DJK-5, an anti-biofilm peptide, increases Staphylococcus aureus sensitivity to colistin killing in co-biofilms with Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Chronic infections represent a significant global health and economic challenge. Biofilms, which are bacterial communities encased in an extracellular polysaccharide matrix, contribute to approximately 80% of these infections. In particular, pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus are frequently co-isolated from the sputum of patients with cystic fibrosis and are commonly found in chronic wound infections.

Antimicrobial resistance: a concise update.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a serious threat to global public health, with approximately 5 million deaths associated with bacterial AMR in 2019. Tackling AMR requires a multifaceted and cohesive approach that ranges from increased understanding of mechanisms and drivers at the individual and population levels, AMR surveillance, antimicrobial stewardship, improved infection prevention and control measures, and strengthened global policies and funding to development of novel antimicrobial therapeutic strategies. In this rapidly advancing field, this Review provides a concise update on AMR, encompassing epidemiology, evolution, underlying mechanisms (primarily those related to last-line or newer generation of antibiotics), infection prevention and control measures, access to antibiotics, antimicrobial stewardship, AMR surveillance, and emerging non-antibiotic therapeutic approaches.

DNA Methylation signatures underpinning blood neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio during first week of human life.

Understanding of newborn immune ontogeny in the first week of life will enable age-appropriate strategies for safeguarding vulnerable newborns against infectious diseases. Here we conducted an observational study exploring the immunological profile of infants longitudinally throughout their first week of life. Our Expanded Program on Immunization - Human Immunology Project Consortium (EPIC-HIPC) studies the epigenetic regulation of systemic immunity using small volumes of peripheral blood samples collected from West African neonates on days of life (DOL) 0, 1, 3, and 7.

Facilitating pathway and network based analysis of RNA-Seq data with pathlinkR.

R package pathlinkR is designed to aid transcriptomic analyses by streamlining and simplifying the process of analyzing and interpreting differentially expressed genes derived from human RNA-Seq data. It provides an integrated approach to performing pathway enrichment and network-based analyses, while also producing publication-quality figures to summarize these results, allowing users to more efficiently interpret their findings and extract biological meaning from large amounts of data. pathlinkR is available to install from the software repository Bioconductor at https://bioconductor.

Altered expression of a raspberry homologue of VRN1 is associated with disruption of dormancy induction and misregulation of subsets of dormancy-associated genes.

Winter dormancy is a key process in the phenology of temperate perennials. Climate change is severely impacting its course leading to economic losses in agriculture. A better understanding of the underlying mechanisms, as well as the genetic basis of the different responses, is necessary for the development of climate-resilient cultivars.

Chilling or chemical induction of dormancy release in blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum) buds is associated with characteristic shifts in metabolite profiles.

This study reveals striking differences in the content and composition of hydrophilic and lipophilic compounds in blackcurrant buds (Ribes nigrum L., cv. Ben Klibreck) resulting from winter chill or chemical dormancy release following treatment with ERGER, a biostimulant used to promote uniform bud break.

Angiogenesis-associated pathways play critical roles in neonatal sepsis outcomes.

Neonatal sepsis is a major cause of childhood mortality. Limited diagnostic tools and mechanistic insights have hampered our abilities to develop prophylactic or therapeutic interventions. Biomarkers in human neonatal sepsis have been repeatedly identified as associated with dysregulation of angiopoietin signaling and altered arachidonic acid metabolism.

Ascorbic acid metabolism and functions.

This Special Issue was assembled to mark the 25th anniversary of the proposal of the d -mannose/ l -galactose (Smirnoff-Wheeler) ascorbate biosynthesis pathway in plants ( Wheeler et al., 1998 ). The issue aims to assess the current state of knowledge and to identify outstanding questions about ascorbate metabolism and functions in plants.

Biodistribution of Native and Nanoformulated Innate Defense Regulator Peptide 1002.

Innate defense regulator-1002 (IDR-1002) is a synthetic peptide with promising immunomodulatory and antibiofilm properties. An appreciable body of work exists around its mechanism of action at the cellular and molecular level, along with its efficacy across several infection and inflammation models. However, little is known about its absorption, distribution, and excretion in live organisms.

Gene Expression Profiling in Pediatric Appendicitis.

Importance: Appendicitis is the most common indication for urgent surgery in the pediatric population, presenting across a range of severity and with variable complications. Differentiating simple appendicitis (SA) and perforated appendicitis (PA) on presentation may help direct further diagnostic workup and appropriate therapy selection, including antibiotic choice and timing of surgery.

Objective: To provide a mechanistic understanding of the differences in disease severity of appendicitis with the objective of developing improved diagnostics and treatments, specifically for the pediatric population.

Antibiofilm peptides enhance the corrosion resistance of titanium in the presence of .

Titanium alloys have gained popularity in implant dentistry for the restoration of missing teeth and related hard tissues because of their biocompatibility and enhanced strength. However, titanium corrosion and infection caused by microbial biofilms remains a significant clinical challenge leading to implant failure. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of antibiofilm peptides 1018 and DJK-5 on the corrosion resistance of titanium in the presence of .

Implementation and impact of the global access principles at the University of British Columbia: current successes and future challenges.

