We conclude that glucose self-monitoring in the weeks prior to ou

We conclude that glucose self-monitoring in the weeks prior to outpatient CF clinic review could become the preferred tool for screening and monitoring of dysglycaemia in adult CF. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons. “
“In the UK, optometrists examine 17 million people yearly, many of whom will not have consulted a doctor and may have undiagnosed diabetes. Selective testing in optometry practices presents a new detection strategy. The purpose of this research was to ascertain optometrists’ perceptions, attitudes and beliefs towards diabetes and screening, prior to evaluating Talazoparib clinical trial a

pilot service. Focus groups and interviews were conducted with 21 optometrists in Northern England. Analysis was based on grounded theory. Four themes emerged: varying awareness of diabetes and

its early diagnosis, a reluctance in accepting a screening role, organisational barriers in implementing such a service, and controversies around the changing roles of optometrists. Although optometrists’ awareness of diabetes was varied, all had seen patients they suspected of having diabetes and felt that the public under-estimated risks of diabetes. Some felt Roscovitine in vitro that diagnosis of asymptomatic diabetes was unnecessary, although most felt that early diagnosis would be beneficial. Optometrists believed that the public and doctors had mixed attitudes to their possible involvement in screening. Specific barriers included additional Oxymatrine cost, time, remuneration and litigation fears. However, optometrists felt that their professional role has evolved and that a greater, extended clinical involvement would be positive. In conclusion, optometrists are willing to carry out capillary blood glucose tests, provided that the scheme is simple, is supported by other health care professionals and is properly funded.

There is a clear advantage in identifying undiagnosed diabetes in people attending optometry practices who are not accessing other health care providers. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons. “
“There are four major hypertensive disorders in pregnancy: chronic hypertension, gestational hypertension, pre-eclampsia and chronic hypertension with superimposed pre-eclampsia. The indications for and efficacy of antihypertensive treatment in the different hypertensive disorders are evaluated. Advantages and disadvantages of different classes of antihypertensive drugs during pregnancy and lactation are described. “
“Detection of ketonaemia is a key factor in diagnosing diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). Measurement of urinary ketones via the nitroprusside reaction is the most commonly employed diagnostic test; however, near patient testing of blood ketones is now widely available. In the clinical setting we wished to compare the utility of urine and blood ketone measurements to predict acid base balance and need for admission in patients with type 1 diabetes.

We conclude that glucose self-monitoring in the weeks prior to ou

We conclude that glucose self-monitoring in the weeks prior to outpatient CF clinic review could become the preferred tool for screening and monitoring of dysglycaemia in adult CF. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons. “
“In the UK, optometrists examine 17 million people yearly, many of whom will not have consulted a doctor and may have undiagnosed diabetes. Selective testing in optometry practices presents a new detection strategy. The purpose of this research was to ascertain optometrists’ perceptions, attitudes and beliefs towards diabetes and screening, prior to evaluating GSI-IX cost a

pilot service. Focus groups and interviews were conducted with 21 optometrists in Northern England. Analysis was based on grounded theory. Four themes emerged: varying awareness of diabetes and

its early diagnosis, a reluctance in accepting a screening role, organisational barriers in implementing such a service, and controversies around the changing roles of optometrists. Although optometrists’ awareness of diabetes was varied, all had seen patients they suspected of having diabetes and felt that the public under-estimated risks of diabetes. Some felt GSK126 mw that diagnosis of asymptomatic diabetes was unnecessary, although most felt that early diagnosis would be beneficial. Optometrists believed that the public and doctors had mixed attitudes to their possible involvement in screening. Specific barriers included additional Glycogen branching enzyme cost, time, remuneration and litigation fears. However, optometrists felt that their professional role has evolved and that a greater, extended clinical involvement would be positive. In conclusion, optometrists are willing to carry out capillary blood glucose tests, provided that the scheme is simple, is supported by other health care professionals and is properly funded.

There is a clear advantage in identifying undiagnosed diabetes in people attending optometry practices who are not accessing other health care providers. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons. “
“There are four major hypertensive disorders in pregnancy: chronic hypertension, gestational hypertension, pre-eclampsia and chronic hypertension with superimposed pre-eclampsia. The indications for and efficacy of antihypertensive treatment in the different hypertensive disorders are evaluated. Advantages and disadvantages of different classes of antihypertensive drugs during pregnancy and lactation are described. “
“Detection of ketonaemia is a key factor in diagnosing diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). Measurement of urinary ketones via the nitroprusside reaction is the most commonly employed diagnostic test; however, near patient testing of blood ketones is now widely available. In the clinical setting we wished to compare the utility of urine and blood ketone measurements to predict acid base balance and need for admission in patients with type 1 diabetes.

