Streptococcus pneumoniae is the leading cause of bacterial keratitis in the developing world with a growing trend of acquiring resistance against various antibiotics. In the current study, we determined the expression of different antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in response to S. pneumoniae in patients, as well as in primary and immortalized human corneal epithelial cells. We further focused on LL-37 and determined its expression in human cornea infected with S. pneumoniae and studied the killing ability of LL-37 against S. pneumoniae. The expression of AMPs was determined by quantitative PCR and the phosphorylation of signaling proteins was evaluated by immunoblot analysis. LL-37 expression was also determined by immunofluorescence and Western blot method and the killing ability of LL-37 against S. pneumoniae was determined by colony-forming units. Differential expression of antimicrobial peptides was observed in patients with S. pneumoniae keratitis. Although S. pneumoniae induced expression of the AMPs in human corneal epithelial cells (HCEC), it did not induce AMP expression in U937, a human monocyte cell line. S. pneumoniae also caused activation of nuclear factor kappa-light-chain enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB)and mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways in corneal epithelial cells. LL-37 was found to be effective against both laboratory and clinical strains of S. pneumoniae. LL-37 induction by S. pneumoniae in human corneal epithelial cells was mediated by signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) activation, and inhibition of STAT3 activation significantly reduced LL-37 expression. Our study determines an extensive profile of AMPs expressed in the human cornea during S. pneumoniae infection, and suggests the potential of LL-37 to be developed as an alternative therapeutic intervention to fight increasing antibiotic resistance among bacteria.

Cyclam-based antibacterial molecules (CAMs) that display potent activity against both the planktonic and stationary phase of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria were rationally designed.

The results of the study show the multicomponent hydrogel formulations of besifloxacin and levofloxacin to have superior corneal permeation with the potential for being used as topical ophthalmic preparations.

Reinforced concrete structures are frequently in need of repair and strengthening as a result of numerous environmental causes, ageing, or material damage under intense stress conditions, as well as mistakes made during the construction process. RC structures are repaired using a variety of approaches nowadays. The usage of FRC is one of the retrofitting strategies. Steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) was used in this investigation because it contains randomly dispersed short discrete steel fibers that operate as internal reinforcement to improve the cementitious composite's characteristics (concrete). The main rationale for integrating small discrete fibers into a cement matrix is to reduce the amount of cement used. The principal reason for incorporating short discrete fibers into a cement matrix is to reduce cracking in the elastic range, increase the tensile strength and deformation capacity and increase the toughness of the resultant composite. These properties of SFRC primarily depend upon length and volume of Steel fibers used in the concrete mixture. In India, the steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) has seen limited applications in several structures due to the lack of awareness, design guidelines and construction specifications. Therefore, there is a need to develop information on the role of steel fibers in the concrete mixture. The experimental work reported in this study includes the mechanical properties of concrete at different volume fractions of steel fibers. These mechanical properties include compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength and to study the effect of volume fraction and aspect ratio of steel fibers on these mechanical properties. However, main aim of the study was significance of reinforced concrete beams strengthened with fiber reinforced concrete layer and to investigate how these beams deflect under strain. The objective of the investigation was finding that applying FRC to strengthen beams enhanced structural performance in terms of ultimate load carrying capacity, fracture pattern deflection, and mode of failure or not.