Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
4,899
result(s) for
"Ma, Suzanne"
Sort by:
Azithromycin Misuse During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study from Jordan
Since coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) became a global pandemic, repurposing known drugs was the quickest way to combat the disease. The initial screening revealed that azithromycin (AZM) might have potential against COVID-19. Although clinical trials did not prove such efficacy, many countries have put AZM within their guidelines for treating COVID-19. Therefore, the present study was designed to assess the misuse of AZM in Jordan during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A cross-sectional study was conducted among community pharmacies in Jordan from March 27 to May 8, 2021, and 184 pharmacies data were collected from the Google forms. During COVID-19, 42.9% of pharmacies sold more than 20 packs of prescribed AZM per month compared to 46.7% of pharmacies used to sell 0-5 packs AZM prescriptions per month before the pandemic. During COVID-19, pharmacists significantly dispensed AZM with and without prescriptions 107% and 127%, respectively, more than before the pandemic (p < 0.0001). Overall, pharmacists stocked 121% more AZM packs during COVID-19 than before the pandemic (p < 0.0001). Additionally, most pharmacists (59.7%) believed that AZM could cure COVID-19 patients. However, using multinomial logistic regression analysis, low-experienced pharmacists were unsure if AZM could positively affect COVID-19 patients (p < 0.05, OR = 3.76, 95% CI = 1.23-11.52). Furthermore, low-experienced pharmacists believed that increased use of AZM for the treatment of viral infections could lead to negative consequences (p < 0.001, OR = 0.161, 95% CI 0.063-0.414).
This study demonstrated that AZM is misused by physicians, pharmacists, and the public in Jordan. Since AZM efficacy on SARS-CoV-2 is scarce, there is a need for new guidelines by governmental health authorities to implement strict enforcement of AZM dispensing during COVID-19 to avoid negative consequences of bacterial resistance.
Journal Article
Complete Reconstitution of a Highly Reducing Iterative Polyketide Synthase
Highly reducing iterative polyketide synthases are large, multifunctional enzymes that make important metabolites in fungi, such as lovastatin, a cholesterol-lowering drug from Aspergillus terreus. We report efficient expression of the lovastatin nonaketide synthase (LovB) from an engineered strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as well as complete reconstitution of its catalytic function in the presence and absence of cofactors (the reduced form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate and S-adenosylmethionine) and its partner enzyme, the enoyl reductase LovC. Our results demonstrate that LovB retains correct intermediates until completion of synthesis of dihydromonacolin L, but off-loads incorrectly processed compounds as pyrones or hydrolytic products. Experiments replacing LovC with analogous MlcG from compactin biosynthesis demonstrate a gate-keeping function for this partner enzyme. This study represents a key step in the understanding of the functions and structures of this family of enzymes.
Journal Article
Manipulation of the carbon storage regulator system for metabolite remodeling and biofuel production in Escherichia coli
Background
Microbial engineering strategies that elicit global metabolic perturbations have the capacity to increase organism robustness for targeted metabolite production. In particular, perturbations to regulators of cellular systems that impact glycolysis and amino acid production while simultaneously decreasing fermentation by-products such as acetate and CO
2
make ideal targets. Intriguingly, perturbation of the Carbon Storage Regulator (Csr) system has been previously implicated in large changes in central carbon metabolism in
E. coli
. Therefore, we hypothesized that perturbation of the Csr system through the CsrA-CsrB ribonucleoprotein complex might increase production of biofuels and their intermediates from heterologous pathways.
Results
We engaged the CsrA-CsrB ribonucleoprotein complex of
E. coli
via overexpression of CsrB. CsrB is a 350-nucleotide non-coding RNA that antagonizes CsrA, an RNA-binding protein that regulates translation of specific mRNA targets. By using shotgun proteomics and targeted metabolomics we established that elevation of CsrB levels leads to alterations in metabolite and protein levels in glycolysis, the TCA cycle and amino acid levels. Consequently, we show that such changes can be suitably applied to improve the production of desired compounds through the native fatty acid and heterologous
n
-butanol and isoprenoid pathways by up to two-fold. We also observed concomitant decreases in undesirable fermentation by-products such as acetate and CO
2
.
