Combating Black Fungus: Using Allicin as a Potent Antifungal Agent against Mucorales.

Invasive fungal (IF) diseases are a leading global cause of mortality, particularly among immunocompromised individuals. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic further exacerbated this scenario, intensifying comorbid IF infections such as mucormycoses of the nasopharynx. In the work reported here, it is shown that zygomycetes, significant contributors to mycoses, are sensitive to the natural product allicin.

Seeing the smell of garlic: Detection of gas phase volatiles from crushed garlic (Allium sativum), onion (Allium cepa), ramsons (Allium ursinum) and human garlic breath using SESI-Orbitrap MS.

Allicin is the main flavour component of crushed raw garlic. This plant defence molecule has strong antibiotic properties. While measurements in the liquid phase using LC-MS are established, accessing reactive organosulfur compounds in the gas phase is still a challenge due to heat-degradation in the gas chromatograph.

Allicin as a Volatile or Nebulisable Antimycotic for the Treatment of Pulmonary Mycoses: In Vitro Studies Using a Lung Flow Test Rig.

Fungal infections of the lung are an increasing problem worldwide and the search for novel therapeutic agents is a current challenge due to emerging resistance to current antimycotics. The volatile defence substance allicin is formed naturally by freshly injured garlic plants and exhibits broad antimicrobial potency. Chemically synthesised allicin was active against selected fungi upon direct contact and via the gas phase at comparable concentrations to the pharmaceutically used antimycotic amphotericin B.

Optimization and validation of a microcolony multiplexed opsonophagocytic killing assay for 15 pneumococcal serotypes.

To streamline and improve throughput, the agar-based multiplexed opsonophagocytic killing assay (MOPA) was optimized and validated on a microcolony platform for use in the Phase III clinical trial program for V114, an MSD 15-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine candidate. The precision, dilutional linearity and specificity of the microcolony MOPA (mMOPA) were assessed for each serotype in validation experiments. All prespecified acceptance criteria on assay performance were satisfied.

Genetic and molecular characterization of multicomponent resistance of against allicin.

The common foodstuff garlic produces the potent antibiotic defense substance allicin after tissue damage. Allicin is a redox toxin that oxidizes glutathione and cellular proteins and makes garlic a highly hostile environment for non-adapted microbes. Genomic clones from a highly allicin-resistant (AR-1), which was isolated from garlic, conferred allicin resistance to and even to Resistance-conferring genes had redox-related functions and were on core fragments from three similar genomic islands identified by sequencing and in silico analysis.

Selective Vulnerability of Striatal D2 versus D1 Dopamine Receptor-Expressing Medium Spiny Neurons in HIV-1 Tat Transgenic Male Mice.

Despite marked regional differences in HIV susceptibility within the CNS, there has been surprisingly little exploration into the differential vulnerability among neuron types and the circuits they underlie. The dorsal striatum is especially susceptible, harboring high viral loads and displaying marked neuropathology, with motor impairment a frequent manifestation of chronic infection. However, little is known about the response of individual striatal neuron types to HIV or how this disrupts function.

Medial Prefrontal Cortical Dopamine Responses During Operant Self-Administration of Sweetened Ethanol.

Background: Medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) dysfunction is present in heavy alcohol consumers. Dopamine signaling in mPFC is associated with executive functioning and affects drinking behavior; however, direct measurement of extracellular mPFC dopamine during appetitive and consummatory ethanol (EtOH) self-administration behavior has not been reported.

Methods: We used in vivo microdialysis in freely behaving, adult, male, Long Evans rats to determine extracellular dopamine concentration in the mPFC during operant self-administration of an EtOH-plus-sucrose or sucrose solution.

μ-opioid receptors in the stimulation of mesolimbic dopamine activity by ethanol and morphine in Long-Evans rats: a delayed effect of ethanol.

Rationale: Naltrexone, a non-selective opioid antagonist, decreases the euphoria and positive subjective responses to alcohol in heavy drinkers. It has been proposed that the μ-opioid receptor plays a role in ethanol reinforcement through modulation of ethanol-stimulated mesolimbic dopamine release.

Objectives: To investigate the ability of naltrexone and β-funaltrexamine, an irreversible μ-opioid specific antagonist, to inhibit ethanol-stimulated and morphine-stimulated mesolimbic dopamine release, and to determine whether opioid receptors on mesolimbic neurons contribute to these mechanisms.

Intravenous ethanol increases extracellular dopamine in the medial prefrontal cortex of the Long-Evans rat.

Background: Ethanol (EtOH) affects prefrontal cortex functional roles such as decision making, working memory, and behavioral control. Yet, the pharmacological effect of EtOH on dopamine, a neuromodulator in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), is unclear. Past studies exploring this topic produced conflicting outcomes; however, a handful of factors (temporal resolution, method of drug administration, estrous cycle) possibly contributed to these discrepancies.

Microdialysis of ethanol during operant ethanol self-administration and ethanol determination by gas chromatography.

Operant self-administration methods are commonly used to study the behavioral and pharmacological effects of many drugs of abuse, including ethanol. However, ethanol is typically self-administered orally, rather than intravenously like many other drugs of abuse. The pharmacokinetics of orally administered drugs are more complex than intravenously administered drugs.

The dopamine response in the nucleus accumbens core-shell border differs from that in the core and shell during operant ethanol self-administration.

Background: Ethanol self-administration has been shown to increase dopamine in the nucleus accumbens; however, dopamine levels in the accumbal subregions (core, shell, and core-shell border) have not yet been measured separately in this paradigm. This study was designed to determine if dopamine responses during operant ethanol self-administration are similar in the core, core-shell border, and shell, particularly during transfer from the home cage to the operant chamber and during consumption of the drinking solution.

Methods: Six groups of male Long-Evans rats were trained to lever-press for either 10% sucrose (10S) or 10% sucrose + 10% ethanol (10S10E) (with a guide cannula above the core, core-shell border, or shell of the accumbens).