A feather-degrading bacterium was isolated from poultry decomposition feathers in China. The strain, named L1, showed significant feather-degrading activity because it grew and reproduced quickly on basal medium containing 10 g/L of native feather as the source of energy, carbon, and nitrogen. According to the phenotypic characteristics and 16S rRNA profile, the isolate belongs to Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. Keratinase activity of the isolate was determined during cultivation on raw feathers at different temperatures and initial pH. Maximum growth and feather-degrading activity of the bacterium were observed at 40 degrees C and initial pH ranging from 7.5 to 8.0. The crude enzyme was purified by ammonium sulphate precipitation, Sephadex G-100 chromatographic and ceramic hydroxyapatite (CHT) chromatographic. Its molecular mass estimated as 35.2 kDa in SDS-PAGE. The enzyme had an optimum activity at the pH was 7.8 and the temperature was 40 degrees C. The keratinase was wholly inhibited by a serine protease inhibitor, PMSF. Its activity was activated or inhibited by different metal ions. The keratinase activity of enzyme from strain L1 functioned on different keratins, such as feather, hair, wool, horn, and so on.

BackgroundMultiple operative treatments are available for the fixation of intertrochanteric femoral fractures. This analysis was conducted to provide guidance on the appropriate clinical choice to accommodate individual patients.MethodsA systematic review was performed to identify relevant articles in databases. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of adults with intertrochanteric femoral fractures were eligible if they compared 2 or more of the following interventions: proximal femoral nail anti-rotation (PFNA), percutaneous compression plate (PCCP) use, dynamic hip screw (DHS) fixation, gamma nail (GN) fixation, and artificial femoral head replacement (FHR). Bayesian network meta-analysis was performed to simultaneously compare all treatment methods.ResultsIn total, 24 active-comparator studies involving 3097 participants were identified. Across all populations, greater reductions in blood loss and operation time were observed for PFNA than for other treatments. In terms of bleeding, more blood loss was observed for DHS use than for the PFNA (SMD, 1.96; 95% CI, 1.01–1.96), PCCP (SMD, 1.26; 95% CI, 0.31–2.20), and GN (SMD, 0.26; 95% CI, − 0.35–0.87) techniques. However, a more beneficial effect was observed for DHS use than for FHR (SMD, − 0.23; 95% CI, − 1.26–0.81). DHS use resulted in a significantly longer duration of operation time than the PFNA (SMD, 0.75; 95% CI, − 0.02–0.75), PCCP (SMD, 0.61; 95% CI, − 0.20–1.44), and GN (SMD, 0.25; 95% CI, − 0.26–0.77) techniques. Similarly, greater reductions in operation time were observed for DHS use than for FHR (SMD, − 0.12; 95% CI, − 1.15–0.91).ConclusionsThe findings provide supporting evidence demonstrating the superiority of PFNA over other treatments for intertrochanteric femoral fracture. PFNA treatment results in the lowest amount of blood loss and the shortest operation time. These findings add to the existing knowledge of intertrochanteric femoral fracture treatment options.

Background Cutaneous melanoma (CM) is a life-threatening destructive malignancy. Pyroptosis significantly correlates with programmed tumor cell death and its microenvironment through active host-tumor crosstalk. However, the prognostic value of pyroptosis-associated gene signatures in CM remains unclear. Methods Gene profiles and clinical data of patients with CM were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) to identify differentially expressed genes associated with pyroptosis and overall survival (OS). We constructed a prognostic gene signature using LASSO analysis, then applied immune cell infiltration scores and Kaplan-Meier, Cox, and pathway enrichment analyses to determine the roles of the gene signature in CM. A validation cohort was collected from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Results Four pyroptosis-associated genes were identified and incorporated into a prognostic gene signature. Integrated bioinformatics findings showed that the signature correlated with patient survival and was associated with tumor growth and metastasis. The results of Gene Set Enrichment Analysis of a risk signature indicated that several enriched pathways are associated with cancer and immunity. The risk signature for immune status significantly correlated with tumor stem cells, the immune microenvironment, immune cell infiltration and immune subtypes. The expression of four pyroptosis genes significantly correlated with the OS of patients with CM and was related to the sensitivity of cancer cells to several antitumor drugs. A signature comprising four genes associated with pyroptosis offers a novel approach to the prognosis and survival of patients with CM and will facilitate the development of individualized therapy.

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