Naturally derived anti-hepatitis B virus agents and their mechanism of action

Despite that some approved drugs and genetically engineered vaccines against hepatitis B virus(HBV)are available for HBV patients,HBV infection is still a severe public health problem in the world.All the approved therapeutic drugs(including interferonalpha and nucleoside analogues)have their limitations.No drugs or therapeutic methods can cure hepatitis B so far.Therefore,it is urgently needed to discover and develop new anti-HBV drugs,especially nonnucleoside agents.Naturally originated compounds with enormous molecular complexity and diversity offer a great opportunity to find novel anti-HBV lead compounds with specific antiviral mechanisms.In this review,the natural products against HBV are discussed according to their chemical classes such as terpenes,lignans,phenolic acids,polyphenols,lactones,alkaloids and flavonoids.Furthermore,novel mode of action or new targets of some representative anti-HBV natural products are also discussed.The aim of this review is to report new discoveries and updates pertaining to anti-HBV natural products in the last 20years,especially novel skeletons and mode of action.Although many natural products with various skeletons have been reported to exhibit potent anti-HBV effects to date,scarcely any of them are found in the list of conventional anti-HBV drugs worldwide.Additionly,in anti-HBV mechanism of action,only a few references reported new targets or novel mode of action of antiHBV natural products.

Meat quality traits of four Chinese indigenous chicken breeds and one commercial broiler stock

Meat quality traits of four genotypes of Chinese indigenous chicken [Ninghai chicken(NC),frizzle chicken(FC),Ninghai xiang chicken(XC),and Zhenning loquat chicken(LC)] and one genotype of commercial broiler [Arbor Acres plus broiler(AAB)] were analyzed.The indigenous chickens were raised before the commercial chickens in order to achieve the same final processed days.Indigenous chickens of NC,FC,XC,and LC showed significantly higher inosine-5′-monophosphate(IMP) content,shorter fiber diameter,and lower shear force than those of AAB(P<0.05).In the indigenous genotypes,NC and FC had significantly shorter fiber diameters and lower shear forces than XC and LC(P<0.05),and NC and XC had a higher IMP content than FC and LC(P<0.05).Moreover,the indigenous genotype of LC significantly displayed the highest protein content(P<0.05) in the five genotypes of birds,and no significant differences of protein content were found between the other genotypes of NC,FC,XC,and AAB(P>0.05).The indigenous chickens from FC displayed the highest total lipid content in the five bird genotypes(P<0.05).Significant differences of pH,color values of L* and a*,and drip loss for the five genotypes of birds were also observed.In conclusion,there were significant differences in the meat quality traits of the bird breeds selected in this study,and the indigenous chickens,especially the NC genotype,produced better quality meat as far as the IMP content,fiber diameters,and shear forces were concerned.

Diversity and dynamics of microbial communities in brown planthopper at different developmental stages revealed by high-throughput amplicon sequencing

The microbiome associated with brown planthopper(BPH)plays an important role in mediating host health and fitness.Characterization of the microbial community and its structure is prerequisite for understanding the intricate symbiotic relationships between microbes and host insect.Here,we investigated the bacterial and fungal communities of BPH at different developmental stages using high-throughput amplicon sequencing.Our results revealed that both the bacterial and fungal communities were diverse and dynamic during BPH development.The bacterial communities were generally richer than fungi in each developmental stage.At 97%similarly,19 phyla and 278 genera of bacteria were an-notated,while five fungal phyla comprising 80 genera were assigned.The highest species richness for the bacterial communities was detected in the nymphal stage.The taxonomic diversity of the fungal communities in female adults was generally at a relatively higher level when compared to other developmental stages.The most dominant phylum of bacteria and fungi at each developmental stage all belonged to Proteobacteria and Ascomycota,re-spectively.A significantly lower abundance of bacterial genus Acinetobacter was recorded in the egg stage when compared to other developmental stages,while the dominant fun-gal genus Wallemia was more abundant in the nymph and adult stages than in the egg stage.Additionally,the microbial composition differed between male and female adults,suggesting that the microbial communties In BPH were gender-dependent.Uverall,our study enriches our knowledge on the microbial communities associated with BPH and will provide clues to develop potential biocontrol techniques against this rice pest.