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In the middle of the late century, the concept of medicine has been reshaped and reformed by the discovery of antibiotics. Untreatable infectious diseases have become treatable, However, with time microbes adapt to resist the antibiotic treatments due to their enormous adaptive ability. Therefore, new antibiotics were required to combat these resistant bacteria. But the enormous adaptive ability of bacteria has turned the next generation of antibiotics obsolete. Thus, Nanoparticles play a crucial role due to their antibacterial activity. Besides, these can act as carriers for various antibiotics to increase their efficiency against superbugs. The current review provides an in-depth overview of nanoparticles, their biosynthesis, antibacterial activity, and synergistic effects with various antibiotics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbiological Biosafety, Multiple Drug Resistance and Functional Diversity of Bacteria Associated with the Surfaces of Raw Vegetables

Objective: Supraflex (Sahajanand Medical Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Surat, India) is the latest generation of biodegradable polymer-coated sirolimus- eluting coronary stent designed on ultra-thin (60 µm) cobalt-chromium platform with flexible "S-link." The present study was designed to establish the safety and clinical performance of Supraflex in real-world Indian patients with coronary artery disease. Methods: The study included 839 consecutive patients with coronary artery disease who were implanted with Supraflex from January 2014 to August 2017 at six different tertiary care centers in India. Follow-up was performed at 30 days, 6 months, and 12 months after the index procedure. The primary end-point of the study was the incidence of major adverse cardiac events (MACE), a composite of cardiac death, myocardial infarction (MI), and target lesion revascularization (TLR) at the 12-month follow-up. The occurrence of stent thrombosis was analyzed as safety end-point. Results: A total of 1025 lesions were treated by implantation of 1098 Supraflex stents. At the 12-month follow-up, MACE was 4.92%, including 7 (0.86%) cardiac deaths, 16 (1.97%) MI, and 17 (2.09%) TLR. Only three incidences of stent thrombosis were found at the 12-month follow-up. Conclusion: The study results showed excellent safety and clinical effectiveness of Supraflex in a high proportion of high-risk real-world Indian patients with coronary artery disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought tolerant rhizobacteria of the genus Bacillus, Enterobacter, Moraxella and Pseudomonas colonizing the root system of Acacia arabica were isolated to mitigate the drought stress of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). In vitro auxin production by rhizobacteria was quantified by Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC). Analysis of the crude extracts detected the indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), indole-3-carboxylic acid (ICA) and indole-3-lactic acid (ILA). Highest IAA production of 25.9 µg ml−1 was observed for Bacillus amyloliquefaciens S-134. Pot trials were conducted to evaluate the role of rhizobacteria to enhance the growth of wheat at different water regimes. At highest water stress i.e. 10% field capacity (FC), significant improvement of shoot length was observed with B. amyloliquefaciens S-134. For yield parameters, B. muralis D-5 and E. aerogenes S-10 recorded 34% and 1 fold increases for spike length and seed weight, over respective control at 10% FC. Mixed culture combinations of M-2 (B. thuringiensis S-26, D-2, B. amyloliquefaciens S-134, B. simplex D-11) and M-3 (M. pluranimalium S-29, B. simplex D-1, B. muralis D-5, P. stutzeri S-80) showed significant improvement for tillers and number of spikelets. In conclusion, application of the drought tolerant rhizobacteria can help to overcome productivity losses in drought prone areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salt-tolerant strains ofEnterobacter asburiae, Bacillus thuringiensis, Moraxella pluranimaliumandPseudomonas stutzeriwere evaluated for their ability to alleviate salt stress of wheat (Triticum aestivumL.) seedlings. 