What Makes Us Smell: The Biochemistry of Body Odour and the Design of New Deodorant Ingredients

Today, axilla odours are socially stigmatized and are targeted with deodorants and antiperspirants representing a multi-billion market. Axilla odours aren't simple byproducts of our metabolism but specifically formed by an intricate interplay between i) specific glands, ii) secreted amino acid conjugates of highly specific odorants and iii) selective enzymes present in microorganisms colonizing our skin, providing a natural 'controlled-release' mechanism. Within a multidisciplinary research project, we were able to elucidate the structure of key body odorants, isolate and characterize secreted amino acid conjugates and identify the enzymes responsible for odour release. These enzymes then served as targets for the development of specific active compounds in an almost medicinal chemistry approach, an approach rarely used in the cosmetic field so far. Here we review the key new insights into the biochemistry of human body odour formation, with some remarks on the experimental steps undertaken and hurdles encountered. The development of deodorant actives and the difficult path to market for such specifically acting cosmetic actives is discussed. The basic insights into the biochemistry also opened the way to address some questions in population genetics: Why have large proportions of Asians lost the 'ability' to form body odours? Do twins smell the same? Are our typical body odours indeed influenced by the immune system as often claimed? After addressing these questions, I'll conclude with the key remaining challenges in this field on an ecological niche that is 'anatomically very close to our heart'

An Innovative Contest: A Team Approach to Improving Patient Satisfaction Scores for Medication Side Effects

Problem The Home Healthcare Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HHCAHPS) survey question 14 regarding providers discussing possible side effects is below the organizational goal of 74.1 linear mean in this home health microsystem. Context According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), nearly 20% of patients discharged home from the hospital had an adverse event within the first few weeks of discharge and most are related to medications (AHRQ, 2019). Interventions An innovative contest was introduced to promote engagement and to use teach-back best practices, including planned discussions with the patient and caregivers regarding name of medication, purpose, and potential side effects. Measures Four measures were incorporated for evaluation: Percentage of field staff introduced to HHCAHPS question 14 with rationale; Percentage of the monthly supervisor tracer visits identifying use of the medication side effect education (MSE) tool; Percentage of patients and caregivers recalling if side effects were discussed in a previous visit; Number of contest entries and clinician participation to monitor staff engagement. Results One hundred percent of the staff were educated on the rationale and importance of HHCAHPS question 14 in the first month of implementation. Usage of MSE tool improved from 31% in May to 100% by September. Patient recollection of side effect discussed improved from 31% to 100% in September. Contest entries increased by 57% from 103 (June) to 182 (September). Individual clinician participation increased from 18% to 55%. Over four months question 14’s monthly score varied from 79.2 in April to 73.5 in July 2020, raising the performance year-to-date linear mean from 69.2 in April to 70.4 (July). Conclusions In the home health setting, the introduction of an innovative contest to stimulate interdisciplinary team participation led to overall improvement in both patient and organizational outcomes. The Clinical Nurse Leader facilitated a culture of learning, safety, and improvement to optimize HHCAHPS outcomes. Furthermore, despite the occurrence of an ongoing pandemic, the staff teams remained enthusiastic and engaged with support of all levels of home health management and leadership. Keywords: medication side effects, teach-back, innovative contest, HHCAHPS outcomes, team engagement, clinical nurse leade

Use of Amoxicillin-Clavulanate and Resistance in Escherichia coli Over a 4-Year Period

