The use of argon plasma coagulation in mammoplasty as a prevention of postoperative complications

The frequency of reoperations associated with complications after mammoplasty reaches 15 % during the first year. There are many ways and means for processing the soft tissues of the breast during mammoplasty, helping to reduce the risk of postoperative complications. The purpose of this work was to develop an algorithm for the application of the argon plasma technique for tissue treatment in mammoplasty. Material and methods. The study included 30 females aged 23 to 46 who underwent mammoplasty. The patients were divided into 2 groups of 15 people. In group 1, standard methods of processing soft tissues were used, and in group 2, the argon plasma technique was used in conjunction with the use of Aristo glue. Patients were observed in the early, late and distant postoperative period. Results. In the course of the study, in addition to the excellent coagulation and bactericidal action of argon plasma, the effect of “pulling up” the soft tissues of the mammary gland was found, which, in case of ptosis of I and II degrees, made it possible to use a smaller implant to achieve an optimal aesthetic result. Also, when using the argon plasma technology, no inflammatory processes were observed, the amount of exudative fluid in the drains decreased, the pain syndrome was significantly less pronounced in comparison with patients who underwent the standard method of tissue processing. Conclusions. This study confirms the fact that the use of argon plasma coagulation in the processing of breast tissue has a significant number of advantages compared to standard methods

Metagenomic profiling of viral and microbial communities from the pox lesions of lumpy skin disease virus and sheeppox virus-infected hosts

IntroductionIt has been recognized that capripoxvirus infections have a strong cutaneous tropism with the manifestation of skin lesions in the form of nodules and scabs in the respective hosts, followed by necrosis and sloughing off. Considering that the skin microbiota is a complex community of commensal bacteria, fungi and viruses that are influenced by infections leading to pathological states, there is no evidence on how the skin microbiome is affected during capripoxvirus pathogenesis.MethodsIn this study, shotgun metagenomic sequencing was used to investigate the microbiome in pox lesions from hosts infected with lumpy skin disease virus and sheep pox virus.ResultsThe analysis revealed a high degree of variability in bacterial community structures across affected skin samples, indicating the importance of specific commensal microorganisms colonizing individual hosts. The most common and abundant bacteria found in scab samples were Fusobacterium necrophorum, Streptococcus dysgalactiae, Helcococcus ovis and Trueperella pyogenes, irrespective of host. Bacterial reads belonging to the genera Moraxella, Mannheimia, Corynebacterium, Staphylococcus and Micrococcus were identified.DiscussionThis study is the first to investigate capripox virus-associated changes in the skin microbiome using whole-genome metagenomic profiling. The findings will provide a basis for further investigation into capripoxvirus pathogenesis. In addition, this study highlights the challenge of selecting an optimal bioinformatics approach for the analysis of metagenomic data in clinical and veterinary practice. For example, direct classification of reads using a kmer-based algorithm resulted in a significant number of systematic false positives, which may be attributed to the peculiarities of the algorithm and database selection. On the contrary, the process of de novo assembly requires a large number of target reads from the symbiotic microbial community. In this work, the obtained sequencing data were processed by three different approaches, including direct classification of reads based on k-mers, mapping of reads to a marker gene database, and de novo assembly and binning of metagenomic contigs. The advantages and disadvantages of these techniques and their practicality in veterinary settings are discussed in relation to the results obtained

Assessment of DDAH1 and DDAH2 Contributions to Psychiatric Disorders via In Silico Methods

The contribution of nitric oxide synthases (NOSs) to the pathophysiology of several neuropsychiatric disorders is recognized, but the role of their regulators, dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolases (DDAHs), is less understood. This study’s objective was to estimate DDAH1 and DDAH2 associations with biological processes implicated in major psychiatric disorders using publicly accessible expression databases. Since co-expressed genes are more likely to be involved in the same biologic processes, we investigated co-expression patterns with DDAH1 and DDAH2 in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in psychiatric patients and control subjects. There were no significant differences in DDAH1 and DDAH2 expression levels in schizophrenia or bipolar disorder patients compared to controls. Meanwhile, the data suggest that in patients, DDAH1 and DDHA2 undergo a functional shift mirrored in changes in co-expressed gene patterns. This disarrangement appears in the loss of expression level correlations between DDAH1 or DDAH2 and genes associated with psychiatric disorders and reduced functional similarity of DDAH1 or DDAH2 co-expressed genes in the patient groups. Our findings evidence the possible involvement of DDAH1 and DDAH2 in neuropsychiatric disorder development, but the underlying mechanisms need experimental validation

