The efficacy of social skills training (SST) and social cognition and interaction training (SCIT) for negative symptoms: A meta-analysis

Background and objectives The efficacy of antipsychotic drugs in improving negative symptoms of schizophrenia remains controversial. Psychological interventions, such as Social Skills Training (SST) and Social Cognition and Interaction Training (SCIT), have been developed and applied in clinical practice. The current meta-analysis was therefore conducted to evaluate the efficacy of controlled clinical trials using SST and SCIT on treating negative symptoms. Methods Systematical searches were carried out on PubMed, Web of Science, and PsycINFO databases. The standardized mean difference (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) was calculated to assess the effect size of SST/SCIT on negative symptoms. Subgroup and meta-regression analyses were conducted to explore sources of heterogeneity and identify potential factors that may influence their efficacy. Results A total of 23 studies including 1441 individuals with schizophrenia were included. The SST group included 8 studies with 635 individuals, and the SCIT group included 15 studies with 806 individuals. The effect size for the efficacy of SST on negative symptoms was -0.44 (95% CI: -0.60 to -0.28; p < 0.01), while SCIT was -0.16 (95% CI: -0.30 to -0.02; p < 0.01). Conclusions Our findings suggest that while both SST and SCIT can alleviate negative symptoms, the former appears to be more effective. Our results provide evidence-based guidance for the application of these interventions in both hospitalized and community individuals and can help inform the treatment and intervention of individuals with schizophrenia. (AU)

Regioselective Deacetylation of Peracetylated Deoxy-C-glycopyranosides by Boron Trichloride (BCl3).

A general approach for regioselective deacetylation at sugar 3-OH of peracetylated 6-deoxy-C-glucopyranosides mediated by BCl3 was developed. The approach could be extended to other sugar-derived 6-deoxy-C-glycopyranosides, such as those derived from mannose, galactose, and rhamnose, with deacetylation occurring at varied sugar hydroxyl groups, and further extended to 4-deoxy-C-glucopyranosides with deacetylation occurring at sugar 3-OH. The approach would enable access to synthetically challenging carbohydrate derivatives. A possible mechanism of the regioselectivity was proposed.

Machine learning models and nomogram based on clinical, laboratory profiles and skeletal muscle index to predict pancreatic fistula after pancreatoduodenectomy.

Background: Postoperative pancreatic fistula (POPF) is a perilous complication that may arise subsequent to pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD). In recent times, there has been an escalating interest in employing machine learning (ML) techniques to aid in treatment decision-making. The purpose of this research is to assess the effectiveness of ML in comparison to conventional models, while also conducting an initial evaluation of the predictive capability of skeletal muscle index (SMI) concerning POPF. Methods: This retrospective observational study was carried out at The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University from January 2012 to January 2021, encompassing data from 269 patients who underwent PD. After identifying independent factors associated with the condition, a logistic regression model was employed to construct a nomogram, alongside the establishment of five ML models. To assess their effectiveness, the best-performing ML model and nomogram were evaluated on a separate test group comprising 77 additional patients. The evaluation involved comparing the area under the curve (AUC) and Brier score. Results: Among the 269 patients studied, the incidence of POPF was found to be 56.9%, with 106 patients (69.3%) experiencing clinically-relevant POPF. We identified six independent factors associated with POPF, including body mass index (BMI), SMI, pancreatic duct dilatation, tumor size, triglyceride levels, and the ratio of aspartate aminotransferase to alanine aminotransferase (AST/ALT) on the first postoperative day. When evaluated on the test set, the Gaussian Naive Bayes (GNB) model, which was the best-performing ML model, achieved an AUC of 0.824 and a Brier score of 0.175. The corresponding performance indicators for the nomogram were 0.844 for AUC and 0.165 for the Brier score. Conclusions: This study found that there is minimal difference between ML and the nomogram based on logistic regression in predicting POPF. Additionally, SMI shows promise as a potential and practical tool for assessing the risk of POPF.

