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In recent years, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has undergone rapid development in field of agricultural plant protection; however, the payload and max-endurance are bottlenecks that limit its further development. Tensairity is a new structure consisting of a bag filled with low-pressure gas, an upper rigid rod and a lower flexible cable. It puts tension pressure on the whole structure through internal gas pressure, provides continuous support to the upper rigid rod, and that is to say, the tensairity improves the stability of the structure in some way. And also, tensairity is a self-supporting and self-balancing system, which means it is a simple, lightweight structure with small storage volume, strong bearing capacity, and low engineering cost. It also has the advantages of gasbag and BSS (beam string structure). The main objective of this research was to introduce the theoretical basis of tensairity and then discussed its development and applications. Moreover, the advantages and disadvantages of tensairity were summarized, and development prospects of tensairity in agricultural aviation were presented. At last, it can be concluded that tensairity has potentials in agricultural aviation. If tensairity is applied in agricultural UAVs, it will solve the two major problems of payload and max-endurance better, and help promoting the development of agricultural aviation technology in agricultural aviation administration and application. Also, it will help with meeting the aerial application requirements of high efficiency and maximal environmental protection. This research will provide a reference for improving working efficiency and economic benefits of UAVs in agricultural plant protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind field is one of the important factors affecting the distribution characteristics of aerial spraying droplet deposition. In order to reveal the impact mechanism of droplet deposition distribution by the wind field below agricultural unmanned helicopter rotor, in this study, the wind field distribution below uniaxial single-rotor electric unmanned helicopter rotor was measured by using a wireless wind speed sensor network measurement system for unmanned helicopter. The effects of wind field in three directions (X, Y, Z) below the rotor on droplet deposition distribution were analyzed with the condition of aerial spraying droplet deposition in rice canopy, and the regression model was established via variance and regression analyses of experiment results. The results showed that, the wind field in Y direction had a significant effect on droplet deposition in effective spray area, the wind field in Z direction had an extremely significant effect on droplet deposition in effective spray area, and the corresponding significance (sig.) values were 0.011 and 0.000. Furthermore, the wind field in Z direction had a significant effect on the penetrability and uniformity of droplet deposition in effective spray area, the corresponding sig. values were 0.025 and 0.011 respectively. The wind speed in Y direction at the edge of effective spray area had a significant effect on droplet drift, the sig. value was 0.021. In addition, the correlation coefficient R of the regression model was 0.869 between droplet deposition in effective spray area and the wind speed in Y and Z directions, and 0.915 between the uniformity of droplet deposition in effective spray area and the maximum wind speed in Z direction. The result revealed the influencing mechanism of the wind field below the rotor of uniaxial single-rotor electric unmanned helicopter on the distribution of aerial spraying droplet deposition. The results can provide guidance for the actual production application of aerial spraying to reduce liquid drift and improve the utilization rate of pesticide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ground-based platform systems provide a good tool for monitoring and managing crop conditions in precision agriculture applications and have been widely used for monitoring crop conditions. To develop an unmanned ground vehicle system (UGVS) based multi-sensors and test the feasibility of this system for monitoring rice conditions, an UGVS was developed to collect real-time rice condition information including NDVI values, reflectance measurements and crop canopy temperature in this study. Major components of the integrated system are GreenSeeker R100 system, hyper-spectroradiometer and infrared temperature sensor. The leaf area index (LAI) was measured by the CGMD302 Spectrometer. The Independent Samples T-Test method and the one way ANOVA method were used to determine the best spectral indices and analyze the relationship between the vegetation indices and rice LAI. It was found that the two best spectral indices for estimating LAI were NDVI (860 nm and 750 nm) with the correlation coefficient (R²) at 0.745 and RVI (853 nm and 751 nm) with the R² at 0.724. The results show the UGVS can support multi-source information acquisition and is useful for crop management and precision agriculture applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid acquisition and mapping of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) values is essential for a timely evaluation of nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in sustainable agriculture. The zonal nutrient management techniques for sustainable agriculture require timely and efficient NDVI data collection and analysis capabilities, – a need that is still rarely addressed. However, as with the