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Pandi Boomi,1 Ramalingam Ganesan,2 Gurumallesh Prabu Poorani,3 Sonamuthu Jegatheeswaran,4 Chandrasekaran Balakumar,5 Halliah Gurumallesh Prabu,6 Krishnan Anand,7 Narayanasamy Marimuthu Prabhu,8 Jeyaraman Jeyakanthan,1 Muthupandian Saravanan9 1Department of Bioinformatics, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu, India; 2Department of Chemistry, Arumugam Seethaiyammal Arts and Science College, Tiruppattur, Tamil Nadu, India; 3Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India; 4The Key Laboratory of Advanced Textile Materials and Manufacturing Technology of Ministry of Education, College of Materials and Textile, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 5Faculty of Pharmacy, Philadelphia University, Amman, Jordan; 6Department of Industrial Chemistry, School of Chemical Sciences, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu, India; 7Department of Chemical Pathology, School of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences and National Health Laboratory Service, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa; 8Disease Control and Prevention Lab, Department of Animal Health and Management, Science Campus, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu, India; 9Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Division of Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine, College of Health Science, Mekelle University, Mekelle, EthiopiaCorrespondence: Pandi Boomi; Muthupandian Saravanan Email pboomi1983@gmail.com; saravanan.muthupandian@mu.edu.etBackground: A diabetic ulcer is one of the major causes of illness among diabetic patients that involves severe and intractable complications associated with diabetic wounds. Hence, a suitable wound-healing agent is urgently needed at this juncture. Greener nanotechnology is a very promising and emerging technology currently employed for the development of alternative medicines. Plant-mediated synthesis of metal nanoparticles has been intensively investigated and regarded as an alternative strategy for overcoming various diseases and their secondary complications like microbial infections. Hence, we are interested in developing phyto-engineered gold nanoparticles as useful therapeutic agents for the treatment of infectious diseases and wounds effectively.Methods and Results: We have synthesized phyto-engineered gold nanoparticles from the aqueous extract of Acalypha indica and characterized using advanced bio-analytical techniques. The surface plasmon resonance feature and crystalline behavior of gold nanoparticles were revealed by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction, respectively. High-performance liquid chromatography analysis of the extract demonstrated the presence of different constituents, while major functional groups were interpreted by the Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy as the various stretching vibrations appeared for important O-H (3443 cm− 1), C=O (1644 cm− 1) and C-O (1395 cm− 1) groups. Scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy results revealed a distribution of spherical and rod-like nanostructures with 20 nm of size. The gold nanoparticle-coated cotton fabric was evaluated for the antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus epidermidis and Escherichia coli bacterial strains which revealed remarkable inhibition at the zone of inhibition of 31 mm diameter against S. epidermidis. Further, antioxidant activity was tested for their free radical scavenging property, and the maximum antioxidant activity of the extract containing gold nanoparticles was found to be 80% at 100 μg/mL. The potent free radical scavenging property of the nanoparticles is observed at IC50 value 16.25 μg/mL. Moreover, in vivo wound-healing activity was carried out using BALB/c mice model with infected diabetic wounds and observed the stained microscopic images at different time intervals (day 2, day 7 and day 15). It was noted that in 15 days, the wound area is completely re-epithelialized due to the presence of different morphologies such as spherical, needle and triangle nanoparticles. The re-epithelialization layer is fully covered by nanoparticles on the wound area and also collagen filled in the scar tissue when compared with the control group.Conclusion: The pharmacological evaluation results of the study indicated an encouraging antibacterial and antioxidant activity of the greener synthesized gold nanoparticles tethered with aqueous extract of Acalypha indica. Moreover, we demonstrated enhanced in vivo wound-healing efficiency of the synthesized gold nanoparticles through the animal model. Thus, the outcome of this work revealed that the phyto-engineered gold nanoparticles could be useful for biomedical applications, especially in the development of promising antibacterial and wound-healing agents.Keywords: gold nanoparticles, antibacterial, antioxidant, wound healing, in vivo mice model

Abstract Direct exposure to the fungal species Alternaria alternata is a major risk factor for the development of asthma, allergic rhinitis, and inflammation. As of November 23rd 2020, the NCBI protein database showed 11,227 proteins from A. alternata genome as hypothetical proteins (HPs). Allergens are the main causative of several life-threatening diseases, especially in fungal infections. Therefore, the main aim of the study is to identify the potentially allergenic inducible proteins from the HPs in A. alternata and their associated functional assignment for the complete understanding of the complex biological systems at the molecular level. AlgPred and Structural Database of Allergenic Proteins (SDAP) were used for the prediction of potential allergens from the HPs of A. alternata. While analyzing the proteome data, 29 potential allergens were predicted by AlgPred and further screening in SDAP confirmed the allergic response of 10 proteins. Extensive bioinformatics tools including protein family classification, sequence-function relationship, protein motif discovery, pathway interactions, and intrinsic features from the amino acid sequence were used to successfully predict the probable functions of the 10 HPs. The functions of the HPs are characterized as chitin-binding, ribosomal protein P1, thaumatin, glycosyl hydrolase, and NOB1 proteins. The subcellular localization and signal peptide prediction of these 10 proteins has further provided additional information on localization and function. The allergens prediction and functional annotation of the 10 proteins may facilitate a better understanding of the allergenic mechanism of A. alternata in asthma and other diseases. The functional domain level insights and predicted structural features of the allergenic proteins help to understand the pathogenesis and host immune tolerance. The outcomes of the study would aid in the development of specific drugs to combat A. alternata infections.

Aim: The aim of this present study was to investigate the antifungal mechanism of sertraline against Candida auris (C. auris) and its effect on biofilm formation. Methods and Results: Sertraline, a repurposing drug with a history of human use for the treatment of depression was screened against three different isolates of C. auris, and was found to possess efficient antifungal activity. The antifungal activity of sertraline was further confirmed by killing kinetics assay and post‐antifungal effect (PAFE). Sertraline inhibited C. auris yeast to hyphae conversion and further the inhibition of biofilm formation showed 71% inhibition upon treatment. Cell damage caused due to C. auris after treatment with sertraline was observed using SEM and cell membrane damage was ascertained using flow cytometry by Propidium Iodide (PI) uptake assay. The results of sorbitol protection assay and ergosterol effect assay suggested that sertraline did not affect the cell wall and did not act by binding to membrane ergosterol. The mechanism of action of sertraline against C. auris was understood through in silico docking studies that revealed the binding nature of sertraline to the sterol 14 alpha demethylase which is involved in ergosterol biosynthesis. Ergosterol that was quantified from treated cells showed a 5·5‐fold decrease in ergosterol production. Conclusion: Sertraline displayed promising antifungal activity against C. auris involved in candidiasis infection and the mechanism of action was predicted. Significance and impact of this study: The results of this study can encourage for the development of new antifungal agents and can be promising antifungal agent against C. auris infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]