Therefore, it is unlikely that the spatiotopic learning directly

Therefore, it is unlikely that the spatiotopic learning directly engages peri-saccadic updating of stimulus representations. As discussed above, an explicit spatiotopic map and

peri-saccadic find protocol updating of visual representation are unlikely to be directly engaged in encoding of the spatiotopic learning effect that we observed. As these non-retinotopic mechanisms are mainly seen in the frontoparietal areas, which are also responsible for saccade control and attention allocation (Colby & Goldberg, 1999; Corbetta & Shulman, 2002; Moore & Armstrong, 2003; Shipp, 2004), we cannot exclude the possibility that these non-retinotopic mechanisms could be indirectly involved in spatiotopic perceptual learning by interacting with attentional and saccadic control mechanisms. It has been shown that attention (Connor et al., 1997; Gottlieb et al., 1998; Womelsdorf et al., 2006; Crespi et al., 2011)

and eye movements (Tolias et al., 2001) are critical in generating non-retinotopic properties of visual representations. This is consistent with our finding of the dependence of learning-induced spatiotopic effects GSI-IX price on attention allocated to the first stimulus (Fig. 6). In fact, although attention can be maintained at the same retinotopic location immediately after saccadic eye movements (Talsma et al., 2013), attention deployment also shows some non-retinotopic properties that parallel those of visual representations: attention to a cued location can be predictively remapped, immediately before a saccade, to the retinotopic location that will match the cued spatiotopic location after the saccade (Mathôt & Theeuwes, 2010; Hunt & Cavanagh, 2011; Rolfs et al., 2011); attention can also be allocated to a cued spatiotopic location across saccades

(Golomb et al., 2008, 2010a,b, 2011; Mathôt & Theeuwes, 2010), or to a cued location relative to a reference stimulus (Boi et al., 2011). Despite its importance in non-retinotopic representation, spatial attention or its remapping alone cannot account for the dependence of spatiotopic specificity on simple stimulus attributes that are AZD9291 encoded by the specialized visual cortex. Although a single process is unable to account for our data, the spatiotopic learning effect can be well explained by taking into account interactions between bottom-up and top-down processes (Fig. 7). In our experiments, initial attention allocated to the first stimulus can serve as a reference for subsequent remapping of attention to the retinotopic location corresponding to the second stimulus. This attentional remapping process, which could be based on corollary discharge associated with gaze shift and/or on a gaze-invariant spatiotopic map in higher-order cortical areas, is dependent on the saccade direction and/or the spatiotopic stimulus relation (congruent or incongruent) in our experiments.

First, rather than the global probability with which a cue is pre

First, rather than the global probability with which a cue is predicted by a practiced performer,

the current conceptualisation emphasises the uncertainty of the detection process as a function of trial sequence, a concept perhaps more akin to the response bias in signal detection theory. Second, it is not the neuromodulatory component that signals the level of predicted uncertainty (see below for a discussion of neuromodulatory effects); Docetaxel concentration rather, it is solely the cholinergic transient that affects the certainty of detection. Third, the cholinergic transient does not merely signal the degree of predicted uncertainty in incongruently cued trials; instead it reduces such uncertainty. In other words, the presence of a cholinergic transient shifts

the performer toward adopting a riskier detection criterion, thereby enhancing the probability that detection occurs in cued trials that follow non-cued trials. Reducing uncertainty of detection does not tap purely perceptual or purely behavioral operations; rather, it concerns the integration of the two, as captured by the definition of detection (detailed above) in Posner et al. (1980). Therefore, a neuronal mechanism that is designed to reduce detection uncertainty must be closely connected to, and to a degree depend on, the actual perceptual mechanisms. The finding that the generation of a cholinergic transient depends upon thalamic glutamatergic input, that is relayed to the SPTLC1 prefrontal cortex by all cues that yield hits, reflects selleck screening library this close connection between perceptual and decisional mechanisms. Moreover, as illustrated

