Metal nanoparticles as inhibitors of enzymes and toxins of multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Staphylococcus aureus is an aerobic Gram-positive spherical bacterium known to cause a broad range of infections worldwide. It is a major cause of infective skin and soft infections and severe and life-threatening conditions, such as pneumonia, bloodstream infections, and endocarditis. The emergence of drug-resistant strains of S aureus, particularly methicillin-resistant S aureus (MRSA), has become a significant concern in the healthcare community. Antibiotic-resistant S aureus is commonly acquired in hospitals and long-term care facilities. It often affects patients with weakened immune systems, those undergoing invasive medical procedures, or those who have been hospitalized for extended periods. In the US, S aureus is known to cause potentially fatal illnesses, such as toxic shock syndrome (TSS) and acute-onset toxic shock syndrome (TSS), which are characterized by fever and hypotension. It develops resistance to antibiotics through several mechanisms, such as the production of enzymes that inactivate antibiotics, target site modification, efflux pumps, and plasmid-mediated resistance. Therefore, preventing the spread of drug-resistant S aureus is needed, and there is an urgent need to explore novel approaches in the development of anti-staphylococcal agents. This article reviews the principal infections caused by S aureus, major virulence factors, mechanisms of resistance development, and nanotechnology-based solutions for the control of drug-resistant S aureus.

Data on the inhibitory effect of endophytic fungi of traditional medicinal plants against pancreatic lipase (PL).

This article describes isolation and pancreatic lipase (PL) inhibitory potential of 18 endophytic fungi isolated from the various parts of six indigenous medicinal plants. PL catalyzes absorption and hydrolysis of triglycerides into di-glycerides into mono-glycerides and free fatty acids. PL inhibitors are well-known for the disruption of pancreatic lipase activity. The quest for novel pancreatic lipase inhibitors is crucially important owing to their therapeutic potential in the treatment of obesity and related chronic diseases. The present dataset provides information about the presence of endophytic fungi in the internal tissues of selected plants and the PL inhibitory potential of their metabolites using bioassay based screening. Absence of the yellow zone surrounding the standard Orlistat and test extract indicated PL inhibition due to the cumulative effect of metabolites present in the extract. The data suggests that TLC bio-autographic method is simple, rapid and reproducible and therefore it could be effectively used for high throughput screening of PL inhibitors from natural sources.

Factors influencing the gut microbiome in children: from infancy to childhood.

The human microbiota plays a crucial role in educating the immune system and influencing host health right since birth. Various maternal factors along with the vertical microbial transfer from the mother, as well as the horizontal environmental transmission and internal factors relating to the infant, play a crucial role in modulating the gut microbiota. The early life microflora is highly unstable and undergoes dynamic changes during the first few years, converging towards a more stabilized adult microbiota by co-evolving with the host by the age of 3-4 years. Microbiota studies have underlined the role of dysbiosis in developing several metabolic disorders like obesity, diabetes and immune-related disorders like asthma, to name a few. Thus, understanding early life microbial composition and various factors affecting the microbial community will provide a platform for developing strategies/techniques to maintain host health by restoring gut microbial flora. This review focuses on the factors that affect the microbial composition of the foetus in utero, during birth, infancy through childhood.

Ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, and biotechnological advances of family Apocynaceae: A review.

The family Apocynaceae is one of the largest and important families in angiosperm. Several members of this family have medicinal properties and have been in the treatment of various ailments. Most of them are consumed as food by tribal people whereas a few plants are used as source of poison. Members of family Apocynaceae are rich in alkaloids, terpenoids, steroids, flavonoids, glycosides, simple phenols, lactones, and hydrocarbons. Other compounds such as sterols, lignans, sugars, lignans, and lactones have been isolated and systematically studied. Few studies have reported antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and cytotoxic activities of crude extracts as well as single compound(s) isolated from various members of the family Apocynaceae. Holarrhena antidysenterica, Rauvolfia serpentina, Carissa carandas, and Tabernaemontana divaricata are the extensively studied plants in this family. The present review provides a detailed outlook on ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, and biological activities of selected members of this family. Moreover, it also covers the biotechnological advances used for large-scale production of bioactive compounds of therapeutic interest along with plant tissue culture-based approaches for conservation of this medicinally valuable family.

A cross-sectional comparative study of gut bacterial community of Indian and Finnish children.

