Current Issue : July - September Volume : 2018 Issue Number : 3 Articles : 5 Articles
Microbial pathogens have increasingly shown multidrug resistance posing a serious threat to the public health. Advances in\ntechnology are opening novel avenues for discovery of compounds that will mitigate the ever-increasing drug-resistant microbes.\nUse of photodynamic photosensitizer is one of the promising alternative approaches since they offer low risk of bacteria resistance\nas they use generated reactive oxygen species to kill the microbes. Phthalocyanine (Pc) is one such photosensitizer which has\nalready shown promising antimicrobial photodynamic therapeutic properties. Previous studies have shown effectiveness of the Pc\nagainst Gram-positive bacteria. However, its effectiveness toward Gram-negative bacteria is limited by the impermeability of the\nbacteria�s outer membrane which ismade up of lipopolysaccharides layer. The effectiveness of this photosensitizer is determined by\nits photophysical and photochemical properties such as singlet/triplet lifetimes, singlet oxygen quantum yields, and fluorescence\nquantumyield.Therefore, this review focuses on the recent significance advances on designing Pc that have this improved property\nby either conjugating with nanoparticles, quantum dots, functional groups in peripheral position, considering effect of cationic\ncharge, and its position on the macrocycle....
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are bio-based microbial biopolyesters; their stiffness,\nelasticity, crystallinity and degradability are tunable by the monomeric composition, selection of\nmicrobial production strain, substrates, process parameters during production, and post-synthetic\nprocessing; they display biological alternatives for diverse technomers of petrochemical origin. This,\ntogether with the fact that their monomeric and oligomeric in vivo degradation products do not exert\nany toxic or elsewhere negative effect to living cells or tissue of humans or animals, makes them\nhighly stimulating for various applications in the medical field. This article provides an overview\nof PHA application in the therapeutic, surgical and tissue engineering area, and reviews strategies\nto produce PHA at purity levels high enough to be used in vivo. Tested applications of differently\ncomposed PHA and advanced follow-up products as carrier materials for controlled in vivo release of\nanti-cancer drugs or antibiotics, as scaffolds for tissue engineering, as guidance conduits for nerve\nrepair or as enhanced sutures, implants or meshes are discussed from both a biotechnological and\na material-scientific perspective. The article also describes the use of traditional processing techniques\nfor production of PHA-based medical devices, such as melt-spinning, melt extrusion, or solvent\nevaporation, and emerging processing techniques like 3D-printing, computer-aided wet-spinning,\nlaser perforation, and electrospinning....
This study assessed the functionality and consumer acceptance of yeast fermented coffee beans. Green coffee beans were fermented\nfor 24 h with three different yeast strains to increase functionality.The yeast fermentation was effective in fortifying the functionality\nof coffee by significantly increasing antioxidant activity according to the results of ORAC and SOD-like assay (...
The increasing prevalence of multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae strains isolated from hospitals shows the limitation of\nrecent antibiotics used for bacterial eradication. In this study, 81 K. pneumoniae isolates were collected from three hospitals in\nTehran. Antibiotic susceptibility test showed the highest rates of resistance to cefotaxim (85.5%) and ceftazidime (78.3%), and the\nlowest rates of resistance were detected for colistin (16.9%), streptomycin (16.8%), and chloroamphenicol (21.7%). Eleven different\nresistance patterns were observed. Sixty-six out of 81 isolates (81.5%) were found to be multidrug resistant (MDR), and 35.8% of\nthem belonged to A3 resistance pattern. 7.4% and 66.7% were KPC enzyme and armA gene positive, respectively. RAPD PCR\nassay of these bacteria showed 5 clusters, 16 single types, and 14 common types, and there was not any correlation between genetic\npatterns of the isolates and presence of resistance agents. Simultaneous detection of resistance-creating agents could be an\nimportant challenge for combination therapy of MDR K. pneumoniae-caused infections...
Mass Galla chinesis et camelliae Fermentata (Chinese gall leaven, CGL) was investigated for activities against Helicobacter pylori\n(H. pylori) both in vitro and in vivo.The agar dilution method and time-kill curves, as in vitro assays and an in vivo study using a\nKunming mice model, were performed. CGL demonstrated a strong anti-Helicobacter pylori activity in vitro with the minimal\ninhibitory concentrations (MICs) against multiple H. pylori strains of 0.5âË?¼8mg/ml and the decreasing trend time-kill curves\nwhen increasing CGL concentrations. H. pylori eradication rates in vivo were evaluated based on rapid urease test (RUT) and\nhistopathologic criteria. Results revealed that the eradication rates in the CGL groups were 40% (4/10) in the high dosage group,\n33% (4/11) in the medium dosage group, and 18% (2/11) in the low dosage group, with the difference between the high dosage and\nH. pylori control groups being significant (...
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