Combined anti-AGEs and antioxidant activities of different solvent extracts of Solanum elaeagnifolium Cav. (Solanaceae) fruits during ripening and related to their phytochemical compositions

Oxidative stress and advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are known as key factors for the development of diabetic complications such as retinopathy, cataract as well as atherosclerosis and neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s diseases. In this context, natural products have been previously identified as promising sources for antioxidant and anti-glycation compounds. The current study focuses on the evaluation of antioxidant and glycation inhibitory activities of different solvent extracts of Solanum elaeagnifolium Cav (Solanaceae) fruits at different ripening stages. The results showed that antioxidant and anti-AGEs activities were significantly influenced by solvents polarities and ripening stages of S. elaeagnifolium Cav. With one exception, methanolic extract of overripe S. elaeagnifolium Cav fruit showed important protective effects against cellular oxidative stress. The aqueous extract showed the highest ABTS+ scavenging ability. Principal component analysis showed that total phenolic and flavonoid contents correlated well with observed antioxidants and anti-glycation activities. These results bring attention to the possible use of S. elaeagnifolium Cav as a valuable source of bioactive compounds exhibiting antioxidant effects and potentially alleviating diabetic complications

BPR best practices for the healthcare domain

Healthcare providers are under pressure to work more efficiently and in a more patient-focused way. One possible way to achieve this is to launch Business Process Redesign (BPR) initiatives, which focus on changing the structure of the involved processes and using IT as an enabler for such changes. In this paper, we argue that a list of historically successful improvement tactics, the BPR best practices, are a highly suitable ingredient for such efforts in the healthcare domain. Our assessment is based on the analysis of 14 case studies. The insights obtained by the analysis also led to an extension of the original set of best practices

Partitioning clustering algorithms for protein sequence data sets

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Genome-sequencing projects are currently producing an enormous amount of new sequences and cause the rapid increasing of protein sequence databases. The unsupervised classification of these data into functional groups or families, clustering, has become one of the principal research objectives in structural and functional genomics. Computer programs to automatically and accurately classify sequences into families become a necessity. A significant number of methods have addressed the clustering of protein sequences and most of them can be categorized in three major groups: hierarchical, graph-based and partitioning methods. Among the various sequence clustering methods in literature, hierarchical and graph-based approaches have been widely used. Although partitioning clustering techniques are extremely used in other fields, few applications have been found in the field of protein sequence clustering. It is not fully demonstrated if partitioning methods can be applied to protein sequence data and if these methods can be efficient compared to the published clustering methods.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We developed four partitioning clustering approaches using Smith-Waterman local-alignment algorithm to determine pair-wise similarities of sequences. Four different sets of protein sequences were used as evaluation data sets for the proposed methods.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We show that these methods outperform several other published clustering methods in terms of correctly predicting a classifier and especially in terms of the correctness of the provided prediction. The software is available to academic users from the authors upon request.</p

KSHV gB associated RGD interactions promote attachment of cells by inhibiting the potential migratory signals induced by the disintegrin-like domain

Background: Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) glycoprotein B (gB) is not only expressed on the envelope of mature virions but also on the surfaces of cells undergoing lytic replication. Among herpesviruses, KSHV gB is the only glycoprotein known to possess the RGD (Arg-Gly-Asp) binding integrin domain critical to mediating cell attachment. Recent studies described gB to also possess a disintegrin-like domain (DLD) said to interact with non-RGD binding integrins. We wanted to decipher the roles of two individually distinct integrin binding domains (RGD versus DLD) within KSHV gB in regulating attachment of cells over cell migration

Purification and characterization of a neutral peroxidase induced by rubbing tomato internodes

International audienc

Protoplasting impact on polyketide activity and characterization of the interspecific fusants from Streptomyces

The influence of protoplasting and protoplast regeneration on antibiotic activity, transfer of biosynthesis encoding genes in local Streptomyces spp. CN207 was studied. The frequency of regenerated protoplasts in the lag phase was 1.7x103 CFU/ml, in the beginning of the exponential phase 0.4x102 CFU/ml, in the exponential growth phase 2.5x103 CFU/ml, and 1.0x105 CFU/ml in stationary phase. The protoplast formation and regeneration technique resulted in a new isolate strain ofStreptomyces spp.PR01 that produced approximately 5 fold more Streptomyces spp. CN207 antibiotic. The protoplast fusion resulted in increased isolation of variants with higher antibiotic activity.Recombinant Streptomyces coelicolor PF04 was increased 10 times more than the wild strain. Theprocesses also affected on the strain resistance to some antibiotics but had no effect on the components of the antibiotic. The characteristics of this recombinant product were similar considerably to Streptomyces spp. CN207 product. Our data, in principal, indicate the possibility of transferring antibiotics cluster genes by fusion and provide a starting point for genetic and biochemicalinvestigations of CN207 biosynthesis

Експериментальне дослідження корозійної стійкості бетону на карбонатних заповнювачах

В статье изложены результаты экспериментальных исследований прочности и долговечности бетонных образцов с варьируемым содержанием кварцевого и карбонатного песка, в течение 20 лет подвергавшихся воздействию сульфатных растворов.У статті викладені результати експериментальних досліджень міцності і довговічності бетонних зразків з варійованим вмістом кварцового і карбонатного піску, протягом 20 років піддавалися впливу сульфатних розчинів