Effects of Octenidine on the Formation and Disruption of Dental Biofilms: An Exploratory In Situ Study in Healthy Subjects.

Dental biofilms are highly structured, complex multispecies communities that, if left untreated, lead to severe oral complications such as caries and periodontal diseases. Therefore, antibiofilm agents are often recommended for both preventive and therapeutic measures. However, biofilm management can be challenging due to the low sensitivity of biofilms to antimicrobial treatments. Octenidine dihydrochloride (OCT) is a highly effective antibacterial agent. Because the OCT antibiofilm efficacy has not been studied in situ, this exploratory crossover study aimed to evaluate the effects of OCT mouth rinsing on biofilm formation and on the disruption of mature biofilms. Moreover, a comparison to the gold-standard chlorhexidine (CHX) was conducted. The biofilms were formed intraorally by 5 healthy volunteers on enamel specimens fixed to acrylic splints. For biofilm formation analysis, OCT, CHX, or water rinses were applied for 30 s every 12 h. The samples evaluation took place at 24-and 48-h time points. For biofilm disruption analysis, sample assessment was performed before and directly after the first OCT or CHX rinse on 48-h mature biofilms. A second rinse was carried out 12 h later. The last assessment was applied to 72-h mature biofilms. The biofilms were analyzed by fluorescence microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The results showed OCT significantly reducing biofilm formation and bacterial vitality in situ. Simultaneously, the biofilm thickness was strongly decreased. Moreover, a single application of OCT to a 48-h mature biofilm induced substantial biofilm disruption. In addition, the efficacy of OCT compared favorably to CHX. These findings show that OCT rinses prevent biofilm formation and disrupt preexisting mature biofilms formed by healthy subjects. This work suggests that OCT might be used for dental biofilm management as a part of the medical treatment of oral diseases. Future studies with a larger subject heterogeneity and number are needed to confirm the observed OCT effects.

Ketogenic diet as a potential intervention for lipedema.

Lipedema (LI) is a common yet misdiagnosed condition, often misconstrued with obesity. LI affects women almost exclusively, and its painful and life-changing symptoms have long been thought to be resistant to the lifestyle interventions such as diet and exercise. In this paper, we discuss possible mechanisms by which patients adopting a ketogenic diet (KD) can alleviate many of the unwanted clinical features of LI. This paper is also an effort to provide evidence for the hypothesis of the potency of this dietary intervention for addressing the symptoms of LI. Specifically, we examine the scientific evidence of effectiveness of adopting a KD by patients to alleviate clinical features associated with LI, including excessive and disproportionate lower body adipose tissue (AT) deposition, pain, and reduction in quality of life (QoL). We also explore several clinical features of LI currently under debate, including the potential existence and nature of edema, metabolic and hormonal dysfunction, inflammation, and fibrosis. The effectiveness of a KD on addressing clinical features of LI has been demonstrated in human studies, and shows promise as an intervention for LI. We hope this paper leads to an improved understanding of optimal nutritional management for patients with LI and stimulates future research in this area of study.

Development and characterization of promoterless helper RNAs for the production of alphavirus replicon particle.

Alphavirus-based replicon systems are frequently used as preclinical vectors and as antigen discovery tools, and they have recently been assessed in clinical vaccine trials. Typically, alphavirus replicon RNAs are delivered within virus-like replicon particles (VRP) that are produced following transfection of replicon RNA and two helper RNAs into permissive cells in vitro. The non-structural proteins expressed from the replicon RNA amplify the replicon RNA in cis and the helper RNAs in trans, the latter providing the viral structural proteins necessary to package the replicon RNA into VRP. Current helper RNA designs incorporate the alphavirus 26S promoter to direct the transcription of high levels of structural gene mRNAs. We demonstrate here that the 26S promoter is not required on helper RNAs to produce VRP and propose that such promoterless helper RNAs, by design, reduce the probability of generating replication-competent virus that may otherwise result from RNA recombination.

Ultrahigh-resolution γ-ray spectroscopy of 156Gd: a test of tetrahedral symmetry.

Tetrahedral symmetry in strongly interacting systems would establish a new class of quantum effects at subatomic scale. Excited states in 156Gd that could carry the information about the tetrahedral symmetry were populated in the 155Gd(n,γ)156Gd reaction and studied using the GAMS4/5 Bragg spectrometers at the Institut Laue-Langevin. We have identified the 5(1)- → 3(1)- transition of 131.983(12) keV in 156Gd and determined its intensity to be 1.9(3)x10(-6) per neutron capture. The lifetime τ=220(-30)(+180) fs of the 5(1)- state in 156Gd has been measured using the GRID technique. The resulting B(E2)=293(-134)(+6) Weisskopf unit rate of the 131.983 keV transition provides the intrinsic quadrupole moment of the 5(1)- state in 156Gd to be Q0=7.1(-1.6)(+0.7) b. This large value, comparable to the quadrupole moment of the ground state in 156Gd, gives strong evidence against tetrahedral symmetry in the lowest odd-spin, negative-parity band of 156Gd.

