Mesoporous carbon is a promising material having multiple applications. It can act as a catalytic support and can be used in energy storage devices. Moreover, mesoporous carbon controls body’s oral drug delivery system and adsorb poisonous metal from water and various other molecules from an aqueous solution. The accuracy and improved activity of the carbon materials depend on some parameters. The recent breakthrough in the synthesis of mesoporous carbon, with high surface area, large pore-volume, and good thermostability, improves its activity manifold in performing functions. Considering the promising application of mesoporous carbon, it should be broadly illustrated in the literature. This review summarizes the potential application of mesoporous carbon in many scientific disciplines. Moreover, the outlook for further improvement of mesoporous carbon has been demonstrated in detail. Hopefully, it would act as a reference guidebook for researchers about the putative application of mesoporous carbon in multidimensional fields.

Background: This fact-finding study aimed to attain an overall idea and knowledge about medicine disposal practices in Dhaka Metropolitan households. Methods: This mixed study (both quantitative and qualitative) was orchestrated to inspect the household leftover medicine disposal pattern’s governing status. A cross-sectional survey was conducted following a structured questionnaire and key informant interview with a household person and in-depth interviews with the top pharmaceutical and government officials. Results: Findings disclose that, for most of the key informants, the terms “drug disposal” and “drug pollution” were unknown; more precisely, 67% and 74% of key informants even did not hear these two terms. Almost all (87%) households faced undesired incidents due to the insecure storage of medicines. People disposed of excess and expired medication in regular dustbins (47%), threw out of the window (19%), flushed within commode (4%), burnt in fire (2%), and reused (4%). A good percentage of people (21%) returned unexpired drugs to the pharmacy and bought other medicines on a need basis. A total of 72% wanted a medicine take-back program, and 100% agreed on mass education on this issue. Officials of pharmaceuticals conferred mixed opinion: top-ranked pharmaceuticals will adopt leftover medicine disposal practices; middle and low-ranked pharmaceutical companies are reluctant, merely denied mentioning the less important issue. Conclusions: The absence of mass awareness and standard laws and policies may explain these existing aberrant practices.

It is very important to assess cell viability rapidly and sensitively for the cell biology research, medical and pharmaceutical application. Compared to conventional methods, we have established a new rapid and sensitive bio-electrochemical system using small screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) and 1-methoxy-5-methylphenazinium methyl sulfate (mPMS)/[Fe(CN)₆]³⁻(FeCN) as double electron mediators for monitoring cell viability through the measurement of intracellular NADH. Combination of 10 µmol L⁻¹ (µM) mPMS and 500 µM FeCN was the optimum concentration and 10 minutes incubation was enough to monitor intracellular NADH by chronoamperometry at +0.5 V applications. This mPMS/FeCN system works as useful as previously reported menadione (Mena)/FeCN system. We confirmed that the electron transfer from intracellular NADH to mPMS occurred non-enzymatically, though the electron transfer from intracellular NADH to Mena was catalyzed by cytosolic enzyme. We applied our system to count the three kinds of mammalian cells. The oxidation current in chronoamperometry after 10 minutes incubation showed a good linear relationship in two times wider of cell concentration as compared to the cell concentration detected with WST-1 assay. The results indicated that the metabolically active mammalian cells could be quickly quantified by our method. Furthermore, we have applied this method to evaluate the acute cytotoxicity of oxamic acid on cytoma cells. Only 10 minutes incubation and high sensitivity embellished this method. These results strongly supported that our electrochemical method might be potent to alternate to WST assay for cell viability and acute cytotoxicity test.

Yeast cell counting and viability assessment are crucial for industrial processes utilizing yeast cells. However, conventional methods for yeast cell counting and viability assessment are often time-consuming, labor-intensive, and less suitable for rapid microbial studies and acute cytotoxicity research in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Therefore, the development of rapid and sensitive methods for yeast cell counting and viability evaluation is highly desirable. In this study, we employed a chronoamperometric technique based on a widely used 1-methoxy-5-methylphenazinium methyl sulfate (mPMS)/[Fe(CN)6]3− (FeCN) double-mediator system for yeast cell counting through the electrochemical monitoring of intracellular NADH, a key indicator of cellular metabolic activity. The oxidation current in chronoamperometry measured at +0.5 V versus Ag/AgCl using a screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) exhibited an excellent linear relationship with the number of metabolically active fission yeast cells. The linear detection range of our electrochemical counting method was wider than that of the conventional colorimetric water-soluble tetrazolium (WST-1) assay. Furthermore, the electrochemical approach overcomes several limitations associated with conventional optical methods, including scattering effects, turbidity of cell-suspended media, and prolonged incubation times. In addition, this method can be applied for evaluating the acute cytotoxicity of fast-acting compounds such as itaconic acid (IA) in yeast cells.