use of manned aircraft, the primary limitation of established unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imaging technologies is the limited time window for large-area data collection. Furthermore, as the spatial resolution increases, the post-processing time generally becomes longer. To overcome problems associated with the need for rapid data acquisition and post-processing, we have developed a UAV-based sensor system called the Accurate and Speed Scanner (AS-Scanner). The data acquisition accuracy and NDVI mapping speed of the system were assessed. According to the results of a ground-level experiment, the mean absolute error (MAE) between the reflectance data of the AS-Scanner and the corresponding data of the ASD FieldSpec 3 spectrometer is less than 1.11%. Furthermore, results of a plot-level experiment suggest that the NDVI values of a raw point cloud from AS-Scanner -based UAV platform (AS-NDVI) and UAV-mounted MicaSense RedEdge camera (REG-NDVI) are highly correlated (0.54 < R2 < 0.57, p < 0.01). In a map-level experiment, the interpolated, 15 m × 15 m pixel size AS-NDVI values were in good agreement with the REG-NDVIs over a 4.01 ha (40100 m2) rice field (0.55 < R2 < 0.65, p < 0.01). The average processing times of the inverse distance weighted (IDW, 0.45 s), kriging linear (KL, 0.73 s), and nearest neighbor (NN, 1.05 s) interpolations of the AS-Scanner data prove that it is possible to efficiently create NDVI maps using data from the sensor. Besides, the effect of the varying solar irradiance values on the AS-NDVIs was analyzed under varied illumination conditions. Moreover, the AS-NDVIs were also used to assess the NUE in a paddy rice field at the panicle stage. The results show that nutrients can be effectively assessed using AS-Scanner data. Despite some disadvantages such as the potential of NDVI value saturation over dense canopies, the AS-Scanner provides a method for quickly obtaining reasonable spatial resolution crop information for agricultural nutrient monitoring and management. This also offers the potential to reduce environmental pressure which may be caused by untimely estimation of NUE. Image 1 • A UAV system with practicality for rapid acquisition and mapping of NDVI was designed. • The reflectance precision of the present system was similar to ASD spectrometer. • The NDVI results are highly correlated to those of the RedEdge camera (R2 > 0.54). • NDVI mapping time was shortened by using the present UAV system. • Beneficial to the nutrient zonal management technology of precision agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• There is an exponential relationship between LAI and droplet deposition. • There is a cubic relationship between LAI and cotton defoliation rate. • Droplets deposition can be predicted by multiple regression model based on LAI and volume rate. • Cotton defoliation rate can be predicted by multiple regression model based on LAI and volume rate. Leaf area index influences on the spray quality and efficacy, and has relationships with the spray quality and efficacy in agricultural spray application. The aim of the present study was to sought the relations of LAI with the spray quality and efficacy of cotton defoliant spraying using unmanned aerial systems (UASs). A TRAC-II instrument was used to measure the LAI of cotton plants. Three different types of UASs with different spray volume rates (48 L·ha−1, 72 L·ha−1 and 96 L·ha−1), flight altitudes (1.5 m, 2.0 m and 2.5 m), and flight speeds (1 m·s−1, 2 m·s−1 and 3 m·s−1) were tested. Results showed the following: (1) There were exponential relationships between LAI and droplet deposition at volume rates of 48 L·ha−1, 72 L·ha−1 and 96 L·ha−1. There were cubic relationships between LAI and cotton defoliation rate at volume rates of 48 L·ha−1, 72 L·ha−1 and 96 L·ha−1. (2) The multiple regression model between LAI and volume rate, and droplet deposition was D = −0.02896 − 0.08055 L + 0.01226 V, the R2 and RMSE values of the training and test sets were 0.81 and 0.08, and 0.83 and 0.07, respectively. The multiple regression model between LAI and volume rate, and cotton defoliation was C = 100.8524 − 4.0617 L + 0.05482 V, the R2 and RMSE values of the training and test sets were 0.72 and 0.17, and 0.75 and 0.06, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Monitoring crop spike growth using low-altitude remote sensing images is essential for precision agriculture, as it enables accurate crop health assessment and yield estimation. Despite the advancements in deep learning-based visual recognition, existing crop spike detection methods struggle to balance computational efficiency with accuracy in complex multi-scale environments, particularly on resource-constrained low-altitude remote sensing platforms., Methods: To address this gap, we propose FDRMNet, a novel feature diffusion reconstruction mechanism network designed to accurately detect crop spikes in challenging scenarios. The core innovation of FDRMNet lies in its multi-scale feature focus reconstruction and lightweight parameter-sharing detection head, which can effectively improve the computational efficiency of the model while enhancing the model's ability to perceive spike shape and texture.FDRMNet introduces a Multi-Scale Feature Focus Reconstruction module that integrates feature information across different scales and employs various convolutional kernels to capture global context effectively. Additionally, an Attention-Enhanced Feature Fusion Module is developed to improve the interaction between different feature map positions, leveraging adaptive average pooling and