Structural shifts in TolC facilitate Efflux-Mediated β-lactam resistance.

Efflux-mediated β-lactam resistance is a major public health concern, reducing the effectiveness of β-lactam antibiotics against many bacteria. Structural analyses show the efflux protein TolC in Gram-negative bacteria acts as a channel for antibiotics, impacting bacterial susceptibility and virulence. This study examines β-lactam drug efflux mediated by TolC using experimental and computational methods.

The effects of COVID-19 fear and anxiety on symptom severity, sleep quality, and mood in patients with fibromyalgia: a pilot study.

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals faced psychological stress caused by fear and anxiety due to the high transmission and mortality rate of the disease, the social isolation, economic problems, and difficulties in reaching health services. Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic centralized pain sensitivity disorder. Psychological, physical and/or autoimmune stressors were found to increase FM symptoms.

Evaluation of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children with cerebral palsy, caregivers' quality of life, and caregivers' fear of COVID-19 with telemedicine.

Background: The sudden and unexpected pandemic changed the daily routine of the children with cerebral palsy (CP) and their caregivers.

Aims: This study aimed to investigate the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the utilization of health and rehabilitation services and the general health and physical status of children with CP. In addition, the second aim of the study was to examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on caregivers' quality of life (QOL) and their fear of COVID-19.

Comparing the effectiveness of ultrasound guided blind genicular nerve block on pain, muscle strength with isokinetic device, physical function and quality of life in chronic knee osteoarthritis: a prospective randomized controlled study.

Background: The genicular nerve block (GNB) is demonstrated from several reports to alleviate pain and improve knee functionality in patients with chronic knee osteoarthritis (OA). Ultrasound (US)-guided GNB has been the most used imaging method. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of US-guided versus blind GNB in the treatment of knee OA.

High versus Moderate Dosage of Daily and Weekly Administration of Vitamin D Supplements in the Form of Oil Drop in Nursing Home Residents.

Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of daily (800 IU), weekly-moderate (5600 IU) and weekly-high (8000 IU) supplementation of Vitamin D in nursing home residents.

Study Design: A descriptive study.

Place And Duration Of Study: Nursing Home, MEVA, Istanbul, Turkey, from July 2016 to July 2017.

Mechanical slowing-down of cytoplasmic diffusion allows in vivo counting of proteins in individual cells.

Many key regulatory proteins in bacteria are present in too low numbers to be detected with conventional methods, which poses a particular challenge for single-cell analyses because such proteins can contribute greatly to phenotypic heterogeneity. Here we develop a microfluidics-based platform that enables single-molecule counting of low-abundance proteins by mechanically slowing-down their diffusion within the cytoplasm of live Escherichia coli (E. coli) cells.

Strength of selection pressure is an important parameter contributing to the complexity of antibiotic resistance evolution.

Revealing the genetic changes responsible for antibiotic resistance can be critical for developing novel antibiotic therapies. However, systematic studies correlating genotype to phenotype in the context of antibiotic resistance have been missing. In order to fill in this gap, we evolved 88 isogenic Escherichia coli populations against 22 antibiotics for 3 weeks.

Fluidic and microfluidic tools for quantitative systems biology.

Understanding genes and their functions is a daunting task due to the level of complexity in biological organisms. For discovering how genotype and phenotype are linked to each other, it is essential to carry out systematic studies with maximum sensitivity and high-throughput. Recent developments in fluid-handling technologies, both at the macro and micro scale, are now allowing us to apply engineering approaches to achieve this goal.

Building a morbidostat: an automated continuous-culture device for studying bacterial drug resistance under dynamically sustained drug inhibition.

We present a protocol for building and operating an automated fluidic system for continuous culture that we call the 'morbidostat'. The morbidostat is used to follow the evolution of microbial drug resistance in real time. Instead of exposing bacteria to predetermined drug environments, the morbidostat constantly measures the growth rates of evolving microbial populations and dynamically adjusts drug concentrations inside culture vials in order to maintain a constant drug-induced inhibition.