Recent Advances of Mechanical Engineering Applications in Medicine and Biology

Background: Mechanics is an area of science dealing with the behavior of physical bodies (solids and fluids) undergoing action of forces, it comprised of statics, kinetics and kinematics.  The advances and research in Applied Mechanics has wide application in almost fields of study including medicine and biology. In this paper, the relationship between mechanical engineering and medicine and biological sciences is investigated based on its application in these two sacred fields. Some emergent mechanical techniques applied in medical sciences and practices are presented. Methods: Emerging applications of mechanical engineering in medical and biological sciences are presented and investigated including: biomechanics, nanomechanics and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Results: This review article presents some recent advances of mechanical engineering applications in medicine and biology. Specifically, this work focuses on three major subjects of interests:  Biomechanics that is increasingly being recognized as an important application of mechanical fundamentals in biomedical and biological sciences and practices, biomechanics can play a crucial role in both injury prevention as well as performance enhancement of living systems. Novel techniques of nanomechanics including: Carbon nanotubes  applications in therapy, DNA recognition, immunology and antiviral resistance. Nanorobotics that combines between nanotechnology, mechanics and new biomaterials to design and develop nanorobots based bacteria and biochips; these nanoscale robots can be involved in biomedical applications, particularly for the treatment of cancer, cerebral aneurysm treatment, kidney stones removal surgery, treatment of pathology, elimination of defected parts in the DNA structure, and some other treatments to save human lives. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools that contribute on the understanding of blood flows, human organs dynamics and surgical options simulation. Conclusion: Recent advances of mechanical applications in medicine and biology are carried out in this review, such as biomechanics, nanomechanics and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). As perspectives, mechanical scholars and engineers can involve these cited applications in their researches to solve many problems and issues that doctors and biologists cannot

Bioactive molecule of essential oil of Cuperssus sempervirence Mill – in vitro other treatment against microbial pathogenesis

Background: Each year, many million people attract infections caused by bacteria, fungi, virus,and parasite, infectious diseases reached at high rate, and the problem of emerging and reemerginginfections becomes a serious danger to human health, medicinal plants constitute asource of bioactive molecules can fight against infection microbial disease. In the context of thisresearch, was intended to characterize biomolecule of hydro-distilled essential oil of Cuperssussempervirence produces in west of Algeria and its potentials against disease infections.Methods: The essential oil was analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)method and Antibacterial activity was investigated in vitro against twelve clinical and referenceencountered in Clinical Laboratory and the Microbiology Laboratory of Saidal Medea using thewell diffusion method. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidalconcentration (MBC) were determined by the dilution method agar.Results: The most common components usually found in cypress essential oils were present in theoil samples analyzed, 43 components, which constitute 97,893% were identified in the essentialoil. The major constituents were Alpha pinene (60.05%), delta-3-carene (18.08%) et terpinolene(2.44%). myrcene (2.39%), limonene (1.83%), the results of the disk diffusion method showedhigh essential oils activity against all strains tested . The best antimicrobial activity againstCandida albicans ATCC1231was found (0.001v/v) .Bactericidal activity was higher for EO(minimal inhibitory concentration (MICs) 0.02(v/v)) against almost all tested bacteria, exceptmulti drug resistant strains of Salmonella typhimiruim ATCC13311 and Bacillus cereusATCC10876. The results obtained of this study provide that essential oil of Cuperssussempervirence is treatment against microbial pathogenesis human

Diversity of Amoeba-Associated Giant Viruses Isolated in Algeria

International audienceThe discovery of several giant amoeba viruses has opened up a novel area in the field of virology. Despite this, knowledge about ecology of these viruses remains patchy. In this study, we aimed to characterize the diversity of giant viruses in Algeria by inoculating 64 environmental samples on various amoeba strains. After isolation by co-culture with nine amoeba supports, flow cytometry and electron microscopy were used to putatively identify viruses. Definitive identification was performed by PCR and sequencing. Mimiviruses, marseilleviruses, faustoviruses and cedratviruses were the main viruses isolated in this study. Moreover, a new virus, which we named fadolivirus, was also isolated and was found to belong to the recent metagenomic descriptions of Klosneuvirinae. Despite the use of 9 amoeba supports for co-culture, most of the isolates were obtained from two amoebas:Acanthamoeba castellaniiNeff andVermamoeba vermiformisCDC 19. Finally, the viruses most frequently isolated weremarseilleviruses(55.5%) andMimiviruses(22.2%). This work shows that the isolation of viruses previously detected by metagenomic analyses can be tedious, but possible

