Ivana has completed her PhD in Biophysics at the age of 26 years from University of South Bohemia in Czech Republic and postdoctoral studies from Vienna University in Austria as well as La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology in California. She has a junior project leader position at the Biomedical Research Center at the Slovak Academy of Sciences and she is proudly using a status of Marie Curie Fellow. She has 11 publications and more than 70 citations in reputed journals.

The majority of biological events involve the action of one macromolecule on another, thus triggering a series of recognition, signaling and modification events. The details of such macromolecular interactions are critical to our understanding of biological function and bestow greater knowledge than the three-dimensional structures of single macromolecules. Although substantial progress has been made in macromolecular docking, it still remains difficult to predict the mode of interaction between macromolecules even when the structures of the interacting partners are known. Natural killer (NK) cells express multiple activating receptors that, upon engagement, result in the rapid release of cytolytic and antiviral effectors required for host defense, notably against herpes viruses (β-herpesvirus cytomegalovirus, CMV). The host is protected from the powerful inflammatory mediators produced by NK cells through the action of inhibitory receptors. It was shown that the UL144 mimic of herpesvirus entry mediator (HVEM, TNFRSF14) from the CMV, binds exclusively to B and T lymphocyte attenuator (BTLA) but not to CD160, resulting in inhibition of IL-2-mediated activation of NK cells. HVEM and the two Ig-superfamily member receptors that bind HVEM, CD160 and BTLA, are all expressed on NK cells. Here, we report on the molecular characterization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of CD160 and HVEM and therefore CD160-HVEM complex formation. CD160 is a 27 kDa glycoprotein which was initially identified with the monoclonal antibody BY55. Its expression is tightly associated with peripheral blood NK cells and CD8 T lymphocytes with cytolytic effector activity. The cDNA sequence of CD160 predicts a cysteine-rich, glycosylphosphatidylinositol-(GPI)-anchored protein of 181 amino acids with a single Ig-like domain weakly homologous to KIR2DL4 molecule. It was found that HVEM preferentially engages CD160 trimer to costimulate activation, while a viral ortholog of HVEM specifically binds to BTLA to suppress this signaling. CD160 antigen is a protein that in humans is encoded by the CD160 gene. We have found that CD160 is expressed at the cell surface as a tightly disulfide-linked multimer. The homology model of atomic structure of CD160 antigen domain shows cysteine-rich region that was found to be responsible for CD160 tight-timer formation even under reduced conditions. The crystallization of multimeric CD160-HVEM complex was accessed by advanced macromolecular crystallization methods while non-reducing conditions. CD160 trimer forms stable complex with HVEM, while monomeric form refused to binds its cognate ligand. Taken together, regulation of CD160 bidirectional binding may represent a common mechanism of immune regulation targeted by multiple pathogens, which by extension is a potential target for therapeutic manipulation. IN is Marie Curie Fellow financed by Programme SASPRO, co-funded by European Union and the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The authors gratefully acknowledge the contribution of the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the project APVV-14-0839 and the contribution of the Scientific Grant Agency of the Slovak Republic under the grant 2/0103/15.

Worked as Assistant Lecture in Brila Institute of Technology Oman handling Environmental Science, Ethono Botany, Bio Materials for Final Year Engineering Student

Annona muricata L. (Soursop) of Annonaceae is a medicinal plant whose aqueous leaf extracts was tested and from which methyl\r\nester of hexadecanoic acid was isolated. The antibacterial activity was tested by agar diffusion method against Escherichia coli,\r\nEnterobacter aerogens, Klebsiella pneumonia and Streptococcus pneumonia. The minimum inhibitory (MIC) and minimal bacterial\r\nconcentration (MBC) values varied for four bacterial genuses tested. The leaf extract tested for anti bacterial activity proved effective\r\nagainst E. coli, K. pneumoniae and E. aerogens. This bioactive compound will find a place in the formulation of herbal medicine to\r\ntreat bacterial mediated infections like gastroenteritis and respiratory infections.

