Treatment of ocular allergies:nonpharmacologic, pharmacologic and immunotherapy

Ocular allergy is a significant and growing issue worldwide but for many patients, it is often not differentiated from systemic conditions, such as hay fever. Management of seasonal and perennial allergic conjunctivitis is often poor. Management is principally through avoidance measures (blocking or hygiene), nonpharmaceutical (such as artificial tears and cold compresses) and pharmaceutical (such as topical antihistamines and prophylactic mast cell stabilizers). Vernal and atopic keratoconjunctivitis are more severe and generally need treatment with NSAIDs, steroids and immunomodulators. Giant papillary conjunctivitis can be related to allergy but also is often contact lens related and in such cases can be managed by a period of abstinence and replacement of the lens or a change in lens material and/or design. Immunotherapy can be efficacious in severe, persistent cases of contact lens or allergic conjunctivitis

N-Acetylglucosamine Induces White to Opaque Switching, a Mating Prerequisite in Candida albicans

To mate, the fungal pathogen Candida albicans must undergo homozygosis at the mating-type locus and then switch from the white to opaque phenotype. Paradoxically, opaque cells were found to be unstable at physiological temperature, suggesting that mating had little chance of occurring in the host, the main niche of C. albicans. Recently, however, it was demonstrated that high levels of CO2, equivalent to those found in the host gastrointestinal tract and select tissues, induced the white to opaque switch at physiological temperature, providing a possible resolution to the paradox. Here, we demonstrate that a second signal, N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), a monosaccharide produced primarily by gastrointestinal tract bacteria, also serves as a potent inducer of white to opaque switching and functions primarily through the Ras1/cAMP pathway and phosphorylated Wor1, the gene product of the master switch locus. Our results therefore suggest that signals produced by bacterial co-members of the gastrointestinal tract microbiota regulate switching and therefore mating of C. albicans

Triterpene saponins from Knautia integrifolia var. bidens

WOS: 000222951900012Two new triterpene saponins (1 and 2), named bidenosides A and B, were isolated from the roots of Knautia integrifolia var. bidens. The structures were identified as 3-O-alpha-L-rhanmopyranosyl-28-O-[beta-D-allopyranosyl-(1 --> 6)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl]-pomolic acid, and 3-O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-28-O-[beta-D-allopyranosyl-(1 --> 6)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl]-oleanolic acid on the basis of spectroscopic evidence

Decolourization and removal of phenol compounds from olive mill wastewater by O3/UV/NaBO3 and pre-treatment

Olive mill wastewater (OMW) generated by the olive oil extracting industry is a major pollutant, because of its high organic load and phytotoxic and antibacterial phenolic compounds which resist biological degradation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of decolourization and removal of phenol and lignin in OMW by O3/UV/NaBO3 and Pre-treatment. In pre-treatment experimentals, chemical coagulation experiments with lime and alum have been carried out. In the photolytic degradation experimentals, the effect of NaBO3 dosage, times, pH, O3, temperature and OMW concentration were determined to find the suitable operating conditions for the best removal. At the end of this procedure, it has been observed decreasing colour change intensity from 10.41 to 1.71, the phenol concentration from 300 mgL-1 to 111 mgL-1, the lignine concentration from 10.60 gL-1 to 1.61 gL-1, the value of COD from 61000gL-1 to 9.76gL-1. From experimental results, Optimum values for the degradation of phenol and lignin were favorable at pH 9.0, colour degradation was observed in acidic conditions (pH3.0). The optimum time and temperature for removal of colour, phenol and lignin were found to be 10h and 308K, respectively. In addition, the pseudo-first order model was applied and r2 values were noted from 0.90 to 0.99. From these results, it can be said that this study proves the effectiveness of photolytic removal for highly concentrated organic pollutants present in OMW. Moreover, there is no study reported in the literature related to the use of O3/UV/NaBO3 in OMW treatment and O3/UV/NaBO3 may constitute an important step for further purification processes such as adsorption, membrane processes, etc