Metabolic engineering and optimization of Escherichia coli co-culture for the de novo synthesis of genkwanin.

Genkwanin has various significant roles in nutrition, biomedicine, and pharmaceutical biology. Previously, this compound was chiefly produced by plant-originated extraction or chemical synthesis. However, due to increasing concern and demand for safe food and environmental issues, the biotechnological production of genkwanin and other bioactive compounds based on safe, cheap, and renewable substrates has gained much interest. This paper described recombinant Escherichia coli-based co-culture engineering that was reconstructed for the de novo production of genkwanin from d-glucose. The artificial genkwanin biosynthetic chain was divided into 2 modules in which the upstream strain contained the genes for synthesizing p-coumaric acid from d-glucose, and the downstream module contained a gene cluster that produced the precursor apigenin and the final product, genkwanin. The Box-Behnken design, a response surface methodology, was used to empirically model the production of genkwanin and optimize its productivity. As a result, the application of the designed co-culture improved the genkwanin production by 48.8 ± 1.3 mg/L or 1.7-fold compared to the monoculture. In addition, the scale-up of genkwanin bioproduction by a bioreactor resulted in 68.5 ± 1.9 mg/L at a 48 hr time point. The combination of metabolic engineering and fermentation technology was therefore a very efficient and applicable approach to enhance the production of other bioactive compounds.

Recent advances in microbial co-culture for production of value-added compounds.

Micro-organisms have often been used to produce bioactive compounds as antibiotics, antifungals, and anti-tumors, etc. due to their easy and applicable culture, genetic manipulation, and extraction, etc. Mainly, microbial mono-cultures have been applied to produce value-added compounds and gotten numerous valuable results. However, mono-culture also has several complicated problems, such as metabolic burdens affecting the growth and development of the host, leading to a decrease in titer of the target compound. To circumvent those limitations, microbial co-culture has been technically developed and gained much interest compared to mono-culture. For example, co-culture simplifies the design of artificial biosynthetic pathways and restricts the recombinant host's metabolic burden, causing increased titer of desired compounds. This paper summarizes the recent advanced progress in applying microbial platform co-culture to produce natural products, such as flavonoid, terpenoid, alkaloid, etc. Furthermore, importantly different strategies for enhancing production, overcoming the metabolic burdens, building autonomous modulation of cell growth rate and culture composition in response to a quorum-sensing signal, etc., were also described in detail.

Factors Associated With Knowledge and Attitude Among Vietnamese Nursing Staff Regarding Pain Management in a Vietnam National Hospital.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Nurses play an important role in providing holistic care and effective pain management, which is significantly associated with their knowledge and attitudes. Limited evidence is available from Vietnamese nursing studies evaluating the knowledge and attitudes of nurses toward pain management. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of Vietnamese nurses and identify factors associated with pain management. METHODS: This study used a descriptive and cross-sectional design and was conducted at a national hospital in Vietnam from May to June 2021. Nurses working in all clinical units were surveyed to collect demographic data and assessed using the structured Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain (KASRP) scale. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to identify factors associated with knowledge and attitudes. RESULTS: Two hundred seventy-nine nurses completed the survey, including 152 (54.5%) who read books or journals about pain, 25 (9.0%) who reported the use of unit-based pain guidelines, and 77 (27.6%) who used a numeric rating tool. The mean number of correct answers on the KASRP was 23.34 (mean KASRP correct percentage of 54.9%), and only 16 nurses (5.7%) had passing scores. Having a bachelor's degree or higher, reading books or journals about pain, using a numeric rating tool, and using unit-based pain guidelines were significantly associated with higher KASRP scores (P < .01) among nurses. CONCLUSIONS: The knowledge and attitudes of nurses regarding pain management were far from satisfactory. Regular pain management training, access to pain-related reading materials, and the frequent use of a numeric tool to assess pain intensity are recommended to enhance the quality of care for patients provided by clinical nurses.

Advances in biochemistry and the biotechnological production of taxifolin and its derivatives.

Taxifolin (dihydroquercetin) and its derivatives are medicinally important flavanonols with a wide distribution in plants. These compounds have been isolated from various plants, such as milk thistle, onions, french maritime, and tamarind. In general, they are commercially generated in semisynthetic forms. Taxifolin and related compounds are biosynthesized via the phenylpropanoid pathway, and most of the biosynthetic steps have been functionally characterized. The knowledge gained through the detailed investigation of their biosynthesis has provided the foundation for the reconstruction of biosynthetic pathways. Plant- and microbial-based platforms are utilized for the expression of such pathways for generating taxifolin-related compounds, either by whole-cell biotransformation or through reconfiguration of the genetic circuits. In this review, we summarize recent advances in the biotechnological production of taxifolin and its derivatives.

