Pogostone Enhances the Antibacterial Activity of Colistin against MCR-1-Positive Bacteria by Inhibiting the Biological Function of MCR-1

The emergence of the plasmid-mediated colistin resistance gene mcr-1 has resulted in the loss of available treatments for certain severe infections. Here we identified a potential inhibitor of MCR-1 for the treatment of infections caused by MCR-1-positive drug-resistant bacteria, especially MCR-1-positive carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). A checkerboard minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) test, a killing curve test, a growth curve test, bacterial live/dead assays, scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis, cytotoxicity tests, molecular dynamics simulation analysis, and animal studies were used to confirm the in vivo/in vitro synergistic effects of pogostone and colistin. The results showed that pogostone could restore the bactericidal activity of colistin against all tested MCR-1-positive bacterial strains or MCR-1 mutant–positive bacterial strains (FIC < 0.5). Pogostone does not inhibit the expression of MCR-1. Rather, it inhibits the binding of MCR-1 to substrates by binding to amino acids in the active region of MCR-1, thus inhibiting the biological activity of MCR-1 and its mutants (such as MCR-3). An in vivo mouse systemic infection model, pogostone in combination with colistin resulted in 80.0% (the survival rates after monotherapy with colistin or pogostone alone were 33.3% and 40.0%) survival at 72 h after infection of MCR-1-positve Escherichia coli (E. coli) ZJ487 (blaNDM-1-carrying), and pogostone in combination with colistin led to one or more order of magnitude decreases in the bacterial burdens in the liver, spleen and kidney compared with pogostone or colistin alone. Our results confirm that pogostone is a potential inhibitor of MCR-1 for use in combination with polymyxin for the treatment of severe infections caused by MCR-1-positive Enterobacteriaceae.     

Monoterpenoid Indole Alkaloids with Promoting Neurite Growth from Tabernaemontana divaricata

Main observation and conclusion Phytochemical investigations on Tabernaemontana divaricata led to the isolation of seven undescribed monoterpenoid indole alka-l...     

Diels–Alder dimerization of Morita–Baylis–Hillman acetates catalyzed by organocatalysts

DABCO-catalyzed dimerization of Morita–Baylis–Hillman acetates to synthesize a series of 3-alkyl-4-(E)-alkenyl-cyclohex-1-ene-1,4-dicarbonyl compounds in excellent yields with modest to excellent diastereoselectivity is reported. A plausible reaction mechanism is also proposed on the basis of previous literature and preliminary investigation the asymmetric version of the reaction.     

Substrate-controlled and highly stereoselective synthesis of 2-aminobut-2-ene-1, 4-diones

2-Methylthio-substituted 1,4-enediones, obtained from readily available aryl methyl ketones, were reacted with primary or secondary amines to afford the desired 1,4-diaryl-2-aminobut-2-ene-1,4-diones in excellent yields with high Z/E-stereoselectivity.     

Scope and regioselectivity of the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of azides with methyl 2-perfluoroalkynoates for an easy,metal-free route to perfluoroalkylated 1,2,3-triazoles

1,3-Dipolar cycloadditions of methyl 2-perfluoroalkynoates with various azides have been examined, leading to a simple metal-free synthetic protocol for the synthesis of perfluoroalkylated 1,2,3-triazoles. The regiochemical results demonstrated that the cycloaddition was controlled by FMO (the frontier molecular obitals) interaction and steric hindrance in transition states.     

Copper‐catalyzed Clauson–Kass pyrroles synthesis in aqueous media

An efficient and convenient copper‐catalyzed Clauson–Kass reaction of 2,5‐dimethoxytetrahydrofuran with amines in aqueous media has been developed, providing a wide range of N‐substituted pyrroles in good yields. It is noteworthy that the Clauson–Kass reaction of 2,5‐dimethoxytetrahydrofuran with p‐phenylenediamine or m‐phenylenediamine proceeds smoothly to afford the corresponding monopyrroles and bispyrroles with high selectivity in impressive yields. A plausible mechanism for the formation of N‐substituted pyrroles has been proposed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

面向有限带宽信道的字典学习图像超分辨率重建

固定邻域回归(ANR)算法采用K层奇异值分解(K-SVD)算法进行字典训练, 在字典学习过程中存在稀疏表示系数不准确的问题, 导致重建的结果不理想. 因此, 引入一种改进的K-SVD算法对字典进行训练, 该算法对字典训练改变了传统K-SVD算法更新稀疏表示系数的方式, 使得稀疏表示系数更加准确, 而且加快了字典的收敛速度, 使得训练得到的字典具有更好的稀疏表达能力. 同时, 针对ANR算法的不足, 提出一种面向有限带宽信道基于字典学习的图像超分辨率方法, 该方法采用改进的K-SVD算法训练字典对 , 并将其应用到ANR算法中, 实现图像的超分辨率重建. 实验结果表明, 本文提出的方法不仅能够保持ANR算法快速重建的优势, 而且提高了图像的重建质量, 具有更高的峰值信噪比和结构相似度.     

重组家蚕核多角体病毒（rBmNPV）的复制及所载HuIFN－α基因的表达

报道了重组家蚕核多角体病毒（ＢｏｍｂｙｘｍｏｒｉｎｕｃｌｅａｒＰｏｌｙｈｅｄｒｏｓｉｓＶｉｒｕｓＢｍＮＰＶ）在家蚕细胞ＢｍＮ中复制的细胞病理学变化，除了不形成多角体以外，与野生型病毒相同．研究了病毒感染复数、细胞接种密度和细胞生长阶段对重组病毒复制和α－干扰素（ＩＦＮ－α）表达量的影响．在一定低感染复数时，α－干扰素的产量较高．对于重组病毒的复制，最适的细胞接种密度为３．６～７．０×１０５细胞／瓶．在细胞指数生长前期（４８～６０ｈ）接种重组病毒，对于获得较高的重组病毒复制效价和α－干扰素的产量都是有利的．     

Barium ferrite particulates prepared by a salt-melt method

Barium ferrite particulates have been prepared by coprecipitation and calcination in a flux of NaCl-KCl. It was found that a flux containing more than 30 wt% KCl tends to seriously deteriorate the magnetic properties of resultant perticulates. The flux with 10 wt% KCl or less showed promising results. A Ba(CoZr)_0.75Fe_10.5O₁₉ particulate showed the best properties, i.e., a saturation magnetization of 68.5, a squareness ratio of 0.49, and a coercivity of 1280 Oe, when calcined in NaCl at 900°C for 4 h.