1,4-Naphthoquinones have antibacterial activity and are a promising new class of compound that can be used to treat bacterial infections. The goal was to improve effective antibacterial agents; therefore, we synthesized a new class of naphthoquinone hybrids, which contain phenylamino-phenylthio moieties as significant counterparts. Compound 4 was modified as a substituted aryl amide moiety, which enhanced the antibacterial activity of earlier compounds 3 and 4. In this study, five bacterial strains Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes), Escherichia coli (E. coli), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) were used to evaluate the antibacterial potency of synthesized naphthoquinones using the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) method. Most of the studied naphthoquinones demonstrated major antibacterial activity with a MIC of 15.6 µg/mL–500 µg/mL. Selected compounds (5a, 5f and 5x) were studied for the mode of action, using intracellular ROS generation, determination of apoptosis by the Annexin V-FITC/PI assay, a bactericidal kinetic study and in silico molecular modelling. Additionally, the redox potentials of the specified compounds were confirmed by cyclic voltammetry (CV).

Three-dimensional (3D) copper–cobalt (Cu–Co)/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) hierarchical architectures are electrochemically deposited over a pencil graphite electrode (PGE), and the modified PGE is directly exploited as a binder-free and disposable electrode for high performance nonenzymatic glucose sensors. The morphological features substantiate that the Cu–Co nanostructures display a 3D, open, porous, interconnected network architecture, in which the rGO layers are tightly pinned among the nanofeelers. Owing to the benefits of dendrite architectures and optimized composition, Cu–Co/rGO/PGE demonstrates better glucose oxidation behavior under alkaline conditions. Being a nonenzymatic glucose sensor, Cu–Co/rGO/PGE demonstrates excellent gluose detection properties with considerable chloride poisoning resistance. The excellent analytical performance of Cu–Co/rGO/PGE comprehends its application in human serum samples. Thus, this report paves constructive opportunities for the development of disposable, environmentally benign, binder-free, cost-efficient, and scalable 3D electrodes, which may be beneficial for the development of economically viable nonenzymatic glucose sensor devices.

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1,4‐Naphthoquinones are an important class of compounds present in a number of natural products. In this study, a new series of 1,4‐naphthoquinone derivatives were synthesized. All the synthesized compounds were tested for in vitro antimicrobial activity. In this present investigation, two Gram‐positive and five Gram‐negative bacterial strains and one pathogenic yeast strain were used to determine the antibacterial activity. Naphthoquinones tested for its antibacterial potencies, among seven of them displayed better antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus ( S. aureus ; 30–70 μg/mL). Some of the tested compounds showed moderate to low antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa ( P. aeruginosa ) and Salmonella bongori ( S. bongori ; 70–150 μg/mL). In addition, most active compounds against S. aureus were evaluated for toxicity to human blood cells using a hemolysis assay. For better understanding, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, time‐kill kinetic study, and apoptosis, necrosis responses were investigated for three representative compounds.

A copper ferrite (CuFe2O4)/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanocomposite was developed via a one-pot strategy by using environmentally favorable pigeon excreta as a reducing and stabilization agent. The obtained micrographs substantiated that the spherical-shaped CuFe2O4 nanostructures were uniformly anchored over the rGO sheets. The mechanism involved in the simultaneous reduction of GO sheets and Cu2+/Fe2+ ions by using the pigeon excreta is explicated with the number of structural characterizations. The electrocatalytic activities of as-prepared nanostructures for nonenzymatic H2O2 detection were evaluated under the neutral conditions. The as-prepared rGO/CuFe2O4 nanocomposite exhibited the high sensitivity of 265.57 μA mM–1 cm–2, low detection limit of 0.35 μM and wide linear range from 1 μM to 11 mM toward H2O2 sensing, because of the systematic arrangement of metallic active sites supported via the active rGO support. The robust structures developed in the prepared composite exhibited the excellent selectivity and stability, which allowed the reproducible assessement of H2O2 in human urine samples. These findings have not only showered salient insights on the environmentally favorable preparation of rGO-based composites but have also provided promising features for the prepared catalysts in nonenzymatic H2O2 sensors.

The present study aimed to identify causative loci and genes enriched in pathways associated with canine obesity using a genome-wide association study (GWAS). The GWAS was first performed to identify candidate single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with obesity and obesity-related traits including body weight and blood sugar in 18 different breeds of 153 dogs. A total of 10 and 2 SNPs were found to be significantly (p < 3.74 × 10−7) associated with body weight and blood sugar, respectively. None of the SNPs were identified to be significantly associated with obesity trait. We subsequently followed up the GWAS analysis with gene-set enrichment and pathway analyses. A gene-set with 1057, 1409, and 1243 SNPs annotated to 449, 933 and 820 genes for obesity, body weight, and blood sugar, respectively was created by sub-setting the GWAS result at a threshold of p < 0.01 for the gene-set enrichment analysis. In total, 84 GO and 21 KEGG pathways for obesity, 114 GO and 44 KEGG pathways for blood sugar, 120 GO and 24 KEGG pathways for body weight were found to be enriched. Among the pathways and GO terms, we highlighted five enriched pathways (Wnt signaling pathway, adherens junction, pathways in cancer, axon guidance, and insulin secretion) and seven GO terms (fat cell differentiation, calcium ion binding, cytoplasm, nucleus, phospholipid transport, central nervous system development, and cell surface) that were found to be shared among all the traits. Our data provide insights into the genes and pathways associated with obesity and obesity-related traits.

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Platinum nanoparticles (Pt NPs) was synthesized via a facile and cost competitive ont-pot green mediated synthesis using cell free cultural filtrate (microgravity simulated grown Penicillium chrysogenum) as a reducing agent. The toxicity effect of synthesized Pt NPs toward myoblast C2C12 carcinoma cells was then investigated. The particle size analyzer (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results demonstrates that both NG-Pt NPs and MG-Pt NPS are spherical in shape with an average diameter of 15 nm and 8.5 nm, respectively. The results from UV-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis show a characteristic strong resonance centered at 265 nm and a single crystalline nature, respectively. The results derived from in vitro cytotoxicity showed a significant concentration-dependent decrement in cell viability when C2C12 cells were exposed to Pt NPs. Such decrement in cell viability is because of increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Cell apoptosis was proved by acridine orange-ethidium bromide (AO/EtBr) dual staining, annexin V-FITC/PI-staining and immunocytochemistry. Moreover, the protein expression of both (i) apoptosis related proteins such as cas-3 and cas-9, (ii) inflammatory response proteins such as TNF-α, TGF-β and NF-κB were significantly upregulated in MG-Pt NPs treated cells than NG-Pt NPs treated cells. Uptake and intracellular localization of MG-Pt NPs caused by accumulation of autophagosomes in C2C12 cells and bacterial cells, indicate that synthesized MG-Pt NPs enable for the swift cell apoptosis than NG-Pt NPs. Interestingly, At the concentration of 40 and 80 μg/ml MG-Pt NPs showed more potent cytotoxicity toward cancer cells while, under identical concentration, NG-Pt NPs exhibited rather lower cytotoxicity. Overall, our results demonstrated that MG-Pt NPs could be selectively inhibit the growth of cancer cells via ROS-mediated nucleus NF-κB and caspases activation when compared to NG-Pt NPs.