Computational docking of FtsZ: Survey of promising antibiotic compounds.

The bacterial cell-division protein FtsZ has been a promising antibiotic target for over a decade now, but there is still a need for more work in this area. So far there are no FtsZ targeting drugs commercially available. We have analyzed a wide variety of prospective drugs and their interactions with multiple FtsZ species using both free and directed docking simulations.

QT-GWAS: A novel method for unveiling biosynthetic loci affecting qualitative metabolic traits.

Although the plant kingdom provides an enormous diversity of metabolites with potentially beneficial applications for humankind, a large fraction of these metabolites and their biosynthetic pathways remain unknown. Resolving metabolite structures and their biosynthetic pathways is key to gaining biological understanding and to allow metabolic engineering. In order to retrieve novel biosynthetic genes involved in specialized metabolism, we developed a novel untargeted method designated as qualitative trait GWAS (QT-GWAS) that subjects qualitative metabolic traits to a genome-wide association study, while the conventional metabolite GWAS (mGWAS) mainly considers the quantitative variation of metabolites.

Patient-directed self-management of pain (PaDSMaP) compared to treatment as usual following total knee replacement; a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Self-administration of medicines by patients whilst in hospital is being increasingly promoted despite little evidence to show the risks and benefits. Pain control after total knee replacement (TKR) is known to be poor. The aim of the study was to determine if patients operated on with a TKR who self-medicate their oral analgesics in the immediate post-operative period have better pain control than those who receive their pain control by nurse-led drug rounds (Treatment as Usual (TAU)).

Long stem cemented revision arthroplasty for aseptic loosening in elderly patients produces good results, despite significant bone loss.

We assessed the results of long cemented stems in patients over 65 undergoing a first time revision hip arthroplasty for aseptic loosening. 103 patients were followed up for a minimum of five years after revision surgery; 45% had EndoKlinik C grade preoperative bone loss. At final follow-up 31 patients had died, all but one with the prosthesis in situ.