Pirarubicin attracted considerable attention in clinical studies because of its high therapeutic efficacy and reduced toxicity in comparison with other anthracyclines. Nevertheless, ~ 30% patients undergoing PIRA treatment still experience relapse and metastasis. Clinical advancements unveiled that cancer stem cells (CSCs) residing in the tumor constitutes a major factor for such limitations and subsequently are the reason for treatment failure. Consequently, eradicating CSCs alongside bulk tumor is a crucial undertaking to attain utmost therapeutic efficacy of the treatment. Nevertheless, majority of the CSCs inhibitors currently under examination lack specificity, show unsynchronized bioavailability with other primary treatments and exhibit notable toxicity in their therapeutic applications, which is primarily attributable to their inadequate tumor-targeting capabilities. Therefore, we have developed a biodegradable polylactic acid based blend block copolymeric NPs for concomitant delivery of CSCs inhibitor Salinomycin (SAL) & chemotherapeutic drug Pirarubicin (PIRA) with an aim to improve the efficacy of treatment and prevent cancer relapse. Prepared NPs showed < 100 nm size and excellent loading with sustained release for both the drugs. Also, PIRA:SAL co-loaded NPs exhibits synergistically enhanced cytotoxicity against cancer cell as well as CSCs. Most importantly, NPs mediated co-delivery of the drugs showed complete tumor eradication, without any reoccurrence throughout the surveillance period. Additionally, NPs treatment didn\'t show any histopathological alteration in vital organs confirming their non-toxic nature. Altogether, present study concludes that the developed PIRA:SAL NPs have excellent efficacy for tumor regression as well as prevention of cancer relapse, hence can be used as a potential combination therapy for cancer treatment.

Bone injury represents an urgent clinical problem, and implantable bioscaffolds offer suitable means for replacing and regenerating damaged tissues. This paper proposes an in-situ foaming printing method employing material extrusion additive manufacturing technology and physical foaming to prepared poly(lactic acid)/chitin nanocrystals (CHNCs) microporous composite scaffolds, featuring pore sizes ranging from 9 ± 5 μm. This method offers a novel strategy for the preparation of poly(lactic acid)-based scaffolds with good biocompatibility. Material characterization and mechanical property testing demonstrated that the in-situ foaming printed PLA scaffolds exhibited excellent foam printability, and the expansion ratio and compression properties of the scaffolds could be adjusted by modifying the CHNCs concentration and the printing speed, achieving a compression modulus between 39.2 MPa and 54.3 MPa. Furthermore, at equivalent foaming multiplicity (1.5-2.6 times), the compression modulus increased by nearly 100 % compared to previously reported PLA-based foam scaffolds. Importantly, the PLA/CHNCs scaffolds produced via in-situ foaming exhibited superior biocompatibility compared to directly printed PLA scaffolds. This PLA/CHNCs composite scaffold provides a promising approach to addressing and repairing bone defects.

Polylactic acid (PLA) wood-plastic composites have a significant advantage over traditional petroleum-based plastics due to their biodegradability. However, PLA has several shortcomings, including high brittleness, low heat resistance, slow crystallization, and poor compatibility with biomass materials, which have limited its potential applications. In this paper, we investigated the effects of carboxy-terminated hyperbranched polyester (CHBP) on the mechanical, crystalline, and thermal properties of PLA/straw flour (SF) blends through extrusion injection molding. Additionally, we added the traditional plasticizer polyethylene glycol (PEG) to synergize with CHBP to enhance the toughness of PLA/SF composites. Our results showed that the appropriate addition of CHBP effectively improved the interfacial bonding between PLA and straw flour. The incorporation of CHBP also improved the tensile strength, bending strength, impact strength, elongation at break, thermal stability, and crystallization rate of the composites. Furthermore, the addition of both CHBP and PEG significantly improved the impact strength of the composites compared to using PEG alone. This method also improved the heat resistance of the material and reduced the migration of plasticizers. Our study demonstrates the feasibility of using hyperbranched polymers and plasticizers to enhance the toughness, thermal stability, and crystalline properties of PLA wood-plastic composites, providing a new approach to improving the properties of these composites.

