University of Duisburg-Essen

About: University of Duisburg-Essen is a education organization based out in Essen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Transplantation. The organization has 16072 authors who have published 39972 publications receiving 1109199 citations.

Anti-infective Properties of the Golden Spice Curcumin

Abstract: The search for novel anti-infectives is one of the most important challenges in natural product research, as diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, and fungi are influencing the human society all over the world. Natural compounds are a continuing source of novel anti-infectives. Accordingly, curcumin, has been used for centuries in Asian traditional medicine to treat various disorders. Numerous studies have shown that curcumin possesses a wide spectrum of biological and pharmacological properties, acting, for example, as anti-inflammatory, anti-angiogenic and anti-neoplastic, while no toxicity is associated with the compound. Recently, curcumin's antiviral and antibacterial activity was investigated, and it was shown to act against various important human pathogens like the influenza virus, hepatitis C virus, HIV and strains of Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, and Pseudomonas. Despite the potency, curcumin has not yet been approved as a therapeutic antiviral agent. This review summarizes the current knowledge and future perspectives of the antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal effects of curcumin.

Mindfulness-based stress reduction for breast cancer—a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract: Objective The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to assess the effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction (mbsr) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (mbct) in patients with breast cancer. Methods The medline, Cochrane Library, embase, cambase, and PsycInfo databases were screened through November 2011. The search strategy combined keywords for mbsr and mbct with keywords for breast cancer. Randomized controlled trials (rcts) comparing mbsr or mbct with control conditions in patients with breast cancer were included. Two authors independently used the Cochrane risk of bias tool to assess risk of bias in the selected studies. Study characteristics and outcomes were extracted by two authors independently. Primary outcome measures were health-related quality of life and psychological health. If at least two studies assessing an outcome were available, standardized mean differences (smds) and 95% confidence intervals (cis) were calculated for that outcome. As a measure of heterogeneity, I 2 was calculated. Results Three rcts with a total of 327 subjects were included. One rct compared mbsr with usual care, one rct compared mbsr with free-choice stress management, and a three-arm rct compared mbsr with usual care and with nutrition education. Compared with usual care, mbsr was superior in decreasing depression (smd: –0.37; 95% ci: –0.65 to –0.08; p = 0.01; I 2 = 0%) and anxiety (smd: –0.51; 95% ci: –0.80 to –0.21; p = 0.0009; I 2 = 0%), but not in increasing spirituality (smd: 0.27; 95% ci: –0.37 to 0.91; p = 0.41; I 2 = 79%). Conclusions There is some evidence for the effectiveness of mbsr in improving psychological health in breast cancer patients, but more rcts are needed to underpin those results.

Origins of major archaeal clades correspond to gene acquisitions from bacteria

Abstract: The mechanisms that underlie the origin of major prokaryotic groups are poorly understood In principle, the origin of both species and higher taxa among prokaryotes should entail similar mechanisms--ecological interactions with the environment paired with natural genetic variation involving lineage-specific gene innovations and lineage-specific gene acquisitions To investigate the origin of higher taxa in archaea, we have determined gene distributions and gene phylogenies for the 267,568 protein-coding genes of 134 sequenced archaeal genomes in the context of their homologues from 1,847 reference bacterial genomes Archaeal-specific gene families define 13 traditionally recognized archaeal higher taxa in our sample Here we report that the origins of these 13 groups unexpectedly correspond to 2,264 group-specific gene acquisitions from bacteria Interdomain gene transfer is highly asymmetric, transfers from bacteria to archaea are more than fivefold more frequent than vice versa Gene transfers identified at major evolutionary transitions among prokaryotes specifically implicate gene acquisitions for metabolic functions from bacteria as key innovations in the origin of higher archaeal taxa