Causes of recurrence of paediatric inguinal hernia after single-port laparoscopic closure.

PURPOSE: This paper explores the causes of paediatric inguinal hernia (PIH) recurrence after single-port laparoscopic percutaneous extraperitoneal closure (SPLPEC). METHOD: From January 2015 to December 2020, the clinical data of 3480 children with PIHs who underwent SPLPEC were retrospectively reviewed, including 644 children who underwent SPLPEC with a homemade single-hook hernia needle from January 2015 to December 2016 and 2836 children who underwent the SPLPEC with a double-hook hernia needle and hydrodissection from January 2017 to December 2020. There were 39 recurrences (including communicating hydrocele) during the 2-5 years of follow-up. The findings of redo-laparoscopy were recorded and correlated with the revised video of the first operation to analyse the causes of recurrence. RESULT: Thirty-three males and 6 females experienced recurrence, and 8 patients had a unilateral communicating hydrocele. The median time to recurrence was 7.1 months (0-38). There were 20 cases (3.11%) in the single-hook group and 19 cases (0.67%) in the double-hook group. Based on laparoscopic findings, recurrence most probably resulted from multiple factors, including uneven tension of the ligation (10 cases), missing part of the peritoneum (14 cases), loose ligation (8 cases), broken knot (5 cases), and knot reaction (2 cases). All children who underwent repeat SPLPEC were cured by double ligations or reinforcement with medial umbilical ligament. CONCLUSION: The main cause of recurrence is improper ligation. Tension-free and complete PIH ligation are critical to the success of surgery, which requires avoiding the peritoneum skip area and the subcutaneous and muscular tissues. Redo-laparoscopic surgery was suitable for the treatment of recurrent inguinal hernia (RIH). For giant hernias, direct ligation of the internal ring incorporating the medial umbilical ligament (DIRIM) may be needed.

Efficacy of Noninvasive Brain Stimulation in Treating General Psychopathology Symptoms in Schizophrenia: A Meta-Analysis.

OBJECTIVES: Noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) has been shown to effectively alleviate negative and positive symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. However, its impact on depressive symptoms and general psychopathology symptoms (GPSs), which are crucial for functional outcomes, remains uncertain. We aimed to compare the efficacy of various NIBS interventions in treating depressive symptoms and GPSs. METHODS: We conducted a comprehensive search of multiple databases and performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy of NIBS in treating depressive symptoms and GPSs in schizophrenia. The effect sizes of NIBS for depression symptoms and GPSs were estimated using standard mean differences (SMDs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Subgroup analyses were employed to examine potential influencing factors on the pooled SMD of NIBS for GPSs. RESULTS: Our search yielded 35 randomized controlled trials involving 1715 individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia. The protocol of this systematic review was registered with INPLASY (protocol ID: INPLASY202320082). Neither repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) nor transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) demonstrated significant improvements in depressive symptoms compared to sham controls. NIBS exhibited a small-to-moderate effect size for GPSs, with a pooled SMD of -0.2956 (95% CI: -0.459 to -0.132) and a heterogeneity (I2) of 58.9% (95% CI: 41.5% to 71.1%; p < 0.01) based on a random-effects model. Subgroup analyses of different types of NIBS, different frequencies of rTMS, and different stimulation sites of rTMS revealed no significant differences. Only sex had a significant influence on the effect size of NIBS for general psychopathology symptoms (p < 0.05). However, rTMS might be superior to tDCS, and high-frequency rTMS outperformed low-frequency rTMS in treating GPSs. CONCLUSIONS: We found a small-to-moderate effect size of NIBS in alleviating GPSs in patients with schizophrenia. Both rTMS and tDCS were more effective than sham stimulation in reducing GPSs in schizophrenia. The frequency used was associated with rTMS efficacy for GPSs.

