Intersection of inflammation and herbal medicine in the treatment of osteoarthritis

Herbal remedies and dietary supplements have become an important area of research and clinical practice in orthopaedics and rheumatology. Understanding the risks and benefits of using herbal medicines in the treatment of arthritis, rheumatic diseases, and musculoskeletal complaints is a key priority of physicians and their patients. This review discusses the latest advances in the use of herbal medicines for treating osteoarthritis (OA) by focusing on the most significant trends and developments. This paper sets the scene by providing a brief introduction to ethnopharmacology, Ayurvedic medicine, and nutrigenomics before discussing the scientific and mechanistic rationale for targeting inflammatory signalling pathways in OA by use of herbal medicines. Special attention is drawn to the conceptual and practical difficulties associated with translating data from in-vitro experiments to in-vivo studies. Issues relating to the low bioavailability of active ingredients in herbal medicines are discussed, as also is the need for large-scale, randomized clinical trial

Biosurfactants Production from Low Cost Substrate and Degradation of Diesel Oil by a Rhodococcus Strain

The ability of a Rhodococcus strain to produce surface-active agents from residual sunflower frying oil (RSFO) has been screened in batch cultures. During cultivation with RSFO at the concentration 3% (vol/vol), the strain has synthesized extra-cellular compounds which increase the E24 emulsion index of the culture medium up to 63%. In their crude form, these substances lower the surface tension of water until 31.9 mN m-1. The exponential growth with RSFO as the sole carbon source has developed at a specific growth rate μ = 0.55 d-1. The critical micelle concentration of the crude product reached the value 287 mg L-1 (γCMC = 31.9 mN m-1). After methylesterification, the lipid fraction of biosurfactants has been analyzed by GC-MS in EI, which reveals the presence of fatty acid methyl esters. The microorganism was also cultivated with the diesel oil as the sole carbon source at the concentration 1% (vol/vol): the active growth phase has developed at rate μ = 0.02 d-1, without production of emulsifying substance: the microorganism seems to develop different modes of substrate uptake, according to the nature of the carbon source. The potential use of surface-active agents synthesized on RSFO by Rhodococcus erythropolis 16 LM.USTHB is in the oil industry with minimum purity specification, so that crude preparation could be used, at low cost, in clean-up of hydrocarbons contaminated sites and for enhanced oil recovery

Spatiotemporal characterisation of presaccadic allocation of attention

International audienceno abstrac

Spatiotemporal characterisation of presaccadic allocation of attention

International audienceno abstrac

Cloning and sequencing of IS1086, an Alcaligenes eutrophus insertion element related to IS30 and IS4351.

A new insertion sequence (IS), designated IS1086, was isolated from Alcaligenes eutrophus CH34 by being trapped in plasmid pJV240, which contains the Bacillus subtilis sacB and sacR genes. The 1,106-bp IS1086 element contains partially matched (22 of 28 bp) terminal-inverted repeats and a long open reading frame. Hybridization data suggest the presence of one copy of IS1086 in the strain CH34 heavy-metal resistance plasmid pMOL28 and at least two copies in its chromosome. Analysis of the IS1086 nucleotide sequence revealed striking homology with two other IS elements, IS30 and IS4351, suggesting that they are three close members in a family of phylogenetically related insertion sequences. One open reading frame of the Spiroplasma citri phage SpV1-R8A2 B was also found to be related to this IS family but to a lesser extent. Comparison of the G+C contents of IS30 and IS1086 revealed that they conform to their respective hosts (46 versus 50% for IS30 and Escherichia coli and 64.5% for IS1086 and A. eutrophus). The pressure on the AT/GC ratio led to a very different codon usage in these two closely related IS elements. Results suggesting that IS1086 transposition might be activated by some forms of stress are discussed