Design of Antimicrobial Peptides With a Special Charge Pattern and Their Application in Combating Plant Pathogens.

Plant diseases are important issues in agriculture, and the development of effective and environment-friendly means of disease control is crucial and highly desired. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are known as potential alternatives to chemical pesticides because of their potent broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity and because they have no risk, or have only a low risk, of developing chemical-resistant pathogens. In this study, we designed a series of amphipathic helical peptides with different spatial distributions of positive charges and found that the peptides that had a special sequence pattern "BBHBBHHBBH" ("B" for basic residue and "H" for hydrophobic residue) displayed excellent bactericidal and fungicidal activities in a wide range of economically important plant pathogens.

Dexmedetomidine protects against lung injury induced by limb ischemia-reperfusion via the TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB pathway.

Dexmedetomidine (DEX) can protect the lung from ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury, but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. The aims of this study were to determine whether DEX attenuates lung injury following lower extremity I/R and to investigate the related toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) signaling pathway. Twenty-eight SD rats were divided into four groups (n = 7): Sham, I/R, I/R + DEX (25 μg/kg prior to ischemia), and I/R + DEX + Atip (250 μg/kg atipamezole before DEX treatment).

Comparison of periarticular anesthesia with liposomal bupivacaine with femoral nerve block for pain control after total knee arthroplasty: A PRISMA-compliant meta-analysis.

Background: Periarticular anesthesia (PAI) with liposomal bupivacaine (LB) and femoral nerve block (FNB) were 2 common type of pain management after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). There is no consensus about PAI with LB shows better clinical outcome than FNB. Thus, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to compare the efficacy and safety of PAI with LB and FNB for patients prepared for TKA.