Rational design of HJH antimicrobial peptides to improve antimicrobial activity.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have attracted considerable interest in the past decade due to their advantages for tackling antibiotic resistance. They exhibit potential antimicrobial activity through unique cell membrane destruction mechanism based on their net charge, hydrophobic properties, and α-helix. In this work, a series of HJH peptides was rationally designed and synthesized. The antimicrobial activity and cytotoxicity assays indicated that HJH-5 and HJH-6 containing hydrophobic residues and helices displayed prominent antimicrobial activity and mild cytotoxicity, respectively. These peptides may be developed for combatting microbial infections.

Sortase A-mediated cyclization of novel polycyclic RGD peptides for ανß3 integrin targeting.

Cyclic arginine-glycine-aspartic (RGD) peptides that specifically bind to integrin ανß3 have been developed for drug delivery, tracers, and imaging for tumor diagnosis and treatment. Herein, a series of polycyclic RGD peptides containing dual, tri, and tetra rings were designed and synthesized through sortase A-mediated ligation. An in vitro test on cell adhesion inhibition indicated that the RGD peptide containing tricylic structure exhibited outstanding potency and selectivity for ανß3 integrin.

Design and synthesis of novel dual-cyclic RGD peptides for αvß3 integrin targeting.

The specific binding of RGD cyclic peptide with integrin αvß3 attracts great research interest for tumor-targeting drug delivery. Herein, we designed and synthesized a series of dual-ring RGD-peptide derivatives as a drug carrier for αvß3 targeting. Three novel peptides showed excellent cell adhesion inhibition effect, in which, P3 exhibited 7-fold enhancement in IC50 compared with cyclo(RGDfK). Drug-loaded cytotoxicity experiment and imaging experiment indicated that such dual-cyclic RGD peptides have good tumor targeting effects. This work provides a new strategy for the design of novel RGD peptides.

Enzymatic On-Resin Peptide Cleavage and in Situ Cyclization One-Pot Strategy for the Synthesis of Cyclopeptide and Cyclotide.

A one-pot strategy combining sortase A mediated on-resin peptide cleavage and in situ cyclization was developed for the synthesis of cyclic peptides. This strategy was applied to synthesize head-to-tail cyclic antibacterial bovine lactoferricin peptide LFcinB20-35 in a yield of 67%. The one-pot strategy was compatible with an oxidative folding reaction, and complex cyclotides containing one or two disulfide bonds, such as sunflower trypsin inhibitors-1 and α-conotoxin MII, were successfully synthesized in one pot in a yield of 77% and 61%, respectively.

Engineering of an H2 O2 auto-scavenging in vivo cascade for pinoresinol production.

Pinoresinol is a natural lignan with a high market value that has potential pharmacological and food supplement applications. Pinoresinol is currently isolated from plants, which suffers from low efficiency and yield. To produce pinoresinol from inexpensive and industrially available eugenol, an in vivo enzymatic cascade composed of vanillyl alcohol oxidase and peroxidase was designed, which scavenges H2 O2 automatically and eliminates protein purification and cofactor addition. Two peroxidases were screened and identified from Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3), and tested in the enzymatic cascade. To balance the flux, different genetic architectures were constructed by using ePathBrick and fusion gene approaches. Scavenging H2 O2 alleviated by-product toxicity and enzyme inhibition, and led to efficient pinoresinol production. Optimization of the reaction conditions achieved a titer of 11.29 g/L pinoresinol. The molar yield and productivity were 52.77% and 1.03 g/(L × h), respectively. The elegant strategy developed herein utilizes the harmful by-product to drive the biosynthetic reaction forward and simultaneously detoxify cells, thereby preventing enzyme inhibition. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 2066-2074. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

New potent and selective αvß3 integrin ligands: Macrocyclic peptides containing RGD motif synthesized by sortase A-mediated ligation.

Three 14-mer macrocyclic peptides 1-3 containing mono-, di- and tri-RGD structure motif were designed and synthesized by sortase A-mediated ligation in good yields. The results of in intro cell-based biological assays indicated that linear peptide 5 and macrocyclic peptide 1, containing di-RGD and mono-RGD motif respectively, showed remarkable potency and selectivity to αvß3 integrin.

'The coronavirus is a formidable foe': children's multimodal articulations of SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 pandemic experiences in China.

