Preparation Of Polysaccharide-based Nanocomposites For Antifungal Treatment And Environmental Remediation

Polysaccharides are carbohydrate polymers. Because of their non-toxicity,natural abundance, biodegradability, desirable adhesion, low-cost and good dispersibility,they are considered as ideal supporter. Preparation of hydrogel-based hybrid and alginate-based composites and are promising for medical treatment and environmental remediation.Preparation of chitosan-based hybrid theranostic contact lens for fungal keratitis.Fungal keratitis, a severe ocular disease, is one of the leading causes of ocular morbidity and blindness, yet it is often neglected, especially in developing countries. Therapeutic efficacy of traditional treatment such as eye drops is very limited due to poor bioavailability,whereas intraocular injection might cause serious side effects. Herein, we designed and fabricated a hybrid hydrogel-based contact lens which comprises quaternized chitosan?HTCC?, silver nanoparticles and graphene oxide?GO? with a combination of antibacterial and antifungal functions. The hydrogel is crosslinked through electrostatic interactions between GO and HTCC, resulting in strong mechanical properties. Voriconazole?Vor?, an antifungal drug, can be loaded onto GO which retains the drug and promotes its sustained release from the hydrogel-based contact lenses. The contact lenses also exhibited good antimicrobial functions in view of glycidyltrimethylammonium chloride?GTMAC? and silver nanoparticles. The results from in vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrate that contact lenses loaded with Vor have excellent efficacy in antifungal activity in vitro and could significantly enhance the therapeutic effects on a fungus-infected mouse model. The results indicate that this novel hydrogel contact lenses based drug delivery system might be a promising therapeutic approach for a rapid and effective treatment of fungal keratitis.Preparation of alginate-based iron composites for emergent Cr?VI? removal. Usingsodium alginate as the supporter or carbon resource, we obtained two novel composites integrated with highly dispersed iron/iron oxide nanoparticles on the alginate-n ZVI sphere and the Fe₃O₄/FeCl₂·4H₂O/C sphere respectively. The results from experiments showed that the two spheres are effective in emergent Cr?VI? removal. The equilibrium Cr?VI? removal capacity of Fe₃O₄/FeCl₂·4H₂O/C sphere at p H=5.0 was 47.76 mg/g. Moreover, they can be easily separated from water by virtues of their floatable properties. The results indicated that the two composites might be promising agents for emergent water treatment.