To investigate the influence of 8-MOP and UVA on the induction of cell-mediated immunity, guinea pigs, sensitized with a single injection of dinitrofluorobenzene (DNFB) in Freund's complete adjuvant ...(FCA) in all footpads and the nuchal skin, were treated with 8-MOP, UVA, or 8-MOP + UVA on days 0, 2, and 5 and tested with dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB) on day 14 after sensitization. Two control groups, exposed in a covered condition to the PUVA 4000 lamp, to observe the heat effect, showed a slightly enhanced contact sensitivity in comparison to the only sensitized control group. No altered reactivity was observed after irradiation with longwave UV light alone, whereas a statistically significant enhanced resp. reduced contact sensitivity was obtained after the treatment with 8-MOP alone and the combined action of 8-MOP + UVA, respectively.
Several studies in recent years have provided evidence that Pseudomonas aeruginosa has a non-clonal population structure punctuated by highly successful epidemic clones or clonal complexes. The role ...of recombination in the diversification of P. aeruginosa clones has been suggested, but not yet demonstrated using multi-locus sequence typing (MLST). Isolates of P. aeruginosa from five Mediterranean countries (n = 141) were subjected to pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), serotyping and PCR targeting the virulence genes exoS and exoU. The occurrence of multi-resistance (≥ 3 antipseudomonal drugs) was analyzed with disk diffusion according to EUCAST. MLST was performed on a subset of strains (n = 110) most of them had a distinct PFGE variant. MLST data were analyzed with Bionumerics 6.0, using minimal spanning tree (MST) as well as eBURST. Measurement of clonality was assessed by the standardized index of association (I(A) (S)). Evidence of recombination was estimated by ClonalFrame as well as SplitsTree4.0. The MST analysis connected 70 sequence types, among which ST235 was by far the most common. ST235 was very frequently associated with the O11 serotype, and frequently displayed multi-resistance and the virulence genotype exoS⁻/exoU⁺. ClonalFrame linked several groups previously identified by eBURST and MST, and provided insight to the evolutionary events occurring in the population; the recombination/mutation ratio was found to be 8.4. A Neighbor-Net analysis based on the concatenated sequences revealed a complex network, providing evidence of frequent recombination. The index of association when all the strains were considered indicated a freely recombining population. P. aeruginosa isolates from the Mediterranean countries display an epidemic population structure, particularly dominated by ST235-O11, which has earlier also been coupled to the spread of ß-lactamases in many countries.
We report pulsed laser deposition being a quite suitable growth method for smooth and transparent p-type copper iodide (CuI) thin films with tailored electrical properties. The film characteristics ...are strongly influenced by the temperature during growth. Increasing substrate temperatures result in significant improvements in crystallinity compared to deposition at room temperature. In contrast to other growth techniques, the hole carrier density p can be varied systematically between 5 × 1016 cm−3 and 1 × 1019 cm−3 with hole mobilities up to 20 cm2/V s for lowest p. The surfaces exhibit irregularly shaped grains, and the roughness can be decreased down to 1 nm. Furthermore, the samples exhibit high transmittance up to 90% in the visible spectrum.
Until today, the oral delivery of peptide drugs is hampered due to their instability in the gastrointestinal tract and low mucosal penetration. To overcome these hurdles, PLA (polylactide ...acid)-nanoparticles were coated with a cyclic, polyarginine-rich, cell penetrating peptide (cyclic R9-CPP). These surface-modified nanoparticles showed a size and polydispersity index comparable to standard PLA-nanoparticles. The zeta potential showed a significant increase indicating successful CPP-coupling to the surface of the nanoparticles. Cryo-EM micrographs confirmed the appropriate size and morphology of the modified nanoparticles. A high encapsulation efficiency of liraglutide could be achieved. In vitro tests using Caco-2 cells showed high viability indicating the tolerability of this novel formulation. A strongly enhanced mucosal binding and penetration was demonstrated by a Caco-2 binding and uptake assay. In Wistar rats, the novel nanoparticles showed a substantial, 4.5-fold increase in the oral bioavailability of liraglutide revealing great potential for the oral delivery of peptide drugs.
