Oro-Motor Intervention Protocol to Improve Sucking Behavior among Neonates with Immature Sucking: An Experimental Protocol.

BACKGROUND: Oro-motor intervention methods were previously adopted to improve the sucking pattern but there is still a lag in the structured protocol for improving sucking behavior in infants with immature sucking. Thus, this study is aimed to develop a structured protocol for the Oro-motor intervention to improve sucking behavior. METHOD: Using the prospective observational study design, neonates with poor suck (producing less than 10 sucks per minute), under NG tube feeding, and maintaining oxygen saturation at room air were included. A total of 6 subjects were enrolled in this study and they were treated with Oro-motor intervention protocol. The Sucking rate and LATCH score were taken as the outcome measures and measured at beginning of intervention and after 2 weeks of intervention. RESULT: The mean pre-test and post-test values for sucking rate were is (8.66), (32.5) and LATCH were (4.66), (8.16) respectively. The data collected showed that the protocol framed for Oro-motor intervention was significantly effective in improving quality of feeding among infants with immature sucking behavior. CONCLUSION: The structured Oro-motor intervention protocol improves the feeding performance in infants with poor sucking behavior and improves the LATCH score. All the infants included in this study where under nasogastric tube feeding, thus the structured protocol can be considered to be helpful in weaning from NG tube feeding.

Delineating citrinin biosynthesis: Ctn-ORF3 dioxygenase-mediated multi-step methyl oxidation precedes a reduction-mediated pyran ring cyclization.

Citrinin (3) is a polyketide-derived mycotoxin, that is, produced by Monascus, Penicillium, and Aspergillus spp. and is a common contaminant in a number of agricultural products. ctPKS, a non-reducing type iterative polyketide synthase with a C-terminal reductive domain, is proposed to generate the polyketide backbone of 3. The targeted gene inactivation of ctn-orf1 or ctn-orf3 gene resulted in the accumulation of a benzaldehyde derivative 6, and the ectopic expression of ctPKS/ctnB in yeast produced 6, demonstrating that ctPKS generates 6 with the support of CtnB and suggesting that Ctn-ORF1/Ctn-ORF3 converts 6 into 3. The Δctn-orf1 mutant also produced a novel benzdialdehyde derivative 10. When either 6 or 10 was fed into a ΔctPKS mutant, 3 was readily detected, which confirms that both 6 and 10 are involved in the biosynthesis of 3. A bioconversion experiment of 6 in the ectopic expression system demonstrated that ctn-orf3 expression, but not ctn-orf1 expression, efficiently consumed 6. The resulting metabolite(s) of 6 could not be identified, however. A recombinant Ctn-ORF3 enzyme was demonstrated to convert 6 into 10 and a hypothetical carboxylic derivative 8, which substantiates that Ctn-ORF3 oxidizes the exocyclic methyl moiety of 6. Ctn-ORF1 is thus proposed to reduce 8 and the subsequent non-enzymatic reactions to complete the biosynthesis of 3. The present study delineates the biosynthetic route of 3, proposing the biochemical mechanism, that is, involved in producing the natural dihydropyranoquinone structure.

A New Protein Factor in the Product Formation of Non-Reducing Fungal Polyketide Synthase with a C-Terminus Reductive Domain.

Azaphilone polyketides are synthesized by iterative non-reducing fungal polyketide synthases (NR-fPKSs) with a C-terminus reductive domain (-R). Several azaphilone biosynthetic gene clusters contain a putative serine hydrolase gene; the Monascus azaphilone pigment (MAzP) gene cluster harbors mppD. The MAzP productivity was significantly reduced by a knockout of mppD, and the MAzP NR-fPKS-R gene (MpPKS5) generated its product in yeast only when co-expressed with mppD. Site-directed mutations of mppD for conserved Ser/Asp/His residues abolished the product formation from the MpPKS5/mppD co-expression. MppD and its homologs are thus proposed as a new protein factor involved in the product formation of NR-fPKS-R.