Screening and Purification of Natural Products from Actinomycetes that Induce a "Rounded" Morphological Phenotype in Fission Yeast.

This study was designed to identify and investigate bioactive natural product compounds that alter the cellular shape of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe and induce a "rounded" or "small" cellular morphological phenotype. Bioassays using a range of antifungal agents against a multidrug-sensitive fission yeast strain, SAK950 showed that many induced a "rounded" phenotype. We then investigated whether 46 of the actinomycete strains identified in our previous study as inducing a similar phenotype produced antifungal agents of similar classes. We show that five of the strains produced streptothricin and that 26 strains produced polyenes, including fungichromin, filipin and candicidin, the last of which was produced by 24 strains. A taxonomic study of the strains indicated that the majority of the candicidin only producers were Streptomyces hydrogenans and S. albidoflavus whilst those that additionally produced streptothricin were related to S. enissocaesilis. A follow-up study to investigate the natural products made by related strains indicated that they followed a similar pattern. The identification of several compounds from the actinomycete strains similar to the antifungal agents initially tested confirm the validity of an approach using the S. pombe morphological phenotype and actinomycete taxonomy as a predictive tool for natural product identification.

A new functional method to choose the target lobe for lung volume reduction in emphysema - comparison with the conventional densitometric method.

BACKGROUND: Lung volume reduction (LVR) improves breathing mechanics by reducing hyperinflation. Lobar selection usually focuses on choosing the most destroyed emphysematous lobes as seen on an inspiratory CT scan. However, it has never been shown to what extent these densitometric CT parameters predict the least deflation of an individual lobe during expiration. The addition of expiratory CT analysis allows measurement of the extent of lobar air trapping and could therefore provide additional functional information for choice of potential treatment targets. OBJECTIVES: To determine lobar vital capacity/lobar total capacity (LVC/LTC) as a functional parameter for lobar air trapping using on an inspiratory and expiratory CT scan. To compare lobar selection by LVC/LTC with the established morphological CT density parameters. METHODS: 36 patients referred for endoscopic LVR were studied. LVC/LTC, defined as delta volume over maximum volume of a lobe, was calculated using inspiratory and expiratory CT scans. The CT morphological parameters of mean lung density (MLD), low attenuation volume (LAV), and 15th percentile of Hounsfield units (15%P) were determined on an inspiratory CT scan for each lobe. We compared and correlated LVC/LTC with MLD, LAV, and 15%P. RESULTS: There was a weak correlation between the functional parameter LVC/LTC and all inspiratory densitometric parameters. Target lobe selection using lowest lobar deflation (lowest LVC/LTC) correlated with target lobe selection based on lowest MLD in 18 patients (50.0%), with the highest LAV in 13 patients (36.1%), and with the lowest 15%P in 12 patients (33.3%). CONCLUSION: CT-based measurement of deflation (LVC/LTC) as a functional parameter correlates weakly with all densitometric CT parameters on a lobar level. Therefore, morphological criteria based on inspiratory CT densitometry partially reflect the deflation of particular lung lobes, and may be of limited value as a sole predictor for target lobe selection in LVR.