Advances in long-acting slow effective release antiretroviral therapies for treatment and prevention of HIV infection.

Adherence to daily oral antiretroviral therapy (ART) is a barrier to both treatment and prevention of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. To overcome limitations of life-long daily regimen adherence, long-acting (LA) injectable antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, nanoformulations, implants, vaginal rings, microarray patches, and ultra-long-acting (ULA) prodrugs are now available or in development. These medicines enable persons who are or at risk for HIV infection to be treated with simplified ART regimens.

A new modelling framework for assessing the relative burden of antimicrobial resistance in aquatic environments.

The infections caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) can lead to higher medical costs, prolonged hospital stays, and increased mortality compared to bacteria that are susceptible to antibiotics. Challenges exist in quantifying the potential risk/burden associated with antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as there is a lack of dose-response models available for pathogens which are resistant to antibiotics, in addition to the fact that very little is known regarding the health risks posed by antibiotic resistant genes (ARG). In this paper, we proposed a new modelling framework to evaluate the relative burden of AMR in natural aquatic environments.

Removal of antibiotic residues, antibiotic resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes in municipal wastewater by membrane bioreactor systems.

Antibiotic residues, antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are considered new classes of water contaminants due to their potential adverse effects on aquatic ecosystems and human health. This paper provides comprehensive data on the occurrences of 19 antibiotics, bacteria resistant to 10 antibiotics, and 15 ARGs in raw influent and different treatment stages of conventional activated sludge (CAS) and membrane bioreactor (MBR) systems. Seventeen out of the 19 target antibiotics were detected in raw influent with concentrations of up to ten micrograms per liter.

Occurrence and characteristics of extended-spectrum β-lactamase- and carbapenemase- producing bacteria from hospital effluents in Singapore.

One of the most important resistance mechanisms in Gram-negative bacteria today is the production of enzymes causing resistance to cephalosporin and carbapenem antibiotics. The spread of extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBL)- and carbapenemase- producing Gram-negative bacteria is an emerging global public health problem. The aim of the present study was to (i) assess the prevalence of carbapenem-resistant bacteria (CRB) and ESBL-producing strains in sewage effluents from two major hospitals in Singapore, (ii) characterize the isolated strains and (iii) identify some of the ESBL and carbapenemase genes responsible for the resistance.

Corrigendum: Characterization of Metagenomes in Urban Aquatic Compartments Reveals High Prevalence of Clinically Relevant Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Wastewaters.

[This corrects the article on p. 2200 in vol. 8, PMID: 29201017.

Multimodal Personal Verification Using Likelihood Ratio for the Match Score Fusion.

In this paper, the authors present a novel personal verification system based on the likelihood ratio test for fusion of match scores from multiple biometric matchers (face, fingerprint, hand shape, and palm print). In the proposed system, multimodal features are extracted by Zernike Moment (ZM). After matching, the match scores from multiple biometric matchers are fused based on the likelihood ratio test.

Characterization of Metagenomes in Urban Aquatic Compartments Reveals High Prevalence of Clinically Relevant Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Wastewaters.

The dissemination of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an escalating problem and a threat to public health. Comparative metagenomics was used to investigate the occurrence of antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) in wastewater and urban surface water environments in Singapore. Hospital and municipal wastewater ( = 6) were found to have higher diversity and average abundance of ARGs (303 ARG subtypes, 197,816 x/Gb) compared to treated wastewater effluent ( = 2, 58 ARG subtypes, 2,692 x/Gb) and surface water ( = 5, 35 subtypes, 7,985 x/Gb).

Occurrences and Characterization of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria and Genetic Determinants of Hospital Wastewater in a Tropical Country.

Wastewater discharged from clinical isolation and general wards at two hospitals in Singapore was examined to determine the emerging trends of antibiotic resistance (AR). We quantified the concentrations of 12 antibiotic compounds by analysis using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB), the class 1 integrase gene (intI1), and 16 antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) that confer resistance to 10 different clinically relevant antibiotics. A subset of 119 antibiotic-resistant isolates were phylogenetically classified and tested for the presence of ARGs encoding resistance to β-lactam antibiotics (bla, bla, bla, bla), amikacin [aac(6')-Ib], co-trimoxazole (sul1, sul2, dfrA), ciprofloxacin (qnrA, qnrB), and the intI1 gene.

Antimicrobial Properties of Lysosomal Enzymes Immobilized on NH₂Functionalized Silica-Encapsulated Magnetite Nanoparticles.

The immobilization efficiency, antimicrobial activity and recovery of lysosomal enzymes on NH2 functionalized magnetite nanoparticles have been studied under various conditions. The immobi- lization efficiency depends upon the ratio of the amount of enzyme and magnetite and it shows an increase with magnetite concentration which is due to the presence of amine group at the magnetite surface that leads to a strong attraction. The optimized reaction time to immobilize the lysosomal enzymes on magnetite was determined by using a rolling method.

