Cytochrome P450 induced formation of hydroxylated polybrominated diphenyl ether and dibenzo-p-dioxin derivates from brominated phenols.

Methoxylated polybrominated diphenyl ethers (MeO-BDEs) are a class of environmentally relevant halogenated natural products. The two most relevant isomers, 2'-MeO-BDE 68 and 6-MeO-BDE 47, were repeatedly detected at levels comparable with persistent organic pollutants in marine environmental and food samples. MeO-BDEs were suspected to be biosynthesized by bromoperoxidases through the merging of two bromophenol units, three of which (2,4-dibromophenol, 2,6-dibromophenol and 2,4,6-tribromophenol) are abundant in marine environments, followed by O-methylation to give MeO-BDEs.

Susceptibility and infectiousness of SARS-CoV-2 in children versus adults, by variant (wild-type, alpha, delta): A systematic review and meta-analysis of household contact studies.

Importance: Understanding the susceptibility and infectiousness of children and adolescents in comparison to adults is important to appreciate their role in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: To determine SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and infectiousness of children and adolescents with adults as comparator for three variants (wild-type, alpha, delta) in the household setting. We aimed to identify the effects independent of vaccination or prior infection.

TB among refugees from Ukraine in European countries.

Background: Since the Russian Federation's invasion of Ukraine, millions of refugees have moved to neighbouring European countries. We assessed the burden of TB in these refugees and surveyed screening approaches.

Methods: We conducted a survey among 30 European Union/European Economic Area and 13 other European countries, requesting population data on migrant residents and refugees with country of birth (COB) Ukraine, the number of TB notifications among people with COB Ukraine and countries' screening policies for refugees from Ukraine.

Biocatalytic stereocontrolled head-to-tail cyclizations of unbiased terpenes as a tool in chemoenzymatic synthesis.

Terpene synthesis stands at the forefront of modern synthetic chemistry and represents the state-of-the-art in the chemist's toolbox. Notwithstanding, these endeavors are inherently tied to the current availability of natural cyclic building blocks. Addressing this limitation, the stereocontrolled cyclization of abundant unbiased linear terpenes emerges as a valuable tool, which is still difficult to achieve with chemical catalysts.

Controlling Monoterpene Isomerization by Guiding Challenging Carbocation Rearrangement Reactions in Engineered Squalene-Hopene Cyclases.

The interconversion of monoterpenes is facilitated by a complex network of carbocation rearrangement pathways. Controlling these isomerization pathways is challenging when using common Brønsted and Lewis acid catalysts, which often produce product mixtures that are difficult to separate. In contrast, natural monoterpene cyclases exhibit high control over the carbocation rearrangement reactions but are reliant on phosphorylated substrates.