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Background Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is a common healthcare-associated infection with limited treatment options. Omadacycline, an aminomethylcycline tetracycline, has potent in vitro activity against C difficile and a low propensity to cause CDI in clinical trials. We aimed to assess fecal pharmacokinetics and gut microbiome effects of oral omadacycline compared to oral vancomycin in healthy adults. Methods This was a phase 1, nonblinded, randomized clinical trial conducted in healthy volunteers aged 18–40 years. Subjects received a 10-day course of omadacycline or vancomycin. Stool samples were collected at baseline, daily during therapy, and at follow-up visits. Omadacycline and vancomycin stool concentrations were assessed, and microbiome changes were compared. Results Sixteen healthy volunteers with a mean age of 26 (standard deviation [SD], 5) years were enrolled; 62.5% were male, and participants' mean body mass index was 23.5 (SD, 4.0) kg/m2. Omadacycline was well tolerated with no safety signal differences between the 2 antibiotics. A rapid initial increase in fecal concentrations of omadacycline was observed compared to vancomycin, with maximum concentrations achieved within 48 hours. A significant difference in alpha diversity was observed following therapy in both the omadacycline and vancomycin groups (P <.05). Bacterial abundance and beta diversity analysis showed differing microbiome changes in subjects who received omadacycline versus vancomycin. Conclusions Subjects given omadacycline had high fecal concentrations with a distinct microbiome profile compared to vancomycin. Clinical Trials Registration NCT06030219. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While nearly one in nine people in the world deals with hunger, one in eight has obesity, and all face the threat of climate change. The production of rice, an important cereal crop and staple food for most of the world's population, faces challenges due to climate change, the increasing global population, and the simultaneous prevalence of hunger and obesity worldwide. These issues could be addressed at least in part by genetically modified rice. Genetic engineering has greatly developed over the century. Genetically modified rice has been approved by the ISAAA's GM approval database as safe for human consumption. The aim behind the development of this rice is to improve the crop yield, nutritional value, and food safety of rice grains. This review article provides a summary of the research data on genetically modified rice and its potential role in improving the double burden of malnutrition, primarily through increasing nutritional quality as well as grain size and yield. It also reviews the potential health benefits of certain bioactive components generated in genetically modified rice. Furthermore, this article discusses potential solutions to these challenges, including the use of genetically modified crops and the identification of quantitative trait loci involved in grain weight and nutritional quality. Specifically, a quantitative trait locus called grain weight on chromosome 6 has been identified, which was amplified by the Kasa allele, resulting in a substantial increase in grain weight and brown grain. An overexpressing a specific gene in rice, Oryza sativa plasma membrane H+-ATPase1, was observed to improve the absorption and assimilation of ammonium in the roots, as well as enhance stomatal opening and photosynthesis rate in the leaves under light exposure. Cloning research has also enabled the identification of several underlying quantitative trait loci involved in grain weight and nutritional quality. Finally, this article discusses the increasing threats of climate change such as methane–nitrous oxide emissions and global warming, and how they may be significantly improved by genetically modified rice through modifying a water-management technique. Taken together, this comprehensive review will be of particular importance to the field of bioactive components of cereal grains and food industries trying to produce high-quality functional cereal foods through genetic engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cell-cultured protein technology has become increasingly attractive due to its sustainability and climate benefits. The aim of this study is to determine the nutritional quality of the human-induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-cultured proteins in an advanced 3D peptide hydrogel system for the highly efficient production of cell-cultured proteins. Our previous study demonstrated a PGmatrix peptide hydrogel for the 3D embedded culture of long-term hiPSC maintenance and expansion (PGmatrix-hiPSC (PG-3D)), which showed significantly superior pluripotency when compared with traditional 2D cell culture on Matrigel and/or Vitronectin and other existing 3D scaffolding systems such as Polyethylene glycol (PEG)-based hydrogels. In this study, we designed a PGmatrix 3D suspension (PG-3DSUSP) system from the PG-3D embedded system that allows scaling up a hiPSC 3D culture volume by 20 times (e.g., from 0.5 mL to 10 mL). The results indicated that the PG-3DSUSP was a competitive system compared to the well-established PG-3D embedded method in terms of cell growth performance and cell pluripotency. hiPSCs cultured in PG-3DSUSP consistently presented a 15–20-fold increase in growth and a 95–99% increase in viability across multiple passages with spheroids with a size range of 30–50 μm. The expression of pluripotency-related genes, including NANOG, OCT4, hTERT, REX1, and UTF1, in PG-3DSUSP-cultured hiPSCs was similar to or higher than that observed in a PG-3D system, suggesting continuous pluripotent maintenance. The nutritional value of the hiPSC-generated proteins from the PG-3DSUSP system was further evaluated for amino acid composition and in vitro protein digestibility. The amino acid composition of the hiPSC-generated proteins demonstrated a significantly higher essential amino acid content (39.0%) than human skeletal muscle protein (31.8%). In vitro protein digestibility of hiPSC-generated proteins was significantly higher (78.0 ± 0.7%) than that of the commercial beef protein isolate (75.7 ± 0.6%). Taken together, this is the first study to report an advanced PG-3DSUSP culture system to produce highly efficient hiPSC-generated proteins that possess more essential amino acids and better digestibility. The hiPSC-generated proteins with superior nutrition quality may be of particular significance as novel alternative proteins in food engineering and industries for future food, beverage, and supplement applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beach width is an important factor for tourists' comfort, and the backshore is a swash zone where sediment moves quickly. Artificial sandy beaches focus on beach width stability and evolution. This paper is based on an artificial beach project in Haikou Bay, where, in view of the existing conditions, a new type of beach profile that can protect beach berm and width without being eroded by large wave action. Numerical simulation based on XBeach model were conducted to predict the morphodynamical responses of the beach, including a diagnosis of the erosion spots under storm and normal wave events, respectively. Sediment fluxes along and across the shoreline under varied scenarios, dependent on profile width and backshore slope, were discussed. It was found that normal waves with lower heights and longer periods can induce stronger erosion than storm waves due to the landform of the inner-bay in Haikou Bay. Engineering and biological methods to reduce beach erosion during wave action were discussed. Biological methods such as green-plants-root-system can retain berm surface sediment without allowing it to be transported offshore by wave action. The design concept of this artificial beach project may inspire more beach design and protection projects in coastal zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the oldest plants cultivated by humans, hemp used to be banned in the United States but returned as a legal crop in 2018. Since then, the United States has become the leading hemp producer in the world. Currently, hemp attracts increasing attention from consumers and scientists as hemp products provide a wide spectrum of potential functions. Particularly, bioactive peptides derived from hemp proteins have been proven to be strong antioxidants, which is an extremely hot research topic in recent years. However, some controversial disputes and unknown issues are still underway to be explored and verified in the aspects of technique, methodology, characteristic, mechanism, application, caution, etc. Therefore, this review focusing on the antioxidant properties of hemp proteins is necessary to discuss the multiple critical issues, including in vitro structure-modifying techniques and antioxidant assays, structure-activity relationships of antioxidant peptides, pre-clinical studies on hemp proteins and pathogenesis-related molecular mechanisms, usage and potential hazard, and novel advanced techniques involving bioinformatics methodology (QSAR, PPI, GO, KEGG), proteomic analysis, and genomics analysis, etc. Taken together, the antioxidant potential of hemp proteins may provide both functional food benefits and phytotherapy efficacy to human health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]