Correction: A Comparison of Microbial Water Quality and Diversity for Ballast and Tropical Harbor Waters.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

A Comparison of Microbial Water Quality and Diversity for Ballast and Tropical Harbor Waters.

Indicator organisms and antibiotic resistance were used as a proxy to measure microbial water quality of ballast tanks of ships, and surface waters in a tropical harbor. The survival of marine bacteria in ballast tanks appeared to diminish over longer water retention time, with a reduction of cell viability observed after a week based on heterotrophic plate counts. Pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes showed distinct differences in microbial composition of ballast and harbor waters.

Quantification of polyketide synthase genes in tropical urban soils using real-time PCR.

Polyketide synthases (PKSs) catalyze the biosynthesis of polyketides and may contribute to the natural production of antibiotics and pose selective pressure for the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the environment. Although conventional PCR have been developed to detect the presence of PKS genes, no previous studies have been done to quantify the abundance of PKS genes in environmental samples. In this study, two sets of degenerate real-time PCR (qPCR) primers (PKS1-F/PKS1-R, PKS2-F/PKS2-R) with high specificity and sensitivity were developed to quantify PKS type I and type II genes.

Proteomic analysis in Daphnia magna exposed to As(III), As(V) and Cd heavy metals and their binary mixtures for screening potential biomarkers.

In this study, the effects of three widespread heavy metals, As(III), As(V) and Cd, and their binary mixtures on the proteomic profile in D. magna were examined to screen novel protein biomarkers using the two-dimensional gel electrophoresis method (2DE). Ten 20d daphnia were exposed to the LC20 concentrations for each of a total of 8 treatments, including the control, As(III), As(V), Cd, [As(III)+As(V)], [As(III)+Cd], [As(V)+Cd], and [As(III), As(V), Cd], for 24h before protein isolation.

Toxicity Assessment of Titanium (IV) Oxide Nanoparticles Using Daphnia magna (Water Flea).

Objectives: Titanium dioxide (TiO(2)), a common nanoparticle widely used in industrial production, is one of nano-sized materials. The purpose of this study was to determine the acute and chronic toxicity of TiO(2) using different size and various concentrations on Daphnia magna.

Methods: In the acute toxicity test, four concentrations (0, 0.

Phenol degradation activity and reusability of Corynebacterium glutamicum coated with NH(2)-functionalized silica-encapsulated Fe3O4 nanoparticles.

In this study, a novel method to immobilize and separate Corynebacterium glutamicum for phenol degradation was developed using Fe(3)O(4) nanoparticles (NPs). The Fe(3)O(4) NPs were encapsulated with silica and functionalized with NH(2) groups to enhance their capacity to adsorb on the cell surface. The results showed that the NH(2)-functionalized silica-encapsulated Fe(3)O(4) NPs strongly adsorbed on the cell surface of C.

Toxicity evaluation of verapamil and tramadol based on toxicity assay and expression patterns of Dhb, Vtg, Arnt, CYP4, and CYP314 in Daphnia magna.

In this study, the toxicities of two pharmaceuticals, verapamil and tramadol were evaluated in Daphnia magna using the conventional toxicity tests (acute and chronic test) and the expression patterns of five stress responsive genes. In the chronic toxicity test, several parameters, such as the survival percentage, the body length of D. magna, the time of first reproduction, and the number of offspring per female, were adversely affected during the exposure to 4.

Utilization of phenol and naphthalene affects synthesis of various amino acids in Corynebacterium glutamicum.

This article reports multiple metabolic pathways of amino acid production via phenol and naphthalene use by Corynebacterium glutamicum. Biodegradation of phenol and naphthalene by C. glutamicum occurred in a mineral salt medium containing 1% yeast extract without any additional carbon sources.

Effects of glyphosate and methidathion on the expression of the Dhb, Vtg, Arnt, CYP4 and CYP314 in Daphnia magna.

In this study, the expression of five stress responsive genes was quantified and analyzed using a semi-quantitative RT-PCR to study the changes in their expression in Daphnia magna after exposure to known pesticides, glyphosate and methidathion. Hemoglobin (Dhb), which was used to show the effect of the oxygen level in the aquatic system, was significantly expressed in D. magna after exposure to glyphosate and methidathion.

Separation of D-psicose and D-fructose using simulated moving bed chromatography.

Simulated moving bed (SMB) processes have been widely used in the sugar industries with ion-exchange resin as a stationary phase. D-psicose, a rare monosaccharide known as a valuable pharmaceutical substrate, was synthesized by the enzymatic conversion from D-fructose. The SMB process was adopted to separate D-psicose from D-fructose.