Yong-Guy Kim† Jin-Hyung Lee† Sunyoung Park, Sanghun Kim and Jintae Lee * School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-Ro, Gyeongsan, Korea.

Received 8 March, 2021; revised 22 May, 2021; accepted 23 May,*For correspondence. E-mail 该Email地址已收到反垃圾邮件插件保护。要显示它您需要在浏览器中启用JavaScript。; Tel. (+82) 53 810 2533; Fax (+82) 53 810 4631. †† Y.-G.K. and J.-H.L. contributed equally to this work. Microbial Biotechnology (2022) 15(2), 590–602

doi:10.1111/1751-7915.13864

Funding information

This research was supported by grants from the Basic Science Research Program through the NRF funded by the Ministry of Education (2021R1I1A3A04037486 to J.-H. Lee, 2019R1C1C1008329 to Y.-G. Kim), the NRF grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No. 2021R1A2C1008368 to J. Lee), and by a grant from the Priority Research Centers Program through the NRF funded by the Ministry of Education (2014R1A6A1031189).

Summary

       Biofilms are communities of bacteria, fungi or yeasts that form on diverse biotic or abiotic surfaces, and play important roles in pathogenesis and drug resistance. A generic saw palmetto oil inhibited biofilm formation by Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli O157:H7 and fungal Candida albicans without affecting their planktonic cell growth. Two main components of the oil, lauric acid and myristic acid, are responsible for this antibiofilm activity. Their antibiofilm activities were observed in dual-species biofilms as well as three-species biofilms of S. aureus, E. coli O157:H7 and C. albicans. Transcriptomic analysis showed that lauric acid and myristic acid repressed the expressions of haemolysin genes (hla and hld) in S. aureus, several biofilm-related genes (csgAB, fimH and flhD) in E. coli and hypha cell wall gene HWP1 in C. albicans, which supported biofilm inhibition. Also, saw palmetto oil, lauric acid and myristic acid reduced virulence of three microbes in a nematode infection model and exhibited minimal cytotoxicity. Furthermore, combinatorial treatment of fatty acids and antibiotics showed synergistic antibacterial efficacy against S. aureus and E. coli O157:H7. These results demonstrate that saw palmetto oil and its main fatty acids might be useful for controlling bacterial infections as well as multispecies biofilms.

Hind Bitar1 and Sarah Alismail2

1 Department of Information Systems, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah,

Saudi Arabia

2 Center for Information Systems & Technology, Claremont Graduate

University, Claremont, USA

Corresponding author:

Hind Bitar, Department of Information Systems, King Abdulaziz University,

Al Ehtifalat St, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.

Email: 该Email地址已收到反垃圾邮件插件保护。要显示它您需要在浏览器中启用JavaScript。

Abstract

Objective: To summarize the current status of, and the current expert opinions, recommendation and evidence associated with the use and implementation of electronic health (eHealth), telemedicine, and/or telehealth to provide healthcare services for chronic disease patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Materials and methods: We searched four electronic databases (PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, and Web of Science Core Collection) to identify relevant articles published between 2019 and 2020. Searches were restricted to English language articles only. Two independent reviewers screened the titles, abstracts, and keywords for relevance. The potential eligible articles, papers with no abstract, and those that fall into the uncertain category were read in full text independently. The reviewers met and discussed which articles to include in the final review and reached a consensus.

Results: We identified 51 articles of which 25 articles met the inclusion criteria. All included articles indicated the promising potential of eHealth, telehealth, and/or telemedicine solutions in delivering healthcare services to patients living with chronic diseases/conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. We synthesized the main findings into ten usages and eight recommendations concerning the different activities for delivering healthcare services remotely for those living with chronic diseases/conditions in the era of COVID-19.

Discussion and conclusions: There is limited evidence available about the effectiveness of such solutions. Further research is required during this pandemic to improve the credibility of evidence on telemedicine, telehealth, and/or eHealth-related outcomes for those living with chronic diseases.

Keywords

Chronic, eHealth, telehealth, telemedicine, technology Submission date: 22 August 2020; Acceptance date: 20 March 2021