Comparative Genomics Unveils Regionalized Evolution of the Faustovirus Genomes

International audienceFaustovirus is a recently discovered genus of large DNA virus infecting the amoeba Vermamoeba vermiformis, which is phylogenetically related to Asfarviridae. To better understand the diversity and evolution of this viral group, we sequenced six novel Faustovirus strains, mined published metagenomic datasets and performed a comparative genomic analysis. Genomic sequences revealed three consistent phylogenetic groups, within which genetic diversity was moderate. The comparison of the major capsid protein (MCP) genes unveiled between 13 and 18 type-I introns that likely evolved through a still-active birth and death process mediated by intron-encoded homing endonucleases that began before the Faustovirus radiation. Genome-wide alignments indicated that despite genomes retaining high levels of gene collinearity, the central region containing the MCP gene together with the extremities of the chromosomes evolved at a faster rate due to increased indel accumulation and local rearrangements. The fluctuation of the nucleotide composition along the Faustovirus (FV) genomes is mostly imprinted by the consistent nucleotide bias of coding sequences and provided no evidence for a single DNA replication origin like in circular bacterial genomes

Marseilleviruses: An Update in 2021

International audienceThe family Marseilleviridae was the second family of giant viruses that was described in 2013, after the family Mimiviridae . Marseillevirus marseillevirus , isolated in 2007 by coculture on Acanthamoeba polyphaga , is the prototype member of this family. Afterward, the worldwide distribution of marseilleviruses was revealed through their isolation from samples of various types and sources. Thus, 62 were isolated from environmental water, one from soil, one from a dipteran, one from mussels, and two from asymptomatic humans, which led to the description of 67 marseillevirus isolates, including 21 by the IHU Méditerranée Infection in France. Recently, five marseillevirus genomes were assembled from deep sea sediment in Norway. Isolated marseilleviruses have ≈250 nm long icosahedral capsids and 348–404 kilobase long mosaic genomes that encode 386–545 predicted proteins. Comparative genomic analyses indicate that the family Marseilleviridae includes five lineages and possesses a pangenome composed of 3,082 clusters of genes. The detection of marseilleviruses in both symptomatic and asymptomatic humans in stool, blood, and lymph nodes, and an up-to-30-day persistence of marseillevirus in rats and mice, raise questions concerning their possible clinical significance that are still under investigation

Molecular drivers of emerging multidrug resistance in Proteus mirabilis clinical isolates from Algeria

International audienc

Advantages and Limits of Metagenomic Assembly and Binning of a Giant Virus

Giant viruses have large genomes, often within the size range of cellular organisms. This distinguishes them from most other viruses and demands additional effort for the successful recovery of their genomes from environmental sequence data. Here, we tested the performance of genome-resolved metagenomics on a recently isolated giant virus, Fadolivirus, by spiking it into an environmental sample from which two other giant viruses were isolated. At high spike-in levels, metagenome assembly and binning led to the successful genomic recovery of Fadolivirus from the sample. A complementary survey of the major capsid protein indicated the presence of other giant viruses in the sample matrix but did not detect the two isolated from this sample. Our results indicate that genome-resolved metagenomics is a valid approach for the recovery of near-complete giant virus genomes given that sufficient clonal particles are present. However, our data also underline that a vast majority of giant viruses remain currently undetected, even in an era of terabase-scale metagenomics. IMPORTANCE The discovery of large and giant nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDV) with genomes in the megabase range and equipped with a wide variety of features typically associated with cellular organisms was one of the most unexpected, intriguing, and spectacular breakthroughs in virology. Recent studies suggest that these viruses are highly abundant in the oceans, freshwater, and soil, impact the biology and ecology of their eukaryotic hosts, and ultimately affect global nutrient cycles. Genome-resolved metagenomics is becoming an increasingly popular tool to assess the diversity and coding potential of giant viruses, but this approach is currently lacking validation

Advantages and Limits of Metagenomic Assembly and Binning of a Giant Virus.

Giant viruses have large genomes, often within the size range of cellular organisms. This distinguishes them from most other viruses and demands additional effort for the successful recovery of their genomes from environmental sequence data. Here, we tested the performance of genome-resolved metagenomics on a recently isolated giant virus, Fadolivirus, by spiking it into an environmental sample from which two other giant viruses were isolated. At high spike-in levels, metagenome assembly and binning led to the successful genomic recovery of Fadolivirus from the sample. A complementary survey of the major capsid protein indicated the presence of other giant viruses in the sample matrix but did not detect the two isolated from this sample. Our results indicate that genome-resolved metagenomics is a valid approach for the recovery of near-complete giant virus genomes given that sufficient clonal particles are present. However, our data also underline that a vast majority of giant viruses remain currently undetected, even in an era of terabase-scale metagenomics.IMPORTANCE The discovery of large and giant nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDV) with genomes in the megabase range and equipped with a wide variety of features typically associated with cellular organisms was one of the most unexpected, intriguing, and spectacular breakthroughs in virology. Recent studies suggest that these viruses are highly abundant in the oceans, freshwater, and soil, impact the biology and ecology of their eukaryotic hosts, and ultimately affect global nutrient cycles. Genome-resolved metagenomics is becoming an increasingly popular tool to assess the diversity and coding potential of giant viruses, but this approach is currently lacking validation