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Acta Pharmaceutica (Zagreb, Croatia) Jun 2024Lipid-based systems, such as self-microemulsifying systems (SMEDDS) are attracting strong attention as a formulation approach to improve the bioavailability of poorly... (Review)
Review
Lipid-based systems, such as self-microemulsifying systems (SMEDDS) are attracting strong attention as a formulation approach to improve the bioavailability of poorly water-soluble drugs. By applying the "spring and parachute" strategy in designing supersaturable SMEDDS, it is possible to maintain the drug in the supersaturated state long enough to allow absorption of the complete dose, thus improving the drug's bio-availability. As such an approach allows the incorporation of larger amounts of the drug in equal or even lower volumes of SMEDDS, it also enables the production of smaller final dosage forms as well as decreased gastrointestinal irritation, being of particular importance when formulating dosage forms for children or the elderly. In this review, the technological approaches used to prolong the drug supersaturation are discussed regarding the type and concentration of polymers used in liquid and solid SMEDDS formulation. The addition of hypromellose derivatives, vinyl polymers, polyethylene glycol, polyoxyethylene, or polymetacrylate copolymers proved to be effective in inhibiting drug precipitation. Regarding the available literature, hypromellose has been the most commonly used polymeric precipitation inhibitor, added in a concentration of 5 % (). However, the inhibiting ability is mainly governed not only by the physicochemical properties of the polymer but also by the API, therefore the choice of optimal precipitation inhibitor is recommended to be evaluated on an individual basis.
Topics: Biological Availability; Humans; Solubility; Emulsions; Lipids; Chemical Precipitation; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Chemistry, Pharmaceutical; Drug Compounding; Polymers; Drug Delivery Systems; Excipients; Animals
PubMed: 38815207
DOI: 10.2478/acph-2024-0023 -
PLoS Biology May 2024Zebrafish are popular research organisms selected for laboratory use due in part to widespread availability from the pet trade. Many contemporary colonies of laboratory...
Zebrafish are popular research organisms selected for laboratory use due in part to widespread availability from the pet trade. Many contemporary colonies of laboratory zebrafish are maintained in aquaculture facilities that monitor and aim to curb infections that can negatively affect colony health and confound experiments. The impact of laboratory control on the microbial constituents associated with zebrafish in research environments compared to the pet trade are unclear. Diseases of unknown causes are common in both environments. We conducted a metatranscriptomic survey to broadly compare the zebrafish-associated microbes in pet trade and laboratory environments. We detected many microbes in animals from the pet trade that were not found in laboratory animals. Cohousing experiments revealed several transmissible microbes including a newly described non-enveloped, double-stranded RNA virus in the Birnaviridae family we name Rocky Mountain birnavirus (RMBV). Infections were detected in asymptomatic animals from the pet trade, but when transmitted to laboratory animals RMBV was associated with pronounced antiviral responses and hemorrhagic disease. These experiments highlight the pet trade as a distinct source of diverse microbes that associate with zebrafish and establish a paradigm for the discovery of newly described pathogenic viruses and other infectious microbes that can be developed for study in the laboratory.
Topics: Animals; Zebrafish; Fish Diseases; Pets; Animals, Laboratory; Aquaculture
PubMed: 38814944
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002606 -
Frontiers in Bioscience (Landmark... Apr 2024The review focuses on the recent knowledge on natural anthraquinones (AQs) of plant origin and their potential for application in an exclusive medicinal curative and... (Review)
Review
The review focuses on the recent knowledge on natural anthraquinones (AQs) of plant origin and their potential for application in an exclusive medicinal curative and palliative method named photodynamic therapy (PDT). Green approach to PDT is associated with photosensitizers (PS) from plants or other natural sources and excitation light in visible spectrum. The investigations of plants are of high research interests due to their unique health supportive properties as herbs and the high percentage availability to obtain compounds with medical value. Up-to-date many naturally occurring compounds with therapeutic properties are known and are still under investigations. Some natural quinones have already been evaluated and clinically approved as anti-tumor agents. Recent scientific interests are beyond their common medical applications but also in directions to their photo-properties as natural PSs. The study presents a systematic searches on the latest knowledge on AQ derivatives that are isolated from the higher plants as photosensitizers for PDT applications. The natural quinones have been recognized with functions of natural dyes since the ancient times. Lately, AQs have been explored due to their biological activity including the photosensitive properties useful for PDT especially towards medical problems with no other alternatives. The existing literature' overview suggests that natural AQs possess characteristics of valuable PSs for PDT. This method is based on an application of a photoactive compound and light arrangement in oxygen media, such that the harmful general cytotoxicity could be avoided. Moreover, the common anticancer and antimicrobial drug resistance has been evaluated with very low occurrence after PDT. Natural AQs have been focused the scientific efforts to further developments because of the high range of natural sources, desirable biocompatibility, low toxicity, minimal side effects and low accident of drug resistance, together with their good photosensitivity and therapeutic capacity. Among the known AQs, only hypericin has been studied in anticancer clinical PDT. Currently, the natural PSs are under intensive research for the future PDT applications for diseases without alternative effective treatments.