Abstract Objective: To reduce the use of amoxicillin-clavulanate after high-resistance rates in Escherichia coli were detected. Design: Intervention study; the interventions were introduced successively over a 4-year period while closely monitoring the resistance patterns. Setting: A 260-bed acute-care hospital in Switzerland. Interventions: Introduction of therapeutic guidelines for specific departments or indications, which proposed alternative antibiotics to amoxicillin-clavulanate. The perioperative prophylactic use of amoxicillin-clavulanate was eliminated completely. Results: The absolute amount of amoxicillin-clavulanate consumed decreased by 23%, from 24.8 g per 100 patient days in 1992 to 18.5 g per 100 patient days in 1995. The number of courses, a parameter that takes the prophylactic use into account, decreased by 62% from 2.3 per 100 patient days in 1992 to 0.9 per 100 patient days in 1995. The percentage of sensitive strains increased from 54.9% (n=512) in 1992 and 54.0% (n=506) in 1993 to 72.1% (n=546) in 1994 and 83.1% (n=668) in 1995. No major changes were detected for other antimicrobials, such as cotrimoxazole, tetracycline, or cefuroxime, used in this 4-year period. Conclusions: A decrease in the use of amoxicillin-clavulanate was followed by an increase in susceptibility of E coli to it. It was not possible to prove a causative relationship. Only a temporal association was discovered. The reduction of the use of amoxicillin-clavulanate was achieved through the implementation of treatment guidelines, facilitated through a close collaboration among the clinical pharmacists, the infection control practitioner, the microbiology laboratory, and the physicians in charge of the respective department

Impact of Pseudomonas fluorescens strain CHA0 and a derivative with improved biocontrol activity on the culturable resident bacterial community on cucumber roots

Information on the effects of released wild-type or genetically engineered bacteria on resident bacterial communities is important to assess the potential risks associated with the introduction of these organisms into agroecosystems. The rifampicin-resistant biocontrol strain Pseudomonas fluorescens CHA0-Rif and its derivative CHA0-Rif/pME3424, which has improved biocontrol activity and enhanced production of the antibiotics 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol (Phl) and pyoluteorin (Plt), were introduced into soil microcosms and the culturable bacterial community developing on cucumber roots was investigated 10 and 52 days later. The introduction of either of the two strains led to a transiently enhanced metabolic activity of the bacterial community on glucose dimers and polymers as measured with BIOLOG GN plates, but natural succession between the two sampling dates changed the metabolic activity of the bacterial community more than did the inoculants. The introduced strains did not significantly affect the abundance of dominant genotypic groups of culturable bacteria discriminated by restriction analysis of amplified 16S rDNA of 2500 individual isolates. About 30-50% of the resident bacteria were very sensitive to Phl and Plt, but neither the wild-type nor CHA0-Rif/pME3424 changed the proportion of sensitive and resistant bacteria in situ. In microcosms with a synthetic bacterial community, both biocontrol strains reduced the population of a strain of Pseudomonas but did not affect the abundance of four other bacterial strains including two highly antibiotic-sensitive isolates. We conclude that detectable perturbations in the metabolic activity of the resident bacterial community caused by the biocontrol strain CHA0-Rif are (i) transient, (ii) similar for the genetically improved derivative CHA0-Rif/pME3424 and (iii) less pronounced than changes in the community structure during plant growt

Autecology of the biocontrol strain Pseudomonas fluorescens CHA0 in the rhizosphere and inside roots at later stages of plant development

A spontaneous rifampicin-resistant mutant of the biocontrol agent Pseudomonas fluorescens CHA0 was released as soil inoculant in large outdoor lysimeters and its ability to colonise the roots of winter wheat, spring wheat (grown after Phacelia) and maize at the later stages of plant development was investigated by colony counts. The inoculant (i.e. CHA0-Rif) colonised the rhizosphere and the interior of the roots of both wheat varieties but CFUs at ripening were about 2 log (g root)−1 or lower. In contrast, the roots of maize were colonised poorly by the pseudomonad at flowering, but the latter was found at 3 or more log CFU (g root)−1 on and inside the roots in late ripening stage. Furthermore, CHA0-Rif was recovered at more than 5 log CFU (g root)−1 from the interior of several maize root samples. Whereas most cells of CHA0-Rif in soil were small and did not respond to Kogure's viability test, the pseudomonad was present as viable, unusually large (7 mm long) rods inside maize roots. In a microcosm experiment performed with similar sandy-loam soil, the CFUs of maize root-associated CHA0-Rif were higher where the shoots of the plant had been cut off, confirming that older and/or decaying maize roots represent a favourable niche for the inoculant. Overall, the results indicate that Pseudomonas inoculants have the potential to colonise the roots of certain crops (e.g. maize but not wheat for strain CHA0-Rif) at later stages of plant developmen

