Search

Muga is a semi-domesticated multi-voltine silkworm cultivated in different seasons of the year. Crops are reared in specific months and are traditionally named Jarua (spring), Chotua, Bohogua, Jethua, Aherua, Saonia, Bhodia, Ahinia, Katia (autumn) and Aghonia. Seasonal variation forces silkworm larvae to face harsh environmental conditions manifested by generation of oxidative stress and occurrence of microbial diseases. Anti-oxidant enzymes like superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) along with anti-microbial peptides like cecropin, gloverin, and defensin in lepidopterans play a significant role in fighting against free radicals as well as disease-causing microbes, and hence this study has focussed on the expression of anti-oxidant enzyme activity and different anti-microbial peptides in three distinct crops, namely, Jarua and Aherua (seed crops) and Katia (commercial crop) collected from the same site, Khanapara (26°09′34.62″N; 91°41′27.23″E) in Assam, India. The results of biochemical enzyme assays revealed the Jarua crop to possess the highest enzyme activity with respect to SOD and GST in particular, followed by the Katia and Aherua crops. Malondialdehyde lipid peroxidase and reduced glutathione were also expressed notably in the Jarua crop. The quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) study involving analysis of anti-microbial peptide (AMP) expression revealed the Jarua crop to possess the highest expression of three AMPs, viz., gloverin, moricin 1 and gallerimycin pro, followed by Katia with the highest expression of attacin and defensin. Total haemocyte count revealed Jarua to induce the least haemocyte count, Katia to induce moderate, and Aherua to induce the highest count. Thus, our findings indicate that although the Jarua crop is considered a seed crop, it can be reconsidered as a commercial crop due to its high concentration of anti-oxidant enzymes and higher expression of AMPs. This study was carried out to focus on the immunological response of the muga silkworm with varying seasons. Their innate immunity helps them fight against diseases that emerge under different environmental conditions in which anti-microbial peptides play a crucial role. Muga larvae are reared for silk and are used commercially to produce various commodities for which the best silk thread should always be identified to obtain a higher market value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pandemic known as anti-microbial resistance (AMR) poses a challenge to contemporary medicine. To stop AMR's rise and quick worldwide spread, urgent multisectoral intervention is needed. This review will provide insight on new and developing treatment approaches for AMR. Future therapy options may be made possible by the development of novel drugs that make use of developments in "omics" technology, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Vaccines, immunoconjugates, antimicrobial peptides, monoclonal antibodies, and nanoparticles may also be intriguing options for treating AMR in the future. Combination therapy may potentially prove to be a successful strategy for combating AMR. To lessen the impact of AMR, ideas like drug repurposing, antibiotic stewardship, and the one health approach may be helpful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since infections with antibiotic-resistant bacteria cause increasing problems worldwide, the identification of alternative therapies is of great importance. Plantderived bioactives, including allyl-isothiocyanate (AITC), have received attention for their antimicrobial properties. The present study therefore investigates the impact of AITC on survival and antimicrobial peptide (AMP) levels in Drosophila melanogaster challenged with the fly pathogenic bacteria Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum and Leuconostoc pseudomesenteroides. AITC, a sulfur-containing compound derived from glucosinolates, exhibits antimicrobial properties and has been suggested to modulate AMP expression. By using D. melanogaster, we demonstrate that AITC treatment resulted in a concentration-dependent decrease of survival rates among female flies, particularly in the presence of the Gramnegative bacterium Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum, whereas AITC did not affect survival in male flies. Despite the ability of isothiocyanates to induce AMP expression in cell culture, we did not detect significant changes in AMP mRNA levels in infected flies exposed to AITC. Our findings suggest sex-specific differences in response to AITC treatment and bacterial infections, underlining the complexity of host--pathogen interactions and potential limitations of AITC as a preventive or therapeutic compound at least in D. melanogaster models of bacterial infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Aging studies in humans and mice have played a key role in understanding the intestinal microbiome and an increased abundance of “inflammaging” Gram-negative (Gn) bacteria. The mechanisms underlying this inflammatory profile in the aging microbiome are unknown. We tested the hypothesis that an aging-related decrease in colonic crypt epithelial cell anti)microbial peptide (AMP) gene expression could promote colonic microbiome inflammatory Gn dysbiosis and inflammaging. Methods: As a model of aging, C57BL/6J mice fecal (colonic) microbiota (16S) and isolated colonic crypt epithelial cell gene expression (RNA-seq) were assessed at 2 months (mth) (human: 18 years old; yo), 15 mth (human: 50 yo), and 25 mth (human: 84 yo). Informatics examined aging-related microbial compositions, differential colonic crypt epithelial cell gene expressions, and correlations between colonic bacteria and colonic crypt epithelial cell gene expressions. Results: Fecal microbiota exhibited significantly increased relative abundances of pro-inflammatory Gn bacteria with aging. Colonic crypt epithelial cell gene expression analysis showed significant age-related downregulation of key AMP genes that repress the growth of Gn bacteria. The aging-related decrease in AMP gene expressions is significantly correlated with an increased abundance in Gn bacteria (dysbiosis), loss of colonic barrier gene expression, and senescence- and inflammation-related gene expression. Conclusion: This study supports the proposed model that aging-related loss of colonic crypt epithelial cell AMP gene expression promotes increased relative abundances of Gn inflammaging-associated bacteria and gene expression markers of colonic inflammaging. These data may support new targets for aging-related therapies based on intestinal genes and microbiomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since infections with antibiotic-resistant bacteria cause increasing problems worldwide, the identification of alternative therapies is of great importance. Plant-derived bioactives, including allyl-isothiocyanate (AITC), have received attention for their antimicrobial properties. The present study therefore investigates the impact of AITC on survival and antimicrobial peptide (AMP) levels in Drosophila melanogaster challenged with the fly pathogenic bacteria Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum and Leuconostoc pseudomesenteroides. AITC, a sulfur-containing compound derived from glucosinolates, exhibits antimicrobial properties and has been suggested to modulate AMP expression. By using D. melanogaster, we demonstrate that AITC treatment resulted in a concentration-dependent decrease of survival rates among female flies, particularly in the presence of the Gram-negative bacterium Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum, whereas AITC did not affect survival in male flies. Despite the ability of isothiocyanates to induce AMP expression in cell culture, we did not detect significant changes in AMP mRNA levels in infected flies exposed to AITC. Our findings suggest sex-specific differences in response to AITC treatment and bacterial infections, underlining the complexity of host–pathogen interactions and potential limitations of AITC as a preventive or therapeutic compound at least in D. melanogaster models of bacterial infections.

Introduction: Aging studies in humans and mice have played a key role in understanding the intestinal microbiome and an increased abundance of “inflammaging” Gram-negative (Gn) bacteria. The mechanisms underlying this inflammatory profile in the aging microbiome are unknown. We tested the hypothesis that an aging-related decrease in colonic crypt epithelial cell anti-microbial peptide (AMP) gene expression could promote colonic microbiome inflammatory Gn dysbiosis and inflammaging.Methods: As a model of aging, C57BL/6J mice fecal (colonic) microbiota (16S) and isolated colonic crypt epithelial cell gene expression (RNA-seq) were assessed at 2 months (mth) (human: 18 years old; yo), 15 mth (human: 50 yo), and 25 mth (human: 84 yo). Informatics examined aging-related microbial compositions, differential colonic crypt epithelial cell gene expressions, and correlations between colonic bacteria and colonic crypt epithelial cell gene expressions.Results: Fecal microbiota exhibited significantly increased relative abundances of pro-inflammatory Gn bacteria with aging. Colonic crypt epithelial cell gene expression analysis showed significant age-related downregulation of key AMP genes that repress the growth of Gn bacteria. The aging-related decrease in AMP gene expressions is significantly correlated with an increased abundance in Gn bacteria (dysbiosis), loss of colonic barrier gene expression, and senescence- and inflammation-related gene expression.Conclusion: This study supports the proposed model that aging-related loss of colonic crypt epithelial cell AMP gene expression promotes increased relative abundances of Gn inflammaging-associated bacteria and gene expression markers of colonic inflammaging. These data may support new targets for aging-related therapies based on intestinal genes and microbiomes.

