Ullrich Congenital Muscular Dystrophy

ObjectiveUllrich congenital muscular dystrophy is a rather severe type of congenitalmuscular dystrophy with early onset features related to motor development.In general it is inherited in autosomal recessive principles, however in theWestern world mostly seen with de novo dominant mutations in the collagenVI genes. Milder form of the condition is the Bethlem myopathy. There may beoverlap forms in the clinic resembling the Ehler-Danlos syndrome. There hasbeen some radical efforts for cure especially through the apoptosis cascades.Key words: Ullrich congenital muscular dystrophy, collgen VI genes, Bethlemmyopathy, autophagy

In-vivo effects of flapless osteopuncture-facilitated tooth movement in the maxilla and the mandible

This study aimed to investigate the effects of a minimally invasive, flapless procedure to enhance tooth movement in both jaws and to determine whether this triggers the acceleration when repeated monthly. The sample consisted of thirty-two individuals whose orthodontic treatment required canine retraction. They were divided into an experimental group and control group. Osteopunctures were performed using orthodontic mini-screws at the distal aspects of the canine teeth at the beginning and on the fourth week of distalization in the experimental group. The control group was treated with conventional mechanics. All canines were retracted. The rates of canine distalization, rotation, and tipping were measured on the first, fourth, and eighth weeks of distalization. First molar anchorage loss was also measured. Intergroup and intragroup analyses were performed. Flapless osteopuncture-facilitated tooth movement resulted in greater canine distalization and reduced molar movement in the maxilla in the experimental than in the control group during the first month of distalization. In addition, the extent of upper canine movement was significantly higher in the experimental group in the first month than in the second. No differences in canine and molar movement in the mandible were observed between the two groups. OP, as applied in this study, is an effective method for increasing the rate of tooth movement in the maxilla. Repeating the procedure monthly does not appear to show a major advance of tooth movement

DNABINDPROT: fluctuation-based predictor of DNA-binding residues within a network of interacting residues

DNABINDPROT is designed to predict DNA-binding residues, based on the fluctuations of residues in high-frequency modes by the Gaussian network model. The residue pairs that display high mean-square distance fluctuations are analyzed with respect to DNA binding, which are then filtered with their evolutionary conservation profiles and ranked according to their DNA-binding propensities. If the analyses are based on the exact outcome of fluctuations in the highest mode, using a conservation threshold of 5, the results have a sensitivity, specificity, precision and accuracy of 9.3%, 90.5%, 18.1% and 78.6%, respectively, on a dataset of 36 unbound–bound protein structure pairs. These values increase up to 24.3%, 93.4%, 45.3% and 83.3% for the respective cases, when the neighboring two residues are considered. The relatively low sensitivity appears with the identified residues being selective and susceptible more for the binding core residues rather than all DNA-binding residues. The predicted residues that are not tagged as DNA-binding residues are those whose fluctuations are coupled with DNA-binding sites. They are in close proximity as well as plausible for other functional residues, such as ligand and protein–protein interaction sites. DNABINDPROT is free and open to all users without login requirement available at: http://www.prc.boun.edu.tr/appserv/prc/dnabindprot/

SSR-Based Molecular Identification and Population Structure Analysis for Forage Pea (Pisum sativum var. arvense L.) Landraces

Plant genetic diversity has a significant role in providing traits that can help meet future challenges, such as the need to adapt crops to changing climatic conditions or outbreaks of disease. Our aim in this study was to evaluate the diversity of 61 forage pea specimens (P. sativum ssp. arvense L.) collected from the northeastern Anatolia region of Turkey using 28 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. These primers generated a total of 82 polymorphic bands. The number of observed alleles (Na) per primer varied from 2 to 4 with a mean of 2.89 alleles/locus. The mean value of expected heterozygosity (Exp-Het = 0.50) was higher than the mean value of observed heterozygosity (Obs-Het = 0.22). The mean of polymorphic information content (PIC) was 0.41 with a range of 0.03–0.70. The mean number of effective alleles (Ne) was found to be 2.15, Nei’s expected heterozygosity (H) 0.49, and Shannon’s information index (I) 0.81. Cluster analysis through the unweighted pair-group mean average (UPGMA) method revealed that 61 forage pea landraces were divided into three main clusters. Genetic dissimilarity between the genotypes, calculated with the use of NTSYS-pc software, varied between 0.10 (G30 and G34) and 0.66 (G1 and G32). Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) revealed that three principal coordinates explained 51.54% of the total variation. Moreover, population structure analysis showed that all genotypes formed three sub-populations. Expected heterozygosity values varied between 0.2669 (the first sub-population) and 0.3223 (third sub-population), with an average value of 0.2924. Average population differentiation measurement (Fst) was identified as 0.2351 for the first sub-population, 0.3838 for the second sub-population, and 0.2506 for the third sub-population. In general, current results suggest that SSR markers could be constantly used to illuminate the genetic diversity of forage pea landraces and can potentially be incorporated into future studies that examine the diversity within a larger collection of forage pea genotypes from diverse regions

