In most natural environments, association with a surface in a structure known as a biofilm is the prevailing microbial lifestyle. Surface association is an efficient means of lingering in a favorable microenvironment rather than being swept away by the current. Taken to the extreme, we may view the planktonic or free-swimming microbial phase primarily as a mechanism for translocation from one s...

Our intestines host trillions of bacteria, most of which are beneficial to our health most of the time. Occasionally, however, a change in conditions, or the entry of a pathogenic strain, leads to disease. Recent papers shed new light onto the complex interactions that determine intestinal health and disease. Intestinal cells first come into contact with bacteria after birth, as they transition...

The research study was conducted on the market fruits from selected local markets of Mymensingh, Bangladesh. The objectives of the study were to assess the microbiological quality of market fruits, hand washing and used water of hotels and chatpoti shops and to predict the comparative public health implication associated with the socioeconomic status of the inhabitants consuming the fruits and ...

Levels of glutathione (GSH) in tumour tissue may be important in determining the clinical response to certain anticancer agents. Recent reports have suggested that D,L-buthionine-S,R-sulphoximine (BSO), a specific inhibitor of GSH synthesis, may be used to deplete tumour cell GSH and thus increase the therapeutic ratio of these agents. We have previously shown that 1-naphthol is a potential ant...

Peter J. Johnson*, Noel T. Keen, Joan K. Lunney and Michael J. Sadowsky 1 USDA-CSREES-National Research Initiative, Stop 2241, 1400 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20250-2241, USA 2 Plant Pathology Department, University of California at Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA 3 Immunology and Disease Resistance Laboratory, ANRI, ARS, USDA, Building 1040, Room 107, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA ...

34 IMMUNE RESPONSES TO MICROBES Two important vaccine advances have been the development of nanoparticle-based vaccine formulations and the identification of unique microbial products that are agonists for immunologic receptors: virus-like particles (VLPs) or nanoparticles, and Toll-Like Receptor (TLR) agonists, respectively.1-3 The immune system continuously screens for and interacts with micr...

1332 CMAJ, August 9, 2011, 183(11) © 2011 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors So, your three months of dieting have gone really well, but it still feels like the weight wants to come back on. Maybe your gut feeling is spot on. What if you’re harbouring trillions of little microbes that simply won’t accept this dieting stuff and are “telling” your brain to get back to your plump old se...

Physicochemical environments............................................... 127 Protection oflabile systems ................................................ 128 Impounding of metabolites .................................................. 128 Lend-lease of critical cofactors.............................................. 129 Imponderables..............................................................

E ven death doesn't stop a neutrophil from battling pathogens, as Fuchs et al. report on page 231. The infection-fi ghting cells often launch a neutrophil extracellular trap (NET), a mesh of DNA and enzymes that snares and kills bacteria and fungi. The authors show that NET release involves a unique type of cellular self-sacrifi ce and depends on reactive oxygen species (ROS). The standard way ...

The article offers information on the role played by the microorganisms on the moods and thought processing of the human brain. It states that composed mostly of bacteria but also viruses and fungi, the so-called gut microbiota churns out a complex cocktail of biologically active compounds. It mentions that gut microbes could also account for some of the differences in mood, personality and tho...