Precision-guided antimicrobial peptide as a targeted modulator of human microbial ecology.

One major challenge to studying human microbiome and its associated diseases is the lack of effective tools to achieve targeted modulation of individual species and study its ecological function within multispecies communities. Here, we show that C16G2, a specifically targeted antimicrobial peptide, was able to selectively kill cariogenic pathogen Streptococcus mutans with high efficacy within a human saliva-derived in vitro oral multispecies community. Importantly, a significant shift in the overall microbial structure of the C16G2-treated community was revealed after a 24-h recovery period: several bacterial species with metabolic dependency or physical interactions with S.

In brain, Axl recruits Grb2 and the p85 regulatory subunit of PI3 kinase; in vitro mutagenesis defines the requisite binding sites for downstream Akt activation.

Axl is a receptor tyrosine kinase implicated in cell survival following growth factor withdrawal and other stressors. The binding of Axl's ligand, growth arrest-specific protein 6 (Gas6), results in Axl autophosphorylation, recruitment of signaling molecules, and activation of downstream survival pathways. Pull-down assays and immunoprecipitations using wildtype and mutant Axl transfected cells determined that Axl directly binds growth factor receptor-bound protein 2 (Grb2) at pYVN and the p85 subunit of phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3 kinase) at two pYXXM sites (pY779 and pY821).

Structural and functional characterization of disulfide isoforms of the human IgG2 subclass.

In the accompanying report ( Wypych, J., Li, M., Guo, A.

Infectious disease risk factors of corneal graft donors.

Objective: To determine how donor health status affects the risk of infection after corneal transplant.

Methods: An adverse reaction surveillance registry was used to conduct a matched case-control study among transplanted donor corneas from January 1, 1994, to December 31, 2003. Cases comprised 162 reports of endophthalmitis after penetrating keratoplasty including 121 with microbial recovery, of which 59 had concordant donor and recipient microbial isolates.