Upregulation of eIF2α by m6A modification accelerates the proliferation of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells in MCT-induced pulmonary arterial hypertension rats.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a malignant cardiovascular disease. Eukaryotic initiation factor 2α (eIF2α) plays an important role in the proliferation of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) in hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension (HPH) rats. However, the regulatory mechanism of eIF2α remains poorly understood in PAH rats. Here, we discover eIF2α is markedly upregulated in monocrotaline (MCT)-induced PAH rats, eIF2α can be upregulated by mRNA methylation, and upregulated eIF2α can promote PASMC proliferation in MCT-PAH rats. GSK2606414, eIF2α inhibitor, can downregulate the expression of eIF2α and alleviate PASMC proliferation in MCT-PAH rats. And we further discover the mRNA of eIF2α has a common sequence with N 6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification by bioinformatics analysis, and the expression of METTL3, WTAP, and YTHDF1 is upregulated in MCT-PAH rats. These findings suggest a potentially novel mechanism by which eIF2α is upregulated by m6A modification in MCT-PAH rats, which is involved in the pathogenesis of PAH.

Non-destructive detection of single-seed viability in maize using hyperspectral imaging technology and multi-scale 3D convolutional neural network.

The viability of Zea mays seed plays a critical role in determining the yield of corn. Therefore, developing a fast and non-destructive method is essential for rapid and large-scale seed viability detection and is of great significance for agriculture, breeding, and germplasm preservation. In this study, hyperspectral imaging (HSI) technology was used to obtain images and spectral information of maize seeds with different aging stages. To reduce data input and improve model detection speed while obtaining more stable prediction results, successive projections algorithm (SPA) was used to extract key wavelengths that characterize seed viability, then key wavelength images of maize seed were divided into small blocks with 5 pixels ×5 pixels and fed into a multi-scale 3D convolutional neural network (3DCNN) for further optimizing the discrimination possibility of single-seed viability. The final discriminant result of single-seed viability was determined by comprehensively evaluating the result of all small blocks belonging to the same seed with the voting algorithm. The results showed that the multi-scale 3DCNN model achieved an accuracy of 90.67% for the discrimination of single-seed viability on the test set. Furthermore, an effort to reduce labor and avoid the misclassification caused by human subjective factors, a YOLOv7 model and a Mask R-CNN model were constructed respectively for germination judgment and bud length detection in this study, the result showed that mean average precision (mAP) of YOLOv7 model could reach 99.7%, and the determination coefficient of Mask R-CNN model was 0.98. Overall, this study provided a feasible solution for detecting maize seed viability using HSI technology and multi-scale 3DCNN, which was crucial for large-scale screening of viable seeds. This study provided theoretical support for improving planting quality and crop yield.

The mediating role of negative symptoms in "secondary factors" determining social functioning in chronic schizophrenia.

Background: Chronic schizophrenia is significantly influenced by negative symptoms, with several known contributors to secondary negative symptoms. However, the impact of these factors and negative symptoms on social functioning warrants further exploration. Methods: We assessed the clinical symptoms, antipsychotic adverse reactions, and social functioning of 283 hospitalized patients with chronic schizophrenia using various standardized interviews and scales. We conducted multiple regression and mediation analyses to elucidate the impact of secondary factors on negative symptoms, and the relationship among these "secondary factors," negative symptoms, and social functioning. Results: Our findings identified depressive symptoms, extrapyramidal symptoms, and positive symptoms as significant contributors to secondary negative symptoms. We found that negative symptoms play a notable mediating role in the effect of depressive and positive symptoms on social functioning. However, the relationship between positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and social functioning proved to be intricate. Conclusion: Our findings propose that negative symptoms act as pivotal mediators in the correlation between "secondary factors" (including the depressive symptoms and positive symptoms) and social functioning. The treatment of chronic schizophrenia necessitates focusing on key factors such as depressive and positive symptoms, which might significantly contribute to the development of secondary negative symptoms. Further research is essential to clarify the complex relationship among positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and social functioning in schizophrenia.

