(
) is one of the main pathogens that cause serious infection due to its acquisition of antibiotic resistance. The efflux pump decreases antibiotic abundance, and biofilm compromises the penetration ...of antibiotics. It has been reported that baicalin is a potential agent to inhibit efflux pumps, biofilm formation, and quorum-sensing systems. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether baicalin can inhibit
biofilm formation and the quorum-sensing system by inhibiting the MsrA efflux pump. First, the mechanism of baicalin inhibiting efflux was investigated by the ethidium bromide (EtBr) efflux assay, measurement of ATP content, and pyruvate kinase (PK) activities. These results revealed that baicalin significantly reduced the efflux of EtBr, the ATP content, and the activity of PK. Moreover, its role in biofilm formation and the
system was studied by crystal violet staining, confocal laser scanning microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and real-time polymerase chain reaction. These results showed that baicalin decreased biofilm formation, inhibited bacterial aggregation, and downregulated mRNA transcription levels of the quorum-sensing system regulators
,
, RNAIII, and
. Correlation analysis indicated that there was a strong positive correlation between the efflux pump and biofilm formation and the
system. We demonstrate for the first time that baicalin inhibits biofilm formation and the
quorum-sensing system by inhibiting the efflux pump in
. Therefore, baicalin is a potential therapeutic agent for
biofilm-associated infections.
Infection by multidrug-resistant avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) in chickens always leads to the uselessness of antibiotics, highlighting the need for alternative antibacterial agents. ...Sophora flavescens and Coptis chinensis have been a classical combination used together in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) formulas to treat diseases with similar symptoms to colibacillosis for an extended period, but the effect of their active ingredients' combination on APEC infection remains unstudied. The objective of this study was to explore the synergistic effect of matrine and berberine hydrochloride on colibacillosis caused by an isolated multidrug-resistant APEC. In this study, a highly pathogenic E. coli was isolated from the liver of a diseased chicken in a farm suspected of colibacillosis, and it was resistant to multiple antibiotics. The LD50 of the strain was approximately 3.759×108 CFU/mL. The strain harbored several antibiotic resistance genes and virulence genes. Matrine and berberine hydrochloride have synergistic antibacterial effect against the isolated strain in vitro. The combined use of matrine and berberine hydrochloride exhibited synergistic effects in the treatment of APEC infection by regulating the organ indices, improving the pathological situation, decreasing the bacterial load, and regulating the inflammatory factors to enhance the survival rate of chickens in vivo. These results provided a foundation for revealing the effective effects and possible mechanisms of matrine and berberine hydrochloride as potential antimicrobial agents on diseases caused by multidrug-resistant APEC in chickens.
This work demonstrated the successful application of N-halamine technology for wound dressings rendered antimicrobial by facile and inexpensive processes. Four N-halamine compounds, which possess ...different functional groups and chemistry, were synthesized. The N-halamine compounds, which contained oxidative chlorine, the source of antimicrobial activity, were impregnated into or coated onto standard non-antimicrobial wound dressings. N-halamine-employed wound dressings inactivated about 6 to 7 logs of
and
bacteria in brief periods of contact time. Moreover, the N-halamine-modified wound dressings showed superior antimicrobial efficacies when compared to commercially available silver wound dressings. Zone of inhibition tests revealed that there was no significant leaching of the oxidative chlorine from the materials, and inactivation of bacteria occurred by direct contact. Shelf life stability tests showed that the dressings were stable to loss of oxidative chlorine when they were stored for 6 months in dark environmental conditions. They also remained stable under florescent lighting for up to 2 months of storage. They could be stored in opaque packaging to improve their shelf life stabilities. In vitro skin irritation testing was performed using a three-dimensional human reconstructed tissue model (EpiDerm™). No potential skin irritation was observed. In vitro cytocompatibility was also evaluated. These results indicate that N-halamine wound dressings potentially can be employed to prevent infections, while at the same time improving the healing process by eliminating undesired bacterial growth.
