Relieving Pain in Oral Lesions of Pemphigus Vulgaris Using the Non-ablative, Non-thermal, CO2 Laser Therapy (NTCLT): Preliminary Results of a Novel Approach

Introduction: Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is a chronic, serious autoimmune mucocutaneous bullous disease. Oral lesions in PV may be extremely painful. This pain may adversely affect the patients’ oral intake and quality of life. This before-after clinical trial was designed to assess the pain relieving effects of single session of non-ablative, non-thermal CO2 laser therapy (NTCLT) in oral lesions of PV.Methods: Fifty painful oral lesions of fourteen patients with PV were illuminated by CO2 laser (power: 1 W, scanning the lesions with rapid circular motion of the handpiece) passing through a thick layer of transparent gel with high water content. The pain severity of the oral lesions was reported by the patients up to the fourth postoperative day. They were also asked to continue their existing systemic treatment during the course of this study as a precondition for the participation.Results: The severity of contact and non-stimulate (non-contact) pain declined immediately and significantly after NTCLT (P < 0.001). The pain relieving effect was sustained during the four successive days of follow-up. The procedure was pain free and no kind of analgesics was required. Following NTCLT, there were no visible thermal complications such as destruction, ablation or irritation of the oral lesions.Conclusion: The results of the trial proposed that single session of NTCLT could immediately and significantly relieve pain in oral lesions of PV, without any visible thermal complications

Genome Wide Identification, Characterization and Evolutionary Analysis of T6SS in Burkholderia cenocepacia Strains

Pathogens of the Burkholderia genus are causing diseases in a diverse variety of hosts. After the discovery of T6SS, it was found to play a pivotal role in virulence and other pathogenicity factors in different pathogenic Burkholderia species. For this study, three strains of Burkholderia cenocepacia were selected from different ecological niches; J2315 from humans, MC0-3 from the rhizosphere of maize, and YG-3 from the Populus tree. The sequenced genomes were retrieved from PATRIC. It was found that B. cenocepacia J2315 and MC0-3 strains had only 1 cluster of T6SS in their genomes while the YG-3 strain had 3 clusters. The circular genomic map and phylogenetic tree suggested major differences in T6SS clusters 2 and 3 of the YG-3 strain from other clusters. From the results obtained in the study and reviewing the literature, it was concluded that all 3 strains harbor T6SS-1 type cluster that is involved in causing virulence in eukaryotic organisms and several bacterial species. This factor of causing virulence in the bacteria species might be helpful for B. cenocepacia strains J2315, MC0-3 and YG-3 in survival and niche adaptation