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Topic Review
Applications of Mycorrhizal Symbiosis to the Ecosystem
Mycorrhizal fungi exhibit the exceptional feature of dwelling partly inside as well as outside the plant roots. The term mycorrhizae comes from the Greek word ‘mykes’ and ‘rhiza’, meaning ‘fungus’ and ‘root’ respectively, which was first applied to the association of trees with fungal symbionts. Mycorrhizal fungi, which are members of Glomeromycota, are common on the landscape and associate with over 80% of plants in a diversity of managed (agricultural) and unmanaged (natural) ecosystems. Mycorrhization benefits plants by up-regulating the catalytic activities of soil enzymes (such as phosphatases, dehydrogenase, nitrogenase, etc.), assisting in the breakdown of complex organic compounds of soil, and positively influencing other microbes present in the rhizosphere for improved nutrients uptake. Activation of these mechanisms, in turn, provides the ability to withstand drought stress, alleviate salinity, helps with micronutrient absorption and better water absorption, and defense systems in the plants. Owing to these benefits, mycorrhizae have gained a lot of consideration towards multidisciplinary research and have huge applications in agriculture as bio-fertilizers, in fuel production due to the increased plant biomass, and in soil rehabilitation, phytoextraction, and phytoremediation, etc.
  • 1.4K
  • 13 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Antimicrobial Peptides Synergy with Vancomycin
There is an urgent and imminent need to develop new antimicrobials to fight against antibiotic-resistant bacterial and fungal strains. In this study, a checkerboard method was used to evaluate the synergistic effects of the antimicrobial peptide P-113 and its bulky non-nature amino acid substituted derivatives with vancomycin against vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, and wild-type Escherichia coli. Boron-dipyrro-methene (BODIPY) labeled vancomycin was used to characterize the interactions between the peptides, vancomycin, and bacterial strains. Moreover, neutralization of antibiotic-induced releasing of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from E. coli by the peptides was obtained. Among these peptides, Bip-P-113 demonstrated the best minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs), antibiotics synergism, bacterial membrane permeabilization, and supernatant LPS neutralizing activities against the bacteria studied. These results could help in developing antimicrobial peptides that have synergistic activity with large size glycopeptides such as vancomycin in therapeutic applications.
  • 1.4K
  • 29 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Bacterial Laccases as Biocatalysts for Environmental Toxic Pollutants
Laccases are the potential enzymes for oxidoreductases (a broad group of enzymes that catalyze electron transfers from one molecule to another), which are widely distributed in nature in plants, bacteria, fungi, and insects. They are suitable for green catalysis, organic synthesis, and the biodegradation of environmental xenobiotics due to their high efficiency and sustainable applications. A wide variety of organic compounds can be oxidized by laccase, and they can be widely applied in the biodegradation of pollutants for detoxification of environments, such as delignification and pulp-bleaching, treatment of textile dyes, wastewater treatment, and treatment of other environmental xenobiotics.
  • 1.4K
  • 28 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Fermentative Foods
Fermented foods identify cultures and civilizations. History, climate and the particulars of local production of raw materials have urged humanity to exploit various pathways of fermentation to produce a wide variety of traditional edible products which represent adaptations to specific conditions.
  • 1.4K
  • 28 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Antimicrobial Resistance of VBNC Bacteria
 Antimicrobial Resistance of VBNC Bacteria means the bacteria that enter the viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state, either through unfavorable environmental conditions or through potentially lethal stress, lose their ability to grow on standard enrichment media, but show a drastically increased tolerance against antimicrobials including antibiotics.
  • 1.4K
  • 16 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Sustainable Development Goals in the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Sustainable Development Goals are a global call to action to end poverty, close the gender gap, protect the planet, and improve the lives of people around the world. In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted 17 goals as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which sets out a plan to achieve the goals in 15 years. However, the COVID-19 pandemic crisis has been a turning point in the achievement of these goals, due to all its consequences at the political, economic, and socio-cultural levels.
  • 1.4K
  • 28 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Prebiotics for Pregnancy and Its Complications
The term “prebiotics” was first coined by professors Emeritus Marcel Roberfroid and Glenn Gibson in a 1995 publication, where they explained the selective growth of colonic bifidobacterials boosted by the intact fibrous oligosaccharide inulin. They explained prebiotics as “nondigestible food ingredients that beneficially affect the host by selectively stimulating the growth and/or activity of one or a limited number of bacterial species already resident in the colon, and thus attempt to improve host health”.