Saba Tavakoli is currently pursuing Bachelor of Science in Clinical Laboratory Sciences (Medical Technology) at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a member of retrovirus family that causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome\r\n(AIDS). HIV infection in humans is considered pandemic by the World Health Organization and killed about 30 million people\r\nup to now. The stages of HIV infection are acute infection (primary infection), latency and AIDS. Acute infection lasts for several\r\nweeks and may include some non specific symptoms. The latency stage involves few or no symptoms and its period ranges from\r\nweeks to years. AIDS, the final stage of HIV infection, is defined by low CD4+ T cell (helper T cells) counts, various opportunistic\r\ninfections, cancers and other disturbances. This review is going to investigate HIV infection and AIDS disease impacts on helper T\r\ncells level in individuals who contaminated by HIV virus, from contamination time to trigger of AIDS disease. HIV infects some\r\nimmune system cells in the human such as helper T cells, Macrophages and Dendritic cells. HIV infection leads to low levels of\r\nCD4+T cells through killing infected CD4+ T cells directly, the rates of apoptosis (cell programmed death) is increasing in infected\r\ncells and killing of infected CD4+ T cells by CD8+ cytotoxic lymphocytes that assault to the infected cells. HIV virus removes 1×109\r\nCD4+ T cell each day. When CD4+ T cell counts decline below a critical level (200 per microliter) cell-mediated immunity is lost and\r\nthe body becomes progressively more susceptible to opportunistic infections. Most infected individual eventually develop AIDS and\r\nmostly die from opportunistic infections or malignancies associated with the progressive failure of the immune system. There is an\r\nobvious relationship between HIV copies (viral load) and CD4+ counts. Common opportunistic infections and tumors are normally\r\ncontrolled by robust CD4+ T cell-mediated immunity, so CD4+ T cell level maintenance up to critical level is crucial for infected\r\nindividuals. Antiretroviral therapy is suggest to postpone manifestation of AIDS disease by stabilize of the CD4+ T cell.

Ekaterina Koltsova has completed her Master’s degree from Lomonosov Moscow State University in 2013 and she is currently pursuing PhD.

Aim: The comparative metagenomic analysis of the hydrolytic procaryotic complexes of modern and buried chestnut soils and buried\r\npermafrost soils.\r\nMaterials & Methods: Subjects of the study were the buried sub kurgan paleo soils (deposition depth 0.5 and 2.5 m, burial age 3500\r\nand 4500 years respectively), modern chestnut soils and buried permafrost marine terrace sediments (deposition depth 9 m). The\r\nstructure of the hydrolytic microbial complex was determined by the microcosm method with initiation of microbial succession by\r\nhumidification and introduction of purified chitin (ICN Biomedicals, Germany) at concentration of 0.2%. Soil humidified with water\r\n(1 mL/5 g soil) without a substrate was used as a control. For DNA extraction the PowerSoil DNA isolation kit (Mo Bio Laboratories,\r\nInc., USA) and protocol were used. The metagenomic analysis was performed with next generation sequencing (454 sequencing)\r\non the Genome Sequencer FLX (Roche, Switzerland) with GS FLX Titanium series reagents and protocol. PCR-fragments of\r\nmetagenomic DNA samples were obtained with degenerated primers PRK341F and PRK806R. Analysis of the data was performed\r\nin QIIME. OTU picking at the similarity levels 97%, 94%, 91%, 88%, 85%, 81% was performed with use of UCLUST algorithm; all\r\nthe reads were aligned via PyNAST (Greengenes). Taxonomy was assigned according to RDP classifier and the phylogenetic tree was\r\nmade with Fast Tree algorithm.\r\nResults: Previously, the authors revealed the fact that the intensity of response to the introduction of the substrate increased with\r\nthe deposition depth and age of the soil. But the question about species (or genera in case of prokaryotic complexes), which are\r\nresponsible for the intensification of microbial biomass multiplication in subsurface sites, remained unclear. In current study we\r\ncompared alpha and beta diversity in all samples in the presence or absence of substrate. Comparison of alpha diversity revealed the\r\nexpected decrease of all diversity indexes with depth and age of the sample (Shannon index decreased from 9.5 in modern soil to 6.0 in\r\nburied permafrost sediments). Also, the alpha diversity was decreased in samples with substrate comparing to control, which indicates\r\nthe distinguishing of dominant genera. Beta diversity analysis via Bray-Curtis method revealed that hydrolytic complexes of modern\r\nsoils, buried soils and buried permafrost soils differ from each other and the age of the sample is the main clustering factor (statistic\r\nanalysis was performed with PERMANOVA, p<0.05). That fact indicates that different genera perform the substrate degradation in\r\nsoils of different age. Heatmap analysis of dominant genera (which are more than 1% of all OTUs at 97%) revealed the difference in\r\nhydrolytic community of the samples. In modern soils the dominants of the hydrolytic complex were Agromyces, Bacillus, Solibacillus,\r\nSphingobium, Variovorax, Acinetobacter genera, in buried soils Saccharothrix, Streptomyces, Rubrobacter, Chitinophaga, Brevibacillus,\r\nPaenibacillus, Paenisporosarcina, Solibacillus, Mycoplana, Phenylobacterium, Devosia, Sphingobium, Sphingomonas, Achromobacter,\r\nJanthinobacterium, Steroidobacter, Lysobacter, Thermomonas, in buried permafrost soils Brevibacillus, Clostridium, Sedimentibacter,\r\nRhodoplanes, Sphingomonas, Variovorax, Cupriavidus, Lysobacter.\r\nConclusion: We analyzed the alpha and beta diversity of prokaryotic microbiomes of modern soils and paleo soils. Methagenomics\r\nanalysis of modern soils, buried paleo soils and buried permafrost sediments revealed the difference in hydrolytic prokaryotic\r\ncomplexes. Due to the fact that previous studies revealed that the intensity of metabolic activity correlated with the age and deposition\r\ndepth of the sample, the dominant genera of subsurface samples may be considered as potential hydrolytic agents for biotechnology.\r\nAbsolute values of total and active biomass gradually decreased with the increase of deposition depth and age of the soil but the\r\nintensity of response to the introduction of the substrate increases with the deposition depth.

