Purification and characterization of bacteriocins-like inhibitory substances from food isolated Enterococcus faecalis OS13 with activity against nosocomial enterococci.

Nosocomial infections caused by enterococci are an ongoing global threat. Thus, finding therapeutic agents for the treatment of such infections are crucial. Some Enterococcus faecalis strains are able to produce antimicrobial peptides called bacteriocins.

Real-Time Imaging of a Single Gene Reveals Transcription-Initiated Local Confinement.

Genome dynamics are intimately linked to the regulation of gene expression, the most fundamental mechanism in biology, yet we still do not know whether the very process of transcription drives spatial organization at specific gene loci. Here, we have optimized the ANCHOR/ParB DNA-labeling system for real-time imaging of a single-copy, estrogen-inducible transgene in human cells. Motion of an ANCHOR3-tagged DNA locus was recorded in the same cell before and during the appearance of nascent MS2-labeled mRNA.

Quantitative nanoscale imaging of orientational order in biological filaments by polarized superresolution microscopy.

Essential cellular functions as diverse as genome maintenance and tissue morphogenesis rely on the dynamic organization of filamentous assemblies. For example, the precise structural organization of DNA filaments has profound consequences on all DNA-mediated processes including gene expression, whereas control over the precise spatial arrangement of cytoskeletal protein filaments is key for mechanical force generation driving animal tissue morphogenesis. Polarized fluorescence is currently used to extract structural organization of fluorescently labeled biological filaments by determining the orientation of fluorescent labels, however with a strong drawback: polarized fluorescence imaging is indeed spatially limited by optical diffraction, and is thus unable to discriminate between the intrinsic orientational mobility of the fluorophore labels and the real structural disorder of the labeled biomolecules.

Surgical treatment of thoracic and lumbar tuberculosis by anterior interbody fusion and posterior instrumentation.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and clinical outcome of simultaneous or sequential anterior and posterior surgical approaches in the management of spinal tuberculosis in the form of anterior extirpation of the tuberculous lesion, strut bone grafting of the defect produced and posterior instrumentation for spinal fixation.

Subjects And Methods: Twenty-two patients who had tuberculosis of the thoracic and lumbar spine with moderate to severe localized kyphosis and variable degrees of neurological deficits were treated at Al Razi Hospital (Kuwait) in the period from 1998 to 2000 by anterior debridement and autogenous strut bone grafting with simultaneous or staged posterior spinal fixation using either USS or SOCON spinal instrumentation. Appropriate antituberculosis treatment was given to all patients for 9-12 months.