East China Normal University

Multidrug-resistant bacterial infections that cannot be treated by any known antibiotics pose a serious global threat. A research team has now introduced a method for the development of novel antibiotics to fight resistant pathogens. The drugs are based on protein building blocks with fluorous lipid chains. Multidrug-resistant bacterial infections that cannot be treated by any known antibiotics pose a serious global threat. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a Chinese research team has now introduced a method for the development of novel antibiotics to fight resistant pathogens. The drugs are based on protein building blocks with fluorous lipid chains. Antibiotics are often prescribed far too readily. In many countries they are distributed without prescriptions and administered in factory farming: prophylactically to prevent infections and enhance performance. As a result, resistance is on the rise -- increasingly against reserve antibiotics as well. The development of innovative alternatives is essential. It is possible to learn some lessons from the microbes themselves. Lipoproteins, small protein molecules with fatty acid chains, are widely used by bacteria in their battles against microbial competitors. A number of lipoproteins have already been approved for use as drugs. The common factors among the active lipoproteins include a positive charge and an amphiphilic structure, meaning they have segments that repel fat and others that repel water. This allows them to bind to bacterial membranes and pierce through them to the interior. A team led by Yiyun Cheng at East China Normal University in Shanghai aims to amplify this effect by replacing hydrogen atoms in the lipid chain with fluorine atoms. These make the lipid chain simultaneously water-repellant (hydrophobic) and fat-repellant (lipophobic). Their particularly low surface energy strengthens their binding to cell membranes while their lipophobicity disrupts the cohesion of the membrane. The team synthesized a spectrum (substance library) of fluorous lipopeptides from fluorinated hydrocarbons and peptide chains. To link the two pieces, they used the amino acid cysteine, which binds them together via a disulfide bridge. The researchers screened the molecules by testing their activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a widespread, highly dangerous strain of bacteria that is resistant to nearly all antibiotics. The most effective compound they found was "R6F," a fluorous lipopeptide made of six arginine units and a lipid chain made of eight carbon and thirteen fluorine atoms. To increase biocompatibility, the R6F was enclosed within phospholipid nanoparticles. In mouse models, R6F nanoparticles were shown to be very effective against sepsis and chronic wound infections by MRSA. No toxic side effects were observed. The nanoparticles seem to attack the bacteria in several ways: they inhibit the synthesis of important cell-wall components, promoting collapse of the walls; they also pierce the cell membrane and destabilize it; disrupt the respiratory chain and metabolism; and increase oxidative stress while simultaneously disrupting the antioxidant defense system of the bacteria. In combination, these effects kill the bacteria -- other bacteria as well as MRSA. No resistance appears to develop. These insights provide starting points for the development of highly efficient fluorous peptide drugs to treat multi-drug resistant bacteria.

TUSTIN, Calif.--( BUSINESS WIRE )--LIBERTY Dental Plan, a leading benefits administrator founded in 2002 by dentists and health industry professionals which currently administers dental benefits in all 50 states, today announced the appointment of Jian Yu as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Actuarial Officer. Effective Dec. 28, 2023, she will succeed Mary Anne Jones, who has served as LIBERTY’s Interim Chief Financial Officer since June 2023. Yu brings to LIBERTY a wealth of financial and actuarial executive leadership experience from her more than 25-year career in the healthcare industry, along with extensive experience in strategic planning, risk management, actuarial pricing, healthcare trend management, and advanced analytics. “Jian is a proven leader and strategist whose financial acumen and integrity deliver results, and we are thrilled to have her join the LIBERTY executive leadership team,” said Marti Lolli, President and Chief Executive Officer of LIBERTY. “Jian joins LIBERTY at a pivotal time as we continue on a historical growth trajectory,” Lolli continued. “I am confident that Jian’s deep financial expertise, long-standing relationships within the industry, and forward-thinking business leadership will successfully propel us forward as we continue to grow exponentially. On behalf of LIBERTY, I also want to extend my sincere gratitude to Mary Anne Jones, who has served as our Interim Chief Financial Officer during our search. We wish her the best as she transitions to full-time retirement after an impressive career of leading healthcare companies to achieve financial success.” “I am honored to join LIBERTY at this pivotal time in the company’s history,” said Yu. “I look forward to joining the experienced leadership team and working together to drive LIBERTY’s successful growth in the dental plan marketplace.” Prior to joining LIBERTY, Yu was Senior Vice President and Chief Actuary at Priority Health, and served in senior leadership roles at Milliman and WellCare Health Plans. She most recently served as Vice President, Associate Chief Actuary for Markets outside California at Kaiser Permanente. Yu received her master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin—Madison, and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from East China Normal University in Shanghai. ABOUT LIBERTY LIBERTY is a dental benefits administrator founded by dentists and health industry professionals in 2002. LIBERTY currently administers dental benefits in all 50 states, including on behalf of over six million Medicaid, Medicare Advantage, commercial, and exchange members. A high-touch approach to member and provider engagement, along with innovations to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of dental care delivery, has propelled the company’s growth. Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe , is a majority investor in LIBERTY. Elevance Health , a customer since 2010, is a minority investor. Learn more at www.LIBERTYDentalPlan.com . Follow us on LinkedIn .

