Elemental sulfur improves growth and phytoremediative ability of wheat grown in lead-contaminated calcareous soil

Little is known about the effect of elemental sulfur on lead uptake and its toxicity in wheat. A pot experiment was conducted with the purpose to examine the impact of sulfur on improving Pb solubility in soil, and uptake and accumulation in wheat plants. The effect of three levels of lead (0, 50, and 100 mg/kg soil) and sulfur (0, 150, and 300 mmol/kg soil) was tested in all possible combinations. Root dry matter, straw, and grain yields, and the photosynthetic and transpiration rates decreased significantly with increase in the concentration of Pb in the soil. However, sulfur fertilization in the presence of Pb improved the photosynthetic and transpiration rates and consequently increased the straw and grain yields of wheat. It also enhanced Pb accumulation in roots, its translocation from roots to shoot, and accumulation in grain. S and Zn contents of different plant parts were also enhanced. Thus, by mitigating the toxic effect of Pb and improving wheat growth, sulfur enhances Pb accumulation by the aboveground plant parts and hence the phytoextraction capacity of wheat. However, total accumulation of Pb shows that wheat plant cannot be considered as a suitable candidate for phytoremediation.     

Arsenic(V) biosorption by charred orange peel in aqueous environments

Biosorption efficiency of natural orange peel (NOP) and charred orange peel (COP) was examined for the immobilization of arsenate (As(V)) in aqueous environments using batch sorption experiments. Sorption experiments were carried out as a function of pH, time, initial As(V) concentration and biosorbent dose, using NOP and COP (pretreated with sulfuric acid). Arsenate sorption was found to be maximum at pH 6.5, with higher As(V) removal percentage (98%) by COP than NOP (68%) at 4 g L^?1 optimum biosorbent dose. Sorption isotherm data exhibited a higher As(V) sorption (60.9 mg g^?1) for COP than NOP (32.7 mg g^?1). Langmuir model provided the best fit to describe As(V) sorption. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy combined with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analyses revealed that the –OH, –COOH, and –N-H surface functional groups were involved in As(V) biosorption and the meso- to micro-porous structure of COP sequestered significantly (2-times) higher As(V) than NOP, respectively. Arsenate desorption from COP was found to be lower (10%) than NOP (26%) up to the third regeneration cycle. The results highlight that this method has a great potential to produce unique ‘charred’ materials from the widely available biowastes, with enhanced As(V) sorption properties.     

Design of an Inflammation-Sensitive Polyelectrolyte-Based Topical Drug Delivery System for Arthritis

The most successful treatment strategy for arthritis is intra-articular injections that are costly and have reduced patient compliance. The purpose of the current study was to develop an inflammation-sensitive system for topical drug administration. Multi-macromolecular alginate-hyaluronic acid-chitosan (A-H-C) polyelectrolyte complex nanoparticles, loaded with indomethacin were developed employing pre-gel and post-gel techniques in the presence of dodecyl-l-pyroglutamate (DLP). In addition to in vitro studies, in silico simulations were performed to affirm and associate the molecular interactions inherent to the formulation of core all-natural multi-component biopolymeric architectures composed of an anionic (alginate), a cationic (chitosan), and an amphi-ionic polyelectrolytic (hyaluronic acid) macromolecule. The results demonstrated that DLP significantly influenced the size of the synthesized nanoparticles. Drug-content analysis revealed higher encapsulation efficiency (77.3%) in the presence of DLP, irrespective of the techniques used. Moreover, in vitro drug release studies showed that indomethacin release from the nanosystem was significantly improved (98%) in Fenton’s reagent. Drug permeation across a cellulose membrane using a Franz diffusion cell system showed an initial surge flux (0.125 mg/cm^?2/h), followed by sustained release of indomethacin for the post-gel nanoparticles revealing its effective skin permeation efficiency. In conclusion, the study presents novel nanoparticles which could effectively encapsulate and deliver hydrophobic drugs to the target site, particularly for arthritis.     

Pcal_1127, a highly stable and efficient ribose-5-phosphate pyrophosphokinase from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pyrobaculum calidifontis</Emphasis>

Analysis of the genome sequence of Pyrobaculum calidifontis revealed the presence of an open reading frame Pcal_1127 annotated as ribose-5-phosphate pyrophosphokinase. To examine the properties of Pcal_1127 the coding gene was cloned, expressed in Escherichia coli, and the purified gene product was characterized. Pcal_1127 exhibited higher activity when ATP was replaced by dATP as pyrophosphate donor. Phosphate and EDTA activated the enzyme activity and equivalent amount of activity was detected with ATP and dATP in their presence. Recombinant Pcal_1127 could utilize all the four nucleotides as pyrophosphate donors with a marked preference for ATP. Optimum temperature and pH for the enzyme activity were 55 °C and 10.5, respectively. A unique feature of Pcal_1127 was its stability against temperature as well as denaturants. Pcal_1127 exhibited more than 95 % residual activity after heating for 4 h at 90 °C and a half-life of 15 min in the boiling water. The enzyme activity was not affected by the presence of 8 M urea or 4 M guanidinium chloride. Pcal_1127 was a highly efficient enzyme with a catalytic efficiency of 5183 mM^?1 s^?1. These features make Pcal_1127, a novel and unique ribose-5-phosphate pyrophosphokinase.     

Beta-galactoside transport in E. coli: a functional dissection of lac permease

The polytopic membrane protein lac permease harnesses energy from the electrochemical H+ gradient to transport beta-galactosidases against a concentration gradient. Although high-resolution structural information is still lacking, the permease is thought to possess 12 membrane-spanning alpha-helical segments. Various experimental strategies, including site-directed mutagenesis, have been employed to probe the function of this membrane protein at the molecular level.     

