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The emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOC) harbor mutations associated with increasing transmission and immune escape, hence undermine the effectiveness of current COVID-19 vaccines. In late November of 2021, the Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant was identified in South Africa and rapidly spread across the globe. It was shown to exhibit significant resistance to neutralization by serum not only from convalescent patients, but also from individuals receiving currently used COVID-19 vaccines with multiple booster shots. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop next generation vaccines against VOCs like Omicron. In this study, we develop a panel of mRNA-LNP-based vaccines using the receptor binding domain (RBD) of Omicron and Delta variants, which are dominant in the current wave of COVID-19. In addition to the Omicron- and Delta-specific vaccines, the panel also includes a “Hybrid” vaccine that uses the RBD containing all 16 point-mutations shown in Omicron and Delta RBD, as well as a bivalent vaccine composed of both Omicron and Delta RBD-LNP in half dose. Interestingly, both Omicron-specific and Hybrid RBD-LNP elicited extremely high titer of neutralizing antibody against Omicron itself, but few to none neutralizing antibody against other SARS-CoV-2 variants. The bivalent RBD-LNP, on the other hand, generated antibody with broadly neutralizing activity against the wild-type virus and all variants. Surprisingly, similar cross-protection was also shown by the Delta-specific RBD-LNP. Taken together, our data demonstrated that Omicron-specific mRNA vaccine can induce potent neutralizing antibody response against Omicron, but the inclusion of epitopes from other variants may be required for eliciting cross-protection. This study would lay a foundation for rational development of the next generation vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 VOCs.

Since global oil prices have declined, the price of virgin PET has dropped dramatically, and caused the recycling of PET more challenging. To make the situation worse, the rapid precipitation of terephthalic acid (TPA) from alkaline hydrolysis of PET resulted in very small particles of TPA with unfavorable filtration and drying behaviors. The aim of this work was to engineer product properties of TPA for downstream operations with the existing processing steps. The size effects of TPA crystals/precipitates on filtration, and on drying behaviors, were conducted in terms of specific cake resistance and drying-rate curve, respectively. The whole operating windows was determined for a process optimization by varying operating temperature, feeding strategy, the proportion of water to dimethyl sulfoxide, and the introduction of a cooling operation. Our whole process could be achieved within 8 h at the optimal conditions. As compared to the literature method for chemical recycling of PET, the optimal case exhibited much improved specific cake resistance of ~4.8 × 106 m/g by two orders, and shortened the drying time to 3 h by three times. The TPA crystalline products were also characterized by FTIR for identification, NMR for purity, PXRD for crystallinity, and SEM for particle morphology.

Novel substituted tridentate ligands, which contains a series of pyrazole and pyridine groups as donors, and their cyclometalated complexes have been successfully synthesized. The ligands and complexes were completely characterized by a variety of techniques, such as 1H NMR, UV–Vis, FT-IR, mass spectrometry and elemental analysis. Meanwhile, the single crystal structures of ligand 7 and complex 11 were determined by X-ray crystallography. For ligand 7, due to the effect of delocalization, the C(6)-C(7) bond length in the pyrazole ring is 0.05 A shorter than a normal C-C bond. After coordinating with the metal centre, the configuration was limited by the coordination sphere, so the bond lengths and bond angles of complex 11 are different from those of ligand 7. Through photoluminescence in acetonitrile solution at ambient temperature, two emission bands have been found between 500 and 600 nm for complexes 9 and 10. Moreover, there are several absorbing bands respectively located at 240 to 250 nm and 300 to 310 nm for ligands 7 and 8 (π(L) → π*(L) and n → π*(L)). A red-shift was observed in the UV spectra, on comparing the complexes with electron-donating and electron-withdrawing groups on the ligand, which is due to the electronic effect of the substituent. One absorbing band is also found at 375 to 425 nm for complexes 9 and 10, and this band is attributed to a MLCT (dπ(Pt) → π*(L)).

Vibrio alginolyticus is an opportunistic pathogen of animals and humans; its related strains can also produce tetrodotoxin and hemolysins. A new phage, ϕA318, which lysed its host V. alginolyticus with high efficiency, was characterized. The burst size of ϕA318 in V. alginolyticus was 72 PFU/bacterium at an MOI of 1 at room temperature; the plaque size was as large as 5 mm in diameter. Electron microscopy (EM) of the phage particles revealed a 50- to 55-nm isomorphous icosahedral head with a 12-nm non-contractile tail, similar to the T7-like phages of the family Podoviridae. Phylogenetic analysis based on complete sequences of the DNA-directed RNA polymerase gene revealed that ϕA318 had 28-47% amino acid identity to enterobacteria phages T7 and SP6, and other Vibrio phages, and the phylogenetic distance suggested that ϕA318 could be classified as a new T7-like bacteriophage. Nevertheless, several motifs in the ϕA318 phage RNA polymerase were highly conserved, including DFRGR (T7-421 motif), DG (T7-537 motif), PSEKPQDIYGAVS (T7-563 motif), RSMTKKPVMTL PYGS (T7-627 motif), and HDS (T7-811 motif). Genetic analysis indicated that phage ϕA318 is not a thermostable direct hemolysin producer. The results suggest that the MOI should be higher than 0.1 to prevent the chance of hemolysin production by the bacteria before they are lysed by the phage.