Antimicrobial activity of peptoids against Metallo-β-lactamase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and other WHO priority pathogens, including Candida auris.

Aims: The World Health Organization has identified ESKAPE bacteria and Candida auris as priority pathogens, emphasizing an urgent need for novel antimicrobials to combat them. This study aimed to explore the therapeutic potential of antimicrobial peptidomimetics, specifically peptoids with sequence-specific N-substituted glycines, against ESKAPEE pathogens, including metallo-β-lactamase (MBL) producers, as well as C. auris strains.

How bumblebees manage conflicting information seen on arrival and departure from flowers.

Bees are flexible and adaptive learners, capable of learning stimuli seen on arrival and at departure from flowers where they have fed. This gives bees the potential to learn all information associated with a feeding event, but it also presents the challenge of managing information that is irrelevant, inconsistent, or conflicting. Here, we examined how presenting bumblebees with conflicting visual information before and after feeding influenced their learning rate and what they learned.

Considerations for establishment of a private virtual hospital identified using an implementation science approach.

Virtual hospitals are rapidly being implemented internationally. Research has predominantly focused on clinical outcomes not implementation. We aimed to identify pre-implementation determinants to enable health services to tailor virtual hospital models, increasing likelihood of suitability, acceptability, uptake, clinical effectiveness, and sustainability.

Inhibition of hippocampal interleukin-6 receptor-evoked signalling normalises long-term potentiation in dystrophin-deficient mice.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), an X-linked neuromuscular disorder, characterised by progressive immobility, chronic inflammation and premature death, is caused by the loss of the mechano-transducing signalling molecule, dystrophin. In non-contracting cells, such as neurons, dystrophin is likely to have a functional role in synaptic plasticity, anchoring post-synaptic receptors. Dystrophin-expressing hippocampal neurons are key to cognitive functions such as emotions, learning and the consolidation of memories.

The effect of immobilisation strategies on the ability of peptoids to reduce the adhesion of P. aeruginosa strains to contact lenses.

Aim: Previous studies have demonstrated that contact lenses coated with the antimicrobial cationic peptide Mel4, a derivative of melimine, can reduce the occurrence of keratitis. However, the antimicrobial activity of Mel4 weakened over time due to its susceptibility to proteolytic degradation. Oligo-N-substituted glycine peptoids such as TM5 and TM18 possess antimicrobial properties and are resistant to proteolytic breakdown.