Analysis of four new enterococcus faecalis phages and modeling of a hyaluronidase catalytic domain from saphexavirus

Background: Phage therapy (PT), as a method to treat bacterial infections, needs identification of bacteriophages targeting specific pathogenic host. Enterococcus faecalis, a Gram-positive coccus resident in the human gastrointestinal tract, may become pathogenic in hospitalized patients showing acquired resistance to vancomycin and thus representing a possible target for PT. Materials and Methods: We isolated four phages that infect E. faecalis and characterized them by host range screening, transmission electron microscopy, and genome sequencing. We also identified and three-dimensional modeled a new hyaluronidase enzyme. Results: The four phages belong to Siphoviridae family: three Efquatrovirus (namely vB_EfaS_TV51, vB_EfaS_TV54, and vB_EfaS_TV217) and one Saphexavirus (vB_EfaS_TV16). All of them are compatible with lytic cycle. vB_EfaS_TV16 moreover presents a gene encoding for a hyaluronidase enzyme. Conclusions: The identified phages show features suggesting their useful application in PT, particularly the Saphexavirus that may be of enhanced relevance in PT because of its potential biofilm-digestion capability

Aktifitas Ekstrak Jahe Merah Dalam Menurunkan Asam Urat Pada Kelinci Serta Isolasi Dan Identifikasi Senyawa Bioaktifnya

Jahe merah (Zingiber officinalle var. Amarum) merupakan salah satu tumbuhan yang banyak digunakan sebagai bumbu makanan sehari-hari dan juga berkhasiat sebagai obat tradisional untuk mengobati berbagai penyakit termasuk asam urat. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menguji aktifitas biologi dari jahe merah dan mengisolasi dan mengidentifikasi senyawa bioaktif yang tekandung di dalam ekstraknya. Berdasarkan penelitian yang dilakukan terhadap ekstrak etanol jahe merah memperlihatkan kemampuannya dalam menurunkan asam urat pada kelinci yang diinduksi dengan kalium bromat (KBrO3) pada konsentrasi 0,6 b/v yang diamati pada 1 dan 3 jam setelah diinduksi dan dibandingkan dengan allopurinol yang digunakan sebagai positif kontrolnya. Ekstrak etanol jahe merah juga memperlihatkan hubungan konsentrasi dengan penurunan asam urat pada kelinci. Isolasi senyawa bioaktif dalam tanaman ini telah dilakukan dengan menggunakan metode kromatografi dan identifikasi stukturnya didasarkan pada analisis data spektrofotometri dan NMR. Berdasarkan data spectra yang diperoleh terhadap senyawa yang paling dominan yang berhasil diisolasi dan diidentifikasi adalah senyawa 6-gingerol. Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa ekstrak etanol jahe merah memiliki aktifitas dalam menurunkan kadar asam urat dengan senyawa utama 6-gingerol

Shaping the Internet: 10 Years of IXP Growth

Over the past decade, IXPs have been playing a key role in enabling interdomain connectivity. Their traffic volumes have grown dramatically and their physical presence has spread throughout the world. While the relevance of IXPs is undeniable, their long-term contribution to the shaping of the current Internet is not fully understood yet. In this paper, we look into the impact on Internet routes of the intense IXP growth over the last decade. We observe that while in general IXPs only have a small effect in path shortening, very large networks do enjoy a clear IXP-enabled path reduction. We also observe a diversion of the routes, away from the central Tier-1 ASes supported by IXPs. Interestingly, we also find that whereas IXP membership has grown, large and central ASes have steadily moved away from public IXP peerings, whereas smaller ones have embraced them. Despite all this changes, we find though that a clear hierarchy remains, with a small group of highly central network

Aktivitas Anti Inflamasi dan Penyembuhan Luka dari Ekstrak Kulit Batang Murbei (Morus Alba L.) : Anti-inflammatory And Wound Healing Activities Of Mulberry Barks (Morus Alba L.) Extract

Mulberry (Morus alba L.) leaf has been used as a traditional medicine for treatment of some tropical diseases and also popular using for silkworm feed. On this research, anti-inflammatory and wound healing activities of the bark extract has been investigated in vivo. The bark was extracted with three organic solvent in a different polarity to carry out a group compounds in n-hexane extract (EH), Eto-Ac extract (EE), and EtOH extract (EO). Anti-inflammatory was investigated on inflammatory mice induced by 1% carrageenan. Among the extract (200mg/kg BW), EE showed strongly decrease inflammation by 42% than the other extract and stronger than the positive control, Na-diclofenac. Further investigation on healing effect of wound and burn injury which was tested at concentration of 1% topically to each extract. All the extract significantly showed healing activity, among them EE was observed as the stronger one while slightly less than the positive control. This result indicated that the most active compounds on anti-inflammatory and healing wounded was extracted with ethyl acetate that could be used for drug discovery

Characterization of vb_stus_mmda13, a newly discovered bacteriophage infecting the agar-degrading species sphingomonas turrisvirgatae

Members of Sphingomonas genus have gained a notable interest for their use in a wide range of biotechnological applications, ranging from bioremediation to the production of valuable compounds of industrial interest. To date, knowledge on phages targeting Sphingomonas spp. are still scarce. Here, we describe and characterize a lytic bacteriophage, named vB_StuS_MMDA13, able to infect the Sphingomonas turrisvirgatae MCT13 type strain. Physiological characterization demonstrated that vB_StuS_MMDA13 has a narrow host range, a long latency period, a low burst size, and it is overall stable to both temperature and pH variations. The phage has a double-stranded DNA genome of 63,743 bp, with 89 open reading frames arranged in two opposite arms separated by a 1186 bp non-coding region and shows a very low global similarity to any other known phages. Interestingly, vB_StuS_MMDA13 is endowed with an original nucleotide modification biosynthetic gene cluster, which greatly differs from those of its most closely related phages of the Nipunavirus genus. vB_StuS_MMDA13 is the first characterized lytic bacteriophage of the Siphoviridae family infecting members of the Sphingomonas genus