Human-Practice

Overview

This year, LZU-HS-China-A was committed to researching and promoting the use of biotechnology to decompose chitosan into chitosan oligosaccharides. During this period, we interviewed different experts, doctors, restaurant staff and passers-by and conducted some investigations on the internet. At the same time, some of the information obtained in the interview was fed back into our experiment, which improved our experimental results and research results.

Why Did We Choose This Project

Every time we traveled to the seaside, there were always mountains of shrimp shells and crab shells beside the trash bin, near the seafood store. After reading the data, we find that about 1.5 million tons of similar wastes can be produced annually in Southeast Asia, while the total amount of these wastes can reach 6-8 million tons worldwide. This kind of waste is damn serious. If we can make good use of this resource, we will get a lot of products. After investigation, we found that shrimp and crab shells are rich in chitin, and chitosan oligosaccharides obtained by processing chitin are of great help to the human body, animals, and even plants.

The person in the picture agrees to use this photo

Chitosan Oligosaccharide

Through several interviews with the attending doctor in the hospital, we knew that chitosan oligosaccharide has many biological functions such as good biocompatibility, degradability, safety, antibacterial activity, and enhancing immunity. As there are many different functions, chitosan oligosaccharide is widely used in many fields such as environmental protection, sewage treatment, food safety, bioengineering, and medical treatment. Chitosan oligosaccharide is a kind of oligosaccharide product obtained by special biological enzyme technology. It is a kind of molecular product with good usability, powerful function, and high biological activity. It has high solubility, which chitosan does not have. It is completely soluble in water and easy to be absorbed and utilized by organisms. Its function is 14 times that of chitosan. Chitosan oligosaccharide is also the only basic amino oligosaccharide with cations in nature, which is called the sixth major vital factor of the human body as animal cellulose.

Safe Use Bacteria And Fungi Strains

To ensure the safety of the experiment and the product after taking it, LZU-HS-China-A found professionals and learned about microbiology and human health. We invited Mr. Si, a teacher from Zhongke Jiayi, to explain to us some knowledge about bacteria and probiotics and the symbiotic relationship between colonies in the human body and the human body. In the course of the lecture, we focused on understanding the process of folate metabolism by intestinal flora using oligosaccharides and vitamin compounds and analyzed the ability of folate metabolism of people of different ages. At the same time, Mr. Si also explained how to use E. coli correctly and safely in the laboratory to help us ensure the safety of our experiments.

Interview With Restaurant-related People

Restaurant Manager

Shrimp and crab shells account for about 2%-4% of the whole seafood restaurant's kitchen waste output in the peak season of consumption. Since the overall waste generation base of restaurants is large, the number of shrimp and crab shells is large. But when asked if the restaurant is willing to separate shrimp and crab shells into a class of garbage, the restaurant's director and chef expressed support for related projects, but only if such activities can bring economic benefits to the restaurant alone, the restaurant will implement relevant policies. If it cannot brings economic benefits, this kind of activity will cause higher economic costs and labor costs, and there is a risk that the income of restaurants will be reduced. Although subjectively, everyone supports the continuation of such a project, due to the economic pressure brought by the epidemic situation and time cost, the restaurant hesitates in the classification of shrimp and crab shells.

Diner

Subjectively, diners are also willing to treat shrimp and crab shells and turn them into substances beneficial to the environment. However, in the meal process, most people are unwilling to separate shrimp and crab shells and other garbage. The main reason is that the space on the table is limited and the environment when eating is very unclean. Therefore, people are unwilling to separate shrimp shells and crab shells and spend more time after meals.

Medicinal And Health Care Value

Interview doctors and health care store staff

To find a more general use of chitosan oligosaccharide in life and maximize the efficiency and benefit of chitosan oligosaccharide use, we interviewed doctors in hospitals and staff of health care products stores. Doctors say that in the medical field, chitosan mainly acts on the following aspects, especially the third aspect: first, reducing weight and lipids, second, beautifying skin care, third, enhancing the immune system, fourth, protecting liver, fifth, lowering blood sugar, sixth, reducing hypertension, seventh, regulating intestinal tract, eighth, discharging heavy metals. Current research shows that chitosan can effectively regulate the immune function of the body, enhance resistance, activate repair cells, and thus achieve the effect of regulating human health. At the same time, the staff and doctors of healthcare products stores all said that with the development of biotechnology, chitosan oligosaccharides probably will become healthcare products and even medicines.