Re-establishing plantings of trees, grasses and other vegetation is essential for restoring degraded ecosystems, but a new survey of almost 2,600 restoration projects from nearly every type of ecosystem on Earth finds that most projects fail to recognize and control one of the new plants' chief threats: hungry critters that eat plants. Re-establishing plantings of trees, grasses and other vegetation is essential for restoring degraded ecosystems, but a new survey of almost 2,600 restoration projects from nearly every type of ecosystem on Earth finds that most projects fail to recognize and control one of the new plants' chief threats: hungry critters that eat plants. "While most of the projects took steps to exclude competing plant species, only 10% took steps to control or temporarily exclude herbivores, despite the fact that in the early stages these plants are like lollipops -- irresistible little treats for grazers," said Brian Silliman, Rachel Carson Distinguished Professor of Marine Conservation Biology at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment. By not protecting plants in their early states, conservationists are missing out on great opportunity to significantly speed restoration, improve its outcomes, and lower its costs, he said. "Our analysis of the surveyed projects shows that introducing predators to keep herbivore populations in check or installing barriers to keep them at bay until plantings become more established and less vulnerable, can increase plant re-growth by 89% on average," said Silliman, who helped conceptualize the study and was one of its coauthors. Those gains are equal to or greater than the gains realized by excluding competing plant species, the new survey shows. "This begs the question: Why aren't we doing it more?" he asks. The new survey was conducted with input from an international team of researchers affiliated with 20 universities and institutions. They published their peer-reviewed findings Nov. 3 in Science. Qiang He, professor of coastal ecology at Fudan University and a former postdoctoral research associate of Silliman's at Duke, co-led the study with Changlin Xu, a member of He's Coastal Ecology Lab at Fudan. The survey's findings have far-reaching implications for efforts to restore vegetation at a time of climate change, He said. "Herbivores' effects were particularly pronounced in regions with higher temperatures and lower precipitation," He noted. All of which leads to one inescapable conclusion, Silliman said. "If we want more plants, we have to let more predators in or restore their populations," Silliman said. "Indeed, the decline of large predators, like wolves, lions, and sharks, that normally keep herbivore populations in check, is likely an important indirect cause of high grazing pressures." "Conventional restoration is slowing our losses, but it's not expanding vegetation in many places, and climate change could make that even more difficult," he said. Using predators to keep herbivores in check at restored sites is a relatively untapped approach that could help us boost plant diversity and restore ecosystems that are vital to human and environmental health, in less time and at lower costs," Silliman said. "It's like learning a new gardening trick that doubles your yield." Once a planting is established, the herbivores are essential too, he added. "Plants just need a small break from being eaten to get restarted making ecosystems. Once they establish, herbivores are key to maintaining plant ecosystem diversity and function." Researchers from the University of Canterbury (N.Z.); Aarhus University; Northeastern University; Pusan National University; the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center; the University of Maryland; the Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; and Sonoma State University coauthored the study with the Duke and Fudan scientists. Coauthors also came from Northern Illinois University; East China Normal University; Peking University; Nanjing University; the University of Florida; the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research; the University of Groningen; the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Lanzhou University; and Yunnan University. Primary funding was provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (#32271601) and the National Key Basic Research Program (#2022YFC2601100 and 2022YFC3105402).