From Waste to Value: Recent Insights into Producing Vanillin from Lignin.

Vanillin, one of the most widely used and appreciated flavoring agents worldwide, is the main constituent of vanilla bean extract, obtained from the seed pods of various members belonging to the Orchidaceae family. Due to the great demand in the food confectionery industry, as well as in the perfume industry, medicine, and more, the majority of vanillin used today is produced synthetically, and only less than one percent of the world's vanilla flavoring market comes directly from the traditional natural sources. The increasing global demand for vanillin requires alternative and overall sustainable new production methods, and the recovery from biobased polymers, like lignin, is an environmentally friendly alternative to chemical synthesis.

Phospholipase D Immobilization on Lignin Nanoparticles for Enzymatic Transformation of Phospholipids.

Lignin nanoparticles (LNPs) are promising components for various materials, given their controllable particle size and spherical shape. However, their origin from supramolecular aggregation has limited the applicability of LNPs as recoverable templates for immobilization of enzymes. In this study, we show that stabilized LNPs are highly promising for the immobilization of phospholipase D (PLD), the enzyme involved in the biocatalytic production of high-value polar head modified phospholipids of commercial interest, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylethanolamine.

Dependence of H-NMR relaxation time of trimethylglycine betaine deep eutectic solvents on the molar composition and on the presence of water.

H-NMR spin lattice relaxation times ( ), measured by inversion recovery technique, allowed to establish the stoichiometric coefficient (ratio between the H-bond acceptor and H-bond donor) of a series of trimethylglycine betaine/diol based deep eutectic solvents (DESs); ethylene glycol, triethylene glycol and 1,3-propandiol were selected as H-bond donors. The maximum amount of water tolerated by the DES, before its complete hydration, was determined as well. Finally, the method was validated comparing the eutectic composition of the betaine/glycol system with that determined by means of differential scanning calorimetry analysis; the stoichiometric coefficients were identical.

Fractionation of Raw and Parboiled Rice Husks with Deep Eutectic Solvents and Characterization of the Extracted Lignins towards a Circular Economy Perspective.

In the present work, rice husks (RHs), which, worldwide, represent one of the most abundant agricultural wastes in terms of their quantity, have been treated and fractionated in order to allow for their complete valorization. RHs coming from the raw and parboiled rice production have been submitted at first to a hydrothermal pretreatment followed by a deep eutectic solvent fractionation, allowing for the separation of the different components by means of an environmentally friendly process. The lignins obtained from raw and parboiled RHs have been thoroughly characterized and showed similar physico-chemical characteristics, indicating that the parboiling process does not introduce obvious lignin alterations.

Nanobody-based retargeting of an oncolytic herpesvirus for eliminating CXCR4 GBM cells: A proof of principle.

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most aggressive primary brain tumor in adults, which remains difficult to cure. The very high recurrence rate has been partly attributed to the presence of GBM stem-like cells (GSCs) within the tumors, which have been associated with elevated chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) expression. CXCR4 is frequently overexpressed in cancer tissues, including GBM, and usually correlates with a poor prognosis.