Adhesion force spectroscopy with nanostructured colloidal probes reveals nanotopography-dependent early mechanotransductive interactions at the cell membrane level

The study shows, by exploiting a novel adhesion force spectroscopy approach, that microenvironmental nanotopography impacts strongly on integrin-mediated cellular mechanosensing, by influencing adhesion site force loading dynamics.

Short tryptophan- and arginine-rich peptide shows efficacy against clinical methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from skin and soft tissue infections

In recent years methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus has posed a challenge in treating skin and soft tissue infections. Finding new antimicrobial agents has therefore become imperative. We evaluated the in vitro antimicrobial activity of a synthetic peptide, P6, against multidrug resistant clinical strains of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from skin and soft tissue infections. The P6 antimicrobial effect was evaluated in vitro by determining MIC/MBC, the ratio of live/dead cells and the effects induced at membrane level. The therapeutic efficiency was determined against human skin cells. P6 inhibited growth for all strains between 8 and 16 mg/L and killed all bacterial strains at 16 mg/L. The therapeutic potential was found to be 30 and 15 in the presence of BSA. We showed that P6 localizes at membrane level, where it acts slowly, by depolarizing it and affecting its integrity. P6 can be considered a good candidate for use as an antimicrobial agent in topical applications.

Evaluation of Permeate Quality in Pilot Scale Membrane Distillation Systems

In this work, the salinity of permeate obtained with membrane distillation (MD) in pilot scale systems was analyzed. Experiments were performed with three different spiral-wound commercial modules, one from Solar Spring with 10 m2 surface membrane area and two from Aquastill with 7.2 and 24 m2. Intermittent operation meant that high permeate conductivity was measured in the beginning of each experiment, which was gradually decreasing until reaching a constant value (3–143 µS·cm−1 for seawater feed). The final quality reached did not depend on operating conditions, only the time it took to reach it. This can be because the permeate flux dilutes the minimal feed leak taking place through pinholes in the membranes. Larger feed leak through the membrane was observed when operating in vacuum-enhanced air-gap MD configuration (V-AGMD), which is compatible with this explanation. However, for the increase of feed leak with salinity (up to 1.8 M), a conclusive explanation cannot be given. Pore wetting due to crystallization is discarded because the high permeate quality was recovered after washing with distilled water. More studies at higher salinities and also at membrane level are required to investigate this.

Quercetin dual interaction at the membrane level

The (de)regulatory effect of quercetin in cholesterol-enriched membrane domains, beyond its antioxidant activity, emerges as an important mode of action.

Classification and Pathogenesis in Dry-Form (Non-Neovascular) Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Age-related macular degeneration is basically evaluated as non-neovascular (dry) and neovascular (wet) type. Initial stages start with atrophy, drusen development in RPE-Bruch membrane level and pigmentary changes and in final stages may result in CNVM, disciform scar, and geographic atrophic changes. Visual acuity loss is more severe and faster in neovascular ARMD, late stages of geographic atrophy involving foveal center may also cause significant visual loss.