Strainy: phasing and assembly of strain haplotypes from long-read metagenome sequencing.

Bacterial species in microbial communities are often represented by mixtures of strains, distinguished by small variations in their genomes. Short-read approaches can be used to detect small-scale variation between strains but fail to phase these variants into contiguous haplotypes. Long-read metagenome assemblers can generate contiguous bacterial chromosomes but often suppress strain-level variation in favor of species-level consensus.

Enterotype-Dependent Probiotic-Mediated Changes in the Male Rat Intestinal Microbiome In Vivo and In Vitro.

Beneficial properties of lactic acid bacteria have been known long ago, but particular interest in probiotics has arisen in the last two decades due to the understanding of the important role of intestinal microflora in human life. Thus, the ability of probiotics to support healthy homeostasis of gut microbiomes has received particular attention. Here, we evaluated the effect of a probiotic consisting of and on the gut microbiome of male rats, assessed their persistence in the fecal biota, and compared probiotic-mediated changes in vitro and in vivo.

Safety and Immunogenicity of Betuvax-CoV-2, an RBD-Fc-Based SARS-CoV-2 Recombinant Vaccine: Preliminary Results of the First-in-Human, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Phase I/II Clinical Trial.

Unlabelled: COVID-19, being a life-threatening infection that evolves rapidly, remains a major public health concern calling for the development of vaccines with broad protection against different pathogenic strains and high immunogenicity. Aside from this, other concerns in mass immunization settings are also the scalability of production and relative affordability of the technology. In that regard, adjuvanted protein vaccines with particles mimicking the virus stand out among known vaccine technologies.

Genomic reconstruction of short-chain fatty acid production by the human gut microbiota.

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) including acetate, formate, propionate, and butyrate are the end products of dietary fiber and host glycan fermentation by the human gut microbiota (HGM). SCFAs produced in the column are of utmost importance for host physiology and health. Butyrate and propionate improve gut health and play a key role in the neuroendocrine and immune systems.

SARS-CoV-2 Subunit Virus-like Vaccine Demonstrates High Safety Profile and Protective Efficacy: Preclinical Study.

Public health threat coming from a rapidly developing COVID-19 pandemic calls for developing safe and effective vaccines with innovative designs. This paper presents preclinical trial results of "Betuvax-CoV-2", a vaccine developed as a subunit vaccine containing a recombinant RBD-Fc fusion protein and betulin-based spherical virus-like nanoparticles as an adjuvant ("Betuspheres"). The study aimed to demonstrate vaccine safety in mice, rats, and Chinchilla rabbits through acute, subchronic, and reproductive toxicity studies.

Design and Immunological Properties of the Novel Subunit Virus-like Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2.

The COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing, and the need for safe and effective vaccines to prevent infection and to control spread of the virus remains urgent. Here, we report the development of a SARS-CoV-2 subunit vaccine candidate (Betuvax-CoV-2) based on RBD and SD1 domains of the spike (S) protein fused to a human IgG1 Fc fragment. The antigen is adsorbed on betulin adjuvant, forming spherical particles with a size of 100-180 nm, mimicking the size of viral particles.

: Occurrence in the Human Gut Microbiota and -Mer-Based Assessment of Intraspecies Diversity.

Alignment-free approaches employing short -mers as barcodes for individual genomes have created a new strategy for taxonomic analysis and paved a way for high-resolution phylogeny. Here, we introduce this strategy for the species as a taxon requiring barcoding support for precise systematics. Using this approach for phylotyping of VKM B-1144 at the genus level, we identified four phylogroups and found that 12A belongs to one of them, rather than to the clade.

Intracellular pH Modulates Autophagy and Mitophagy.

The specific autophagic elimination of mitochondria (mitophagy) plays the role of quality control for this organelle. Deregulation of mitophagy leads to an increased number of damaged mitochondria and triggers cell death. The deterioration of mitophagy has been hypothesized to underlie the pathogenesis of several neurodegenerative diseases, most notably Parkinson disease.