convolution operations to enhance the model's focus on critical features. To ensure suitability for low-altitude platforms with limited computational resources, we incorporate a Lightweight Parameter Sharing Detection Head, which reduces the model's parameter count by sharing weights across convolutional layers., Results: According to the evaluation experiments on the global wheat head detection dataset and diverse rice panicle detection dataset, FDRMNet outperforms other state-of-the-art methods with mAP @.5 of 94.23%, 75.13% and R 2 value of 0.969, 0.963 between predicted values and ground truth values. In addition, the model's frames per second and parameters in the two datasets are 227.27,288 and 6.8M, respectively, which maintains the top three position among all the compared algorithms., Discussion: Extensive qualitative and quantitative experiments demonstrate that FDRMNet significantly outperforms existing methods in spike detection and counting tasks, achieving higher detection accuracy with lower computational complexity.The results underscore the model's superior practicality and generalization capability in real-world applications. This research contributes a highly efficient and computationally effective solution for crop spike detection, offering substantial benefits to precision agriculture practices., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The reviewer GW declared a shared affiliation with the author CS to the handling editor at the time of review., (Copyright © 2024 Ming, Gong, Yang, Luo, Song and Zhou.)

Dental caries, one of the most prevalent diseases globally, affects individuals throughout their lifetimes. Recently, researchers have increasingly focused on postbiotics for caries prevention. Postbiotics, comprising inanimate microorganisms and/or their components, confer health benefits to the host. Growing evidence suggests postbiotics' potential anticaries effects. Specifically, numerous postbiotics have demonstrated the ability to inhibit dental caries onset and progression by modulating oral flora microecology and reducing human caries susceptibility. This review elaborates on the current research regarding postbiotics' anticaries effects, highlights some studies' shortcomings, and innovatively proposes that postbiotics could potentially influence tooth development and salivary characteristics through epigenetic modifications. Furthermore, it anticipates postbiotics' future application in personalised caries treatment, given their multifaceted anticaries potential.

Background and Objective: Prevention of periodontal bone resorption triggered by Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) is crucial for dental stability. Capsaicin, known as the pungent ingredient of chili peppers, can activate key signaling molecules involved in osteogenic process. However, the effect of capsaicin on osteogenesis of periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) under inflammation remains elusive., Methods: P. gingivalis culture suspension was added to mimic the inflammatory status after capsaicin pretreatment. The effects of capsaicin on the osteogenesis of PDLSCs, as well as mitochondrial morphology, Ca 2+ level, reactive oxygen species (ROS), mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), and osteogenesis-regulated protein expression levels were analyzed. Furthermore, a mouse experimental periodontitis model was established to evaluate the effect of capsaicin on alveolar bone resorption and the expression of osteogenesis-related proteins., Results: Under P. gingivalis stimulation, capsaicin increased osteogenesis of PDLSCs. Not surprisingly, capsaicin rescued the damage to mitochondrial morphology, decreased the concentration of intracellular Ca 2+ and ROS, enhanced MMP and activated phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT)/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway. The in vivo results showed that capsaicin significantly attenuated alveolar bone loss and augmented the expression of bone associated proteins., Conclusion: Capsaicin increases osteogenesis of PDLSCs under inflammation and reduces alveolar bone resorption in mouse experimental periodontitis., (© 2024 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Actinomycetes have long been recognized as important sources of clinical antibiotics. However, the exploration of rare actinomycetes, despite their potential for producing bioactive molecules, has remained relatively limited compared to the extensively studied Streptomyces genus. The extensive investigation of Streptomyces species and their natural products has led to a diminished probability of discovering novel bioactive compounds from this group. Consequently, our research focus has shifted towards less explored actinomycetes, beyond Streptomyces , with particular emphasis on Kitasatospora setae ( K. setae ). The genome of K. setae was annotated and analyzed through whole-genome sequencing using multiple bio-informatics tools, revealing an 8.6 Mbp genome with a 74.42% G + C content. AntiSMASH analysis identified 40 putative biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), approximately half of which were recessive and unknown. Additionally, metabolomic mining utilizing mass spectrometry demonstrated the potential for this rare actinomycete to generate numerous bioactive compounds such as glycosides and macrolides, with bafilomycin being the major compound produced. Collectively, genomics- and metabolomics-based techniques confirmed K. setae 's potential as a bioactive secondary metabolite producer that is worthy of further exploration.