  • 1.4K
  • 22 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Beehive Products as Antibacterial Agents
Apitherapy is a branch of unconventional medicine that relies on the usage of bee products which consist of honey, pollen, propolis, royal jelly and bee venom (BV). Besides having high nutritional importance and health benefits, honey showed antifungal, antiviral, antiseptic, anticancer, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory and cardio protective activities. As for the BV, despite its possible adverse effects like the allergic reactions that might occur after the bee sting, one cannot disregard its various therapeutic effects. BV exerts anticancer, antiviral, antifungal and antibacterial effects, it is also used for the treatment of many neurodegenerative diseases. Regarding propolis, it has the capacity to fight against cancer and many microorganisms. Moreover, pollen possesses antioxidant, anticoagulant and anti-inflammatory properties. Also, royal jelly exhibits several interesting biological activities including antioxidant, anti-aging, antitumor anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and neurotrophic activities. Hence, this review aims to highlight one of the most important and commonly shared biological activity of all of the above-mentioned beehive products, which is the antibacterial activity.
  • 1.4K
  • 12 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Resuscitation of Viable but Nonculturable Bacteria
The viable but nonculturable (VBNC) state is a survival strategy for bacteria when encountered with unfavorable conditions. Under favorable environments such as nutrient supplementation, external stress elimination, or supplementation with resuscitation-promoting substances, bacteria will recover from the VBNC state, which is termed “resuscitation”.
  • 1.4K
  • 03 Jan 2023
Topic Review
L. reuteri in Human Gut
Lactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938 (L. reuteri) is a probiotic that can colonize different human body sites, including primarily the gastrointestinal tract, but also the urinary tract, the skin, and breast milk. Literature data showed that the administration of L. reuteri can be beneficial to human health. 
  • 1.4K
  • 13 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Herpes Simplex Type 1
Herpes simplex type 1 (HSV-1) is a neurotropic virus that infects the peripheral and central nervous systems. Primary infection takes place in epithelial cells and the virus is transmitted to new hosts via saliva. In this stage, HSV-1 typically causes labial and oral lesions. After primary infection in epithelial cells, HSV-1 spreads retrogradely to the peripheral nervous system (PNS), where it establishes a latent infection in the trigeminal ganglia (TG). The virus can reactivate from latency, traveling anterogradely along the axon and replicating in the local surrounding tissue. Occasionally, HSV-1 may spread trans-synaptically from the TG to the brainstem, from where it may disseminate to higher areas of the central nervous system (CNS). HSV-1 can cause severe pathologies such as encephalitis or keratoconjunctivitis. Herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE) mostly affects the frontal and temporal lobes and the limbic system. It is not completely understood how HSV-1 reaches the CNS, although the most accepted idea is retrograde transport through the trigeminal or olfactory tracts. Once in the CNS, HSV-1 may induce demyelination, either as a direct trigger or as a risk factor, modulating processes such as remyelination, regulation of endogenous retroviruses, or molecular mimicry.
  • 1.4K
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Oral Health and Candidiasis Development
Oral fungal infection is one of the most researched medical challenges today, being critically related to the development of oral candidiasis, the dissemination of Candida sp. in oromucosal tissues, overcoming barriers such as antifungal drug resistance, and repurposing new pathways and mechanisms to alleviate resilient infections.
  • 1.4K
  • 20 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Host Defense and Pathogenesis in Staphylococcus aureus
Staphylococcus aureus is a versatile pathogen known to cause hospital- and community-acquired, foodborne, and zoonotic infections. As a multi-faceted pathogen, it is essential to consolidate the knowledge on its pathogenesis, including the mechanisms of virulence regulation, development of antimicrobial resistance and biofilm formation, to make it more amenable to classical and novel therapeutic strategies such as those based on nanomaterials.
  • 1.4K
  • 08 Feb 2023
Topic Review
Genital Tract Microbiome of Cattle
The term microbiota refers to the entire population of microorganisms that colonizes a particular location and includes not just bacteria, but also other microbes such as fungi, archaea, viruses, and protozoans. Cows have bacteria inhabiting the uterus even before calving and establish a unique endometrial microbiome within 20 min of calving where the microbiome is similar between cows that develop metritis and cows without endometritis until at least the second day postpartum.