1-Aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase activity ofP. stutzeriS-80 andB. thuringiensisS-26 was 190 and 183 nmol h−1, respectively. Maximum levels of auxin were recorded withP. stutzeriS-80 (107 µg ml−1) andE. asburiaeS-24 (143 µg ml−1) under normal and salt-stressed conditions (0.25M NaCl), respectively, with 500 µg ml−1 L-tryptophan. Auxin response mediated by rhizobacteria was also demonstrated by microscopically assaying the transgenic auxin-responsive reporter DR5::GUS expression tomato (Solanum lycopersicumL. cv. MicroTom). In pot trials, seedlings fresh and dry biomass witnessed highly significant improvements of 1- and 2.2-folds, respectively, withM. pluranimaliumS-29 (at 100 mM NaCl) andE. asburiaeS-24 (150 mM NaCl), over control. At final harvest, maximum increase in number of tillers (up to 94%) and seed weight (up to 40%) was recorded withE. asburiaeS-24 andM. pluranimaliumS-29 at 200 mM salt stress. In conclusion, newly isolated strains ofM. pluranimaliumS-29,E. asburiaeS-24 andP. stutzeriS-80 enhanced the growth ofT. aestivumby mitigating the salt stress of plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The main culprit in first-generation drug eluting stents is 'durable' polymer, whose continuous presence may impair arterial healing and ultimately have a negative impact on late outcomes. The main enigma behind the biodegradable polymer usage is its degradation after elution of drug. This reduces adverse events in unselected patients with complex coronary artery lesions treated with biodegradable polymer coated sirolimus-eluting stents. Aim: The aim of the INDOLIMUS-G Registry was to evaluate safety and efficacy of the Indolimus (Sahajanand Medical Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Surat, India) sirolimus-eluting stents in large cohorts of unselected patients with complex coronary artery lesions. Materials and Methods: It is a multi-centre, non-randomized retrospective registry with a clear aim of evaluating safety and efficacy of the Indolimus sirolimus-eluting stents in consecutive patients enrolled between April 2012 and May 2014. The primary end-point of the study was major adverse cardiac events (MACE), which is a composite of cardiac death, myocardial infarction (MI), target lesion revascularization (TLR), target vessel revascularization (TVR) and stent thrombosis (ST) at the end of follow-up. Clinical follow-up were scheduled at the end of 30-days, 6-months, and 9-months period. Results: The mean age of enrolled patients was 52.6 ± 11.0 years. A total of 1137 lesions were intervened successfully with 1242 stents (1.09 ± 0.30 stent per lesion). The average stent length and diameter was 27.42 ± 9.01 mm and 3.12 ± 0.36 mm respectively. There were 740 (73.40%) male patients, indicating their high prevalence. Diabetes, hypertension and totally occluded lesions were found in 372 (36.90%), 408 (40.47%) and 170 (16.86%) patients, respectively. This showed that study also included high risk complex lesions and not ideal recruited lesions. The incidence of MACE at 30-days, 6-months and 9-months were 3 (0.30%), 18 (1.80%) and 22 (2.20%) respectively. At 9-months, TLR was found in 6 (0.50%) patients. There were 2 (0.20%) cases of ST, 10 (1.0%) cases of MI and 4 (0.40%) cases of cardiac death at 9-month follow-up. Conclusion: The lower incidence of MACE, TLR and ST at 9-month follow-up clearly delineates safety and efficacy of Indolimus SES in large cohorts of unselected patients with complex coronary lesions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pesticides and insecticides are very toxic by design and they are used world over to protect the crops from insects. Although, they are good for better crops production but they have serious effects on environment and human health. Exposure to pesticides and insecticides is one of the most important occupational health risks in developing countries, like Pakistan. Methods: A survey was designed to know the awareness level about insecticides and pesticides toxicity and spray procedure in Punjab, Pakistan. Results: Majority of respondents was from village, in the age group of 25-34, with spray experience of 0-5 years and did not have any formal education. Mostly learned about spray procedure themselves orfrom family and friends and none of them had training from government institutes. Most of the respondents did not use any protection equipment's and also had different health problems during spray process. They also reported deaths due to acute poisoning of spray personals. Conclusion: The results clearly indicate that there is great need to aware people about toxicity of pesticides and insecticides as well as educate them about personal, family and environmental protection. Government and nongovernment organizations as well as print and electronic media can play an important role in this regards. There is need of urgent steps to stop acute and chronic poisoning of poor pesticide handlers and make this profession safer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]