Research Articles

  Formation of Reactive Oxygen Species and Cellular Damage Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are molecules containing an oxygen atom with an unpaired electron in its outer shell. As ROS are formed, they become very unstable due to the unpaired electron now residing in the outermost shell. The unstable forms of oxygen are sometimes called free radicals. How do ROS actually get generated in cells? One way is via cellular respiration driven by the  electron transport  chain in the mitochondria. The electron transport chain is responsible for generating ATP, the main source of energy for a cell to function. A key molecule that helps “jump start” the electron transport chain, is NADH (or nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide), which serves as the electron donor (i.e., the H in the NADH). NADH is often referred to as a “coenzyme”, even though it is not an enzyme (a protein). NADH is present in all cells–it is generated by many biochemical reactions. One way that NADH gets generate...

 Very good article  - covers resistance, Cell permeability, Biofilms etc.  Frontiers | Novel Opportunity to Reverse Antibiotic Resistance: To Explore Traditional Chinese Medicine With Potential Activity Against Antibiotics-Resistance Bacteria | Microbiology (frontiersin.org)

 1. INTRODUCTION Antibiotic resistance is a current problem that occurs in different countries of the world (Odonkor and Addo, 2011). As is known, acute respiratory infections and diarrheal infections occupy the first places in diseases of infectious origin, however systemic infections are also present among the human population, being difficult to treat due to the multiple cases of resistance to antibiotics (Atiaa et al., 2020). Currently, the search for new substances with antimicrobial activity is frequent by different research groups in the world, especially the study of compounds of natural origin with antimicrobial properties. In this context, various extracts of plant origin have shown multiple antibacterial and antibiofilm properties (Dogruoz et al., 2008). It has been reported that medicinal plants have been used for therapeutic purposes since ancient times 3.pdf (arcjournals.org)

  People with acute COVID-19 and people with ME/CFS share redox imbalance, systemic inflammation and neuroinflammation, impaired production of ATP and other abnormalities in common ( Fig. 2 ), abnormalities that have bidirectional connections ( 169 ). The syndrome of long COVID-19 that can develop in some COVID-19 survivors (people called “long haulers”) is very similar to ME/CFS, so it may well be that the group of abnormalities seen in acute COVID-19 and in ME/CFS also will be seen in long COVID-19. Presumably, redox abnormalities in COVID-19 are secondary to the infection with SARS-CoV-2. The same may be true among those ME/CFS patients whose illness began with an “infectious-like” illness. Redox imbalance links COVID-19 and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome | PNAS

  Metformin as a Potential Adjuvant Antimicrobial Agent Against Multidrug Resistant Bacteria Introduction The continuous increase in the incidence of bacterial resistance to existing antibiotics represents a worldwide health burden. A surrogate strategy to combat such crisis is to find compounds that restore the antimicrobial activity of the already existing antibiotics against multidrug resistant bacteria. Metformin is a commonly used antidiabetic medication. It has proven benefits in other diseases including cancer, aging-related and infectious diseases. In this study, the potential effect of metformin as an adjuvant therapy to antibiotics was investigated. Consistent with our findings, several previous published studies showed that metformin has the potential to be used in combination with other antibiotics, 14 , 27–29  and metformin can reduce the resistance of bacteria and efficiently restore the efficacy of the antibiotics. 28  These studies along with other studies...