Antibiotic resistance increment is a major problem for the human society nowadays which encourages the efforts to look for new therapeutic alternatives from natural defenses. Synergistic antibacterial activity of epidermin and staphylolysin LasA A against Staphylococcus aureus (Staph aureus), Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Ps. aeruginosa) was evaluated. The antibacterial activities of epidermin from Staphylococcus epidermidis (Staph epidermidis) and Staphylolysin (LasA) from Ps. aeruginosa using the agar well diffusion assay were evaluated, and then using the micro dilution method to evaluate the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). The checkerboard method and fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) were used to evaluate the combination between epidermin and LasA toward targeted clinical isolates of Staph aureus, E. coli and Ps. aeruginosa. The results revealed a synergistic effect between epidermin and LasA on all clinical isolates growth. The highest MIC and MBC of epidermin were 36.04 µL/mL and 51.73 µL/mL against Staph aureus; meanwhile, the highest MIC and MBC of LasA were 44.38 µL/mL and 50 µL/mL against Staph aureus. The FICindex revealed synergistic interactions in combination of epidermin and LasA which recorded 0.286 for Staph aureus while for E. coli was 0.327 and for Ps. aeruginosa was 0.390 respectively showing a synergism effect. This study finds that combination of epidermin with LasA had inhibitory activity on the targeted clinical isolate growth, which can be useful for designing and developing alternative therapeutic strategies against pathogens causing wound and burn infections.
Sphingolipids are key components of eukaryotic membranes, particularly the plasma membrane. The biosynthetic pathway for the formation of these lipid species is largely conserved. However, in contrast to mammals, which produce sphingomyelin, organisms such as the pathogenic fungi and protozoa synthesize inositol phosphorylceramide (IPC) as the primary phosphosphingolipid. The key step involves the reaction of ceramide and phosphatidylinositol catalysed by IPC synthase, an essential enzyme with no mammalian equivalent encoded by the AUR1 gene in yeast and recently identified functional orthologues in the pathogenic kinetoplastid protozoa. As such this enzyme represents a promising target for novel anti-fungal and anti-protozoal drugs. Given
... Show MoreWell integrity is a vital feature that should be upheld into the lifespan of the well, and one constituent of which casing, necessity to be capable to endure all the interior and outside loads. The casing, through its two basic essentials: casing design and casing depth adjustment, are fundamental to a unique wellbore that plays an important role in well integrity. Casing set depths are determined based on fracturing pressure and pore pressure in the well and can usually be obtained from well-specific information. Based on the analyzes using the improved techniques in this study, the following special proposition can be projected: The selection of the first class and materials must be done correctly and accurately in accordance with the
... Show MoreForm of investment in infrastructure important factor to drive economic growth in any country, with the dwindling ability of governments to provide the necessary funds for such investments, emerged as a rising trend for private sector involvement in public projects and infrastructure, and one of these trends is the build-operate-transfer system (BOT), which commonly used in various developed and developing countries as one of the tools used in the implementation of these investments, as the private sector under this system design, finance, build and operate the project, and are re-administration of the state after a certain period under a contractual agreement between the parties of the contract. As this system provides majo
... Show MoreIn this paper, a theoretical study of the energy spectra and the heat capacity of one electron quantum dot with Gaussian Confinement in an external magnetic field are presented. Using the exact diagonalization technique, the Hamiltonian of the Gaussian Quantum Dot (GQD) including the electron spin is solved. All the elements in the energy matrix are found in closed form. The eigenenergies of the electron were displayed as a function of magnetic field, Gaussian confinement potential depth and quantum dot size. Explanations to the behavior of the quantum dot heat capacity curve, as a function of external applied magnetic field and temperature, are presented.
This paper represents an experimentalattempt to predict the influence of CO2-MAG welding variables on the shape factors of the weld joint geometry. Theinput variables were welding arc voltage, wire feeding speed and gas flow rate to investigate their effects on the shape factorsof the weld joint geometry in terms of weld joint dimensions (bead width, reinforcement height, and penetration). Design of experiment with response surface methodology technique was employed to buildmathematical models for shape factors in terms of the input welding variables. Thepredicted models were found quadratic type and statistically checked by ANOVA analysis for adequacy purpose. Also, numerical and graphical optimizations were carried out
... Show MoreThe aim of this work is to shed light on the importance of medicinal plants, especially those that have extracts that have a direct effect on human health. The study and identification of botany is necessary because human life has become closely linked to the life of plants as food . In addition to using plants as food, primitive man did not stop at this point, but rather developed their use to hunt prey and also used toxic plant materials in wars. With the passage of time, the ancient man was able to link the wild plants that cover the surface of the earth and the diseases that afflict him, so he used these plants or Parts of it are for treatment. A medicinal plant is defined as one or more of its parts that contain one or more che
... Show MoreMicrobial fuel cell is a device that uses the microorganism metabolism for the production of electricity under specific operating conditions. Double chamber microbial fuel cell was tested for the use of two cheap electrode materials copper and aluminum for the production of electricity under different operating conditions. The investigated conditions were concentration of microorganism (yeast) (0.5- 2 g/l), solutions temperature (33-45 oC) and concentration of glucose as a substrate (1.5- 6 g/l). The results demonstrated that copper electrode exhibit good performance while the performance of aluminum is poor. The electricity is generated with and without the addition of substrate. Addition of glucose substrate
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