KIF5C: a new binding partner for protein kinase CK2 with a preference for the CK2alpha' subunit.

Protein kinase CK2 is a highly conserved serine/threonine kinase that is ubiquitously expressed in eukaryotic cells. CK2 is a constitutively active tetrameric enzyme composed of two catalytic alpha and/or alpha'-subunits and two regulatory beta-subunits. There is increasing evidence that the individual subunits may have independent functions and that they are asymmetrically distributed inside the cell. To gain a better understanding of the functions of the individual subunits, we employed a yeast-two-hybrid screen with CK2alpha and CK2alpha'. We identified the motor neuron protein KIF5C as a new binding partner for CK2. The interaction found in the yeast-two-hybrid screen was confirmed by co-sedimentation analysis on a sucrose density gradient and by co-immunoprecipitation analysis. Pull-down experiments and surface plasmon resonance spectrometry revealed a direct binding of KIF5C to CK2alpha'. Co-localization studies with neuroblastoma cells, bone marrow and with primary neurons confirmed the biochemical analysis that KIF5C preferentially bound to CK2alpha'.

Functions and pathologies of BiP and its interaction partners.

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is involved in a variety of essential and interconnected processes in human cells, including protein biogenesis, signal transduction, and calcium homeostasis. The central player in all these processes is the ER-lumenal polypeptide chain binding protein BiP that acts as a molecular chaperone. BiP belongs to the heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) family and crucially depends on a number of interaction partners, including co-chaperones, nucleotide exchange factors, and signaling molecules. In the course of the last five years, several diseases have been linked to BiP and its interaction partners, such as a group of infectious diseases that are caused by Shigella toxin producing E. coli. Furthermore, the inherited diseases Marinesco-Sjögren syndrome, autosomal dominant polycystic liver disease, Wolcott-Rallison syndrome, and several cancer types can be considered BiP-related diseases. This review summarizes the physiological and pathophysiological characteristics of BiP and its interaction partners.

High-temperature continuous molecular beam source for aggressive elements: An example of zinc.

Expansion of Zn2 or ZnRg (Rg = rare gas atom) in a molecular supersonic beam constitutes a considerable technical challenge due to the high zinc melting point and high zinc reactivity with stainless steel at high temperatures. In order to overcome these difficulties and meet the requirements for spectroscopy of van der Waals molecules containing zinc, a high-temperature source-module of the supersonic molecular beam for aggressive elements was designed. The module was tested in the laser-induced fluorescence excitation spectroscopy experiment using the b30u +43P1←X10g +(41S0) bound ← bound transitions in Zn2. The new source-module can be used for other aggressive elements for which a laser-vaporization technique has been used to date.

Silver ions are responsible for memory impairment induced by oral administration of silver nanoparticles.

Increasing use of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) results in increased human exposure. AgNPs are able to cross brain-blood barrier and are a risk factor for the brain. Thus, we hypothesized that AgNPs exposure might affect hippocampal dependent memory, which required cognitive coordination processes. To verify the assumption, in this study we evaluated the effects of orally administered bovine serum albumin (BSA)-coated AgNPs on spatial memory, which engage cognitive coordination processes for on-going stimuli segregation. Rats following 28 days of oral administration with 1 mg/kg (n = 10) or 30 mg/kg (n = 10) BSA-AgNPs or saline, a control groups (n = 10, n = 8), were tested with an active place avoidance task in the Carousel Maze test. The study revealed significant impairment of long- and short-term memory, irrespectively of dose of AgNPs, whereas non-cognitive activity was on a similar level. We found significantly higher content of silver in the hippocampus in comparison to the lateral cortex. No silver was found in the cerebellum and the frontal cortex. The nanoSIMS analysis reveal a weak signal of silver in the hippocampus of AgNPs treated animals that should be attributed to the presence of silver in ionic form rather than AgNPs. Our findings indicate that oral exposure to a low dose AgNPs induces detrimental effect on memory and cognitive coordination processes. The presence of silver ions rather than AgNPs in different brain regions, in particular the hippocampus, suggests crucial role of silver ions in AgNPs-induced impairment of the higher brain functions.

New precipitation method for isolation of 99mTc from irradiated 100Mo target.

Technetium-99m is the most widely used radionuclide in nuclear medicine. This work describes the method to separate 99mTc from irradiated 100Mo target. For this purpose we utilized formation of ammonium molybdenum phosphate (AMP) and have optimized the four parameters of the process. The proposed process is promising and allows fast separation of macroamounts of molybdenum without co-precipitation of 99mTc. The concentration of molybdenum in solution after precipitation of AMP was lower than 300 µg ml-1. Additional purification using AnaLigTc-02 is required to obtain solution with lower concentration of molybdenum.

