The current 2019-2021 marine pharmacology literature review provides a continuation of previous reviews covering the period 1998 to 2018. Preclinical marine pharmacology research during 2019-2021 was published by researchers in 42 countries and contributed novel mechanism-of-action pharmacology for 171 structurally characterized marine compounds. The peer-reviewed marine natural product pharmacology literature reported antibacterial, antifungal, antiprotozoal, antituberculosis, and antiviral mechanism-of-action studies for 49 compounds, 87 compounds with antidiabetic and anti-inflammatory activities that also affected the immune and nervous system, while another group of 51 compounds demonstrated novel miscellaneous mechanisms of action, which upon further investigation, may contribute to several pharmacological classes. Thus, in 2019-2021, a very active preclinical marine natural product pharmacology pipeline provided novel mechanisms of action as well as new lead chemistry for the clinical marine pharmaceutical pipeline targeting the therapy of several disease categories.

UNASSIGNED: This study aimed to establish a droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) assay for South-East Asian (SEA) deletion based on a fully integrated digital PCR system DropXpert S6.
UNASSIGNED: A total of 151 whole blood samples, 10 chorionic villus samples, and 17 amniotic fluid samples were collected, including 106 SEA heterozygotes, 43 normal individuals, 10 Hb Bart\'s hydrops details, and 19 SEA deletions combined with other genotypes.Genotypes of these samples were determined by the Gap-PCR method. We perform a series of optimizations of the ddPCR system to ensure the performance of the entire ddPCR reaction, such as droplet stability, fluorescence clustering, sensitivity, and accuracy.
UNASSIGNED: Our assay exhibited 99.4% (177/178) accuracy compared with the Gap-PCR method, and the minimum detection limit of DNA was 0.1 ng/μL.Both targets have reliable linearity, R2 = 0.9999 for the α-thalassemia SEA deletion allele and R2 = 1 for the wild-type allele. The coefficient of variation for α-thalassemia SEA deletion allele detection at 2 and 10 ng/μL concentrations was 5.42% and 1.91%, respectively. In contrast, the coefficient of variation for wild-type allele detection was 4.06% and 1.83%, demonstrating its high quantitative accuracy. In addition, the DropXpert S6 PCR system showed some advantages over other ddPCR instruments, such as reducing testing costs, simplifying and automating the workflow.
UNASSIGNED: The DropXpert S6 PCR system provided a highly accurate diagnosis for α-thalassemia SEA deletion and can be used to detect α-thalassemia as an alternative method.

Staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) is the most frequently reported in staphylococcal food poisoning (SFP) outbreaks. Aptamers are single-stranded nucleic acids that are seen as promising alternatives to antibodies in several areas, including diagnostics. In this work, systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) was used to select DNA aptamers against SEA. The SELEX protocol employed magnetic beads as an immobilization matrix for the target molecule and real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) for monitoring and optimizing sequence enrichment. After 10 selection cycles, the ssDNA pool with the highest affinity was sequenced by next generation sequencing (NGS). Approximately 3 million aptamer candidates were identified, and the most representative cluster sequences were selected for further characterization. The aptamer with the highest affinity showed an experimental dissociation constant (KD) of 13.36 ± 18.62 nM. Increased temperature negatively affected the affinity of the aptamer for the target. Application of the selected aptamers in a lateral flow assay demonstrated their functionality in detecting samples containing 100 ng SEA, the minimum amount capable of causing food poisoning. Overall, the applicability of DNA aptamers in SEA recognition was demonstrated and characterized under different conditions, paving the way for the development of diagnostic tools.

The number of exotic animal practitioners in Southeast Asia (SEA) has increased over the last 30 years to match the increase in ownership of exotic pets. Fortunately, veterinary health care has advanced due to the leaders in the field educating other practitioners and promoting exotic animal practice. Continuing education opportunities are available for exotic medicine in SEA. In Thailand and Singapore, there is a niche of clients with high spending power that has transcended to increased demand for exotic health care. This has led to the establishment of exotic-only specialist hospitals and more access to advanced imaging for exotic pets.

