scholarly journals Colletotrichum higginsianum as a Model for Understanding Host–Pathogen Interactions: A Review

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 2142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaqin Yan ◽  
Qinfeng Yuan ◽  
Jintian Tang ◽  
Junbin Huang ◽  
Tom Hsiang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genome Structure ◽  
Resistance Mechanisms ◽  
Integrated System ◽  
Plant Interactions ◽  
Infection Structure ◽  
Colletotrichum Higginsianum ◽  
Excellent Starting Point ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Extensive Information ◽  
Ascomycetous Fungus

Colletotrichum higginsianum is a hemibiotrophic ascomycetous fungus that causes economically important anthracnose diseases on numerous monocot and dicot crops worldwide. As a model pathosystem, the Colletotrichum–Arabidopsis interaction has the significant advantage that both organisms can be manipulated genetically. The goal of this review is to provide an overview of the system and to point out recent significant studies that update our understanding of the pathogenesis of C. higginsianum and resistance mechanisms of Arabidopsis against this hemibiotrophic fungus. The genome sequence of C. higginsianum has provided insights into how genome structure and pathogen genetic variability has been shaped by transposable elements, and allows systematic approaches to longstanding areas of investigation, including infection structure differentiation and fungal–plant interactions. The Arabidopsis-Colletotrichum pathosystem provides an integrated system, with extensive information on the host plant and availability of genomes for both partners, to illustrate many of the important concepts governing fungal–plant interactions, and to serve as an excellent starting point for broad perspectives into issues in plant pathology.

scholarly journals Improved synthesis of SV2A targeting radiotracer [11C]UCB-J

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Rokka ◽  
Eva Schlein ◽  
Jonas Eriksson
Keyword(s):  
Methyl Iodide ◽  
Water Solution ◽  
Synthesis Method ◽  
Radiochemical Yield ◽  
Preparative Hplc ◽  
Step Method ◽  
Synaptic Density ◽  
Excellent Starting Point ◽  
Starting Point

Abstract Introduction [11C]UCB-J is a tracer developed for PET (positron emission tomography) that has high affinity towards synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A (SV2A), a protein believed to participate in the regulation of neurotransmitter release in neurons and endocrine cells. The localisation of SV2A in the synaptic terminals makes it a viable target for in vivo imaging of synaptic density in the brain. Several SV2A targeting compounds have been evaluated as PET tracers, including [11C]UCB-J, with the aim to facilitate studies of synaptic density in neurological diseases. The original two-step synthesis method failed in our hands to produce sufficient amounts of [11C]UCB-J, but served as an excellent starting point for further optimizations towards a high yielding and simplified one-step method. [11C]Methyl iodide was trapped in a clear THF-water solution containing the trifluoroborate substituted precursor, potassium carbonate and palladium complex. The resulting reaction mixture was heated at 70 °C for 4 min to produce [11C]UCB-J. Results After semi-preparative HPLC purification and reformulation in 10% ethanol/phosphate buffered saline, the product was obtained in 39 ± 5% radiochemical yield based on [11C]methyl iodide, corresponding to 1.8 ± 0.5 GBq at EOS. The radiochemical purity was > 99% and the molar activity was 390 ± 180 GBq/μmol at EOS. The product solution contained < 2 ppb palladium. Conclusions A robust and high yielding production method has been developed for [11C]UCB-J, suitable for both preclinical and clinical PET applications.

scholarly journals Globalization Impact on Multinational Enterprises

World ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-230
Author(s):  
Justine Kyove ◽  
Katerina Streltsova ◽  
Ufuoma Odibo ◽  
Giuseppe T. Cirella
Keyword(s):  
Developing Country ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Global Market ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Developed Country ◽  
Excellent Starting Point ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Impact

The impact of globalization on multinational enterprises was examined from the years 1980 to 2020. A scoping literature review was conducted for a total of 141 articles. Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed typologies were categorized and conclusions were drawn regarding the influence and performance (i.e., positive or negative effects) of globalization. Developed countries show more saturated markets than developing countries that favor developing country multinational enterprises to rely heavily on foreign sales for revenue growth. Developed country multinationals are likely to use more advanced factors of production to create revenue, whereas developing country multinationals are more likely to use less advanced forms. A number of common trends and issues showed corporate social responsibility, emerging markets, political issues, and economic matters as key to global market production. Recommendations signal a strong need for more research that addresses contributive effects in the different economies, starting with the emerging to the developed. Limitations of data availability and inconsistency posed a challenge for this review, yet the use of operationalization, techniques, and analyses from the business literature enabled this study to be an excellent starting point for additional work in the field.

