Any SERGENTU

Nowadays, paraprobiotics are considered a promising evolution of probiotics, due to their capacity to preserve or sometimes to enhance the functional properties of their counterpart probiotic viable cells. The present study investigates the production of heat-treated paraprobiotics derived from the selected probiotic Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus MIUG BL38 strain. The paraprobiotics obtained after treatments at 82 degrees C for 5 min exhibited higher ABTS free radical scavenging activity (15.34 f 1.34%) compared to the untreated cells (10.62 f 3.18%). SEM analysis confirmed that L. rhamnosus MIUG BL38 cellular morphology was largely preserved at 74 degrees C treatment, while the temperature increase led to enhanced cell wall alterations. FT-IR results indicated the presence of specific functional groups of lipids, proteins, or carbohydrates, suggesting that structural modifications of these molecules may appear as a consequence of the cells exposure to increased temperature of 82 degrees C. Although the heat-treated paraprobiotics were characterized by changes within the cell wall molecules, their cell surface proteins (CSPs) maintained antimicrobial activity against potentially pathogenic E. coli and P. aeruginosa strains, highlighting that this property was preserved from the L. rhamnosus MIUG BL 38 strain. Further, the molecular modelling investigations focused on the SpaC pilus model of L. rhamnosus GG revealed that the thermal treatment at 82 degrees C resulted in vWFA domain loosening and important rearrangements of the arm-like structure, therefore suggesting the potential interference with mucin proteins recognition and binding. The obtained results revealed the suitability of the L. rhamnosus MIUG BL 38 strain to be used for obtaining paraprobiotics through heattreatment, with promising properties.

Silica-based bioactive glasses (SBG) hold great promise as bio-functional coatings of metallic endo-osseous implants, due to their osteoproductive potential, and, in the case of designed formulations, suitable mechanical properties and antibacterial efficacy. In the framework of this study, the FastOs(R)BG alkali-free SBG system (mol%: SiO2-38.49, CaO-36.07, P2O5-5.61, MgO-19.24, CaF2-0.59), with CuO (2 mol%) and Ga2O3 (3 mol%) antimicrobial agents, partially substituting in the parent system CaO and MgO, respectively, was used as source material for the fabrication of intentionally silica-enriched implant-type thin coatings (similar to 600 nm) onto titanium (Ti) substrates by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering. The physico-chemical and mechanical characteristics, as well as the in vitro preliminary cytocompatibility and antibacterial performance of an alkali-free silica-rich bio-active glass coating designs was further explored. The films were smooth (R-RMS < 1 nm) and hydrophilic (water contact angle of similar to 65 degrees). The SBG coatings deposited from alkali-free copper-gallium co-doped FastOs(R)BG-derived exhibited improved wear performance, with the coatings eliciting a bonding strength value of similar to 53 MPa, Lc3 critical load value of similar to 4.9 N, hardness of similar to 6.1 GPa and an elastic modulus of similar to 127 GPa. The Cu and Ga co-doped SBG layers had excellent cytocompatibility, while reducing after 24 h the Staphylococcus aureus bacterial development with 4 orders of magnitude with respect to the control situations (i.e., nutritive broth and Ti substrate). Thereby, such SBG constructs could pave the road towards high-performance bio-functional coatings with excellent mechanical properties and enhanced biological features (e.g., by coupling cytocompatibility with antimicrobial properties), which are in great demand nowadays.