Analysis of Escherichia coliSTs and resistance mechanisms in sewage from Islamabad, Pakistan indicates a difference in E. coli carriage types between South Asia and Europe

Objectives To discover the Escherichia coli STs and associated resistance mechanisms in the community in Islamabad, Pakistan by analysis of E. coli isolates in sewage. Methods One hundred and ten E. coli were isolated from sewage across the city of Islamabad without antibiotic bias and confirmed as E. coli by MALDI-TOF MS. Isolates were characterized by fumC/fimH (CH) typing and core-genome MLST. Resistance mechanisms, virulence genes, phylotypes and plasmid incompatibility types were determined in a subset of isolates by in silico analysis. The genomic position of blaCTX-M-15 was determined using S1-PFGE, probing and Nanopore MinION sequencing. Results and conclusions The most prevalent STs were ST394, ST10 and ST648, accounting for 39% of all isolates collected and were found at many sites across Islamabad. Carbapenemase genes were absent and only a single isolate of ST131 was found. The most prevalent resistance mechanisms were qnrS1 and blaCTX-M-15, with blaCTX-M-15 penetrating many STs and found in 31% of all collected isolates. However, the majority of the successful STs were blaCTX-M-15 negative indicating that resistance is not the main driver of prevalence. Twenty-three percent of blaCTX-M-15 genes were chromosomally encoded and large ISEcp1-mediated insertions included qnrS1 and several plasmid genes. In all chromosomally encoded isolates no plasmid copies of blaCTX-M-15 were found. The most prevalent ST (ST394) contained many enteroaggregative E. coli virulence genes and the fimH30 variant allele previously linked to the success of ST131

A comparative study of the influence of N, N '-dialkyl vs. N, N '-diaryl-based electron donor ancillary ligands on photocurrent and photovoltage in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs)

In this study, we report the synthesis of a novel heteroleptic Ru(II)-sensitizer, (Ru(2,2'-bipyridine-4,4'dicarboxylic acid)-4,4'-bis(4-piperidin-1-yl) phenyl ethenyl)-(2,2'-bipyridine) (NCS)(2), denoted as SD-1; moreover, its photophysical, electrochemical, and photovoltaic performances were compared with those of N719 and K77-7 (N, N'-diaryl Ru-sensitizer, namely Ru(2,2'-bipyridine-4,4'-dicarboxylic-acid)4,4'- bis(2-(4-N, N'-diphenylaminophenyl) ethenyl)-2,2'-bipyridine (NCS) 2). The photovoltaic performance of SD-1 outperformed those of N-719 and K77-7, particularly in the red region, and the overall efficiency of SD-1 was 8.5% as compared to 8.0% of K77-7 and 7.7% of N719 under the same experimental device conditions. The superior light harvesting efficiency of SD-1 can be attributed to the strong electron donor sp3-nitrogen, which is attached to two sp3-carbons (dialkyl), whereas in the case of K77-7, all carbon atoms attached to the sp3-nitrogen are sp2, which decrease the electron density on the latter and minimize the electron-donating power of the ancillary ligand in K77-7. To gain a quantitative understanding of the electron density on nitrogen in SD-1 and K77-7, first-principle calculations using molecular and thermodynamic descriptors, such as frontier molecular orbitals, ground-state oxidation potential (GSOP), excited-state oxidation potential (ESOP), optical gap (E0-0), and charge distributions, were conducted in solution. In addition, for understanding the anchored structures of dyes on Ti24O48, density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) were utilized. Results of computational studies are in excellent agreement with the experimental results, which can be used as a screening tool for the design of more efficient molecular motifs for DSSCs

CCDC 896983: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

Related Article: Saba Ashraf, Aamer Saeed, Mohammad Azad Malik, Ulrich Flörke, Michael Bolte, Naghmah Haider, Javeed Akhtar|2014|Eur.J.Inorg.Chem.||533|doi:10.1002/ejic.20130100

CCDC 896979: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

Related Article: Saba Ashraf, Aamer Saeed, Mohammad Azad Malik, Ulrich Flörke, Michael Bolte, Naghmah Haider, Javeed Akhtar|2014|Eur.J.Inorg.Chem.||533|doi:10.1002/ejic.20130100

CCDC 882905: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

Related Article: Saba Ashraf, Aamer Saeed, Mohammad Azad Malik, Ulrich Flörke, Michael Bolte, Naghmah Haider, Javeed Akhtar|2014|Eur.J.Inorg.Chem.||533|doi:10.1002/ejic.20130100

Biochanin A: A Novel Bioactive Multifunctional Compound from Nature

Natural products (NPs) will continue to serve humans as matchless source of novel drug leads and inspiration for the synthesis of non-natural drugs. As our scientific understanding of 'nature' is rapidly expanding, it would be worthwhile to illuminate the pharmacological distinctions of NPs to the scientific community and public. Flavonoids have long fascinated scientists with their remarkable structural diversity as well as biological functions. Consequently, this review aims to shed light on the sources and pharmacological significance of a dietary isoflavone, biochanin A, which has been recently emerged as multitargeted and multifunctional guardian of human health. Biochanin A possesses anti-inflammatory, anticancer, neuroprotective, antioxidant, anti-microbial, and hepatoprotective properties. This anticancer isoflavone combat cancer development by inducing apoptosis, inhibition of metastasis and arresting cell cycle via targeting several deregulated signaling pathways of cancer. It fights inflammation by blocking the expression and activity of pro-inflammatory cytokines via modulation of NF-κB and MAPKs. Biochanin A acts as a neuroprotective agent by inhibiting microglial activation and apoptosis of neurons. As biochanin A has potential to modulate several biological networks, thus, we anticipate that this therapeutically potent compound might serve as novel lead for drug development in the near future