Monitoring the major taste components during black tea fermentation using multielement fusion information in decision level.

Hitherto, the intelligent detection of black tea fermentation quality is still a thought-provoking problem because of one-side sample information and poor model performance. This study proposed a novel method for the prediction of major chemical components including total catechins, soluble sugar and caffeine using hyperspectral imaging technology and electrical properties. The multielement fusion information were used to establish quantitative prediction models. The performance of model using multielement fusion information was better than that of model using single information. Subsequently, the stacking combination model using fusion data combined with feature selection algorithms for evaluating the fermentation quality of black tea. Our proposed strategy achieved better performance than classical linear and nonlinear algorithms, with the correlation coefficient of the prediction set (Rp) for total catechins, soluble sugar and caffeine being 0.9978, 0.9973 and 0.9560, respectively. The results demonstrated that our proposed strategy could effectively evaluate the fermentation quality of black tea.

Enzymatic biosynthesis of novel 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromone glycosides catalyzed by UDP-glycosyltransferase UGT71BD1.

2-(2-Phenylethyl)chromones (PECs) are the main bioactive components of agarwood which showed diverse pharmaceutical activities. Glycosylation is a useful structural modification method to improve compounds' druggability. However, PEC glycosides were rarely reported in nature which largely limited their further medicinal investigations and applications. In this study, the enzymatic glycosylation of four naturally separated PECs 1-4 was achieved using a promiscuous glycosyltransferase UGT71BD1 identified from Cistanche tubulosa. It could accept UDP-Glucose, UDP-N-acetylglucosamine and UDP-xylose as sugar donors and conduct the corresponding O-glycosylation of 1-4 with high conversion efficiencies. Three O-glucosylated products 1a (5-hydroxy-2-(2-phenylethyl)chromone 8-O-ß-D-glucopyranoside), 2a (8-chloro-2-(2-phenylethyl)chromone 6-O-ß-D-glucopyranoside) and 3a (2-(2-phenylethyl)chromone 6-O-ß-D-glucopyranoside) were prepared and structurally elucidated as novel PEC glucosides based on NMR spectroscopic analyses. Subsequent pharmaceutical evaluation found that 1a showed remarkably improved cytotoxicity against HL-60 cells, whose cell inhibition rate was 19 times higher than that of its aglycon 1. The IC50 value of 1a was further determined to be 13.96 ± 1.10 µM, implying its potential as a promising antitumor-leading candidate. To improve the production of 1, docking, simulation and site-directed mutagenesis were performed. The important role of P15 in the glucosylation of PECs was discovered. Besides, a mutant K288A with a two-fold increased yield for 1a production was also afforded. This research reported the enzymatic glycosylation of PECs for the first time, and also provide an eco-friendly pathway for the alternative production of PEC glycosides for leading compounds discovery.

Detection of early bruises on apples using hyperspectral reflectance imaging coupled with optimal wavelengths selection and improved watershed segmentation algorithm.

BACKGROUND: Bruises caused by mechanical collision during the harvesting and storage and transportation period are difficult to detect using traditional machine vision technologies because there is no obvious difference in appearance between bruised and sound tissues. As a result of its fast and non-destructive characteristics, hyperspectral imaging technology is a potential tool for non-destructive detection of fruit surface defects. RESULTS: In the present study, visible near infrared hyperspectral reflectance images of healthy apples and bruised apples at 6, 12 and 24 h were obtained. To reduce hyperspectral data dimension, optimal wavelength selection algorithms including principal component analysis (PCA) and band ratio methods were utilized to select the effective wavelengths and enhance the contrast between bruised and sound tissues. Then pseudo-color image transformation technology combining with improved watershed segmentation algorithm (IWSA) were employed to recognize the bruise spots. The result obtained showed that band ratio images obtained better detection performance than that of PCA. The G component derived from pseudo-color image of λ 821 - λ 752 / λ 821 + λ 752 followed by IWSA obtained the best segmentation performance for bruise spots. Finally, a multispectral imaging system for the detection of bruised apple was developed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed two-band ratio algorithm, obtaining recognition rates of 93.3%, 92.2% and 92.5% for healthy, bruised and overall apples, respectively. CONCLUSION: The bruise detection algorithm proposed in the present study has potential to detect bruised apple in online practical applications and hyperspectral reflectance imaging offers a useful reference for the detection of surficial defects of fruit. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