scholarly journals Silver (I) N-Heterocyclic Carbene Complexes: A Winning and Broad Spectrum of Antimicrobial Properties

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 2497
Author(s):  
Filippo Prencipe ◽  
Anna Zanfardino ◽  
Michela Di Napoli ◽  
Filomena Rossi ◽  
Stefano D’Errico ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bacterial Infections ◽  
Antimicrobial Agents ◽  
Antimicrobial Properties ◽  
Resistance Mechanisms ◽  
Heterocyclic Carbenes ◽  
Significant Activity ◽  
Bacterial Strains ◽  
Development Of Resistance ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Catalytic Chemistry

The evolution of antibacterial resistance has arisen as the main downside in fighting bacterial infections pushing researchers to develop novel, more potent and multimodal alternative drugs.Silver and its complexes have long been used as antimicrobial agents in medicine due to the lack of silver resistance and the effectiveness at low concentration as well as to their low toxicities compared to the most commonly used antibiotics. N-Heterocyclic Carbenes (NHCs) have been extensively employed to coordinate transition metals mainly for catalytic chemistry. However, more recently, NHC ligands have been applied as carrier molecules for metals in anticancer applications. In the present study we selected from literature two NHC-carbene based on acridinescaffoldand detailed nonclassicalpyrazole derived mono NHC-Ag neutral and bis NHC-Ag cationic complexes. Their inhibitor effect on bacterial strains Gram-negative and positivewas evaluated. Imidazolium NHC silver complex containing the acridine chromophore showed effectiveness at extremely low MIC values. Although pyrazole NHC silver complexes are less active than the acridine NHC-silver, they represent the first example of this class of compounds with antimicrobial properties. Moreover all complexesare not toxic and they show not significant activity againstmammalian cells (Hek lines) after 4 and 24 h. Based on our experimental evidence, we are confident that this promising class of complexes could represent a valuable starting point for developing candidates for the treatment of bacterial infections, delivering great effectiveness and avoiding the development of resistance mechanisms.

scholarly journals Analysis of saponins detoxification genes in Ilyonectria mors-panacis G3B inducing root rot of Panax notoginseng by RNA-Seq

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guohong Zeng ◽  
Jin Li ◽  
Yuxiu Ma ◽  
Qian Pu ◽  
Tian Xiao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Root Rot ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Panax Notoginseng ◽  
Glycoside Hydrolases ◽  
Rna Seq ◽  
Host Interaction ◽  
Excellent Starting Point ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Genes Encoding

AbstractSaponins are kinds of antifungal compounds produced by Panax notoginseng to resist invasion by pathogens. Ilyonectria mors-panacis G3B was the dominant pathogen inducing root rot of P. notoginseng, and the abilities to detoxify saponins were the key to infect P. notoginseng successfully. To research the molecular mechanisms of detoxifying saponins in I. mors-panacis G3B, we used high-throughput RNA-Seq to identify 557 and 1519 differential expression genes (DEGs) in I. mors-panacis G3B with saponins treatments for 4H (Hours) and 12H (Hours) compared with no saponins treatments, respectively. Among these DEGs, we found 93 genes which were simultaneously highly expressed in I. mors-panacis G3B with saponins treatments for 4H and 12H, they mainly belong to genes encoding transporters, glycoside hydrolases, oxidation–reduction enzymes, transcription factors and so on. In addition, there were 21 putative PHI (Pathogen–Host Interaction) genes out of those 93 up-regulated genes. In this report, we analyzed virulence-associated genes in I. mors-panacis G3B which may be related to detoxifying saponins to infect P. notoginseng successfully. They provided an excellent starting point for in-depth study on pathogenicity of I. mors-panacis G3B and developed appropriate root rot disease management strategies in the future.

scholarly journals 4-Phenethyl-1-Propargylpiperidine-Derived Dual Inhibitors of Butyrylcholinesterase and Monoamine Oxidase B

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (14) ◽  
pp. 4118
Author(s):  
Tjaša Mazej ◽  
Damijan Knez ◽  
Anže Meden ◽  
Stanislav Gobec ◽  
Matej Sova
Keyword(s):  
Monoamine Oxidase ◽  
Docking Studies ◽  
Monoamine Oxidase B ◽  
Mao B ◽  
Initial Expectation ◽  
Excellent Starting Point ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Dependent Inhibition ◽  
Dual Inhibitors ◽  
Time Dependent Inhibition