Tranexamic acid for the prevention of postpartum bleeding in women with anaemia: study protocol for an international,randomised, double-blind,placebo-controlled trial

Background

Postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) is responsible for about 100,000 maternal deaths every year, most of which occur in low- and middle-income countries. Tranexamic acid (TXA) reduces bleeding by inhibiting the enzymatic breakdown of fibrin blood clots. TXA decreases blood loss in surgery and reduces death due to bleeding after trauma. When given within 3 h of birth, TXA reduces deaths due to bleeding in women with PPH. However, for many women, treatment of PPH is too late to prevent death. Over one third of pregnant women in the world are anaemic and many are severely anaemic. These women have an increased risk of PPH and suffer more severe outcomes if PPH occurs. There is an urgent need to identify a safe and effective way to reduce postpartum bleeding in anaemic women.

Methods/design

The WOMAN-2 trial is an international, multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to quantify the effects of TXA on postpartum bleeding in women with moderate or severe anaemia. Ten thousand women with moderate or severe anaemia who have given birth vaginally will be randomised to receive 1?g of TXA or matching placebo by intravenous injection immediately (within 15?min) after the umbilical cord is cut or clamped. The primary outcome is the proportion of women with a clinical diagnosis of primary PPH. The cause of PPH will be described. Data on maternal health and wellbeing, maternal blood loss and its consequences, and other health outcomes will be collected as secondary outcomes. The main analyses will be on an ‘intention-to-treat’ basis, irrespective of whether the allocated treatment was received. Results will be presented as appropriate effect estimates with a measure of precision (95% confidence intervals). Subgroup analyses will be based on the severity of anaemia (moderate versus severe) and type of labour (induced or augmented versus spontaneous). A study with 10,000 patients will have over 90% power to detect a 25% relative reduction from 10 to 7.5% in PPH. The trial will be conducted in hospitals in Africa and Asia.

Discussion

The WOMAN-2 trial should provide reliable evidence for the effects of TXA for preventing postpartum bleeding in women with anaemia.

Trial registration

ISRCTN, ISRCTN62396133. Registered on 7 December 2017;ClincalTrials.gov, ID: NCT03475342. Registered on 23 March 2018.

     

Halophytes-associated endophytic and rhizospheric bacteria: diversity,antagonism and metabolite production

In Saudi Arabia, halophytes occupy tidal and intertidal forest ecosystems. They and their associated microflora have immense potential to yield novel and important useful natural products. Three halophytes (Avicennia marina, Halocnemum strobilaceum, Zygophyllum qatarense) were targeted for the isolation and identification of populations of endophytic and rhizospheric bacteria having antimicrobial potential. A total 554 bacterial isolates were initially screened against oomycetes fungal pathogens, Phytophthora capsici and Pythium ultimum. Of these, only 57 rhizospheric and endophytic bacteria exhibited inhibition against the targeted bioassay oomycetes. Tentative identification of the bacteria was on the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequences which revealed 92–100% sequence identity to type strains of related species and placed these organisms in six major classes: Actinobacteria, γ-Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, α-Proteobacteria, Flavobacteriia and β-Proteobacteria. When checked for lytic enzyme production, mostly the isolates of Actinobacteria and Firmicutes were potential enzyme producers. Detection of secondary metabolite biosynthetic genes – type I polyketide synthases, type II polyketide synthases and nonribosomal peptide synthetases – confirmed that 21 (35.5%) isolates were positive for at least one type of the biosynthetic gene. In order to identify metabolites, three isolates, Alteromonas australica (EA73), Aidingimonas halophila (EA105) and Halomonas zincidurans (EA127), were selected and subjected to chemical analyses using liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Both analyses showed the presence of different bioactive compounds in the culture extracts of isolates some of which are already reported for their diverse biological activities such as 2, 4-Diacetylphloroglucinol. Our results demonstrated that halophytes represent an important source of potentially active bacteria producing antifungal metabolites of medical significance.     

Protein adsorption onto monoliths: A surface energetics study

This part of work was done to explore the basic understanding of the adsorption chromatography by determining the interaction of selected model proteins (n = 5) to monolithic chromatographic materials, with varying densities of butyl and phenyl ligands. Surface energetics approach was applied to study the interaction behavior. The physicochemical properties of the proteins and monolithic chromatographic materials were explored by contact angle and zeta potential values. These values were used to study protein to monolith interaction under various operating conditions. Surface energetics approach allowed the calculation of interaction energy as a function of distance, i.e. energy minimum values. Calculations were performed at various conditions to analyze the effect of major operating parameters on the interaction strength. The interaction strength exposed the hydrophobic nature of the monoliths which increases with increasing ligand density. Further, interaction energy of proteins were higher with monolith with butyl ligand compared to monolith with phenyl ligand. For instance, lactoferrin interaction to monoliths with butyl represents more interaction, i.e. 24.38 kT as compared to monoliths with phenyl i.e. 23.28 kT, keeping lambda as 0.2 nm and salt concentration as 100 mM of ammonium sulphate. Hence, more energy and time will be consumed for elution of proteins immobilized to monoliths with butyl. Similarly, the effect of solid surface for proteins immobilization, effect of ligand density and effect of lambda showed some interesting insights on the interaction behavior. The knowledge generated from the present work will help in the basic understanding as well as development of an efficient, low cost downstream processing design and may mimic the real chromatographic experiments.