In vitro susceptibility testing of essential oils and their main components against antifungal-resistant Malassezia pachydermatis.

Canine Malassezia dermatitis (CMD) and otitis externa are generally treated by antifungal drugs. However, azole-resistant strains have been isolated from canine skin and ear canals worldwide. Phytochemicals isolated from essential oils are effective alternatives for inhibiting Malassezia pachydermatis.

In vitro susceptibility testing of phytochemicals from essential oils against Prototheca species.

Phytochemicals isolated from essential oils are effective alternatives for inhibiting microbial pathogens. Bovine protothecal mastitis is the cause of a reduction in milk production and the secretion of thin, watery milk with white flakes. In the present study, we performed in vitro susceptibility testing of the phytochemicals carvacrol, citral, and thymol in Prototheca strains isolated from cases of protothecosis in small animals and cow feces.

Presence of focal usual interstitial pneumonia is a key prognostic factor in progressive pulmonary fibrosis.

Aims: Progressive pulmonary fibrosis (PPF) is a newly recognised clinical phenotype of interstitial lung diseases in the 2022 interstitial pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) guidelines. This category is based entirely on clinical and radiological factors, and the background histopathology is unknown. Our objective was to investigate the histopathological characteristics of PPF and to examine the correlation between usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) and prognosis in this new disease type.

Frequency of subclinical interstitial lung disease in COVID-19 autopsy cases: potential risk factors of severe pneumonia.

Risk factors of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been previously reported; however, histological risk factors have not been defined thus far. The aim of this study was to clarify subclinical hidden interstitial lung disease (ILD) as a risk factor of severe pneumonia associated with COVID-19. We carefully examined autopsied lungs and chest computed tomography scanning (CT) images from patients with COVID-19 for interstitial lesions and then analyzed their relationship with disease severity.

Chloroplast magnesium transporters play essential but differential roles in maintaining magnesium homeostasis.

Magnesium (Mg) is essential for photosynthesis in the chloroplasts of land plants and algae. Being the central ion of chlorophyll, cofactor and activator of many photosynthetic enzymes including RuBisCO, magnesium-deficient plants may suffer from leaf chlorosis symptoms and retarded growth. Therefore, the chloroplast Mg concentration is tightly controlled by magnesium transport proteins.

Deep-Learning-Aided Detection of Mycobacteria in Pathology Specimens Increases the Sensitivity in Early Diagnosis of Pulmonary Tuberculosis Compared with Bacteriology Tests.

The histopathological diagnosis of mycobacterial infection may be improved by a comprehensive analysis using artificial intelligence. Two autopsy cases of pulmonary tuberculosis, and forty biopsy cases of undetected acid-fast bacilli (AFB) were used to train AI (convolutional neural network), and construct an AI to support AFB detection. Forty-two patients underwent bronchoscopy, and were evaluated using AI-supported pathology to detect AFB.

Lemongrass and Perilla Essential Oils Synergistically Increased Antimicrobial Activity.

We postulated that disinfection of viable Trichophyton species in shoes would help reduce the number of patients with tinea pedis in Japan and that this might be accomplished safely using volatile components of essential oils. As vapor of lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) oil and citral have strong antimicrobial activities against Trichophyton, we examined the conditions under which lemongrass oil or citral show optimal antimicrobial activity in shoes. First, we investigated whether or not a strong antimicrobial effect could be obtained by combining with terpene aldehydes or aromatic aldehydes.

Functional analysis of whether the glycine residue of the GMN motif of the Arabidopsis MRS2/MGT/CorA-type Mg channel protein AtMRS2-11 is critical for Mg transport activity.

Magnesium (Mg) plays a critical role in many physiological processes. The AtMRS2/MGT family, which contains nine Arabidopsis genes (and two pseudogenes), belongs to a eukaryotic subset of the CorA superfamily of divalent cation transporters. AtMRS2-11/MGT10 possesses the signature GlyMetAsn sequence (the GMN motif) conserved in the CorA superfamily; however, little is known about the role of the GMN motif in AtMRS2.

Detection of Trichophyton spp. from footwear of patients with tinea pedis.

