Identification of the variants in PARL, the nuclear modifier gene, responsible for the expression of LHON patients in Thailand.

The present study explored variation in the PARL gene as one of the potential nuclear modifiers in the pathogenesis of Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON). Ten exons, their franking introns and 3' UTR of the PARL gene were analysed. Seventeen SNPs detected were investigated in 83 affected and 53 unaffected individuals from 47 independent Thai LHON pedigrees using MQLS statistics in order to minimize the influence of the family background. Three intronic SNPs (rs953419, rs3749446 and rs1402000) showed statistically significant results. Joint haplotypes were constructed based on the genotypes at 3 SNPs and 7 possible haplotypes were observed in the 136 subjects. Our findings that the frequency of the haplotype AAC, and AAT were significantly higher in the unaffected cases and the frequencies of haplotype GGT were significantly higher in LHON cases, indicate that it might have a role in the penetrance of this mitochondrial disease.

Evaluation of antibacterial activity of some traditionally used medicinal plants against human pathogenic bacteria.

The worldwide increase of multidrug resistance in both community- and health-care associated bacterial infections has impaired the current antimicrobial therapy, warranting the search for other alternatives. We aimed to find the in vitro antibacterial activity of ethanolic extracts of 16 different traditionally used medicinal plants of Nepal against 13 clinical and 2 reference bacterial species using microbroth dilution method. The evaluated plants species were found to exert a range of in vitro growth inhibitory action against the tested bacterial species, and Cynodon dactylon was found to exhibit moderate inhibitory action against 13 bacterial species including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, imipenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, multidrug-resistant Salmonella typhi, and S. typhimurium. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of tested ethanolic extracts were found from 31 to >25,000 µg/mL. Notably, ethanolic extracts of Cinnamomum camphora, Curculigo orchioides, and Curcuma longa exhibited the highest antibacterial activity against S. pyogenes with a MIC of 49, 49, and 195 µg/mL, respectively; whereas chloroform fraction of Cynodon dactylon exhibited best antibacterial activity against S. aureus with a MIC of 31 µg/mL. Among all, C. dactylon, C. camphora, C. orchioides, and C. longa plant extracts displayed a potential antibacterial activity of MIC < 100 µg/mL.