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Special Issue "Application of Marine Chitin and Chitosan II"

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A special issue of Marine Drugs (ISSN 1660-3397).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 August 2022) | Viewed by 9603

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Dr. Jessica Amber Jennings

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Guest Editor

Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA
Interests: chitosan; biopolymers; biofilm; local drug delivery; infection; orthopedics; wound healing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Joshua Bush
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Co-Guest Editor

Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA
Interests: chitosan; biopolymers; orthopedics; xylan; natural products; regenerative medicine

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Chitin and chitosan are biopolymers that are derived from natural sources, including marine crustaceans, squid pens, and sponges. Chitosan is the deacetylated derivative of chitin, with both chitin and chitosan having unique properties and advantages for biomedical applications, most notably biocompatibility and biodegradability. Chitin and chitosan have functional groups such as hydroxyl and amine groups that allow for the conjugation of therapeutic molecules to biopolymers. Processing methods also allow for the tailoring of chitin or chitosan properties by modifying the degree of deacetylation, molecular weight, viscosity, mineral content, and protein content, among other properties. These naturally sourced materials are abundant and sustainable, which has proven advantageous for their use in biomedical applications when compared to synthetic polymers. Chitin and chitosan have many applications in the field of therapeutic biomaterials, including anti-infective materials, tissue engineering templates, drug delivery devices, transfection agents for gene therapy, and implant coatings.

This Special Issue on “Application of Marine Chitin and Chitosan II” will provide a platform for researchers to publish studies using these biopolymers and their derivatives in biomedical contexts. We welcome innovative research on biomedical and therapeutic applications of chitin and chitosan.

Dr. Jessica Amber Jennings
Dr. Joshua Bush
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Marine Drugs is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Chitin
Chitosan
Biomaterials
Biopolymer
Derivative
Drug delivery
Drug conjugation
Chemical modification
Physical modification
Pharmaceutical
Tissue engineering
Regenerative medicine
Biotechnology

Related Special Issues

Application of Marine Chitin and Chitosan in Marine Drugs (13 articles)
Marine Chitin 2019 in Marine Drugs (16 articles)
Collagen and Chitin from Marine Resources and Their Interdisciplinary Applications in Marine Drugs (11 articles)

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 1355 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Discovery, Enzymatic Characterization and Functional Analysis of a Newly Isolated Chitinase from Marine-Derived Fungus Aspergillus fumigatus df347

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Mar. Drugs 2022, 20(8), 520; https://doi.org/10.3390/md20080520 - 15 Aug 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1513

Abstract

In order to discover a broad-specificity and high stability chitinase, a marine fungus, Aspergillus fumigatus df347, was identified in the sediments of mangrove wetlands in Qinzhou Bay, China. The chitinase gene (AfChi28) from A. fumigatus df347 was cloned and heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli, and the recombinant enzyme AfChi28 was purified and characterized. AfChi28 is an acido-halotolerant- and temperature-resistant bifunctional enzyme with both endo- and exo-cleavage functions. Its enzymatic products are mainly GlcNAc, (GlcNAc)₂, (GlcNAc)₃ and (GlcNAc)₄. Na⁺, Mg²⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺ and Tris at a concentration of 50 mM had a strong stimulatory effect on AfChi28. The crude enzyme and pure enzyme exhibited the highest specific activity of 0.737 mU/mg and 52.414 mU/mg towards colloidal chitin. The DxDxE motif at the end of strand β5 and with Glu154 as the catalytic residue was verified by the AlphaFold2 prediction and sequence alignment of homologous proteins. Moreover, the results of molecular docking showed that molecular modeling of chitohexaose was shown to bind to AfChi28 in subsites −4 to +2 in the deep groove substrate-binding pocket. This study demonstrates that AfChi28 is a promising chitinase for the preparation of desirable chitin oligosaccharides, and provides a foundation for elucidating the catalytic mechanism of chitinases from marine fungi. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Marine Chitin and Chitosan II)

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21 pages, 7066 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Therapeutic Intervention with Dietary Chitosan Nanoparticles Alleviates Fish Pathological and Molecular Systemic Inflammatory Responses against Infections

and

Mar. Drugs 2022, 20(7), 425; https://doi.org/10.3390/md20070425 - 28 Jun 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1556

Abstract

Marine bio-sourced chitosan nanoparticles (CSNP) are antimicrobial and immunomodulatory agents beneficial for fish medicine. Herein, dietary CSNP was investigated for the amelioration of the systemic inflammatory responses of an induced fish model. One hundred and forty-four rainbow trout were assigned to one pathogen-free and non-supplemented group (negative control), and three challenged groups: non-supplemented (positive control), CSNP-preventive, and CSNP-therapeutic. After a feeding experiment extended for 21 days, the organosomatic indices (OSI) and molecular aspects were assessed. After a challenge experiment extended for further 28 days, CSNP-therapeutic intervention was assessed on fish survival and systemic inflammatory responses on pathology, histo-morphology, and molecular aspects. With CSNP administration, OSI nonsignificantly decreased and the relative expression of targeted inflammatory-mediator genes was significantly increased. The CSNP-therapeutic fish showed an RPS of 80% as compared to the positive control group, and CSNP-therapeutic administration retained the highest gene expression augmentation up to 28 days after the challenge. Notably, the splenic reticulin fibers framework of the CSNP-therapeutic group retained the highest integrity among the groups during the infection. After recovery, reticulin fibers density in the CSNP-therapeutic samples was significantly higher than in the negative control group, which indicates high innate immunity. Thus, CSNP showed promising biotherapeutic features enhancing fish resistance against infections. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Marine Chitin and Chitosan II)