Effect of Abscisic Acid on Growth, Fatty Acid Profile, and Pigment Composition of the Chlorophyte <i>Chlorella (Chromochloris) zofingiensis</i> and Its Co-Culture Microbiome

Microalga Chlorella (Chromochloris) zofingiensis has been gaining increasing attention of investigators as a potential competitor to Haematococcus pluvialis for astaxanthin and other xanthophylls production. Phytohormones, including abscisic acid (ABA), at concentrations relevant to that in hydroponic wastewater, have proven themselves as strong inductors of microalgae biomass productivity and biosynthesis of valuable molecules. The main goal of this research was to evaluate the influence of phytohormone ABA on the physiology of C. zofingiensis in a non-aseptic batch experiment. Exogenous ABA stimulated C. zofingiensis cell division, biomass production, as well as chlorophyll, carotenoid, and lipid biosynthesis. The relationship between exogenous ABA concentration and the magnitude of the observed effects was non-linear, with the exception of cell growth and biomass production. Fatty acid accumulation and composition depended on the concentration of ABA tested. Exogenous ABA induced spectacular changes in the major components of the culture microbiome of C. zofingiensis. Thus, the abundance of the representatives of the genus Rhodococcus increased drastically with an increase in ABA concentration, whereas the abundance of the representatives of Reyranella and Bradyrhizobium genera declined. The possibilities of exogenous ABA applications for the enhancing of the biomass, carotenoid, and fatty acid productivity of the C. zofingiensis cultures are discussed

In Planta, In Vitro and In Silico Studies of Chiral N6-Benzyladenine Derivatives: Discovery of Receptor-Specific S-Enantiomers with Cytokinin or Anticytokinin Activities

Cytokinins, classical phytohormones, affect all stages of plant ontogenesis, but their application in agriculture is limited because of the lack of appropriate ligands, including those specific for individual cytokinin receptors. In this work, a series of chiral N6-benzyladenine derivatives were studied as potential cytokinins or anticytokinins. All compounds contained a methyl group at the &alpha;-carbon atom of the benzyl moiety, making them R- or S-enantiomers. Four pairs of chiral nucleobases and corresponding ribonucleosides containing various substituents at the C2 position of adenine heterocycle were synthesized. A nucleophilic substitution reaction by secondary optically active amines was used. A strong influence of the chirality of studied compounds on their interaction with individual cytokinin receptors of Arabidopsis thaliana was uncovered in in vivo and in vitro assays. The AHK2 and CRE1/AHK4 receptors were shown to have low affinity for the studied S-nucleobases while the AHK3 receptor exhibited significant affinity for most of them. Thereby, three synthetic AHK3-specific cytokinins were discovered: N6-((S)-&alpha;-methylbenzyl)adenine (S-MBA), 2-fluoro,N6-((S)-&alpha;-methylbenzyl)adenine (S-FMBA) and 2-chloro,N6-((S)-&alpha;-methylbenzyl)adenine (S-CMBA). Interaction patterns between individual receptors and specific enantiomers were rationalized by structure analysis and molecular docking. Two other S-enantiomers (N6-((S)-&alpha;-methylbenzyl)adenosine, 2-amino,N6-((S)-&alpha;-methylbenzyl)adenosine) were found to exhibit receptor-specific and chirality-dependent anticytokinin properties

Synthesis, Characterization and Photocatalytic Activity of Spherulite-like <i>r</i>-TiO₂ in Hydrogen Evolution Reaction and Methyl Violet Photodegradation

