A Comparative Study: Taxonomic Grouping of Alkaline Protease Producing Bacilli

Alkaline proteases have biotechnological importance due to their activity and stability at alkaline pH. 56 bacteria, capable of growing under alkaline conditions were isolated and their alkaline protease activities were carried out at different parameters to determine their optimum alkaline protease production conditions. Seven isolates were showed higher alkaline protease production capacity than the reference strains. The highest alkaline protease producing isolates (103125 U/g), E114 and C265, were identified as Bacillus licheniformis with 99.4% and Bacillus mojavensis 99.8% based on 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities, respectively. Interestingly, the isolates identified as Bacillus safensis were also found to be high alkaline protease producing strains. Genotypic characterizations of the isolates were also determined by using a wide range of molecular techniques (ARDRA, ITS-PCR, (GTG)5-PCR, BOX-PCR). These different techniques allowed us to differentiate the alkaliphilic isolates and the results were in concurrence with phylogenetic analyses of the 16S rRNA genes. While ITS-PCR provided the highest correlation with 16S rRNA groups, (GTG)5-PCR showed the highest differentiation at species and intra-species level. In this study, each of the biotechnologically valuable alkaline protease producing isolates was grouped into their taxonomic positions with multi-genotypic analyses

Bacillus sphaericus Binary Toxin Elicits Host Cell Autophagy as a Response to Intoxication

Bacillus sphaericus strains that produce the binary toxin (Bin) are highly toxic to Culex and Anopheles mosquitoes, and have been used since the late 1980s as a biopesticide for the control of these vectors of infectious disease agents. The Bin toxin produced by these strains targets mosquito larval midgut epithelial cells where it binds to Cpm1 (Culex pipiens maltase 1) a digestive enzyme, and causes severe intracellular damage, including a dramatic cytoplasmic vacuolation. The intoxication of mammalian epithelial MDCK cells engineered to express Cpm1 mimics the cytopathologies observed in mosquito enterocytes following Bin ingestion: pore formation and vacuolation. In this study we demonstrate that Bin-induced vacuolisation is a transient phenomenon that affects autolysosomes. In addition, we show that this vacuolisation is associated with induction of autophagy in intoxicated cells. Furthermore, we report that after internalization, Bin reaches the recycling endosomes but is not localized either within the vacuolating autolysosomes or within any other degradative compartment. Our observations reveal that Bin elicits autophagy as the cell's response to intoxication while protecting itself from degradation through trafficking towards the recycling pathways

ANADOLU PSIKIYATRI DERGISI-ANATOLIAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY

The discovery of corticosteroids in 1949, revolutionized the practise of medicine. Corticosteroids become the mainstay of therapy for a variety of acute and chronic diseases (e.g., endocrinopathies, cancer, inflammatory diseases, systemical lupus erythematosus, multiple sklerosis, and asthma). Corticosteroids often induce psychiatric syndromes, including depression, mania, psychosis, delirium, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, suicidality, catatonia and reversible dementia(1). In our case, we will discuss 67 years old male patient who developed psychotic disorder after receiving systemic corticosteroid treatment

ANADOLU PSIKIYATRI DERGISI-ANATOLIAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY

