Sharif Digital Repository

This paper discusses the studies carried out for the optimal production of enzyme l-asparaginase (l-asparagine amidohydrolase, EC 3.5.1.1) from Escherichia coli (ATCC 11303). It was found that inoculum age of 18 h and inoculum size of 10% were the most favorable operating conditions for enzyme production. Lactose, yeast extract and KH 2PO 4 were found to be the best carbon, nitrogen and ion sources, respectively. Statistical method was used to survey how various medium conditions affect the enzyme production. By response surface methodology, the values of lactose, tryptone, yeast extract, KH 2PO 4 and l-asparagine concentration were investigated to obtain the maximum enzyme activity. The... 

Vertical copper oxide nanoflakes were synthesized on a Cu foil through oxidation in alkaline conditions. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed that after exposing the nanoflakes to an Escherichia coli bacterial suspension, the outermost surface of the nanoflakes was chemically reduced through the glycolysis process of the bacteria. Current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the nanoflakes (measured perpendicular to surface of the Cu foil by using conductive atomic force microscopy) indicated that electrical resistivity of the nanoflakes increased about one order of magnitude after exposure to the bacterial suspension. The nanoflakes reduced by the bacterial suspension could also be... 

Various morphologies of CuO/Cu(OH)2 nanostructures with different adsorbed -OH contents were synthesized on an acid-treated Cu foil through variation of NaOH concentration from 0 to 50 mM with an in situ oxidation method. X-ray diffractometry and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) indicated formation of CuO on the Cu(OH)2 crystalline phase at a growth temperature of 60°C for 20 h. Antibacterial activity of the nanostructures against Escherichia coli bacteria was studied in the dark and under light irradiation. The nanostructures grown at a NaOH concentration of 30 mM showed the highest surface area and the strongest antibacterial activity among the samples. After elimination of the... 

Bioactivity of Escherichia coli bacteria (as a simple model for microorganisms) and interaction of them with the environment were controlled by their capturing within aggregated graphene nanosheets. The oxygen-containing functional groups of chemically exfoliated single-layer graphene oxide nanosheets were reduced by melatonin as a biocompatible antioxidant. While each one of the graphene (oxide) suspension and melatonin solution did not separately show any considerable inactivation effects on the bacteria, aggregation of the sheets in the melatonin-bacterial suspension resulted in trapping the bacteria within the aggregated sheets, i.e., a kind of inactivation. The bacteria trapped within... 

Multi-component photocatalysts based on apatite-coated Ag=AgBr=TiO 2 were prepared by the deposition method. The effects of various kinds of apatites, with hydroxyl and fluoro substituents, on photocatalytic activity were investigated. The antibacterial processes in the dark, and under visible light, on two types of bacteria indicate that the multi-composites can inhibit the growth of bacteria by two different mechanisms. TEM images and optical microscopic data demonstrate that by attaching the nanosize catalyst to the outer membrane of the cell, the bacteria could not derive nourishment from surrounding media, i.e. this component acts as bacteria-static. The mechanism for deactivation of... 

Vertically aligned multi-wall carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays were fabricated in tip-growth mode on Ni/Si substrates using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. In a purification process including hydrogenation and acid washing of the Ni/CNTs, the oxygen-containing functional groups were substantially reduced and a wide hollow core at the tip of the CNTs was formed by removing the Ni seeds. Sol-gel silver nanoparticles were deposited on the surface of the unpurified Ni/CNTs, while they could also be embedded within the hollow core of the Ni-removed CNTs. The persistency of the silver ions in the Ni-removed Ag-CNTs in comparison to the release of the silver ions from the Ag-Ni/CNTs in a... 

