ABSTRACT
Neurological disorders (NDs) are recognized as one of the major health concerns globally. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), neurological disorders are one of the main causes of mortality worldwide. Neurological disorders include Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Frontotemporal dementia, Prion disease, Brain tumor, Spinal cord injury, and Stroke. These diseases are considered incurable diseases because no specific therapies are available to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and reach the brain in a significant amount for the pharmacological effect in the brain. There is a need for the development of strategies that can improve the efficacy of drugs and circumvent BBB. One of the promising approaches is the use of different types of nano-scale materials. These nano-based drugs have the ability to increase the therapeutic effect, reduce toxicity, exhibit good stability, targeted delivery, and drug loading capacity. Different types and shapes of nanomaterials have been widely used for the treatment of neurological disorders, including quantum dots, dendrimers, metallic nanoparticles, polymeric nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, liposomes, and micelles. These nanoparticles have unique characteristics, including sensitivity, selectivity, and the ability to cross the BBB when used in nano-sized particles, and are widely used for imaging studies and treatment of NDs. In this review, we briefly summarized the recent literature on the use of various nanomaterials and their mechanism of action for the treatment of various types of neurological disorders.
ABSTRACT
As there is a global water crisis facing the whole world, it is important to find alternative solutions to treat wastewater for reuse. Hence, plants have an effective role in removing pollutants from wastewater, which has been emphasized in this review article. Biological treatment of wastewater can be considered an eco-friendly and cost-effective process that depends on in the future. Living organisms, including plants, can remediate pollutants in wastewater, especially in agricultural fields, such as dyes, heavy metals, hydrocarbons, pharmaceuticals, and pesticides. This review discusses the different activities of plants in pollutant elimination from wastewater and sheds light on the utilization of plants in this scope. This review focuses on the remediation of the most common contaminants present in wastewater, which are difficult to the removal with microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi, and algae. Moreover, it covers the major role of plants in wastewater treatment and the potential of phytoremediation as a possible solution for the global water crisis.
ABSTRACT
In this study, electrospun cellulose acetate - poly(ethylene oxide) nanofibrous membrane was found to be unique in immobilizing bacterial cells. Here, removal of methylene blue in aqueous media was achieved by using isolated species of bacteria (Bacillus paramycoides) from industrial wastewater and immobilized on cellulose acetate- poly(ethylene oxide) nanofibers using DMSO as a solvent. The decolorization time was varied from 0 to 72 h, different dye concentrations from 20 to 200 mg/L and bacterial cells count was investigated to achieve the maximum MB removal by bacteria-immobilized CA/PEO nanofibrous membrane. The effective dye decolorization was achieved within 48 h and MB removal % was around 93%. Furthermore, reusability of the bacteria-immobilized CA/PEO nanofibrous membrane was tested. It was found that after the 4th usage, 44% of the dye decolorization capacity still could be achieved. These results are promising and suggest that bacteria-immobilized CA/PEO nanofibrous membrane could be economically feasible and eco-friendly when used in MB removal from industrial wastewater. Combination of both adsorption and biodegradation methods was found to be effective in MB removal from aqueous media.
