The poor stability of antibacterial peptide to protease limits its clinical application. Among these limitations, trypsin mainly exists in digestive tract, which is an insurmountable obstacle to orally delivered peptides. OM19R is a random curly polyproline cationic antimicrobial peptide, which has high antibacterial activity against some gram-negative bacteria, but its stability against pancreatin is poor. According to the structure-activity relationship of OM19R, all cationic amino acid residues (l-arginine and l-lysine) at the trypsin cleavage sites were replaced with corresponding d-amino acid residues to obtain the designed peptide OM19D, which not only maintained its antibacterial activity but also enhanced the stability of trypsin. Proceeding high concentrations of trypsin and long-time (such as 10 mg/mL, 8 h) treatment, it still had high antibacterial activity (MIC = 16–32 µg/mL). In addition, OM19D also showed high stability to serum, plasma and other environmental factors. It is similar to its parent peptide in secondary structure and mechanism of action. Therefore, this strategy is beneficial to improve the protease stability of antibacterial peptides.

Dongbei suancai is a popular traditional fermented vegetable in Northeast China. However, the conventional production methods often lead to nitrite accumulation and quality fluctuations, which to some extent constrain the development towards health and scale. To address this, a novel Direct-Vat-Set (DVS) starter was developed based on L. mesenteroides AA001, a strain isolated from traditional fermented foods and possessing high nitrite-degrading capability. By optimizing the culture medium and cryoprotectant formulation, the cell density and freeze-drying survival rate were significantly enhanced. Crucially, the freeze-drying process did not impair the core degradation function of the strain, with the nitrite degradation rate remaining above 90%. The DVS starter was applied to Dongbei suancai fermentation, effectively inhibiting nitrite accumulation while simultaneously increasing organic acid content and optimizing the proportion of essential amino acids. It simultaneously suppressed the growth of undesirable bacteria and, under low-temperature conditions, steered the microbial community toward metabolic activities, ensuring the controllability and safety of the fermentation process. Therefore, inoculation with the L. mesenteroides AA001 DVS starter effectively inhibits nitrite accumulation, enabling a highly efficient, stable, and clean fermentation process that significantly improves the quality of Dongbei suancai.

Lamb meat has become very popular with consumers in recent years due to its nutritional benefits. As a lean red meat, lamb is an important natural source of polyunsaturated and saturated fatty acids, which can be modified by adjustments in livestock feed. This study used proteomic and metabolic analyses to compare a basal ration supplemented with either mulberry silage or corn silage. Supplementation with mulberry silage led to a reduction in subcutaneous carcass fatness compared with corn silage. Additionally, changes in the proteome associated with fatty acid metabolism and oxidation resulted in decreased levels of saturated and trans fatty acids, while significantly increasing the levels of α-linolenic acid (ALA) and oleic acid and reducing linoleic acid content.

The worrying issue of antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria is aggravated by the scarcity of novel therapeutic agents. Antibiotic adjuvants offer a promising solution due to their cost-effectiveness and high efficacy in addressing this issue, such as the β-lactamase inhibitor sulbactam (a β-lactam adjuvant) and the dihydrofolate reductase inhibitor trimethoprim (a sulfonamide adjuvant). This study aimed to discover potential adjuvants for tetracyclines from a list of previously approved drugs to restore susceptibility to Escherichia coli carrying the tetA gene. We have screened guanethidine, a compound from the Chinese pharmacopoeia, which effectively potentiates the activity of tetracyclines by reversing resistance in tetA-positive Escherichia coli, enhancing its antibacterial potency, and retarding the development of resistance. Guanethidine functions via the inhibition of the TetA efflux pump, thereby increasing the intracellular concentration of tetracyclines. Our findings suggest that guanethidine holds promise as an antibiotic adjuvant.

In traditional vegetable fermentation, the lack of effective microbial community control often leads to excessive nitrite accumulation, a major food safety concern. To address this challenge, this study aimed to isolate and characterize a high-performance starter culture strain capable of simultaneously degrading nitrite and guiding safe, controlled fermentation. A strain of L. mesenteroides AA001 was isolated from traditionally fermented Yingcai. It exhibited strong nitrite-degrading activity, with degradation rates consistently exceeding 90% under various environmental conditions, and demonstrated robust environmental adaptability. When used as a starter culture in vegetable fermentation, L. mesenteroides AA001 significantly accelerated nitrite degradation and consistently maintained peak nitrite concentrations below the Chinese national standard limit (20 mg/kg), while also shortening the fermentation period. Moreover, inoculation with L. mesenteroides AA001 had no significant impact on most nutrients in fermented vegetables across 8 crucial nutritional indicators (comprising 22 specific parameters), and only β-carotene content shows differences. The sensory attributes of the inoculated samples are basically similar to those of the naturally fermented samples, except that they are significantly brighter in color. No harmful substances were detected among 16 tested safety indicators, and the profile of 46 major volatile flavor compounds showed no significant difference compared to the spontaneously fermented control. Microbial community profiling throughout fermentation revealed that early dominance by this strain rapidly established a lactic acid–driven anaerobic environment, effectively suppressing nitrite-accumulating microorganisms and steering the process toward a stable, safe, and flavor-consistent trajectory. Thus, L. mesenteroides AA001 is a safe starter strain that combines potent nitrite-degrading capacity with fermentation-guiding functionality, effectively ensuring safety and process controllability in traditional vegetable fermentation.

The escalating global threat of antibiotic resistance necessitates innovative strategies, such as the combination of antibiotics with adjuvants. Monotherapy with rifampicin is more likely to induce resistance in pathogens compared to other antibiotics. Herein, we found that the antihypertensive drug guanethidine enhanced the activity of rifampicin against certain clinically resistant Gram-negative bacteria, resulting in a reduction of up to 128-fold in the minimum inhibitory concentration. In infected animal models, this combination has achieved treatment benefits, including increased survival and decreased bacterial burden. The antimicrobial mechanism of guanethidine in synergy with rifampicin involves the disruption of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, leading to dissipation of the proton motive force. This results in an increase in reactive oxygen species and a reduction in ATP synthesis, severely disturbing energy metabolism and ultimately increasing bacterial mortality. In summary, guanethidine has the potential to become a novel adjuvant for rifampicin, offering a new option for the treatment of clinical Gram-negative bacterial infections.