Resequencing of 672 Native Rice Accessions to Explore Genetic Diversity and Trait Associations in Vietnam.

BACKGROUND: Vietnam possesses a vast diversity of rice landraces due to its geographical situation, latitudinal range, and a variety of ecosystems. This genetic diversity constitutes a highly valuable resource at a time when the highest rice production areas in the low-lying Mekong and Red River Deltas are enduring increasing threats from climate changes, particularly in rainfall and temperature patterns. RESULTS: We analysed 672 Vietnamese rice genomes, 616 newly sequenced, that encompass the range of rice varieties grown in the diverse ecosystems found throughout Vietnam. We described four Japonica and five Indica subpopulations within Vietnam likely adapted to the region of origin. We compared the population structure and genetic diversity of these Vietnamese rice genomes to the 3000 genomes of Asian cultivated rice. The named Indica-5 (I5) subpopulation was expanded in Vietnam and contained lowland Indica accessions, which had very low shared ancestry with accessions from any other subpopulation and were previously overlooked as admixtures. We scored phenotypic measurements for nineteen traits and identified 453 unique genotype-phenotype significant associations comprising twenty-one QTLs (quantitative trait loci). The strongest associations were observed for grain size traits, while weaker associations were observed for a range of characteristics, including panicle length, heading date and leaf width. CONCLUSIONS: We showed how the rice diversity within Vietnam relates to the wider Asian rice diversity by using a number of approaches to provide a clear picture of the novel diversity present within Vietnam, mainly around the Indica-5 subpopulation. Our results highlight differences in genome composition and trait associations among traditional Vietnamese rice accessions, which are likely the product of adaption to multiple environmental conditions and regional preferences in a very diverse country. Our results highlighted traits and their associated genomic regions that are a potential source of novel loci and alleles to breed a new generation of low input sustainable and climate resilient rice.

A psychometric evaluation of the Vietnamese version of the Evidence-Based Practice Attitudes and Beliefs Scales.

AIM: The aim of this study is to develop and to test the construct validity and reliability of the Vietnamese versions of the Evidence-Based Practice Attitude and Evidence-Based Practice Beliefs scales. METHODS: This is a psychometric evaluation study. Three hundred and fifty-three nurses and midwives were recruited from a national hospital in Vietnam from September to December 2018. Data were obtained from two scales. Content validity, face validity and construct validity measures were all conducted, whereas exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed from data collected from two cohorts of participants. Cronbach's alpha coefficient represented reliability, and data were analysed in SPSS 20 and AMOS 24. RESULTS: The four-factor model developed with openness, requirements, appeal and divergence factors accounted for 55% of total variance in the Attitude scale. A three-factor model labelled as value beliefs, knowledge beliefs and resource beliefs with 59% of total variance was explained in the Beliefs scale. Cronbach's α coefficients were .72 for the Attitude scale and .81 for the Beliefs scale. CONCLUSIONS: The two scales could be used to assess Vietnamese nurses' attitudes and beliefs to adopt evidence-based practice enabling hospitals to align individual and organizational goals for developing evidence-based practice and enable comparison of the results with international samples.

Validity, Sensitivity, and Responsiveness of the 11-Face Faces Pain Scale to Postoperative Pain in Adult Orthopedic Surgery Patients.

Pain is common in patients after orthopedic surgery. The 11-face Faces Pain Scale has not been validated for use in adult patients with postoperative pain. To assess the validity of the 11-face Faces Pain Scale and its ability to detect responses to pain medications, and to determine whether the sensitivity of the 11-face Faces Pain Scale for detecting changes in pain intensity over time is associated with gender differences in adult postorthopedic surgery patients. The 11-face Faces Pain Scale was translated into Vietnamese using forward and back translation. Postoperative pain was assessed using an 11-point numerical rating scale and the 11-face Faces Pain Scale on the day of surgery, and before (Time 1) and every 30 minutes after (Times 2-5) the patients had taken pain medications on the first postoperative day. The 11-face Faces Pain Scale highly correlated with the numerical rating scale (r = 0.78, p < .001). When the scores from each follow-up test (Times 2-5) were compared with those from the baseline test (Time 1), the effect sizes were -0.70, -1.05, -1.20, and -1.31, and the standardized response means were -1.17, -1.59, -1.66, and -1.82, respectively. The mean change in pain intensity, but not gender-time interaction effect, over the five time points was significant (F = 182.03, p < .001). Our results support that the 11-face Faces Pain Scale is appropriate for measuring acute postoperative pain in adults.