Video-based surgical curriculum for open globe injury repair, IV: corneal wounds

As one of the most severe forms of ocular trauma, open-globe injury (OGI) causes significant vision loss. Timely and meticulous repair of these injuries can improve patient outcomes. This video-based educational curriculum is intended to serve as an efficient, yet comprehensive reference for OGI repair. We hope that these video-based articles help surgeons and trainees from around the world find answers to specific surgical questions in OGI management. The curriculum has been divided into six separate review articles, each authored by a different set of authors, to facilitate a systematic and practical approach to the subject of wound types and repair techniques. This fourth article highlights special considerations in the repair of open-globe injuries affecting the anterior chamber and cornea.

New targets and delivery systems for antifungal therapy

Development of new approaches for treatment of invasive fungal infections encompasses new delivery systems for approved and investigational compounds, as well as exploiting the cell membrane, cell wall and virulence factors as putative antifungal targets. Novel delivery systems consisting of cyclodextrins, cochleates, nanoparticles/nanospheres and long circulating ('stealth') liposomes, substantially modulate the pharmacokinetics of existing compounds, and may also be useful to enhance the delivery of antifungal agents to sites of infection. Further insights into the structure-activity relationship of the antifungal triazoles that target the biosynthesis of ergosterol in the fungal cell membrane have led to the development of highly potent broad spectrum agents, including posaconazole, ravuconazole and voriconazole. Similarly, a novel generation of cell-wall active semisynthetic echinocandin 1,3 beta-glucan inhibitors (caspofungin, FK463, and VER-002) has entered clinical development. These agents have potent and broad-spectrum activity against Candida spp, and potentially useful activity against Aspergillus spp. and Pneumocystis carinii. The ongoing convergence of the fields of molecular pathogenesis, antifungal pharmacology and vaccine development will afford the opportunity to develop novel targets to complement the existing antifungal armamentarium.

Crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction studies of the 51 kDa protein of the mosquito-larvicidal binary toxin from Bacillus sphaericus

Certain strains of Bacillus sphaericus produce a highly toxic mosquito-larvicidal protein during sporulation which is active against vectors of dengue, encephalitis and malaria. This toxin is initially expressed as 51 and 42 kDa proteins and is converted to 43 and 39 kDa proteins, respectively, which form the active heterodimer complex. For a better understanding of the toxicity mechanism at the molecular level, the 51 kDa protein of the binary toxin of B. sphaericus strain 2297 was expressed as a glutathione-S-transferase fusion protein and purified by affinity chromatography. Protein crystals were grown from an amorphous precipitate in five months using the hanging-drop vapor-diffusion method. The protein crystals were dissolved and were found to be composed of a proteolytically modified 45.2 kDa derivative similar to the active form of this protein. The crystals form in space group P43212 (or P41212) and diffract to 2.6 A, with unit-cell dimensions a = b = 133.48, c = 69. 76 A.