This study investigates the synthesis and characterization of alkyne-based multilayered three-dimensional (3D) polymers, which exhibit a subtle aggregation-induced emission (AIE) phenomenon. The polymers demonstrate significant potential as fluorescent probes for the selective detection of chromium (VI) ions (Cr⁺), showcasing their utility in environmental sensing applications. Additionally, the circular dichroism (CD) spectra reveal a pronounced cotton effect, indicative of chiral properties, while scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and dynamic light scatting (DLS) analysis reveal a distinctive rock-like surface morphology and Cr sensitive anti-aggregation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndigenous microbial communities in smelting areas are crucial for maintaining fragile ecosystem functions. However, the community assembly process and their responses to polymetallic pollution are poorly understood, especially the taxa in each bin from the amplicons that contributed to the assembly process. Herein, microbial diversity, co-occurrence patterns, assembly process and the intrinsic mechanisms across contamination gradients at a typical PbZn smelting site were systematically unravelled by high-throughput sequencing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMaintenance of within its enzootic cycle requires a complex regulatory pathway involving the alternative σ factors RpoN and RpoS and two ancillary -acting factors, BosR and Rrp2. Activation of this pathway occurs within ticks during the nymphal blood meal when RpoS, the effector σ factor, transcribes genes required for tick transmission and mammalian infection. RpoS also exerts a 'gatekeeper' function by repressing σ-dependent tick phase genes (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTwo-photon intravital microscopy is a powerful tool that allows visualization of cells in intact tissues in a live animal in real time. In recent years, this advanced technology has been applied to understand pathogen-host interactions using fluorescently labeled bacteria. In particular, infectious fluorescent transformants of the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, an Ixodes tick-transmitted pathogen, have been imaged by two-photon intravital microscopy to study bacterial motility and interactions of the pathogen with feeding ticks and host tissues.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHuman babesiosis is a tick-borne multisystem disease caused by Babesia species of the apicomplexan phylum. Most clinical cases and fatalities of babesiosis are caused by Babesia microti Current treatment for human babesiosis consists of two drug combinations, atovaquone + azithromycin or quinine + clindamycin. These treatments are associated with adverse side effects and a significant rate of drug failure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLyme disease, due to infection with the Ixodes-tick transmitted spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, is the most common tick-transmitted disease in the northern hemisphere. Our understanding of the tick-pathogen-vertebrate host interactions that sustain an enzootic cycle for B. burgdorferi is incomplete.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Tradit Chin Med
August 2013
Though the analysis on the characteristics of Xiang thinking and the cultural background of its formation, it is believed that Xiang thinking is not only an art of logic and thinking with the natural holistic view but also represents the most important cognitive patterns concerning knowledge system of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and even it is the soul of Traditional Chinese Medicine culture. Therefore, a new viewpoint has been proposed that it is necessary to adhere to Xiang thinking with the study of Xiang as a core procedure and to seek for breakthrough for academic innovation in the cognitive process of Xiang with efforts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Antimicrob Chemother
September 2007
Objectives: The skin commensal and opportunistic pathogen Staphylococcus epidermidis is one of the leading causes of nosocomial and biofilm-associated infections, which urgently requires discovery of new antibiotics. We decided to find new leads that target the S. epidermidis tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase (SeWRS), which is essential for translation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn murine Lyme borreliosis, the absence of gamma delta T lymphocytes augments the T helper cell 2 type humoral response but does not alter disease susceptibility. Arthropod transmission of Borrelia burgdorferi spirochetes results in similar antibody isotypes when gamma delta T cells are present, suggesting that vector effects can negate gamma delta T-cell functions in vivo.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFXenodiagnosis by ticks was used to determine whether spirochetes persist in mice after 1 month of antibiotic therapy for vectorborne Borrelia burgdorferi infection. Immunofluorescence and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were used to show that spirochetes could be found in Ixodes scapularis ticks feeding on 4 of 10 antibiotic-treated mice up to 3 months after therapy. These spirochetes could not be transmitted to naive mice, and some lacked genes on plasmids correlating with infectivity.
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