Changes in tryptophan and phenylalanine in chronic HCV patients treated with direct acting antiviral (sofosbuvir)

Abstract Background Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection represents a global public health challenge, and new drugs have been authorized for its treatment. The current study aimed to detect the change in blood levels of tryptophan and phenylalanine with the recent therapy direct-acting antiviral (sofosbuvir). Methods This case-controlled study was conducted on HCV patients including 40 treated with direct-acting antiviral (sofosbuvir), 40 untreated underestimations of full medical history, and laboratory tests involved ELISA assay and real-time (RT) PCR technique as well as measuring tryptophan and phenylalanine by HPLC-UV, in addition to 20 apparently healthy subjects served as a control group. Results There is a high statistical significant decrease in tryptophan and increase in phenylalanine in treated cases than untreated cases and control groups. This study showed that phenylalanine at the cutoff of 2.13 μg/ml had 96.9% sensitivity and 62.5% specificity among treated cases; also, tryptophan at the cutoff of 8.53 ng/ml had 81.2% sensitivity and 75% specificity to predict severe depression. There is a statistically significant increase in tryptophan and decrease in phenylalanine in mild/moderate than very severe depression. Conclusion Direct-acting antiviral (sofosbuvir) causes a decrease in tryptophan levels and increase in phenylalanine levels that as a result leading to depressive symptoms as adverse effects, so advising by dietary supplements of tryptophan for patients treated from chronic HCV by direct-acting antiviral (sofosbuvir)

Production of Bacterial Pectinase(s) from Agro-Industrial Wastes Under Solid State Fermentation Conditions

Abstract: Bacillus firmus -I-4071 produced very high level of polygalacturonase by solid state fermentation (SSF). Fifty one bacterial isolates were isolated from fermented clayed Solanum tuberosum peels collected from different restaurants in Kalubeia governorate, Egypt. All bacterial isolates were screened for their ability to produce pectinases using apple pectin under solid state fermentation (SSF) conditions. The results showed that all of these isolates were found to have appreciable pectinolytic productivities of which twenty isolates showed good pectinases-producing potentialities using agroindustrial wastes viz. Solanum tuberosum (ST), Solanum melanogena (SM), Echornia crasips (EC) and citrus peels mixture (CPM) at 30 °C and pH 6 by pectin clearing zone (PCZ) technique. Three bacterial isolates, viz: 4071, 107 and 10104 were found to exhibit a higher polygalacturonase (PG) production by attacking Solanum tuberosum (ST) peels compared to other wastes. The three most potent bacterial isolates were identified on the bases of cell shape, cell arrangement, relation to oxygen and physiological and biochemical tests as Bacillus firmus, I-4071, B. firmus-I-10104 and Bacillus laterosporus-I-107. The optimum inoculum size for production of polygalacturonase production by B. firmus-I-10104 on Solanum tuberosum (ST) peels was 1 ml (30 x 10 CFU); substrate concentration, 1.25 g/25 ml; incubation period, 15 96 hours, pH, 6.0; incubation temperature, 37 °C; different nitrogen source; peptone (0.1 g/l); different carbon source, control; different amine acids, control and finally without any vitamins. These results suggesting that, the polygalacturonase was produced from cheap raw material under solid state fermentation under all optimal conditions for application in the clarification of juice

Applications of Plackett–Burman and Central Composite Design for the Optimization of Novel Brevundimonas diminuta KT277492 Chitinase Production, Investigation of its Antifungal Activity

ABSTRACT Biological control strategy which can damage chitin, a vital component of pathogenic fungi and arthropods promises a safe solution for many fungal problems. And it’s more favorable than chemicals which increase health risks and environmental problems. Thus, the chitinase producers appear potential candidates of biological control of pathogenic fungi. Brevundimonus diminuta KT277492 is a new isolate that has been isolated recently from Egyptian soil. Significant factors that affecting the chitinase enzyme production were studied and optimized using Plackett-Burman and Response Surface Methodology (RSM). As a result, maximum production of chitinase enzyme was 832.87 IUL-1, this result presented about 8.767-fold increase in the enzyme production. In the last phase of the study, partially purified chitinase enzyme obtained from B. diminuta KT277492 was tested against two pathogenic fungi and the results showed good inhibitory activity against A. alternata and F. solani with IZD of 31±0.25 and 25±0.91 mm respectively. Finally, obtained results indicated the value of optimization process and the optimized chitinase enzyme could be an excellent choice in application of food and biotechnology as a biofungicide. This reflects the necessity of studying the characteristics and kinetics of the enzyme in the forthcoming study

Production of hydroxy marilone C as a bioactive compound from

Hydroxy marilone C is a bioactive metabolite produced from the culture broth of Streptomyces badius isolated from Egyptian soil. Hydroxy marilone C was purified and fractionated by a silica gel column with a gradient mobile phase dichloromethane (DCM):methanol then Sephadex LH-20 column using methanol as a mobile phase. It was subjected to many procedures such as infrared (IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Mass spectroscopy (MS) and UV spectroscopy for elucidation of its structure. It was evaluated for antioxidant, cytotoxicity against human alveolar basal epithelial cell line (A-549) and human breast adenocarcinoma cell line (MCF-7) and antiviral activities; showed that the maximum antioxidant activity was 78.8% at 3 mg/ml after 90 min. and the IC50 value against DPPH radical found about 1.5 mg/ml after 60 min. Using MTT assay the effect of the pure compound on the proliferation of A-549 cells and MCF-7 cells was 443 μg/ml and 147.9 μg/ml, respectively, while for detection of antiviral activity using Madin–Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells the maximum cytotoxicity was at 27.9% and IC50 was 128.1 μg/ml. The maximum concentration required for protecting 50% of the virus-infected cells against H1N1 viral cytopathogenicity (EC50) was 33.25% for 80 μg/ml. These results indicated that the hydroxy marilone C has potential antitumor and antiviral activities