Packaging plays a crucial role in protecting food by providing excellent mechanical properties as well as effectively blocking water vapor, oxygen, oil, and other contaminants. The low degradation of ...widely used petroleum-based plastics leads to environmental pollution and poses health risks. This has drawn interest in renewable biopolymers as sustainable alternatives. The seafood industry generates significant waste that is rich in bioactive substances like chitin, chitosan, gelatins, and alginate, which can replace synthetic polymers in food packaging. Although biopolymers offer biodegradability, biocompatibility, and non-toxicity, their films often lack mechanical and barrier properties compared with synthetic polymer films. This comprehensive review discusses the chemical structure, characteristics, and extraction methods of biopolymers derived from seafood waste and their usage in the packaging area as reinforcement or base materials to guide researchers toward successful plastics replacement and commercialization. Our review highlights recent advancements in improving the thermal durability, mechanical strength, and barrier properties of seafood waste-derived packaging, explores the mechanisms behind these improvements, and briefly mentions the antimicrobial activities and mechanisms gained from these biopolymers. In addition, the remaining challenges and future directions for using seafood waste-derived biopolymers for packaging are discussed. This review aims to guide ongoing efforts to develop seafood waste-derived biopolymer films that can ultimately replace traditional plastic packaging.
Duck viral hepatitis (DVH) is an acute disease of young ducklings with no effective veterinary drugs for treatment. Gynostemma pentaphyllum is a well-known traditional Chinese medicine that plays an ...important role in the treatment of various diseases. Gypenoside (GP), one of the main ingredients of Gynostemma pentaphyllum, was reported with good hepatoprotective effects. However, its low solubility limits its application in the clinics. To improve its solubility and bioactivity, a phosphorylated derivative of gypenoside (pGP) was prepared by the sodium trimetaphosphate-sodium tripolyphosphate (STMP-STPP) method. An infrared spectroscopy method was applied to analyse the structures of GP and pGP. Then, a methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) colorimetric assay was applied to study the hepatocyte protective efficacy of these two drugs against duck hepatitis A virus type 1 (DHAV-1) infection, and qPCR, TUNEL labelling and flow cytometry methods were used to study the relevant hepatocyte protective in vitro.
The infrared spectroscopy detection results showed that the phosphorylation modification of GP was successful. The MTT colorimetric assay results showed that both GP and pGP possessed good hepatocyte protective efficacy in vitro, and pGP performed better than GP when the drug was added before or after virus inoculation. Furthermore, the qPCR results revealed that both drugs could effectively inhibit the adsorption (when adding GP and pGP pre-virus inoculation), replication and release of DHAV-1, and the viral inhibition rate of pGP was greater than that of GP. The subsequent TUNEL labelling and flow cytometry assays showed that both GP and pGP could significantly inhibit duck embryo hepatocyte apoptosis induced by DHAV-1, and the inhibition effect of pGP was much stronger than that of GP.
GP exerts good hepatocyte protective efficacy not only by inhibiting the proliferation of DHAV-1 but also by inhibiting duck embryonic hepatocyte apoptosis induced by DHAV-1, and phosphorylation modification significantly improves the antiviral and the anti-apoptotic effects of GP. Therefore, pGP has the potential to be developed into a novel drug against DHAV-1 infection.
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•Maximum corrosion protection was achieved with passive film & polypyrrole coating.•Significant enhancement of carbon steel surface nobleness.•Excellent biocidal properties to avoid ...corrosion induced by microbes.•Improved adhesion of polypyrrole coating according to ASTM D3359 standard.
Polypyrrole (PPy) coating was electrochemically synthesized on carbon steel using sulfonic acids as dopants: p-toluene sulfonic acid (p-TSA), sulfuric acid (SA), (±) camphor sulfonic acid (CSA), sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS). The effect of acidic dopants (p-TSA, SA, CSA) on passivation of carbon steel was investigated by linear potentiodynamic and compared with morphology and corrosion protection performance of the coating produced. The types of the dopants used were significantly affecting the protection efficiency of the coating against chloride ion attack on the metal surface. The corrosion performance depends on size and alignment of dopant in the polymer backbone. Both p-TSA and SDBS have extra benzene ring that stack together to form a lamellar sheet like barrier to chloride ions thus making them appropriate dopants for PPy coating in suppressing the corrosion at significant level. Further, adhesion performance was enhanced by adding long chain carboxylic acid (decanoic acid) directly in the monomer solution. In addition, PPy coating doped with SDBS displayed excellent biocidal abilities against Staphylococcus aureus. The polypyrrole coatings on carbon steels with dual function of anti-corrosion and excellent biocidal properties shows great potential application in the industry for anti-corrosion/antimicrobial purposes.