Electro-olfactogram and multiunit olfactory receptor responses to binary and trinary mixtures of amino acids in the channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus.

In vivo electrophysiological recordings from populations of olfactory receptor neurons in the channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, clearly showed that responses to binary and trinary mixtures of amino acids were predictable with knowledge obtained from previous cross-adaptation studies of the relative independence of the respective binding sites of the component stimuli. All component stimuli, from which equal aliquots were drawn to form the mixtures, were adjusted in concentration to provide for approximately equal response magnitudes. The magnitude of the response to a mixture whose component amino acids showed significant cross-reactivity was equivalent to the response to any single component used to form that mixture. A mixture whose component amino acids showed minimal cross-adaptation produced a significantly larger relative response than a mixture whose components exhibited considerable cross-reactivity. This larger response approached the sum of the responses to the individual component amino acids tested at the resulting concentrations in the mixture, even though olfactory receptor dose-response functions for amino acids in this species are characterized by extreme sensory compression (i.e., successive concentration increments produce progressively smaller physiological responses). Thus, the present study indicates that the response to sensory stimulation of olfactory receptor sites is more enhanced by the activation of different receptor site types than by stimulus interaction at a single site type.

Sports injuries in Plus League volleyball players.

AIM: Although physical activity brings a range of lifelong health benefits, it may also lead to injuries that pose a significant threat to health. It is particularly noticeable in people involved in professional sports where sport-related injuries commonly occur and are associated with intense exercise which aims to improve physical fitness. The article attempts to determine incidence of sports injuries reported by Plus League volleyball players, as well as to identify their most common types and causes. METHODS: The research project involved 90 Plus League volleyball players aged 18-37 with the average age of 25.11 (SD±5.378). A method of diagnostic survey was applied to collect empirical data by means of questionnaire developed by the authors (researchers). The results were statistically analysed and verified with the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and χ2 test at the significance level (or critical P-value) of P≤0.05. RESULTS: Over 87% of the respondents suffered from at least one sport-related injury. In total, 362 injuries occurred, on average 4.02 injuries per one volleyball player. The most common sports injuries involved ankle or talocrural joint (46 injuries), knee and lower leg muscles (30), interphalangeal articulations of fingers (30) as well as shoulder joint. More than half of the injuries (57%) occurred twice or three times. Volleyball players commonly sustain injuries through contact with an opposing player in competition. Sport-specific injuries may also occur due to exhaustion, lack of rest and undertreated injuries. CONCLUSION: The most common volleyball-related injuries are primarily talocrural joint, hand and shoulder injuries. Common types of injuries that can affect volleyball players include muscles, joints and ligaments injuries, sprains and strains as well as bruises. Most of these injuries are caused by exhaustion, contact with an opposing player during competition and fatigue. The incidence of sport-related injuries seems to be influenced by such factors as somatic features, jumping parameters and the length of professional volleyball career.

Preparation of water samples for proficiency testing on radionuclides.

The Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology (INCT) procedure for preparation of water samples for proficiency testing on determination of (241)Am, (137)Cs, (239)Pu, (226)Ra and (90)Sr in water is presented. Natural waters were applied as the raw materials and spiked with the aforementioned radionuclides. The procedure of spiking water allows to prevent losses of the radionuclides and to assign property values from formulation. The main advantages of this procedure are (i) similarity of the test materials to the water samples routinely analysed by radioanalytical laboratories, and (ii) traceable assigned values with low uncertainties.

Influence of hole shape on collimator performance.

The imaging properties of triangular and hexagonal hole shapes were compared for low energy scintillation camera collimators. The response of both hole shapes was calculated using a ray-tracing computer program, corresponding collimators were constructed and their performance was evaluated by measuring line spread functions and imaging bar patterns. The triangular hole shape was found to give better results above a spatial frequency of 1-5 cycles cm-1, below that frequency the hexagonal hole shape is superior. The differences, however, are small and the superior performance of the hexagonal hole collimator at clinically significant spatial frequencies is barely visible in bar pattern images.

Chelating 2-mercaptobenzothiazole loaded resin. Application to the separation of inorganic and alkylmercury species for their atomic absorption spectrometry determination in natural waters.

A new 2-mercaptobenzothiazole loaded Bio-Beads SM-7 resin has been prepared and its analytical properties were established. The sorbent was applied to the separation and preconcentration of inorganic and alkylmercury from natural waters. Optimum conditions of separation as pH, flow rate on column, volume of samples and desorbing agent were established. The cold vapour atomic absorption method determination of both forms of mercury after their successive reduction by tin(II) was used. The low limit of determination for this method was established as 10 ng l(-1) for 1.0 l water sample. Accuracy and precision of the method was estimated by using test water standards and samples of natural water spiked with known amounts of mercury species.