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Biologically Active Secondary Metabolites from Red Sea Cyanobacteria
This project describes the investigation of marine cyanobacteria collected from the Red Sea with an emphasis on the identification and prioritization of biologically active fractions for future purification and molecular structure elucidation of medicinally relevant secondary metabolites.
Five crude extracts of taxonomically unidentified Red Sea cyanobacteria supplied by Egyptian collaborators were fractionated by chromatographic means and screened for anticancer activities using whole cell biological assays. Only three extracts yielded collectively five cytotoxic active fractions containing chemical compounds with different molecular weights. Further spectrometric and spectroscopic analysis showed that fraction Enq02F-2 contained a compound that had a similar molecular weight, UV absorption properties, and polarity to another bioactive compound isolated previously from a different cyanobacterial crude extract by graduate student Chris Thornburg. This compound is a cyclic depsipeptide closely related to other cyanobacterial natural products derived from Caribbean species of Lyngbya cyanobacteria.
Key Words: natural products, secondary metabolites, cyanobacteria, cancer therapeutic
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Global Coinfections with Bacteria, Fungi, and Respiratory Viruses in Children with SARS-CoV-2: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Background: Coinfection with bacteria, fungi, and respiratory viruses has been described as a factor associated with more severe clinical outcomes in children with COVID-19. Such coinfections in children with COVID-19 have been reported to increase morbidity and mortality. Objectives: To identify the type and proportion of coinfections with SARS-CoV-2 and bacteria, fungi, and/or respiratory viruses, and investigate the severity of COVID-19 in children. Methods: For this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched ProQuest, Medline, Embase, PubMed, CINAHL, Wiley online library, Scopus, and Nature through the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines for studies on the incidence of COVID-19 in children with bacterial, fungal, and/or respiratory coinfections, published from 1 December 2019 to 1 October 2022, with English language restriction. Results: Of the 169 papers that were identified, 130 articles were included in the systematic review (57 cohort, 52 case report, and 21 case series studies) and 34 articles (23 cohort, eight case series, and three case report studies) were included in the meta-analysis. Of the 17,588 COVID-19 children who were tested for co-pathogens, bacterial, fungal, and/or respiratory viral coinfections were reported (n = 1633, 9.3%). The median patient age ranged from 1.4 months to 144 months across studies. There was an increased male predominance in pediatric COVID-19 patients diagnosed with bacterial, fungal, and/or viral coinfections in most of the studies (male gender: n = 204, 59.1% compared to female gender: n = 141, 40.9%). The majority of the cases belonged to White (Caucasian) (n = 441, 53.3%), Asian (n = 205, 24.8%), Indian (n = 71, 8.6%), and Black (n = 51, 6.2%) ethnicities. The overall pooled proportions of children with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 who had bacterial, fungal, and respiratory viral coinfections were 4.73% (95% CI 3.86 to 5.60, n = 445, 34 studies, I2 85%, p < 0.01), 0.98% (95% CI 0.13 to 1.83, n = 17, six studies, I2 49%, p < 0.08), and 5.41% (95% CI 4.48 to 6.34, n = 441, 32 studies, I2 87%, p < 0.01), respectively. Children with COVID-19 in the ICU had higher coinfections compared to ICU and non-ICU patients, as follows: respiratory viral (6.61%, 95% CI 5.06–8.17, I2 = 0% versus 5.31%, 95% CI 4.31–6.30, I2 = 88%) and fungal (1.72%, 95% CI 0.45–2.99, I2 = 0% versus 0.62%, 95% CI 0.00–1.55, I2 = 54%); however, COVID-19 children admitted to the ICU had a lower bacterial coinfection compared to the COVID-19 children in the ICU and non-ICU group (3.02%, 95% CI 1.70–4.34, I2 = 0% versus 4.91%, 95% CI 3.97–5.84, I2 = 87%). The most common identified virus and bacterium in children with COVID-19 were RSV (n = 342, 31.4%) and Mycoplasma pneumonia (n = 120, 23.1%). Conclusion: Children with COVID-19 seem to have distinctly lower rates of bacterial, fungal, and/or respiratory viral coinfections than adults. RSV and Mycoplasma pneumonia were the most common identified virus and bacterium in children infected with SARS-CoV-2. Knowledge of bacterial, fungal, and/or respiratory viral confections has potential diagnostic and treatment implications in COVID-19 children