Factors influencing bacterial adhesion to contact lenses

The process of any contact lens related keratitis generally starts with the adhesion of opportunistic pathogens to contact lens surface. This article focuses on identifying the factors which have been reported to affect bacterial adhesion to contact lenses. Adhesion to lenses differs between various genera/species/strains of bacteria. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is the predominant causative organism, adheres in the highest numbers to both hydrogel and silicone hydrogel lenses in vitro. The adhesion of this strain reaches maximum numbers within 1h in most in vitro studies and a biofilm has generally formed within 24 h of cells adhering to the lens surface. Physical and chemical properties of contact lens material affect bacterial adhesion. The water content of hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA)-based lenses and their iconicity affect the ability of bacteria to adhere. The higher hydrophobicity of silicone hydrogel lenses compared to HEMA-based lenses has been implicated in the higher numbers of bacteria that can adhere to their surfaces. Lens wear has different effects on bacterial adhesion, partly due to differences between wearers, responses of bacterial strains and the ability of certain tear film proteins when bound to a lens surface to kill certain types of bacteria

Broad spectrum antimicrobial activity of melimine covalently bound to contact lenses

PURPOSE. To develop a stable antimicrobial contact lens, which is effective against the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) panel microorganisms, Acanthamoeba castellanii and drug resistant strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. METHODS. Melimine was covalently incorporated into etafilcon A lenses. The amount of peptide present on the lens surface was quantified using amino acid analysis. After coating, the heat stability (121°C), lens surface hydrophobicity (by captive bubble), and in vitro cytotoxicity to mouse L929 cells of the lenses were investigated. Antimicrobial activity against the micro-organisms was evaluated by viable plate count and fluorescence microscopy, measuring the proportion of cell death compared with control lenses with no melimine. RESULTS. The most effective concentration was determined to be 152 ± 44 lg lens-1 melimine on the lens surface. After coating, lenses were relatively hydrophilic and were nontoxic to mammalian cells. The activity remained high after autoclaving (e.g., 3.1, 3.9, 1.2, and 1.0 log inhibition against P. aeruginosa, S. aureus, A. castellanii, and Fusarium solani, respectively). Fluorescence microscopy confirmed significantly reduced (P < 0.001) adhesion of viable bacteria to melimine contact lenses. Viable count confirmed that lenses were active against all the bacteria and fungi from the ISO panel, Acanthamoeba and gave at least 2 log inhibition against all the multidrug resistant S. aureus and P. aeruginosa strains. CONCLUSIONS. Melimine may offer excellent potential for development as a broad spectrum antimicrobial coating for contact lenses, showing activity against all the bacterial and fungal ISO panel microorganisms, Acanthamoeba, and antibiotic resistant strains of P. aeruginosa and S. aureus

Determination of selenium in serum in the presence of gadolinium with ICP-QQQ-MS

Gadolinium (Gd)-based magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrasting agents interfere with the determination of selenium (Se) when analysed by single quadrupole inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). This paper demonstrates that an ICP-triple quadrupole-MS (ICP-QQQ-MS) with oxygen mass shift overcomes Gd++ interference on Se+ and mitigates typically encountered matrix and spectral based interferences. Normal human serum was diluted in a solution containing isopropanol, EDTA, NH4OH and Triton X-100. Samples were unspiked (control) serum; serum spiked with 0.127 &mu;mol L&minus;1 Se or 127 &mu;mol L&minus;1 Gd; and serum spiked with both 0.127 &mu;mol L&minus;1 Se and 127 &mu;mol L&minus;1 Gd. Consideration of collision/reaction gases and conditions for interference mitigation included helium (He); a &lsquo;low&rsquo; and &lsquo;high&rsquo; hydrogen (H2) flow, and oxygen (O2). The instrument tune for O2 was optimised for effective elimination of interferences via a mass shift reaction of Se+ to SeO+. The ICP-QQQ-MS was capable of detecting trace (&gt;9.34 nmol L&minus;1) levels of Se in serum in the presence of Gd in our simulated post-MRI serum sample. The multi-tune capabilities of the ICP-QQQ-MS may be adapted to eliminate other specific isobaric interferences that cause false positive results in other analyses where the analyte is confounded by doubly charged and/or polyatomic species

Shades of empire: police photography in German South-West Africa

This article looks at a photographic album produced by the German police in colonial Namibia just before World War I. Late 19th- and early 20th-century police photography has often been interpreted as a form of visual production that epitomized power and regimes of surveillance imposed by the state apparatuses on the poor, the criminal and the Other. On the other hand police and prison institutions became favored sites where photography could be put at the service of the emergent sciences of the human body—physiognomy, anthropometry and anthropology. While the conjuncture of institutionalized colonial state power and the production of scientific knowledge remain important for this Namibian case study, the article explores a slightly different set of questions. Echoing recent scholarship on visuality and materiality the photographic album is treated as an archival object and visual narrative that was at the same time constituted by and constitutive of material and discursive practices within early 20th-century police and prison institutions in the German colony. By shifting attention away from image content and visual codification alone toward the question of visual practice the article traces the ways in which the photo album, with its ambivalent, unstable and uncontained narrative, became historically active and meaningful. Therein the photographs were less informed by an abstract theory of anthropological and racial classification but rather entrenched with historically contingent processes of colonial state constitution, socioeconomic and racial stratification, and the institutional integration of photography as a medium and a technology into colonial policing. The photo album provides a textured sense of how fragmented and contested these processes remained throughout the German colonial period, but also how photography could offer a means of transcending the limits and frailties brought by the realities on the ground.International Bibliography of Social Science

In vivo performance of melimine as an antimicrobial coating for contact lenses in models of CLARE and CLPU

Purpose - One strategy to minimize bacteria-associated adverse responses such as microbial keratitis, contact lens–induced acute red eye (CLARE), and contact lens induced peripheral ulcers (CLPUs) that occur with contact lens wear is the development of an antimicrobial or antiadhesive contact lens. Cationic peptides represent a novel approach for the development of antimicrobial lenses. Methods - A novel cationic peptide, melimine, was covalently incorporated into silicone hydrogel lenses. Confirmation tests to determine the presence of peptide and anti-microbial activity were performed. Cationic lenses were then tested for their ability to prevent CLPU in the Staphylococcus aureus rabbit model and CLARE in the Pseudomonas aeruginosa guinea pig model. Results - In the rabbit model of CLPU, melimine-coated lenses resulted in significant reductions in ocular symptom scores and in the extent of corneal infiltration (P Conclusions - Cationic coating of contact lenses with the peptide melimine may represent a novel method of prevention of bacterial growth on contact lenses and consequently result in reduction of the incidence and severity of adverse responses due to Gram-positive and -negative bacteria during lens wear

Differential interleukin-6 mRNA expression in Nippostrongylus brasiliensis infection of susceptible and resistant strains of mice

Intestinal parasitic infection is still a major problem in humans and animals, yet host immunity against gut parasitic infection remains partially understood. Eosinophilia and mastocytosis are features of such infection that have been shown to be genetically controlled. The expression of IL-6 is detected in eosinophils, mast cells and neutrophils and may be responsible for the regulation of leucocytes at infective sites. The relationships between IL-6 expression, eosinophilia, mastocytosis and host immunity remain unclear. In the present report, a close correlation between IL-6 mRNA+ cells, eosinophilia, mastocytosis and worm expulsion is demonstrated, which may indicate a role for IL-6 in regulation of host immunity against intestinal parasite infection.</p