Antioxidant activity of yoghurt supplemented with natural additives

The aims of this study were the estimation of difference in physiochemical properties and antioxidant activity of yoghurts supplemented by different natural additives. In addition, the changes in physiochemical properties and antioxidant activity during five weeks storage were performed. The change in antioxidant activities was evaluated using the ABTS radical cations decolorizing assay. The statistical analysis showed that the yoghurt samples with the natural supplement have higher antioxidant activity than the plain yoghurt. In addition, the storage period affect the yoghurt properties by increasing its acidity and antioxidant activities by increasing the storage time. Furthermore, the plain and supplemented yoghurts are still consumable until the fifth week of storage but the favourable time to consume it with its higher antioxidant capacity is the 3rd week of storage

Soil enzyme activities and microbial communities as bio indicators for soil recovery, health and quality in forest ecosystem in south Moravian region of the Czech Republic =:Půdní enzymové aktivity a mikrobiálních komunit jako bioindikátorů pro obnova půdy, zdraví a kvalita v dubových lesích v jihomoravském regionu České republiky /

Forest ecosystem in Europe has been affected by the anthropogenic activities for many decades. Coppicing was the most commonly used forest management practice in Europe and the coppice forests were abandoned or converted into high forests from the beginning of 20th century. In general, anthropogenic activities including forest management (especially biomass harvesting) cause modifications in soil chemical, biochemical, and biological properties that subsequently affects the soil health and quality which may affect the soil ecosystem functions including the climate change. However, all forests harvesting practices might have adverse effects on soil properties, but their abandoned or conversion into high forests can have positive impact on their recovery. The present thesis highlights the assessing of soil functionality, health and quality in differently managed sessile oak forest in the south Moravian region of the Czech Republic using soil enzyme activities and microbial community functional diversity as bio indicators for soil health and qualityy. In addition, this work proved the potential of soil proteins as antimicrobial agent against multi-resistant microbial pathogens (i.e. methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus MRSA) using different experimental protocols. Our results provide evidence that the past intensive management system such as coppicing contributed to organic matter depletion in the soil and the abandonment of these forests has improved the overall situation, by reducing the side effects of the management within long time period and help the soil recovery under the extensively managed coppiced forest. On the other hand, the soil proteins extracted from the coppiced forest showed higher potential as antimicrobial agent than the soil proteins extracted from the high forest. This result provides strong evidence that the management practices affect the microbial community composition, structure, and function due to the changes in the micro and macroclimatic conditions in the managed site

Huntingtin Co-Isolates with Small Extracellular Vesicles from Blood Plasma of TgHD and KI-HD Pig Models of Huntington’s Disease and Human Blood Plasma

(1) Background: Huntington’s disease (HD) is rare incurable hereditary neurodegenerative disorder caused by CAG repeat expansion in the gene coding for the protein huntingtin (HTT). Mutated huntingtin (mHTT) undergoes fragmentation and accumulation, affecting cellular functions and leading to neuronal cell death. Porcine models of HD are used in preclinical testing of currently emerging disease modifying therapies. Such therapies are aimed at reducing mHTT expression, postpone the disease onset, slow down the progression, and point out the need of biomarkers to monitor disease development and therapy efficacy. Recently, extracellular vesicles (EVs), particularly exosomes, gained attention as possible carriers of disease biomarkers. We aimed to characterize HTT and mHTT forms/fragments in blood plasma derived EVs in transgenic (TgHD) and knock-in (KI-HD) porcine models, as well as in HD patients’ plasma. (2) Methods: Small EVs were isolated by ultracentrifugation and HTT forms were visualized by western blotting. (3) Results: The full length 360 kDa HTT co-isolated with EVs from both the pig model and HD patient plasma. In addition, a ~70 kDa mutant HTT fragment was specific for TgHD pigs. Elevated total huntingtin levels in EVs from plasma of HD groups compared to controls were observed in both pig models and HD patients, however only in TgHD were they significant (p = 0.02). (4) Conclusions: Our study represents a valuable initial step towards the characterization of EV content in the search for HD biomarkers

Horizontal transmission of a multidrug-resistant IncN plasmid isolated from urban wastewater

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are considered reservoirs of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Given that plasmid-mediated horizontal gene transfer plays a critical role in disseminating ARGs in the environment, it is important to inspect the transfer potential of transmissible plasmids to have a better understanding of whether these mobile ARGs can be hosted by opportunistic pathogens and should be included in One Health’s considerations. In this study, we used a fluorescent-reporter-gene based exogenous isolation approach to capture extended-spectrum beta-lactamases encoding mobile determinants from sewer microbiome samples that enter an urban water system (UWS) in Denmark. After screening and sequencing, we isolated a ∼73 Kbp IncN plasmid (pDK_DARWIN) that harboured and expressed multiple ARGs. Using a dual fluorescent reporter gene system, we showed that this plasmid can transfer into resident urban water communities. We demonstrated the transfer of pDK_DARWIN to microbiome members of both the sewer (in the upstream UWS compartment) and wastewater treatment (in the downstream UWS compartment) microbiomes. Sequence similarity search across curated plasmid repositories revealed that pDK_DARWIN derives from an IncN backbone harboured by environmental and nosocomial Enterobacterial isolates. Furthermore, we searched for pDK_DARWIN sequence matches in UWS metagenomes from three countries, revealing that this plasmid can be detected in all of them, with a higher relative abundance in hospital sewers compared to residential sewers. Overall, this study demonstrates that this IncN plasmid is prevalent across Europe and an efficient vector capable of disseminating multiple ARGs in the urban water systems