In 2007, the University of British Columbia (UBC) was the first university in Canada to establish and adopt global access (GA) principles. Toward implementing these principles, UBC then identified a set of strategies for providing affordable access to new UBC-developed technologies throughout low- and middle-income countries and among vulnerable populations. In this perspective, we provide an update of UBC's progress over the past 15 years made on several technologies that fall under the GA principles.

Left-dominance for resting-state temporal low-gamma power in children with impaired word-decoding and without comorbid ADHD.

One theory of the origins of reading disorders (i.e., dyslexia) is a language network which cannot effectively 'entrain' to speech, with cascading effects on the development of phonological skills.

Influence of a D-enantiomeric peptide on the anticorrosion ability of titanium with different surface roughness against Streptococcus mutans biofilms.

Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of a d-enantiomeric antibiofilm peptide (DJK-5) on the anticorrosion ability of titanium (Ti) with different surface roughness against Streptococcus mutans biofilms.

Methods: Commercially pure Ti disks with machined (MA, smooth) or sandblasted + acid-etched (SLA, rough) surfaces were prepared and characterized. All disks were divided into three groups: a positive control (PC) group with S.

Antibiotic failure: Beyond antimicrobial resistance.

Despite significant progress in antibiotic discovery, millions of lives are lost annually to infections. Surprisingly, the failure of antimicrobial treatments to effectively eliminate pathogens frequently cannot be attributed to genetically-encoded antibiotic resistance. This review aims to shed light on the fundamental mechanisms contributing to clinical scenarios where antimicrobial therapies are ineffective (i.

Restraining Quiescence Release-Related Ageing in Plant Cells: A Case Study in Carrot.

The blackening of cut carrots causes substantial economic losses to the food industry. Blackening was not observed in carrots that had been stored underground for less than a year, but the susceptibility to blackening increased with the age of the carrots that were stored underground for longer periods. Samples of black, border, and orange tissues from processed carrot batons and slices, prepared under industry standard conditions, were analyzed to identify the molecular and metabolic mechanisms underpinning processing-induced blackening.

Extracellular Matrix Remodeling in Atopic Dermatitis Harnesses the Onset of an Asthmatic Phenotype and Is a Potential Contributor to the Atopic March.

The development of atopic dermatitis in infancy, and subsequent allergies, such as asthma in later childhood, is known as the atopic march. The mechanism is largely unknown, however the course of disease indicates an inter-epithelial crosstalk, through the onset of inflammation in the skin and progression to other mucosal epithelia. In this study, we investigated if and how skin-lung epithelial crosstalk contributes to the development of the atopic march.

Persistence is key: unresolved immune dysfunction is lethal in both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 sepsis.

Introduction: Severe COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 pulmonary sepsis share pathophysiological, immunological, and clinical features, suggesting that severe COVID-19 is a form of viral sepsis. Our objective was to identify shared gene expression trajectories strongly associated with eventual mortality between severe COVID-19 patients and contemporaneous non-COVID-19 sepsis patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) for potential therapeutic implications.

Methods: Whole blood was drawn from 20 COVID-19 patients and 22 non-COVID-19 adult sepsis patients at two timepoints: ICU admission and approximately a week later.

Post-COVID symptoms are associated with endotypes reflecting poor inflammatory and hemostatic modulation.

Introduction: Persistent symptoms after COVID-19 infection ("long COVID") negatively affects almost half of COVID-19 survivors. Despite its prevalence, its pathophysiology is poorly understood, with multiple host systems likely affected. Here, we followed patients from hospital to discharge and used a systems-biology approach to identify mechanisms of long COVID.

A high-density EEG and structural MRI source analysis of the frequency following response to missing fundamental stimuli reveals subcortical and cortical activation to low and high frequency stimuli.

Pitch is a perceptual rather than physical phenomenon, important for spoken language use, musical communication, and other aspects of everyday life. Auditory stimuli can be designed to probe the relationship between perception and physiological responses to pitch-evoking stimuli. One technique for measuring physiological responses to pitch-evoking stimuli is the frequency following response (FFR).

Quantitative trait loci mapping of polyphenol metabolites from a 'Latham' x 'Glen Moy' red raspberry (Rubus idaeus L) cross.

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the genetic control of polyphenol accumulation in red raspberry (Rubus idaeus L).

Methods: The levels of total anthocyanins and 37 individual polyphenol metabolites were measured over three years in a raspberry biparental mapping population. Quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for these traits were mapped onto a high-density SNP linkage map.

Facilitating systems-level analyses of all-cause and Covid-mediated sepsis through SeptiSearch, a manually-curated compendium of dysregulated gene sets.

Background: Sepsis is a dysfunctional host response to infection. The syndrome leads to millions of deaths annually (19.7% of all deaths in 2017) and is the cause of most deaths from severe Covid infections.

Impacts of PEGylation and Glycosylation on the Biological Properties of Host Defense Peptide IDR1018.

The multifunctional properties of host defense peptides (HDPs) make them promising drug candidates to tackle bacterial infections and tissue inflammation. However, these peptides tend to aggregate and can harm host cells at high doses, potentially limiting their clinical use and applications. In this study, we explored the influences of both pegylation and glycosylation on the biocompatibility and biological properties of HDPs, particularly the innate defense regulator IDR1018.