Lajm neuroborelioza

Lyme borreliosis (LB) is a multisystemic zoonotic disease which in humans can involve the skin, joints, heart and/or nervous system. In this study a total of 11 patients with clinical manifestations have been assessed at the Institute for Occupational Health. Evaluation of the patients was done in order to determine their working capability and further professional orientation. Patients were of different gender, age, education and profession. They fulfilled at least two of the three criteria: tick infestation data (epidemiological criteria), central and/or peripheral neurological symptoms (clinical criteria) and a positive serological finding. Diagnosis was done upon classical clinical criteria: electromyeloneurography (EMNG) analysis, neurological impairments, electroencephalography (EEG), computer tomography (CT) and/or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). IgM and IgG antibodies against B. burgdorferi were determined by commercial ELISA kits. IgM antibodies were recorded in the serum of 4 (44.4%) and IgG in 6 (66.7%) patients. Electro-myeloneurography findings of the upper and lower limbs were positive in 5 (83.3%), electroencephalography in 4 (66.6%) of the 6 observed patients and CT was positive in 4 (36.4%) of the 5 observed patients. The study has established that in patients with neuroborreliosis (NB) the capability to carry out intellectual tasks, as well as responsible duties is impaired due to poor memory. Patients suffering from peripheral neuropathies are not fit to withstand longterm walks, weight lifting and carrying or any other form of physical stress.Lajm borelioza je multisistemsko oboljenje, iz grupe zoonoza koje kod ljudi može zahvatiti kožu, zglobove, srce i/ili nervni sistem. Istraživanjem je obuhvaćeno 11 bolesnika sa kliničkim manifestacijama neuroborelioze koji su ispitivani u Institutu za medicinu rada Srbije u cilju ocene radne sposobnosti i dalje profesionalne orijentacije. Ispitani su bolesnici različite starosti, pola, nivoa obrazovanja i različitih zanimanja koji su ispunili minimalno dva od tri kriterijuma i to: podatak o ubodu krpelja (epidemiološki kriterijum), ispoljavanje centralnih i/ili, perifernih neuroloških simptoma (klinički kriterijum) i pozitivan serološki nalaz. Dijagnoza neuroborelioze je postavljena na osnovu klasičnih kliničkih kriterijuma: neurološ kih ispada, analize elektro-mioneurografije (EMNG), elektroencefalografije (EEG), kompjuterske tomografije (CT) i/ili magnetne rezonance (MRI). Ispitivanje prisustva antitela IgM i IgG klase u krvnom serumu prema B. burgdorferi vršeno je komercijalnim ELISA testom. Antitela IgM klase registrovana su u serumu četiri (44,4%), dok su IgG antitela registrovana kod 6 (66,7%) ispitanih pacijenata. Nalaz elektro-mioneurografije gornjih i donjih ekstremiteta je bio pozitivan kod pet (83,3%), nalaz elektroencefalografije kod četiri (66,6%) od šest ispitanih pacijenata, dok je nalaz CT bio pozitivan kod 4 (36,4%) od pet ispitanih pacijenata. Sprovedenim ispitivanjem je utvrđeno da je kod bolesnika sa razvijenom neuroboreliozom smanjena sposobnost za bilo koju vrstu intelektualnog rada, kao i za poslove koji su povezani sa moralnom i materijalnom odgovornošću zbog problema sa pamćenjem. Kod bolesnika sa perifernim neuropatijama postoji nesposobnost za poslove koji uključuju dugotrajno stajanje i hodanje, dizanje i nošenje tereta, kao i bilo koju vrstu fizičkog rada

Effect of Origanum heracleoticum L. essential oil on food-borne Penicillium aurantiogriseum and Penicilium chrysogenum isolates

