitosan can both enhance the biological treatment,besides which chitosan is more efficient than chitin.The study on the enhancement mechanism reveals the difference between the two additives:chitosan improves the sludge structure and settlibility,while chitin acts as a kind of carrier for microorganism in the biological treatment system.

Intended process water management concept for the mechanical biological treatment of municipal solid waste

Accumulating operational experience in both aerobic and anaerobic mechanical biological waste treatment （MBT） makes it increasingly obvious that controlled water management would substantially reduce the cost of MBT and also enhance resource recovery of the organic and inorganic fraction. The MBT plant at Gescher, Germany, is used as an example in order to determine the quantity and composition of process water and leachates from intensive and subsequent rotting, pressing water from anaerobic digestion and scrubber water from acid exhaust air treatment, and hence prepare an MBT water balance. The potential of, requirements for and limits to internal process water reuse as well as the possibilities of resource recovery from scrubber water are also examined. Finally, an assimilated process water management concept with the purpose of an extensive reduction of wastewater quantity and freshwater demand is presented.

Study of Biological Methods in Landfill Leachate Treatment

Landfill leachate is mainly the result of precipitation of water into the layers of buried waste, and biochemical reactions of waste that has dangerous substances and pollutants that lead to the contamination of surface and groundwater resources. Therefore, it must be collected and treated properly. The investigation of various biological methods in leachate treatment, their advantages and disadvantages, and their effect on reduction of COD (chemical oxygen demand) are the objectives of this study. Reviewed processes include anaerobic and aerobic sequencing batch reactor, up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket, moving-bed biofilm reactor, membrane bioreactor, and aerated lagoons, lead to reduction of biodegradability pollutants in different circumstances. The present study has indicated that the most and the least reduction of COD has been through aerated lagoon (95%) and moving-bed biofilm reactor (8%), respectively.

Simulation of Low TDS and Biological Units of Fajr Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant Using Artificial Neural Network and Principal Component Analysis Hybrid Method

Being familiar with characteristics of industrial town effluents from various wastewater treatment units, which have high qualitative and quantitative variations and more uncertainties compared to urban wastewaters, plays very effective role in governing them. With regard to environmental issues, proper operation of wastewater treatment plants is of par- ticular importance that in the case of inappropriate utilization, they will cause serious problems. Processes that exist in environmental systems mostly have two major characteristics: they are dependent on many variables;and there are complex relationships between its components which make them very difficult to analyze. In order to achieve a better and efficient control over the operation of an industrial wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), powerful mathematical tool can be used that is based on recorded data from some basic parameters of wastewater during a period of treatment plant operation. In this study, the treatment plant was divided into two main subsystems including: Low TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) treatment unit and Biological unit (extended aeration). The multilayer perceptron feed forward neural network with a hidden layer and stop training method was used to predict quality parameters of the industrial effluent. Data of this study are related to the Fajr Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant, located in Mahshahr—Iran that qualita- tive and quantitative characteristics of its units were used for training, calibration and validation of the neural model. Also, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique was applied to improve performance of generated models of neural networks. The results of L-TDS unit showed good accuracy of the models in estimating qualitative profile of wastewater but results of biological unit did not have sufficient accuracy to being used. This model facilitates evaluating the performance of each treatment plant units through comparing the results of prediction model with the standard amount of outputs.

Treatment performance of integrated biological aerated filter by orthogonal experiments

Biological aerated filters have many advantages such as small volume and high treatment efficiency. This research focused on sewage treatment performance of integrated biological aerated filter (IBAF) under different conditions such as aeration, hydraulic retention time and the height of fillers layer, to identify the turn of marked affecting factor of removal performance through orthogonal experiments, optimize the function parameter of IBAF, reveal the regularity of sewage treatment of IBAF under different conditions, and adopt suitable measures to guarantee excess water quality of IBAF.

Advanced Treatment of Biologically Treated Chemical Comprehensive Wastewater by Nano-TiO2 Photocatalytic Oxidation

Nano-TiO2 photocatalytic oxidation was used to perform the advanced treatment of biologically treated chemical comprehensive wastewater. The effects of reaction time,nano-TiO2 dosage and initial p H of the wastewater on the removal rate of COD were tested. The GC/MS and EEM techniques were used to qualitatively analyze organic compounds in the wastewater before and after treatment. The result showed that after the biologically treated chemical comprehensive wastewater was treated by nano-TiO2 photocatalytic oxidation under the conditions of reaction time 3 h,nano-TiO2 dosage 8 g/L,and pH 8. 0,the effluent COD was 61. 9 mg/L and its removal rate was 63. 8%. Additionally,the species of organic pollutants reduced from 12 to 6. Meanwhile,the content of humic-like and fulvic-like substances dropped dramatically.

IN VITRO ANTI-HEPATOMA EFFECTS OF MONOCYTES AND KUPFFER CELLS ISOLATED FROM HEPATOMA PATIENTS AFTER TREATMENT WITH BIOLOGICAL IMMUNE STIMULANTS

Monocytes (MC), lymphocytes (LC) and Kupffer cells (KC) were isolated respectively from blood and surgical liver samples of patients suffering from he-patocellular carcinoma (HCC). 13 patients were given BCG, mixed bacterium vaccine (MBV) and human white blood cell interferon (IFN), the other 3 patients were not treated with any biological immune stimulants (BIS) and served as controls. The cytosta-tic and cytotoxic effects of MC and KC on human hepatoma SMMC-7721 (TC) were assayed in vitro and the numbers of T total (Tt), T helper (Th) and T suppressor (Ts) cells were counted using CD monoclonal antibody immunofluorescence. The results were as follows: (1) On the 7th day after the first administration of BIS, the cytostatic and cytotoxic effects of MC on TC showed obvious increase over pre-administration. The activity of BIS was 1 ?5 times as high as that in the controls. (2) After 3 administrations, the cytostatic effect of MC on TC increased to the normal level (84%), while the controls remained as before (45%). (3) On the 7th day after first administration, cytostatic and cytotoxic effects of KC on TC were 0.5 and 1 times higher respectively than those of the controls. (4) The numbers of Tt and Th of patients given BIS increased continuously; on the contrary Ts decreased in number. These results indicate that combined use of BCG, MBV and IFN can actively enhance the immune anti-hepatoma function of patients suffering from HCC.

Research of the Mechanism of Enhancing Biological Treatment by Chitosan

Chitosan of different molecular weight (M. W.) was added into SBR bioreactor to treat domestic wastewater. From comparison of treatment efficiency, sludge activity, sludge structure etc., we revealed the mechanism that chitosan enhanced the biological treatment function of activated sludge. The results proved that, chitosan is certain to restrain the reaction of activated sludge, but it do improve the structure of sludge flocs and increase the treatment efficiency of activated sludge. The bigger the M. W. of chitosan is, the better the efficiency of enhancing biological treatment can be.