Promising approaches to optimize the biological properties of the antimicrobial peptide esculentin-1a(1-21)NH2. amino acids substitution and conjugation to nanoparticles

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) represent an interesting class of molecules with expanding biological properties which make them a viable alternative for the development of future antibiotic drugs. However, for this purpose, some limitations must be overcome: (i) the poor biostability due to enzymatic degradation; (ii) the cytotoxicity at concentrations slightly higher than the therapeutic dosages; and (iii) the inefficient delivery to the target site at effective concentrations. Recently, a derivative of the frog skin AMP esculentin-1a, named esculentin-1a(1-21)NH2, [Esc(1-21): GIFSKLAGKKIKNLLISGLKG-NH2] has been found to have a potent activity against the Gram-negative bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa; a slightly weaker activity against Gram-positive bacteria and interesting immunomodulatory properties. With the aim to optimize the antimicrobial features of Esc(1-21) and to circumvent the limitations described above, two different approaches were followed: (i) substitutions by non-coded amino acids, i.e., α-aminoisobutyric acid or d-amino acids; and (ii) peptide conjugation to gold nanoparticles. In this mini-review, we summarized the structural and functional properties of the resulting Esc(1-21)-derived compounds. Overall, our data may assist researchers in the rational design and optimization of AMPs for the development of future drugs to fight the worldwide problem of antibiotic resistance

Una ceremonia coral: las entradas virreinales en Nápoles

L’article ofereix una reflexió de conjunt sobre el procés d’entrada dels nous virreis a Nàpols els segles XVI i XVII. A través d’una relectura i classificació de les fonts, es mostra com aquesta cerimònia fou, de vegada en vegada, el resultat d’un procés de recerca d’un nou equilibri —sovint transitori— entres les forces dels principals poders actius dins la densa societat de la capital delregne. A partir d’aquí s’analitzen l’evolució i els principals canvis dins el ritual d’aquesta cerimònia al llarg de les dècadesEl artículo presenta una reflexión sobre el proceso de la entrada de los nuevos virreyes en Nápoles en los siglos xvi y xvii. A través de una clasificación de las fuentes, se muestra cómo esta ceremonia fue cada vez más el resultado de un proceso de búsqueda de un nuevo equilibrio entre las fuerzas de los principales poderes activos en la densa sociedad de la capital del reino. Bajo esta luz se analiza la evolución y los principales cambios en el ritual de esta ceremonia a lo largo de las décadasThis paper presents a series of considerations relating to the process of the entry for new viceroys in Naples in the 16th and 17th centuries. Through the classification of the different sources, is evident that this ceremony was the result of a complex process of balance between the main powers that were active within the Neapolitan society. In a second part, the text analyses the evolution and the main changes in the ritual of this ceremony throughout the decade

Una ceremonia coral: las entradas virreinales en Nápoles

L'article ofereix una reflexió de conjunt sobre el procés d'entrada dels nous virreis a Nàpols els segles XVI i XVII. A través d'una relectura i classificació de les fonts, es mostra com aquesta cerimònia fou, de vegada en vegada, el resultat d'un procés de recerca d'un nou equilibri sovint transitori entres les forces dels principals poders actius dins la densa societat de la capital del regne. A partir d'aquí s'analitzen l'evolució i els principals canvis dins el ritual d'aquesta cerimònia al llarg de les dècade

Beobachtungen über das Verhalten der Mehligen Apfelblattlaus (Dysaphis plantaginea) in Trentino (Italia)

Seit 1995 bis 1999 hat man genaue Beobachtungen des Wiedererscheinens und der Entwicklung der mehlige Apfelblattlaus in Adige Tal (Trentino-Italia) durchgeführt Die Beobachtungen wurden in einer Anlage von 2000mq, auf 261 Bäumen von Golden Delicious, Stayman und Red Delicious (15 bis 25 Jahre alt) auf M7, M26 und M9 gemacht

Primi risultati di un censimento di pipistrelli mediante catture notturne in Sardegna

The preliminary results of a study of non-troglophilous Sardinian bats, carried out after nocturnal capture with mist-nets, along the course of the rivers, are reported here. The paper describes the method of capture in 25 different places and reviews the 8 species of non troglophilous bats caught

The frog skin-derived antimicrobial peptide esculentin-1a(1-21)nh2 promotes the migration of human hacat keratinocytes in an egf receptor-dependent manner: a novel promoter of human skin wound healing?

One of the many functions of skin is to protect the organism against a wide range of pathogens. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) produced by the skin epithelium provide an effective chemical shield against microbial pathogens. However, whereas antibacterial/antifungal activities of AMPs have been extensively characterized, much less is known regarding their wound healing-modulatory properties. By using an in vitro re-epithelialisation assay employing special cell-culture inserts, we detected that a derivative of the frog-skin AMP esculentin-1a, named esculentin-1a(1-21)NH2, significantly stimulates migration of immortalized human keratinocytes (HaCaT cells) over a wide range of peptide concentrations (0.025-4 μM), and this notably more efficiently than human cathelicidin (LL-37). This activity is preserved in primary human epidermal keratinocytes. By using appropriate inhibitors and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay we found that the peptide-induced cell migration involves activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor and STAT3 protein. These results suggest that esculentin-1a(1-21)NH2 now deserves to be tested in standard wound healing assays as a novel candidate promoter of skin re-epithelialisation. The established ability of esculentin-1a(1-21)NH2 to kill microbes without harming mammalian cells, namely its high anti-Pseudomonal activity, makes this AMP a particularly attractive candidate wound healing promoter, especially in the management of chronic, often Pseudomonas-infected, skin ulcers

Le forme dell'architettura per la comunità

Oggi le città sono caratterizzate da una crisi che non è solo economica ma anche ecologica e sociale e superarla vuol dire tener conto di tutti i fattori contemporaneamente. La crisi sociale trova una riposta nella coabitazione che, tuttavia, da sola non basta. La crisi economica potrebbe trovare una soluzione nella "residenza temporanea", simbolo della flessibilità insita nella società contemporanea. La crisi ecologica trova un riscontro nell'Agrivillaggio, un nuovo quartiere agricolo ai margini delle città caratterizzato da un nuovo modo di abitare e di vivere all'insegna della sostenibilità economica ecologica e sociale. L'insieme di questi tre fattori (coabitazione+temporaneità+agrivillaggio) può portare ad un nuovo sistema urbano grazie al quale, oltre a risolvere le questioni sociali, si registrano ottimi riscontri nell'ambito della valorizzazione dei paesaggi periurbani e della riduzione del consumo di suolo

No Pitch Left Behind: Addressing Gender Unbalance in Automatic Speech Recognition through Pitch Manipulation

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems are known to be sensitive to the sociolinguistic variability of speech data, in which gender plays a crucial role. This can result in disparities in recognition accuracy between male and female speakers, primarily due to the under-representation of the latter group in the training data. While in the context of hybrid ASR models several solutions have been proposed, the gender bias issue has not been explicitly addressed in end-to-end neural architectures. To fill this gap, we propose a data augmentation technique that manipulates the fundamental frequency (f0) and formants. This technique reduces the data unbalance among genders by simulating voices of the under-represented female speakers and increases the variability within each gender group. Experiments on spontaneous English speech show that our technique yields a relative WER improvement up to 9.87% for utterances by female speakers, with larger gains for the least-represented f0 ranges.Comment: Accepted at ASRU 202