Antimicrobial effects of lysophosphatidylcholine on methicillin-resistant .

Objectives: Methicillin-resistant (MRSA) is an important health care-associated and community-associated pathogen and causes a large number of infections worldwide. For the purpose of application to topical treatment of MRSA infection, we examined the antimicrobial effects of lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) on MRSA strains. We also investigated the combination effect of LPC and gentamicin on MRSA growth.

Serotype distribution and antimicrobial susceptibility of Streptococcus pneumoniae strains isolated in Japan after introduction of the routine immunization program.

Pneumococcal vaccines have reduced the incidences of Streptococcus pneumoniae infections among children and adults, but a relative increase in the prevalence of non-vaccine serotypes has been reported. To follow the changing epidemiology of pneumococcal diseases, capsular serotyping and antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed on 534 pneumococcal isolates obtained from a hospital in Japan after routine immunization was launched, between October 2014 and May 2016. Serotype distributions and antimicrobial susceptibilities were evaluated among the total patient population, and were compared by age and sample groups and by serotype group, respectively.

Screening and incorporation of rust resistance from Allium cepa into bunching onion (Allium fistulosum) via alien chromosome addition.

Bunching onion (Allium fistulosum L.; 2n = 16), bulb onion (Allium cepa L. Common onion group), and shallot (Allium cepa L.

Characterization of Japanese flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) NK-lysin, an antimicrobial peptide.

The NK-lysin cDNA of Japanese flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus, consists of 657bp, containing an open reading frame (ORF) of 444bp, which encodes 147 amino acid residues. The amino acid sequence of Japanese flounder NK-lysin has 21% identity to porcine NK-lysin and bovine NK-lysin, 23% to equine NK-lysin, and 46% to zebrafish NK-lysin-like protein. Multiple alignments of Japanese flounder NK-lysin and other known saposin-like proteins revealed that the six cysteine residues important for structural folding are completely conserved.

The NOP (ORL1) receptor antagonist Compound B stimulates mesolimbic dopamine release and is rewarding in mice by a non-NOP-receptor-mediated mechanism.

1. Compound B (1-[(3R, 4R)-1-cyclooctylmethyl-3-hydroxymethyl-4-piperidyl]-3-ethyl-1,3-dihydro-2H-benzimidazol-2-one, CompB) is a nociceptin/orphanin FQ (N/OFQ) antagonist showing high selectivity for the NOP (ORL1) receptor over classical opioid receptors. We studied the effect of subcutaneous CompB administration on the release of mesolimbic dopamine (DA) and the expression of hedonia in mice.

Exogenous, but not endogenous nociceptin modulates mesolimbic dopamine release in mice.

The effect of nociceptin (an endogenous ligand of the ORL1 receptor) on mesolimbic dopamine release and simultaneous horizontal locomotion was studied in freely moving mice undergoing microdialysis of the nucleus accumbens. Intracerebroventricular (i.c.