rather drastically by the ability of artificially generated cholinergic transients to force hits on nonsignal trials (above), a cholinergic transient appears to be capable of overriding perception and triggering a decision to report a cue even in its absence. What then would be the costs of cholinergic transients if evoked on consecutively-cued trials? What would be the costs of further reducing detection uncertainty when the perceptual process already established that a cue was present, as indicated by the finding that glutamatergic transients reliably predict hits (Fig. 1B)? We speculate that the presence of cholinergic transients during consecutively cued hits would nearly completely abolish any residual detection uncertainty and thereby strongly bias performance to the reporting of signals. As a consequence, the ability to respond accurately to subsequent nonsignal trials could be impaired. In other words, cholinergic transients during consecutively-cued trials would reduce the flexibility to accurately perform a task that presents cued and non-cued trials at equal probability. Certainly, manipulating such probability will be an important experimental means of further testing our hypothesis.

, 2007) However, Tetrahymena had been reported to be more suitab

, 2007). However, Tetrahymena had been reported to be more suitable than the amoeba model in high-throughput screening to identify inhibitors of Klebsiella pneumoniae virulence (Benghezal et al., 2007). The ciliate Tetrahymena is a eukaryotic unicellular microorganism with a defined genetic selleck chemical background that provides an ideal interface between pathogen and host, allowing for the

elucidation of molecular interactions between host and pathogen (Orias, 1998). Recently, several Tetrahymena–bacteria infection models have been described. For example, Kikuhara et al. (1994) and Steele & McLennan (1996) reported on the interaction between Legionella pneumophila and Tetrahymena thermophila and Benghezal et al. (2007) designed a simple surrogate host model system using Tetrahymena pyriformis and K. pneumoniae cells to assess bacterial virulence while also identifying antivirulence www.selleckchem.com/products/ldk378.html molecules. In addition, interactions between Tetrahymena and other bacteria, such as Yersinia pestis (Pushkareva, 2003; Breneva & Maramovich, 2008), Escherichia coli (Bukharin et al., 2008), Vibrio fischeri (Bonnet et al., 2008) and so on, have also been reported. Tetrahymena is common in the freshwater environment, where A. hydrophila is naturally confronted with it. However, the interaction mode between the two organisms

is not clear. In this study, we co-cultured both virulent and avirulent A. hydrophila strains with T. thermophila and recorded changes in the biomass of both A. hydrophila and T. thermophila. In addition, we analyzed infection mechanisms to evaluate the potential use of T. thermophila as an A. hydrophila infection model. The A. hydrophila J-1 strain, used as a vaccine strain in China, was a clinical isolate associated with a natural outbreak linked to cyprinoid fish in Nanjing, China (Chen & Lu, 1991). The A. hydrophila strain Cell press NJ-4 was isolated from healthy cultured cyprinoid fish in Nanjing, China, and its very low virulence was confirmed by the results of three consecutive infections of cyprinoid fish carried out before this study (unpublished data). In this study,

the two bacterial strains were used as virulent and avirulent strains, respectively. Tetrahymena thermophila BF1 was obtained from Dr Miao Wei, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Tetrahymena thermophila BF1 was cultured at 30 °C and stock cultures were maintained axenically in PYG medium containing 1% proteose peptone, 0.1% yeast extract and 0.1% glucose. Aeromonas hydrophila strains J-1 and NJ-4 were routinely cultured in Luria–Bertani (LB) broth or on Luria agar plates at 28 °C. Tetrahymena thermophila cells were cultured for 48 h and the cultures were concentrated from 6 to 1 mL by centrifugation at 2000 g for 10 min at 15 °C, thus resulting in a concentration of approximately 108 cells mL−1. Five hundred microliters of suspensions of late-log-phase A. hydrophila J-1 and NJ-4 cultures were mixed with the same volume of T. thermophila cells, respectively.