This study presents a comprehensive analysis encompassing melt blending, characterization, life cycle assessment (LCA), and 3D printing of a range of polylactic acid (PLA)/starch biocomposites, with starch content varying from 0 to 50 wt%. To enhance compatibility between the starch particles and the PLA matrix, we utilized a solvent-free method to graft N-octadecyl isocyanate (ODI) molecules onto the surface of the starch particles, resulting in ODI-g-starch, which yielded several improved properties. Notably, toughness and elongation at break improved by approximately 170 % and 300 %, respectively. Moreover, the crystallinity increased from 11.6 % in plain PLA to 30.1 %, suggesting that the uniform dispersion of ODI-g-starch particles acted as nucleating sites for the crystallization of PLA chains. Additionally, viscosity decreased significantly with the introduction of ODI-g-starch particles, indicating their plasticizing effect, thereby enhancing the processability and ease of fabrication of the biocomposite. Crucially, our LCA analysis revealed a significant reduction in the carbon footprint of these biocomposites, up to 18 % and 63 %, compared to plain PLA and selected fossil-based plastics, respectively, upon the incorporation of ODI-g-starch. In summary, our research introduces the newly developed PLA/starch biocomposites as a sustainable and eco-friendly alternative to commercially available plain PLA and specific fossil-based plastics.

Proper waste sorting is crucial for biodegradable plastics (BDPs) recycling, whose global production is increasing dynamically. BDPs can be sorted using near-infrared (NIR) sorting, but little research is available about the effect of surface contamination on their NIR spectrum, which affects their sortability. As BDPs are often heavily contaminated with food waste, understanding the effect of surface contamination is necessary. This paper reports on a study on the influence of artificially induced surface contamination using food waste and contamination from packaging waste, biowaste, and residual waste on the BDP spectra. In artificially contaminated samples, the absorption bands (ADs) changed due to the presence of moisture (1352-1424 nm) and fatty acids (1223 nm). In real-world contaminated samples, biowaste samples were most affected by contamination followed by residual waste, both having altered ADs at 1352-1424 nm (moisture). The packaging waste-contaminated sample spectra closely followed those of clean and washed samples, with a change in the intensity of ADs. Accordingly, two approaches could be followed in sorting: (i) affected wavelength ranges could be omitted, or (ii) contaminated samples could be used for optimizing the NIR database. Thus, surface contamination affected the spectra, and knowing the wavelength ranges containing this effect could be used to optimize the NIR database and improve BDP sorting.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common and challenging malignancy that needs some effective and safer chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment. In this study, anticancer agent epirubicin (Epi) was loaded in polymeric polyethylene glycol-polylactic acid-nanoparticles (mPEG-PLA-NPs) coated with a marine anti-cancer non-toxic polysaccharide fucoidan (FC), to achieve a synergistic activity against CRC. The characterization of the NPs revealed that they were spherical, monodispersed, stable, with a negative zeta potential, and exhibited good biocompatibility and controlled release. In vitro anti-cancer activity of the NPs on HCT116 cell line was found to be promising, and corroborated well with in vivo studies involving BALB/C mice injected with C26 murine cancer cells. The outcome of MTT assay demonstrated that IC50 value of free Epi was 3.72 µM, and that of non-coated and coated Epi nano-formulations was 33.67 and 10.19 µM, respectively. Higher tumor regression, better survival and reduced off-side cardiotoxicity were observed when this novel NPs formulation was used to treat tumor-bearing mice. Free FC and Epi treated mice showed 37.73 % and 61.49 % regression in tumor size, whereas there was 79.76 % and 90.34 % tumor regression in mice treated with non-coated Epi NPs and coated Epi NPs, respectively. Therefore, mPEG-PLA-FC-Epi-NPs hold a potential to be used as an effective chemotherapeutic formulation against CRC, since it exhibited better efficacy and lower toxicity.

Microplastics and heavy metal pollution frequently co-occur in the marine environment, raising concerns about their potentially harmful impacts on marine fish. This study undertook a comprehensive evaluation of the individual and combined stress effects of polylactide microplastics (PLA-MPs) and chromium (Cr) on marine medaka larvae. Following a 14-day exposure to PLA-MPs (100 μg/L) and Cr (50 μg/L), both individually and in combination, significant increases in heart rate and body length were observed. Notably, the combined exposure to PLA-MPs and Cr caused marked histopathological alterations, including shedding, atrophy, and lysis of the intestinal tissues. Furthermore, both individual and combined exposure induced oxidative stress in fish larvae, leading to changes in various enzyme activity indices. Individual exposure to either PLA-MPs or Cr led to anxious behavior in the larvae, whereas combined exposure not only caused anxious behavior but also altered swimming patterns. These findings suggest that combined exposure to PLA-MPs and Cr can exacerbate the toxic effects on marine medaka larvae.