Objective: The aim of this study is to demonstrate the reliability and validity of the Turkish Form of DSM-5 SelfRated Level 1 Cross-Cutting Symptom Scale Adult Version which is developed according to DSM-5 criteria to measure the severity of general symptomatology. Methods: This research was carried out with patients and their relatives who fulfilled the criteria of any psychiatric disorder according to DSM-5 criteria in inpatient and outpatient psychiatric clinics of Manisa Celal Bayar University, School of Medicine and healthy control group without any mental or physical disease. Accordingly, the distribution of psychiatric diagnosis of the patients were as follows: 39 patients with major depressive disorder, three patients with panic disorder, two patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, four patients with schizophrenia, two patients with schizoaffective disorder, seven patients with BTA anxiety disorder, two patients with conversion disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder in one patient. Beside Level 1 Cross-Cutting Symptom Scale, the most widely used for general semptomatology self-rated scale, Symptom Check List-90-Revised Form (SCL-90-R) was used for concurrent validity. In reliability analysis internal consistency coefficient and item-total correlation analysis; in validity analyses exploratory factor analysis and correlation analysis with the SCL-90-R and subscales was performed for validation. Results: This research was carried out with 206 volunteers. 61.2% of the sample group (n= 126) were female and the mean age of the study group was 35.1 +/- 11.2 years. 29.6% of the group were college graduates, 36.4% primary school graduates, 7.8% middle school graduates and 23.3% were also high school. The internal consistency of the Level 1 Cross-Cutting Symptom Scale was 0.94 and, item-total score correlation coefficients of the Level 1 Cross-Cutting Symptom Scale were between 0.30-0.79. In the exploratory factor analysis, for sample adequacy Kaiser-Meier-Olkin (KMO) coefficient was calculated as 0.92 and Bartlett coefficient was 3007.76. Three-factor solution was obtained, representing 60.8% of the total variance. In the analysis of the correlation between the subscales of SCL-90-R and subscales of the Level 1 CrossCutting Symptom Scale were as follows; for depression r= 0.72, for anxiety r= 0.80, for somatization r= 0.72, for psychosis r= 0.70, for obsessive compulsive symptoms r= 0.68, for personality r= 0.72, for suicide r= 0.53, for sleep r= 0.76, for anger r= 0.64 and for the total score r= 0.87 was obtained. Conclusion: These findings show that the Level 1 Cross-Cutting Symptom Scale is reliable and valid for Turkish

PSYCHIATRY AND CLINICAL PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY

Levetiracetam has gained wide acceptance in the treatment of epilepsy due to its broad-spectrum efficacy, the lack of significant drug-drug interactions, and a relatively benign side effect profile. However, in recent years, the treatment of epilepsy using levetiracetam has been associated with psychiatric side effects such as anxiety, irritability, hostility, depression, hallucinations, and, in some rare cases, obsessive-compulsive disorder. In this case report, we present and discuss onset of obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms in a 55-year-old epileptic female patient, who did not have any previous psychiatric disorder, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, and who received levetiracetam treatment

Diversity of halophilic archaea from six hypersaline environments in Turkey

The diversity of archaeal strains from six hypersaline environments in Turkey was analyzed by comparing their phenotypic characteristics and 16S rDNA sequences. Thirty-three isolates were characterized in terms of their phenotypic properties including morphological and biochemical characteristics, susceptibility to different antibiotics, and total lipid and plasmid contents, and finally compared by 16S rDNA gene sequences. The results showed that all isolates belong to the family Halobacteriaceae. Phylogenetic analyses using approximately 1,388 bp comparisions of 16S rDNA sequences demonstrated that all isolates clustered closely to species belonging to 9 genera, namely Halorubrum (8 isolates), Natrinema (5 isolates), Haloarcula (4 isolates), Natronococcus (4 isolates), Natrialba (4 isolates), Haloferax (3 isolates), Haloterrigena (3 isolates), Halalkalicoccus (1 isolate), and Halomicrobium (1 isolate). The results revealed a high diversity among the isolated halophilic strains and indicated that some of these strains constitute new taxa of extremely halophilic archaea

Characterization of extremely halophilic Archaea isolated from saline environment in different parts of Turkey

Ninety-five extremely halophilic strains were isolated from six distinct saline regions of Turkey by using complex medium containing 25% NaCl. The selected regions are Tuz Golu (salt lake), Ankara; Aci Lake, Denizli; Salda Lake, Denizli; Seyfe Lake, Kyrsherhir; Tuzla Lake, Kayseri; and Bolluk Lake, Konya. The isolated strains were tested for motility, gram reaction, cell and colony morphologies, pigmentation, biochemical characteristics, and antibiotic sensitivities. According to membrane glycerol diether moieties and antibiotic susceptibilities, all isolated strains were found to belong to the domain Archaea. All isolates were examined for the presence of plasmids by agarose gel electrophoresis and it was established that most isolates contained plasmids that varied in number and whose molecular sizes ranged from 1 to 36.9 kbp. Whole-cell protein profiles from isolates were analyzed by SDS-PAGE and a similarity dendogram was constructed using the UPGMA method. Significant similarities and differences were observed among the isolates. The strains were clustered in eight groups and ten of our isolates were placed in the same group with the standard strains. The current study represents the first isolation and characterization of such a large collection of archeal strains from Turkey