The multi-target-directed ligands (MTDLs) strategy is encouraged for the development of novel modulators targeting multiple pathways in the neurodegenerative cascade typical for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Based on the structure of an in-house irreversible monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) inhibitor, we aimed to introduce a carbamate moiety on the aromatic ring to impart cholinesterase (ChE) inhibition, and to furnish multifunctional ligands targeting two enzymes that are intricately involved in AD pathobiology. In this study, we synthesized three dual hMAO-B/hBChE inhibitors 13–15, with compound 15 exhibiting balanced, low micromolar inhibition of hMAO-B (IC50 of 4.3 µM) and hBChE (IC50 of 8.5 µM). The docking studies and time-dependent inhibition of hBChE confirmed the initial expectation that the introduced carbamate moiety is responsible for covalent inhibition. Therefore, dual-acting compound 15 represents an excellent starting point for further optimization of balanced MTDLs.

scholarly journals Revisiting the CompCars Dataset for Hierarchical Car Classification: New Annotations, Experiments, and Results

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 596
Author(s):  
Marco Buzzelli ◽  
Luca Segantin
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Levels Of Detail ◽  
Excellent Starting Point ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Hierarchical Nature ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
Entire Dataset

We address the task of classifying car images at multiple levels of detail, ranging from the top-level car type, down to the specific car make, model, and year. We analyze existing datasets for car classification, and identify the CompCars as an excellent starting point for our task. We show that convolutional neural networks achieve an accuracy above 90% on the finest-level classification task. This high performance, however, is scarcely representative of real-world situations, as it is evaluated on a biased training/test split. In this work, we revisit the CompCars dataset by first defining a new training/test split, which better represents real-world scenarios by setting a more realistic baseline at 61% accuracy on the new test set. We also propagate the existing (but limited) type-level annotation to the entire dataset, and we finally provide a car-tight bounding box for each image, automatically defined through an ad hoc car detector. To evaluate this revisited dataset, we design and implement three different approaches to car classification, two of which exploit the hierarchical nature of car annotations. Our experiments show that higher-level classification in terms of car type positively impacts classification at a finer grain, now reaching 70% accuracy. The achieved performance constitutes a baseline benchmark for future research, and our enriched set of annotations is made available for public download.

scholarly journals Saudi anti-human cancer plants database (SACPD): A collection of plants with anti-human cancer activities

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ateeq Ahmed Al-Zahrani
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Cell Lines ◽  
Anticancer Drugs ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Cancer Cell ◽  
Human Cancer ◽  
Cancer Cell Lines ◽  
Anticancer Activities ◽  
Excellent Starting Point ◽  
Starting Point

Several anticancer drugs have been developed from natural products such as plants. Successful experiments in inhibiting the growth of human cancer cell lines using Saudi plants were published over the last three decades. Up to date, there is no Saudi anticancer plants database as a comprehensive source for the interesting data generated from these experiments. Therefore, there was a need for creating a database to collect, organize, search and retrieve such data. As a result, the current paper describes the generation of the Saudi anti-human cancer plants database (SACPD). The database contains most of the reported information about the naturally growing Saudi anticancer plants. SACPD comprises the scientific and local names of 91 plant species that grow naturally in Saudi Arabia. These species belong to 38 different taxonomic families. In Addition, 18 species that represent16 family of medicinal plants and are intensively sold in the local markets in Saudi Arabia were added to the database. The website provides interesting details, including plant part containing the anticancer bioactive compounds, plants locations and cancer/cell type against which they exhibit their anticancer activity. Our survey revealed that breast, liver and leukemia were the most studied cancer cell lines in Saudi Arabia with percentages of 27%, 19% and 15%, respectively. The current SACPD represents a nucleus around which more development efforts can expand to accommodate all future submissions about new Saudi plant species with anticancer activities. SACPD will provide an excellent starting point for researchers and pharmaceutical companies who are interested in developing new anticancer drugs. SACPD is available online at https://teeqrani1.wixsite.com/sapd

scholarly journals Bionitio: demonstrating and facilitating best practices for bioinformatics command-line software

GigaScience ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Georgeson ◽  
Anna Syme ◽  
Clare Sloggett ◽  
Jessica Chung ◽  
Harriet Dashnow ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Software Development ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Command Line ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Excellent Starting Point ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Bioinformatics Software ◽  
Programming Practices

