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1.
Stella M. Bernardo Valeria P. Ilieva Carla J. Walraven Samuel A. Lee 《Current fungal infection reports》2017,11(4):220-228
Purpose of Review
In this review, we will assess what is currently known about Candida biofilms, its epidemiology and impact on clinical practice, and the biology underlying biofilm-related antifungal drug resistance. We also review potential antifungal lock therapies and discuss what avenues are available for future discoveries for the prevention and eradication of fungal biofilms.Recent Findings
There is a multitude of in vitro tests of agents against Candida biofilms, but many of these studies have not demonstrated their utility against other Candida species and/or their efficacy in in vivo systems. This makes it particularly difficult to translate these findings for use in the clinical setting.Summary
Research has helped us to understand the complexity of biofilms and its inherent antifungal resistance. The extracellular matrix remains a significant barrier for most antifungal therapy, and thus it stands to reason that agents directed at disrupting this protective barrier could be useful in antifungal lock therapies.2.
Background
Environmentally growing pathogens present an increasing threat for human health, wildlife and food production. Treating the hosts with antibiotics or parasitic bacteriophages fail to eliminate diseases that grow also in the outside-host environment. However, bacteriophages could be utilized to suppress the pathogen population sizes in the outside-host environment in order to prevent disease outbreaks. Here, we introduce a novel epidemiological model to assess how the phage infections of the bacterial pathogens affect epidemiological dynamics of the environmentally growing pathogens. We assess whether the phage therapy in the outside-host environment could be utilized as a biological control method against these diseases. We also consider how phage-resistant competitors affect the outcome, a common problem in phage therapy. The models give predictions for the scenarios where the outside-host phage therapy will work and where it will fail to control the disease. Parameterization of the model is based on the fish columnaris disease that causes significant economic losses to aquaculture worldwide. However, the model is also suitable for other environmentally growing bacterial diseases.Results
Transmission rates of the phage determine the success of infectious disease control, with high-transmission phage enabling the recovery of the host population that would in the absence of the phage go asymptotically extinct due to the disease. In the presence of outside-host bacterial competition between the pathogen and phage-resistant strain, the trade-off between the pathogen infectivity and the phage resistance determines phage therapy outcome from stable coexistence to local host extinction.Conclusions
We propose that the success of phage therapy strongly depends on the underlying biology, such as the strength of trade-off between the pathogen infectivity and the phage-resistance, as well as on the rate that the phages infect the bacteria. Our results indicate that phage therapy can fail if there are phage-resistant bacteria and the trade-off between pathogen infectivity and phage resistance does not completely inhibit the pathogen infectivity. Also, the rate that the phages infect the bacteria should be sufficiently high for phage-therapy to succeed.3.
Daria V. Dibrova Kirill A. Konovalov Vadim V. Perekhvatov Konstantin V. Skulachev Armen Y. Mulkidjanian 《Biology direct》2017,12(1):29
Background
The Clusters of Orthologous Groups (COGs) of proteins systematize evolutionary related proteins into specific groups with similar functions. However, the available databases do not provide means to assess the extent of similarity between the COGs.Aim
We intended to provide a method for identification and visualization of evolutionary relationships between the COGs, as well as a respective web server.Results
Here we introduce the COGcollator, a web tool for identification of evolutionarily related COGs and their further analysis. We demonstrate the utility of this tool by identifying the COGs that contain distant homologs of (i) the catalytic subunit of bacterial rotary membrane ATP synthases and (ii) the DNA/RNA helicases of the superfamily 1.Reviewers
This article was reviewed by Drs. Igor N. Berezovsky, Igor Zhulin and Yuri Wolf.4.
Antonella Del-Corso Mario Cappiello Roberta Moschini Francesco Balestri Umberto Mura 《Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society》2018,14(1):2
Introduction
While the evolutionary adaptation of enzymes to their own substrates is a well assessed and rationalized field, how molecules have been originally selected in order to initiate and assemble convenient metabolic pathways is a fascinating, but still debated argument.Objectives
Aim of the present study is to give a rationale for the preferential selection of specific molecules to generate metabolic pathways.Methods
The comparison of structural features of molecules, through an inductive methodological approach, offer a reading key to cautiously propose a determining factor for their metabolic recruitment.Results
Starting with some commonplaces occurring in the structural representation of relevant carbohydrates, such as glucose, fructose and ribose, arguments are presented in associating stable structural determinants of these molecules and their peculiar occurrence in metabolic pathways.Conclusions
Among other possible factors, the reliability of the structural asset of a molecule may be relevant or its selection among structurally and, a priori, functionally similar molecules.5.