, 2007) However, Tetrahymena had been reported to be more suitab

, 2007). However, Tetrahymena had been reported to be more suitable than the amoeba model in high-throughput screening to identify inhibitors of Klebsiella pneumoniae virulence (Benghezal et al., 2007). The ciliate Tetrahymena is a eukaryotic unicellular microorganism with a defined genetic BTK inhibitor background that provides an ideal interface between pathogen and host, allowing for the

elucidation of molecular interactions between host and pathogen (Orias, 1998). Recently, several Tetrahymena–bacteria infection models have been described. For example, Kikuhara et al. (1994) and Steele & McLennan (1996) reported on the interaction between Legionella pneumophila and Tetrahymena thermophila and Benghezal et al. (2007) designed a simple surrogate host model system using Tetrahymena pyriformis and K. pneumoniae cells to assess bacterial virulence while also identifying antivirulence this website molecules. In addition, interactions between Tetrahymena and other bacteria, such as Yersinia pestis (Pushkareva, 2003; Breneva & Maramovich, 2008), Escherichia coli (Bukharin et al., 2008), Vibrio fischeri (Bonnet et al., 2008) and so on, have also been reported. Tetrahymena is common in the freshwater environment, where A. hydrophila is naturally confronted with it. However, the interaction mode between the two organisms

is not clear. In this study, we co-cultured both virulent and avirulent A. hydrophila strains with T. thermophila and recorded changes in the biomass of both A. hydrophila and T. thermophila. In addition, we analyzed infection mechanisms to evaluate the potential use of T. thermophila as an A. hydrophila infection model. The A. hydrophila J-1 strain, used as a vaccine strain in China, was a clinical isolate associated with a natural outbreak linked to cyprinoid fish in Nanjing, China (Chen & Lu, 1991). The A. hydrophila strain ID-8 NJ-4 was isolated from healthy cultured cyprinoid fish in Nanjing, China, and its very low virulence was confirmed by the results of three consecutive infections of cyprinoid fish carried out before this study (unpublished data). In this study,

the two bacterial strains were used as virulent and avirulent strains, respectively. Tetrahymena thermophila BF1 was obtained from Dr Miao Wei, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Tetrahymena thermophila BF1 was cultured at 30 °C and stock cultures were maintained axenically in PYG medium containing 1% proteose peptone, 0.1% yeast extract and 0.1% glucose. Aeromonas hydrophila strains J-1 and NJ-4 were routinely cultured in Luria–Bertani (LB) broth or on Luria agar plates at 28 °C. Tetrahymena thermophila cells were cultured for 48 h and the cultures were concentrated from 6 to 1 mL by centrifugation at 2000 g for 10 min at 15 °C, thus resulting in a concentration of approximately 108 cells mL−1. Five hundred microliters of suspensions of late-log-phase A. hydrophila J-1 and NJ-4 cultures were mixed with the same volume of T. thermophila cells, respectively.

In patients with lipodystrophy, higher levels of tumour necrosis

In patients with lipodystrophy, higher levels of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin-6 (IL-6) and IL-18 have been reported in both systemic and adipose tissue expression [6]. Recently, a newly discovered adipokine, fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP-4; also called aP2), has emerged as an important mediator in the cross-talk between adipocytes and macrophages in adipose tissue. It belongs to the family of fatty Cyclopamine chemical structure acid binding proteins (FABPs) which are a group of molecules that co-ordinate lipid responses in cells and are also connected to metabolic and inflammatory pathways. FABPs are lipid chaperones that bind fatty acid ligands with high

affinity and have functions in intracellular fatty acid trafficking, regulation of lipid metabolism, and modulation of gene expression [7,8]. FABP-4 is abundantly expressed in mature adipocytes and activated macrophages [9,10]. FABP-4-deficient mice exhibit higher insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and their adipocytes have a reduced efficiency of lipolysis, Apoptosis inhibitor both in vivo and in vitro. Furthermore, studies of FABP-4 gene variants suggest that FABP-4 may have effects on plasma lipid levels and insulin sensitivity, and play a role in coronary heart disease [9,10]. All these data suggest that FABP-4 could be a potential target for the treatment of metabolic diseases. Although it was once thought to be a purely

intracellular protein, recent studies have shown

FABP-4 to be present at high levels in human serum [11]. In cross-sectional analyses, circulating ifenprodil FABP-4 has been closely associated with obesity and metabolic syndrome, and in prospective studies FABP-4 levels predicted the development of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes [11]. Data for HIV-1-infected patients are scarce. A recent study that included HIV-1-infected patients with metabolic syndrome and lipodystrophy showed that these patients had higher circulating levels of FABP-4 than those without metabolic syndrome or lipodystrophy, although the relationship with insulin resistance and other well-known inflammatory and adipocyte-related cytokines was not explored [12]. Considering that FABP-4 seems to be a key element in adipocyte differentiation, and that it has been postulated as a possible marker of fat distribution in mammals [13], we have hypothesized that FABP-4 may be involved in cART-related lipodystrophy syndrome and its associated metabolic disturbances in HIV-1-infected patients. We have therefore analysed the circulating levels of FABP-4 in an HIV-1-infected cohort including patients with and without lipodystrophy. A multicentre cross-sectional case–control study was carried out. A total of 467 individuals were included in the study, all of whom were Caucasian adults, with 282 being HIV-1-infected and 185 uninfected.

