Gambling: Electronic friends or a threat to one's health and personal development?

Gambling has become quite common in Sweden. The Swedish National Institute of Public Health (2010) has reported that about 70% of the Swedish population has gambled at least once during the last 12 months. Half of the population had gambled with money by 18 years of age and about 11% had gambled for the first time when they were 12-years-old or younger. In the report from the Swedish National Institute of Public Health, gambling problems are related to health problems and risky alcohol consumption. The highest problem rate is found among men aged 18 to 24; almost 1 in 10 had some gambling problems. The share of problem gamblers is found to be twice as high among the under-age gamblers as it is among the population as a whole. Young people gamble less but develop gambling problems to a larger extent than adult gamblers. In this article young people's gambling and their gambling careers are analysed as a natural part of their internalisation of other adult habits

Impact of supragingival therapy on subgingival microbial profile in smokers versus non-smokers with severe chronic periodontitis

The aim of this study was to assess subgingival microbiological changes in smokers versus non-smokers presenting severe chronic periodontitis after supragingival periodontal therapy (ST).Non-smokers (n=10) and smokers (n=10) presenting at least nine teeth with probing pocket depth (PPD) (≥5 mm), bleeding on probing (BoP), and no history of periodontal treatment in the last 6 months were selected. Clinical parameters assessed were plaque index (PI), BoP, PPD, relative gingival margin position (rGMP) and relative clinical attachment level (rCAL). Subgingival biofilm was collected before and 21 days after ST. DNA was extracted and the 16S rRNA gene was amplified with the universal primer pair, 27F and 1492R. Amplified genes were cloned, sequenced, and identified by comparison with known 16S rRNA sequences. Statistical analysis was performed by Student's t and Chi-Square tests (α=5%).Clinically, ST promoted a significant reduction in PI and PPD, and gain of rCAL for both groups, with no significant intergroup difference. Microbiologically, at baseline, data analysis demonstrated that smokers harbored a higher proportion of Porphyromonas endodontalis, Bacteroidetes sp., Fusobacterium sp. and Tannerella forsythia and a lower number of cultivated phylotypes (p<0.05). Furthermore, non-smokers featured significant reductions in key phylotypes associated with periodontitis, whereas smokers presented more modest changes.Within the limits of the present study, ST promoted comparable clinical improvements in smokers and non-smokers with severe chronic periodontitis. However, in smokers, ST only slightly affected the subgingival biofilm biodiversity, as compared with non-smokers

Heterologous expression of cytotoxic sesquiterpenoids from the medicinal mushroom Lignosus rhinocerotis in yeast

Background: Genome mining facilitated by heterologous systems is an emerging approach to access the chemical diversity encoded in basidiomycete genomes. In this study, three sesquiterpene synthase genes, GME3634, GME3638, and GME9210, which were highly expressed in the sclerotium of the medicinal mushroom Lignosus rhinocerotis, were cloned and heterologously expressed in a yeast system. Results: Metabolite profile analysis of the yeast culture extracts by GC-MS showed the production of several sesquiterpene alcohols (C 15 H 26 O), including cadinols and germacrene D-4-ol as major products. Other detected sesquiterpenes include selina-6-en-4-ol, ß-elemene, ß-cubebene, and cedrene. Two purified major compounds namely (+)-torreyol and a-cadinol synthesised by GME3638 and GME3634 respectively, are stereoisomers and their chemical structures were confirmed by 1 H and 13 C NMR. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that GME3638 and GME3634 are a pair of orthologues, and are grouped together with terpene synthases that synthesise cadinenes and related sesquiterpenes. (+)-Torreyol and a-cadinol were tested against a panel of human cancer cell lines and the latter was found to exhibit selective potent cytotoxicity in breast adenocarcinoma cells (MCF7) with IC 50 value of 3.5 ± 0.58 µg/ml while a-cadinol is less active (IC 50 = 18.0 ± 3.27 µg/ml). Conclusions: This demonstrates that yeast-based genome mining, guided by transcriptomics, is a promising approach for uncovering bioactive compounds from medicinal mushrooms