Detection of virulence genes in Escherichia coli isolated from patients with cystitis and pyelonephritis

SummaryBackgroundUropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) is a common cause of ascending urinary tract infections including cystitis and pyelonephritis. The purpose of this study was to investigate virulence genes among Escherichia coli isolated from patients with cystitis and pyelonephritis.MethodsBetween December 2012 and June 2013, 150 E. coli isolates from hospitalized patients with pyelonephritis (n = 72) and cystitis (n=78) were collected at Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Kashan. A PCR assay was used to evaluate the presence of virulence genes including pap, hly, aer, sfa, cnf, afa, traT, and pathogenicity island (PAI) markers in isolates.ResultsOf the total 150 UPEC isolates, 130 (86.7%) were found to carry the virulence genes studied. Nineteen different virulence patterns were identified. The most prevalent virulence pattern was UPEC including traT–PAI operons. The pap, traT, aer, hly, and PAI operons were more prevalent among patients with pyelonephritis than cystitis, and the sfa, afa, and cnf genes were not detected in any of the isolates.ConclusionsHigher virulence gene diversity was found among pyelonephritis UPEC isolates in comparison to cystitis UPEC isolates, showing that UPEC strains that cause pyelonephritis need more virulence factors

From ligand to complexes: inhibition of HIV-1 Integrase by beta-diketo acid metal complexes

Recently, a class of compounds bearing a β-diketo acid moiety have emerged as the most promising lead in anti-HIV-1 IN drug discovery. It is believed that the β-diketo acid pharmacophoric motif could be involved in a functional sequestration of one or both divalent metal ions, which are critical cofactors at the enzyme catalytic site. This would subsequently block the transition state of the IN-DNA complex. In this scenario, it is of paramount importance to acquire information about the mode of action of diketo acids, which could then be useful in the design of new compounds as IN inhibitors

Raltegravir, elvitegravir, and metoogravir: the birth of "me-too" HIV-1 integrase inhibitors

Merck's MK-0518, known as raltegravir, has recently become the first FDA-approved HIV-1 integrase (IN) inhibitor and has since risen to blockbuster drug status. Much research has in turn been conducted over the last few years aimed at recreating but optimizing the compound's interactions with the protein. Resulting me-too drugs have shown favorable pharmacokinetic properties and appear drug-like but, as expected, most have a highly similar interaction with IN to that of raltegravir. We propose that, based upon conclusions drawn from our docking studies illustrated herein, most of these me-too MK-0518 analogues may experience a low success rate against raltegravir-resistant HIV strains. As HIV has a very high mutational competence, the development of drugs with new mechanisms of inhibitory action and/or new active substituents may be a more successful route to take in the development of second- and third-generation IN inhibitors

Mechanisms underlying the cytotoxicity of a novel quinazolinedione‐based redox modulator, QD 232, in pancreatic cancer cells

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109817/1/bph12855.pd

SiC and ZrO2 Weigh Percentage Effects on Microstructure of Al Based Matrix Composite Fabricated by Spark Plasma Sintering Method

SiC and ZrO2 particle are succesfully reaction synthesized from powder of Al, ZrO2 and SiC using spark plasma sintering method. The XRD of sintered composite and microstructure of the aas-sintered products. With the ZrO2 content increasing, the grains are remarkably refined and the and the ZrO2 and nano SiC particles are dispersing more uniformly in Al matrix, forming a homogeneous structure with the least porosity

A machine learning algorithm for identifying and tracking bacteria in three dimensions using Digital Holographic Microscopy

Digital Holographic Microscopy (DHM) is an emerging technique for three-dimensional imaging of microorganisms due to its high throughput and large depth of field relative to traditional microscopy techniques. While it has shown substantial success for use with eukaryotes, it has proven challenging for bacterial imaging because of low contrast and sources of noise intrinsic to the method (e.g. laser speckle). This paper describes a custom written MATLAB routine using machine-learning algorithms to obtain three-dimensional trajectories of live, lab-grown bacteria as they move within an essentially unrestrained environment with more than 90% precision. A fully annotated version of the software used in this work is available for public use

Omega Polynomial in a Combined Coronene-Sumanene Covering

A new graphene pattern, called CorSu, was designed by combining the patterns of coronene [6:66] and sumanene [6:(5,6)3] and sumanene [6:(5,6)3. The energy of some small fragments of this lattice, functionalized by groups containing oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, was evaluated at the level of semiempirical method PM3. The topology of the network is described in terms of Omega counting polynomial. Close formulas for calculating the Omega polynomial and the Cluj-Ilmenau index derived from this polynomial are given

The study of enhanced coagulation process efficacy and direct filtration’s effectiveness on elimination of natural organic materials from surface waters

زمینه و هدف: یکی از مشکلات اصلی استفاده از منابع آب های سطحی، غلظت بالای مواد آلی طبیعی آن است. مواد آلی طبیعی پیش ساز محصولات جانبی گندزدایی بوده و برخی از این مواد می توانند برای انسان سمی یا سرطان زا باشند. هدف از این مطالعه بررسی کارآیی فرآیند انعقاد پیشرفته و فیلتراسیون مستقیم برای حذف مواد آلی طبیعی از آب های سطحی بود. روش بررسی: در این مطالعه نیمه تجربی، پایلوت برای انعقاد پیشرفته با فیلتراسیون مستقیم با ظرفیت 144 لیتر بر ساعت طراحی شد. تالاب چغاخور واقع در 65 کیلومتری شهرکرد به عنوان محل نمونه برداری انتخاب و نمونه ها برداشت شد. جهت سنجش مواد آلی طبیعی (NOMs) از روش جذب UV در طول موج 254 نانومتر بوسیله دستگاه اسپکتروفتومتر استفاده شد. در این پژوهش تأثیر pH، دوز منعقد کننده کلروفریک (FeCl3) و دبی ورودی به سیستم بر حذف مواد آلی طبیعی مورد بررسی قرار گرفت. یافته ها: نتایج نشان داد که در شرایط بهینه میزان حذف NOMs حدود 94 درصد بود و مقدار باقیمانده آلاینده به کمتر از mg/l 2 رسید. شرایط بهینه برای حذف مواد آلی طبیعی در pH 2/6، دوز کلروفریک mg/l 60 و دبی l/h 95 اتفاق افتاد. بر اساس تحلیل اثر عوامل مورد بررسی، غلظت ماده منعقد کننده بیشترین اثر را بر راندمان حذف NOMs داشته و به ترتیب pH و دبی در رتبه های بعدی قرار داشتند. نتیجه گیری: طبق نتایج بدست آمده، انعقاد پیشرفته بوسیله کلروفریک با فیلتراسیون مستقیم می تواند بازدهی حذف مواد آلی طبیعی در تصفیه خانه آب را بهبود دهد