DNA band patterns were obtained after gel electrophoresis (08% a

DNA band patterns were obtained after gel electrophoresis (0.8% agarose gel) of the RAPD-PCR reaction products (15 μL). Gels were run for about 55 min at 100 V and stained in ethidium bromide (0.5 μg mL−1) for 30 min. DNA molecular weight marker (‘500 bp molecular ladder’, Bio-Rad) was used as a standard. Gel

images were processed using the software fingerprinting II (Bio-Rad). The similarity matrix was calculated on the basis of the Pearson product–moment correlation coefficient, and its corresponding dendrogram was deduced using the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic averages [Struelens Selleckchem OSI-744 & the Members of the European Study Group on Epidemiological Markers (ESGEM), of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), 1996].

Reproducibility was assessed by cluster analysis of triplicate reactions. RAPD-based methods do not require sequence information for PCR primer design. However, they are extremely dependent on laboratory conditions such as template DNA concentration, PCR and electrophoretic settings, among others (Ellsworth et al., 1993). To establish a quick and useful RAPD-PCR protocol to type phages, phages infecting strains belonging to the same species (four Staphylococcus epidermidis phages), or different species within the same genus (two Staphylococcus aureus phages) or a different genus (one Lactococcus lactis phage) were selected to test several experimental conditions in order to generate Ixazomib clinical trial reproducible RAPD patterns and gain a preliminary insight into the discrimination power of this approach. The selected S. epidermidis phages belonged to the Siphoviridae family (morphotype B1) and their genome sequences were unknown. However, previous

DNA restriction analysis revealed distinct patterns for the temperate phages ΦSepi-IPLA6 and ΦSepi-IPLA7, while the DNA restriction patterns of the lytic phages ΦSepi-IPLA4 and ΦSepi-IPLA5 (presumably virulent derivatives of ΦSepi-IPLA6) were very similar to each other (Gutiérrez et al., 2010; and our unpublished data). The two phages infecting Arachidonate 15-lipoxygenase S. aureusΦH5 and vB_SauS-phiIPLA35 (Φ35) belonged to morphotype B1 and morphotype B2, respectively, and their complete genome sequence was available (García et al., 2007, 2009). Finally, the lytic L. lactis phage ΦC2 belonging to the morphotype B2 (Lubbers et al., 1995) was chosen as representative of phages infecting a different genus within Gram-positive bacteria. Initially, pure phage DNA (10 ng) was used as a template. Because RAPD-PCR reactions are considerably influenced by primers and their concentration (Johansson et al., 1995), four primers (OPL5, RAPD5, P1 and P2) at three different concentrations (1, 4 and 8 μM) were tested. Furthermore, we tested whether the presence of magnesium oxalacetate and DMSO resulted in better defined band patterns.

Oral streptococci aggregated by gp340 are cleared from the host b

Oral streptococci aggregated by gp340 are cleared from the host before they have the opportunity to adhere to the pellicle of the tooth, thus disrupting an integral part of the adhesion process; protein components of mucus also exhibit similar properties (Golub et al., 1985; Courtney & Hasty, 1991). Flavonols have a similar effect, and galangin has been shown to induce aggregation of Gram-positive bacteria (Cushnie et al., 2007). It has buy Dabrafenib been suggested that flavonols target the bacterial cytoplasmic membranes causing membrane fusion between microorganisms, resulting in leakage of intra-membranous

materials which promotes aggregation (Cushnie et al., 2007). Rapid bacterial aggregation enables the host’s defences to remove potential pathogens

