The present study aims to investigate the hepatoprotective effect of taurine (TAU) alone or in combination with silymarin (SIL) on CCl₄-induced liver damage. Twenty five male rats were randomized into 5 groups: normal control (vehicle treated), toxin control (CCl₄ treated), CCl₄+TAU, CCl₄+SIL and CCl₄+TAU+SIL. CCl₄ provoked significant increases in the levels of hepatic TBARS, NO and NOS compared to control group, but the levels of endogenous antioxidants such as SOD, GPx, GR, GST and GSH were significantly decreased. Serum pro-inflammatory and fibrogenic cytokines including TNF-α, TGF-β1, IL-6, leptin and resistin were increased while the anti-inflammatory (adiponectin) cytokine was decreased in all treated rats. Our results also showed that CCl₄ induced an increase in liver injury parameters like serum ALT, AST, ALP, GGT and bilirubin. In addition, a significant increase in liver tissue hydroxyproline (a major component of collagen) was detected in rats exposed to CCl₄. Moreover, the concentrations of serum TG, TC, HDL-C, LDL-C, VLDL-C and FFA were significantly increased by CCl₄. Both TAU and SIL (i.e., antioxidants) post-treatments were effectively able to relieve most of the above mentioned imbalances. However, the combination therapy was more effective than single applications in reducing TBARS levels, NO production, hydroxyproline content in fibrotic liver and the activity of serum GGT. Combined treatment (but not TAU- or SIL-alone) was also able to effectively prevent CCl₄-induced decrease in adiponectin serum levels. Of note, the combined post-treatment with TAU+SIL (but not monotherapy) normalized serum FFA in CCl₄-treated rats. The biochemical results were confirmed by histological and ultrastructural changes as compared to CCl₄-poisoned rats. Therefore, on the basis of our work, TAU may be used in combination with SIL as an additional adjunct therapy to cure liver diseases such as fibrosis, cirrhosis and viral hepatitis.

An expedient synthesis of novel triazoles, tetrazine and thiadiazoles, using conveniently accessible and commercially available starting materials has been achieved. The synthesized compounds were characterized by spectroscopic and elemental analyses, and screened for their antibacterial activities against four different strains, namely E. coli, P. aeruginosa, S. aureus and B. megaterium. In particular, the compounds 5, 24 and 26h exhibited excellent antibacterial activities compared to the reference antibiotic. To get further insight about their behavior, these compounds were tested for their antioxidant activities via SOD-like activity, DPPH free radical scavenging activity, ABST and NO, which showed promising results. Furthermore, these compounds effectively promoted the cleavage of genomic DNA as well, in the absence of any external additives.

In this work, a Zn–benzenetricarboxylic acid (Zn@H₃BTC) organic framework coated with a dispersed layer of chitosan (CH/Zn@H₃BTC) was synthesized using a solvothermal approach. The synthesized CH/Zn@H₃BTC was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), and Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller (BET) surface area. The microscopic observation and the analysis of the BET surface area of CH/Zn@H₃BTC nanocomposites indicated that chitosan plays an important role in controlling the surface morphology and surface properties of the Zn@H₃BTC. The obtained findings showed that the surface area and particle size diameter were in the range of 80 m² g⁻¹ and 800 nm, respectively. The corrosion protection characteristics of the CH/Zn@H₃BTC composite in comparison to pristine chitosan on duplex steel in 2.0 M H₂SO₄ medium determined by electrochemical (E vs. time, PDP, and EIS) approaches exhibited that the entire charge transfer resistance of the chitosan- and CH/Zn@H₃BTC-composite-protected films on the duplex steel substrate was comparatively large, at 252.4 and 364.8 Ω cm² with protection capacities of 94.1% and 97.8%, respectively, in comparison to the unprotected metal surface (R_p = 20.6 Ω cm²), indicating the films efficiently protected the metal from corrosion. After dipping the uninhabited and protected systems, the surface topographies of the duplex steel were inspected by FESEM. We found the adsorption of the CH/Zn@H₃BTC composite on the metal interface obeys the model of the Langmuir isotherm. The CH/Zn@H₃BTC composite revealed outstanding adsorption on the metal interface as established by MD simulations and DFT calculations. Consequently, we found that the designed CH/Zn@H₃BTC composite shows potential as an applicant inhibitor for steel protection.

Biocompatible metals have been suggested as revolutionary biomaterials for bone-grafting therapies. Although metals and their alloys are widely and successfully used in producing biomedical implants due to their good mechanical properties and corrosi

The huge quantity of date pits as solid waste byproduct in Saudi Arabia pose a problem as they are difficult to biodegrade. The potential of using date pits as a cheap precursor to prepare activated carbons was investigated. Steam as well as zinc chloride activated carbons were prepared from dates pit. The textural properties, including surface area, mean pore radius and total pore volume, were determined from the adsorption of nitrogen at 77 K. FT–IR spectroscopy and base neutralization capacity were used to determine the surface groups. The adsorption of Cu²⁺, Pb²⁺ and Cd²⁺ was studied in equilibrium method. FT-IR investigation of un-activated carbons identified phenolic, lactonic, -O-H, quinonic and carboxylate groups. For steam and zinc chloride activated carbons, some of the adsorption bands either disappeared or become less predominant, depending on the acidic or basic nature of the surface. The measurements of BNC indicated that steam activated carbons were predominately basic, while zinc chloride activated carbons exhibited acidic nature. Physical and chemical activation increase the porosity and thereby develop a higher surface area. The adsorption of Cu²⁺, Pb²⁺ and Cd²⁺ followed the order Pb²⁺ > Cu²⁺ > Cd²⁺. Zinc chloride activated carbons had a higher adsorption power compared with steam activated carbons. The adsorption behavior was affected by the textural and chemistry of the surface.