Rozina Ghulam Mustafa has completed her M.phil degree at the age of 25 years from the University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Pakistan and continuing her Ph.D form\r\nthe same university. She is giving her services as visiting lecturer in the department of zoology of the same university. She has two publications in reputed journals; four\r\nto five submitted papers and participated as delegate and organizer in national as well as international congresses as well. She is also working as research associate in a\r\nproject entitles as “Biodiversity, molecular characterization, genetic analysis and pharmaceutical impact of earthworms”.

Rumex hastatus is being used in the remedy of various diseases. The current study was aimed to investigate the in vitro\r\npharmacological effects of R. hastatus. For this purpose, antibacterial activity, antioxidant potential, phytochemical screening and\r\nthe total contents of phenolic and flavonoids were evaluated. The antibacterial activity was performed against seven clinical bacterial\r\npathogens viz., Escherichea coli, Serratia marcesscens, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus pyogenes,\r\nPseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus through agar well diffusion method. Antioxidant activity was measured using\r\nABTS and DPPH assays. It was observed that S. aureus, S. pyogenes and S. epidermidis were the most susceptible clinical pathogens to\r\nmethanolic, ethanolic and acetonic extracts of R. hastatus with 9.0± 0.0 mm, 5.66± 0.57 mm and 6.66± 0.57 mm zone of inhibition.\r\nSimilarly, acetone and methanol (70% and 60%) also showed the significant antioxidant potential by ABTS assay whereas DPPH\r\nassay showed 98% scavenging potential for methanolic and ethanolic fractions and 93% in case of acetone. Qualitative phytochemical\r\nscreening gave the positive indication for the presence of flovonoids, phenols, terpenoid, tannins, protein, carbohydrate, amino acids,\r\nphytosteriods, quinones and saponins. Thin layer chromatography (TLC) and TLC-developed plates also indicated the presence\r\nof flavonoids, bioactive compounds and antioxidant constituents. The spot screening and TLC-bioautography against all tested\r\npathogens showed the significant use of R. hastatus as antibacterial agent. Therefore current studies demonstrated that R. hastatus\r\ncan be used as a good source of antibacterial and antioxidant agents due to the presence of phytochemical nutritional elements.

Derya ÖNAL DARILMAZ has completed her Ph.D at the age of 30 years from Gazi University. She is working as associate professor doctor in Aksaray University. Areas of expertise are probiotics, food microbiology and microbial biotechnology. She has published more than 15 papers in reputed journals and serving as an editorial board member and referee in different reputed journals.

Enterococci belong to the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and they are of importance in foods due to their involvement in food spoilage and fermentations, as well as their utilisation as probiotics in humans and slaughter animals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the probiotic properties of Enterococcus faecalis RT 122, RI 6, RI 21 strains isolated from traditional naturally fermented cheese produced in different regions of Iran and Turkey. The ability to autoaggregation and coaggregation are desirable properties for probiotics in health-promoting foods. Therefore, in the current study, we assessed the effect of exopolysaccharides (EPSs) produced by E. faecalis strains on the aggregation and hydrophobicity properties. All E. faecalis strains tested showed auto- and coaggregation ability with Salmonella enteritidis ATCC 13076, but the results were strain specific and dependent on exopolysaccharides production. In addition, enterococci strains tested were showed affinity to all solvents, suggesting a high complexity of the cell surface. Our results indicate that the ability to autoaggregation, together with cell-surface hydrophobicity and coaggregation abilities with S. enteritidis strain can be used for preliminary screening in order to identify potentially probiotic bacteria suitable for human or animal use.