(Lamont & Rosan, 1990), resulting in a marked reduction in bacterial numbers. Research has demonstrated that large aggregate clumps are more easily detected by the innate immune system compared to those bacteria in biofilm or planktonic form (Ligtenberg et al., 1990; Kitada & Oho, 2010). Therefore, it is possible that flavonols could be used to prevent bacterial adhesion in the human host as a novel anti-adhesive compound, by virtue of its ability to promote aggregation and potentially facilitate bacterial clearance (Koop et al., 1989; Courtney & Hasty, 1991). Bacterial aggregation and biofilm development are intimately related. The mature biofilm is comprised of numerous ordered aggregates of bacterial cells. In this study, it is evident that morin impeded biofilm development, resulting in a 50% reduction in biomass using concentrations of 225 μM selleck compound and above. It likely that the rapid aggregation mediated by morin meant that instead of being freely available to attach and colonize the MTP, bacteria adhered to

one another. This supports recent research showing that rapid aggregation can influence biofilm formation (Ahn Aldol condensation et al., 2008). Flavonols are known to disrupt the development of biofilms of Candida albicans, P. aeruginosa and S. mutans despite the precise mechanisms remaining unknown (Jayaraman et al., 2010). Recent data have also indicated that flavonols have an impact at the gene regulatory level, specifically reducing the expression of sortase enzymes that are required to anchor surface proteins into the bacterial cell wall (Kang et al., 2006; Hirooka et al., 2009). It is possible that in addition to the aggregation effect that may impede biofilm development, that surface proteins involved in adhesion may not be properly processed or in fact present on the bacterial cell surface, which could reduce the likelihood of bacterial adhesion. Therefore, it seems likely that the effects observed in this study are the consequence of multifactorial mechanisms mediated by morin. Further studies will help to ascertain the potential for morin to be used in topical treatments, for example, for skin and wound infections. The authors thank Howard Jenkinson for providing S.

Oral streptococci aggregated by gp340 are cleared from the host b

Oral streptococci aggregated by gp340 are cleared from the host before they have the opportunity to adhere to the pellicle of the tooth, thus disrupting an integral part of the adhesion process; protein components of mucus also exhibit similar properties (Golub et al., 1985; Courtney & Hasty, 1991). Flavonols have a similar effect, and galangin has been shown to induce aggregation of Gram-positive bacteria (Cushnie et al., 2007). It has Selleck Ku0059436 been suggested that flavonols target the bacterial cytoplasmic membranes causing membrane fusion between microorganisms, resulting in leakage of intra-membranous

materials which promotes aggregation (Cushnie et al., 2007). Rapid bacterial aggregation enables the host’s defences to remove potential pathogens

(Lamont & Rosan, 1990), resulting in a marked reduction in bacterial numbers. Research has demonstrated that large aggregate clumps are more easily detected by the innate immune system compared to those bacteria in biofilm or planktonic form (Ligtenberg et al., 1990; Kitada & Oho, 2010). Therefore, it is possible that flavonols could be used to prevent bacterial adhesion in the human host as a novel anti-adhesive compound, by virtue of its ability to promote aggregation and potentially facilitate bacterial clearance (Koop et al., 1989; Courtney & Hasty, 1991). Bacterial aggregation and biofilm development are intimately related. The mature biofilm is comprised of numerous ordered aggregates of bacterial cells. In this study, it is evident that morin impeded biofilm development, resulting in a 50% reduction in biomass using concentrations of 225 μM Bafilomycin A1 ic50 and above. It likely that the rapid aggregation mediated by morin meant that instead of being freely available to attach and colonize the MTP, bacteria adhered to

one another. This supports recent research showing that rapid aggregation can influence biofilm formation (Ahn Monoiodotyrosine et al., 2008). Flavonols are known to disrupt the development of biofilms of Candida albicans, P. aeruginosa and S. mutans despite the precise mechanisms remaining unknown (Jayaraman et al., 2010). Recent data have also indicated that flavonols have an impact at the gene regulatory level, specifically reducing the expression of sortase enzymes that are required to anchor surface proteins into the bacterial cell wall (Kang et al., 2006; Hirooka et al., 2009). It is possible that in addition to the aggregation effect that may impede biofilm development, that surface proteins involved in adhesion may not be properly processed or in fact present on the bacterial cell surface, which could reduce the likelihood of bacterial adhesion. Therefore, it seems likely that the effects observed in this study are the consequence of multifactorial mechanisms mediated by morin. Further studies will help to ascertain the potential for morin to be used in topical treatments, for example, for skin and wound infections. The authors thank Howard Jenkinson for providing S.