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“Drug-resistant Candida infection is a major health concern among immunocompromised patients. Antimicrobial photodynamic inactivation (PDI) was introduced as an alternative treatment for local infections. Although Candida (C.) has demonstrated susceptibility to PDI, high doses of photosensitizer (PS) and light energy are required, which may be harmful to eukaryotic human cells. This study explores the capacity of chitosan, a polycationic biopolymer, to increase the efficacy of PDI against C. albicans, as well as fluconazole-resistant

clinical isolates in planktonic or biofilm states. Chitosan was shown to effectively augment the effect of PDI mediated by toluidine blue O (TBO) against C. albicans that were incubated with chitosan for 30 min following PDI. Chitosan at concentrations as low as 0.25% eradicated

C. albicans; Hippo pathway inhibitor however, without PDI treatment, chitosan alone did not demonstrate significant antimicrobial activity within the 30 min of incubation. These results suggest that chitosan only augmented the fungicidal effect after the cells had been damaged by PDI. Increasing the dosage of chitosan or prolonging the incubation time allowed a reduction in the PDI condition required to completely eradicate C. albicans. These results clearly indicate that combining chitosan with PDI is a promising antimicrobial approach to treat infectious diseases.”
“Objective: Blood pressure, urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio, and estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) are highly correlated MI-503 conditions. The longitudinal effect of exposure to postmenopausal estrogen therapy on these traits studied together has not been reported.\n\nMethods: This was a cross-sectional study

of 1,044 older postmenopausal community-dwelling women from the Rancho Bernardo Study (1992-1996); Selleck Liproxstatin-1 443 women were reevaluated similar to 10 years later (2002-2005). We determined the cross-sectional and prospective association of baseline postmenopausal estrogen therapy and blood pressure, urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio, GFR, and the odds of categorical hypertension (physician diagnosis, medication, or blood pressure >= 140/>= 90 mm Hg), chronic kidney disease (GFR <= 60 mL/min per 1.73 m(2)), and albuminuria (urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 25 mg/g).\n\nResults: At baseline, the mean age was 68.3 years for current estrogen users, 75.4 years for past users, and 74.3 years for never users. In the cross-sectional analyses, current users had lower diastolic blood pressure and lower odds of having chronic kidney disease, independent of covariates. In the similar to 10-year follow-up, comparisons between never, past, and current estrogen use (91% continuous use since baseline), the mean diastolic blood pressure declined over time in current users, whereas systolic blood pressure increased among never users.