  • 1.4K
  • 23 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Quorum-Sensing Inhibitors from Probiotics
Experience-based knowledge has shown that bacteria can communicate with each other through a cell-density-dependent mechanism called quorum sensing (QS). QS controls specific bacterial phenotypes, such as sporulation, virulence and pathogenesis, the production of degrading enzymes, bioluminescence, swarming motility, and biofilm formation. The expression of these phenotypes in food spoiling and pathogenic bacteria, which may occur in food, can have dramatic consequences on food production, the economy, and health.
  • 1.3K
  • 23 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a bacterium of great medical importance because it causes tuberculosis, a disease that affects millions of people worldwide. Two important features are related to this bacterium: its ability to infect and survive inside the host, minimizing the immune response, and the burden of clinical isolates that are highly resistant to antibiotics treatment. These two phenomena are directly affected by cell envelope proteins, such as proteins from the ATP-Binding Cassette (ABC transporters) superfamily.
  • 1.3K
  • 18 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Amino-Acid Metabolism in Apicomplexan Parasites
The review covers the current knowledge on the presence of amino acid biosynthesis and uptake within the Apicomplexa phylum, focusing on human-infecting pathogens: Toxoplasma gondii and Plasmodium falciparum. Given the complex multi-host lifecycle of these pathogens, we hypothesize that amino acids are made, rather than acquired, depending on the host niche. We summarize the stage-specificities of the biosynthesis enzymes, the role of amini acid transporters and the relevance of amino acids for parasite pathogenesis in vivo.
  • 1.3K
  • 12 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Avian Influenza
Avian influenza, known informally as avian flu or bird flu, is a variety of influenza caused by viruses adapted to birds.[note 1] The type with the greatest risk is highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Bird flu is similar to swine flu, dog flu, horse flu and human flu as an illness caused by strains of influenza viruses that have adapted to a specific host. Out of the three types of influenza viruses (A, B, and C), influenza A virus is a zoonotic infection with a natural reservoir almost entirely in birds. Avian influenza, for most purposes, refers to the influenza A virus. Though influenza A is adapted to birds, it can also stably adapt and sustain person-to-person transmission. Recent influenza research into the genes of the Spanish flu virus shows it to have genes adapted from both human and avian strains. Pigs can also be infected with human, avian, and swine influenza viruses, allowing for mixtures of genes (reassortment) to create a new virus, which can cause an antigenic shift to a new influenza A virus subtype which most people have little to no immune protection against. Avian influenza strains are divided into two types based on their pathogenicity: high pathogenicity (HP) or low pathogenicity (LP). The most well-known HPAI strain, H5N1, was first isolated from a farmed goose in Guangdong Province, China in 1996, and also has low pathogenic strains found in North America. Companion birds in captivity are unlikely to contract the virus and there has been no report of a companion bird with avian influenza since 2003. Pigeons can contract avian strains, but rarely become ill and are incapable of transmitting the virus efficiently to humans or other animals. Between early 2013 and early 2017, 916 lab-confirmed human cases of H7N9 were reported to the World Health Organization (WHO). On 9 January 2017, the National Health and Family Planning Commission of China reported to WHO 106 cases of H7N9 which occurred from late November through late December, including 35 deaths, 2 potential cases of human-to-human transmission, and 80 of these 106 persons stating that they have visited live poultry markets. The cases are reported from Jiangsu (52), Zhejiang (21), Anhui (14), Guangdong (14), Shanghai (2), Fujian (2) and Hunan (1). Similar sudden increases in the number of human cases of H7N9 have occurred in previous years during December and January.
  • 1.3K
  • 11 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Pathogenicity and Immunogenicity of Adenovirus
Adenovirus is formed of an icosahedral protein shell measuring 90 nm and harboring linear double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) that belongs to the genus Mastadenovirus of the Adenoviridae family. Most people have been infected by adenovirus, leading to lifelong immunity.
  • 1.3K
  • 26 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Avian Pathogenic Escherichia coli
Avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC) are the major etiology of avian colibacillosis. Unlike other pathogenic E. coli, APEC causes extra-intestinal infections. Here we focus on the first time detection of APEC from layer farms in Bangladesh using molecular based approach targeting specific APEC associated virulence genes. In addition, their antibiotic resistance profile were also evaluated. Surprisingly all the isolates were found MDR in nature which is very alarming from public health point of view because of their zoonotic potentiality.
  • 1.3K
  • 27 Oct 2020
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