Topics: Anthraquinones; Photochemotherapy; Photosensitizing Agents; Humans; Plants
PubMed: 38812303
DOI: 10.31083/j.fbl2905168 -
Bioinformatics Advances 2024The collection and analysis of sensitive data in large-scale consortia for statistical genetics is hampered by multiple challenges, due to their non-shareable nature....
SUMMARY
The collection and analysis of sensitive data in large-scale consortia for statistical genetics is hampered by multiple challenges, due to their non-shareable nature. Time-consuming issues in installing software frequently arise due to different operating systems, software dependencies, and limited internet access. For federated analysis across sites, it can be challenging to resolve different problems, including format requirements, data wrangling, setting up analysis on high-performance computing (HPC) facilities, etc. Easier, more standardized, automated protocols and pipelines can be solutions to overcome these issues. We have developed one such solution for statistical genetic data analysis using software container technologies. This solution, named COSGAP: "COntainerized Statistical Genetics Analysis Pipelines," consists of already established software tools placed into Singularity containers, alongside corresponding code and instructions on how to perform statistical genetic analyses, such as genome-wide association studies, polygenic scoring, LD score regression, Gaussian Mixture Models, and gene-set analysis. Using provided helper scripts written in Python, users can obtain auto-generated scripts to conduct the desired analysis either on HPC facilities or on a personal computer. COSGAP is actively being applied by users from different countries and projects to conduct genetic data analyses without spending much effort on software installation, converting data formats, and other technical requirements.
AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION
COSGAP is freely available on GitHub (https://github.com/comorment/containers) under the GPLv3 license.
PubMed: 38808072
DOI: 10.1093/bioadv/vbae067 -
Plant Diversity Mar 2024Despite much research in the field of island biogeography, mechanisms regulating insular diversity remain elusive. Here, we aim to explore mechanisms underlying plant...
Despite much research in the field of island biogeography, mechanisms regulating insular diversity remain elusive. Here, we aim to explore mechanisms underlying plant species-area relationships in two tropical archipelagoes in the South China Sea. We found positive plant species-area relationships for both coral and continental archipelagoes. However, our results showed that different mechanisms contributed to similar plant species-area relationships between the two archipelagoes. For coral islands, soil nutrients and spatial distance among communities played major roles in shaping plant community structure and species diversity. By contrast, the direct effect of island area, and to a lesser extent, soil nutrients determined plant species richness on continental islands. Intriguingly, increasing soil nutrients availability (N, P, K) had opposite effects on plant diversity between the two archipelagoes. In summary, the habitat quality effect and dispersal limitation are important for regulating plant diversity on coral islands, whereas the passive sampling effect, and to a lesser extent, the habitat quality effect are important for regulating plant diversity on continental islands. More generally, our findings indicate that island plant species-area relationships are outcomes of the interplay of both niche and neutral processes, but the driving mechanisms behind these relationships depends on the type of islands.
PubMed: 38807910
DOI: 10.1016/j.pld.2023.08.006 -
The ISME Journal May 2024The atmosphere may be Earth's largest microbial ecosystem. It is connected to all of Earth's surface ecosystems and plays an important role in microbial dispersal on...
The atmosphere may be Earth's largest microbial ecosystem. It is connected to all of Earth's surface ecosystems and plays an important role in microbial dispersal on local to global scales. Despite this grand scale, surprisingly little is understood about the atmosphere itself as a habitat. A key question remains unresolved: does the atmosphere simply transport microorganisms from one location to another, or does it harbor adapted, resident, and active microbial communities that overcome the physiological stressors and selection pressures the atmosphere poses to life? Advances in extreme microbiology and astrobiology continue to push our understanding of the limits of life towards ever greater extremes of temperature, pressure, salinity, irradiance, pH, and water availability. Earth's atmosphere stands as a challenging, but potentially surmountable, extreme environment to harbour living, active, resident microorganisms. Here we confront the current understanding of the atmosphere as a microbial habitat, highlighting key advances and limitations. We pose major ecological and mechanistic questions about microbial life in the atmosphere that remain unresolved and frame the problems and technical pitfalls that have largely hindered recent developments in this space, providing evidence-based insights to drive future research in this field. New innovations supported by rigorous technical standards are needed to enable progress in understanding atmospheric microorganisms and their influence on global processes of weather, climate, nutrient cycling, biodiversity, and microbial connectivity, especially in the context of rapid global change.
PubMed: 38804464
DOI: 10.1093/ismejo/wrae092 -
Journal of Korean Medical Science May 2024South Korea faces a critical challenge with its rapidly declining fertility rates and an increasingly aging population, which significantly impacts the country's blood...
BACKGROUND
South Korea faces a critical challenge with its rapidly declining fertility rates and an increasingly aging population, which significantly impacts the country's blood supply and demand. Despite these nationwide trends, regional disparities in blood supply and demand have not been thoroughly studied.
METHODS
This research utilized blood donation data from the Korean Red Cross and blood transfusion data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. We analyzed these datasets in conjunction with regional population projections to simulate blood supply and demand from 2021 to 2050 across South Korea. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to assess the impact of various factors, including the number of donors, age eligibility criteria for donations, frequency of donations, and blood discard rates.
