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Climate changes threat global food security and food production. Soil salinization is one of the major issues of changing climate, causing adverse impacts on agricultural crops. Germination and seedlings establishment are damaged under these conditions, so seeds must be safeguard before planting. Here, we use recycled organic tree waste combined with cold (low-pressure) plasma treatment as grain coating to improve the ability of wheat seed cultivars (Misr-1 and Gemmeza-11) to survive, germinate and produce healthy seedlings. The seeds were coated with biofilms of lignin and hash carbon to form a protective extracellular polymeric matrix and then exposed them to low-pressure plasma for different periods of time. The effectiveness of the coating and plasma was evaluated by characterizing the physical and surface properties of coated seeds using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and wettability testing. We also evaluated biological and physiological properties of coated seeds and plants they produced by studying germination and seedling vigor, as well as by characterizing fitness parameters of the plants derived from the seeds. The analysis revealed the optimal plasma exposure time to enhance germination and seedling growth. Taken together, our study suggests that combining the use of recycled organic tree waste and cold plasma may represent a viable strategy for improving crop seedlings performance, hence encouraging plants cultivation in stressed ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reaction of 2‐amino‐4,6‐dimethylpyridine with 4‐cyanobenzaldehyde, salicylaldehyde or 2‐hydroxy‐1‐naphthaldehyde furnished the corresponding N‐aryl‐(2‐pyridyl)aldimines in very good yields. The synthetised Schiff bases were characterized by FT‐IR, 1H, 13C, DEPT‐135 and [1H,13C]‐HSQC NMR spectroscopy, HRMS and elemental analyses. Additionally, the structure of 2‐((E)‐(4,6‐dimethylpyridin‐2‐ylimino)methyl)phenol was unambiguously determined by single crystal X‐ray diffraction analysis. Hirshfeld analysis of molecular packing was performed. The most common intermolecular interaction is the hydrogen‐hydrogen (56.8 %) contacts while the most significant interactions are the O...H (6.5 %) and C...C (4.2 %) contacts. DFT calculated geometric parameters and NMR chemical shifts are well correlated with the experimental data. This compound has a net dipole moment of 2.4261 Debye. The MCF‐7 growth was suppressed by N‐aryl‐(2‐pyridyl)aldimines more than that for T47D cell line. The IC50 values of 4‐((E)‐(4,6‐dimethylpyridin‐2‐ylimino)methyl)benzonitrile against MCF‐7 and T47D cell lines were the lowest and it is considered the most promising candidate as anticancer agent. Furthermore, this study conducted a molecular docking of benzonitrile‐based Schiff base onto DNA duplex to explore a potential molecular mechanism for the robust anticancer activities of this Schiff base adduct. The molecular docking results indicate that benzonitrile‐based Schiff base exhibits characteristics of a potential DNA minor groove binder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amylin is part of the endocrine pancreatic system that contributes to glycemic control, regulating blood glucose levels. However, human amylin has a high tendency to aggregate, forming isolated amylin deposits that are observed in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. In search of new inhibitors of amylin aggregation, we undertook the chemical analyses of five marine macroorganisms encountered in high populations in the Red Sea and selected a panel of 10 metabolites belonging to different chemical classes to evaluate their ability to inhibit the formation of amyloid deposits in the human amylin peptide. The thioflavin T assay was used to examine the kinetics of amyloid aggregation, and atomic force microscopy was employed to conduct a thorough morphological examination of the formed fibrils. The potential ability of these compounds to interact with the backbone of peptides and compete with β-sheet formation was analyzed by quantum calculations, and the interactions with the amylin peptide were computationally examined using molecular docking. Despite their structural similarity, it could be observed that the hydrophobic and hydrogen bond interactions of pyrrolidinones 9 and 10 with the protein sheets result in one case in a stable aggregation, while in the other, they cause distortion from aggregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Viruses are underrepresented as targets in pharmacological screening efforts, given the difficulties of devising suitable cell-based and biochemical assays. In this study we found that a pre-fractionated organic extract of the Red Sea sponge Amphimedon chloros was able to inhibit the West Nile Virus NS3 protease (WNV NS3). Using liquid chromatography⁻mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, the identity of the bioactive compound was determined as a 3-alkylpyridinium with m/z = 190.16. Diffusion Ordered Spectroscopy (DOSY) NMR and NMR relaxation rate analysis suggest that the bioactive compound forms oligomers of up to 35 kDa. We observed that at 9.4 μg/mL there was up to 40⁻70% inhibitory activity on WNV NS3 protease in orthogonal biochemical assays for solid phase extracts (SPE) of A. chloros. However, the LC-MS purified fragment was effective at inhibiting the protease up to 95% at an approximate amount of 2 µg/mL with negligible cytotoxicity to HeLa cells based on a High-Content Screening (HCS) cytological profiling strategy. To date, 3-alkylpyridinium type natural products have not been reported to show antiviral activity since the first characterization of halitoxin, or 3-alkylpyridinium, in 1978. This study provides the first account of a 3-alkylpyridinium complex that exhibits a proposed antiviral activity by inhibiting the NS3 protease. We suggest that the here-described compound can be further modified to increase its stability and tested in a cell-based assay to explore its full potential as a potential novel antiviral capable of inhibiting WNV replication.

Viruses are underrepresented as targets in pharmacological screening efforts, given the difficulties of devising suitable cell-based and biochemical assays. In this study we found that a pre-fractionated organic extract of the Red Sea sponge Amphimedon chloros was able to inhibit the West Nile Virus NS3 protease (WNV NS3). Using liquid chromatography⁻mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, the identity of the bioactive compound was determined as a 3-alkylpyridinium with m/z = 190.16. Diffusion Ordered Spectroscopy (DOSY) NMR and NMR relaxation rate analysis suggest that the bioactive compound forms oligomers of up to 35 kDa. We observed that at 9.4 μg/mL there was up to 40⁻70% inhibitory activity on WNV NS3 protease in orthogonal biochemical assays for solid phase extracts (SPE) of A. chloros. However, the LC-MS purified fragment was effective at inhibiting the protease up to 95% at an approximate amount of 2 µg/mL with negligible cytotoxicity to HeLa cells based on a High-Content Screening (HCS) cytological profiling strategy. To date, 3-alkylpyridinium type natural products have not been reported to show antiviral activity since the first characterization of halitoxin, or 3-alkylpyridinium, in 1978. This study provides the first account of a 3-alkylpyridinium complex that exhibits a proposed antiviral activity by inhibiting the NS3 protease. We suggest that the here-described compound can be further modified to increase its stability and tested in a cell-based assay to explore its full potential as a potential novel antiviral capable of inhibiting WNV replication.