OBJECTIVE: This study explored children's post-pandemic articulations regarding the coronavirus along with their lived experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN: A qualitative survey featuring drawings, comments, questions and follow-up interviews was employed to gather data from 108 infected children aged 13 to 14 from two middle schools in China. This multimodal approach allowed for a rich capture of the children's articulations of their pandemic experiences. RESULTS: Children's multimodal articulations conveyed not only the biological features of, but also their emotional reactions to the coronavirus. The pandemic had disrupted children's lives, making online learning, sleep and screen engagement dominant in their daily routines, while also compounding children's unhappiness primarily due to restrictions on social interactions. Children associated the coronavirus with biological, medical, psychological and social aspects. Increased sanitisation and hygiene habits featured their pre-to-post pandemic changes. Furthermore, children exhibited an awareness regarding preventive measures and transmission modes, albeit with certain biases or gaps. Their misunderstandings about recuperative strategies merit clarification. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound and multifaceted impacts on children's emotional well-being, daily routines, social interactions, education, and health-related behaviors. Children's multimodal articulations revealed a spectrum of adverse effects caused by the pandemic, calling for targeted health interventions to mitigate these negative effects while also equipping children with resilience and coping skills for navigating future health crises. Incorporating children's perspectives and experiences into future pandemic preparedness and health promotion strategies is essential for addressing their vulnerabilities and ensuring their overall well-being during public health crises.

The hepatitis B virus X protein disrupts innate immunity by downregulating mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein.

Previous studies have shown that both hepatitis A virus and hepatitis C virus inhibit innate immunity by cleaving the mitochondrial antiviral signaling (MAVS) protein, an essential component of the virus-activated signaling pathway that activates NF-kappaB and IFN regulatory factor-3 to induce the production of type I IFN. For human hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis B s-Ag, hepatitis B e-Ag, or HBV virions have been shown to suppress TLR-induced antiviral activity with reduced IFN-beta production and subsequent induction of IFN-stimulated genes. However, HBV-mediated suppression of the RIG-I-MDA5 pathway is unknown. In this study, we found that HBV suppressed poly(deoxyadenylate-thymidylate)-activated IFN-beta production in hepatocytes. Specifically, hepatitis B virus X (HBX) interacted with MAVS and promoted the degradation of MAVS through Lys(136) ubiquitin in MAVS protein, thus preventing the induction of IFN-beta. Further analysis of clinical samples revealed that MAVS protein was downregulated in hepatocellular carcinomas of HBV origin, which correlated with increased sensitivities of primary murine hepatocytes isolated from HBX knock-in transgenic mice upon vesicular stomatitis virus infections. By establishing a link between MAVS and HBX, this study suggests that HBV can target the RIG-I signaling by HBX-mediated MAVS downregulation, thereby attenuating the antiviral response of the innate immune system.

The mechanism of improved gellan gum production by two-stage culture of Sphingomonas paucimobilis.

A two-stage culture (with controlled sucrose concentrations and temperatures) of Sphingomonas paucimobilis for gellan gum production has been previously investigated. Herein, the mechanism of a two-stage culture favoring gellan gum overproduction was revealed by analysing the cell-membrane permeability and the proteomics for gellan gum biosynthesis. The two-stage culture, resulted in 79.8% increased content of unsaturated fatty acids, and 3.95% increased ratio of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids in the cell membrane. Moreover, cell membrane permeability increased and thus further enhanced gellan gum biosynthesis. Proteomic analysis results indicated that 13 identified protein spots were involved in energy generation, glycogen biosynthesis, and glycolysis. These findings revealed that two-stage culture impellel carbon flux flow toward gellan gum biosynthesis.

Improving bioconversion of eugenol to coniferyl alcohol by in situ eliminating harmful H2O2.

Coniferyl alcohol is a valuable chemical. However, the current approaches to obtain coniferyl alcohol are either unefficient or expensive. Penicillium simplicissimum vanillyl alcohol oxidase (PsVAO) can be used to produce coniferyl alcohol. However, PsVAO intrinsically produces harmful byproduct H2O2. Utilizing catalase to decompose H2O2 is a potential straightforward approach; however, catalase can also exhibit peroxidase activity to facilitate coniferyl alcohol over-oxidation. In this study, catalases exhibiting both high catalase activity and low peroxidase activity were found out, and introduced into the bioconversion systems. Our results showed that eliminating H2O2in situ released H2O2 inhibition of PsVAO, improved coniferyl alcohol production and eliminated coniferyl alcohol over-oxidation. Finally, coniferyl alcohol titer, molar yield, and productivity reached 22.9 g/L, 78.7%, and 0.5 g/(L × h) respectively. An efficient coniferyl alcohol production method was developed by overcoming the intrinsic disadvantages of PsVAO.

