Management of Neuropathic Pain in Polyneuropathy.

Purpose Of Review: Many polyneuropathies cause significant neuropathic pain, resulting in substantial morbidity and reduced quality of life. Appropriate management is crucial for maintaining quality of life for patients with painful polyneuropathies. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has only approved one new drug for painful diabetic neuropathy in the past decade, a topical capsaicin patch that was initially approved for the treatment of postherpetic neuralgia in 2009.

Nanoparticles binding to lipid membranes: from vesicle-based gels to vesicle tubulation and destruction.

While cells offer numerous inspiring examples in which membrane morphology and function are controlled by interactions with viruses or proteins, we still lack design principles for controlling membrane morphology in synthetic systems. With experiments and simulations, we show that spherical nanoparticles binding to lipid-bilayer membrane vesicles results in a remarkably rich set of collective morphologies that are controllable via the particle binding energy. We separately study cationic and anionic particles, where the adhesion is tuned by addition of oppositely charged lipids to the vesicles.

Confined Assemblies of Colloidal Particles with Soft Repulsive Interactions.

We investigate the microconfinement of charged silica nanoparticles dispersed in refractive index matching monomers in poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) porous membrane. Here, the silica colloidal particles interact with each other and the pore wall via electrostatic double layer forces. Different from the hard sphere systems where the assembled morphologies are prescribed by the diameter ratio between the cylindrical confinement and the nanoparticles, here we observe a much richer variety of assemblies that are highly sensitive to both bulk and local nanoparticle concentration with fixed particle size and channel size.

Reconciliation of sequence data and updated annotation of the genome of Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58, and distribution of a linear chromosome in the genus Agrobacterium.

Two groups independently sequenced the Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58 genome in 2001. We report here consolidation of these sequences, updated annotation, and additional analysis of the evolutionary history of the linear chromosome, which is apparently limited to the biovar I group of Agrobacterium.

Motor transport of self-assembled cargos in crowded environments.

Intracellular transport of cargo particles is performed by multiple motors working in concert. However, the mechanism of motor association to cargos is unknown. It is also unknown how long individual motors stay attached, how many are active, and how multimotor cargos would navigate a densely crowded filament with many other motors.

Fear of movement/(re)injury and activity avoidance in persons with neurogenic versus vascular claudication.

Background Context: Activity avoidance and fear of movement/(re)injury are increasingly being recognized as important factors in the rehabilitation of persons suffering from chronic low back pain, yet these factors have not been thoroughly explored in persons suffering from neurogenic claudication resulting from lumbar spinal stenosis.

Purpose: To determine, compare, and explain differences in the degree of fear of movement/(re)injury and activity avoidance in persons with neurogenic claudication, vascular claudication, and asymptomatic volunteers.

Study Design: Prospective controlled cohort study at an academic medical center.

Body mass index, but not blood pressure is related to the level of pain in persons with chronic pain.

Objective: To determine whether obesity or blood pressure relate to the level of pain experienced by persons with chronic back pain.

Design: Retrospective Study.

Setting: University spine program.

Genome sequence of Azotobacter vinelandii, an obligate aerobe specialized to support diverse anaerobic metabolic processes.

Azotobacter vinelandii is a soil bacterium related to the Pseudomonas genus that fixes nitrogen under aerobic conditions while simultaneously protecting nitrogenase from oxygen damage. In response to carbon availability, this organism undergoes a simple differentiation process to form cysts that are resistant to drought and other physical and chemical agents. Here we report the complete genome sequence of A.

Genome sequences of three agrobacterium biovars help elucidate the evolution of multichromosome genomes in bacteria.

The family Rhizobiaceae contains plant-associated bacteria with critical roles in ecology and agriculture. Within this family, many Rhizobium and Sinorhizobium strains are nitrogen-fixing plant mutualists, while many strains designated as Agrobacterium are plant pathogens. These contrasting lifestyles are primarily dependent on the transmissible plasmids each strain harbors.

Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase is an acid-induced, chromosomally encoded virulence factor in Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

The pckA gene, encoding phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, catalyzes the reversible decarboxylation and phosphorylation of oxaloacetate to form phosphoenolpyruvate. Located on the circular chromosome of Agrobacterium, this locus is adjacent to the loci chvG and chvI, encoding a two-component regulatory system that has been shown to be important in virulence. Using a reporter gene fusion, studies showed that the pckA gene is induced by acidic pH but not by acetosyringone.

Citrate synthase mutants of Agrobacterium are attenuated in virulence and display reduced vir gene induction.

A citrate synthase (CS) deletion mutant of Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58 is highly attenuated in virulence. The identity of the mutant was initially determined from its amino acid sequence, which is 68% identical to Escherichia coli and 77% identical to Brucella melitensis. The mutant lost all CS enzymatic activity, and a cloned CS gene complemented a CS mutation in Sinorhizobium.

The genome sequence of the gram-positive sugarcane pathogen Leifsonia xyli subsp. xyli.

The genome sequence of Leifsonia xyli subsp. xyli, which causes ratoon stunting disease and affects sugarcane worldwide, was determined. The single circular chromosome of Leifsonia xyli subsp.

A new type IV secretion system promotes conjugal transfer in Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

Two DNA transfer systems encoded by the tumor-inducing (Ti) plasmid have been previously identified in Agrobacterium tumefaciens. The virB operon is required for the transfer of transferred DNA to the plant host, and the trb system encodes functions required for the conjugal transfer of the Ti plasmid between cells of Agrobacterium. Recent availability of the genome sequence of Agrobacterium allowed us to identify a third system that is most similar to the VirB type IV secretion system of Bartonella henselae.

Survival of GacS/GacA mutants of the biological control bacterium Pseudomonas aureofaciens 30-84 in the wheat rhizosphere.

GacS/GacA comprises a two-component regulatory system that controls the expression of secondary metabolites required for the control of plant diseases in many pseudomonads. High mutation frequencies of gacS and gacA have been observed in liquid culture. We examined whether gacS/gacA mutants could competitively displace the wild-type populations on roots and thus pose a threat to the efficacy of biological control.