This study presents a thorough numerical evaluation of the crashworthiness properties of a new bio-inspired DNA tubes (BIDNATs) with circular, elliptical, and rectangular cross-sections. Deformation and crashworthiness behaviors are evaluated using axial quasi-static crushing simulations by ABAQUS/Explicit (Abaqus 6.14, https://www.3ds.com/products-services/simulia/products/abaqus/ ). The study compares the performance of conventional tubes with rectangular and elliptical cross-sections to DNA-inspired tubes. Increasing the rotation angle leads to more helices and a pronounced helix angle, resulting in lower initial peak force (IPF). However, lower cross-section aspect ratios generally have higher IPF and specific energy absorption (SEA) values. BIDNATs with rectangular cross-sections and a 540° rotation angle have the lowest SEA and IPF values across all aspect ratios. Notably, for the 110/100 aspect ratio, the SEA of E110/100 is 71% higher than the conventional tube. Overall, BIDNATs with elliptical cross-sections and a 360° rotation angle exhibit higher SEA values and lower IPF values, particularly for a width (W) of 100 mm. Conventional circular and elliptical tubes generally have SEA values exceeding 6 J/g, with only E110/100 surpassing this among DNA-inspired tubes. The NE110/100 tube has the highest SEA, surpassing E110/100 by 54%, while its IPF is 10% greater than DNA-inspired E110/100. It\'s worth noting that conventional circular and elliptical tubes have higher IPF values compared to their DNA-inspired counterparts. These findings offer valuable insights for engineers and researchers in the design of crash tubes to improve overall vehicle safety for both occupants and pedestrians.

Metal(loid) discharge has led to severe coastal contamination; however, there remains a significant knowledge gap regarding its impact on sediment profiles and depth-resolved bacterial communities. In this study, geochemical measurements (pH, nutrient elements, total and bioavailable metal(loid) content) consistently revealed decreasing nitrogen, phosphorus, and metal(loid) levels with sediment depth, accompanied by reduced alpha diversity. Principal coordinate analysis indicated distinct community compositions with varying sediment depths, suggesting a geochemical influence on diversity. Ecological niche width expanded with depth, favoring specialists over generalists, but both groups decreased in abundance. Taxonomic shifts emerged, particularly in phyla and families, correlated with sediment depth. Microbe-microbe interactions displayed intricate dynamics, with keystone taxa varying by sediment layer. Zinc and arsenic emerged as key factors impacting community diversity and composition using random forest, network analysis, and Mantel tests. Functional predictions revealed shifts in potential phenotypes related to mobile elements, biofilm formation, pathogenicity, N/P/S cycles, and metal(loid) resistance along sediment profiles. Neutral and null models demonstrated a transition from deterministic to stochastic processes with sediment layers. This study provides insights into the interplay between sediment geochemistry and bacterial communities across sediment depths, illuminating the factors shaping these ecosystems.

The current study aimed to determine virulence determinants among S. aureus isolated from wild pigeons and houseflies around hospital areas in the Greater Durban area, South Africa. Following enrichment and bacterial growth, DNA extraction using the boiling method was performed. Overall, 57 out of 252 samples (22.6%) were positive for S. aureus. Six known virulence genes were tested, where five known virulence determinants were positive and none of the S. aureus isolates were positive to coagulase (coa) gene. The highest prevalence rates were found in the genes encoding haemolysins, with the hla and hld genes having 8 (14%) and 9 (15.8%) positive isolates respectively. The sea, LukS/F-PV, and spa genes had 5 (8.8%), 4 (7%), and 2 (3.5%) positive isolates respectively. These results demonstrated the detection of pathogenic S. aureus from hospital environment in Durban, South Africa which may account for the emergence staphylococcal infections. The findings of the present study highlights the significant role of wild pigeons and houseflies as potenital infectious disease vectors in a One Health context.

Understanding how abundant (AT) and rare (RT) taxa adapt to diverse environmental stresses is vital for assessing ecological processes, yet remains understudied. We collected sediment samples from Liaoning Province, China, representing rivers (upstream of wastewater outlet), estuaries (wastewater outlets), and Jinzhou Bay (downstream of wastewater outlets), to comprehensively evaluate AT and RT adaptation strategies to both natural stressors (salinity stress) and anthropogenic stressors (metal stress). Generally, RT displayed higher α- and β-diversities and taxonomic groups compared to AT. Metal and salinity stresses induced distinct α-diversity responses in AT and RT, while β-diversity remained consistent. Both subcommunities were dominated by Woeseia genus. Metal stress emerged as the primary driver of diversity and compositional discrepancies in AT and RT. Notably, AT responded more sensitively to salinity stress than RT. Stress increased topological parameters in the biotic network of AT subcommunities while decreasing values in RT subcommunities, concurrently loosening interactions of AT with other taxa and strengthening interactions of RT with others in biotic networks. RT generally exhibited greater diversity of metal resistance genes compared to AT. Greater numbers of genes related to salinity tolerance was observed for the RT than for AT. Compared to AT, RT demonstrated higher diversity of metal resistance genes and a greater abundance of genes associated with salinity tolerance. Additionally, deterministic processes governed AT community assembly, reinforced by salinity stress. However, the opposite trend was observed in the RT, where the importance of stochastic process gradually increased with metal stresses. The study is centered on exploring the adaptation strategies of both AT and RT to environmental stress. It underscores the importance of future research incorporating diverse ecosystems and a range of environmental stressors to draw broader and more reliable conclusions. This comprehensive approach is essential for gaining a thorough understanding of the adaptive mechanisms employed by these microorganisms.