The prevalence of tinea pedis (also known as athlete's foot) in Japanese workers as well as contamination of their footwear by pathogenic filamentous fungi were investigated. Health checks by a dermatologist at a factory located in the Kanto region (Japan) led to a clinical and morphologic diagnosis of tinea pedis in 9 of 19 workers. Scales obtained from the feet and dust obtained from the protective footwear (safety shoes) worn daily in the factory were obtained from these nine subjects and tested using a mycological culture technique.

Modulatory mechanisms of sliding of nine outer doublet microtubules for generating planar and half-helical flagellar waves.

It has been shown that sperm flagellar motility is generated and modulated by metachronal sliding and two types of synchronous sliding of the outer doublet microtubules. Metachronal sliding propagates around the axoneme circumferentially from one doublet to another along the flagellum, whereas the two types of synchronous sliding occur synchronously throughout an extended region along the doublet microtubules. Oscillatory synchronous sliding occurs between most pairs of the nine doublet microtubules, whereas non-oscillatory synchronous sliding occurs between a specific pair of the nine doublet microtubules.

Thermodynamic Characterization of the Ca-Dependent Interaction Between SOUL and ALG-2.

SOUL, a heme-binding protein-2 (HEBP-2), interacts with apoptosis-linked gene 2 protein (ALG-2) in a Ca-dependent manner. To investigate the properties of the interaction of SOUL with ALG-2, we generated several mutants of SOUL and ALG-2 and analyzed the recombinant proteins using pulldown assay and isothermal titration calorimetry. The interaction between SOUL and ALG-2 (delta3-23ALG-2) was an exothermic reaction, with 1:1 stoichiometry and high affinity ( = 32.

The homologous Arabidopsis MRS2/MGT/CorA-type Mg channels, AtMRS2-10 and AtMRS2-1 exhibit different aluminum transport activity.

Magnesium (Mg) plays a critical role in many physiological processes. The AtMRS2/MGT family, which consists of nine Arabidopsis genes (and two pseudo-genes) belongs to a eukaryotic subset of the CorA superfamily of divalent cation transporters. AtMRS2-10 and AtMRS2-1 possess the signature GlyMetAsn sequence conserved in the CorA superfamily; however, they have low sequence conservation with CorA.

Male reproductive health statement (XIIIth international symposium on Spermatology, may 9th-12th 2018, Stockholm, Sweden.

On the occasion of the held from 9 to 13 May 2018 in Stockholm (Sweden), participants (guest speakers and audience) collectively felt the need to make a public statement on the general issue of male reproductive health. Our intention is to raise awareness of what we believe is a neglected area of research despite alarming situations around the world. The disclosure strategy desired by the co-authors is to bring it to the attention of the greatest number partly by considering co-publication in the various periodicals dealing with Reproductive Biology and Andrology.

Utilization of Hybrid Assembly Approach to Determine the Genome of an Opportunistic Pathogenic Fungus, Candida albicans TIMM 1768.

Candida albicans TIMM1768 is a highly virulent strain utilized as a model organism for the study of gastrointestinal and oral candidiasis. Despite being a model strain, identification of its genetic determinants of pathogenesis is hindered by the unavailability of its genome sequence. In this study, we determined the genome sequence of C.

Glucocorticoid may influence amyloid β metabolism in patients with depression.

Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that depression may be a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD); however, the biological mechanisms of the transition from depression to AD are still not clear. Changes of amyloid β protein (Aβ) metabolism and increased glucocorticoid (GC) levels have been found in both depression and AD. Moreover, several studies in animal models have demonstrated that GC administration changes Aβ metabolism.

Regulatory mechanisms of sperm flagellar motility by metachronal and synchronous sliding of doublet microtubules.

Study Question: What is the role of metachronal and synchronous sliding in sperm flagellar motility?

Summary Answer: Both metachronal and oscillatory synchronous sliding are essential for sperm flagellar motility, while the change in mode of synchronous sliding between the non-oscillatory synchronous sliding of a specific pair of the doublet microtubules and the oscillatory synchronous sliding between most pairs of doublet microtubules modulates the sperm flagellar motility.

What Is Known Already: Metachronal and synchronous sliding of doublet microtubules are involved in sperm flagellar motility and regulation of these sliding movements controls flagellar bend formation.