N. Cesbron A.-L. Royer Y. Guitton A. Sydor B. Le Bizec G. Dervilly-Pinel 《Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society》2017,13(8):99
Introduction
Collecting feces is easy. It offers direct outcome to endogenous and microbial metabolites.Objectives
In a context of lack of consensus about fecal sample preparation, especially in animal species, we developed a robust protocol allowing untargeted LC-HRMS fingerprinting.Methods
The conditions of extraction (quantity, preparation, solvents, dilutions) were investigated in bovine feces.Results
A rapid and simple protocol involving feces extraction with methanol (1/3, M/V) followed by centrifugation and a step filtration (10 kDa) was developed.Conclusion
The workflow generated repeatable and informative fingerprints for robust metabolome characterization.6.
Chunyan Li Ning Gao Qinqin Xue Ni Ma Yuqin Hu Jianfang Zhang Biliang Chen Yingchun Hou 《Biotechnology letters》2017,39(10):1463-1469
Objectives
To screen and identify the probe markers specifically binding to human cervical cancer, a phage-displayed 12-mer peptide library was used for biopanning of SiHa cells.Results
After four rounds of whole-cell subtraction biopanning, the phage recovery was 21-fold higher (from 3.9 × 10?5 to 8.3 × 10?4) than that of the first round, and specific phage clones were significantly enriched. 57 randomly selected phage clones were tested by ELISA, and 36 phage clones were identified as positive clones. After sequencing of positive clones, six different peptide sequences were obtained and CSP3 showed best affinity and specificity to SiHa cells via immunofluorescence assay.Conclusions
Peptide, CSP3, bound to SiHa cells specifically and sensitively. It may be a potential candidate for molecular imaging detection and targeting therapy of cervical cancer.7.
Background
Maximum parsimony phylogenetic tree reconciliation is an important technique for reconstructing the evolutionary histories of hosts and parasites, genes and species, and other interdependent pairs. Since the problem of finding temporally feasible maximum parsimony reconciliations is NP-complete, current methods use either exact algorithms with exponential worst-case running time or heuristics that do not guarantee optimal solutions.Results
We offer an efficient new approach that begins with a potentially infeasible maximum parsimony reconciliation and iteratively “repairs” it until it becomes temporally feasible.Conclusions
In a non-trivial number of cases, this approach finds solutions that are better than those found by the widely-used Jane heuristic.8.
Rachel A. Spicer Christoph Steinbeck 《Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society》2018,14(1):16
Introduction
Data sharing is being increasingly required by journals and has been heralded as a solution to the ‘replication crisis’.Objectives
(i) Review data sharing policies of journals publishing the most metabolomics papers associated with open data and (ii) compare these journals’ policies to those that publish the most metabolomics papers.Methods
A PubMed search was used to identify metabolomics papers. Metabolomics data repositories were manually searched for linked publications.Results
Journals that support data sharing are not necessarily those with the most papers associated to open metabolomics data.Conclusion
Further efforts are required to improve data sharing in metabolomics.9.
Background
In recent years the visualization of biomagnetic measurement data by so-called pseudo current density maps or Hosaka-Cohen (HC) transformations became popular.Methods
The physical basis of these intuitive maps is clarified by means of analytically solvable problems.Results
Examples in magnetocardiography, magnetoencephalography and magnetoneurography demonstrate the usefulness of this method.Conclusion
Hardware realizations of the HC-transformation and some similar transformations are discussed which could advantageously support cross-platform comparability of biomagnetic measurements.10.