Molds are ubiquitously distributed in nature and their spores can be found in the atmosphere even at high altitudes. The difficulty of controlling these undesirable molds, as well as the growing interest of the consumers in natural products, have been forcing the industry to find new alternatives for food preservation. The modern trends in nutrition suggest the limitation of synthetic food additives or substitution with natural ones. Aromatic herbs are probably the most important source of natural antimicrobial agents. Origanum heracleoticum L. essential oil has been known as an interesting source of antimicrobial compounds to be applied in food preservation. In the this work, we have investigated the effect of essential oil obtained from O. heracleoticum on growth of six isolates of Penicillium aurantiogriseum and four isolates of Penicillium chrysogenum isolated from meat plant for traditional Petrovacka sausage (Petrovská klobása) production. The findings reveal that the essential oil of O. heracleoticum provides inhibition of all of fungal isolates tested. O. heracleoticum L. essential oil exhibited higher antifungal activity against the isolates of P. chrysogenum than the isolates of P. aurantiogriseum. O. heracleoticum essential oil showed a MIC value ranging from 25 to 100 μL/mL. The fungi cultivated in the medium with higher concentration of essential oil showed certain morphological changes. The alterations included lack of sporulation and loss of pigmentation

Stochastic Time Response and Ultimate Noise Performance of Adsorption-Based Microfluidic Biosensors

In order to improve the interpretation of measurement results and to achieve the optimal performance of microfluidic biosensors, advanced mathematical models of their time response and noise are needed. The random nature of adsorption–desorption and mass transfer (MT) processes that generate the sensor response makes the sensor output signal inherently stochastic and necessitates the use of a stochastic approach in sensor response analysis. We present a stochastic model of the sensor time response, which takes into account the coupling of adsorption–desorption and MT processes. It is used for the analysis of response kinetics and ultimate noise performance of protein biosensors. We show that slow MT not only decelerates the response kinetics, but also increases the noise and decreases the sensor’s maximal achievable signal-to-noise ratio, thus degrading the ultimate sensor performance, including the minimal detectable/quantifiable analyte concentration. The results illustrate the significance of the presented model for the correct interpretation of measurement data, for the estimation of sensors’ noise performance metrics important for reliable analyte detection/quantification, as well as for sensor optimization in terms of the lower detection/quantification limit. They are also incentives for the further investigation of the MT influence in nanoscale sensors, as a possible cause of false-negative results in analyte detection experiments.This article belongs to the Special Issue Microfluidics for Biosensing

Influence of the metal ions on the charge transfer states in the G-octet-metal ion complexes

In this work, we study G-octet-metal ion complexes which act as models for the G-quadruplex supramolecular arrangement within DNA. We used DFT based molecular dynamics (BLYP-D3/DZVP+PW+GTH) for configuration sampling purposes and calculated electronic excitations to initially populated (Franck-Condon) states. To capture charge transfer content of the excited states, we used descriptors who rely on the analysis of the one-electron transition density matrix acquired from the TDDFT calculation (CAM-B3LYP/6-31G(d))

Tuning charge transfer states in the G-octet-metal ion complexes for the potential nanotechnological applications

Here we study G-octet-metal ion complexes (M-G8) which act as models for the G-quadruplex supramolecular arrangement within DNA. We used DFT based molecular dynamics (BLYP-D3/DZVP+PW+GTH) for the configuration sampling purposes and calculated electronic excitations to initially populated (Franck-Condon) states. We use descriptors based on one-electron transition density matrix to seize charge transfer content of the selected excited states. We use TDDFT formalism (CAM-B3LYP/6-31G(d)) to calculate one-electron transition density matrices and absorption spectrum

Hip-hop from dancers’ viewpoint: Dance, lifestyle, and/or subculture?