TiO 2 and Pd-modified TiO 2 photocatalysts were prepared by sol-gel method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) data showed that the presence of Pd in TiO 2 catalyst decreases the crystalline size of TiO 2 and stabilizes anatase phase. The study of the photocatalytic activity of the films via Linear Sweep Voltametry (LSV) plots and antibacterial test against Escherichia coli ATCC 25922-a gram negative bacterium-showed that Pd increases the photocatalytic activity of the coatings. Besides, the sequence of layer deposition (TiO 2 and Pd-modified TiO 2) influences the photocatalytic properties. In other words, more photocatalytic activity is obtained when Pd-modified layer is deposited first  

Polyvinyl alcohol/sodium alginate/nano silver (PVA/SA/Ag) composite films were made by solution casting method. Gamma irradiation was used to synthesize silver nanoparticles in situ via reduction of silver nitrate without using harmful chemical agents for biomedical applications. UV-vis and XRD results demonstrated that spherical silver nanoparticles were produced even at low irradiation dose of 5. kGy. By increasing irradiation dose, more nanoparticles were synthesized while no PVA hydrogel was formed up to 15. kGy. Also the size of nanoparticles was reduced with increasing gamma dose evidenced by higher release rate of silver nanoparticles in lukewarm water and SEM images. Comparing SEM... 

Various morphologies of monoclinic CuO powders were synthesized by hydrothermal treatment of copper nitrate, copper acetate or copper sulfate. The synthesized samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometry, the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and diffuse reflectance spectrophotometry. Antibacterial activity of the samples was studied against Escherichia coli bacteria in dark and under visible light irradiation. Although the different precursors yielded the same band gap energies (≈1.6 eV) for the synthesized CuO samples, they resulted in various morphologies (hierarchy of stabilized micro/nanostructures), specific surface areas, concentrations of... 

In this work, the individual and interaction effects of three key operating parameters of the photocatalytic disinfection process were evaluated and optimized using response surface methodology (RSM) for the first time. The chosen operating parameters were: reaction temperature, initial pH of the reaction mixture and TiO2 P-25 photocatalyst loading. Escherichia coli concentration, after 90 minutes irradiation of UV-A light, was selected as the response. Twenty sets of photocatalytic disinfection experiments were conducted by adjusting operating parameters at five levels using the central composite design. Based on the experimental data, a semi-empirical expression was established and applied... 

Antibacterial activity of tungsten oxide nanorods/microrods were studied against Escherichia coli bacteria under visible light irradiation and in dark. A two-step annealing process at temperatures up to 390 °C and 400-800 °C was applied to synthesize the tungsten oxide nanorods/microrods on tungsten foils using KOH as a catalyst. Annealing the foils at 400 °C in the presence of catalyst resulted in formation of tungsten oxide nanorods (with diameters of 50-90 nm and crystalline phase of WO3) on surface of tungsten foils. By increasing the annealing temperature up to 800 °C, tungsten oxide microrods with K2W6O19 crystalline phase were formed on the foils. The WO3 nanorods showed a strong... 

We implement an optical tweezers technique to assess the effects of chemical agents on single bacterial cells. As a proof of principle, the viability of a trapped Escherichia coli bacterium is determined by monitoring its flagellar motility in the presence of varying concentrations of ethyl alcohol. We show that the “killing time” of the bacterium can be effectively identified from the correlation statistics of the positional time series recorded from the trap, while direct quantification from the time series or associated power spectra is intractable. Our results, which minimize the lethal effects of bacterial photodamage, are consistent with previous reports of ethanol toxicity that used... 

The effect of thickness of TiO2 coating on synergistic photocatalytic activity of TiO2 (anatase)/α-Fe 2O3/glass thin films as photocatalysts for degradation of Escherichia coli bacteria in a low-concentration H2O2 solution and under visible light irradiation was investigated. Nanograined α-Fe2O3 films with optical band-gap of 2.06 eV were fabricated by post-annealing of thermal evaporated iron oxide thin films at 400 °C in air. Increase in thickness of the Fe2O3 thin film (here, up to 200 nm) resulted in a slight reduction of the optical band-gap energy and an increase in the photoinactivation of the bacteria. Sol-gel TiO2 coatings were deposited on the α-Fe2O 3 (200 nm)/glass films, and... 

