Natural product derived promising anti-MRSA drug leads: A review

Multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections have created a critical need for the development of new classes of antibacterials. Discovery of new naturally derived antibacterial agents with new mechanism of action remains a high priority globally. Several of the available antibacterial agents like β-lactams, polyketides, phenylpropanoids, aminoglycosides, macrolides, glycopeptides, streptogramins and lipopeptides are natural products or their semisynthetic variations. In the current scenario of alarming rise in antibacterial resistance, revisiting natural products with modern chemistry and biology tools has fascinated many medicinal chemists for discovery and development of natural products or derived semisynthetic derivatives as effective antibacterial agents. This review underlines the structures and anti-MRSA activity of various natural product derivatives covering recent reports, in vivo activities and brief Structure Activity Relationships (SARs).     

The mode of action of cytotoxic and antitumor 1-nitroacridines. III. In vivo interstrand cross-linking of DNA of mammalian or bacterial cells by 1-nitroacridines

To define a critical lesion in presumable target DNA cause in vivo by the antitumor and cytotoxic 1-nitroacridines, Ehrlich ascites tumor (Eat) cells implanted into mice, HeLa cells grown in monolayer culture or Bacillus subtilis SB 1058 strain cells were exposed to Ledakrin [Nitracrine; 1-nitro-9-(3'-dimethylamino-n-propylamino)acridine], its non-antitumor congeners, or mitomycin C tested for comparison; total intracellular DNA was isolated from control or treated cells and denatured by heat, alkali or formamide, after which the chemically-induced fraction of interstrand cross-linked DNA molecules was assessed by thermal denaturation-renaturation curve analysis, hydroxylapatite column chromatography, or partitioning in a Dextran T500-polyethylene glycol 6000 biphasic system. Ledakrin, as compared to mitomycin C, was a very effective cross-linking agent, inducing one covalent cross-link per approx. 20 X 10(3) (B. subtilis), 56 X 10(3) (HeLa) or 80 X 10(3) (Eat) DNA base pairs. The first cross-links were introduced in B. subtilis cell genomes at minimal bactericidal concentrations of Ledakrin of mitomycin C. Ledakrin failed to induce discernible cross-linking of bihelical DNA when complexed with in cell-free system. Unlike the other two 1-nitroacridines which cross-linked DNA of cultured HeLa or B. subtilis cells, the non-antitumor 2-, 3- or 4-nitroacridines did not cause such effect and diminished cross-linking by Ledakrin or mitomycin C. Hence, upon metabolic activation in mammalian or bacterial cell Ledakrin and, most probably other 1-nitroacridines, become very effective DNA cross-linking agents and such effects appear to be responsible for the antitumor and potent cytotoxic activities of 1-nitroacridines.     

On the mechanisms of induced somatic recombination by certain fungicides in Aspergillus nidulans.

Four fungicides interfered with the segregation of chromosomes at mitosis of Aspergillus nidulans by increasing the somatic recombination, shown as colour sectors in green colonies, in a strain heterozygous for spore colour mutations. In an attempt to discover the mechanisms by which these fungicides increased the somatic recombination, a prototrophic diploid strain, heterozygous for colour and several other appropriate markers in all chromosomes, was used which enabled the detection and classification of all colour recombinants to be made by genetic analysis. The fungicides investigated were: benomyl (methyl-1-(butylcarbamoyl)-2-benzimidazole carbamate) a benzimidazole derivative, botran (2,6-dichloro-4-nitroaniline) and chloroneb (1,4-dichloro-2,5-dimethoxybenzene) of the aromatic hydrocarbon group of fungicides, and the antibiotic actinomycin D. At least three different mechanisms, non-disjunction, mitotic crossing-over and breakage-deletion, were found to be responsible for the recombinogenic activity of the compounds studied.     

Antimicrobial potential of a lipopeptide biosurfactant derived from a marine Bacillus circulans

Aims: To isolate the biologically active fraction of the lipopeptide biosurfactant produced by a marine Bacillus circulans and study its antimicrobial potentials. Methods and Results: The marine isolate B. circulans was cultivated in glucose mineral salts medium and the crude biosurfactant was isolated by chemical isolation method. The crude biosurfactants were solvent extracted with methanol and the methanol extract was subjected to reverse phase high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The crude biosurfactants resolved into six major fractions in HPLC. The sixth HPLC fraction eluting at a retention time of 27·3 min showed the maximum surface tension‐reducing property and reduced the surface tension of water from 72 mNm^?1 to 28 mNm^?1. Only this fraction was found to posses bioactivity and showed a pronounced antimicrobial action against a panel of Gram‐positive and Gram‐negative pathogenic and semi‐pathogenic micro‐organisms including a few multidrug‐resistant (MDR) pathogenic clinical isolates. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of this antimicrobial fraction of the biosurfactant were determined for these test organisms. The biosurfactant was found to be active against Gram‐negative bacteria such as Proteus vulgaris and Alcaligens faecalis at a concentration as low as 10 μg ml^?1. The biosurfactant was also active against methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and other MDR pathogenic strains. The chemical identity of this bioactive biosurfactant fraction was determined by post chromatographic detection using thin layer chromatography (TLC) and also by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The antimicrobial HPLC fraction resolved as a single spot on TLC and showed positive reaction with ninhydrin, iodine and rhodamine‐B reagents, indicating its lipopeptide nature. IR absorption by this fraction also showed similar and overlapping patterns with that of other lipopeptide biosurfactants such as surfactin and lichenysin, proving this biosurfactant fraction to be a lipopeptide. The biosurfactant did not show any haemolytic activity when tested on blood agar plates, unlike the lipopeptide biosurfactant surfactin produced by Bacillus subtilis. Conclusions: The biosurfactant produced by marine B. circulans had a potent antimicrobial activity against Gram‐positive and Gram‐negative pathogenic and semi‐pathogenic microbial strains including MDR strains. Only one of the HPLC fractions of the crude biosurfactants was responsible for its antimicrobial action. The antimicrobial lipopeptide biosurfactant fraction was also found to be nonhaemolytic in nature. Significance and impact of the study: This work presents a nonhaemolytic lipopeptide biosurfactant produced by a marine micro‐organism possessing a pronounced antimicrobial action against a wide range of bacteria. There is a high demand for new antimicrobial agents because of the increased resistance shown by pathogenic micro‐organisms against the existing antimicrobial drugs. This study provides an insight into the search of new bioactive molecules from marine micro‐organisms.     

Drosophila ELMO/CED-12 interacts with Myoblast city to direct myoblast fusion and ommatidial organization

Members of the CDM (CED-5, Dock180, Myoblast city) superfamily of guanine nucleotide exchange factors function in diverse processes that include cell migration and myoblast fusion. Previous studies have shown that the SH3, DHR1 and DHR2 domains of Myoblast city (MBC) are essential for it to direct myoblast fusion in the Drosophila embryo, while the conserved DCrk-binding proline rich region is expendable. Herein, we describe the isolation of Drosophila ELMO/CED-12, an ∼ 82 kDa protein with a pleckstrin homology (PH) and proline-rich domain, by interaction with the MBC SH3 domain. Mass spectrometry confirms the presence of an MBC/ELMO complex within the embryonic musculature at the time of myoblast fusion and embryos maternally and/or zygotically mutant for elmo exhibit defects in myoblast fusion. Overexpression of MBC and ELMO in the embryonic mesoderm causes defects in myoblast fusion reminiscent of those seen with constitutively-activated Rac1, supporting the previous finding that both the absence of and an excess of Rac activity are deleterious to myoblast fusion. Overexpression of MBC and ELMO/CED-12 in the eye causes perturbations in ommatidial organization that are suppressed by mutations in Rac1 and Rac2, demonstrating genetically that MBC and ELMO/CED-12 cooperate to activate these small GTPases in Drosophila.     

土壤活性有机质(碳)的内涵和现代分析方法概述

土壤有机物质的活性成分是对土壤养分、植物生长乃至环境、大气和人类有影响的有效物质。在现代土壤研究中,出现了与之相关的繁多术语和应用指标,但是它们的内涵尚为混乱,其分析方法也缺乏系统的归纳。本文对土壤溶性有机碳(DOC)和水溶性有机碳(WSOC)、土壤有效碳(AC)、土壤潜在可矿化碳(PMC)、土壤易氧化碳(ROC)、土壤微生物量碳(SMBC)、土壤轻组有机碳(LF—C)几种较为普遍应用的土壤活性有机质(碳)从概念指标、分析意义到分析方法做了较系统的描述与理顺,以期对土壤有机质应用上的研究起到积极作用。     

Interactions of lactoferricin-derived peptides with LPS and antimicrobial activity

Synthetic peptides derived from human and bovine lactoferricin, as well as tritrpticin sequences, were assayed for antimicrobial activity against wild-type Escherichia coli and LPS mutant strains. Antimicrobial activity was only obtained with peptides derived from the bovine lactoferricin sequence and peptides corresponding to chimeras of human and bovine sequences. None of the peptides corresponding to different regions of native human lactoferricin showed any antimicrobial activity. The results underline the importance of the content of tryptophan and arginine residues, and the relative location of these residues for antimicrobial activity. Results obtained for the same assays performed with LPS mutants suggest that lipid A is not the main binding site for lactoferricin which interacts first with the negative charges present in the inner core. Computer modelling of the most active peptides led to a model in which positively charged residues of the cationic peptide interact with negative charges carried by the LPS to disorganise the structure of the outer membrane and facilitate the approach of tryptophan residues to the lipid A in order to promote hydrophobic interactions.     

Biodegradation of hexazinone by two isolated bacterial strains (WFX-1 and WFX-2)

Two hexazinone-degrading bacterial strains were isolated from soil by enrichment culture technique, and identified as Pseudomonas sp. and Enterobacter cloacap, respectively. The two purified isolates, designated as WFX-1 and WFX-2, could rapidly degrade hexazinone with half-lives of 3.08 and 2.95 days in mineral salts medium (hereafter referred to as MSM). In contrast, their mixed bacterial culture (herein abbreviated as MBC) was found to degrade hexazinone, at an initial concentration of 50 mg l⁻¹, by enhancing 2.3-fold over that when the isolates were used alone. The degradation of hexazinone by MBC in MSM clearly decreased concomitant with the increase of initial concentration, and the level of hexazinone that was toxic enough to totally inhibit degradation was in the range of 150–200 mg l⁻¹. The appropriately combined conditions for hexazinone degradation by MBC in MSM were studied, and found to be pH 5.5, 30 °C and at agitation of 120 rpm. The addition of MBC to soil had a greater impact on disappearance of hexazinone, which nearly increased fivefold over that of the control set. As a result, findings in the present investigation provide useful information for soil and water decontamination of hexazinone.