PLA-nanoparticles were modified with a cyclic cell penetrating peptide. These novel nanoparticles showed a high encapsulation efficiency of liraglutide. Furthermore, the nanoparticles showed no relevant cytotoxicity. In a rodent in vivo study, these particles led to a 4.5-fold increase of the oral uptake of liraglutide. Display omitted
•The PLA-nanoparticles were successfully modified with a cyclic R9-CPP.•These novel nanoparticles showed high encapsulation efficiency of liraglutide.•The CPP-modification of the particles led to strongly increased cell binding to Caco-2 cells.•Furthermore the CPP-modified nanoparticles showed no relevant cytotoxicity.•Oral administration of liraglutide containing CPP-modified nanoparticles strongly improved oral bioavailability.
Acute kidney injury (AKI) leads to significant morbidity and mortality; unfortunately, strategies to prevent or treat AKI are lacking. In recent years, several preconditioning protocols have been ...shown to be effective in inducing organ protection in rodent models. Here, we characterized two of these interventions—caloric restriction and hypoxic preconditioning—in a mouse model of cisplatin-induced AKI and investigated the underlying mechanisms by acquisition of multi-layered omic data (transcriptome, proteome, N-degradome) and functional parameters in the same animals. Both preconditioning protocols markedly ameliorated cisplatin-induced loss of kidney function, and caloric restriction also induced lipid synthesis. Bioinformatic analysis revealed mRNA-independent proteome alterations affecting the extracellular space, mitochondria, and transporters. Interestingly, our analyses revealed a strong dissociation of protein and RNA expression after cisplatin treatment that showed a strong correlation with the degree of damage. N-degradomic analysis revealed that most posttranscriptional changes were determined by arginine-specific proteolytic processing. This included a characteristic cisplatin-activated complement signature that was prevented by preconditioning. Amyloid and acute-phase proteins within the cortical parenchyma showed a similar response. Extensive analysis of disease-associated molecular patterns suggested that transcription-independent deposition of amyloid P-component serum protein may be a key component in the microenvironmental contribution to kidney damage. This proof-of-principle study provides new insights into the pathogenesis of cisplatin-induced AKI and the molecular mechanisms underlying organ protection by correlating phenotypic and multi-layered omics data.
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Summary
The microarray approach has been proposed for high throughput analysis of the microbial community by providing snapshots of the microbial diversity under different environmental conditions. ...For this purpose, a prototype of a 16S rRNA‐based taxonomic microarray was developed and evaluated for assessing bacterial community diversity. The prototype microarray is composed of 122 probes that target bacteria at various taxonomic levels from phyla to species (mostly Alphaproteobacteria). The prototype microarray was first validated using bacteria in pure culture. Differences in the sequences of probes and potential target DNAs were quantified as weighted mismatches (WMM) in order to evaluate hybridization reliability. As a general feature, probes having a WMM > 2 with target DNA displayed only 2.8% false positives. The prototype microarray was subsequently tested with an environmental sample, which consisted of an Agrobacterium‐related polymerase chain reaction amplicon from a maize rhizosphere bacterial community. Microarray results were compared to results obtained by cloning‐sequencing with the same DNA. Microarray analysis enabled the detection of all 16S rRNA gene sequences found by cloning‐sequencing. Sequences representing only 1.7% of the clone library were detected. In conclusion, this prototype 16S rRNA‐based taxonomic microarray appears to be a promising tool for the analysis of Alphaproteobacteria in complex ecosystems.
Investigations of pneumatic separating of a mixture from potatoes and potato-sized foreign substances Jakob, P. (Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin (German D.R.). Sektion Nahrungsgueterwirtschaft und Lebensmitteltechnologie); Grundmann, P. (Ingenieurhochschule Berlin-Wartenberg (German D.R.). Sektion Mechanisierung der Tierproduktion)
Agrartechnik (German D.R.),
(1986), Letnik:
36, Številka:
7
Journal Article
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