Publisher Correction: Growth hormone-releasing hormone and its analogues in health and disease
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Exploration of vanoxerine analogues as antibacterial agents
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a bacterial pathogen, responsible for approximately 1.3 million deaths in 2022 through tuberculosis infections. The complex treatment regimen required to treat tuberculosis and growing rates of drug resistance, necessitates the development of new anti-mycobacterial agents. One approach is to repurpose drugs from other clinical applications. Vanoxerine (GBR 12909) was previously shown to have anti-mycobacterial activity, through dissipating the membrane electric potential and hence, cellular energetics. Several vanoxerine analogues were synthesised in this study, which exhibited a range of activities against mycobacteria and enterococcus. All active analogues had similar impacts on the membrane electric potential and inhibition of ethidium bromide efflux. The most active compound displayed reduced inhibitory activity against the known human target of vanoxerine, the dopamine transporter. This work has identified a promising analogue, which could provide a starting point for further medicinal chemistry and drug development efforts to target mycobacteria.
Coding principles and mechanisms of serotonergic transmission modes
Serotonin-mediated intercellular communication has been implicated in myriad human behaviors and diseases, yet how serotonin communicates and how the communication is regulated remain unclear due to limitations of available monitoring tools. Here, we report a method multiplexing genetically encoded sensor-based imaging and fast-scan cyclic voltammetry, enabling simultaneous recordings of synaptic, perisynaptic, proximate and distal extrasynaptic serotonergic transmission. Employing this method alongside a genetically encoded sensor-based image analysis program (GESIAP), we discovered that heterogeneous firing patterns of serotonergic neurons create various transmission modes in the mouse raphe nucleus and amygdala, encoding information of firing pulse frequency, number, and synchrony using neurotransmitter quantity, releasing synapse count, and synaptic and/or volume transmission. During tonic and low-frequency phasic activities, serotonin is confined within synaptic clefts due to efficient retrieval by perisynaptic transporters, mediating synaptic transmission modes. Conversely, during high-frequency, especially synchronized phasic activities, or when transporter inhibition, serotonin may surpass transporter capacity, and escape synaptic clefts through 1‒3 outlet channels, leading to volume transmission modes. Our results elucidate a mechanism of how channeled synaptic enclosures, synaptic properties, and transporters collaborate to define the coding principles of activity pattern-dependent serotonergic transmission modes.
Rapid growth rate responses of terrestrial bacteria to field warming on the Antarctic Peninsula
Ice-free terrestrial environments of the western Antarctic Peninsula are expanding and subject to colonization by new microorganisms and plants, which control biogeochemical cycling. Measuring growth rates of microbial populations and ecosystem carbon flux is critical for understanding how terrestrial ecosystems in Antarctica will respond to future warming. We implemented a field warming experiment in early (bare soil; +2 °C) and late (peat moss-dominated; +1.2 °C) successional glacier forefield sites on the western Antarctica Peninsula. We used quantitative stable isotope probing with H218O using intact cores in situ to determine growth rate responses of bacterial taxa to short-term (1 month) warming. Warming increased the growth rates of bacterial communities at both sites, even doubling the number of taxa exhibiting significant growth at the early site. Growth responses varied among taxa. Despite that warming induced a similar response for bacterial relative growth rates overall, the warming effect on ecosystem carbon fluxes was stronger at the early successional site—likely driven by increased activity of autotrophs which switched the ecosystem from a carbon source to a carbon sink. At the late-successional site, warming caused a significant increase in growth rate of many Alphaproteobacteria, but a weaker and opposite gross ecosystem productivity response that decreased the carbon sink—indicating that the carbon flux rates were driven more strongly by the plant communities. Such changes to bacterial growth and ecosystem carbon cycling suggest that the terrestrial Antarctic Peninsula can respond fast to increases in temperature, which can have repercussions for long-term elemental cycling and carbon storage.
Pathogens and planetary change
Emerging infectious diseases, biodiversity loss, and anthropogenic environmental change are interconnected crises with massive social and ecological costs. In this Review, we discuss how pathogens and parasites are responding to global change, and the implications for pandemic prevention and biodiversity conservation. Ecological and evolutionary principles help to explain why both pandemics and wildlife die-offs are becoming more common; why land-use change and biodiversity loss are often followed by an increase in zoonotic and vector-borne diseases; and why some species, such as bats, host so many emerging pathogens. To prevent the next pandemic, scientists should focus on monitoring and limiting the spread of a handful of high-risk viruses, especially at key interfaces such as farms and live-animal markets. But to address the much broader set of infectious disease risks associated with the Anthropocene, decision-makers will need to develop comprehensive strategies that include pathogen surveillance across species and ecosystems; conservation-based interventions to reduce human–animal contact and protect wildlife health; health system strengthening; and global improvements in epidemic preparedness and response. Scientists can contribute to these efforts by filling global gaps in disease data, and by expanding the evidence base for disease–driver relationships and ecological interventions.
Frequency and factors associated with the utilization (curative and preventive) of oral health care services among pregnant women in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has one of the highest maternal and neonatal mortality rates in Africa. There is a growing body of evidence about the relationship between poor oral health and adverse pregnancy outcomes. However, there is a lack of information about oral health status during pregnancy in the DRC. This study aimed to identify the factors related to the utilization of oral health care services among pregnant women.
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