In this study, we designed a green and efficient approach for the fractionation of high-purity chitin with tunable molecular weights from seafood waste. This was achieved by using ternary deep ...eutectic solvents (TDESs) composed of choline chloride as a hydrogen bond acceptor, glycerol as the polyol-based hydrogen bond donor, together with lactic acid or malic acid. Two binary DESs and four TDESs were evaluated for their ability to recover chitin. The extracted chitin exhibited not only high yield with excellent protein and mineral removal, but also high purity with similar crystallinity patterns as standard chitin. However, the average molecular weights, viscosity behavior and morphology of chitin extracted by DESs were varied and influenced by organic acid to glycerol molar ratios. The molecular weights of chitin extracted by lactic acid-based TDES ranged from 264 kDa to 541 kDa, but malic acid-based TEDS displayed a stronger depolymerization effect, resulting in chitin with a smaller molecular weight of less than 300 kDa. Lactic acid-based TDES revealed that the purity of chitin remained higher than 92 % after three cycles. This sustainable and environmentally friendly extraction system holds great potential to recover chitin from seafood waste, opening a new era for chitin extraction and applications.
With emerging needs of wound care management, a multi-functional wound dressing is needed. To prevent infection and reduce patient suffering, antibacterial efficacy against a broad-spectrum of ...bacteria plus robust antifouling are among the most preferred properties. In this study, a wound dressing was created with antibacterial and anti-fouling capabilities is presented. The approaches used a synthesized tri-functional copolymer comprised of an N-halamine precursor moiety, a marine-inspired surface binding dopamine moiety, and a zwitterionic anti-adhesion moiety bonded onto a commercial cotton gauze. The resulting HaloCare™ wound dressing demonstrated >99.99 % inactivation within 5 min against E. coli and a panel of ESKAPE pathogens plus achieved 98.77 % reduction of non-specific protein binding. HaloCare was also shown to be compatible with hemostatic agents without impacting hemostatic efficacy. HaloCare shows great potential particularly in traumatic injury events as an infection preventing and hemostatic wound management system.
The separator is a critical component in improving the safety and charge–discharge property of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, the poor heat resistance and flame retardancy of commercial ...polyolefin separators easily increase the risk of short circuit and thermal runaway, thus affecting the safety, service life, and charge–discharge performance of LIBs. Herein, polyimide (PI) separators containing organic montmorillonite (OMMT) are prepared by electrospinning. Compared with the commercial Celgard 2500 separator, the prepared PI/OMMT composite separator exhibited outstanding electrolyte wettability, superior thermal dimensional stability up to 250 °C, good flame retardancy, wider electrochemical stability window (5.0 V), and higher ionic conductivity (0.77 mS cm
−1
). Moreover, the coin cells with the PI@OMMT separator still have a discharge capacity of 131 mAh g
−1
and a capacity retention rate of 97% after 100 cycles at 1c, much higher than that of Celgard 2500 Separator (107 mAh g
−1
and 80%). These excellent features make it a promising candidate for LIBs separators with high electrochemical performance and safety.
Graphical abstract
Food quality and safety have received much more attention in recent years thanks to the increase in food consumption and customer awareness of food quality assurance. Volatile organic compounds ...(VOCs) detection and analysis techniques are powerful tools for assessing the quality of food products due to their non-destructive, eco-friendly, continuous, and real-time monitoring merits. Machine learning (ML) -supported electronic nose (EN), colorimetric sensor array (CSA), and gas chromatography (GC) hyphened techniques (e.g., GC-MS and GC-IMS) are becoming a hot research area in Food Sciences.
In this review, the rationales, advantages, and limitations of these technologies are introduced, as well as ML implementation details in application scenarios. In particular, ML fundamentals of data processing, modeling, and performance evaluation are discussed based on the most recent cases of food VOC detection and analysis studies, followed by the comprehensive applications of ML in different fields of food research including origin traceability, adulteration, quality control, and pathogen detection.
With advances in ML, e.g., parallel computing, computer vision, and odor imaging, new technologies like CSA and EN are replacing traditional GC for VOC detection and analysis. Many previously intractable problems in the food industry, e.g., food origin traceability and food adulteration, have been solved by state-of-the-art ML algorithms. However, new challenges in food VOC detection and analysis are emerging, and researchers are exploring new solutions, e.g., edge/cloud computing, EN sensor drifting, and CSA standardized fabrication, to solve more food quality and safety problems.
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•Applications of machine learning in food quality and safety studies are growing rapidly.•Machine learning provides powerful analytical tools for food VOC detection.•Comprehensive food VOC studies illustrate the implementation of machine learning.
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