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Biochemistry
January 2025
Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa.
C-terminal amidation of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) is a frequent minor modification used to improve antibacterial potency, commonly ascribed to increased positive charge, protection from proteases, and a stabilized secondary structure. Although the activity of AMPs is primarily associated with the ability to penetrate bacterial membranes, hitherto the effect of amidation on this interaction has not been understood in detail. Here, we show that amidation of the scorpion-derived membranolytic peptide AamAP1-Lys produces a potent analog with faster bactericidal activity, increased membrane permeabilization, and greater Gram-negative membrane penetration associated with greater conformational flexibility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper sheds light on how spaces become contested sites for identity construction and negotiation to take place. Applying the Social Representations Approach, a qualitative study of 10 focus group discussions (n = 39), was conducted in Singapore, Malaysia and the UK to explore how, and why racialised identity construction changed in each socio-political context. The study challenged two underlying assumptions in social psychology: (1) that the meaning of the racialised category holds constant across time and space, and (2) there exists a pan-racial identification among Asian identities, for example, which at times allows for racialised categories to be manipulated as variables.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJAC Antimicrob Resist
February 2025
Division of Medical Microbiology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
Background: Research on the contextual drivers of antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programme interventions in neonatal units is limited.
Methods: As part of a prospective mixed-methods multidisciplinary neonatal AMS (NeoAMS) interventional study in 14 South African hospitals, we applied a three-phased process to assess implementation barriers and contextual drivers experienced by participating health professionals. The study included: (Phase one; P1) a survey of pre-intervention barriers and enablers; (P2) written feedback during the study intervention phase; and (P3) semi-structured exit interviews.
Cancer Pathog Ther
January 2025
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA.
Recently, the potential role of vitamins in cancer therapy has attracted considerable research attention. However, the reported findings are inconsistent, with limited information on the biochemical and molecular interactions of different vitamins in various cancer cells. Importantly, the presence of vitamin receptors in tumor cells suggests that vitamins play a significant role in the molecular and biochemical interactions in cancers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Exp Biol
January 2025
African Robotics Unit, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, 7700, Western Cape, South Africa.
Understanding and monitoring wildlife behavior is crucial in ecology and biomechanics, yet challenging due to the limitations of current methods. To address this issue, we introduce WildPose, a novel long-range motion capture system specifically tailored for free-ranging wildlife observation. This system combines an electronically controllable zoom-lens camera with a LiDAR to capture both 2D videos and 3D point cloud data, thereby allowing researchers to observe high-fidelity animal morphometrics, behavior and interactions in a completely remote manner.
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