Drug-resistant HIV-1 protease regains functional dynamics through cleavage site coevolution

Drug resistance is caused by mutations that change the balance of recognition favoring substrate cleavage over inhibitor binding. Here, a structural dynamics perspective of the regained wild-type functioning in mutant HIV-1 proteases with coevolution of the natural substrates is provided. The collective dynamics of mutant structures of the protease bound to p1-p6 and NC-p1 substrates are assessed using the Anisotropic Network Model (ANM). The drug-induced protease mutations perturb the mechanistically crucial hinge axes that involve key sites for substrate binding and dimerization and mainly coordinate the intrinsic dynamics. Yet with substrate coevolution, while the wild-type dynamic behavior is restored in both p1-p6 ((LP) (1\u27F)p1-p6D30N/N88D) and NC-p1 ((AP) (2) (V)NC-p1V82A) bound proteases, the dynamic behavior of the NC-p1 bound protease variants (NC-p1V82A and (AP) (2) (V)NC-p1V82A) rather resemble those of the proteases bound to the other substrates, which is consistent with experimental studies. The orientational variations of residue fluctuations along the hinge axes in mutant structures justify the existence of coevolution in p1-p6 and NC-p1 substrates, that is, the dynamic behavior of hinge residues should contribute to the interdependent nature of substrate recognition. Overall, this study aids in the understanding of the structural dynamics basis of drug resistance and evolutionary optimization in the HIV-1 protease system

The effect of different harvesting times on seed-set efficiency in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) varieties

This study was undertaken in the South Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey during the 2006 and 2007 growing seasons to investigate the seed set efficiencies (SSE) of ten cotton cultivars grown in semi-arid climatic conditions. SSE changed by year by approximately 1-2%, averaging 87-88% in both of the study years, respectively. Mean values for varieties ranged from 86.5% (SG-125) to 89.9% (DPL-5111) in 2006 and from 86.2% (SG-125) to 89.5% (Fantom) in 2007. There were significant differences (p<0.05) among the cultivars according to harvesting time, except for the first harvest in 2006. Although differences were small, generally, it was observed that SSE diminished in flowers opened at the end of the growing season. The results showed that SSE was significantly affected (p<0.05) by cultivars, harvesting times and years. Additionally, SSE was significantly (p<0.05) and positively (r= 0.39* and r= 0.44*) correlated to seed cotton yield and seed yield in 2007. There was a significant difference in the number of seeds within the bolls formed early or late in the season, indicating bolls harvested at different times throughout the growing season could not be used for seed production. However, study results strongly indicated that seeds from the first harvest should be used for cotton seed production.Key words: Cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L., variety, harvesting time, seed-set efficiency

Intraoperative superior hypogastric plexus block for pain relief after a cesarean section: a case-control study

Aim To investigate the efficacy of intraoperative superior hypogastric plexus (SHP) block for postoperative pain relief in patients undergoing a cesarean section. Methods One hundred and fifteen pregnant women scheduled for an elective cesarean under general anesthesia were randomly divided into an SHP block (n=65) and a control group (n=50). SHP block was administered with bupivacaine injection. The controls received saline injection in the SHP area. Postoperative pain was assessed by the 10-cm visual analog scale (VAS). The presence of side effects and complications, including opioid or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) requirement, gastrointestinal function, nausea, and vomiting were evaluated. Results The SHP block group had significantly lower VAS scores 2, 6, 24, and 48 hours postoperatively (P<0.001) and required a significantly lower rescue dose of NSAID or opioids (P=0.003, P<0.05, respectively). Conclusions SHP block may be an effective and safe pain relief treatment after a cesarean section

Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

Objective: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is increasingly utilized in adults and children for treatment of various conditions. Studies on CAM in diabetes have mainly focused on the adult population and its application in children has not been well established. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence and characteristics of CAM use in Turkish children with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM)