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Abstract A novel antibacterial immunostimulant using Platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) and lectin from Metapenaeus dobsoni (Md-Lec) was developed. The Md-Lec and PtNPs (Pt-lec) hybrid formed through non-covalent interaction exhibits antimicrobial activity against fish specific pathogens by affecting membrane integrity and producing excess reactive oxygen species. The therapeutic efficacy of Pt-lec was demonstrated through rescuing Aeromonas hydrophila infected Nile Tilapia. Pt-lec prevents the infection spreading and reduces the bacterial bioburden in less than 12 h, and as a result of this the fish were restored to normalcy. To assess immunostimulation, we studied the expression of three different immune related genes, namely LEC, Myd88 and COX-2 in the gills, liver, spleen and kidney of fish under various experimental conditions. Our results showed that Pt-lec treatment appeared to be better when compared to lectin alone in enhancing the expression of Myd88 and COX-2, but LEC was not as expected. These results suggest that Pt-lec has the ability to protect Nile Tilapia against bacterial infection by restricting bacterial bioburden through their direct effects on the bacterial membrane and indirectly through their effects on host immune-related gene expression. This hybrid could have potential “green” application in fish farming in rescuing infected animals when compared to widely and unregulated antibiotics.

Catalytic esterification in water has been achieved with the aid of a commercially available polymer-supported lipase, Novozym-435. Remarkably, this well-known biocatalyst demonstrates significant activity towards esterification using just water as the reaction medium. This methodology features representative esterifications of complex acids and alcohols, in the presence of unprotected amines. The work disclosed leading to esters typically requires only two equivalents of alcohol, although conversion for water-soluble alcohols appears to require increased loadings. Recycling of both the aqueous medium and catalyst are documented, highlighting the potential of this new technology, especially using directed evolution on the enzyme involved. Pharmaceutically relevant compounds are efficiently esterified (e.g., Ibuprofen, Tolmetin, and Ticagrelor) and multi-step, one-pot chemoenzymatic sequences can be performed to demonstrate the robustness of this catalytic aqueous system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is a major complication of diabetes mellitus, major observations of DFU cases have reported on amputation of foot region, and microbial bioburden during DFU is a major cause that affects healing of the wound regions. Pathogenic microbes are routinely isolated from these wound regions, especially Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas, Klebsiella, and Escherichia coli have been reported, whereas higher prevalence of Pseudomonas species during chronic condition in the deeper part of the wound, when left untreated, leads to gangrene. Multiple drug-resistant Pseudomonas strains are a new threat because of their biofilm-forming ability, making it more potent and incurable. Acyl homoserine lactones (AHL) are a group of signaling molecules that can regulate biofilm growth, and Las and Rhl operon generally work in tandem to initiate biofilm formation by Pseudomonas species. These signaling molecules also initiate virulence factors that correlates upregulation of inflammatory responses, and AHL can be a therapeutic target in order to prevent the efficacy of multiple drug-resistant strains that form biofilm and also can be an alternative solution against control of multiple drug-resistant strains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  Proline-rich protein (PRP), a cell wall protein of plant, has been studied in many plant species. Yet, none of the PRPs has been functionally elucidated. Here we report a novel flower-specific PRP designated OsPRP3 from rice. Expression analysis showed that the OsPRP3 transcript was mainly present in rice flower and accumulated abundantly during the late stage of the flower development. To study the function of OsPRP3, we constructed and transformed a binary vector containing a full clone of OsPRP3 in sense orientation and also an RNAi vector to achieve overexpression and knockout of the gene, respectively. Our overexpression plants showed a significant increase in cold tolerance than the WT plants which is conferred by the accumulation of OsPRP3 protein during cold treatment. Further the microscopic analysis revealed that OsPRP3 enhances the cell wall integrity in the cold tolerant plant and confers cold-tolerance in rice. Microscopic analysis of the RNAi mutant flower revealed that blocking OsPRP3 function caused significant defects in floral organogenesis. Taken together, the results suggested that OsPRP3 is a cell wall protein, playing a crucial role in determining extracellular matrix structure of floral organs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A communicable disease such as tuberculosis (TB), which takes ∼10 million lives worldwide every year, is one of the major concerns for future generations. The intake of multiple antibiotics is increasing because of the emergence of multiple drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) to pathogens which do not respond to the first-line TB drugs. Even though numerous drugs are available on the market, there is a huge need for MDR-TB drugs. Herein, our emphasis was to synthesise a series of 2,4,6-substituted quinoline conjugated piperazine coupled sulfonamides, as well as amides, and to study and evaluate their in vitro antibacterial activity against both susceptible and resistant pathogens of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Furthermore, their antituberculosis activity was assessed against non-virulent, virulent and MDR pathogens. Few compounds displayed inhibitory activity against bacterial growth, but two compounds displayed significant inhibitory activity against all the TB strains (lowest MIC of 10g is 0.07 μM and 11e is 1.1 μM), which are more effective than other 1st line and 2nd line TB drugs. These two compounds are less cytotoxic, and could be developed as antibiotics or MDR-TB drugs by improving their hydrophilicity., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)