Combined Biosynthetic Pathway Engineering and Storage Pool Expansion for High-Level Production of Ergosterol in Industrial .

Ergosterol, a terpenoid compound produced by fungi, is an economically important metabolite serving as the direct precursor of steroid drugs. Herein, ergsosterol biosynthetic pathway modification combined with storage capacity enhancement was proposed to synergistically improve the production of ergosterol in . strain S1 accumulated the highest amount of ergosterol [7.

Analysis of nicotine-induced metabolic changes in Blakeslea trispora by GC-MS.

Blakeslea trispora is a natural source of carotenoids, including β-carotene and lycopene, which have industrial applications. Therefore, classical selective breeding techniques have been applied to generate strains with increased productivity, and microencapsulated β-carotene preparation has been used in food industry (Li et al., 2019).

Microencapsulated β-carotene preparation using different drying treatments.

β-Carotene is one of the most abundant natural pigments in foods; however, usage of β-carotene is limited because of its instability. Microencapsulation techniques are usually applied to protect microencapsulated β-carotene from oxidization. In this study, β-carotene was microencapsulated using different drying processes: spray-drying, spray freeze-drying, coating, and spray granulation.

Advancement of multi-target drug discoveries and promising applications in the field of Alzheimer's disease.

Complex diseases (e.g., Alzheimer's disease) or infectious diseases are usually caused by complicated and varied factors, including environmental and genetic factors.

Enhanced Performance of Rhizopus oryzae Lipase by Reasonable Immobilization on Magnetic Nanoparticles and Its Application in Synthesis 1,3-Diacyglycerol.

Nano-sized FeO was synthesized by chemical co-precipitation and subsequently modified with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) and glutaraldehyde to introduce aldehyde group on its surface. With the help of "interface activation" by adding sucrose esters-11 as surfactant, lipase from Rhizopus oryzae was successfully immobilized onto the carrier with great enhancement of activity. The hydrolysis activity of immobilized enzyme were 9.

Enhancing the thermostability of lipase by combined mutation of hot-spots and engineering a disulfide bond.

lipase (ROL) is important because of its extreme -1,3-regioselectivity, but it shows poor thermostability, which severely restricts its application. In this work, the thermostability of ROL was greatly enhanced by rational design. First, several sites that may affect the thermostability of ROL were identified by multiple-sequence alignment.

Using virtual reality for drug discovery: a promising new outlet for novel leads.

: Virtual reality (VR) environments are increasingly being used by researchers in various fields in addition to being increasingly integrated into various areas of human life, ranging from videogames to different industrial uses. VR can be used to create interactive and multimodal sensory stimuli and thus offers unique advantages over other computer-based approaches for scientific research and molecular-level applications. Consequently, VR is starting to be used in novel drug development, such as in drug discovery, and rational drug design.

Design, identification, antifungal evaluation and molecular modeling of chlorotetaine derivatives as new anti-fungal agents.

It is feasible to rationally modify existing bioactive components for new drug development, achieving molecules with improved biological activities. In this study, rational modification of chlorotetaine was carried out following molecular modelling to enhance interactions between the fungal oligopeptide transmembrane transporter PTR22 and the ligand. The peptide obtained with the lowest docking energy, Lys-chlorotetaine (LC), displayed an improved antifungal effect compared with chlorotetaine.

Increased productivity of L-2-aminobutyric acid and total turnover number of NAD/NADH in a one-pot system through enhanced thermostability of L-threonine deaminase.

Objective: To strengthen NADH regeneration in the biosynthesis of L-2-aminobutyric acid (L-ABA).

Results: L-Threonine deaminase (L-TD) from Escherichia coli K12 was modified by directed evolution and rational design to improve its endurance to heat treatment. The half-life of mutant G323D/F510L/T344A at 42 °C increased from 10 to 210 min, a 20-fold increase compared to the wild-type L-TD, and the temperature at which the activity of the enzyme decreased by 50% in 15 min increased from 39 to 53 °C.