We previously reported that MR01, an indigenous strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, was able to produce a rhamnolipid-type biosurfactant. Here, we attempted to define the structural properties of this natural product. The analysis of the extracted biosurfactant by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) revealed the presence of two compounds corresponding to those of authentic mono- and di-rhamnolipid. The identity of two structurally distinguished rhamnolipids was confirmed by 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) of extracted biosurfactant revealed up to seventeen different rhamnolipid congeners. Further quantification showed... 

Removal or suppression of key proteins in an essential pathway of a pathogen is expected to disrupt the pathway and prohibit the pathogen from performing a vital function. Thus disconnecting multiple essential pathways should disrupt the survival of a pathogen even when it has multiple pathways to drug resistance. We consider a scenario where the drug-resistance pathways are unknown. To disrupt these pathways, we consider a cut set S of G, where G is a connected simple graph representing the protein interaction network of the pathogen, so that G-S splits to two partitions such that the endpoints of each pathway are in different partitions. If the difference between the sizes of the two... 

Bacterial toxicity of graphene nanosheets in the form of graphene nanowalls deposited on stainless steel substrates was investigated for both Gram-positive and Gram-negative models of bacteria. The graphene oxide nanowalls were obtained by electrophoretic deposition of Mg2+-graphene oxide nanosheets synthesized by a chemical exfoliation method. On the basis of measuring the efflux of cytoplasmic materials of the bacteria, it was found that the cell membrane damage of the bacteria caused by direct contact of the bacteria with the extremely sharp edges of the nanowalls was the effective mechanism in the bacterial inactivation. In this regard, the Gram-negative Escherichia coli bacteria with an... 

Carbon nanotube (CNT)-doped TiO2 thin films with various CNT contents were synthesized by sol-gel method for visible light photoinactivation of Escherichia coli bacteria. Post annealing of the CNT-doped TiO2 thin films at 450 °C resulted in anatase TiO2 and formation of Ti-C and Ti-O-C carbonaceous bonds in the film. By increasing the CNT content, the thin films could further inactivate the bacteria in the dark. Meanwhile, as the CNT content increased from zero to 40 wt% the effective optical band gap energy of the CNT-doped TiO2 thin films annealed at 450 °C decreased from 3.2-3.3 to less than ∼2.8 eV providing light absorption in the visible region. Concerning this, visible light... 

CuO nanoparticles with average diameter of about 20. nm were accumulated on surface of sol-gel silica thin films heat treated at 300 °C in air. Heat treatment of the CuO nanoparticles at 600 °C in a reducing environment resulted in effective reduction of the nanoparticles and penetration of them into the film. While the thin films heat treated at 300 °C exhibited a strong antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli bacteria, the reducing process decreased their antibacterial activity. However, by definition of normalized antibacterial activity (antibacterial activity/surface concentration of coppers) it was found that Cu nanoparticles were more toxic to the bacteria than the CuO... 

Antibacterial activity of sol-gel synthesized Ag-TiO2 nanocomposite layer (30nm) deposited on rough anatase (a) TiO2 thin film (~200nm in thickness) was investigated against Escherichia coli bacteria, in dark and also in exposure to UV light. The nanocomposite thin films were transparent with a surface plasmon resonance absorption band at a wavelength of 410nm. The metallic silver nanoparticles with an average diameter of 30nm and fcc crystalline structure were self-accumulated on surface of a mesoporous and aqueous TiO2 layer with a capillary pore structure having a pore radius of 3.0nm. By adding the silver nanoparticles in the TiO2 layer, recombination of the photoexcited electron-hole... 

CuO flower-like microcrystals, prepared by a facile template-free thermal method, showed incredible photocatalytic activity towards degradation of Acid Blue 92 (AB92), an organic wastewater, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus pathogenic bacteria under visible light. The products were well characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) and diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS) analysis methods. The XRD pattern of the products well confirmed the formation of copper oxide crystalline phase without any other impurities. The results of the photocatalytic...