Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology - Volume 16, Issue 2, 2015

Through many millennia of continuous evolution hosts and microorganisms have developed sophisticated and sometimes extremely complex mechanisms of coexisting through symbiosis and mutualism. It is now known that in humans, the population of commensal bacteria on or inside the body significantly outnumbers the host cells. Despite their numerical superiority, microorganisms have adjusted their physiological clock Read More

Firmly attached to different living or non-living, solid or fluid surfaces rich in nutrients and moisture, microbial biofilm is a matter of great interest due to its major importance for the healthcare community. Depending on common strategies such as mutual protection and hibernation (quiescent bacteria), the resistance, survival and virulence of microbial communities have large implications for human pathology, clinical environ Read More

This review highlights and discusses the impact of nanotechnology on the inhibition of microbial colonization and biofilm development on modified surface prosthetic devices. In the first part of the paper the current status of infections related to prosthetic devices and the inquiries resulting from the increased number of patients with these infections are briefly reviewed. Next we discuss several aspects about the implication of na Read More

The development of effective packaging materials is crucial, because food microorganisms determine economic and public health issues. The current paper describes some of the most recent findings in regards of food preservation through novel packaging methods, using biodegradable polymers, efficient antimicrobial agents and nanocomposites with improved mechanical and oxidation stability, increased biodegradabili Read More

Owing to its physico-chemical characteristics, the biodegradable and biocompatible polymer derived from crustacean shells, Chitosan is one of the preferred candidates for green biomedical applications and also for several industries. Its solubility in acid solutions and ability to form complexes with anionic macromolecules to yield nanoparticles, microparticles and hydrogels, as well as the ability of chitosan based nanocomposit Read More

Plants are rich in a wide variety of secondary metabolites with antimicrobial properties. Phytochemistry studies on the plants extracts in general, and on essential oils (EOs) in particular are focused on the isolation and identification of the components of complex mixtures, in order to determine structure - activity correlations (i.e., physiological and/ or ecological roles, bases for the pharmacognosy studies). Problems a Read More

Antibiotic resistance is a major problem in current contemporary medicine and it has become a major concern of the 21st century. New resistance mechanisms developed by microorganisms spread greatly, threatening the ability to treat numerous infectious diseases, and increasing the number of nosocomial infections. Besides the role in immunology and glycobiology where they are used as hemaglutinine and identificat Read More

L-asparaginase is an effective anti-neoplastic agent used in chemotherapy of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. One hundred and thirty actinomycete isolates were isolated from several soil samples collected from different localities in Egypt. All these isolates were purified and evaluated for their ability to produce L-asparaginase activity. Among them, strain NEAE-95 was selected and identified as Streptomyces parvus strain NEAE- Read More

Basidiocarps of Pleurotus ostreatus and Agrocybe cylindracea are characterized by high nutritional value and numerous medicinal activities, though bioactivities of their mycelia have not been sufficiently studied. The aim of the study was to evaluate antioxidant and antifungal potentials of P. ostreatus and A. cylindracea basidiocarp extracts, as well as those obtained from mycelia cultivated in common synthetic medium and Read More

In this study, sustained-release of GnRH antagonist peptide LXT-101 was realized through oil formulation, and their releasing characteristics in vitro and in vivo were investigated. In this formulation, the static interaction between cationic charged peptide LXT-101 and the negative charged phospholipid led to the formation of the phospholipid-peptide complex, by which LXT-101 was completely dissolved in oils. This formulati Read More