The effect of L-NAME administrations after oral mucosal incision on wound NO level in rabbit

The aim of the current study was to comparatively investigate the effect of inhibition of nitric oxide (NO) production by N-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME), an isoform non-specific inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase (NOS), after oral mucosal incision on wound tissue NO levels. A standard incision was applied to the oral mucosa of rabbits. After oral mucosal incision, rabbits were divided into five groups as follows: (1) Untreated incisional group (control); (2) Titanium (Ti) implanted group; (3) Ti + Polyethylene glycol (PEG) 4000 implanted group; (4) Ti + PEG 4000 + L-NAME (2 × 10⁻⁴ M) implanted group and (5) i.p. L-NAME administrated group (10 mg/kg). At 5 days after oral incision operations, wound tissue strips and plasma were obtained from rabbits. Oral wound tissue and plasma nitric oxide, plasma thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and total sulfhydryl group (RSH) levels were investigated. Plasma TBARS and NOx levels decreased after i.p. L-NAME administration. Total RSH group levels were not changed in all groups (p>0.05). This means that L-NAME inhibits the deteriorating effects of free radicals without affecting healing. L-NAME in PEG and titanium also has no effect on tissue and plasma NOx levels. These findings indicate that NO generation will not be affected both Ti and local nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor. (Mol Cell Biochem 278: 65–69, 2005)     

Medical treatment of pulmonary hydatid disease: for which child?

There have been many encouraging studies on medical treatment of pulmonary hydatid disease due to Echinococcus granulosus infection. Our aims were to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of medical treatment in pulmonary hydatid disease and to describe a pediatric population who would benefit from medical treatment, especially in respect to the diameter of the hydatid cyst. All patients were treated with mebendazole or albendazole. Treatment outcome was defined as cure, improvement or failure. Among 82 patients, 34.1% were cured, 34.1% improved and 31.8% failed. When 102 cysts were individually evaluated, 36.31% were cured, 32.4% improved and 31.3% failed. The cure and the failure rates were statistically insignificant in cysts treated with mebendazole and albendazole; however statistically significantly more cysts were improved with albendazole. The results were statistically insignificant between continuous and cyclic albendazole treatment. The mean size of successfully treated cysts was 5.3+/-3.4 cm, but "failed" for cyst with a mean size of 7.3+/-4.3 cm. There was a positive, weak and statistically significant correlation between the cyst size and treatment results. The major complication was infection. We suggest that selected pediatric patients with uncomplicated pulmonary hydatid cysts sized less than 5 cm should have a trial of medical treatment with a very close follow up.     

Anti-protozoal and plasmodial FabI enzyme inhibiting metabolites of Scrophularia lepidota roots

The ethanolic root extract of Scrophularia lepidota, an endemic plant of the Turkish flora, has been investigated for its anti-protozoal and inhibitory effect towards plasmodial enoyl-ACP reductase (FabI), a key enzyme of fatty acid biosynthesis in Plasmodium falciparum. Chromatographic separation of the extract yielded 10 iridoids (1-10), two of which are new, and a known phenylethanoid glycoside (11). The structures of the new compounds were determined as 3,4-dihydro-methylcatalpol (8) and 6-O-[4'-O-trans-(3,4-dimethoxycinnamoyl)-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl]aucubin (scrolepidoside, 9) by spectroscopic means. The remaining metabolites were characterized as catalpol (1), 6-O-methylcatalpol (2), aucubin (3), 6-O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-aucubin (sinuatol, 4), 6-O-beta-D-xylopyranosylaucubin (5), ajugol (6), ajugoside (7), an iridoid-related aglycone (10) and angoroside C (11). Nine isolates were active against Leishmania donovani, with the new compound 9 being most potent (IC50 6.1 microg/ml). Except for 4, all pure compounds revealed some trypanocidal potential against Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense (IC50 values 29.3-73.0 microg/ml). Only compound 10 showed moderate anti-plasmodial (IC50 40.6 microg/ml) and FabI enzyme inhibitory activity (IC50 100 microg/ml). 10 is the second natural product inhibiting the fatty acid biosynthesis of Plasmodium falciparum.     

Cytotoxic bromoindole derivatives and terpenes from the Philippine marine sponge Smenospongia sp

A detailed chemical analysis of a Philippine marine sponge Smenospongia sp. has been performed. This study yielded four new metabolites, 5-bromo-L-tryptophan (1), 5-bromoabrine (2), 5,6-dibromoabrine (3) and 5-bromoindole-3-acetic acid (4). The pyrroloiminoquinone alkaloid, makaluvamine O (5) as well as 5,6-dibromotryptamine (6), aureol (7) and furospinulosin 1 (8) were also isolated. Although 1 and 4 have been synthesized previously, this is the first report on the isolation of these compounds from a natural source. The furanosesterterpene furospinulosin 1 (8) was obtained for the first time from the genus Smenospongia. The structures of all compounds were established by spectroscopic methods (UV, IR, 1D and 2D NMR, MS, [alpha]D). The cytotoxic potential of 1-8 was evaluated in a panel of isogenic HCT-116 human colon tumor cell lines.     

Optimization of genomic selection training populations with a genetic algorithm

In this article, we imagine a breeding scenario with a population of individuals that have been genotyped but not phenotyped. We derived a computationally efficient statistic that uses this genetic information to measure the reliability of genomic estimated breeding values (GEBV) for a given set of individuals (test set) based on a training set of individuals. We used this reliability measure with a genetic algorithm scheme to find an optimized training set from a larger set of candidate individuals. This subset was phenotyped to create the training set that was used in a genomic selection model to estimate GEBV in the test set. Our results show that, compared to a random sample of the same size, the use of a set of individuals selected by our method improved accuracies. We implemented the proposed training selection methodology on four sets of data on Arabidopsis, wheat, rice and maize. This dynamic model building process that takes genotypes of the individuals in the test sample into account while selecting the training individuals improves the performance of genomic selection models.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12711-015-0116-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

DNA ligase III: A spotty presence in eukaryotes,but an essential function where tested

DNA ligases are crucial for most DNA transactions, including DNA replication, repair and recombination. Recently, DNA ligase III (Lig3) has been demonstrated to be crucial for cell survival due to its catalytic function in mitochondria. This review summarizes these recent results and reports on a hitherto unappreciated widespread phylogenetic presence of Lig3 in eukaryotes, including in some organisms before the divergence of metazoa. Analysis of these putative Lig3 homologs suggests that many of them are likely to be found in mitochondria and to be critical for mitochondrial function.Key words: genetics, molecular biology, DNA ligases, genome integrity, DNA repair