Rediscovering the Therapeutic Potential of Agarwood in the Management of Chronic Inflammatory Diseases

The inflammatory response is a central aspect of the human immune system that acts as a defense mechanism to protect the body against infections and injuries. A dysregulated inflammatory response is a major health concern, as it can disrupt homeostasis and lead to a plethora of chronic inflammatory conditions. These chronic inflammatory diseases are one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide and the need for them to be managed in the long term has become a crucial task to alleviate symptoms and improve patients’ overall quality of life. Although various synthetic anti-inflammatory agents have been developed to date, these medications are associated with several adverse effects that have led to poor therapeutic outcomes. The hunt for novel alternatives to modulate underlying chronic inflammatory processes has unveiled nature to be a plentiful source. One such example is agarwood, which is a valuable resinous wood from the trees of Aquilaria spp. Agarwood has been widely utilized for medicinal purposes since ancient times due to its ability to relieve pain, asthmatic symptoms, and arrest vomiting. In terms of inflammation, the major constituent of agarwood, agarwood oil, has been shown to possess multiple bioactive compounds that can regulate molecular mechanisms of chronic inflammation, thereby producing a multitude of pharmacological functions for treating various inflammatory disorders. As such, agarwood oil presents great potential to be developed as a novel anti-inflammatory therapeutic to overcome the drawbacks of existing therapies and improve treatment outcomes. In this review, we have summarized the current literature on agarwood and its bioactive components and have highlighted the potential roles of agarwood oil in treating various chronic inflammatory diseases.     

Synthesis of 1D β-MnO2 for high-performance supercapacitor application

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - Electrochemical supercapacitors (ESs) still need to overcome development obstacles in order to realize their full potential while being acknowledged as a...     

Development of liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometric method for the quantitative determination of a novel adjuvant,Imidazoquinoline gallamide in aluminum hydroxide gel-Imidazoquinoline gallamide and COVAXIN

Imidazoquinoline gallamide is a toll-like receptor 7/8 agonist, belongs to the imidazoquinoline class, has the potential to activate antigen-presenting cells, and enhances immune response, primarily Th1 response. The COVAXIN is a whole virion inactivated Coronavirus disease 2019 vaccine formulated with this novel adjuvant called, aluminum hydroxide gel Imidazoquinoline gallamide, wherein, Imidazoquinoline gallamide is chemisorbed onto aluminum hydroxide gel. Herein, an analytical method based on liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was developed to identify and quantify Imidazoquinoline gallamide in aluminum hydroxide gel Imidazoquinoline gallamide and COVAXIN. The multiple reaction monitoring transitions were optimized for Imidazoquinoline gallamide quantification are [M+H]⁺ ions with 512.24→343.19 m/z (quantifier ion) and 512.24→360.22 m/z (qualifier ion). The developed method was validated as per the international conference on harmonization quality2 revison1 guidelines. The method was linear in the range of 0.025–10 µg/mL with a coefficient of determination of 0.9985 and the limit of quantification is 0.025 µg/mL. The accuracy was in the range of 82–121 % and intra- and inter-day precision was less than 7.1% and 5.39%, respectively. The expanded uncertainty results are 9.2% for Imidazoquinoline gallamide in the sample. The validated method was successfully applied to evaluate Imidazoquinoline gallamide concentration in every batch of COVAXIN.     

Linking Composition,Structure and Thickness of CoOOH layers to Oxygen Evolution Reaction Activity by Correlative Microscopy

The role of β-CoOOH crystallographic orientations in catalytic activity for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) remains elusive. We combine correlative electron backscatter diffraction/scanning electrochemical cell microscopy with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and atom probe tomography to establish the structure–activity relationships of various faceted β-CoOOH formed on a Co microelectrode under OER conditions. We reveal that ≈6 nm β-CoOOH(01 0), grown on [ 0]-oriented Co, exhibits higher OER activity than ≈3 nm β-CoOOH(10 3) or ≈6 nm β-CoOOH(0006) formed on [02 - and [0001]-oriented Co, respectively. This arises from higher amounts of incorporated hydroxyl ions and more easily reducible Co^III−O sites present in β-CoOOH(01 0) than those in the latter two oxyhydroxide facets. Our correlative multimodal approach shows great promise in linking local activity with atomic-scale details of structure, thickness and composition of active species, which opens opportunities to design pre-catalysts with preferred defects that promote the formation of the most active OER species.