Published in Biotechnology advances
Cancer chemotherapy is frequently hampered by drug resistance. Concepts to combine anticancer drugs with different modes of action to avoid the development of resistance did not provide the expected success in the past, because tumors can be simultaneously non-responsive to many drugs (e.g. the multidrug resistance phenotype). However, tumors may b...
Published in Biotechnology advances
Application of bioactive phytochemicals in foods, supplements, and pharmaceuticals is often limited because of their poor solubility, stability, and bioavailability. Phytochemical oral delivery systems (PODS), consisting of phytochemical-loaded nanoparticles or microparticles, can overcome these challenges. PODS can be produced in liquid, gel, past...
Published in Biotechnology advances
Worldwide, colorectal cancer (CRC) remains a major cancer type and leading cause of death. Unfortunately, current medical treatments are not sufficient due to lack of effective therapy, adverse side effects, chemoresistance and disease recurrence. In recent decades, epidemiologic observations have highlighted the association between the ingestion o...
Published in Biotechnology advances
Plants, fungi, and microorganisms are equipped with biosynthesis machinery for producing thousands of secondary metabolites. These compounds have important functions in nature as a defence against predators or competitors as well as other ecological significances. The full utilization of these compounds for food, medicine, and other purposes requir...
Published in Biotechnology advances
Higher plant constituents have afforded clinically available anticancer drugs. These include both chemically unmodified small molecules and their synthetic derivatives currently used or those in clinical trials as antineoplastic agents, and an updated summary is provided. In addition, botanical dietary supplements, exemplified by mangosteen and non...
Published in Biotechnology advances
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) cause the largest mortality worldwide, and much attention has been focused to unravel the mechanisms and optimize the treatment regimens. Curcumin is an important bioactive component of turmeric that has been widely applied as traditional medicine to prevent and treat various diseases in some countries. Recent studies...
Published in Biotechnology advances
The term "starch-binding domain" (SBD) has been applied to a domain within an amylolytic enzyme that gave the enzyme the ability to bind onto raw, i.e. thermally untreated, granular starch. An SBD is a special case of a carbohydrate-binding domain, which in general, is a structurally and functionally independent protein module exhibiting no enzymat...
Published in Biotechnology advances
Direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) via electrically conductive pili (e-pili) and c-type cytochrome between acetogens and methanogens has been proposed as an essential pathway for methane production. Supplements of conductive materials have been extensively found to promote methane production in microbial anaerobic treatment systems. This ...
Published in Biotechnology advances
Infectious diseases such as HIV-1/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), hepatitis B (HBV), and malaria still exert a tremendous health burden on the developing world, requiring rapid, simple and inexpensive diagnostics for on-site diagnosis and treatment monitoring. However, traditional diagnostic methods such as nucleic acid tests (NATs) and enzyme linked immu...
Published in Biotechnology advances
Humic substances readily identifiable in the environment are involved in several biotic and abiotic reactions affecting carbon turnover, soil fertility, plant nutrition and stimulation, xenobiotic transformation and microbial respiration. Inspired by natural roles of humic substances, several applications of these substances, including crop stimula...
