Current Issue : October - December Volume : 2014 Issue Number : 4 Articles : 8 Articles
The process of converting lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol involves pretreatment to disrupt the complex of lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose, freeing cellulose and hemicellulose for enzymatic saccharification and fermentation. Determining optimal pretreatment techniques for fermentation is essential for the success of lignocellulosic energy production process. The study involved the acid pretreatment and use of cellulase enzyme to degrade the complex lignocellulosic biomass to simple sugars. Sugars so formed in turn are converted to ethanol by employing suitable yeast strains and bacterium Zymomonas mobilis. Different fermentation process like separate hydrolysis and fermentation process (SHF) and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation process (SSF) have been evaluated for the biethanol production. In separate hydrolysis and fermentation process, it showed the higher ethanol production in Zymomonas mobilis (47.34±1.2 g/l) and Candida shehatae (47.34±1.5 g/l), average ethanol production in Pichia stipitis (42.60±2.1 g/l) and very low ethanol production in Schizosaccharomyces pombe (31.56±1.6 g/l). In simultaneous saccharification and fermentation process, it showed the higher ethanol production in Zymomonas mobilis (48.12±1.1 g/l) and Saccharomyces uvarum (48.12±1.0 g/l), average ethanol production in Candida shehatae (44.97±1.8 g/l) and very low ethanol production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (29.98±1.7 g/l) was monitored after the fermentation process. Structural changes of areca nut husk before and after acid pretreatment were further investigated through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Hence, acid and enzymatic pre-treatment is more effective for ethanol production. The superiority of ethanol yield and productivity was very high in both SSF and SHF methods. Areca nut husk was revealed as a suitable substrate for ethanol production....
Background: Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is one of the primary causes of bone infections which are often\nchronic and difficult to eradicate. Bacteria like S. aureus may survive upon internalization in cells and may be\nresponsible for chronic and recurrent infections. In this study, we compared the responses of a phagocytic cell\n(i.e. macrophage) to a non-phagocytic cell (i.e. osteoblast) upon S. aureus internalization.\nResults: We found that upon internalization, S. aureus could survive for up to 5 and 7 days within macrophages\nand osteoblasts, respectively. Significantly more S. aureus was internalized in macrophages compared to osteoblasts\nand a significantly higher (100 fold) level of live intracellular S. aureus was detected in macrophages compared to\nosteoblasts. However, the percentage of S. aureus survival after infection was significantly lower in macrophages\ncompared to osteoblasts at post-infection days 1ââ?¬â??6. Interestingly, macrophages had relatively lower viability in\nshorter infection time periods (i.e. 0.5-4 h; significant at 2 h) but higher viability in longer infection time periods\n(i.e. 6ââ?¬â??8 h; significant at 8 h) compared to osteoblasts. In addition, S. aureus infection led to significant changes in\nreactive oxygen species production in both macrophages and osteoblasts. Moreover, infected osteoblasts had\nsignificantly lower alkaline phosphatase activity at post-infection day 7 and infected macrophages had higher\nphagocytosis activity compared to non-infected cells.\nConclusions: S. aureus was found to internalize and survive within osteoblasts and macrophages and led to\ndifferential responses between osteoblasts and macrophages. These findings may assist in evaluation of the\npathogenesis of chronic and recurrent infections which may be related to the intracellular persistence of bacteria\nwithin host cells....
Background: Healing of burns is a complex process and very few effective treatments exist to facilitate the burn\nrecovery process. Human acidic fibroblast growth factor 1 (FGF-1) plays an important role in a variety of biological\nprocesses, including angiogenesis, and tissue repair. Salvia miltiorrhiza is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine\nas an herb for the treatment of various diseases, including cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and\ntraumatic injuries. We present that expression of FGF-1 in S. miltiorrhiza significantly accelerates the healing of burn\nwounds.\nResults: The human fgf-1 gene was fused with a barley ?-amylase signal peptide DNA sequence and driven by a\n35S promoter for constitutive expression in transgenic S. miltiorrhiza plants. The highest yield of recombinant FGF-1\nobtained from leaves of transgenic S. miltiorrhiza lines was 272 ng/fresh weight. Aqueous extracts from transgenic\nS. miltiorrhiza exhibited FGF-1 activity approximately 19.2-fold greater than that of the standard FGF-1. Compared to\nthe standard FGF-1 or the extracts obtained from non-transgenic plants, it stimulated proliferation of Balb/c 3 T3\nmouse fibroblast cells assessed with the standard MTT assay and promoted angiogenesis in the chicken embryo\nchorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay. Topical application of the extract significantly accelerated the burn wound\nhealing process.\nConclusions: The product appears to retain the biological activity of both FGF-1 as well as the medicinal properties\nof the plant. The extracts from transgenic S. miltiorrhiza combines the therapeutic functions of FGF-1 and the\nmedicinal plant, S. miltiorrhiza. Topical application of the product can reduce the costs associated with extraction,\npurification, and recovery....
