Rice vinegar removes Candida albicans from denture acrylic resins

Denture stomatitis, mainly caused by Candida albicans, often affect denture wearers. To manage these patients, denture hygiene is of utmost importance. There is a need for low cost, easily accessible denture disinfectants. To investigate the efficacy of rice vinegar and other disinfecting solutions in removing C. albicans from acrylic resins. Hundred and eighty acrylic resin plates were contaminated with C. albicans strains and divided into five groups. These were immersed in apple cider vinegar (ACV), white wine vinegar (WWV), rice vinegar (RV), chlorhexidine (CHX), and sterile distilled H2O (control). The plates were incubated at room temperature for 30 minutes, 1 hour and 8 hours. Candida removing ability of the disinfecting solutions was evaluated, and data was analyzed using two-way ANOVAwith Tukey post-test. Significance level of p< 0.05 was used. RV, ACV, WWV and CHX showed the highest efficacy (100%) in removing both C. albicans strains at 8 hours (p>0.05). CHX was the most effective disinfectant in removing both C. albicans strains at 30 minutes, 1 hour, and 8 hours (99%-100%). RV was as effective as ACV, WWV and CHX in removing C. albicans from acrylic plates at 8 hours

The Microbiology of head and neck space infections at the Maxillofacial Clinic at Livingstone Hospital

INTRODUCTION: Head and neck space infections remain one of the most commonly encountered conditions at Maxillofacial clinics countrywide. Patients admitted with these infections tend to have prolonged hospital stays and often require intensive care support. This places financial and logistic constraints on our health care system. There are also growing concerns, worldwide, regarding antibiotic resistance AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To determine the microbial spectrum of head and neck space infections in patients admitted to the Maxillo-Facial clinic at Livingstone Hospital in the Eastern Cape over a period of 5 years. METHODS: Demographic, clinical and laboratory data was retrieved from the medical records of 140 patients presenting with head and neck space infections RESULTS: Most patients were males aged 21-40 years. The most common cause of head and neck infections was non-odontogenic. The submandibular space was the most commonly implicated. Gram positive facultative anaerobes were most commonly identified. Bacteroides species and Staphylococcus aureus displayed sensitivity to clindamycin and amoxicillin with clavu-lanic acid. Viridans streptococci were sensitive to both penicillin and clindamycin CONCLUSION: Bacteroides species were the most commonly isolated bacteria, followed by Viridans streptococci and Staphy-lococcus aureus

Contamination of used toothbrushes and their decontamination with disinfecting agents

AIM: To evaluate microbial contamination of toothbrushes and the efficacy of different oral disinfectant agents in their decontamination METHODS: The heads of 98 used toothbrushes derived from patients who needed oral hygiene treatment were included in the study. In the laboratory, microorganisms on toothbrush heads were identified using standard microbiological methods. Toothbrush heads with microorganisms were then randomly divided into four groups of 19 and disinfected with Brushtox, Andolex C, Listerine® and water (control), followed by microbiological analysis RESULTS: Seventy eight percent of toothbrushes were contaminated with different microorganisms. Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) were found in a high number of toothbrushes (49%), followed by Pseudomonas spp (37%), Staphylococcus aureus (32%), Streptococcus mutans (14%), coliforms (9%) and Candida albicans (3%). Decontamination of toothbrushes with Andolex C and Listerine® reduced the number of contaminated toothbrushes by 74% each, Brushtox by 90% and water by 0.0% CONCLUSION: Toothbrushes were contaminated with various types of microorganisms, but predominantly with CoNS. Although Brushtox is a toothbrush spray, soaking toothbrushes in this solution was the most effective method, reducing the number of disinfected toothbrushes by 90%. Oral health practitioners should raise awareness to their patients regarding the need to disinfect toothbrushes

Synergistic Interactions of Eugenol-tosylate and Its Congeners with Fluconazole against Candida albicans.

We previously reported the antifungal properties of a monoterpene phenol "Eugenol" against different Candida strains and have observed that the addition of methyl group to eugenol drastically increased its antimicrobial potency. Based on the results and the importance of medicinal synthetic chemistry, we synthesized eugenol-tosylate and its congeners (E1-E6) and tested their antifungal activity against different clinical fluconazole (FLC)- susceptible and FLC- resistant C. albicans isolates alone and in combination with FLC by determining fractional inhibitory concentration indices (FICIs) and isobolograms calculated from microdilution assays. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) results confirmed that all the tested C. albicans strains were variably susceptible to the semi-synthetic derivatives E1-E6, with MIC values ranging from 1-62 μg/ml. The test compounds in combination with FLC exhibited either synergy (36%), additive (41%) or indifferent (23%) interactions, however, no antagonistic interactions were observed. The MICs of FLC decreased 2-9 fold when used in combination with the test compounds. Like their precursor eugenol, all the derivatives showed significant impairment of ergosterol biosynthesis in all C. albicans strains coupled with down regulation of the important ergosterol biosynthesis pathway gene-ERG11. The results were further validated by docking studies, which revealed that the inhibitors snugly fitting the active site of the target enzyme, mimicking fluconazole, may well explain their excellent inhibitory activity. Our results suggest that these compounds have a great potential as antifungals, which can be used as chemosensitizing agents with the known antifungal drugs

