Three new diphenyl ether derivatives—phomaethers A–C (1–3) and five known compounds—including a diphenyl ether analog, 2,3′-dihydroxy-4-methoxy-5′,6-dimethyl diphenyl ether (4); and four isocoumarin derivatives, diaportinol (5), desmethyldiaportinol (6), citreoisocoumarinol (7), and citreoisocoumarin (8)—were isolated from a gorgonian-derived fungus Phoma sp. (TA07-1). Their structures were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic investigation. The absolute configurations of 1 and 2 were determined by acid hydrolysis reactions. It was the first report to discover the diphenyl glycoside derivatives from coral-derived fungi. Compounds 1, 3, and 4 showed selective strong antibacterial activity against five pathogenic bacteria with the minimum inhibiting concentration (MIC) values and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) values between 0.156 and 10.0 μM.
A new centrosymmetric cyclohexapeptide, aspersymmetide A (1), together with a known peptide, asperphenamate (2), was isolated from the fungus Aspergillus versicolor isolated from a gorgonian coral Carijoa sp., collected from the South China Sea. The chemical structure of 1 was elucidated by analyzing its NMR spectroscopy and MS spectrometry data, and the absolute configurations of the amino acids of 1 were determined by Marfey’s method and UPLC-MS analysis of the hydrolysate. Aspersymmetide A (1) represents the first example of marine-derived centrosymmetric cyclohexapeptide. Moreover, 1 exhibited weak cytotoxicity against NCI-H292 and A431 cell lines at the concentration of 10 μM.
Acinetobacter baumannii is a notable opportunistic pathogen responsible for severe hospital-acquired infections, with multidrug-resistant strains posing significant treatment challenges. Phage therapy, which employs bacteriophages as natural bacterial antagonists, has gained renewed attention as a promising solution to combat antibiotic-resistant infections. In this study, we isolated and characterized a novel virulent phage, vB_AbaS_qsb1, which specifically lyses A.baumannii. Phylogenetic and genomic analyses indicate that vB_AbaS_qsb1 is the founding member of a previously unreported genus, which we propose to name Acinibactriovirus, with Acinibactriovirus lysinus as the type species. vB_AbaS_qsb1 demonstrated robust stability across diverse temperature and pH ranges, a short latent period, and no known virulence or antibiotic resistance genes within its 54,713 bp dsDNA genome. Safety assessments showed that high-dose vB_AbaS_qsb1 induced no adverse effects in mice, with histopathology confirming its safety profile. Therapeutic experiments further indicated that vB_AbaS_qsb1 provided at least 50% protection against A.baumannii-induced pneumonia, significantly reducing bacterial loads and inflammation markers, while maintaining high phage titers in lung tissue.This study introduces vB_AbaS_qsb1 as a promising candidate for phage therapy against A.baumannii, offering both innovative insights and a valuable framework for future isolation, genomic characterization, and efficacy evaluation of phages targeting antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
One new hydroanthraquinone dimer with a rare C-9–C-7′ linkage, nigrodiquinone A (1), and four known anthraquinone monomers 2–5, were isolated from a fungus Nigrospora sp. obtained from the zoanthid Palythoa haddoni collected in the South China Sea. The structure of 1 was established through extensive NMR spectroscopy, and the absolute configuration was elucidated by comparing computed electronic circular dichroism (ECD) and optical rotations (OR) with experimental results. All the compounds were evaluated for antiviral activity, and 1 was also evaluated for antibacterial activity. Compound 4 displayed mild antiviral activity against coxsackie virus (Cox-B3) with the IC50 value of 93.7 μM, and 5 showed an IC50 value of 74.0 μM against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
Large language models (LLMs) have emerged as promising tools in the healthcare sector. However, their reliability in the critical task of identifying risky drug combinations remains unvalidated. Here, we systematically evaluated the potential of LLMs for drug combination alerting under the guidance of the CoMed framework through four aspects: (1) the baseline performance of native LLMs, (2) the contribution of external knowledge grounding via Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), (3) the impact of expert-guided reasoning using context engineering, and (4) the utility of a multiagent architecture for comprehensive and interpretable risk analysis. Notably, by integrating RAG and the context engineering strategy, Qwen2.5-Max-CoT achieved outstanding performance (F1 = 0.971, AUC = 0.982), demonstrating expert-level balance between precision and recall. Furthermore, a case study on aspirin-warfarin validated CoMed's ability to generate accurate assessments in a structured and traceable HTML report. This study demonstrates that enhanced LLMs can reliably and transparently support drug combination risk alerting and clinical decision.
The grinding of Tremella fuciformis is a critical step for its value-added processing and the efficient utilization of its functional components, significantly impacting product quality and process adaptability. This study investigated ultrafine grinding (UFG) as a mechano-physical strategy to improve product quality, systematically analyzing its impact on physical properties (particle size, powder characteristics, color), extraction efficiency, chemical composition, and rheological behavior compared to conventional grinding (CG). The results revealed that UFG treatment induced an extensive disruption of the matrix, reducing particle size by 91.8% (D90 = 18.18 μm) and significantly increasing specific surface area. Notably, this physical modification directly translated into enhanced processing performance. UFG powder exhibited reduced powder flowability, superior solubility and improved color brightness. This structural degradation proved beneficial for extraction, unlocking a substantially higher yield (60.98–66.48%). Concurrently, the aqueous extracts of UFG powder exhibited more fluid-like rheological characteristics. This study confirms the potential of UFG as an effective pretreatment for the intensive processing of T. fuciformis and indicates its promising application in functional food development and the extraction of bioactive components.