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Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi causes chronic enteric fever known as typhoid. Prolonged treatment regimen used for the treatment of typhoid and indiscriminate use of antibiotics has led to the emergence of resistant strains of S. enterica that has further increased the severity of the disease. Therefore, alternative therapeutic agents are urgently required. In this study, probiotic and enterocin-producing bacteria Enterococcus faecium Smr18 was compared for both its prophylactic and therapeutic efficacy in S. enterica infection mouse model. E. faecium Smr18 possessed high tolerance to bile salts and simulated gastric juice, as treatment for 3 and 2 h resulted in 0.5 and 0.23 log.sub.10 reduction in the colony forming units, respectively. It exhibited 70% auto aggregation after 24 h of incubation and formed strong biofilms at both pH 5 and 7. Oral administration of E. faecium in BALB/c mice infected with S. enterica significantly (p < 0.05) reduced the mortality of the infected mice and prevented the weight loss in mice. Administration of E. faecium prior to infection inhibited the translocation of S. enterica to liver and spleen, whereas, its administration post-infection completely cleared the pathogen from the organs within 8 days. Further, in both pre- and post-E. faecium-treated infected groups, sera levels of liver enzymes were restored back to normal; whereas the levels of creatinine, urea and antioxidant enzymes were significantly (p < 0.05) reduced compared to the untreated-infected group. E. faecium Smr18 administration significantly increased the sera levels of nitrate by 1.63-fold and 3.22-fold in pre- and post-administration group, respectively. Sera levels of interferon-[gamma] was highest (tenfold) in the untreated-infected group, whereas the levels of interleukin-10 was highest in the post-infection E. faecium-treated group thereby indicating the resolution of infection in the probiotic-treated group, plausibly due to the increased production of reactive nitrogen intermediates. Keywords: Salmonella, Enterococcus, Probiotic, Typhoid, Antioxidant enzymes and cytokine, Author(s): Muzamil Rashid[sup.1], Anmol Narang[sup.1], Shubham Thakur[sup.2], Subheet Kumar Jain[sup.2] and Sukhraj Kaur[sup.1] Introduction Typhoid is a chronic enteric fever caused primarily due to the infection by Salmonella enterica serotype [...]

The metabolism of the new nootropic drug unifiram is considered; this drug supposedly has significantly higher activity than that of piracetam, and it is under clinical trials as a means of improving memory and preventing Alzheimer's disease, attention-deficit disorder, and various forms of dementia. The structures of two potential metabolites of unifiram are proposed. Based on the interpretation of the experimental mass spectra of precursor ions and product ions, the applicability of a non-target screening methodology with the use of ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry to the detection of these compounds was demonstrated. It was established that the supposed metabolites of unifiram can be determined only with the use of enzymatic hydrolysis, while mineral hydrolysis led to the complete destruction of both the unifiram itself and the hypothetical metabolites. The use of the proposed chromatographing and mass-spectrometric detection conditions makes it possible to detect unifiram metabolites within six days after a single administration of 10 mg of the substance., Author(s): A. Z. Temerdashev [sup.1], M. O. Zorina [sup.1], E. V. Dmitrieva [sup.1], A. A. Azaryan [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.26083.3f, 0000 0000 9000 3133, Kuban State University, , 350040, [...]

Recognition and determination of ubiquitin (Ubq) is very important since it affects the enzymatic mechanisms, which causes damages in the living organisms. This can lead to diseases especially in neuronal system. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are selective resins that exhibit high affinity toward target compounds. MIPs have attracted significicant research interest because of their various applications in solid phase extraction, biosensors and drug delivery, etc. Various MIP types can be used such as thermo-sensitive, pH-sensitive, biomolecule-sensitive, ion-sensitive and photo-sensitive in these applications. Photosensitive MIPs can be used to increase the selectivity and binding efficiency to decrease denaturation of target biomolecules. The aim of this study is to prepare photosensitive cross-linked p(Ubq-co-MACys-Ru(bipyr).sub.2-MACys) polymeric nanoparticles (UbqINPs) and leach with 0.5 M HCl to create Ubq memories onto nanoparticles (UbqINPs) and optimize their binding parameters in cryogel based column system. For this purpose, different factors such as pH, flow rate, ionic strength and temperature were investigated, and maximum ubiquitin binding capacity was found to be 25 mg/g at pH 7. The results showed that the UbqINPs can be considered as a good binding material for recognition and separation of Ubq., Author(s): Ibrahim Dolak [sup.1], Rüstem Keçili [sup.2], Filiz Yilmaz [sup.3], Arzu Ersöz [sup.3], Ridvan Say [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.411690.b, 0000 0001 1456 5625, Vocational School of Technical Sciences, Dicle [...]

