Cicatrizing and antimicrobial properties of an ozonised oil from sunflower seeds

The ozonised sunflower oil, Bioperoxoil^®, was tested for its antimicrobial activity against some pathological strains in vitro together with its healing potential against Staphylococcus aureus in vivo. Bioperoxoil^® was tested against S. aureus, Pseudomonas aeroginosa, Candida albicans, S. typhimurium and Escherichia coli suspensions using the agar diffusion method. Healing experiments were carried out with Wistar rats through topical application of 3.5 mg/ml of the ozonised oil up to the 7th day after inoculation with S. aureus. Bioperoxoil^® showed anti-inflammatory effects against all strains tested, with MIC values ranging from 2.0 to 3.5 mg/ml. Bioperoxoil^® also demonstrated protective effects on skin connective tissue and to enhance wound healing during the treatment, as compared to a neomycin–clostebol association used as a positive control. The overall results indicated a significant antimicrobial activity, anti-inflammatory and wound-healing properties for Bioperoxoil^®, as compared to other antimicrobial agents commercially available.     

Diversity of Nucleotide Sequences in Hypervariable Region 1 of Hepatitis C Virus in Japanese Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C of Unknown Mode of Transmission

We evaluated the sequence diversity of thehypervariable region 1 (HVR1) of hepatitis C virus (HCV)in HCV-infected patients in whom the mode oftransmission is unknown. The sequence diversity of HVR1in 26 Japanese patients with chronic HCV infectionof unknown mode of transmission (UT) was compared with17 patients with chronic posttransfusion hepatitis C inwhom only a single HCV infection had occurred (PH), and with 18 patients with hemophilia withchronic HCV infection who might have been multiplyinfected with HCV (HE). The diversity of HVR1 wasevaluated by direct sequencing after PCR amplification of HVR1. The sequence diversity of HVR1 was10.1 ± 7.7% in UT, 2.7 ± 2.8% in PH, and14.6 ± 6.9% in HE. The diversity of the patientswith unknown transmission was greater than that of theposttransfusion hepatitis patients, and in some patients it wassimilar to that of multitransfused hemophiliac patients(UT vs PH, P = 0.0004; UT vs HE, P = 0.04; and HE vs PH,P < 0.0001). Multiple infections with HCV could have occurred frequently in patientswith chronic HCV infection in whom the mode oftransmission was unknown, which increased the sequencediversity of HVR1 of these patients.