Plant lectins: the ties that bind in root symbiosis and plant defense

Lectins are a diverse group of carbohydrate-binding proteins that are found within and associated with organisms from all kingdoms of life. Several different classes of plant lectins serve a diverse array of functions. The most prominent of these include participation in plant defense against predators and pathogens and involvement in symbiotic interactions between host plants and symbiotic microbes, including mycorrhizal fungi and nitrogen-fixing rhizobia. Extensive biological, biochemical, and molecular studies have shed light on the functions of plant lectins, and a plethora of uncharacterized lectin genes are being revealed at the genomic scale, suggesting unexplored and novel diversity in plant lectin structure and function. Integration of the results from these different types of research is beginning to yield a more detailed understanding of the function of lectins in symbiosis, defense, and plant biology in general

Controlled release drug delivery systems to improve post-operative pharmacotherapy

Over 230 million surgical procedures are conducted worldwide each year with numbers increasing. Pain, undesirable inflammation and infection are common complications experienced by patients following surgery. Opioids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), local anaesthetics (LAs) and antibiotics are the commonly administered drugs peri-operatively to manage these complications. Post-operative pharmacotherapy is typically achieved using immediate-release dosage forms of drugs, which lead to issues around fluctuating plasma concentrations, systemic adverse effects and poor patient adherence. Controlled release (CR) systems for certain medicines including opioids, NSAIDs and antibiotics have demonstrably enhanced treatment efficacy in the post-surgical setting. However, challenges remain to ensure patient safety while achieving individual therapeutic needs. Newer CR systems in the research and development pipeline have a high level of control over medicine release, which can be initiated, tuned or stopped on-demand. Future systems will self-regulate drug release in response to biological markers providing precise individualized therapy. In this review, we cover currently adopted CR systems in post-operative pharmacotherapy, including drug eluting medical devices, and highlight a series of examples of novel CR technologies that have the potential for translation into post-surgical settings to improve medication efficacy and enhance post-surgical recovery.<br/

Lebensrettende Maßnahmen bei Kindern („paediatric life support“): Kapitel 6 der Leitlinien zur Reanimation 2015 des European Resuscitation Council

SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe