Publications by authors named "Nosipho Wendy S'thebe"

Infections caused by multidrug-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae remain the leading cause of pneumonia-related deaths in children < 5 years globally, and mutations in penicillin-binding protein (PBP) 2 × have been identified as the major cause of resistance in the organism to beta-lactams. Thus, the development of new modulators with enhanced binding of PBP2x is highly encouraged. In this study, phenolics, due to their reported antibacterial activities, were screened against the active site of PBP2x using structure-based pharmacophore and molecular docking techniques, and the ability of the top-hit phenolics to inhibit the active and allosteric sites of PBP2x was refined through 120 ns molecular dynamic simulation.

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Clinically significant pathogens such as evade the effects of antibiotics using quorum sensing (QS) systems, making antimicrobial resistance (AMR) a persistent and potentially fatal global health issue. Hence, QS has been identified as a novel therapeutic target for identifying novel drug candidates against , and plant-derived products, including essential oils, have been demonstrated as effective QS modulators. This study assessed the antipathogenic efficacy of essential oils from two sunflower cultivars (AGSUN 5102 CLP and AGSUN 5106 CLP) against ATCC 27853 in vitro and in silico.

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