Recently, thoughtful disagreements between scientists concerning environmental issues including the use of renewable materials have enhanced universal awareness of the use of biodegradable materials. Polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the most promising biodegradable materials for commercially replacing nondegradable materials such as polyethylene terephthalate and polystyrene. The main advantages of PLA production over the conventional plastic materials is PLA can be produced from renewable resources such as corn or other carbohydrate sources. Besides, PLA provides adequate energy saving by consuming C[O.sub.2] during production. Thus, we aim to highlight recent research involving the investigation of properties of PLA, its applications and the four types of potential PLA degradation mechanisms. In the first part of the article, a brief discussion of the problems surrounding use of conventional plastic is provided and examples of biodegradable polymers currently used are provided. Next, properties of PLA, and (Poly[L-lactide]), (Poly[D-lactide]) (PDLA) and (Poly[DL-lactide]) and application of PLA in various industries such as in packaging, transportation, agriculture and the biomedical, textile and electronic industry are described. Behaviors of PLA subjected to hydrolytic, photodegradative, microbial and enzymatic degradation mechanisms are discussed in detail in the latter portion of the article. KEYWORDS hydrolytic, microbial and enzymatic degradation, photodegradation, poly (lactic acid), 1 | INTRODUCTION In recent decades, the use of fossil fuel-based plastics has produced production and waste management problems. These products are low cost, [1,2] versatile and highly resistant to [...]

Although prescribing information (PI) is often the initial source of information when identifying potential drug-drug interactions, it may only provide a limited number of exemplars or only reference a class of medications without providing any specific medication examples. In the case of medical cannabis and medicinal cannabinoids, this is further complicated by the fact that the increased therapeutic use of marijuana extracts and cannabidiol oil will not have regulatory agency approved PI. The objective of this study was to provide a detailed and comprehensive drug-drug interaction list that is aligned with cannabinoid manufacturer PI. The cannabinoid drug-drug interaction information is listed in this article and online supplementary material as a PRECIPITANT (cannabinoid) medication that either INHIBITS/INDUCES the metabolism or competes for the same SUBSTRATE target (metabolic enzyme) of an OBJECT (OTHER) medication. In addition to a comprehensive list of drug-drug interactions, we also provide a list of 57 prescription medications displaying a narrow therapeutic index that are potentially impacted by concomitant cannabinoid use (whether through prescription use of cannabinoid medications or therapeutic/recreational use of cannabis and its extracts). Keywords: Tetrahydrocannabinol, Cannabidiol, Drug-drug interactions, Cytochrome P450, Medical marijuana, Cannabis, Metabolism, Author(s): Paul T. Kocis (corresponding author) [a,b]; Kent E. Vrana [b] Introduction For decades, there has been scientific interest in the involvement of the endocannabinoid system in the physiological regulation [...]

A simple and sensitive procedure has been developed for the determination of 1-hydroxypyrene in urine as a biological marker of the effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. After enzymatic hydrolysis for conjugate cleavage, the analyte was extracted from the matrix by liquid-liquid extraction with n-hexane, the extract was evaporated to dryness, and the analyte was derivatized with the silylating reagent N,O-bis(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide into trimethylsilyl ether at room temperature. The trimethylsilyl extract was analyzed by capillary gas chromatography with mass-selective detection. Quantitative high-precision determination was achieved with the use of the isotope-labeled 1-hydroxypyrene-d9 reference standard. No matrix effects were observed. The detection limit was 0.02 ng/mL, and the linearity range was 0.1-100 ng/mL. Relative standard deviations were 0.044 and 0.064 under the conditions of repeatability and intralaboratory precision, respectively. The percentage recovery was 96-102%., Author(s): A. N. Alekseenko [sup.1], O. M. Zhurba [sup.1], A. V. Merinov [sup.1], S. F. Shayakhmetov [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) East Siberian Institute of Medical and Environmental Research, , 665827, [...]

Introduction As virtually all of you well know, a decades-long staple of clinical nutrition practice has been the use of pancreatic enzyme supplementation for patients experiencing all aspects of GI [...]