Molecular insights into the antifungal mechanism of bacilysin.

Bacilysin is one of the simplest antimicrobial peptides and has drawn great attention for its excellent performance against Candida albicans. In this study, the antifungal mechanism of bacilysin was investigated. The target enzyme glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase (GFA) was expressed heterologously in Escherichia coli and its inhibition by bacilysin and derivatives was studied.

The advancement of multidimensional QSAR for novel drug discovery - where are we headed?

The Multidimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship (multidimensional-QSAR) method is one of the most popular computational methods employed to predict interesting biochemical properties of existing or hypothetical molecules. With continuous progress, the QSAR method has made remarkable success in various fields, such as medicinal chemistry, material science and predictive toxicology. Areas covered: In this review, the authors cover the basic elements of multidimensional -QSAR including model construction, validation and application.

Quantitative structure-activity relationship: promising advances in drug discovery platforms.

Introduction: Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) modeling is one of the most popular computer-aided tools employed in medicinal chemistry for drug discovery and lead optimization. It is especially powerful in the absence of 3D structures of specific drug targets. QSAR methods have been shown to draw public attention since they were first introduced.

Advances in Computational Structure-Based Drug Design and Application in Drug Discovery.

Compared with the increasing and widespread bacterial resistance to clinical medicines and the urgent need for cures of intractable diseases, there is a dramatic decline in the numbers of drugs reaching the market or clinical trials. Accordingly, it has become imperative to discover more rational and efficient strategies to design and develop novel drugs. Structure-based drug design/discovery (SBDD) is one of the computer-aided methods, by which novel drugs are designed or discovered based on the knowledge of 3D structures of the relevant specific targets.

Separation, determination and antifungal activity test of the products from a new Bacillus amyloliquefaciens.

A new Bacillus amyloliquefaciens named ZJU-2011 was discovered, and the culture supernatant showed a strong inhibitory effect against Candida albicans. In this study, a novel method was developed to purify the antifungal compounds in high purity. The obtained products were analysed by high performance liquid chromatography and proven to be of high purity.

Fragment-based drug discovery and molecular docking in drug design.

Fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) has caused a revolution in the process of drug discovery and design, with many FBDD leads being developed into clinical trials or approved in the past few years. Compared with traditional high-throughput screening, it displays obvious advantages such as efficiently covering chemical space, achieving higher hit rates, and so forth. In this review, we focus on the most recent developments of FBDD for improving drug discovery, illustrating the process and the importance of FBDD.

High-level soluble expression of the hemA gene from Rhodobacter capsulatus and comparative study of its enzymatic properties.

The Rhodobacter capsulatus hemA gene, which encodes 5-aminolevulinic acid synthase (ALAS), was expressed in Escherichia coli Rosetta (DE3) and the enzymatic properties of the purified recombinant ALAS (RC-ALAS) were studied. Compared with ALASs encoded by hemA genes from Agrobacterium radiobacter (AR-ALAS) and Rhodobacter sphaeroides (RS-ALAS), the specific activity of RC-ALAS reached 198.2 U/mg, which was about 31.

Enhancing production of a 24-membered ring macrolide compound by a marine bacterium using response surface methodology.

A 24-membered ring macrolide compound, macrolactin A has potential applications in pharmaceuticals for its anti-infectious and antiviral activity. In this study, macrolactin A was produced by a marine bacterium, which was identified as Bacillus subtilis by 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) sequence analysis. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI/MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy analyses were used to characterize this compound.

[The extraction and separation of an active and available component from Taxus mairei].

To study on the 10-deacetyl baccatin III extract from the leaves and branches of Taxus mairei. A new method was proposed to extract and purify 10-DAB III, which was adopted as the parent nucleus of the high efficacious antitumour drug-taxol and docetaxel in the compositive synthesis. Optimization selection was also made in the extraction and purification conditions of taxol.