The clinicopathological and microrna expression signature associated with lymphovascular invasion in squamous cell carcinoma: A basic descriptive study

Abstract Background and Aims Lymphovascular invasion (LVI) is an indicator of lymph node metastasis and poor prognosis in various cancers including squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Despite being easily resectable and having little potential for LVI; SCC displays aggressive behavior and often results in the death of the patient. With this in mind, it may be useful to investigate the clinical, pathological, and microRNA expression profile associated with LVI in SCC. Methods We evaluated the histological hallmarks associated with LVI from 16 formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue samples (10 LVI−, 6 LVI+). We also quantified the expression of 10 microRNAs (hsa‐miR‐21‐5p, hsa‐miR‐21‐3p, hsa‐miR‐155‐5p, hsa‐miR‐196a‐5p, hsa‐miR‐375, hsa‐let‐7d‐5p, hsa‐miR‐146b‐3p, hsa‐miR‐221‐5p, hsa‐miR‐205‐5p, hsa‐miR‐491‐5p), which have been previously identified to play a role in SCC development, using real time‐PCR with the Qiagen miRCURY LNA SYBR Green PCR Kit. Results We observed a significant upregulation of microRNA‐155, microRNA‐196a, microRNA‐375, and microRNA‐221 in cases with lymphovascular invasion. Morphologically, we identified poor differentiation, dysplasia, loss of membrane polarity, high nuclear to cytoplasmic ratio, and the presence of squamous nests as defining features of LVI. Additionally, we found a gender bias and observed a tendency toward lymphatic invasion in lesions presenting around the perineal and abdominal regions. Conclusion We speculate that this profile may have prognostic significance and could guide the clinician in their treatment protocols for patients matching our genetic, demographic, and morphologic profile

Docking and binding mode of (A) FLC (B) E5 and (C) EUG in the active site pocket of modelled CYP51 of <i>Candida albicans</i>.

<p>EUG showing interaction with other residues of the protein away from the pocket and heme.</p

UV spectrophotometric sterol profiles of representative laboratory strain <i>C</i>. <i>albicans</i> ATCC 90028 (A), clinical fluconazole-susceptible <i>C</i>. <i>albicans</i> 2281 (B) and Clinical fluconazole-resistant <i>C</i>. <i>albicans</i> 3001 (C) strains after treatment with MIC and ½ MIC values of compounds E1 to E6.

<p>Isolates were grown for 16 h in sabouraud dextrose broth and sterols were extracted using alcoholic KOH and n-heptane from the treated and untreated cells and spectral profiles between 240 and 300 nm were determined. Control represents the culture cells without any treatment and positive control represents cells treated with 64 μg/ml of fluconazole.</p

Isobolograms depicting synergistic interactions of eugenol-tosylates (E1 to E6) with fluconazole in nine different ratios against different <i>Candida albicans</i> isolates.

<p>Isobolograms depicting synergistic interactions of eugenol-tosylates (E1 to E6) with fluconazole in nine different ratios against different <i>Candida albicans</i> isolates.</p

Cellular apoptosis and cell cycle arrest as potential therapeutic targets for eugenol derivatives in Candida auris

Candida auris, the youngest Candida species, is known to cause candidiasis and candidemia in humans and has been related to several hospital outbreaks. Moreover, Candida auris infections are largely resistant to the antifungal drugs currently in clinical use, necessitating the development of novel medications and approaches to treat such infections. Following up on our previous studies that demonstrated eugenol tosylate congeners (ETCs) to have antifungal activity, several ETCs (C1-C6) were synthesized to find a lead molecule with the requisite antifungal activity against C. auris. Preliminary tests, including broth microdilution and the MUSE cell viability assay, identified C5 as the most active derivative, with a MIC value of 0.98 g/mL against all strains tested. Cell count and viability assays further validated the fungicidal activity of C5. Apoptotic indicators, such as phosphatidylserine externalization, DNA fragmentation, mitochondrial depolarization, decreased cytochrome c and oxidase activity and cell death confirmed that C5 caused apoptosis in C. auris isolates. The low cytotoxicity of C5 further confirmed the safety of using this derivative in future studies. To support the conclusions drawn in this investigation, additional in vivo experiments demonstrating the antifungal activity of this lead compound in animal models will be needed

Geometric evaluation of the modeled protein and the template shown as Ramachandran plots for 4KOF (A) and modeled protein (B); 97% of residues were in the favor, 2.9% allowed regions, and 0.2% was in the outlier region as compared to 4KOF template (97.5%, 2.3%, and 0.2%).

<p>Geometric evaluation of the modeled protein and the template shown as Ramachandran plots for 4KOF (A) and modeled protein (B); 97% of residues were in the favor, 2.9% allowed regions, and 0.2% was in the outlier region as compared to 4KOF template (97.5%, 2.3%, and 0.2%).</p