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13 pages, 4670 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Enhancement of Vindoline and Catharanthine Accumulation, Antioxidant Enzymes Activities, and Gene Expression Levels in Catharanthus roseus Leaves by Chitooligosaccharides Elicitation

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Mar. Drugs 2022, 20(3), 188; https://doi.org/10.3390/md20030188 - 03 Mar 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2366

Abstract

Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don is a plant belonging to the genus Catharanthus of the Apocynaceae family. It contains more than one hundred alkaloids, of which some exhibit significant pharmacological activities. Chitooligosaccharides are the only basic aminooligosaccharides with positively charged cations in nature, which can regulate plant growth and antioxidant properties. In this study, the leaves of Catharanthus roseus were sprayed with chitooligosaccharides of different molecular weights (1 kDa, 2 kDa, 3 kDa) and different concentrations (0.01 μg/mL, 0.1 μg/mL, 1 μg/mL and 10 μg/mL). The fresh weights of its root, stem and leaf were all improved after chitooligosaccharides treatments. More importantly, the chitooligosaccharides elicitor strongly stimulated the accumulation of vindoline and catharanthine in the leaves, especially with the treatment of 0.1 μg/mL 3 kDa chitooligosaccharides, the contents of them were increased by 60.68% and 141.54%, respectively. Furthermore, as the defensive responses, antioxidant enzymes activities (catalase, glutathione reductase, ascorbate peroxidase, peroxidase and superoxide dismutase) were enhanced under chitooligosaccharides treatments. To further elucidate the underlying mechanism, qRT-PCR was used to investigate the genes expression levels of secologanin synthase (SLS), strictosidine synthase (STR), strictosidine glucosidase (SGD), tabersonine 16-hydroxylase (T16H), desacetoxyvindoline-4-hydroxylase (D4H), deacetylvindoline-4-O-acetyltransferase (DAT), peroxidase 1 (PRX1) and octadecanoid-responsive Catharanthus AP2-domain protein 3 (ORCA3). All the genes were significantly up-regulated after chitooligosaccharides treatments, and the transcription abundance of ORCA3, SLS, STR, DAT and PRX1 reached a maximal level with 0.1 μg/mL 3 kDa chitooligosaccharides treatment. All these results suggest that spraying Catharanthus roseus leaves with chitooligosaccharides, especially 0.1 μg/mL of 3 kDa chitooligosaccharides, may effectively improve the pharmaceutical value of Catharanthus roseus. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Marine Chitin and Chitosan II)

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14 pages, 3434 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Expression and Characterization of a Novel Cold-Adapted Chitosanase from Marine Renibacterium sp. Suitable for Chitooligosaccharides Preparation

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Mar. Drugs 2021, 19(11), 596; https://doi.org/10.3390/md19110596 - 21 Oct 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1358

Abstract

(1) Background: Chitooligosaccharides (COS) have numerous applications due to their excellent properties. Chitosan hydrolysis using chitosanases has been proposed as an advisable method for COS preparation. Although many chitosanases from various sources have been identified, the cold-adapted ones with high stability are still rather rare but required. (2) Methods: A novel chitosanase named CsnY from marine bacterium Renibacterium sp. Y82 was expressed in Escherichia coli, following sequence analysis. Then, the characterizations of recombinant CsnY purified through Ni–NTA affinity chromatography were conducted, including effects of pH and temperature, effects of metal ions and chemicals, and final product analysis. (3) Results: The GH46 family chitosanase CsnY possessed promising thermostability at broad temperature range (0–50 °C), and with optimal activity at 40 °C and pH 6.0, especially showing relatively high activity (over 80% of its maximum activity) at low temperatures (20–30 °C), which demonstrated the cold-adapted property. Common metal ions or chemicals had no obvious effect on CsnY except Mn²⁺ and Co²⁺. Finally, CsnY was determined to be an endo-type chitosanase generating chitodisaccharides and -trisaccharides as main products, whose total concentration reached 56.74 mM within 2 h against 2% (w/v) initial chitosan substrate. (4) Conclusions: The results suggest the cold-adapted CsnY with favorable stability has desirable potential for the industrial production of COS. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Marine Chitin and Chitosan II)

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13 pages, 4233 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Synthesis and Characterization of 2-Decenoic Acid Modified Chitosan for Infection Prevention and Tissue Engineering

Joel David Bumgardner

Tomoko Fujiwara

and

Jessica Amber Jennings

Mar. Drugs 2021, 19(10), 556; https://doi.org/10.3390/md19100556 - 29 Sep 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2119

Abstract

Chitosan nanofiber membranes are recognized as functional antimicrobial materials, as they can effectively provide a barrier that guides tissue growth and supports healing. Methods to stabilize nanofibers in aqueous solutions include acylation with fatty acids. Modification with fatty acids that also have antimicrobial and biofilm-resistant properties may be particularly beneficial in tissue regeneration applications. This study investigated the ability to customize the fatty acid attachment by acyl chlorides to include antimicrobial 2-decenoic acid. Synthesis of 2-decenoyl chloride was followed by acylation of electrospun chitosan membranes in pyridine. Physicochemical properties were characterized through scanning electron microscopy, FTIR, contact angle, and thermogravimetric analysis. The ability of membranes to resist biofilm formation by S. aureus and P. aeruginosa was evaluated by direct inoculation. Cytocompatibility was evaluated by adding membranes to cultures of NIH3T3 fibroblast cells. Acylation with chlorides stabilized nanofibers in aqueous media without significant swelling of fibers and increased hydrophobicity of the membranes. Acyl-modified membranes reduced both S. aureus and P.aeruginosa bacterial biofilm formation on membrane while also supporting fibroblast growth. Acylated chitosan membranes may be useful as wound dressings, guided regeneration scaffolds, local drug delivery, or filtration. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Marine Chitin and Chitosan II)

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