Background
The heme-protein interactions are essential for various biological processes such as electron transfer, catalysis, signal transduction and the control of gene expression. The knowledge of heme binding residues can provide crucial clues to understand these activities and aid in functional annotation, however, insufficient work has been done on the research of heme binding residues from protein sequence information.Methods
We propose a sequence-based approach for accurate prediction of heme binding residues by a novel integrative sequence profile coupling position specific scoring matrices with heme specific physicochemical properties. In order to select the informative physicochemical properties, we design an intuitive feature selection scheme by combining a greedy strategy with correlation analysis.Results
Our integrative sequence profile approach for prediction of heme binding residues outperforms the conventional methods using amino acid and evolutionary information on the 5-fold cross validation and the independent tests.Conclusions
The novel feature of an integrative sequence profile achieves good performance using a reduced set of feature vector elements.11.
Guoning Guo Yuliang Cao Guoyan Zhu Zhu Tian Yajun Gou Cong Chen Minghua Liu 《Biotechnology letters》2016,38(11):1867-1873
Objective
To design a specific polyclonal antibody against Deinagkistrodon acutus venom (DA-pAb) by immunizating New Zealand white rabbits.Results
The IgG fraction was purified by affinity chromatography, and specific antibodies were purified by immunoaffinity chromatography. Polyclonal antibodies were subjected to ELISA and western blotting to evaluate their immune reactivity. We identified the mimotopes by screening a phage display 12-mer peptide library against D. acutus venom. After three rounds of biopanning with DA-pAb, 30 positive clones were identified. Eighteen phage clones were sequenced, and their corresponding amino acid sequences were deduced. Additional immunoassays with the peptides and DA-pAb identified five sequences as possible epitopes. Recombinant antigens synthesized with the five epitopes were used for the immunization of BALB/c mice.Conclusion
The antibodies induced by these peptides recognized the recombinant antigen and D. acutus venom and protected mice against the hemorrhagic effects of the venom.12.
Introduction
Untargeted metabolomics is a powerful tool for biological discoveries. To analyze the complex raw data, significant advances in computational approaches have been made, yet it is not clear how exhaustive and reliable the data analysis results are.Objectives
Assessment of the quality of raw data processing in untargeted metabolomics.Methods
Five published untargeted metabolomics studies, were reanalyzed.Results
Omissions of at least 50 relevant compounds from the original results as well as examples of representative mistakes were reported for each study.Conclusion
Incomplete raw data processing shows unexplored potential of current and legacy data.13.
Background
Genetic interference by DNA, mRNA or morpholino injection is a widely used approach to study gene function in developmental biology. However, the lack of temporal control over the activity of interfering molecules often hampers investigation of gene function required during later stages of embryogenesis. To elucidate the roles of genes during embryogenesis a precise temporal control of transgene expression levels in the developing organism is on demand.Results
We have generated a transgenic Gal4/Vp16 activator line that is heat-shock inducible, thereby providing a tool to drive the expression of specific effector genes via Gal4/Vp16. Merging the Gal4/Vp16-UAS system with the I-SceI meganuclease and the Sleeping Beauty transposon system allows inducible gene expression in an entirely uniform manner without the need to generate transgenic effector lines. Combination of this system with fluorescent protein reporters furthermore facilitates the direct visualization of transgene expressing cells in live embryos.Conclusion
The combinatorial properties of this expression system provide a powerful tool for the analysis of gene function during embryonic and larval development in fish by ectopic expression of gene products.14.
Jamie V. de Seymour Stephanie Tu Xiaoling He Hua Zhang Ting-Li Han Philip N. Baker Karolina Sulek 《Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society》2018,14(6):79
Introduction
Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is a common maternal liver disease; development can result in devastating consequences, including sudden fetal death and stillbirth. Currently, recognition of ICP only occurs following onset of clinical symptoms.Objective
Investigate the maternal hair metabolome for predictive biomarkers of ICP.Methods
The maternal hair metabolome (gestational age of sampling between 17 and 41 weeks) of 38 Chinese women with ICP and 46 pregnant controls was analysed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry.Results
Of 105 metabolites detected in hair, none were significantly associated with ICP.Conclusion
Hair samples represent accumulative environmental exposure over time. Samples collected at the onset of ICP did not reveal any metabolic shifts, suggesting rapid development of the disease.15.
