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  1. The development of new therapeutic options against Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) infection is a critical public health concern, as the causative bacterium is highly resistant to multiple classes of antibiotics. Antimicrobial host-defense peptides (HDPs) are highly effective at simultaneously modulating the immune system function and directly killing bacteria through membrane disruption and oxidative damage. The copper-binding HDPs piscidin 1 and piscidin 3 have previously shown potent antimicrobial activity against a number of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacterial species but have never been investigated in an anaerobic environment. Synergy between piscidins and metal ions increases bacterial killing aerobically. Here, we performed growth inhibition and time-kill assays against C. difficile showing that both piscidins suppress proliferation of C. difficile by killing bacterial cells. Microscopy experiments show that the peptides accumulate at sites of membrane curvature. We find that both piscidins are effective against epidemic C. difficile strains that are highly resistant to other stresses. Notably, copper does not enhance piscidin activity against C. difficile. Thus, while antimicrobial activity of piscidin peptides is conserved in aerobic and anaerobic settings, the peptide–copper interaction depends on environmental oxygen to achieve its maximum potency. The development of pharmaceuticals from HDPs such as piscidin will necessitate consideration of oxygen levels in the targeted tissue. 
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    Abstract The measurement of the azimuthal-correlation function of prompt D mesons with charged particles in pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s} =5.02\ \hbox {TeV}$$ s = 5.02 TeV and p–Pb collisions at $$\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} = 5.02\ \hbox {TeV}$$ s NN = 5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC is reported. The $$\mathrm{D}^{0}$$ D 0 , $$\mathrm{D}^{+} $$ D + , and $$\mathrm{D}^{*+} $$ D ∗ + mesons, together with their charge conjugates, were reconstructed at midrapidity in the transverse momentum interval $$3< p_\mathrm{T} < 24\ \hbox {GeV}/c$$ 3 < p T < 24 GeV / c and correlated with charged particles having $$p_\mathrm{T} > 0.3\ \hbox {GeV}/c$$ p T > 0.3 GeV / c and pseudorapidity $$|\eta | < 0.8$$ | η | < 0.8 . The properties of the correlation peaks appearing in the near- and away-side regions (for $$\Delta \varphi \approx 0$$ Δ φ ≈ 0 and $$\Delta \varphi \approx \pi $$ Δ φ ≈ π , respectively) were extracted via a fit to the azimuthal correlation functions. The shape of the correlation functions and the near- and away-side peak features are found to be consistent in pp and p–Pb collisions, showing no modifications due to nuclear effects within uncertainties. The results are compared with predictions from Monte Carlo simulations performed with the PYTHIA, POWHEG+PYTHIA, HERWIG, and EPOS 3 event generators. 
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    Abstract The study of (anti-)deuteron production in pp collisions has proven to be a powerful tool to investigate the formation mechanism of loosely bound states in high-energy hadronic collisions. In this paper the production of $$\text {(anti-)deuterons}$$ (anti-)deuterons is studied as a function of the charged particle multiplicity in inelastic pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ s = 13 TeV using the ALICE experiment. Thanks to the large number of accumulated minimum bias events, it has been possible to measure (anti-)deuteron production in pp collisions up to the same charged particle multiplicity ( $${\mathrm {d} N_{ch}/\mathrm {d} \eta } \sim 26$$ d N ch / d η ∼ 26 ) as measured in p–Pb collisions at similar centre-of-mass energies. Within the uncertainties, the deuteron yield in pp collisions resembles the one in p–Pb interactions, suggesting a common formation mechanism behind the production of light nuclei in hadronic interactions. In this context the measurements are compared with the expectations of coalescence and statistical hadronisation models (SHM). 
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