Diversity of endophytic fungi of Paeonia lactiflora Pallas and screening for fungal paeoniflorin producers.

Endophytic fungi from Paeonia lactiflora Pallas, which is mainly distributed in China, were characterized and screened to identify those capable of producing paeoniflorin. A total of 101 isolates obtained from the roots, stems and leaves of P. lactiflora were grouped into 16 fungal taxa based on morphological traits and internal transcribed spacers sequences, indicating that endophytic fungi of P. lactiflora are abundant and diverse. The dominant endophytic fungi were Aspergillus, Alternaria and Penicillium. More fungi were recovered from leaves than from roots and stems. The similarity index was highest between the stems and leaves (0.733), followed by the roots and leaves (0.615) and the stems and roots (0.563). Analyses of the fermentation extracts of 22 endophytic fungi by high-performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry revealed that three strains (R12, Alternaria tenuissima; S4, Aspergillus flavus; and R17 Penicillium commune) were able to produce paeoniflorin. Among the paeoniflorin-producing fungi, the yield of paeoniflorin from A. flavus S4 was 342.4 µg/L, and this strain could be used as a candidate for the industrial production of paeoniflorin.

One-step purification and immobilization of extracellularly expressed sortase A by magnetic particles to develop a robust and recyclable biocatalyst.

Sortase A (SrtA) is a transpeptidase widely used to site-specifically modify peptides and proteins and shows promise for industrial applications. In this study, a novel strategy was developed for constructing immobilized-SrtA as a robust and recyclable enzyme via direct immobilization of extracellularly expressed SrtA in the fermentation supernatant using magnetic particles. Efficient extracellular SrtA expression was achieved in Escherichia coli through molecular engineering, including manipulation of the protein transport pathway, codon optimization, and co-expression of molecular chaperones to promote expressed SrtA secretion into the medium at high levels. Subsequently, a simple one-step protocol was established for the purification and immobilization of SrtA containing a His-tag from the fermentation supernatant onto a nickel-modified magnetic particle. The immobilized SrtA was proved to retain full enzymatic activity for peptide-to-peptide ligation and protein modification, and was successfully reused for five cycles without obvious activity loss.

Nalp3 inflammasome is activated and required for vascular smooth muscle cell calcification.

BACKGROUND: The calcification of blood vessels correlates with increased morbidity and mortality in patients with atherosclerosis, diabetes, and end-stage kidney disease. Increased inflammasome activation has been shown to play an important role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. However, the contribution of inflammasome activation on the development of vascular calcification has not been investigated. METHODS: ß-Glycerophosphate (ß-GP) was used as a procedure to induce extensive artery calcification in primary vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). Analysis of the levels of Nalp3 inflammasome complex was performed by quantitative real-time PCR and western blotting. The effect of Nalp3 deficiency on VSMC calcification was examined after transfecting Nalp3 siRNA into cultured VSMCs. RESULTS: We demonstrated for the first time that the mRNA levels of Nalp3 inflammasome complex including Nalp3, ASC and caspase1 were upregulated in calcifying VSMCs, resulting in increased IL-1ß secretion. Inhibition of inflammasome activation by Nalp3 RNA interference reduced IL-1ß secretion and inhibited VSMC calcification. Further analysis of clinical popliteal artery specimens showed an upregulation of inflammasome complex mRNA levels (4/5) and caspase1 activity (5/5) compared with their non-calcified adjacent tissues, indicating that Nalp3 inflammasome was tightly correlated with arterial calcification disease. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that activation of the Nalp3-mediated inflammatory response pathway is an important venue associated with host response and pathogenesis of VSMC calcification.

c-Abl tyrosine kinase interacts with MAVS and regulates innate immune response.

The tyrosine kinase, c-Abl, plays important roles in many aspects of cellular function. Previous reports showed that c-Abl is involved in NF-kappaB signaling. However, the functions of c-Abl in innate immunity are still unknown. Here we demonstrate that the mitochondrial antiviral signaling (MAVS) protein can be physically associated with c-Abl in vivo and in vitro. MAVS interacted with c-Abl through its Card and TM domain. A phosphotyrosine-specific antibody indicated that MAVS was phosphorylated by c-Abl. Functional impairment of c-Abl attenuated MAVS or VSV induced type-I IFN production. Importantly, c-Abl knockdown in MCF7 cells displayed impaired MAVS-mediated NF-kappaB and IRF3 activation. Taken together, our results suggest that c-Abl modulates innate immune response through MAVS.