The authors identify disinfectant-resistant bacterial strains of infection-causing bacteria from samples collected at a hospital setting.
Read More...Varying levels of disinfectant resistance among invasive Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates
The authors identify disinfectant-resistant bacterial strains of infection-causing bacteria from samples collected at a hospital setting.
Read More...The effects of dysregulated ion channels and vasoconstriction in glioblastoma multiforme
Anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and apoptotic activities of MAT20, a poly-herbal formulation.
Kashyap Jha et al. look at the formulation of MAT20, a crude extract of the moringa, amla, and tulsi leaves, as a potential complementary and alternative medicine. Using HeLa cells, they find MAT20 up-regulates expression of inflammation and cell cytotoxicity markers. Their data is important for understanding the anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties of MAT20.
Read More...Surface cleanliness of hydrothermally grown zinc oxide microparticles compared to commercial nanoparticles
The authors test the usefulness of zinc oxide microparticles relative to zinc oxide nanoparticles as antibacterial agents.
Read More...An accessible experiment to assess the impact of shapes of buildings and roofs on wind resistance
In this study, the authors determine which house model is most resistant to high winds by building smaller prototypes that could be tested with a handheld source of wind.
Read More...Wind Resistance and Automobile Shapes
Energy efficiency is becoming more important as we struggle to find better, more sustainable energy sources to power our planet; the car industry is no exception. In this article, the authors examine the effect of shape on automobile aerodynamics By finding the shape that makes cars less resistant to wind, and therefore more energy efficient, can help the automobile industry make better, more eco-friendly cars that are also cheaper to operate.
Read More...Characterizing the evolution of antibiotic resistance in commercial Lactobacillus strains
In this study, the authors studied the ability for bacteria to develop antibiotic resistance over successive generations and modeled the trajectory to predict how antibiotic resistance is developed.
Read More...Bacteria and Antibiotic Resistance in School Bathrooms
Since school bathrooms are widely suspected to be unsanitary, we wanted to compare the total amount of bacteria with the amount of bacteria that had ampicillin or streptomycin resistance across different school bathrooms in the Boston area. We hypothesized that because people interact with the faucet, outdoor handle, and indoor handle of the bathroom, based on whether or not they have washed their hands, there would be differences in the quantity of the bacteria presented on these surfaces. Therefore, we predicted certain surfaces of the bathroom would be less sanitary than others.
Read More...Combating drug resistance in cancer cells: Cooperative effect of green tea and turmeric with chemotherapeutic drug
The major drawback of chemotherapy regimens for treating cancer is that the cancerous cells acquire drug resistance and become impervious to further dose escalation. Keeping in mind the studied success of herbal formulations with regard to alternative treatments for cancer, we hypothesized that the use of a chemotherapeutic drug and proprietary herbal formulation, HF1, would combat this phenomenon when administered with common chemotherapeutic drug 5FU. Results demonstrated a cooperative effect between HF1 and 5FU on the drug resistant cell line, implying that administration of HF1 with 5FU results in cell death as measured by MTT assay.
Read More...Combating Insulin Resistance Using Medicinal Plants as a Supplementary Therapy to Metformin in 3T3-L1 Adipocytes: Improving Early Intervention-Based Diabetes Treatment
A primary cause of diabetes is insulin resistance, which is caused by disruption of insulin signal transduction. The objective of this study was to maximize insulin sensitivity by creating a more effective, early intervention-based treatment to avert severe T2D. This treatment combined metformin, “the insulin sensitizer”, and medicinal plants, curcumin, fenugreek, and nettle.
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