Introduction: Cells expressing taste signaling elements in non-gustatory tissues have been described as solitary chemosensory cells (SCCs) or tuft cells. These "taste-like" cells play a critical role in the maintenance of tissue homeostasis. Although the expression of SCC markers and taste signaling constituents has been identified in mouse gingivae, their role in periodontal homeostasis is still unclear., Methods: Public RNA sequencing datasets were re-analyzed and further validated with RT-PCR/qRT-PCR and immunofluorescent staining to explore the expression of TAS2Rs and downstream signaling constituents in mouse gingival fibroblasts (MGFs). The specific action of salicin on MGFs via Tas2r143 was validated with RNA silence, heterologous expression of taste receptor/Gα-gustducin and calcium imaging. The anti-inflammatory effects of salicin against LPS-induced MGFs were investigated in cell cultures, and were further validated with a ligature-induced periodontitis mouse model using Ga-gustducin-null (Gnat3 -/- ) mice., Results: The expression of Tas2r143, Gnat3, Plcb2, and TrpM5 was detected in MGFs. Moreover, salicin could activate Tas2r143, elicited taste signaling and thus inhibited LPS-induced chemokines expression (CXCL1, CXCL2, and CXCL5) in MGFs. Consistently, salicin-treatment inhibited periodontal bone loss, inflammatory/chemotactic factors expression, and neutrophil infiltration in periodontitis mice, while these effects were abolished in Gnat3 -/- mice., Discussion: Gingival fibroblasts play a critical role in the maintenance of periodontal homeostasis via "SCC-like" activity. Salicin can activate Tas2r143-mediated bitter taste signaling and thus alleviate periodontitis in mouse, indicating a promising approach to the resolution of periodontal inflammation via stimulating the "SCC-like" function of gingival fibroblasts., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2024 Zhang, Zhou, Liu, Zheng, Peng, Zhao, Zheng and Xu.)

Extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling is accompanied by the continuous synthesis and degradation of the ECM components. This dynamic process plays an important role in guiding cell adhesion, migration, proliferation, and differentiation, as well as in tissue development, body repair, and maintenance of homeostasis. Nanomaterials, due to their photoelectric and catalytic properties and special structure, have garnered much attention in biomedical fields for use in processes such as tissue engineering and disease treatment. Nanomaterials can reshape the cell microenvironment by changing the synthesis and degradation of ECM-related proteins, thereby indirectly changing the behavior of the surrounding cells. This review focuses on the regulatory role of nanomaterials in the process of cell synthesis of different ECM-related proteins and extracellular protease. We discuss influencing factors and possible related mechanisms of nanomaterials in ECM remodeling, which may provide different insights into the design and development of nanomaterials for the treatment of ECM disorder-related diseases.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common malignant diseases of urinary system and has poor prognosis after progression to castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), and increased cytosine methylation heterogeneity is associated with the more aggressive phenotype of PCa cell line. Activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) is a multifunctional enzyme and contributes to antibody diversification. However, the dysregulation of AID participates in the progression of multiple diseases and related with certain oncogenes through demethylation. Nevertheless, the role of AID in PCa remains elusive. We observed a significant upregulation of AID expression in PCa samples, which exhibited a negative correlation with E-cadherin expression. Furthermore, AID expression is remarkably higher in CRPC cells than that in HSPC cells, and AID induced the demethylation of CXCL12, which is required to stabilize the Wnt signaling pathway executor β-catenin and EMT procedure. Our study suggests that AID drives CRPC metastasis by demethylation and can be a potential therapeutic target for CRPC., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2023 The Authors.)