Conclusions
We have demonstrated that simple engineering of the RNA-based Csr global regulatory system constitutes a novel approach to obtaining pathway-independent improvements within engineered hosts. Additionally, since Csr is conserved across most prokaryotic species, this approach may also be amenable to a wide variety of production hosts.
Journal Article
Meet Me in Venice
When Ye Pei dreamed of Venice as a girl, she imagined a magical floating city of canals and gondola rides.And she imagined her mother, successful in her new life and eager to embrace the daughter she had never forgotten.But when Ye Pei arrives in Italy, she learns her mother works on a farm far from the city.
eBook
Crystal structure and biochemical studies of the trans-acting polyketide enoyl reductase LovC from lovastatin biosynthesis
Lovastatin is an important statin prescribed for the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Biosynthesis of lovastatin uses an iterative type I polyketide synthase (PKS). LovC is a trans-acting enoyl reductase (ER) that specifically reduces three out of eight possible polyketide intermediates during lovastatin biosynthesis. Such trans-acting ERs have been reported across a variety of other fungal PKS enzymes as a strategy in nature to diversify polyketides. How LovC achieves such specificity is unknown. The 1.9-Å structure of LovC reveals that LovC possesses a medium-chain dehydrogenase/reductase (MDR) fold with a unique monomeric assembly. Two LovC cocrystal structures and enzymological studies help elucidate the molecular basis of LovC specificity, define stereochemistry, and identify active-site residues. Sequence alignment indicates a general applicability to trans-acting ERs of fungal PKSs, as well as their potential application to directing biosynthesis.
Journal Article
Prevalence of HIV and hepatitis C virus infections among inmates of Quebec provincial prisons
To determine the prevalence of HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections and examine risk factors for these infections among inmates in Quebec provincial prisons.
Anonymous cross-sectional data were collected from January to June 2003 for men (n = 1357) and women (n = 250) who agreed to participate in the study and who completed a self-administrated questionnaire and provided saliva samples.
The prevalence of HIV infection was 2.3% among the male participants and 8.8% among the female participants. The corresponding prevalence of HCV infection was 16.6% and 29.2%, respectively. The most important risk factor was injection drug use. The prevalence of HIV infection was 7.2% among the male injection drug users and 0.5% among the male non-users. Among the women, the rate was 20.6% among the injection drug users, whereas none of the non-users was HIV positive. The prevalence of HCV infection was 53.3% among the male injection drug users and 2.6% among the male non-users; the corresponding values among the women were 63.6% and 3.5%.
HIV and HCV infections constitute an important public health problem in prison, where the prevalence is affected mainly by a high percentage of injection drug use among inmates.
Journal Article
China's “left behind” children often suffer health consequences
Leaving children in kinship care is \"common throughout the developing world,\" says Dr. David Hipgrave, UNICEF's chief of health and nutrition in China. \"If you've worked in Africa or India, you will know that if Mom or Dad has an opportunity to go study or earn money ... basic material needs and opportunities like that are often given priority over something much less tangible like a relationship with a child.\" \"Sometimes it's as simple as the grandma is too old or infirm or the aunt is unable, physically, to bring the child in for vaccinations,\" Hipgrave says. \"Kids who are left with elder relatives, who may be less well-educated or illiterate, could also be at a higher risk of the same kind of nutritional issues those elders experienced when they were growing up.\" \"It's better that my son sacrifices this time with his child to forge a stable life and future,\" [Yu Mei Juan] says. \"They've enrolled my grandson in school for the fall and he's already picking up some Italian. He's doing just fine.\" - Suzanne Ma, Qingtian County, Zhejiang Province, China.
Journal Article