The human gut microbiome plays a crucial role in the compositional development of gut microbiota. Though well documented in western pediatrics population, little is known about how various host conditions affect populations in different geographic locations such as the Indian subcontinent. Given the impact of distinct environmental conditions, our study assess the gut bacterial diversity of a small cohort of Indian and Finnish children and investigated the influence of FUT2 secretor status and birth mode on the gut microbiome of these populations. Using multiple profiling techniques, we show that the gut bacterial community structure in 13-14-year-old Indian (n = 47) and Finnish (n = 52) children differs significantly. Specifically, Finnish children possessed higher Blautia and Bifidobacterium, while genera Prevotella and Megasphaera were predominant in Indian children. Our study also demonstrates a strong influence of FUT2 and birth mode variants on specific gut bacterial taxa, influence of which was noticed to differ between the two populations under study.

Data on the cost effective surface sterilization method for C.carandas (L.) seeds and callus induction from aseptic seedling.

Surface sterilization of explant is an important and most sensitive step in plant tissue culture. Inappropriate concentrations of sterilants have lethal effect in cell division and it restricts growth and development of explant. Therefore, suitable concentration, combinations and duration of exposure of sterilant is essential to raise in vitro cultures successfully. This data demonstrates use of various sterilizing agents for aseptic plantlet germination from seed of Carissa carandas (Apocynaceae). The present dataset provides information in support of cost-effective explant sterilization potential of benzalkonium chloride containing commercial bleach (Lizol) and its comparison with traditionally used surface sterilants in plant tissue culture i.e. 0.1% HgCl2 alone and in combination with 70% alcohol. The data on callogenic response using MS medium supplemented with plant growth regulators is also shared.

Enterobacillus tribolii gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel member of the family Enterobacteriaceae, isolated from the gut of a red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum.

Two novel Gram-stain negative facultative anaerobic, motile, rod-shaped bacterial strains IG-V01(T) and IG-V01b were isolated from the gut of red flour beetles, Tribolium castaneum. The 16S rRNA gene sequences of strains IG-V01(T) and IG-V01b were found to have their highest sequence similarity (96.5% and 96.4%) with Serratia nematodiphila DZ0503SBS1(T) (Enterobacteriaceae family) respectively. Strains IG-V01(T) and IG-V01b share 100% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity and exhibit very similar phenotypic characteristics. In addition, they show 89.7% genomic relatedness (DNA-DNA hybridisation). Major fatty acids were identified to be C(16:0) (38.3%), C(17:0) cyclo (19.5-20%) and C(14:0) (11.2-11.3%). Cells contain phosphatidylethanolamine and diphosphatidylglycerol as predominant polar lipids. Genomic DNA G+C content (mol%) was determined to be 51.5-51.7. A polyphasic approach employing the study of morphological, physiological, chemotaxonomic, genomic and phylogenetic analysis revealed that the two newly isolated strains cannot be placed in any of the existing genera of the family Enterobacteriaceae. Therefore, it is proposed that strains IG-V01(T) and IG-V01b belong to a novel genus within the family Enterobacteriaceae, and represent a new species Enterobacillus tribolii gen. nov., sp. nov., with the type strain =IG-V01(T) = KCTC 42159(T) = MCC 2532(T).

Production of lovastatin by wild strains of Aspergillus terreus.

A wild fungal strain of Aspergillus terreus, labeled as PM3, was isolated by using the Candida albicans bioassay and confirmed by 18S r DNA analyses. Lovastatin was produced by submerged and solid state fermentations. Of the 30 isolated fungal strains, 11 showed lovastatin production with Aspergillus terreus PM3 being the best with a yield of 240 mg/L at the 10th day of submerged fermentation. Carboxymethylcellulose had a stimulatory effect on lovastatin production. It restricted uncontrolled filamentous growth, induced pellet formation and, thereby, improved lovastatin yield. In solid state fermentation (SSF), of the agro wastes from five crops (bran of wheat and rice, husks of red gram and soybean, and green gram straw), wheat bran showed maximum lovastatin production (12.5 mg/g of dry substrate) at pH 7.1 and a temperature of 30 +/- 2 degrees C. Development of a lovastatin production process based on wheat bran as a substrate in SSF is economically attractive as it is a cheap and readily available raw material in agriculture-based countries.