The efficacy of homestyle rehabilitation on negative symptoms in chronic schizophrenia: A randomized controlled trial.

Objective: Schizophrenia is a debilitating mental disorder with a high disability rate that is characterized by negative symptoms such as apathy, hyperactivity, and anhedonia that can make daily life challenging and impair social functioning. In this study, we aim to investigate the effectiveness of homestyle rehabilitation in mitigating these negative symptoms and associated factors. Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted to compare the efficacy of hospital rehabilitation and homestyle rehabilitation for negative symptoms in 100 individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia. The participants were divided randomly into two groups, each persisting for 3 months. The primary outcome measures were the Scale for Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) and Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF). The secondary outcome measures included the Positive Symptom Assessment Scale (SAPS), Calgary Schizophrenia Depression Scale (CDSS), Simpson-Angus Scale (SAS), and Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale (AIMS). The trial aimed to compare the effectiveness of the two rehabilitation methods. Results: Homestyle rehabilitation for negative symptoms was found to be more effective than hospital rehabilitation, according to the changes in SANS (T = 2.07, p = 0.04). Further analysis using multiple regression indicated that improvements in depressive symptoms (T = 6.88, p < 0.001) and involuntary motor symptoms (T = 2.75, p = 0.007) were associated with a reduction in negative symptoms. Conclusion: Homestyle rehabilitation may have greater potential than hospital rehabilitation in improving negative symptoms, making it an effective rehabilitation model. Further research is necessary to investigate factors such as depressive symptoms and involuntary motor symptoms, which may be associated with the improvement of negative symptoms. Additionally, more attention should be given to addressing secondary negative symptoms in rehabilitation interventions.

Dihydrotanshinone I Inhibits Pancreatic Cancer Progression via Hedgehog/ Gli Signal Pathway.

INTRODUCTION: Pancreatic cancer is highly fatal and its incidence is rising worldwide. Its poor prognosis is attributed to a lack of effective diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Dihydrotanshinone I (DHT), a phenanthrene quinone liposoluble compound from Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge (Danshen), exerts anti-tumor effects by inhibiting cell proliferation, enhancing apoptosis, and inducing cell differentiation. However, its effects on pancreatic cancer are unclear. > Methods: The role of DHT in the growth of tumor cells was explored using real-time cell analysis (RTCA), colony formation assay, and CCK-8. The effects of DHT on tumor cells invasion as well as migration were assessed by Transwell and migration assays. Expressions of pro-apoptosis and metastasis factors in tumor cells were examined using western blot. Tumor apoptosis rates were studied using flow cytometry. The anticancer effect of DHT in vivo was assessed by tumor transplantation into nude mice. RESULTS: Our analyses show that DHT has a suppressive role in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), invasiveness, proliferation, as well as migratory ability of Patu8988 and PANC-1 cells via Hedgehog/Gli signaling. Moreover, it drives apoptosis via caspases/BCL2/BAX signaling. Experiments in nude mice transplanted with tumors have shown DHT to have anticancer effects in vivo. > Conclusion: Our data show that DHT effectively suppresses pancreatic cancer cell proliferation as well as metastasis, and induces apoptosis via Hedgehog/Gli signaling. These effects have been reported to be dose- and time-dependent. Therefore, DHT can be exploited as a potential treatment for pancreatic cancer.>.

