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ABSTRACT: Background: Breastfeeding is an important determinant of child survival. Breastfeeding practices vary throughout the nation. Objectives: To assess the breastfeeding practices and the knowledge of recently delivered mothers regarding breastfeeding practices. Materials and Methods: This community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among women who had delivered in the Moradabad region of Uttar Pradesh last year. A total of 423 households was divided between the six community health blocks according to probability sampling. A predesigned and pretested structured questionnaire was utilized to collect data. Knowledge scores were calculated. Results: The majority of respondents had the correct knowledge about breastfeeding immediately after birth (76.6%), prelacteal foods should not be provided (82.2%), colostrum feeding (89.0%), adequate frequency of breastfeeding (99.1%), and exclusively breastfeeding (78.7%). The knowledge scores about breastfeeding were good (64.9%) for mothers. A higher proportion of respondents practiced breastfeeding only, or cup fed with breast milk only their babies for the first 2 days of life (62.3%), and the majority fed their baby with adequate frequency. Only (55.7%) put their baby to breast within an hour after birth. Colostrum was not squeezed and thrown by nearly (59.7%) of mothers. The breastfeeding practices scores were good among one-third of mothers. Age of mother, type of family, mother's education, socioeconomic status, and type of delivery were significant determinants of good breastfeeding practices (<0.05). Conclusions: The knowledge and practices of infant feeding can be strengthened by further engaging and counseling of mothers, family, and community members by health workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: Triterpenes (30‐carbon isoprene compounds) represent a large and highly diverse class of natural products that play various physiological functions in plants. The triterpene biosynthetic enzymes, particularly those catalyzing the late‐stage regio‐selective modifications are not well characterized. The bark of select Boswellia trees, e.g., B. serrata exudes specialized oleo‐gum resin in response to wounding, which is enriched with boswellic acids (BAs), a unique class of C3α‐epimeric pentacyclic triterpenes with medicinal properties. The bark possesses a network of resin secretory structures comprised of vertical and horizontal resin canals, and amount of BAs in bark increases considerably in response to wounding. To investigate BA biosynthetic enzymes, we conducted tissue‐specific transcriptome profiling and identified a wound‐responsive BAHD acetyltransferase (BsAT1) of B. serrata catalyzing the late‐stage C3α‐O‐acetylation reactions in the BA biosynthetic pathway. BsAT1 catalyzed C3α‐O‐acetylation of αBA, βBA, and 11‐keto‐βBA in vitro and in planta assays to produce all the major C3α‐O‐acetyl‐BAs (3‐acetyl‐αBA, 3‐acetyl‐βBA, and 3‐acetyl‐11‐keto‐βBA) found in B. serrata bark and oleo‐gum resin. BsAT1 showed strict specificity for BA scaffold, whereas it did not acetylate the more common C3β‐epimeric pentacyclic triterpenes. The analysis of steady‐state kinetics using various BAs revealed distinct substrate affinity and catalytic efficiency. BsAT1 transcript expression coincides with increased levels of C3α‐O‐acetyl‐BAs in bark in response to wounding, suggesting a role of BsAT1 in wound‐induced biosynthesis of C3α‐O‐acetyl‐BAs. Overall, the results provide new insights into the biosynthesis of principal chemical constituents of Boswellia oleo‐gum resin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glycosylation is one of the most fundamental biochemical processes in cells. It plays crucial roles in diversifying plant natural products for structures, bioavailability and bioactivity, and thus, renders the glycosylated compounds valuable as food additives, nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals. Moreover, glycosylated compounds impact plant growth, development and stress response. Therefore, understanding the biochemical function of the glycosyltransferases (GTs) is crucial to the elucidation of natural product biosynthetic pathways, improving plant traits and development of processes for industrially-important compounds. UDP-dependent glycosyltransferases (UGTs) that belong to the glycosyltransferase family-1 (GT1) and catalyze the transfer of glycosyl moieties from UDP-sugars to various small molecules, are the key players in natural product glycosylation. Recent studies also found the involvement of non-canonical cellulose synthase-like (CesAs) and glycosyl hydrolase (GH) family enzymes in the glycosylation of plant specialized metabolites. Decades of research on GTs provided critical insights into catalytic mechanism, substrate/product specificity and catalytic promiscuity, but biochemical function and physiological roles of GTs in majority of the natural product biosynthetic pathways remain to be understood. It is also important to redefine high-throughput strategies of GT mining to uncover novel biochemical function, considering that GTs are the large superfamily members in plants and other organisms. This review underscores the roles of GTs in small molecule glycosylation, plant development and stress responses, highlighting the catalytic versatility and substrate/product specificity of GTs in shaping plant metabolic diversity, and discusses the emerging strategies for mining of uncharacterized GTs to unravel biochemical and physiological functions and to elucidate natural product biosynthetic pathways., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The author declares no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Aim: ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters are proteins responsible for the efflux of drug molecules from cancer cells, reducing the efficacy of anti-cancer treatments. This study assesses the susceptibility of a panel of clinically used photosensitizers to be transported by ABC transporters in vitro. Methods: The involvement of P-glycoprotein (P-gp/ABCB1), breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP/ABCG2), and multidrug resistance-associated protein 1 (MRP1/ABCC1) in the transport of 7 clinically utilized photosensitizers [benzoporphyrin derivative (BPD), temoporfin, redaporfin, talaporfin sodium, rose bengal, methylene blue, and indocyanine green] were investigated using human breast cancer cell lines following well-established protocols. Briefly, parental MCF-7 cells and sublines that overexpress P-gp (MCF-7 TX400), ABCG2 (MCF-7 MX100), or MRP1 (MCF-7/VP) were treated with photosensitizers with and without ABC transporter inhibitors. Intracellular levels of photosensitizers were measured using extraction method and flow cytometry to determine whether the ABC transporters are associated with efflux or uptake of photosensitizers. Results: The ABCG2 inhibitor (fumitremorgin C) and P-gp inhibitor (valspodar) effectively blocked the transport mediated by ABCG2 and P-gp of rose bengal and BPD. Redaporfin showed increased accumulation in the presence of valspodar with flow cytometry. Interestingly, MCF-7/VP cells were found to have reduced intracellular accumulation of rose bengal, which was restored with MRP1 inhibitor (MK571). The cell viability assay showed photodynamic therapy (PDT) resistance with Redaporfin in P-gp-overexpressing cells, BPD in ABCG2- and P-gp-overexpressing cells, and with Rose bengal in ABCG2-, P-gp- and MRP1-overexpressing cells, respectively. However, no change in intracellular retention was observed for other photosensitizers. Conclusion: In summary, our study provided new knowledge that temoporfin, talaporfin sodium, methylene blue, and indocyanine green are not substrates of ABCG2, P-gp, or MRP1. Redaporfin is a substrate for P-gp. BPD is a known substrate of ABCG2 and P-gp. Rose bengal is a substrate of ABCG2, P-gp, and MRP1. The results presented here indicate ABC transporter substrate status as a possible cause for cellular resistance to photodynamic therapy with rose bengal, redaporfin, and BPD., Competing Interests: Uusimaa P is a co-founder of and has equity in Modulight Corporation, Finland. Huang HC has research agreements with Modulight Corporation, Finland. The remaining authors declared that there are no conflicts of interest., (© The Author(s) 2024.)