BACKGROUND: Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a highly virulent pathogen that causes food-borne illness, food poisoning, skin and soft tissue infections, abscesses, mastitis, and bacteremia. It is common for meat and meat products to become contaminated with S. aureus due to dirty hands, food storage conditions, food production processes, and unhygienic conditions, causing food poisoning. Therefore, we aimed to isolate S. aureus strain from the raw beef and reveal virulence genes and antibiotic resistance profile from isolated S. aureus strains.
METHODS: In this study, 100 samples of raw beef were collected from 4 major market stalls in Ulaanbaatar city, Mongolia. S. aureus was detected according to the ISO 6888-1:2021 standard, and the nucA gene encoding the species-specific thermonuclease was amplified and confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In the strains of S. aureus isolated from the samples, the genes encoding the virulence factors including sea, sed, tsst, eta, etb, and mecA were amplified by multiplex PCR. These genes are encoded staphylococcal enterotoxin A, enterotoxin D, toxic shock syndrome toxin, exotoxin A, exotoxin B and penicillin-binding protein PBP 2A, respectively. Antibiotic sensitivity test was performed by the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. The Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute guidelines as CLSI M100-S27 was used for analysis of the data.
RESULTS: Thirty-five percent of our samples were detected contaminated with of the S. aureus strains. Subsequently, antibiotic resistance was observed in the S. aureus contaminated samples. Among our samples, the highest rates of resistance were determined against ampicillin (97.1%), oxacillin (88.6%), and penicillin (88.6%), respectively. Three genes including mecA, sea, and tsst from six virulence genes were detected in 17% of S. aureus strain-contaminated samples by multiplex PCR. The sed, etb and eta genes were detected in the 2.9%, 11.4% and 5.7% of our samples, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS: The results show that S. aureus related contamination is high in the raw beef for retail sale and prevalent S. aureus strains are resistant to all antibiotics used. Also, our results have demonstrated that there is a high risk for food poisoning caused by antibiotic resistant S. aureus in the raw beef and it may establish public health issues. Genes encoding for both heat-resistant and nonresistant toxicity factors were detected in the antibiotic resistant S. aureus strains and shown the highly pathogenic. Finally, our study is ensuring to need proper hygienic conditions during beef\'s preparation and sale.

Selenium (Se) is an essential trace element and displays a narrow range of concentration between essentiality and toxicity. Se plays an important role in ameliorating mercury toxicity in organisms. Despite this there are only a few reports concerning Se concentration in plankton, the first link in the trophic chain that determines the uptake and transfer of Se to subsequent trophic levels. This paper aimed to determine Se concentration in water, phytoplankton, and zooplankton in the Baltic Sea, and factors affecting Se absorption from the environment and its transfer to higher trophic levels. Sea water and plankton samples were collected from the Gulf of Gdańsk during 5 cruises (4 seasons: 2019-2022) at 4 research stations. An additional cruise was undertaken in July 2020 in the open waters of the southern Baltic Sea. The median Se concentrations in the Gulf of Gdańsk was 0.25 μg·dm-3. While the median of Se concentration in phytoplankton was 1.11 μg·g-1 and in zooplankton was 1.25 μg·g-1. The biomass of organisms in the phytoplankton and zooplankton in the Gulf of Gdańsk showed an important role in shaping Se concentration. Seasonal trends in Se concentration in zooplankton could be the result of taxa composition changes, changes to dietary intake of Se, changes in growth dilution, or potentially some combination of factors. The highest biomagnification rate occurred in the summer. In contrast, in autumn and winter, when plankton biomass was dominated by the ciliate species Mesodinium rubrum, the highest Se concentration in plankton was measured. Further scientific studies are needed into the active biocomponents of the Se concentration process, including Se speciation, to more fully understand the dynamics of Se concentrations in the pelagic food webs of this and other freshwater and marine systems.