Food Safety – Problems and Solutions

When certain disease-causing bacteria, viruses or parasite contaminate food, they can cause food-related diseases. Another word for such a bacterium, virus, or parasite is “pathogen”. Since food-related diseases can be serious, or even fatal, it is important to know and practice safe food-handling behaviors to help reduce the risk of getting sick from contaminated food. According to the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), “food safety is the assurance that food will not cause harm to the consumer when it is prepared and/or eaten according to its intended use”. Foodborne diseases are widespread throughout the world. The process by which a foodborne disease spreads begins with the features of the disease, contaminating the food, which in turn threatens both individual and public health by means of the foods. Healthy, or what can be termed as safe food, is food that has not lost its nutritional value, that is clean, in physical, chemical and microbiological terms and that is not stale. The factors causing the contamination of the food may threaten the safe consumption of it and thereby make the foods harmful to human health. For this reason, it is necessary to utilize various resources to prevent the food from being contaminated in all stages of the food chain, from harvest to consumption. The aim of this chapter is to determine the factors affecting food safety and proffer effective intervention strategies against food-related diseases

Novel Perylene-Based Antimicrobial PDI Chromophores

The main goal of the study was to monitor the Antimicrobial activity of two novel perylene diimides which were synthesized and characterized. Antimicrobial activity was investigated against Four Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains (MT) (Mt-H37Rv, Mt-H37Ra and two clinical isolates) and two Staphylococcus aureus strains [Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Staphylococcus aureus (SA)]. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and minimum bactericidal activity (MBCs) were determined. Both compounds exhibited bactericidal effects and MICs were found to be changing in the range of 48-96 µg/mL for four MT-strains. Compounds were also effective on Staphylococcus strains at MIC = 96 µg/mL

A rare cause of recurrent gastrointestinal bleeding: mesenteric hemangioma

Lower gastrointestinal hemorrhage accounts for approximately 20% of gastrointestinal hemorrhage. The most common causes of lower gastrointestinal hemorrhage in adults are diverticular disease, inflammatory bowel disease, benign anorectal diseases, intestinal neoplasias, coagulopathies and arterio-venous malformations. Hemangiomas of gastrointestinal tract are rare. Mesenteric hemangiomas are also extremely rare

Effect of nilvadipine on memory impairment and hippocampal malondialdehyde in rats with 4-vessel occlusion ischemia

Purpose: Nilvadipine is a dihydropyridine-type calcium channel blocker with emanating neuroprotective properties in various models of neuronal diseases. This study aimed at investigating the prophylactic effect of nilvadipine on memory impairment and hippocampal malodialdehyde (MDA) levels in global brain ischemia model induced by 4-vessel occlusion ischemia (4-VO) in rat. Materials and methods: The 4-VO ischemia was induced in Wistar rats by occluding the vertebral arteries permanently by cauterization. The common carotid arteries were twice occluded bilaterally for 10 minute at 60 minute interval. One week after 4-VO the memory was evaluated measuring the correct and error choices in 8-armed radial maze. The ischemiareperfusion- induced damage was evaluated measuring level of MDA in the hippocampus using thiobarbituric acid method. The study involved three groups: sham, ischemia-control and ischemia nilvadipin. Nilvadipine (3.2 mg/kg/day) was administerd for 7 days prior to 4-VO Results: The 4-VO impaired memory performance by decreasing the correct choices (long termreference memory) and increasing the error choices (short term-working memory) (p<0,001). Nilvadipine improved the performance by increasing the correct choices (p<0.002) and decreasing the error choices (p<0.05). Nilvadipine decreased (p<0.001) the elevated MDA induced by 4-VO. Conclusion: The prophylactic treatment with nilvadipine improved memory impairment and reduced the elevated hippocampal MDA induced by 4-VO. The prophylactic use of nilvadipine could be beneficial for inhibiting the ischemia related memory impairment in risky patients

Deficits in psycho-oncological care among Turkish immigrant women with breast cancer in Germany – an interview study

Spallek L, Yilmaz-Aslan Y, Klein-Ellinghaus F, et al. Deficits in psycho-oncological care among Turkish immigrant women with breast cancer in Germany – an interview study. International Journal of Psychotherapy Practice and Research. 2017;1(2):1-10

Molecular testing for the clinical diagnosis of fibrolamellar carcinoma.

Fibrolamellar carcinoma has a distinctive morphology and immunophenotype, including cytokeratin 7 and CD68 co-expression. Despite the distinct findings, accurate diagnosis of fibrolamellar carcinoma continues to be a challenge. Recently, fibrolamellar carcinomas were found to harbor a characteristic somatic gene fusion, DNAJB1-PRKACA. A break-apart fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assay was designed to detect this fusion event and to examine its diagnostic performance in a large, multicenter, multinational study. Cases initially classified as fibrolamellar carcinoma based on histological features were reviewed from 124 patients. Upon central review, 104 of the 124 cases were classified histologically as typical of fibrolamellar carcinoma, 12 cases as 'possible fibrolamellar carcinoma' and 8 cases as 'unlikely to be fibrolamellar carcinoma'. PRKACA FISH was positive for rearrangement in 102 of 103 (99%) typical fibrolamellar carcinomas, 9 of 12 'possible fibrolamellar carcinomas' and 0 of 8 cases 'unlikely to be fibrolamellar carcinomas'. Within the morphologically typical group of fibrolamellar carcinomas, two tumors with unusual FISH patterns were also identified. Both cases had the fusion gene DNAJB1-PRKACA, but one also had amplification of the fusion gene and one had heterozygous deletion of the normal PRKACA locus. In addition, 88 conventional hepatocellular carcinomas were evaluated with PRKACA FISH and all were negative. These findings demonstrate that FISH for the PRKACA rearrangement is a clinically useful tool to confirm the diagnosis of fibrolamellar carcinoma, with high sensitivity and specificity. A diagnosis of fibrolamellar carcinoma is more accurate when based on morphology plus confirmatory testing than when based on morphology alone

Heterozygous Cc2d1a mice show sex-dependent changes in the Beclin-1/p62 ratio with impaired prefrontal cortex and hippocampal autophagy

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by repetitive behaviors, lack of social interaction and communication. CC2D1A is identified in patients as an autism risk gene. Recently, we suggested that heterozygous Cc2d1a mice exhibit impaired autophagy in the hippocampus. We now report the analysis of autophagy markers (Lc3, Beclin and p62) in different regions hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, hypothalamus and cerebellum, with an overall decrease in autophagy and changes in Beclin-1/p62 ratio in the hippocampus. We observed sex-dependent variations in transcripts and protein expression levels. Moreover, our analyses suggest that alterations in autophagy initiated in Cc2d1a heterozygous parents are variably transmitted to offspring, even when the offspring's genotype is wild type. Aberration in the autophagy mechanism may indirectly contribute to induce synapse alteration in the ASD brain

Differential expression of Caveolin-1 in hepatocellular carcinoma: correlation with differentiation state, motility and invasion

WOS: 000264914000001PubMed ID: 19239691Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Council (TUBITAK)Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) [SBAG-107S026]; Dokuz Eylul University Research FoundationDokuz Eylul University [05.KB.SAG.071]We thank Prof. Mehmet Ozturk for providing us HCC cell lines and for his critical reading of the manuscript; and Prof. Aykut Uren for his helpful discussions on the manuscript. We also thank to Evin Ozen for her technical assistance. This work was supported by grants to Nese ATABEY from the Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Council (TUBITAK, SBAG-107S026) and Dokuz Eylul University Research Foundation (05.KB.SAG.071)