[Research progress on application of multi-enzyme-catalyzed cascade reactions in enzymatic synthesis of natural products].

As a biocatalyst, enzyme has the advantages of high catalytic efficiency, strong reaction selectivity, specific target products, mild reaction conditions, and environmental friendliness, and serves as an important tool for the synthesis of complex organic molecules. With the continuous development of gene sequencing technology, molecular biology, genetic manipulation, and other technologies, the diversity of enzymes increases steadily and the reactions that can be catalyzed are also gradually diversified. In the process of enzyme-catalyzed synthesis, the majority of common enzymatic reactions can be achieved by single enzyme catalysis, while many complex reactions often require the participation of two or more enzymes. Therefore, the combination of multiple enzymes together to construct the multi-enzyme cascade reactions has become a research hotspot in the field of biochemistry. Nowadays, the biosynthetic pathways of more natural products with complex structures have been clarified, and secondary metabolic enzymes with novel catalytic activities have been identified, discovered, and combined in enzymatic synthesis of natural/unnatural molecules with diverse structures. This study summarized a series of examples of multi-enzyme-catalyzed cascades and highlighted the application of cascade catalysis methods in the synthesis of carbohydrates, nucleosides, flavonoids, terpenes, alkaloids, and chiral molecules. Furthermore, the existing problems and solutions of multi-enzyme-catalyzed cascade method were discussed, and the future development direction was prospected.

Structure-guided preparation of fuctional oil rich in 1,3-diacylglycerols and linoleic acid from Camellia oil by combi-lipase.

BACKGROUND: Diacylglycerol (DAG)-enriched oil has been attracting attention because of its nutritional benefits and biological functions, although the composition of its various free fatty acids (FFAs) and an unclear relationship between substrate and yield make it difficult to be identified and qualified with respect to its production. In the present study, linoleic acid-enriched diacylglycerol (LA-DAG) was synthesized and enriched from Camellia oil by the esterification process using the combi-lipase Lipozyme TL IM/RM IM system. RESULTS: The relationship between FFA composition and DAG species productivity was revealed. The results showed that heterogeneous FFA with a major constituent (more than 50%) exhibited higher DAG productivity and inhibited triacylglycerol productivity compared to homogeneous constituents. Joint characterization by high-performance liquid chromatography-evaporative light scattering detection, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and ultra-performance liquid chromatography-heated electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry identified that DAG components contained dilinoleic acid acyl glyceride, linoleyl-oleyl glyceride and dioleic acid acyl glyceride in esterification products. Under the optimum conditions, 60.4% 1,3-DAG and 61.3% LA-DAG in the crude product at 1 h reaction were obtained, and further purified to 81.7% LA-DAG and 94.7% DAG via silica column chromatography. CONCLUSION: The present study provides a guideline for the identification of DAG species, as well as a structure-guided preparation method of DAG-enriched oils via the cost-effective combi-lipase. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.

ZNNs With a Varying-Parameter Design Formula for Dynamic Sylvester Quaternion Matrix Equation.

This article aims to studying how to solve dynamic Sylvester quaternion matrix equation (DSQME) using the neural dynamic method. In order to solve the DSQME, the complex representation method is first adopted to derive the equivalent dynamic Sylvester complex matrix equation (DSCME) from the DSQME. It is proven that the solution to the DSCME is the same as that of the DSQME in essence. Then, a state-of-the-art neural dynamic method is presented to generate a general dynamic-varying parameter zeroing neural network (DVPZNN) model with its global stability being guaranteed by the Lyapunov theory. Specifically, when the linear activation function is utilized in the DVPZNN model, the corresponding model [termed linear DVPZNN (LDVPZNN)] achieves finite-time convergence, and a time range is theoretically calculated. When the nonlinear power-sigmoid activation function is utilized in the DVPZNN model, the corresponding model [termed power-sigmoid DVPZNN (PSDVPZNN)] achieves the better convergence compared with the LDVPZNN model, which is proven in detail. Finally, three examples are presented to compare the solution performance of different neural models for the DSQME and the equivalent DSCME, and the results verify the correctness of the theories and the superiority of the proposed two DVPZNN models.