Interview With Passers

Interview With Old Men and Women

After completing all the experiments and professional interviews, we turned the target population to the public, hoping to know the public's acceptance of chitosan oligosaccharide drugs through our interviews. From the interview results, we can see that after a brief understanding of the efficacy of chitosan oligosaccharide, everyone is looking forward to the healthcare effect of this food, and most people are willing to take it or take it according to advice from doctors. But when we mentioned the use of some transgenic technology in the production of chitosan oligosaccharides, one-third of passers-by said no because they thought that transgenic technology was a great threat to biological health. This proves that we still need to do more work in popularizing transgenic technology education.

People Who Keep Pets and Plants

Most people think that animals will age just like people, so they also need corresponding drugs to help them better protect their bodies. Pet owners are willing to let their cats or dogs take relevant drugs on the premise of taking veterinary advice. Of course, one in five respondents thought they would not let their pets take the medicine because they thought that the genetically modified technology used in the drug might bring diseases to pets and even directors. Most people who raise plants think that if they can make their flowers grow better, they can consider using this fertilizer. And there is little concern about transgenic technology when breeding plants. They think that such artificial technology is less harmful to plants.

Feedback and Improvement of Human Practice to Projects

The team conducted two experiments in the laboratory. Cell surface display technology was not used during the first experiment. We used transgenic technology directly in the laboratory. After the plasmid containing the chitosanase gene was extracted and synthesized, the plasmid was directly introduced into E. coli DH5 alpha. Taking advantage of the rapid reproduction of E. coli DH5 alpha, the team obtained a large number of plasmids that met the standard within 12 hours and introduced them into E. coli BL21 for competent cell preparation. Finally, chitosanase was expressed, but through statistics, we found that the preparation efficiency of chitosan oligosaccharide was extremely low, far lower than we expected.

To find out the specific reasons for the inefficient preparation of chitosan oligosaccharide, many members of the team visited different hospitals, schools, and biological laboratories and asked the experimenters in detail. According to the information obtained from the interview and the review of the experiment, we found that in this experiment, the chitosanase gene can only express the required protein inside cells, and the process of transmembrane transportation is needed to decompose chitosan and produce chitosan oligosaccharide, which greatly reduces the efficiency of production. So the problem is obvious. We need to find an experimental method to make chitosan decompose without crossing the cell membrane.

After the second round of interviews and a partnership with LZU-HS-China-C and BFSU-ICUnited, we finally decided to use INP and cell surface display technology for the experiment. After interviewing some experts, we conducted a second experiment. In this experiment, we retained the transgenic technology and used this technology to extract chitosanase genes from a protoplast. Different from the first experiment, we combined the chitosanase gene with the N terminal of INP as our target gene. Then the team members said in the laboratory that the target gene was fused with the gene of E. coli to make a new plasmid and reintroduced it into E. coli DH5 alpha. The protein expressed by the INP N-terminal gene will be immobilized on the cell membrane after the above experimental steps are completed. Therefore, chitosanase can also be immobilized on the cell surface, and chitosan can be decomposed directly on the cell surface, thus eliminating the step of transporting chitosan into cells across membranes.

Conclusion

Through investigations and researching sources online, we found that 19.7% of people over 50 years old in China suffer from osteoporosis. At the same time, there are still a large number of people with low bone mass in China, and the low bone mass rate of people over 50 years old reaches 46.4%. These data prove that at least in Chinese society, many people need drugs led by chitosan oligosaccharide to prevent and alleviate osteoporosis. Our experimental project greatly reduces the production cost and improves the production efficiency of chitosan oligosaccharide. This improvement is helpful to both patients and society.

References

科学家认为虾壳蟹壳作为一种可再生资源价值巨大. People.cn. (2015, August 26).
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3332. (2018, October 22). 调查显示中国50岁以上人群骨质疏松症患病率为19.2%. 人民网.
Retrieved October 6, 2022, from http://health.people.com.cn/n1/2018/1022/c14739-30354355.html
你吃过海鲜大餐后扔掉的蟹壳虾壳，有可能孕育价值亿万的产业_百科TA说. 到百科首页.
(2016, December 17). Retrieved October 6, 2022, from
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