Each step in angiogenesis is regulated by the extracellular matrix (ECM). Accumulating evidence indicates that ageing-related changes in the ECM driven by cellular senescence lead to a reduction in neovascularisation, reduced microvascular density, and an increased risk of tissue ischaemic injury. These changes can lead to health events that have major negative impacts on quality of life and place a significant financial burden on the healthcare system. Elucidating interactions between the ECM and cells during angiogenesis in the context of ageing is neceary to clarify the mechanisms underlying reduced angiogenesis in older adults. In this review, we summarize ageing-related changes in the composition, structure, and function of the ECM and their relevance for angiogenesis. Then, we explore in detail the mechanisms of interaction between the aged ECM and cells during impaired angiogenesis in the older population for the first time, discussing diseases caused by restricted angiogenesis. We also outline several novel pro-angiogenic therapeutic strategies targeting the ECM that can provide new insights into the choice of appropriate treatments for a variety of age-related diseases. Based on the knowledge gathered from recent reports and journal articles, we provide a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying impaired angiogenesis with age and contribute to the development of effective treatments that will enhance quality of life., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Two-dimensional (2-D) optical phased arrays (OPAs) usually suffer from limited scan ranges and small aperture sizes. To overcome these bottlenecks, we utilize an aperiodic 32 × 32 grid to increase the beam scanning range and furthermore distribute 128 grating antennas sparsely among 1024 grid points so as to reduce the array element number. The genetic algorithm is used to optimize the uneven grid spacings and the sparse distribution of grating antennas. With these measures, a 128-channel 2-D OPA operating at 1550 nm realizes a grating-lobe-free steering range of 53° × 16°, a field of view of 24° × 16°, a beam divergence of 0.31° × 0.49°, and a sidelobe suppression ratio of 9 dB.

The presence of water in narrow pore spaces affects the occurrence and flow of methane, which in turn affects shale gas production. Therefore, studying the occurrence and distribution characteristics of water is of great significance to predict gas production. Based on molecular dynamics simulations, this study investigated the occurrence characteristics and influencing variables of liquid water in kaolinite nanopores in situ. Owing to its widespread distribution, kaolinite is the most prevalent clay mineral with two surfaces with different characteristics. Three systems of pure water, a CaCl 2 solution, and a H 2 O/CH 4 mixed phase were created at varied temperatures (80-120 °C) and pressures (70-120 MPa). The presence of gas and water in the nanopores was investigated thoroughly. The results showed that the adsorption of water on the Al-O octahedral surface of kaolinite was not affected by external conditions under in situ conditions, whereas the adsorption of water on the Si-O tetrahedral surface decreased with increasing temperature, but the change was small. When ions were present in the system, the water capacity decreased. Based on the aforementioned results, external conditions, such as temperature and pressure do not affect the basic state of water. However, if there are more than two fluid types in the system, the adsorption of water on the mineral surface is reduced owing to competitive adsorption. In addition, a CH 4 -H 2 O mixed system was simulated, in which methane molecules were distributed in clusters. There are two types of adsorptions in pores: gas-solid interactions and solid-liquid-gas interactions. CH 4 molecules are thought to be clustered in water molecules because of the strong hydrogen bonding interactions among the water., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

Introduction: Crop pests have a great impact on the quality and yield of crops. The use of deep learning for the identification of crop pests is important for crop precise management., Methods: To address the lack of data set and poor classification accuracy in current pest research, a large-scale pest data set named HQIP102 is built and the pest identification model named MADN is proposed. There are some problems with the IP102 large crop pest dataset, such as some pest categories are wrong and pest subjects are missing from the images. In this study, the IP102 data set was carefully filtered to obtain the HQIP102 data set, which contains 47,393 images of 102 pest classes on eight crops. The MADN model improves the representation capability of DenseNet in three aspects. Firstly, the Selective Kernel unit is introduced into the DenseNet model, which can adaptively adjust the size of the receptive field according to the input and capture target objects of different sizes more effectively. Secondly, in order to make the features obey a stable distribution, the Representative Batch Normalization module is used in the DenseNet model. In addition, adaptive selection of whether to activate neurons can improve the performance of the network, for which the ACON activation function is used in the DenseNet model. Finally, the MADN model is constituted by ensemble learning., Results: Experimental results show that MADN achieved an accuracy and F1Score of 75.28% and 65.46% on the HQIP102 data set, an improvement of 5.17 percentage points and 5.20 percentage points compared to the pre-improvement DenseNet-121. Compared with ResNet-101, the accuracy and F1Score of MADN model improved by 10.48 percentage points and 10.56 percentage points, while the parameters size decreased by 35.37%. Deploying models to cloud servers with mobile application provides help in securing crop yield and quality., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Peng, Xu, Gao, Zhou, Tian, Deng, He and Xian.)