The paper presents the results of field research on the population of dancers – members of the hip-hop community who are “contestants” in battles. The field research was carried out in April 2022 on a sample of dancers aged 17 to 40 (N = 31). The research results indicate that the hip-hop community in Serbia is small, but that such battles in specific forms contribute to the community’s maintenance and expansion. Battles also play a significant role in the progression and expression of dancers as individuals. Dancers consider hip-hop to be not only an art form but much more, hip-hop is synonymous with a lifestyle and a “way of looking at the world” for dancers. Although the research was carried out on a small sample, it represents the author’s pioneering contribution to a deeper understanding of the hip-hop community in Serbian society. It also indicates the need to carry out compatible research in the future

Tetraoxanes as inhibitors of apicomplexan parasites Plasmodium falciparum and Toxoplasma gondii growth and anti-cancer molecules

New cyclohexylidene 1,2,4,5-tetraoxanes with polar guanidine and urea based groups were synthesized and evaluated for their antimalarial activity against chloroquine resistant and susceptible Plasmodium falciparum strains. The derivatives showed moderate, nM range antimalarial activities and low cytotoxicity. The N-phenylurea derivative 24 exhibited the best resistance indices (RIW2 = 0.44, RITM91C235 = 0.80) and was not toxic against human normal peripheral blood mononuclear cells (IC50 gt 200 mu M). Seven derivatives were tested in vitro against four human cancer cell lines and they demonstrated high selectivity toward leukaemia K562 cells. One compound, derivative 21 with a primary amino group, was the first tetraoxane tested in vivo against Toxoplasma gondii as another apicomplexan parasite. Subcutaneous administration at a dose of 10 mg kg(-1) day(-1) for 8 days allowed the survival of 20 % of infected mice, thus demonstrating the high potential of tetraoxanes for the treatment of apicomplexan parasites

Structure of water molecule and water hydrogen bonding: joint Cambridge Structural Database and ab-initio calculations study

In this study we performed analysis of non-coordinated water containing structures archived in Cambridge Structural Database (CSD), as well as ab-initio calculations on a range of bond lengths and bond angles of water molecule and water dimers

New aspects of Hydrogen Bonding: Antiparallel OH/OH Interactions. Cases of Water/Water, Water/Alcohol and Alcohol/Alcohol Dimers.

According to IUPAC definition, the hydrogen bond ‘is an attractive interaction usually presented as X—H Y—Z, where the electropositive hydrogen atom is located between two electronegative species X and Y.[1] The stability of hydrogen bonds varies in the range from -0.2 to -40 kcal/mol depending on the nature of the X and Y species and the geometry of the hydrogen bond. In this presentation, new modes of hydrogen bonding will be discussed. Namely, it was found that nearly 20% of all crystal structures, from Cambridge Structural Database, containing water-water or alcohol dimers, possess, so far, unusual antiparallel OH/OH interactions. The interaction energies of this type of hydrogen bonding (Figure 1.) are systematically calculated at CCSD(T)/CBS level of theory.[2] It was shown that the strength of the antiparallel interactions can be similar as the strength of classical hydrogen bonds, i.e. up to – 4.7 kcal/mol. The geometric parameters describing the antiparallel interactions were suggested, as well

Repulsive water-water contacts from Cambridge Structural Database

Water is one of the most important molecules on the Earth. Since water plays a crucial role in many life processes, it is of great importance to understand every aspect of its behavior and interactions with itself and its surroundings. It is known that water molecules can interact via classical hydrogen bonds and antiparallel interactions, with interaction energies of - 5.02 kcal/mol and -4.22 kcal/mol, respectively. Besides these attractive interactions, repulsive interactions were also noticed. In this work, we analyzed repulsive water-water contacts from the Cambridge Structural Database. All interaction energies were calculated at the so- called gold standard, i.e., CCSD(T)/CBS level of theory. It was found that among all water-water contacts, ca. 20% (2035 contacts) are repulsive with interaction energies mainly up to 2 kcal/mol. Most of these repulsive contacts do not belong to two main groups of water-water contacts. Namely, 12.8% of all repulsive contacts can be classified as classical hydrogen bonds, 2.1% to the antiparallel interactions, and the rest (85.3%) as remaining contacts. This study points out that additional attention should be paid when one deals with contacts including water or, eventually, hydrogen atoms in general