Kidney stone disease is a common disease which affecting the population with a peak of incidence around the third to fourth decade of life. The present study deals with isolation, identification and analysis of bacteria from kidney stones through 16S rRNA based molecular technique. Bacterial strain was isolated and characterized using various biochemical tests and confirmed through molecular approach. Bacterial 16S rRNA gene was amplified using suitable primers. The amplified 16S rRNA gene sequence was compared with the sequence in NCBI sequence database the bacterial strain was identified as Acinetobacter calcoaceticus strain phylogenetic and molecular evolutionary analyses were conducted using 16S rRNA sequencing. The sequence when submitted to NCBI gene bank database using BLAST showed 99 – 100% maximum identity and has shown good similarity with Acinetobacter colcoaceticus, Acinetobacter oleivorans and Acinetobacter baumanni....
Bacteriological study of pre-operative urine and stone along with chemical analysis of stones have been performed and it is a common disease which affecting the population with a peak of incidence around the third to fourth decade of life. The present study deals with isolation, identification and analysis of bacteria from kidney stones through 16S rRNA based molecular technique. Bacterial strain was isolated and characterized using various biochemical tests and confirmed through molecular approach. Bacterial 16S rRNA gene was amplified using suitable primers. The amplified 16S rRNA gene sequence was compared with the sequence in NCBI sequence database the bacterial strain was identified as Exiguobacterium indicum strain phylogenetic and molecular evolutionary analyses were conducted using 16S rRNA sequencing. The sequence when submitted to NCBI gene bank database using BLAST showed 99 – 100% maximum identity and have shown good similarity with Exiguobacterium indicum strain BR181A, Exiguobacterium indicum strain HHS31, Exiguobacterium indicum strain BPc2, Exiguobacterium indicum strain JDM5 1B, Exiguobacterium indicum strain PCWCW8....
Background: Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are intestinal disorders characterized by inflammation in the\ngastrointestinal tract. Interleukin-10 is one of the most important anti-inflammatory cytokines involved in the\nintestinal immune system and because of its role in downregulating inflammatory cascades, its potential for IBD\ntherapy is under study. We previously presented the development of an invasive strain of Lactococcus lactis\n(L. lactis) producing Fibronectin Binding Protein A (FnBPA) which was capable of delivering, directly to host cells,\na eukaryotic DNA expression vector coding for IL-10 of Mus musculus (pValac:il-10) and diminish inflammation\nin a trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS)-induced mouse model of intestinal inflammation. As a new therapeutic\nstrategy against IBD, the aim of this work was to evaluate the therapeutic effect of two L. lactis strains (the same\ninvasive strain evaluated previously and the wild-type strain) carrying the therapeutic pValac:il-10 plasmid in the\nprevention of inflammation in a dextran sodium sulphate (DSS)-induced mouse model.\nResults: Results obtained showed that not only delivery of the pValac:il-10 plasmid by the invasive strain L. lactis\nMG1363 FnBPA+, but also by the wild-type strain L. lactis MG1363, was effective at diminishing intestinal inflammation\n(lower inflammation scores and higher IL-10 levels in the intestinal tissues, accompanied by decrease of IL-6) in the\nDSS-induced IBD mouse model.\nConclusions: Administration of both L. lactis strains carrying the pValac:il-10 plasmid was effective at diminishing\ninflammation in this murine model of experimental colitis, showing their potential for therapeutic intervention of IBD....
Hospital wastewater may contain various potentially-hazardous components including, microbiological pathogens, chemical compounds, disinfectants, pharmaceuticals and radioactive isotopes. In the present study, Salmonella typhimurium strains TA 100 and TA 102 were analyzed for their mutagenicity to hospital waste waters. The results of the study showed that hospital waste waters consists of mutagens causing frame shift mutations and base pair substitutions and amongst the two advanced strains of salmonella typhimurium, TA 102 was most effective and one of the standard screening strains for detecting mutagenic agents which along with TA 100 can be used for quick assessment of genotoxicity of hospital waste waters prior to its discharge. Mutagenicity evaluation of hospital waste waters from three major hospitals located in Jaipur was studied. Such waste waters should be treated properly before releasing into the environmental water bodies. The results of this study call for further detailed research in this area....
The microorganisms present in environment and human intestine consists of bacteria, archaea, protozoa, fungi, bacteriophages and viruses. To reduce the undesired side effects, advanced drug delivery systems are needed which are based on specific cell targeting vehicles. To overcome these problems microorganisms are used as carrier to deliver therapeutic agents and vaccines in human. This review focused on the development delivery system by using microbes like virus and bacteria in nanotechnology and vaccine. Bacterial ghost can be preferred as vaccine candidates due to excellent DNA loading capacity. Viruses hold great promise in assembling and interconnecting novel nanosized components, allowing developing organized nanoparticle assemblies. The use of nanoparticles in vaccine formulations allows not only improved antigen stability and immunogenicity, but also targeted delivery and slow release. Microparticulate carriers proposed extensive potential for drug and vaccine delivery via mucosal routes. Bioneedles are superior and alternative delivery system for vaccination....
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