Biological activities of Liquidambar orientalis: antibiofilm, cytotoxicity, apoptosis, and miRNA expressions

Due to its strong biological, pharmacological, and medical activities and rich chemical content, Liquidambar orientalis, known for its resinous exudate storax, has a widespread and well-established ethnopharmacological use. Although it is known that storax has anticancer, antimicrobial, antioxidant, wound-healing and other ethnomedicinal properties, the number of existing scientific studies is very limited. In this context, the aims of this study were to determine the antibiofilm activity of storax and its cytotoxic and apoptotic effects in A549 lung cancer cells. In addition, with this study, it is also possible to make a very comprehensive biological evaluation by determining the effect of storax on certain microRNA expressions. According to our results, L. orientalis storax decreases cell proliferation in A549 lung cancer cells and the IC50 value was determined at 31.5 μg/mL at 24h. Storax also induces apoptosis via upregulating CASP3, 8, 9, and Bax gene expression and downregulating Bcl-2 expressions in A549 cells. Furthermore, storax decreases the expression of miR-146a, miR-21, and miR-223, while increasing the expression of miR-155. Storax inhibits biofilm formation and reduces the preformed biofilm of microbial strains including Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 33862), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853) and Candida albicans (ATCC 64548). The results suggest that storax has strong cytotoxic, apoptotic and antibiofilm properties and thus promising potential in medicine

Antimicrobial activity and chemical compositions of Turkish propolis from different regions

WOS: 000238090400025The antimicrobial activity of propolis against some gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria and its chemical composition were evaluated by the method of agar-well diffusion and GC-MS, respectively. Some typical compounds samples were identified in the propolis samples. Principal component analysis revealed that the chemical composition of propolis samples was distinct based on the geographical location of the samples. It was found that flavonoids, chrysin, flavanones and cinnamic acid were the predominant compounds in the propolis samples

Production of poly-beta-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) by Rhizobium meliloti, R-viciae and Bradyrhizobium japonicum with different carbon and nitrogen sources, and inexpensive substrates

The capacities for poly-p-hydroxybutyrate synthesis were tested by strains of Rhizobium meliloti Y11, Rhizobium viciae F111 and Bradyrhizobium japonicum S Irat Fab during growth on media with different carbon and nitrogen sources, sugarbect molasses, and whey. The maximum yield for R. meliloti Y11 and B. japonicum S Irat Fab strains were 83.75% and 34.31% PHB on dry cell mass respectively, when they were grown in glucose. R. viciae F I I I produced a high level of PHB (41.22%) with mannitol. Generally, the PHB yield by the strains (except F111) was not found to be high in the media containing nitrogen sources. It was found that the three bacteria strains did not grow well and produce polymer in whey, but PHB was produced in all molasses concentrations. Among the strains, the highest PHB accumulation was obtained with strain Y11. The PHB content in cells with this strain reached 56.31% of dry cell mass during growth on 0.5% molasses concentration (0.5 molasses/100 mL solution). It was shown that the production of PHB decreased as a result of the increase in the incubation period. If the culture conditions are optimized, R. meliloti Y11 can be a good candidate for industrial PHB production from sugarbeet molasses and probably other inexpensive substrates

Short communication - discrimination of Bacillus sphaericus strains by filtrate protein profiles

A total of 19 strains of Bacillus sphaericus   are compared both in vegetative and sporulated stages according to their filtrate protein profiles obtained by Native-PAGE and SDS-PAGE. When the strains are compared in the sporulated stage, filtrate protein profiles obtained by Native-PAGE differentiated the strains according to their phage and serogroups. On the other hand, the typing according to filtrate protein profiles is correlated with serotyping and phage typing. The discrimination of B. sphaericus strains by Native-PAGE is more useful

Production of poly-?-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) by Rhizobium meliloti, R. viciae and Bradyrhizobium japonicum with different carbon and nitrogen sources, and inexpensive substrates

The capacities for poly-ß-hydroxybutyrate synthesis were tested by strains of Rhizobium meliloti Y11, Rhizobium viciae F111 and Bradyrhizobium japonicum S Irat Fab during growth on media with different carbon and nitrogen sources, sugarbeet molasses, and whey. The maximum yield for R. meliloti Y11 and B. japonicum S Irat Fab strains were 83.75% and 34.31% PHB on dry cell mass respectively, when they were grown in glucose. R. viciae F111 produced a high level of PHB (41.22%) with mannitol. Generally, the PHB yield by the strains (except F111) was not found to be high in the media containing nitrogen sources. It was found that the three bacteria strains did not grow well and produce polymer in whey, but PHB was produced in all molasses concentrations. Among the strains, the highest PHB accumulation was obtained with strain Y11. The PHB content in cells with this strain reached 56.31% of dry cell mass during growth on 0.5% molasses concentration (0.5 g molasses/100 mL solution). It was shown that the production of PHB decreased as a result of the increase in the incubation period. If the culture conditions are optimized, R. meliloti Y11 can be a good candidate for industrial PHB production from sugarbeet molasses and probably other inexpensive substrates

Antikanser Etkili Doğal Bir Bileşik: Bakteriyel Ekzopolisakkaritler

Bakteriyel ekzopolisakkaritler (EPS'ler), birçok bakteri tarafından sentezlenen biyomoleküller olup çevresel koruma, yüzey yapışması ve hücresel etkileşimler gibi çeşitli biyolojik işlevlere sahiptir. Güçlü biyouyumlu özellikleri, onları çeşitli uygulamalara uygun hale getirmektedir. Kanser, dünyadaki en büyük hastalık yüklerinden biridir, bu nedenle kanser için yeni kemoterapötik etkili ajanlar ve tedaviler geliştirmek için çok sayıda bilimsel çalışma yürütülmektedir. Literatür bilgileri, EPS’lerin kanser hücrelerinin çoğalmasını, anjiyogenezisini ve metastazını engelleyebileceğini ve apoptozu uyarabileceğini göstermektedir. EPS’lerin meme, kolon, akciğer ve mide kanserine etkileri bilimsel çalışmalarla kanıtlanmıştır. Bu derleme, bakteriyel EPS’lerin antikanser özelliğini kısaca özetlemekte ve kemoterapi ve radyoterapinin yan etkilerini azaltabilecek bir ajan olarak potansiyel faydalarını vurgulayarak açıklamaktadır