A novel rare earth complex, Eu(IAA)2(phen)2 (EuIP), was synthesized by solution-based synthesis method. Then, EuIP and polylactic acid (PLA) were melt-blended at 190 °C to obtain a multifunctional PLA/EuIP composite. The incorporation of EuIP provided PLA/EuIP composites with good light conversion ability. Under UV irradiation, PLA/EuIP composites converted the absorbed UV light into red light. Moreover, the PLA/1.0EuIP composite exhibited excellent light transmittance of 88 % in the visible region and showed strong red emission under UV light. After UV irradiation for 96 h, the molecular weights and mechanical properties of neat PLA decreased dramatically. Interestingly, the molecular weights and mechanical properties of PLA/EuIP composites did not deteriorate after 96 h of UV irradiation. The reason was that EuIP could absorb UV light and utilize the absorbed energy to emit red fluorescence. Furthermore, PLA/EuIP composites showed good antibacterial activities against E. coli and S. aureus. In addition, in vitro cell experiments showed that PLA/EuIP composites was suitable for the growth of murine breast cancer (4 T1) cells. Besides, enzymatic degradation testing also proved that PLA/EuIP composites had good biodegradability. This work provides an ingenious design strategy for the preparation of PLA/EuIP composites possessing light conversion ability, UV resistance, and antibacterial properties.

Increasing evidence highlights the negative effects of microplastics (MPs) on crops and bio-based plastics offer an alternative to conventional plastics. However, there is limited knowledge on the impacts and mechanisms of bio-based MPs on crop physiology. In this study, bio-based polylactic acid (PLA) and petroleum-based MPs [polyamide (PA) and polypropylene (PP)] were added to hydroponic cultures planted with rice (Oryza sativa L.) seedlings to assess their toxicity. Compared to PA and PP MPs, PLA MPs experienced greater aging after 28 days of exposure, and their surfaces were loaded with more rod-shaped microorganisms with potential plastic degradation ability, such as Proteobacteria and Bacteroidota, which competed with rice seedlings for carbon and nitrogen sources for self-multiplication, thus altering the carbon fixation and nitrogen cycling processes during rice seedling growth. Down-regulation of amino acid and lipid metabolisms in the PLA treatment inhibited the normal synthesis of chlorophyll in rice seedling leaves. Consequently, decreases in the biomass and height of rice seedling roots and shoots were observed in the PLA MP treatment. This study provides evidence that bio-based MPs may have a more severe impact on crop growth than petroleum-based MPs.

Polylactic acid (PLA) straws hold eco-friendly potential; however, residual diisocyanates used to enhance the mechanical strength can generate carcinogenic primary aromatic amines (PAAs), posing health risks. Herein, we present a rapid, comprehensive strategy to detecting PAAs in 18 brands of food-grade PLA straws and assessing their migration into diverse food simulants. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy was conducted to rapidly screen straws for PAAs. Subsequently, qualitative determination of migrating PAAs into various food simulants (4 % acetic acid, 10 % ethanol, 50 % ethanol) occurred at 70 °C for 2 h using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Three PAAs including 4,4\'-methylenedianiline, 2,4\'-methylenedianiline, and 2,4-diaminotoluene were detected in all straws. Specifically, 2,4-diaminotoluene in 50 % ethanol exceeded specific migration limit of 2 μg/kg, raising safety concerns. Notably, PAAs migration to 10 % and 50 % ethanol surpassed that to 4 % acetic acid within a short 2-hour period. Moreover, PLA straws underwent varying degrees of shape changes before and after migration. Straws with poly(butylene succinate) resisted deformation compared to those without, indicating enhanced heat resistance, while poly(butyleneadipate-co-terephthalate) improved hydrolysis resistance. Importantly, swelling study unveiled swelling effect wasn\'t the primary factor contributing to the increased PAAs migration in ethanol food simulant, as there was no significant disparity in swelling degrees across different food simulants. FT-IR and DSC analysis revealed higher PAAs content in 50 % ethanol were due to highly concentrated polar ethanol disrupting hydrogen bonds and van der Waal forces holding PLA molecules together. Overall, minimizing contact between PLA straws and alcoholic foods is crucial to avoid potential safety risks posed by PAAs.