Inhibition of lysozyme lytic activity by Ivy derived from Photobacterium damselae subsp. piscicida.

A pseudotuberculosis pathogen, Photobacterium damselae subsp. piscicida (Pdp), has caused enormous economic damage to yellowtail aquaculture in Japan. The Ivy gene has been discovered in plasmid of Pdp, and it has been proposed that it may help bacteria evade lysozyme-mediated lysis during interaction with an animal host. However, the lysozyme-inhibiting activity of Pdp-derived Ivy (Ivy-Pdp) is unknown, and it is unclear whether it acts as a virulence factor for host biophylaxis. In this study, the inhibitory effect of Ivy-Pdp on lysozyme was evaluated by expressing and purifying the recombinant Ivy-Pdp protein (rIvy-Pdp). The rIvy-Pdp protein inhibited hen egg white lysozyme activity in an rIvy-Pdp-concentration-dependent manner, and its inhibitory effect was similar under different temperature and pH conditions. The serum and skin mucus of the yellowtail (which is the host species of Pdp), Japanese flounder, and Nile tilapia showed bacteriolytic activity. In contrast, the addition of rIvy-Pdp inhibited the lytic activity in the serum of these fish species. In particular, it significantly inhibited lytic activity in the serum and skin mucus of Nile tilapia. On the basis of these results, we suggest that Ivy-Pdp is a temperature- and pH-stable lysozyme inhibitor. Additionally, Ivy-Pdp inhibited the lytic activity of lysozyme, which is involved in host biophylaxis. In summary, we inferred that Ivy-Pdp is an important factor that diminishes the sterilization ability of C-type lysozyme when Pdp infects the host.

Simaomicin alpha: effects on the cell cycle of synchronized, cultured Plasmodium falciparum.

Simaomicin alpha shows potent antimalarial activity in vitro and is known to be a cell-cycle effector. As erythrocytic schizogony of Plasmodium correlates with cell cycle events, we investigated the effect of simaomicin alpha on stage development of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Simaomicin alpha interferes with normal parasite development in a time and concentration dependent manner. Parasites exposed to 2.5 nM simaomicin alpha at the ring stage or trophozoite stage showed disrupted development and immature schizont-like and segmenter-like forms were observed. However, schizont stage parasites were not affected by 2.5 nM simaomicin alpha. It is unclear whether mitosis involved in sequential parasite development occurred when parasites were exposed to simaomicin alpha at the ring or trophozoite stage. At a concentration of 5.0 nM, simaomicin alpha inhibited merozoite-trophozoite development. This concentration curtails p-LDH activity at all parasite stages, although its impact on the schizont stage is delayed for 24 hours.

In vitro and in vivo antitrypanosomal activitiy of two microbial metabolites, KS-505a and alazopeptin.

Our on-going screening program to discover new antitrypanosomal antibiotics has been evaluating compounds isolated from soil microorganisms as well as investigating the antibiotic libraries of the Kitasato Institute for Life Sciences and BioFrontier Laboratories of Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd. We have now discovered two compounds, KS-505a and alazopeptin, which exhibit moderate antitrypanosomal characteristics. We report here the in vitro and in vivo antitrypanosomal activities and cytotoxicities of KS-505a and alazopeptin, compared with some commonly-used antitrypanosomal drugs. This is the first report of in vitro and in vivo antitrypanosomal activities of either KS-505a or alazopeptin.

Selective and potent in vitro antitrypanosomal activities of ten microbial metabolites.

More than 400 compounds isolated from soil microorganisms, and catalogued in the antibiotic library of the Kitasato Institute for Life Sciences, were screened against African trypanosomes. Ten compounds were found to have selective and potent antitrypanosomal activity in vitro: aureothin, cellocidin, destomycin A, echinomycin, hedamycin, irumamycin, LL-Z 1272beta, O-methylnanaomycin A, venturicidin A and virustomycin A. Results of the in vitro assays using the GUTat 3.1 strain of Trypanosomal brucei brucei and the STIB900 strain of T. b. rhodesiense are presented. Cytotoxicity was determined using a human MRC-5 cell line. This is the first report of antitrypanosomal activities of the 10 microbial metabolites listed above.

Selective and potent in vitro antimalarial activities found in four microbial metabolites.

Antimalarial activities have been identified in four microbial metabolites through a screening programme of existing compounds in the Kitasato Institute chemical library. Hedamycin showed selective and potent activity against both drug-resistant and drug-sensitive strains of Plasmodium falciparum. Simaomicin alpha exhibited remarkably strong antimalarial activity, although its activity against a drug-resistant strain was weaker than that against a drug-sensitive strain. The antimalarial effects of triacsins C and D are also reported.

Conducting Online Behavioral Research Using Crowdsourcing Services in Japan.

Recent research on human behavior has often collected empirical data from the online labor market, through a process known as crowdsourcing. As well as the United States and the major European countries, there are several crowdsourcing services in Japan. For research purpose, Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is the widely used platform among those services. Previous validation studies have shown many commonalities between MTurk workers and participants from traditional samples based on not only personality but also performance on reasoning tasks. The present study aims to extend these findings to non-MTurk (i.e., Japanese) crowdsourcing samples in which workers have different ethnic backgrounds from those of MTurk. We conducted three surveys (N = 426, 453, 167, respectively) designed to compare Japanese crowdsourcing workers and university students in terms of their demographics, personality traits, reasoning skills, and attention to instructions. The results generally align with previous studies and suggest that non-MTurk participants are also eligible for behavioral research. Furthermore, small screen devices are found to impair participants' attention to instructions. Several recommendations concerning this sample are presented.

In vitro and in vivo antitrypanosomal activities of three peptide antibiotics: leucinostatin A and B, alamethicin I and tsushimycin.

In the course of our screening for antitrypanosomal compounds from soil microorganisms, as well as from the antibiotics library of the Kitasato Institute for Life Sciences, we found three peptide antibiotics, leucinostatin (A and B), alamethicin I and tsushimycin, which exhibited potent or moderate antitrypanosomal activity. We report here the in vitro and in vivo antitrypanosomal properties and cytotoxicities of leucinostatin A and B, alamethicin I and tsushimycin compared with suramin. We also discuss their possible mode of action. This is the first report of in vitro and in vivo trypanocidal activity of leucinostatin A and B, alamethicin I and tsushimycin.