Significant differences in biochemical parameters between normal and tumor tissues offer an opportunity to chemically design drug carriers which respond to these changes and deliver the drugs at the desired site. For example, overexpression of the matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) enzyme in the extracellular matrix of tumor tissues can act as a trigger to chemically modulate the drug delivery ...

Bacillus spp., established by Chon in 1872, is made up of Gram-positive aerobic or facultative endosporeforming rod-shaped bacteria. The optimal temperature for growth is ranged from 30°C to 40°C, with no growth below 15°C or above 50°C. They are widespread in the environment being found in dust, soil, water, air, and vegetable matter, and are an important source of fine biochemicals, antibioti...

The dry antibiotic development pipeline coupled with the emergence of multidrug resistant Gram-negative 'superbugs' has driven the revival of the polymyxin lipopeptide antibiotics. Polymyxin resistance implies a total lack of antibiotics for the treatment of life-threatening infections. The lack of molecular imaging probes that possess native polymyxin-like antibacterial activity is a barrier t...

A pea protein isolate was hydrolyzed by a double enzyme treatment method in order to obtain short peptide sequences used as raw materials to produce lipopeptides-based surfactants. Pea protein hydrolysates were prepared using the combination of Alcalase and Flavourzyme. The influence of the process variables was studied to optimize the proteolytic degradation to high degrees of hydrolysis. The ...

Exposure of macrophages to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induces a hypo-responsive state to a second challenge with LPS that is termed LPS tolerance. LPS tolerance is also induced by pre-exposure to lipopeptides and lipoteichoic acid, which trigger Toll-like receptor (TLR) 2-mediated signaling. LPS signaling involves at least two pathways: a MyD88-dependent cascade that is essential for production o...

Pseudomonas putida strain PCL1445 produces two cyclic lipopeptides, putisolvin I and putisolvin II, which possess surface tension-reducing abilities and are able to inhibit biofilm formation and to break down existing biofilms of several Pseudomonas spp., including P. aeruginosa. Putisolvins are secreted in the culture medium during growth at late exponential phase, indicating that production i...

We have designed a novel lipid analog (lipopeptide) that mimics the structural features of modified phospholipids. This lipopeptide is easily synthesized using a peptide synthesizer and has been shown to be useful for the modification of liposomes, which are used as an active targeted drug delivery system (DDS). Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) has high homology with pituitary adenylate cycl...

Toothpaste is a gel dentifrice used with a toothbrush as an accessory to clean, keep and promote oral hygiene. The literature review suggests that there are many different formulations of toothpastes and that each of their individual components present specific functions. The concentration of the toothpaste ingredients must be appropriately chosen taking into account the purposes of the toothpa...

Antimicrobial peptides are small, cationic proteins that can induce lysis of bacterial cells through interaction with their membranes. Different mechanisms for cell lysis have been proposed, but these models tend to neglect the role of the chemical composition of the membrane, which differs between bacterial species and can be heterogeneous even within a single cell. Moreover, the cell envelope...

Mupirocin is a polyketide antibiotic with broad antibacterial activity. It was isolated and characterized about 40 years ago from Pseudomonas fluorescens NCIMB 10586. To study the phylogenetic distribution of mupirocin producing strains in the genus Pseudomonas a large collection of Pseudomonas strains of worldwide origin, consisting of 117 Pseudomonas type strains and 461 strains isolated from...