Antiviral Effect and Mechanism of Edaravone against Grouper Iridovirus Infection.

Singapore grouper iridovirus (SGIV) is a virus with high fatality rate in the grouper culture industry. The outbreak of SGIV is often accompanied by a large number of grouper deaths, which has a great impact on the economy. Therefore, it is of great significance to find effective drugs against SGIV. It has been reported that edaravone is a broad-spectrum antiviral drug, most widely used clinically in recent years, but no report has been found exploring the effect of edaravone on SGIV infections. In this study, we evaluated the antiviral effect of edaravone against SGIV, and the anti-SGIV mechanism of edaravone was also explored. It was found that the safe concentration of edaravone on grouper spleen (GS) cells was 50 µg/mL, and it possessed antiviral activity against SGIV infection in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, edaravone could significantly disrupt SGIV particles and interference with SGIV binding to host cells, as well as SGIV replication in host cells. However, edaravone was not effective during the SGIV invasion into host cells. This study was the first time that it was determined that edaravone could exert antiviral effects in response to SGIV infection by directly interfering with the processes of SGIV infecting cells, aiming to provide a theoretical basis for the control of grouper virus disease.

Natural occurrences and characterization of Elizabethkingia miricola infection in cultured bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana).

Introduction: The bacterium Elizabethkingia miricola is a multispecies pathogen associated with meningitis-like disease that has been isolated from several amphibian species, including the bullfrog, but this is the first isolation in Guangxi. In the present study, the dominant bacteria were isolated from the brains of five bullfrogs with meningitis-like disease on a South China farm in Guangxi. Methods: The NFEM01 isolate was identified by Gram staining; morphological observations; 16S rRNA, rpoB, and mutT-based phylogenetic tree analysis; and physiochemical characterization and was subjected to drug sensitivity and artificial infection testing. Results and discussion: As a result of identification, the NFEM01 strain was found to be E. miricola. An artificial infection experiment revealed that NFEM01 infected bullfrogs and could cause symptoms of typical meningitis-like disease. As a result of the bacterial drug sensitivity test, NFEM01 is highly sensitive to mequindox, rifampicin, enrofloxacin, nitrofural, and oxytetracycline and there was strong resistance to gentamicin, florfenicol, neomycin, penicillin, amoxicillin, doxycycline, and sulfamonomethoxine. This study provides a reference to further study the pathogenesis mechanism of E. miricola-induced bullfrog meningitislike disease and its prevention and treatment.

Omics analysis revealed the possible mechanism of streptococcus disease outbreak in tilapia under high temperature.

High temperature is a main cause to result in the outbreak of tilapia streptococcal disease. However, the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. In this study, we first confirmed that tilapia infected with Streptococcus agalactiae (S. agalactiae) had a higher mortality at high temperature (35 °C) than that at normal temperature (28 °C). Subsequently, the effects of high temperature on gene expression pattern of S. agalactiae and intestinal microbiota of tilapia were respectively detected by RNA-seq and 16S rDNA sequencing. RNA-seq identified 357 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in S. agalactiae cultured at 28 °C and 35 °C. GO and KEGG analysis showed that these DEGs were highly involved in metabolic processes, including glucose, lipid and amino acid metabolisms, which indicates that S. agalactiae have stronger vitality and are likely to be more infectious under high temperature. Microbiota analysis revealed that high temperature could influence the bacterial community composition of tilapia intestine, accompanied by changes in intestinal structure. Compared to feed at 28 °C, the total bacterial species as well as pathogens, such as norank_f__Rhizobiales_Incertae_Sedis, Pseudorhodoplanes, Ancylobacter, in tilapia intestine were significantly increased at 35 °C, which may weaken the immune resistance of tilapia. Taken together, our results suggest that high temperature evoked tilapia susceptible to S. agalactiae should be the combined effect of enhanced S. agalactiae metabolism and dysregulated tilapia intestinal microbiota.

Effect of EGCG Extracted from Green Tea against Largemouth Bass Virus Infection.

