Hydrogen Sulfide Protects Damage From Methyl Viologen-Mediated Oxidative Stress by Improving Gas Exchange,Fluorescence Kinetics of Photosystem II,and Antioxidant System in Arabidopsis thaliana

Journal of Plant Growth Regulation - Considering the unfavorable impacts of methyl viologen-induced oxidative stress (MV1-2, 50 and 500 µM) on growth, gas exchange (intercellular CO2...     

Identification of the capsular polysaccharides of Type D and F Pasteurella multocida as unmodified heparin and chondroitin,respectively

Pasteurella multocida is a pathogenic Gram-negative bacterial species that infects a wide variety of animals and humans. A notable morphological feature of many isolates is the extracellular capsule. The ability to remove the capsule by treatment with certain glycosidases has been utilized to discern various capsular types called A, D and F. Based on this preliminary evidence, these microbes have capsules made of glycosaminoglycans, linear polysaccharides composed of repeating disaccharide units containing an amino sugar. Glycosaminoglycans are also abundant components of the vertebrate extracellular matrix. It has been shown previously that the major Type A capsular material was hyaluronan (hyaluronic acid). We report that the Type D polymer is an unmodified heparin (N-acetylheparosan) with a -->4)-beta-D-Glcp-UA-(1-->4)-alpha-D-Glcp-NAc-(1--> repeating unit and the Type F polymer is an unmodified chondroitin with a -->4)-beta-D-Glcp-UA-(1-->3)-beta-D-Galp-NAc-(1--> repeating unit. The monosaccharide compositions, disaccharide profiles, and 1H NMR analyses are consistent with these identifications. The molecular size of the Pasteurella polymers is approximately 100-300 kDa as determined by gel electrophoresis and multi-angle laser light scattering; this size is much greater than the 10-30 kDa size of the analogous polymers isolated from animal tissues. The glycosaminoglycan capsular polymers are relatively non-immunogenic virulence factors that enhance microbial pathogenicity.     

Epigenetic and Genetic Alterations Affect the WWOX Gene in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Different types of genetic and epigenetic changes are associated with HNSCC. The molecular mechanisms of HNSCC carcinogenesis are still undergoing intensive investigation. WWOX gene expression is altered in many cancers and in a recent work reduced WWOX expression has been associated with miR-134 expression in HNSCC. In this study we investigated the WWOX messenger RNA expression levels in association with the promoter methylation of the WWOX gene and miR-134 expression levels in 80 HNSCC tumor and non-cancerous tissue samples. Our results show that WWOX expression is down-regulated especially in advanced-stage tumor samples or in tumors with SCC. This down-regulation was associated with methylation of the WWOX promoter region but not with miR-134 expression. There was an inverse correlation between the expression level and promoter methylation. We also analyzed whole exons and exon/intron boundries of the WWOX gene by direct sequencing. In our study group we observed 10 different alterations in the coding sequences and 18 different alterations in the non-coding sequences of the WWOX gene in HNSCC tumor samples. These results indicate that the WWOX gene can be functionally inactivated by promoter methylation, epigenetically or by mutations affecting the sequences coding for the enzymatic domain of the gene, functionally. We conclude that inactivation of WWOX gene contributes to the progression of HNSCC.     

In-vitro diagnosis of single and poly microbial species targeted for diabetic foot infection using e-nose technology

Background

Effective management of patients with diabetic foot infection is a crucial concern. A delay in prescribing appropriate antimicrobial agent can lead to amputation or life threatening complications. Thus, this electronic nose (e-nose) technique will provide a diagnostic tool that will allow for rapid and accurate identification of a pathogen.

Results

This study investigates the performance of e-nose technique performing direct measurement of static headspace with algorithm and data interpretations which was validated by Headspace SPME-GC-MS, to determine the causative bacteria responsible for diabetic foot infection. The study was proposed to complement the wound swabbing method for bacterial culture and to serve as a rapid screening tool for bacteria species identification. The investigation focused on both single and poly microbial subjected to different agar media cultures. A multi-class technique was applied including statistical approaches such as Support Vector Machine (SVM), K Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) as well as neural networks called Probability Neural Network (PNN). Most of classifiers successfully identified poly and single microbial species with up to 90% accuracy.

Conclusions

The results obtained from this study showed that the e-nose was able to identify and differentiate between poly and single microbial species comparable to the conventional clinical technique. It also indicates that even though poly and single bacterial species in different agar solution emit different headspace volatiles, they can still be discriminated and identified using multivariate techniques.     

Molecular and allergenic characterization of recombinant tropomyosin from mud crab Scylla olivacea

Molecular Biology Reports - Tropomyosin is a major allergen in crustaceans, including mud crab species, but its molecular and allergenic properties in Scylla olivacea are not well known. Thus, this...     

New diprenylated dihyrochalcones from leaves of Artocarpus elasticus

Two new diprenylated dihydrochalcones, elastichalcone A 1 and elastichalcone B 2 and three known compounds were isolated from the leaves of Artocarpus elasticus. Their structures were determined by various spectroscopic techniques (UV, IR, MS, 1D-NMR and 2D-NMR). Elastichalcone B 2 and a known compound exhibited good free radical scavenging activity with IC₅₀ values of 11.30 and 11.89 μg/ml, respectively.     

Ras oncogene mutations in urine sediments of patients with bladder cancer

Early detection of bladder cancer is particularly important since it dramatically affects the survival rates. However, neither urinary cytology nor tumor markers that are currently used are sensitive enough for the early detection of bladder cancer or recurrent disease. The ras genes are frequently mutated in cancer. In this study, we investigated the diagnostic potential of ras mutation analysis in urinary sediments of patients with bladder cancer using a single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis and polymerase chain reaction. Mutation in codon 12 of the H-ras gene was observed in 39% of the patients. Our results indicate that this approach may significantly improve diagnostic sensitivity in detecting bladder tumors.     

Long-Range Surface Plasmon Resonance–Based Sensitivity Study on D-shaped Ag-MgF2-Coated Models with Analyte Variations

In this report, a novel D-shaped long-range surface plasmon resonance (LRSPR) fiber base sensor has been introduced. The demonstration of proposed sensor involves two D-shaped silver-coated models to study the sensitivity responses. The entire study with the constructed models is based on a single-mode fiber. The models are multilayered consisting of metal, dielectric, and analyte as separate layers. Silver (Ag) and magnesium fluoride (MgF2) strips are used as metal and dielectric layers respectively. The constituency of analyte as an interface excellently standardized the models for sensitivity detection. In this report, a large range of analyte refractive indices (RI) which varies from 1.33 to 1.38 is appraised for the proposed models to characterize the sensitivity. The entire context is encompassed by the wavelength region from 450 to 850 nm with an interval of 20 nm. Sensitivities in this report are measured based on the analyte position from the core and metal for both models. For each of the two models, the analyte is placed as the top layer. RIs of the applied metal (Ag) are measured using the Drude-Lorentz formula. The simulated sensitivities for model-1 and model-2 vary from 6.3?×?10³ nm/RIU to 8.7?×?10³ nm/RIU.