To the Editor: We read with great interest the article on acceleration of atherosclerosis by nonspecific stimulation of the immune system. Lehr and colleagues1 showed data supporting the concept that atherosclerosis has an immunopathological component, making improbable that a single infectious agent should assume particular importance in its initiation or progression. We tested this hypothesis...

Development of mixed-culture microbial granules under aerobic conditions in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR), capable of completely degrading a recalcitrant metal chelating agent is reported. In laboratory-scale reactor studies, the microbial granules degraded 2mM of free nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) and Fe(III)-NTA completely in 14 and 40 h, respectively. Free NTA was degraded at a specific rat...

Biofilm infections; by definition, are the communities of microorganisms which are attached to a surface and are not readily sampled by common diagnostic techniques. Biofilms are innately more resistant than their individual planktonic counterparts and microorganisms frequently exhibit increased antimicrobial resistance. Our expanding knowledge of biofilm-related infections has broadened our vi...

introduction: in this study, the chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of essential oil of ziziphora clinopodiodes and its potential application as a natural preservative in reducing the indigenous microbial population of hamburger were investigated. method: essential oil of ziziphora clinopodiodes cultivated in iran was obtained by hydro-distillation method (hdm). chemical compositio...

This perspective presents a viewpoint on potential methods assessing toxicity of indoor air. Until recently, the major techniques to document moldy environment have been microbial isolation using conventional culture techniques for fungi and bacteria as well as in some instances polymerase chain reaction to detect microbial genetic components. However, it has become increasingly evident that ba...

Bacterial biofilms are usually assumed to originate from individual cells deposited on a surface. However, many biofilm-forming bacteria tend to aggregate in the planktonic phase so that it is possible that many natural and infectious biofilms originate wholly or partially from pre-formed cell aggregates. Here, we use agent-based computer simulations to investigate the role of pre-formed aggreg...

During the past century, discoveries of microorganisms as causes of infections and antibiotics as effective therapeutic agents have contributed to significant gains in public health in many parts of the world. Health agencies worldwide are galvanizing attention toward antibiotic resistance, which is a major threat to public health (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013; World Health ...

There has recently been much controversy surrounding the increased use of antibacterial substances in a wide range of consumer products and the possibility that, as with antibiotics, indiscriminate use of biocides might contribute to the overall pattern of susceptibility in the general environment and in the clinic. Such speculation, based on the isolation of resistant mutants from in vitro mon...

average length of about 27 and 55 nucleotides. The association of these RNAs with recPrP reconstituted an infectious TSE agent showing in hamster brain strain characteristics slightly different from 263 K infectious agent (Simoneau et al., 2009). As currently recognized, the demonstration of the prion hypothesis should be performed in wild-type (wt) animals. However I suggest that comprehensive...