(1) Background: Largemouth bass virus (LMBV) is a major viral pathogen in largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) aquaculture that often causes high mortality and heavy economic losses, thus developing treatments to combat this pathogen is of great commercial importance. Green tea is a well-known medicinal plant that contains active ingredients with antiviral, antibacterial, and other biological activities. The goals of this study were to explore the effect and mechanism of green tea source compounds on LMBV and provide data to serve as the basis for the screening of targeted drugs in the future. In this study, we evaluated the effects of the main component of green tea, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), against LMBV infection. (2) Methods: The safe working concentration of EGCG was identified by cell viability detection and light microscopy. The antiviral activity and mechanism of action of EGCG against LMBV infection were evaluated with light microscopy, an aptamer 6-carboxy-fluorescein-based fluorescent molecular probe, and reverse transcription quantitative PCR. (3) Results: The safe working concentration of EGCG was ≤10 µg/mL. EGCG showed significant anti-LMBV infection activity in a concentration-dependent manner, and it also destroyed the structure of virus particles. EGCG impacted the binding of virus particles to cell receptors and virus invasion into the host cells. Inhibitory effects of EGCG on LMBV particles, LMBV binding to the host-cell membrane, and LMBV invasion were 84.89%, 98.99%, and 95.23%, respectively. Meanwhile, the effects of EGCG subsequently were verified in vivo. The fatality rate of the LMBV + EGCG group was significantly lower than that of the LMBV group. (4) Conclusions: Our results suggest that EGCG has effective antiviral properties against LMBV and may be a candidate for the effective treatment and control of LMBV infections in largemouth bass aquaculture.

Facet-dependent solar ammonia synthesis of BiOCl nanosheets via a proton-assisted electron transfer pathway.

Under the pressure of a fossil fuels shortage and global climate change, solar ammonia synthesis and the need to develop N2 fixation under mild conditions is becoming more urgent need; however, their intrinsic mechanisms still remain unclear. Herein, we demonstrate that the kinetic inertia of N2 can be overcome using oxygen vacancies (OVs) of BiOCl as the catalytic centers to create lower energy molecular steps, which are amendable for the solar light driven N-N triple bond cleavage via a proton-assisted electron transfer pathway. Moreover, the distinct structures of OVs on different BiOCl facets strongly determine the N2 fixation pathways by influencing both the adsorption structure and the activation level of N2. The fixation of terminal end-on bound N2 on the OVs of BiOCl {001} facets follows an asymmetric distal mode by selectively generating NH3, while the reduction of side-on bridging N2 on the OVs of BiOCl {010} facets is more energetically favorable in a symmetric alternating mode to produce N2H4 as the main intermediate.

Sustainable molecular oxygen activation with oxygen vacancies on the {001} facets of BiOCl nanosheets under solar light.

We demonstrate that oxygen vacancies on the {001} facets of BiOCl nanosheets can more sustainably activate molecular oxygen for organic pollutant removal under solar light than the TiO2 counterparts. The oxygen vacancies on the {001} facets of BiOCl nanosheets are effectively refreshed by UV light, and are also responsible for the efficient utilization of visible light to activate molecular oxygen, accounting for their long term stability and high efficiency.

Fe@Fe2O3 core-shell nanowires enhanced Fenton oxidation by accelerating the Fe(III)/Fe(II) cycles.

In this study we demonstrate Fe@Fe2O3 core-shell nanowires can improve Fenton oxidation efficiency by two times with rhodamine B as a model pollutant at pH > 4. Active species trapping experiments revealed that the rhodamine B oxidation enhancement was attributed to molecular oxygen activation induced by Fe@Fe2O3 core-shell nanowires. The molecular oxygen activation process could generate superoxide radicals to assist iron core for the reduction of ferric ions to accelerate the Fe(III)/Fe(II) cycles, which favored the H2O2 decomposition to produce more hydroxyl radicals for the rhodamine B oxidation. The combination of Fe@Fe2O3 core-shell nanowires and ferrous ions (Fe@Fe2O3/Fe(2+)) offered a superior Fenton catalyst to decompose H2O2 for producing OH. We employed benzoic acid as a probe reagent to check the generation of OH and found the OH generation rate of Fe@Fe2O3/Fe(2+) was 2-4 orders of magnitude larger than those of commonly used iron based Fenton catalysts and 38 times that of Fe(2+). The reusability and the stability of Fe@Fe2O3 core-shell nanowires were studied. Total organic carbon and ion chromatography analyses revealed the mineralization of rhodamine B and the releasing of nitrate ions. Gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry was used to investigate the degradation intermediates to propose the possible rhodamine B Fenton oxidation pathway in the presence of Fe@Fe2O3 nanowires. This study not only provides a new Fenton oxidation system for pollutant control, but also widen the application of molecular oxygen activation induced by nanoscale zero valent iron.

1,6-Bis(prop-2-yn-1-yl-oxy)naphthalene.

The title compound, C(16)H(12)O(2), contains two prop-2-yn-1-yl-oxy groups attached to a naphthalene ring system at the 1- and 6-positions. The crystal packing includes an inter-molecular C-H⋯π inter-action between a terminal ethynyl H atom and an ethynyl group on a glide-related mol-ecule and another inter-action between an O-atom-linked methyl-ene H and an ethynyl group of a different glide-related mol-ecule.