The construction of high efficient visible-light-driven 3D porous g-C3N4/Fe3O4 photocatalyst: A new photo-induced bacterial inactivation material enhanced by cascade photo-Fenton reaction.

Photocatalytic disinfection is considered a promising method for eliminating the hazards of pathogenic bacteria. Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is an ideal photocatalytic bacterial inactivation material for its advantage of tunable band structure, good stability and easy preparation. This work has constructed a novel defective 3D porous g-C3N4 by cyanamide carbonation using dendritic mesoporous silica template. The direct loading of Fe3O4 nanoparticles provided an excellent pg-C3N4-Fe3O4 photocatalyst suitable for water disinfection. Compared to pristine g-C3N4, the prepared 3D porous defective g-C3N4-Fe3O4 exhibited the enhanced visible light absorbance as indicated by the band gap decreasing of 0.66 eV, and about 3 and 10 fold increase of photo-induced current response and O2 adsorption respectively. The pg-C3N4-Fe3O4 showed excellent visible-light-driven photocatalytic bactericidal activity. It could kill 1 × 107 cfu mL-1Escherichia coli completely within 1 h under visible-light illumination (100 mW cm-2) with good reusability, its logarithmic bacterial inactivation efficiency was about 2.5 fold higher than pg-C3N4. The enhanced bactericidal performance is mainly ascribed to the Fe3O4 involved cascade photo-Fenton reaction.

Biosynthesis Investigations of Terpenoid, Alkaloid, and Flavonoid Antimicrobial Agents Derived from Medicinal Plants.

The overuse of antibiotics in the past decades has led to the emergence of a large number of drug-resistant microorganisms. In recent years, the infection rate caused by multidrug-resistant microorganisms has been increasing, which has become one of the most challenging problems in modern medicine. Plant-derived secondary metabolites and their derivatives have been identified to display significant antimicrobial abilities with good tolerance and less adverse side effects, potentially having different action mechanisms with antibiotics of microbial origin. Thus, these phyto-antimicrobials have a good prospect in the treatment of multidrug-resistant microorganisms. Terpenoids, alkaloids, and flavonoids made up the predominant part of the currently reported phytochemicals with antimicrobial activities. Synthetic biology research around these compounds is one of the hotspot fields in recent years, which not only has illuminated the biosynthesis pathways of these phyto-antimicrobials but has also offered new methods for their production. In this review, we discuss the biosynthesis investigations of terpenoid, alkaloid, and flavonoid antimicrobial agents-using artemisinin and oleanolic acid (terpenoids), berberine and colchicine (alkaloids), and baicalin (flavonoids) as examples-around their antimicrobial action mechanisms, biosynthesis pathway elucidation, key enzyme identification, and heterologous production, in order to provide useful hints for plant-derived antimicrobial agent discovery and development.

Disruption of three polyamine uptake transporter genes in rice by CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing confers tolerance to herbicide paraquat.

Weeds are a major biotic constraint that can cause dramatic crop production losses. Herbicide technology has been widely used by farmers as the most cost-effective weed control measure, and development of new strategy to improve herbicide tolerance in plants is urgently needed. The CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing tool has been used in diverse applications related to agricultural technology for crop improvement. Here we identified three polyamine uptake transporter (PUT) genes in rice that are homologous to the Arabidopsis AtRMV1. We successfully demonstrate that CRISPR/Cas9-targeted mutagenesis of OsPUT1/2/3 greatly improves paraquat resistance in rice without obvious yield penalty. Therefore, manipulation of these loci could be valuable for producing transgene-free rice with improved herbicide resistance in future. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42994-022-00075-4.