Skeletal Lesions in Human Tuberculosis May Sometimes Heal: An Aid to Palaeopathological Diagnoses

In three to five percent of active cases of tuberculosis, skeletal lesions develop. Typically, these occur on the vertebrae and are destructive in nature. In this paper, we examined cases of skeletal tuberculosis from a skeletal collection (Galler Collection) with focus on the manifestation of bony changes due to tuberculosis in various body regions in association with antibiotic introduction. This skeletal collection was created in 1925–1977 by a pathologist at the University Hospital in Zürich, Ernst Galler. It includes the remains of 2426 individuals with documented clinical histories as well as autopsies. It contained 29 cases of skeletal tuberculosis lesions. We observed natural healing of vertebral lesions through several processes including fusion of vertebrae, bone deposition and fusion of posterior elements. In these cases, we observed a higher frequency and proportion of bone deposition and fusion of posterior vertebral elements where pharmacological agents were used. There were also four cases of artificial healing through surgically induced posterior spinal fusion. With the introduction of pharmaceutical treatments, the number of individuals with multiple tuberculous foci decreased from 80% to 25% when compared to individuals who did not receive any drug therapy. Investigation of comorbidities showed that pneumonia, pleuritis and being underweight were consistently present, even with pharmaceutical treatment. Our results have applications in palaeopathological diagnoses where healing and consequent bone deposition may complicate differential diagnoses.     

Exploring the cocrystallization potential of urea and benzamide

The cocrystallization landscape of benzamide and urea interacting with aliphatic and aromatic carboxylic acids was studied both experimentally and theoretically. Ten new cocrystals of benzamide were synthesized using an oriented samples approach via a fast dropped evaporation technique. Information about types of known bi-component cocrystals augmented with knowledge of simple binary eutectic mixtures was used for the analysis of virtual screening efficiency among 514 potential pairs involving aromatic carboxylic acids interacting with urea or benzamide. Quantification of intermolecular interaction was achieved by estimating the excess thermodynamic functions of binary liquid mixtures under supercooled conditions within a COSMO-RS framework. The smoothed histograms suggest that slightly more potential pairs of benzamide are characterized in the attractive region compared to urea. Finally, it is emphasized that prediction of cocrystals of urea is fairly direct, while it remains ambiguous for benzamide paired with carboxylic acids. The two known simple eutectics of urea are found within the first two quartiles defined by excess thermodynamic functions, and all known cocrystals are outside of this range belonging to the third or fourth quartile. On the contrary, such a simple separation of positive and negative cases of benzamide miscibility in the solid state is not observed. The difference in properties between urea and benzamide R2,2(8) heterosynthons is also documented by alterations of substituent effects. Intermolecular interactions of urea with para substituted benzoic acid analogues are stronger compared to those of benzamide. Also, the amount of charge transfer from amide to aromatic carboxylic acid and vice versa is more pronounced for urea. However, in both cases, the greater the electron withdrawing character of the substituent, the higher the binding energy, and the stronger the supermolecule polarization via the charge transfer mechanism.     

Accumulation of sugars in the xylem apoplast observed under water stress conditions is controlled by xylem pH

Severe water stress constrains, or even stops, water transport in the xylem due to embolism formation. Previously, the xylem of poplar trees was shown to respond to embolism formation by accumulating carbohydrates in the xylem apoplast and dropping xylem sap pH. We hypothesize that these two processes may be functionally linked as lower pH activates acidic invertases degrading sucrose and inducing accumulation of monosaccharides in xylem apoplast. Using a novel in vivo method to measure xylem apoplast pH, we show that pH drops from ~6.2 to ~5.6 in stems of severely stressed plants and rises following recovery of stem water status. We also show that in a lower pH environment, sugars are continuously accumulating in the xylem apoplast. Apoplastic carbohydrate accumulation was reduced significantly in the presence of a proton pump blocker (orthovanadate). These observations suggest that a balance in sugar concentrations exists between the xylem apoplast and symplast that can be controlled by xylem pH and sugar concentration. We conclude that lower pH is related to loss of xylem transport function, eventually resulting in accumulation of sugars that primes stems for recovery from embolism when water stress is relieved.     

Synthesis,Structural Characterization and Antimicrobial Evaluation of Ruthenium Complexes with Heteroaromatic Carboxylic Acids

The antibacterial and antibiofilm activities of two new ruthenium complexes against E. coli, S. aureus, P. aeruginosa PAO1 (laboratory strain) and P. aeruginosa LES B58 (clinical strain) were evaluated. Complexes, mer‐[Ru^III(2‐bimc)₃] ? H₂O ( 1 ) and cis‐[Ru^IVCl₂(2,3‐pydcH)₂] ? 4H₂O ( 2 ), were obtained using aromatic carboxylic acid ligands, namely, 1H‐benzimidazole‐2‐carboxylic acid (2‐bimcH) and pyridine‐2,3‐dicarboxylic acid (2,3‐pydcH₂). Compounds were physicochemically characterized using X‐ray diffraction, Hirshfeld surface analysis, IR and UV/VIS spectroscopies, as well as magnetic and electrochemical measurements. Structural characterization revealed that Ru(III) and Ru(IV) ions in the complexes adopt a distorted octahedral geometry. The intermolecular classical and weak hydrogen bonds, and π???π contacts significantly contribute to structure stabilization, leading to the formation of a supramolecular assembly. Biological studies have shown that the Ru complexes inhibit the growth of bacteria and biofilm formation by the tested strains and the complexes seem to be a potential as antimicrobial agents.