White-Rot Fungi in Bioremediation

Bioremediation is defined as the application of biological processes to the treatment of pollution. Most research on the field of bioremediation has focused on bacteria, and fungal bioremediation (mycoremediation) has also been attracting the interest just for a couple of decades. The toxicity of many pollutants reduces natural attenuation of bacteria, but white-rot fungi (WRF) can challenge with toxic levels of the most pollutants. Fungi are robust organisms having very high tolerance to toxic environments, and this feature makes them ideal to use for bioremedial purposes. White-rot fungi are basidiomycetes that are capable of degrading a lignocellulose substrate. Extracellular enzymes involved in the degradation of lignin and xenobiotics by white-rot fungi include several kinds of laccases, peroxidases, and oxidases producing H2O2. Nowadays, great progress in this area may derive from modern molecular technologies, which may provide cheaper potential sources of various enzymes by means of genetically modified microorganisms or plants. This chapter explains the bioremediation and its application conditions and degradation mechanisms of the harmful compounds such as textile dyes, PAHs, chlorophenols, TNT, pesticides, and nylon

The role of inflammation in perinatal brain injury

Inflammation is increasingly recognized as being a critical contributor to both normal development and injury outcome in the immature brain. The focus of this Review is to highlight important differences in innate and adaptive immunity in immature versus adult brain, which support the notion that the consequences of inflammation will be entirely different depending on context and stage of CNS development. Perinatal brain injury can result from neonatal encephalopathy and perinatal arterial ischaemic stroke, usually at term, but also in preterm infants. Inflammation occurs before, during and after brain injury at term, and modulates vulnerability to and development of brain injury. Preterm birth, on the other hand, is often a result of exposure to inflammation at a very early developmental phase, which affects the brain not only during fetal life, but also over a protracted period of postnatal life in a neonatal intensive care setting, influencing critical phases of myelination and cortical plasticity. Neuroinflammation during the perinatal period can increase the risk of neurological and neuropsychiatric disease throughout childhood and adulthood, and is, therefore, of concern to the broader group of physicians who care for these individuals