RESULTS
Our projections indicate a decreasing trend in blood supply, from 2.6 million units in 2021 to 1.4 million units by 2050, while demand is expected to peak at 5.1 million units by 2045 before declining. Metropolitan areas, particularly Gyeonggi Province, are projected to experience the most severe shortages. Sensitivity analyses suggest that increasing the donation frequency of existing donors and relaxing age eligibility criteria are more effective strategies in addressing these imbalances than merely increasing the number of new donors. Blood discard rates showed minimal impact on the overall blood shortage.
CONCLUSION
The findings emphasize the urgent need for targeted strategies to mitigate national and regional blood supply shortages in South Korea. Encouraging frequent donations from experienced donors and broadening eligibility criteria are critical steps toward stabilizing the blood supply amidst demographic shifts. These strategies must be prioritized to address the impending regional disparities in blood availability.
Topics: Humans; Republic of Korea; Blood Donors; Adult; Middle Aged; Female; Male; Adolescent; Young Adult; Aged
PubMed: 38804012
DOI: 10.3346/jkms.2024.39.e168 -
Accuracy of orthodontic movements with 3D printed aligners: A prospective observational pilot study.Korean Journal of Orthodontics May 2024Owing to the availability of 3D software, scanners, and printers, clinicians are encouraged to produce in-office aligners. Recently, a new directprinting resin (Tera...
OBJECTIVE
Owing to the availability of 3D software, scanners, and printers, clinicians are encouraged to produce in-office aligners. Recently, a new directprinting resin (Tera Harz TC-85DAC) has been introduced. Studies on its mechanical characteristics and biological effects have been published; however, evidence on its efficacy in orthodontic treatment remains scarce. This pilot study aimed to investigate the accuracy of teeth movement achieved with directprinted aligners.
METHODS
Seventeen patients (eight males and nine females) with a mean age of 27.67 ± 8.95 years, presenting with dental rotations < 30° and spaces/crowding < 5 mm, were recruited for this study. The teeth movement was planned starting from a T0 digital dental cast. The 3D direct-printed aligners were produced using Tera Harz TC-85DAC resin. Once the orthodontic treatment was completed, a final digital cast was obtained (T1). The planned teeth positions were then superimposed onto the T0 and T1 digital models. The differences between the programmed movements and the achieved overall torque, tip, rotation, and transverse dimensions were assessed using the paired t test or Wilcoxon's signed rank test.
RESULTS
The overall accuracies for torque, tip, and rotation were 67.6%, 64.2%, and 72.0%, respectively. The accuracy of the change in transverse diameter was 99.6%.
CONCLUSIONS
Within the limits of the present pilot study (difficulties with abnormally shaped teeth and use of attachments), it can be concluded that 3D printed aligners can be successfully printed in-house and utilized for mildly crowded cases, with a comparable accuracy of tooth movement to that of other aligners.
PubMed: 38800861
DOI: 10.4041/kjod23.268 -
Bioinformatics Advances 2024We explore the nuanced temporal and epistemological distinctions among natural sciences, particularly the contrasting treatment of time and the interplay between theory...
SUMMARY
We explore the nuanced temporal and epistemological distinctions among natural sciences, particularly the contrasting treatment of time and the interplay between theory and experimentation. Physics, an exemplar of mature science, relies on theoretical models for predictability and simulations. In contrast, biology, traditionally experimental, is witnessing a computational surge, with data analytics and simulations reshaping its research paradigms. Despite these strides, a unified theoretical framework in biology remains elusive. We propose that contemporary global challenges might usher in a renewed emphasis, presenting an opportunity for the establishment of a novel theoretical underpinning for the life sciences.
AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION
https://github.com/ouzounis/CLS-emerges Data in Json format, Images in PNG format.
PubMed: 38799705
DOI: 10.1093/bioadv/vbae069 -
ACS Omega May 2024Salidroside, a valuable phenylethanoid glycoside, is obtained from plants belonging to the genus, known for its diverse biological properties. At present, salidroside...
Salidroside, a valuable phenylethanoid glycoside, is obtained from plants belonging to the genus, known for its diverse biological properties. At present, salidroside is still far from large-scale industrial production due to its lower titer and higher process cost. In this study, we have for the first time increased salidroside production by enhancing UDP-glucose supply . We constructed an UDP-glucose regeneration system that works in conjunction with UDP-glucose transferase from innovatively to improve UDP-glucose availability. And a coculture was formed in order to enable salidroside synthesis. Confronted with the influence of tyrosol on strain growth, an adaptive laboratory evolution strategy was implemented to enhance the strain's tolerance. Similarly, salidroside production was optimized through refinement of the fermentation medium, the inoculation ratio of the two microbes, and the inoculation size. The final salidroside titer reached 3.8 g/L. This was the highest titer achieved at the shake flask level in the existing reports. And this marked the first successful synthesis of salidroside in an enhanced UDP-glucose system using sucrose. The cost was reduced by 93% due to the use of inexpensive substrates. This accomplishment laid a robust foundation for further investigations into the synthesis of other notable glycosides and natural compounds.
PubMed: 38799314
DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.4c02060