Jasminum grandiflorum L. (JG) is a medicinal plant containing many bioactive ingredients. Herein, we analyzed the effects of four different extracts and two compounds of JG on acute liver injury caused by carbon tetrachloride (CCl 4 ) and underlying molecular mechanisms. 7 weeks old C57BL/6 male mice were used to establish a liver injury model by injecting with 1% CCl 4 , 10 mL/kg ip. Four different extracts and two compounds of JG were given to mice by gavage for 3 days. Clinical and histological chemistry assays were performed to assess liver injury. Moreover, hepatic oxidative stress and inflammation related markers were determined by immunohistochemistry and western blotting. As a result, JG extracts and two functional components showed different degree of protect effects against CCl 4 -induced liver injury by the decrease of elevated serum transaminases and liver index, and the attenuation of histopathological changes in mice, among which JG extracted with petroleum ether (PET) had the most significant effect. In addition, PET remarkably alleviated hepatic oxidative stress and inflammation. Further studies revealed that PET significantly inhibited the TNF-α expression, signal pathway expression, NF-κB p65 and inflammatory factors IL-1β and IL-6 expression in CCl 4 -induced liver injury mice. Nevertheless, hydroxytyrosol (HT) alleviated liver injury by reducing oxidative stress. Apart from PET extract, other extracts of JG can inhibit cytochrome CYP2E1 expression to protect liver tissue. These findings suggest that the extracts and its components of JG possesses the potential protective effects against CCl 4 -induced liver injury in mice by exerting antioxidative stress and anti-inflammation., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.. All rights reserved.)

Candida albicans causes a high mortality rate in immunocompromised individuals, but the increased drug resistance challenges the current antifungal therapeutics. Fluphenazine (FPZ), a commonly used antipsychotic medication, can induce the expression of drug efflux pumps in C. albicans and, thus, may interfere with the therapeutic efficacy of antifungals, such as fluconazole (FLC) and amphotericin B (AmB). Here, we investigated the combined effects of FLC/FPZ and AmB/FPZ against C. albicans in vitro and in a systemic candidiasis mouse model. The antifungal activity of FLC was significantly reduced when supplemented with FPZ. The inhibitory effects of FLC on the expression of the Candida virulence-related genes ALS3 and HWP1 were antagonized by FPZ. However, FPZ enhanced the susceptibility of C. albicans to AmB and further downregulated the expression of ALS3 and HWP1 in a synergistic manner with AmB. FPZ also enhanced the gene expression of ERG11, a key gene of the ergosterol biosynthesis pathway that has been associated with the activities of both FLC and AmB. In our mammalian infection model, mice treated with FLC/FPZ showed notably poor living status and increased fungal burden in their kidneys and brains compared with those treated with FLC alone. Conversely, the combined application of AmB/FPZ significantly improved the survival rate, attenuated the weight loss and reduced the organ fungal burdens of the infected mice. These data suggest that FPZ antagonized the therapeutic efficacy of FLC but enhanced the antifungal activity of AmB in the treatment of candidiasis.