Про деякі зв'язки та узагальнення пронормальних підгруп

Отримано нові результати щодо зв'язків та узагальнень пронормальних підгруп. Зокрема, розглянуто групи, кожна циклічна підгрупа яких є самоспряжено-переставною. Наведено повний опис таких груп в деяких дуже широких класах груп, які містять в собі всі скінченні групи.Получены новые результаты относительно связей и обобщений пронормальных подгрупп. В частности, рассмотрены группы, каждая циклическая подгруппа которых является самосопряженно-переставляемой. Приведено полное описание таких групп в некоторых очень широких классах групп, которые содержат в себе все конечные группы.New results concerning the connections and generalizations of pronormal subgroups are presented. In particular, we studied groups, in which every cyclic subgroup is self-conjugate-permutable. We obtained the full description of such groups in some very wide classes of groups which contain all finite groups

A Functional ABCC11 Allele Is Essential in the Biochemical Formation of Human Axillary Odor

The characteristic human axillary odor is formed by bacterial action on odor precursors that originate from apocrine sweat glands. Caucasians and Africans possess a strong axillary odor ,whereas many Asians have only a faint acidic odor. In this study, we provide evidence that the gene ABCC11 (MRP8), which encodes an apical efflux pump, is crucial for the formation of the characteristic axillary odor and that a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) 538G → A, which is prominent among Asian people, leads to a nearly complete loss of the typical odor components in axillary sweat. The secretion of amino-acid conjugates of human-specific odorants is abolished in homozygotic carriers of the SNP, and steroidal odorants and their putative precursors are significantly reduced. Moreover, we show that ABCC11 is expressed and localized in apocrine sweat glands. These data point to a key function of ABCC11 in the secretion of odorants and their precursors from apocrine sweat glands. SNP 538G → A, which also determines human earwax type, is present on an extended haplotype, which has reached >95% frequency in certain populations in recent human evolution. A strong positive selection in mate choice for low-odorant partners with a dysfunctional ABCC11 gene seems a plausible explanation for this striking frequency of a loss-of-function allele

Cosmopolitan distribution of phlD-containing dicotyledonous crop-associated biocontrol pseudomonads of worldwide origin

In biocontrol fluorescent pseudomonads, phlD encodes a polyketide synthase required for the synthesis of the antifungal compound 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol (Phl). Here, PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis was used to compare phlD alleles in 77 dicot-associated pseudomonads originating from various countries worldwide and 10 counterparts from a monocotyledonous host (wheat). The 16 restriction patterns obtained were mostly unrelated to geographic location or dicot host. Cluster analysis distinguished eight phlD clusters at a similarity level of 0.63. One cluster grouped 18 pseudomonads that produced also the antifungal polyketide pyoluteorin but could not assimilate D-galactose, D-galactonate lactone, D-sorbitol, L-arabinose, D-saccharate or D-xylose. These 18 pseudomonads, along with the eight pseudomonads from a second phlD cluster, were the only isolates that failed to deaminase 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC), a rare root growth promotion trait. Overall, assessment of phlD polymorphism, ACC deaminase activity and catabolic profiles pointed to a cosmopolitan distribution of Phl-producing biocontrol fluorescent pseudomonads of worldwide origin associated with dicotyledonous crop plant

Anaphylactic reaction associated with Ranitidine in a patient with acute pancreatitis: a case report

Ranitidine is a widely used drug and is known to be well tolerated. This case report illustrates a severe anaphylactic reaction after a single intravenous dose of 50 mgs of ranitidine and highlights this unusual but life threatening adverse reaction

Exposure source for skin sensitizing hydroperoxides of limonene and linalool remains elusive: an analytical market surveillance

International audienc