Disulfiram moderately restores impaired hepatic redox status of rats subchronically exposed to cadmium

Examination of cadmium (Cd) toxicity and disulfiram (DSF) effect on liver was focused on oxidative stress (OS), bioelements status, morphological and functional changes. Male Wistar rats were intraperitoneally treated with 1mg CdCl2/kg BW/day; orally with 178.5 mg DSF/kg BW/day for 1, 3, 10 and 21 days; and co-exposed from 22nd to 42nd day. The co-exposure nearly restored previously suppressed total superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and increased glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities; increased previously reduced glutathione reductase (GR) and total glutathione-S-transferase (GST) activities; reduced previously increased superoxide anion radical (O-2(center dot-)) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels; increased zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe), and decreased copper (Cu) (yet above control value), while magnesium (Mg) was not affected; and decreased serum alanine aminotransferases (ALT) levels. Histopathological examination showed signs of inflammation process as previously demonstrated by exposure to Cd. Overall, we ascertained partial liver redox status improvement, compared with the formerly Cd-induced impact

The Distressed Brain: A Group Blind Source Separation Analysis on Tinnitus

Background: Tinnitus, the perception of a sound without an external sound source, can lead to variable amounts of distress. Methodology: In a group of tinnitus patients with variable amounts of tinnitus related distress, as measured by the Tinnitus Questionnaire (TQ), an electroencephalography (EEG) is performed, evaluating the patients ’ resting state electrical brain activity. This resting state electrical activity is compared with a control group and between patients with low (N = 30) and high distress (N = 25). The groups are homogeneous for tinnitus type, tinnitus duration or tinnitus laterality. A group blind source separation (BSS) analysis is performed using a large normative sample (N = 84), generating seven normative components to which high and low tinnitus patients are compared. A correlation analysis of the obtained normative components ’ relative power and distress is performed. Furthermore, the functional connectivity as reflected by lagged phase synchronization is analyzed between the brain areas defined by the components. Finally, a group BSS analysis on the Tinnitus group as a whole is performed. Conclusions: Tinnitus can be characterized by at least four BSS components, two of which are posterior cingulate based, one based on the subgenual anterior cingulate and one based on the parahippocampus. Only the subgenual component correlates with distress. When performed on a normative sample, group BSS reveals that distress is characterized by two anterior cingulate based components. Spectral analysis of these components demonstrates that distress in tinnitus is relate

Down-regulation of porin M35 in Moraxella catarrhalis by aminopenicillins and environmental factors and its potential contribution to the mechanism of resistance to aminopenicillins

The outer membrane protein M35 of Moraxella catarrhalis is an antigenically conserved porin. Knocking out M35 significantly increases the MICs of aminopenicillins. The aim of this study was to determine the biological mechanism of this potentially new antimicrobial resistance mechanism of M. catarrhalis and the behaviour of M35 in general stress situations

Tigecycline resistance in Serratia marcescens associated with up-regulation of the SdeXY-HasF efflux system also active against ciprofloxacin and cefpirome

Objectives Efflux by RND-type transporters is known to confer resistance to tigecycline in several Enterobacteriaceae species and we examined the potential of this mechanism in Serratia marcescens using a clinical isolate and laboratory-selected mutants. Methods Expression of RND-type efflux pump genes was analysed by real-time RT–PCR. Laboratory mutants were selected by exposure to either tigecycline or tetracycline in vitro. Efflux pump genes were inactivated by suicide plasmids containing the R6K? origin of replication. Results Higher tigecycline MICs correlated with elevated expression of the RND-type efflux pump genes sdeXY. Inactivation of sdeY or the outer membrane component gene hasF reduced MICs of tigecycline, tetracycline, ciprofloxacin and cefpirome to below those for strain NCTC 10211. A tetracycline-selected laboratory mutant also showed increases in sdeXY expression and tigecycline MIC. Conclusions Up-regulation of endogenous SdeXY–HasF-mediated efflux is associated with tigecycline resistance in S. marcescens along with MIC rises for tetracycline, ciprofloxacin and cefpirome. Inactivation of this efflux system reduced MICs of those compounds to below those for strain NCTC 10211