A pandemic known as anti-microbial resistance (AMR) poses a challenge to contemporary medicine. To stop AMR's rise and quick worldwide spread, urgent multisectoral intervention is needed. This review will provide insight on new and developing treatment approaches for AMR. Future therapy options may be made possible by the development of novel drugs that make use of developments in "omics" technology, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Vaccines, immunoconjugates, antimicrobial peptides, monoclonal antibodies, and nanoparticles may also be intriguing options for treating AMR in the future. Combination therapy may potentially prove to be a successful strategy for combating AMR. To lessen the impact of AMR, ideas like drug repurposing, antibiotic stewardship, and the one health approach may be helpful.

Anticancer peptides (ACPs) key properties including bioactivity, high efficacy, low toxicity, and lack of drug resistance make them ideal candidates for cancer therapies. To deeply explore the potential of ACPs and accelerate development of cancer therapies, although 53 Artificial Intelligence supported computational predictors have been developed for ACPs and non ACPs classification but only one predictor has been developed for ACPs functional types annotations. Moreover, these predictors extract amino acids distribution patterns to transform peptides sequences into statistical vectors that are further fed to classifiers for discriminating peptides sequences and annotating peptides functional classes. Overall, these predictors remain fail in extracting diverse types of amino acids distribution patterns from peptide sequences. The paper in hand presents a unique CARE encoder that transforms peptides sequences into statistical vectors by extracting 4 different types of distribution patterns including correlation, distribution, composition, and transition. Across public benchmark dataset, proposed encoder potential is explored under two different evaluation settings namely; intrinsic and extrinsic. Extrinsic evaluation indicates that 12 different machine learning classifiers achieve superior performance with the proposed encoder as compared to 55 existing encoders. Furthermore, an intrinsic evaluation reveals that, unlike existing encoders, the proposed encoder generates more discriminative clusters for ACPs and non-ACPs classes. Across 8 public benchmark ACPs and non-ACPs classification datasets, proposed encoder and Adaboost classifier based CAPTURE predictor outperforms existing predictors with an average accuracy, recall and MCC score of 1%, 4%, and 2% respectively. In generalizeability evaluation case study, across 7 benchmark anti-microbial peptides classification datasets, CAPTURE surpasses existing predictors by an average AU-ROC of 2%. CAPTURE predictive pipeline along with label powerset method outperforms state-of-the-art ACPs functional types predictor by 5%, 5%, 5%, 6%, and 3% in terms of average accuracy, subset accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 respectively. CAPTURE web application is available at https://sds_genetic_analysis.opendfki.de/CAPTURE., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The cervicovaginal microbiome is highly associated with women's health, with microbial communities dominated by Lactobacillus species considered optimal. Conversely, a lack of lactobacilli and a high abundance of strict and facultative anaerobes, including Gardnerella vaginalis , have been associated with adverse reproductive outcomes. However, how host-microbial interactions alter specific molecular pathways and impact cervical and vaginal epithelial function remains unclear. Using RNA-sequencing, we characterized the in vitro cervicovaginal epithelial transcriptional response to different vaginal bacteria and their culture supernatants. We showed that G. vaginalis upregulates genes associated with an activated innate immune response. Unexpectedly, G. vaginalis specifically induced inflammasome pathways through activation of NLRP3-mediated increases in caspase-1, IL-1β and cell death, while live L. crispatus had minimal transcriptomic changes on epithelial cells. L. crispatus culture supernatants resulted in a shift in the epigenomic landscape of cervical epithelial cells that was confirmed by ATAC-sequencing showing reduced chromatin accessibility. This study reveals new insights into host-microbe interactions in the lower reproductive tract and suggests potential therapeutic strategies leveraging the vaginal microbiome to improve reproductive health.