Laccase catalyzed elimination of morphine from aqueous systems.

Pharmaceuticals contaminate the environment for several reasons, including metabolic excretion after intake, industrial waste and improper disposal. The narcotic drug morphine is commonly utilized for chronic pain management, and the distribution of morphine in aqueous systems and in waste waters is of high concern. Here, the removal of morphine by a laccase from Myceliophthora thermophila both in its free form as well as immobilized on Accurel MP1000 beads was investigated.

Fusion of binding domains to Thermobifida cellulosilytica cutinase to tune sorption characteristics and enhancing PET hydrolysis.

A cutinase from Thermomyces cellullosylitica (Thc_Cut1), hydrolyzing the synthetic polymer polyethylene terephthalate (PET), was fused with two different binding modules to improve sorption and thereby hydrolysis. The binding modules were from cellobiohydrolase I from Hypocrea jecorina (CBM) and from a polyhydroxyalkanoate depolymerase from Alcaligenes faecalis (PBM). Although both binding modules have a hydrophobic nature, it was possible to express the proteins in E.

Two novel class II hydrophobins from Trichoderma spp. stimulate enzymatic hydrolysis of poly(ethylene terephthalate) when expressed as fusion proteins.

Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) can be functionalized and/or recycled via hydrolysis by microbial cutinases. The rate of hydrolysis is however low. Here, we tested whether hydrophobins (HFBs), small secreted fungal proteins containing eight positionally conserved cysteine residues, are able to enhance the rate of enzymatic hydrolysis of PET.

Hydrolysis of polyethyleneterephthalate by p-nitrobenzylesterase from Bacillus subtilis.

From a screening on agar plates with bis(benzoyloxyethyl) terephthalate (3PET), a Bacillus subtilis p-nitrobenzylesterase (BsEstB) was isolated and demonstrated to hydrolyze polyethyleneterephthalate (PET). PET-hydrolase active strains produced clearing zones and led to the release of the 3PET hydrolysis products terephthalic acid (TA), benzoic acid (BA), 2-hydroxyethyl benzoate (HEB), and mono-(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (MHET) in 3PET supplemented liquid cultures. The 3PET-hydrolase was isolated from non-denaturating polyacrylamide gels using fluorescein diacetate (FDA) and identified as BsEstB by LC-MS/MS analysis.

Differential outcome of a multimodal cognitive-behavioral inpatient treatment for patients with chronic decompensated tinnitus.

We examined 179 inpatients with severe chronic tinnitus for tinnitus-related distress and psychological dysfunction after treatment. We conducted a prospective, nonrandomized, noncontrolled study. We calculated treatment outcome in tinnitus-related distress, depression, and somatic complaints by analysis of variance with repeated measurement at admission, at discharge, and at 3, 6, and 12 months after treatment.