Renato de Souza Pinto Lemgruber Kaspar Valgepea Mark P. Hodson Ryan Tappel Sean D. Simpson Michael Köpke Lars K. Nielsen Esteban Marcellin 《Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society》2018,14(3):35
Introduction
Quantification of tetrahydrofolates (THFs), important metabolites in the Wood–Ljungdahl pathway (WLP) of acetogens, is challenging given their sensitivity to oxygen.Objective
To develop a simple anaerobic protocol to enable reliable THFs quantification from bioreactors.Methods
Anaerobic cultures were mixed with anaerobic acetonitrile for extraction. Targeted LC–MS/MS was used for quantification.Results
Tetrahydrofolates can only be quantified if sampled anaerobically. THF levels showed a strong correlation to acetyl-CoA, the end product of the WLP.Conclusion
Our method is useful for relative quantification of THFs across different growth conditions. Absolute quantification of THFs requires the use of labelled standards.16.
Sonia Liggi Christine Hinz Zoe Hall Maria Laura Santoru Simone Poddighe John Fjeldsted Luigi Atzori Julian L. Griffin 《Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society》2018,14(4):52
Introduction
Data processing is one of the biggest problems in metabolomics, given the high number of samples analyzed and the need of multiple software packages for each step of the processing workflow.Objectives
Merge in the same platform the steps required for metabolomics data processing.Methods
KniMet is a workflow for the processing of mass spectrometry-metabolomics data based on the KNIME Analytics platform.Results
The approach includes key steps to follow in metabolomics data processing: feature filtering, missing value imputation, normalization, batch correction and annotation.Conclusion
KniMet provides the user with a local, modular and customizable workflow for the processing of both GC–MS and LC–MS open profiling data.17.
Ferran Casbas Pinto Srinivarao Ravipati David A. Barrett T. Charles Hodgman 《Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society》2017,13(7):81
Introduction
It is difficult to elucidate the metabolic and regulatory factors causing lipidome perturbations.Objectives
This work simplifies this process.Methods
A method has been developed to query an online holistic lipid metabolic network (of 7923 metabolites) to extract the pathways that connect the input list of lipids.Results
The output enables pathway visualisation and the querying of other databases to identify potential regulators. When used to a study a plasma lipidome dataset of polycystic ovary syndrome, 14 enzymes were identified, of which 3 are linked to ELAVL1—an mRNA stabiliser.Conclusion
This method provides a simplified approach to identifying potential regulators causing lipid-profile perturbations.18.
Katie F. Manwaring Jamie L. Jensen Richard A. Gill Richard R. Sudweeks Randall S. Davies Seth M. Bybee 《Evolution》2018,11(1):2
Background
Acceptance of evolutionary theory varies widely and is often associated with religious background. Some have suggested there exists an additional relationship between scientific reasoning ability and the acceptance of evolutionary theory. In this study, we used structural equation modeling to test whether scientific reasoning ability predicts religiosity, acceptance of creationist views, or acceptance of evolution. We administered internet-based surveys to 724 individuals nationwide who self-describe as being religious and built a structural-equation model to test predictive abilities.Results
We found that while religiosity positively predicts the acceptance of creationist views and negatively predicts the acceptance of evolution, scientific reasoning ability does not predict religiosity, acceptance of creationist views, or acceptance of evolutionary theory.Conclusions
With a lack of any relationship between scientific reasoning ability and acceptance, an approach to evolution education that focuses on appealing to scientific reasoning may prove fruitless in changing student attitudes toward evolution; alternative teaching approaches regarding evolution are warranted.19.
Nadine Strehmel David Strunk Veronika Strehmel 《Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society》2017,13(11):135
Introduction
Aqueous–methanol mixtures have successfully been applied to extract a broad range of metabolites from plant tissue. However, a certain amount of material remains insoluble.Objectives
To enlarge the metabolic compendium, two ionic liquids were selected to extract the methanol insoluble part of trunk from Betula pendula.Methods
The extracted compounds were analyzed by LC/MS and GC/MS.Results
The results show that 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate (IL-Ac) predominantly resulted in fatty acids, whereas 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tosylate (IL-Tos) mostly yielded phenolic structures. Interestingly, bark yielded more ionic liquid soluble metabolites compared to interior wood.Conclusion
From this one can conclude that the application of ionic liquids may expand the metabolic snapshot.20.