Studying the interactions of nanoparticles (NPs) with serum proteins is necessary for the rational development of nanocarriers. Optimum surface chemistry is a key consideration to modulate the formation of the serum protein corona (PC) and the resultant immune response. We investigated the constituent of the PC formed by hyaluronic acid-coated chitosan NPs (HA-CS NPs). Non-decorated chitosan NPs (CS NPs) and alginate-coated chitosan NPs (Alg-CS NPs) were utilized as controls. Results show that HA surface modifications significantly reduced protein adsorption relative to controls. Gene Ontology analysis demonstrates that HA-CS NPs were the least immunogenic nanocarriers. Indeed, less inflammatory proteins were adsorbed onto HA-CS NPs as opposed to CS and Alg-CS NPs. Interestingly, HA-CS NPs differentially adsorbed two unique anti-inflammatory proteins (ITIH4 and AGP), which were absent from the PC of both controls. On the other hand, CS and Alg-CS NPs selectively adsorbed a proinflammatory protein (Clusterin) that was not found on the surfaces of HA-CS NPs. While further studies are needed to investigate abilities of the PCs of only ITIH4 and AGP to modulate the interaction of NPs with the host immune system, our results suggest that this proof-of-concept could potentially be utilized to reduce the immunogenicity of a wide range of nanomaterials.
BackgroundThe economy of Saudi Arabia is currently undergoing a major transformation which will have an impact on employment in the pharmacy sector. However, quantitative data characterizing the pharmacy workforce in the Kingdom are currently not available. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the current status of the licensed pharmacy workforce in the pharmacy field in Saudi Arabia.MethodsDescriptive statistics were performed on data from the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCFHS) as of March 2017.ResultsThe labor market for pharmacists in Saudi Arabia is dominated by expatriates. Saudi nationals constitute less than 20% of the pharmacists employed in the Kingdom. The underemployment of Saudis is most evident in the largest sectors of the pharmacy field, namely, private health care establishments, community pharmacies, and pharmaceutical companies.ConclusionThere is an unmet need to train Saudi citizens as pharmacists and retain them in the workforce. Addressing this issue should become an important objective in Saudi Arabia’s Vision for 2030.
Rapid and accurate classification and discrimination of bacteria is an important task and the recent ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted that rapid diagnostics that give real-time results is vital. Coupled...
Background Multiple studies have explored the use of active learning strategies among faculty members in different healthcare colleges worldwide, however, very few have described the use of these strategies in the Middle East. The aim of this study was to evaluate the extent of the implementation of active learning and its various techniques across different fields of healthcare education in various countries in the Middle East. Methods A Web-based questionnaire was developed to obtain information on the use of active learning methods. This survey was disseminated among faculty members in healthcare colleges in 17 Middle Eastern countries. Results Out of 22,734 online invitations that were sent to faculty members in different healthcare colleges, 2085 (9.17%) accepted the invitations, however, only 722 (34.63%) of those who agreed to participate filled out the questionnaire. Eighty-seven percent of the responders utilized at least one technique of active learning. Active learning was used more frequently by female responders. For example, 54.30% of the female responders reported using learning by teaching as one of their teaching methods compared to 41.30% of their male counterparts ( p = 0.0005). The various forms of active learning were used at similar levels in both public and private healthcare colleges. Only minor differences were seen among different age groups or academic positions of the responders, but significant variabilities were noted among the several fields of healthcare education. For example, 61.54% of responders from the nursing faculty reported using reaction to videos as one of their teaching methods compared to 31.11% of their counterparts in the faculty of dentistry ( p = 0.0021). The most frequently reported obstacles interfering with the effectuation of active learning include the lack of technical support and time constraints. Conclusions Although some barriers to the implementation of active learning exist, it is extensively used by faculty members in healthcare colleges in the Middle East. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12909-019-1580-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy is an established rapid whole-organism fingerprinting method that generates metabolic fingerprints from bacteria that reflect the phenotype of the microorganism under investigation. However, whilst FT-IR spectroscopy is fast (typically 10 s to 1 min per sample), the approaches for microbial sample preparation can be time consuming as plate culture or shake flasks are used for growth of the organism. We report a new approach that allows micro-cultivation of bacteria from low volumes (typically 200 μL) to be coupled with FT-IR spectroscopy. This approach is fast and easy to perform and gives equivalent data to the lengthier and more expensive shake flask cultivations (sample volume = 20 mL). With this micro-culture approach we also demonstrate high reproducibility of the metabolic fingerprints. The approach allowed separation of different isolates of Escherichia coli involved in urinary tract infection, including members of the globally disseminated ST131 clone, with respect to both genotype and resistance or otherwise to the antibiotic Ciprofloxacin.
bDuring the industrial scale-up of bioprocesses it is important to establish that the biological system has not changed significantly when moving from small laboratory-scale shake flasks or culturing bottles to an industrially relevant production level. Therefore, during upscaling of biomass production for a range of metal transformations, including the production of biogenic magnetite nanoparticles by Geobacter sulfurreducens, from 100-ml bench-scale to 5-liter fermentors, we applied Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy as a metabolic fingerprinting approach followed by the analysis of bacterial cell extracts by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for metabolic profiling. FTIR results clearly differentiated between the phenotypic changes associated with different growth phases as well as the two culturing conditions. Furthermore, the clustering patterns displayed by multivariate analysis were in agreement with the turbidimetric measurements, which displayed an extended lag phase for cells grown in a 5-liter bioreactor (24 h) compared to those grown in 100-ml serum bottles (6 h). GC-MS analysis of the cell extracts demonstrated an overall accumulation of fumarate during the lag phase under both culturing conditions, coinciding with the detected concentrations of oxaloacetate, pyruvate, nicotinamide, and glycerol-3-phosphate being at their lowest levels compared to other growth phases. These metabolites were overlaid onto a metabolic network of G. sulfurreducens, and taking into account the levels of these metabolites throughout the fermentation process, the limited availability of oxaloacetate and nicotinamide would seem to be the main metabolic bottleneck resulting from this scale-up process. Additional metabolite-feeding experiments were carried out to validate the above hypothesis. Nicotinamide supplementation (1 mM) did not display any significant effects on the lag phase of G. sulfurreducens cells grown in the 100-ml serum bottles. However, it significantly improved the growth behavior of cells grown in the 5-liter bioreactor by reducing the lag phase from 24 h to 6 h, while providing higher yield than in the 100-ml serum bottles. Geobacter species are Gram-negative deltaproteobacteria, which have been recognized as an intrinsic component of a diverse range of natural subsurface environments, including soils and groundwater, as well as aquatic sediments (1). Geobacter species are considered to play a vital role in the global recycling of metals and carbon (2) in anaerobic environments, coupling the oxidation of acetate, and other key intermediates from fermentative metabolism of natural complex organic matter, to the reduction of Fe(III) and other metals (3, 4). G. metallireducens was the first organism with the ability of reducing insoluble Fe(III) oxides in tandem with oxidation of acetate to be isolated (5, 6).G. sulfurreducens strain PCA is another member of the family Geobacteraceae, which also has the ability of coupling the oxidation of acetate to the reduction of sulfur, fumarate,...
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