Ethanol affects fibroblast behavior differentially at low and high doses: A comprehensive, dose-response evaluation

Disinfectant-induced hormesis: An unknown environmental threat of the application of disinfectants to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection during the COVID-19 pandemic?

“…These recent findings extend older findings of ethanol-and other disinfectant-induced hormesis in different kinds of cells and experimental models (Branham, 1929;Calabrese and Baldwin, 2003), and the magnitude of the sub-threshold effects is commonly within two-fold of the control response/status, in agreement with the broad hormesis literature for numerous stresses, organisms, and endpoints (Agathokleous et al, 2020;Calabrese et al, 2019;Calabrese and Agathokleous, 2021;Sun et al, 2021). Hormetic responses have been reported for a plethora of endpoints, such as cell viability (Zhang et al, 2008) and proliferation [MTT activity (Kar et al, 2021)], cyanobacteria luciferase (Mo et al, 2020), plant shoot and root biomass (Li et al, 2019), human health-related biomarkers (Hrubec et al, 2021), and levels of reduced glutathione (GSH) and gene expression of GCLC and NQO-1 (Zhang et al, 2008). H 2 O 2 also promoted PAC1-R promoter activity in a dose-dependent fashion, which was inhibited by the transcription factor specificity protein 1 (SP1) inhibitor mithramycin A (Huang et al, 2019), while yeast colony growth positively correlated with the glutathione reductase activity (Semchyshyn, 2014;Semchyshyn and Valishkevych, 2016).…”

“…1). Examples of such chemicals shown to induce hormesis include chlorine-based chemicals (Zhang et al, 2008), H 2 O 2 (Huang et al, 2019;Ludovico and Burhans, 2014;Semchyshyn, 2014;Semchyshyn and Valishkevych, 2016), various QACs (Hrubec et al, 2021;Li et al, 2019;Mo et al, 2020), and ethanol (Calabrese and Baldwin, 2003;Kar et al, 2021;Semchyshyn, 2014). These chemicals are used for both hand and surface sanitizer products and are among the most widely applied disinfectants during the current pandemic (Dhama et al, 2021;Jing et al, 2020; World Health Organization (WHO), 2020).…”

“…Hormesis was induced in various organisms, such as freshwater luminescent bacteria (Vibrio qinghaiensis sp. Q67) (Mo et al, 2020), hydroponically-cultivated higher plants (Triticum aestivum L.) (Li et al, 2019), human neuroblastoma cell line (Huang et al, 2019), humans (associational) (Hrubec et al, 2021), mouse embryonic fibroblast cells (Kar et al, 2021), mouse macrophages (Zhang et al, 2008), and yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae Meyen ex E.C. Hansen) (Semchyshyn, 2014;Semchyshyn and Valishkevych, 2016).…”

Formulation of water-soluble Buddleja globosa Hope extracts and characterization of their antimicrobial properties against Pseudomonas aeruginosa

“…The treatment for 24 h with ethanol resulted in higher biofilm biomasses than the untreated control. Ethanol is well known as a disinfectant, which could be a desirable property but it has cytotoxic effects on mammalian cells ( Farkas et al, 2003 ; Calderon-Montano et al, 2018 ; Kar et al, 2021 ). On the other hand, studies have shown that low ethanol concentrations (1 or 2%) are considered stress factors that induce biofilm formation ( Chaieb et al, 2007 ; Tashiro et al, 2014 ) by increased cell aggregation ( He et al, 2022 ) and induction of exopolysaccharide production ( Chen et al, 2014 ).…”

“…On the other hand, natural extracts are usually obtained using non-aqueous solvents like ethanol, methanol, or DMSO. However, the low solubility of the extract components can hinder their biomedical application in the treatment of chronic or infected wounds as these solvents may exert cytotoxic effects against fibroblasts and keratinocytes ( Singh, 2017 ; Calderon-Montano et al, 2018 ; Kar et al, 2021 ). Therefore, increasing the water solubility of natural extracts may maximize their efficacy and minimize or discard the cytotoxicity induced by non-aqueous solvents.…”