Oxidative stress is a normal phenomenon in the body. Under normal conditions, the physiologically important intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) are maintained at low levels by various enzyme systems participating in the in vivo redox homeostasis. Therefore, oxidative stress can also be viewed as an imbalance between the prooxidants and antioxidants in the body. For the last two decades, oxidative stress has been one of the most burning topics among the biological researchers all over the world. Several reasons can be assigned to justify its importance: knowledge about reactive oxygen and nitrogen species production and metabolism; identification of biomarkers for oxidative damage; evidence relating manifestation of chronic and some acute health problems to oxidative stress; identification of various dietary antioxidants present in plant foods as bioactive molecules; and so on. This review discusses the importance of oxidative stress in the body growth and development as well as proteomic and genomic evidences of its relationship with disease development, incidence of malignancies and autoimmune disorders, increased susceptibility to bacterial, viral, and parasitic diseases, and an interplay with prooxidants and antioxidants for maintaining a sound health, which would be helpful in enhancing the knowledge of any biochemist, pathophysiologist, or medical personnel regarding this important issue.

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The Toll-Like receptor 4 (TLR4) plays an important role in immunity, tissue repair, and regeneration. The objective of the present work was to evaluate the association of TLR4 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs4986790, rs4986791, rs11536858 (merged into rs10759931), rs1927911, and rs1927914 with increased diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) risk in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). PCR-RFLP was used for genotyping TLR4 SNPs in 125 T2DM patients with DFU and 130 controls. The haplotypes and linkage disequilibrium between the SNPs were determined using Haploview software. Multivariate linear regression (MLR) and artificial neural network (ANN) modeling was done to observe their predictability for the risk of DFU in T2DM patients. Risk genotypes of all SNPs except rs1927914 were significantly associated with DFU. Haplotype ACATC (P value = 9.3E − 5) showed strong association with DFU risk. Two haplotypes ATATC (P value = 0.0119) and ATGTT (P value = 0.0087) were found to be protective against DFU. In conclusion TLR4 SNPs and their haplotypes may increase the risk of impairment of wound healing in T2DM patients. ANN model (83%) is found to be better than the MLR model (76%) and can be used as a tool for the DFU risk assessment in T2DM patients.

Background: Targeting persistent tubercule bacilli has become an important challenge in the development of anti-tuberculous drugs. As the glyoxylate bypass is essential for persistent bacilli, interference with it holds the potential for designing new antibacterial drugs. We have developed kinetic models of the tricarboxylic acid cycle and glyoxylate bypass in Escherichia coli and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and studied the effects of inhibition of various enzymes in the M. tuberculosis model.

BackgroundFusaric acid (FA) has been shown to stimulate the rapid development of disease symptoms, such as necrosis and foliar desiccation. In this study, we have evaluated the phytotoxicity of FA on tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum L.). FA induced necrotic lesions in detached leaves, which are reminiscent of hypersensitive response (HR) lesions induced by plant-pathogen interactions and other abiotic stress factors.ResultsFA-treated tomato leaves exhibited visible necrotic lesion as a result of cell death which was evident by Evans blue staining, enhanced reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and DNA degradation. Changes in the generation of O2.- and H2O2 as well as the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) were examined in FA-treated tomato leaves. It was observed that FA exposure stimulated oxidative burst in the leaves, resulting in a lasting activation of O2.- and H2O2 production. After first day of FA application, the H2O2 scavenging enzymes CAT and APX showed a strong activity decrease followed by gradual recovery to the control level after 2 and 3 days.ConclusionA concomitant increase in ROS production, the down regulation of antioxidative enzymes activities and upregulation of lipid peroxidation were crucial for the onset of cell death. These results suggested that FA-induced damage might result from ROS pathways. Thus, our experiments provide a useful model plant system for research on FA-induced plant cell death.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40529-014-0066-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.