Abstract Background Bioinformatics software tools are often created ad hoc, frequently by people without extensive training in software development. In particular, for beginners, the barrier to entry in bioinformatics software development is high, especially if they want to adopt good programming practices. Even experienced developers do not always follow best practices. This results in the proliferation of poorer-quality bioinformatics software, leading to limited scalability and inefficient use of resources; lack of reproducibility, usability, adaptability, and interoperability; and erroneous or inaccurate results. Findings We have developed Bionitio, a tool that automates the process of starting new bioinformatics software projects following recommended best practices. With a single command, the user can create a new well-structured project in 1 of 12 programming languages. The resulting software is functional, carrying out a prototypical bioinformatics task, and thus serves as both a working example and a template for building new tools. Key features include command-line argument parsing, error handling, progress logging, defined exit status values, a test suite, a version number, standardized building and packaging, user documentation, code documentation, a standard open source software license, software revision control, and containerization. Conclusions Bionitio serves as a learning aid for beginner-to-intermediate bioinformatics programmers and provides an excellent starting point for new projects. This helps developers adopt good programming practices from the beginning of a project and encourages high-quality tools to be developed more rapidly. This also benefits users because tools are more easily installed and consistent in their usage. Bionitio is released as open source software under the MIT License and is available at https://github.com/bionitio-team/bionitio.

HA1-2-fljB Vaccine Induces Immune Responses against Pandemic Swine-Origin H1N1 Influenza Virus in Mice

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 422-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xilong Kang ◽  
Yun Yang ◽  
Yang Jiao ◽  
Hongqin Song ◽  
Li Song ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Influenza Virus ◽  
Influenza A ◽  
H1n1 Virus ◽  
Influenza Virus Infection ◽  
Candidate Vaccine ◽  
Major Barrier ◽  
Excellent Starting Point ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Influenza A H1n1 ◽  
N Terminus

In 2009, a novel pandemic swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus caused a public emergency of international concern. Vaccination is the primary strategy for the control of influenza epidemics. However, the poor immunopotency of many vaccine antigens is a major barrier to the development of effective vaccines against influenza. Flagellin, a Toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5) ligand, has been used as an adjuvant to enhance the immunopotency of vaccines in preclinical studies. Here, we developed a recombinant candidate vaccine, HA1-2-fljB, in which the globular head of the hemagglutinin (HA) antigen (residues 62-284) from H1N1 virus was fused genetically to the N-terminus of <i>Salmonella typhimurium</i> &#xFB02;jB. The recombinant HA1-2-fljB protein was expressed efficiently in<i> Escherichia coli</i>, and the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of recombinant HA1-2-fljB were evaluated in a mouse model. Immunization with HA1-2-fljB elicited robust IgG antibodies and neutralizing antibodies and completely protected the mice against infection by swine-origin influenza A/swine/Jangsu/38/2010 (H1N1). These results suggest that HA antigen placed at the N-terminus of flagellin is also an excellent starting point for creating a fusion HA1-2-fljB protein as a candidate vaccine, and the recombinant HA1-2-fljB protein will contribute to the development of a more effective vaccine against swine-origin influenza virus infection.

scholarly journals Phytotoxic Effects and Mechanism of Action of Essential Oils and Terpenoids

Plants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1571
Author(s):  
Mercedes Verdeguer ◽  
Adela M. Sánchez-Moreiras ◽  
Fabrizio Araniti
Keyword(s):  
Essential Oils ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Structural Diversity ◽  
Herbicidal Activity ◽  
Plant Interactions ◽  
Modes Of Action ◽  
Environment And Health ◽  
Phytotoxic Activity ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Potential Mode

Weeds are one of the major constraints in crop production affecting both yield and quality. The excessive and exclusive use of synthetic herbicides for their management is increasing the development of herbicide-resistant weeds and is provoking risks for the environment and human health. Therefore, the development of new herbicides with multitarget-site activity, new modes of action and low impact on the environment and health are badly needed. The study of plant–plant interactions through the release of secondary metabolites could be a starting point for the identification of new molecules with herbicidal activity. Essential oils (EOs) and their components, mainly terpenoids, as pure natural compounds or in mixtures, because of their structural diversity and strong phytotoxic activity, could be good candidates for the development of new bioherbicides or could serve as a basis for the development of new natural-like low impact synthetic herbicides. EOs and terpenoids have been largely studied for their phytotoxicity and several evidences on their modes of action have been highlighted in the last decades through the use of integrated approaches. The review is focused on the knowledge concerning the phytotoxicity of these molecules, their putative target, as well as their potential mode of action.

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