Synthesis and characterization of spherulite-like nanocrystalline titania with rutile structure (r-TiO2) are described herein. The r-TiO2 particles were synthesized via the convenient and low-cost hydrothermal treatment of TiO(C6H6O7) titanyl citrate. The r-TiO2 spherulites are micron-sized agglomerates of rod-shaped nanocrystals with characteristic sizes of 7(±2) × 43(±10) nm, oriented along (101) crystallographic direction, and separated by micropores, as revealed by SEM and TEM. PXRD and Raman spectroscopy confirmed the nanocrystalline nature of r-TiO2 crystallites. BET analysis showed a high specific surface area of 102.6 m2/g and a pore volume of 6.22 mm3/g. Photocatalytic performances of the r-TiO2 spherulites were investigated for the processes of methyl violet (MV) degradation in water and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in aqueous solutions of ethanol. The (MV) degradation kinetics was found to be first-order and the degradation rate coefficient is 2.38 × 10−2 min−1. The HER was performed using pure r-TiO2 spherulites and nanocomposite r-TiO2 spherulites with platinum deposited on the surface (r-TiO2/Pt). It was discovered that the r-TiO2/Pt nanocomposite has a 15-fold higher hydrogen evolution rate than pure r-TiO2; their rates are 161 and 11 nmol/min, respectively. Thus, the facile synthesis route and the high photocatalytic performances of the obtained nanomaterials make them promising for commercial use in such photocatalytic processes as organic contamination degradation and hydrogen evolution

Synthesis, Characterization and Photocatalytic Activity of Spherulite-like r-TiO2 in Hydrogen Evolution Reaction and Methyl Violet Photodegradation

Synthesis and characterization of spherulite-like nanocrystalline titania with rutile structure (r-TiO2) are described herein. The r-TiO2 particles were synthesized via the convenient and low-cost hydrothermal treatment of TiO(C6H6O7) titanyl citrate. The r-TiO2 spherulites are micron-sized agglomerates of rod-shaped nanocrystals with characteristic sizes of 7(&plusmn;2) &times; 43(&plusmn;10) nm, oriented along (101) crystallographic direction, and separated by micropores, as revealed by SEM and TEM. PXRD and Raman spectroscopy confirmed the nanocrystalline nature of r-TiO2 crystallites. BET analysis showed a high specific surface area of 102.6 m2/g and a pore volume of 6.22 mm3/g. Photocatalytic performances of the r-TiO2 spherulites were investigated for the processes of methyl violet (MV) degradation in water and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in aqueous solutions of ethanol. The (MV) degradation kinetics was found to be first-order and the degradation rate coefficient is 2.38 &times; 10&minus;2 min&minus;1. The HER was performed using pure r-TiO2 spherulites and nanocomposite r-TiO2 spherulites with platinum deposited on the surface (r-TiO2/Pt). It was discovered that the r-TiO2/Pt nanocomposite has a 15-fold higher hydrogen evolution rate than pure r-TiO2; their rates are 161 and 11 nmol/min, respectively. Thus, the facile synthesis route and the high photocatalytic performances of the obtained nanomaterials make them promising for commercial use in such photocatalytic processes as organic contamination degradation and hydrogen evolution

Detection of melanoma cells in whole blood samples using spectral imaging and optical clearing

Most cancer deaths are associated with metastases resulting from the spread of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from the primary tumor to vital organs. The existing methods for detection of CTCs as markers of metastasis progression are time consuming with several steps of sample processing, including red blood cell removal, labeling, immunomagnetic capture and isolation, which can lead to loss of CTCs. Here we introduce a method for detection and identification of CTCs using spectral absorption imaging of melanoma cells and optical clearing of whole blood samples. Verification of this approach was performed using phantoms of human melanoma cells and suspensions of mouse melanoma cells of line B16F10 alone and in mixture with blood. A method for improving detection sensitivity has been demonstrated applying optical clearing of mouse blood using biocompatible chemical agents. The findings suggest that the proposed diagnostic platform has the potential to detect quickly CTCs in whole blood samples from patients with melanoma