Study Design, Size, Duration: To study the regulatory mechanisms of metachronal and synchronous sliding in flagellar movement of golden hamster spermatozoa, changes in these sliding movements during hyperactivation were examined by measuring the angle of the tangent to the flagellar shaft with reference to the central axis of the sperm head (the shear angle) along the flagellum.

Candida albicans Adheres to Chitin by Recognizing N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc).

The binding of Candida albicans cells to chitin was examined in a cell-binding assay. Microscopic observations indicated that both living and heat-killed Candida cells bound to chitin-coated substrates. C.

Residual memory impairment in remitted depression may be a predictive factor for recurrence.

Objective: Memory impairment in remitted depression is reported to be related to the number of previous depressive episodes. A recent report hypothesized that each depressive episode increases the risk of memory impairment during remission, which further increases the risk of recurrence. We investigated whether the risk for recurrence increased as a function of memory impairment at remission.

Self-Sustained Oscillatory Sliding Movement of Doublet Microtubules and Flagellar Bend Formation.

It is well established that the basis for flagellar and ciliary movements is ATP-dependent sliding between adjacent doublet microtubules. However, the mechanism for converting microtubule sliding into flagellar and ciliary movements has long remained unresolved. The author has developed new sperm models that use bull spermatozoa divested of their plasma membrane and midpiece mitochondrial sheath by Triton X-100 and dithiothreitol.

A Novel Murine Candidiasis Model with Severe Colonization in the Stomach Induced by N-acetylglucosamine-treatment and Its Scoring System Based on Local Characteristic Stomach Symptoms.

We developed a novel murine candidiasis model of the gastrointestinal tract using N-acetylglucosamine ( GlcNAc ) as a tool to aggravate symptoms. Forty-eight hours after intragastrically inoculating Candida albicans cells to immunosuppressed and GlcNAc-treated mice, vigorously accumulating patchy whitish plaques were observed on their inner stomach surface. Candida cells colonizing the plaques consisted of both yeast and mycelia, and were directly stained with Calcofluor White M2R.

Magnesium uptake of Arabidopsis transporters, AtMRS2-10 and AtMRS2-11, expressed in Escherichia coli mutants: Complementation and growth inhibition by aluminum.

Magnesium (Mg2+) plays a critical role in many physiological processes. Mg2+ transport systems in Salmonella have been well documented, but those in Escherichia coli have not been fully elucidated. We examined the effects of corA, mgtA, yhiD and corC gene deletion on Mg2+ transport in E.

Ca2+ and cAMP regulations of microtubule sliding in hyperactivated motility of bull spermatozoa.

To reach and fertilize the egg, mammalian spermatozoa change their flagellar movement in the female reproductive tract, named hyperactivation. The biochemical analyses of the hyperactivated movement using demembranated spermatozoa defined the factors inducing this peculiar movement; namely, large asymmetrical flagellar movement observed in the early stage of the hyperactivation was induced with a high Ca(2+) concentration while large symmetrical flagellar movement in the late stage of the hyperactivation was generated with low Ca(2+) and high cAMP concentrations. Under these conditions, the microtubule sliding of bull sperm flagella was investigated by disintegrating the sperm flagella with MgATP(2-) after extracting their plasma membrane and mitochondria.

Changes in pH and NADPH regulate the DNA binding activity of neuronal PAS domain protein 2, a mammalian circadian transcription factor.

Neuronal PAS domain protein 2 (NPAS2) is a core clock transcription factor that forms a heterodimer with BMAL1 to bind the E-box in the promoter of clock genes and is regulated by various environmental stimuli such as heme, carbon monoxide, and NAD(P)H. In this study, we investigated the effects of pH and NADPH on the DNA binding activity of NPAS2. In an electrophoretic mobility shift (EMS) assay, the pH of the reaction mixture affected the DNA binding activity of the NPAS2/BMAL1 heterodimer but not that of the BMAL1/BMAL1 homodimer.

[Protective activity of S-PT84, a heat-killed preparation of Lactobacillus pentosus, against oral and gastric candidiasis in an experimental murine model].

The effect of S-PT84, a heat-killed preparation of Lactobacillus pentosus on growth of Candida albicans was examined in vitro and in vivo. The mycelial growth was effectively inhibited by S-PT84 and seemed to bind to the hyphae. We assessed the potential of S-PT84 for treatment of oral and gastric candidiasis using a murine model.