Sinorhodobacter hungdaonensis sp. nov. isolated from activated sludge collected from a municipal wastewater treatment plant.

A novel bacterium, strain L3T, was isolated from an activated sludge sample retrieved from a municipal wastewater treatment plant in Huangdao, China. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity studies, strain L3T was affiliated to the genus Sinorhodobacter, being most closely related to Sinorhodobacter ferrireducens (98.0 %). The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of strain L3T to other related species, Thioclava atlantica DLFJ1-1T (96.5 %), Rhodobacter capsulatus ATCC 11166T (96.3 %), Paenirhodobacter enshiensis DW2-9T (96.3 %) and Rhodobacter viridis JA737T (96.0 %) is less than 96.5 %. Chemotaxonomic characterization further supported classification of the strain to the genus Sinorhodobacter. The major polar lipid profile consists of diphosphatidyglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine. The major fatty acids are C18:1 ω7c (66.3 %), C16:0 (12.9 %) and C18:0 (8.0 %). The major quinone is Q-10. The G+C content of the genomic DNA of strain L3T is 68.0 mol %. DNA-DNA relatedness value between L3T and the closely related type strain S. ferrireducens SgZ-3T was 35.2 %. Based on these results, a new species Sinorhodobacter huangdaonensis is proposed. The type strain is L3T (= CGMCC 1.12963T = KCTC 42823T).

Elemental sulfur formation and nitrogen removal from wastewaters by autotrophic denitrifiers and anammox bacteria.

Elemental sulfur (S(0)) formation from and nitrogen removal on sulfide, nitrate and ammonium-laden wastewaters were achieved by denitrifying ammonium oxidation (DEAMOX) reactor with autotrophic denitrifiers and anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) bacteria. The sulfide to nitrate ratio is a key process parameter for excess accumulation of S(0) and a ratio of 1.31:1 is a proposed optimum. The Alishewanella, Thauera and Candidatus Anammoximicrobium present respectively the autotrophic denitrifiers and anammox bacteria for the reactor. DEAMOX is demonstrated promising biological process for treating organics-deficient (S+N) wastewaters with excess S(0) production.

Imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory amino acids at spinal level is associated with maintenance of persistent pain-related behaviors.

Although the postsynaptic events responsible for development of pathological pain have been intensively studied, the relative contribution of presynaptic neurotransmitters to the whole process remains less elucidated. In the present investigation, we sought to measure temporal changes in spinal release of both excitatory amino acids (EAAs, glutamate and aspartate) and inhibitory amino acids (IAAs, glycine, ?-aminobutyric acid and taurine) in response to peripheral inflammatory pain state. The results showed that following peripheral chemical insult induced by subcutaneous bee venom (BV) injection, there was an initial, parallel increase in spinal release of both EAAs and IAAs, however, the balance between them was gradually disrupted when pain persisted longer, with EAAs remaining at higher level but IAAs at a level below the baseline. Moreover, the EAAs-IAAs imbalance at the spinal level was dependent upon the ongoing activity from the peripheral injury site. Intrathecal blockade of ionotropic (NMDA and non-NMDA) and metabotropic (mGluRI, II, III) glutamate receptors, respectively, resulted in a differential inhibition of BV-induced different types of pain (persistent nociception vs. hyperalgesia, or thermal vs. mechanical hyperalgesia), implicating that spinal antagonism of any specific glutamate receptor subtype fails to block all types of pain-related behaviors. This result provides a new line of evidence emphasizing an importance of restoration of EAAs-IAAs balance at the spinal level to prevent persistence or chronicity of pain.

Spatiotemporal characteristics of pain-associated neuronal activities in primary somatosensory cortex induced by peripheral persistent nociception.

The primary somatosensory cortex (S1 area) is one of the key brain structures for central processing of somatic noxious information to produce pain perception. However, so far, the spatiotemporal characteristics of neuronal activities associated with peripheral persistent nociception have rarely been studied. In the present report, we used c-Fos as a neuronal marker to analyze spatial and temporal patterns of pain-related neuronal activities within the S1 area of rats subjecting to subcutaneous (s.c.) injection of bee venom (BV) solution, a well-established animal model of persistent pain. In naïve and saline-treated rats, c-Fos-labeled neurons were diffusely and sparsely distributed in the hindlimb region of S1 area. Following s.c. BV injection, c-Fos-labeled neurons became densely increased in superficial layers (II-III) and less increased in deep layers (IV-VI). The mean number of c-Fos positive neurons in the layers II-III began to increase at 1h and reached a peak at 2h after BV treatment that was followed by a gradual decrease afterward. The time course of c-Fos expression in the layers IV-VI was in parallel with that of the superficial layers, but with a much lower density and magnitude. The present results demonstrated that BV-induced peripheral persistent nociception could evoke increased neuronal activities in the S1 area with predominant localization in layers II-III.

Nociceptive stimulus modality-related difference in pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modeling of morphine in the rat.

Pharmacokinetics (PK)-pharmacodynamics (PD) modeling, the mathematical description of the relationship between PK and PD, can estimate and predict relevant parameters associated with onset, magnitude and time courses of dose-concentration-effect of a drug. In this report, we introduce a new nonsteady-state and time-dependent PK-PD modeling of a single dose of morphine in which time courses of concentration of unconjugated and estimated conjugated morphine in compartments of either plasma or biophase (cerebrospinal fluid, CSF) and multiple anti-nociceptive effects across thermal and mechanical stimulus modalities in rats were studied. The results showed that: (1) both intragastric and intraperitoneal administration of a single dose of morphine resulted in a differential anti-nociceptive effect in both magnitude and time course of the drug between thermal and mechanical painful stimuli (anti-mechanical pain effect was 2-3 fold stronger than anti-thermal pain effect, P < 0.01); (2) the PK data showed that the area under concentration-time curves of conjugated morphine was 4.5 and 2.0 fold bigger than unconjugated morphine in either plasma and biophase compartments, suggesting that the PK processes of unconjugated morphine are different from that of conjugated morphine; (3) the PD data also showed a change in PD characteristics of unconjugated and conjugated morphine across systemic and biophasic compartments for anti-mechanical pain effect, while there was no change at all for anti-thermal pain effect; (4) the difference in analgesia of a single dose of morphine across thermal and mechanical stimulus modalities was well reflected by the difference in the nonsteady-state and time-dependent PK-PD modeling, namely, the clockwise hysteresis loop model well represents the relationship of the time course between unconjugated/conjugated morphine concentration (both plasma and biophase) and anti-thermal pain effect, while the counter-clockwise hysteresis loop model well represents that between conjugated morphine concentration (mainly in biophase) and anti-mechanical pain effect. Taken together, the multiple PD-PK modeling is more useful in estimation and prediction of onset, magnitude and time courses of concentration-multiple pharmacological effects of morphine than simple PK or PD models, and establishment of various multiple PD-PK modeling might also be more useful in optimizing clinical use of existing drugs as well as new drugs for analgesia or treatment of other diseases.