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Topic Review
Heart Disease and Metabolic Steatosis
The liver-heart axis is a growing field of interest owing to rising evidence of complex bidirectional interplay between the two organs. Recent data suggest non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has a significant, independent association with a wide spectrum of structural and functional cardiac diseases, and seems to worsen cardiovascular disease (CVD) prognosis.
  • 1.0K
  • 28 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Mathematical Models of FDG Kinetics
A common feature of tumor pathological metabolism is an increased glucose uptake, together with its fermentation to lactate, even under aerobic conditions. This behavior is known as Warburg effect. 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose (FDG) is a glucose analog that is systematically utilized as a radioactive tracer in nuclear medicine. FDG Positron Emission Tomography (FDG-PET) is a functional imaging modality that utilizes FDG as a tracer in order to quantitative assess FDG metabolism in tumors (but other pathologies are systematically investigated as well, by means of this imaging technique). FDG-PET measures the radiation emitted by the tracer injected in the organism, and these measurements encode, in a very indirect way, two kinds of information: the localization of FDG accumulation in the body and the rate with which FDG changes its metabolic status along time. In order to decode such sophisticated information, two inverse problems must be solved: (1) Image reconstruction inverse problem: to reconstruct the spatio-temporal distribution of FDG inside the tissue by solving the integral equation that connects the FDG density to the measured radiation by means of the Radon transform. (2) Compartmental inverse problem: to model the tracer kinetics by solving the non-linear time-dependent equation that connects the tracer coefficients to the reconstructed FDG concentration.
  • 1.0K
  • 15 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Thyroid Cancer Stem-Like Cells
Thyroid cancer (TC) is the most common endocrine malignancy. Recent progress in thyroid cancer biology revealed a certain degree of intratumoral heterogeneity, highlighting the coexistence of cellular subpopulations with distinct proliferative capacities and differentiation abilities. Among those subpopulations, cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) are hypothesized to drive TC heterogeneity, contributing to its metastatic potential and therapy resistance. CSCs principally exist in tumor areas with specific microenvironmental conditions, the so-called stem cell niches. In particular, in thyroid cancer, CSCs’ survival is enhanced in the hypoxic niche, the immune niche, and some areas with specific extracellular matrix composition.
  • 1.0K
  • 23 Jun 2021
Topic Review
PPARs and Myocardial Ischemia
Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are nuclear proteins. They exist in three isoforms - PPARalpha, PPARbeta/delta, and PPARgamma. They exhibit tissue and cell type-specific expression patterns and functions. Besides the established notion of the therapeutic potential of PPAR agonists for the treatment of glucose and lipid disorders, more recent data propose specific PPAR ligands as potential therapies for cardiovascular diseases.
  • 1.0K
  • 16 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Pre-Diabetic Biomarkers Identification in Progression of Diabetes Mellitus
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a major global health issue. The development of T2DM is gradual and preceded by the pre-diabetes mellitus (pre-DM) stage, which often remains undiagnosed.
  • 1.0K
  • 29 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Effect of Western Diet on Cognition
Traditional eating habits have been replaced by a more globalized diet, rich in saturated fatty acids and simple sugars. Extensive evidence shows that these dietary factors contribute to cognitive health impairment as well as increase the incidence of metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes.
  • 1.0K
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Murine Models of Obesity
Obesity, classified as an epidemic by the WHO, is a disease that continues to grow worldwide. Obesity results from abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat and usually leads to the development of other associated diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, among others. In vitro and in vivo models have been crucial for studying the underlying mechanisms of obesity, discovering new therapeutic targets, and developing and validating new pharmacological therapies against obesity. Preclinical animal models of obesity comprise a variety of species: invertebrates, fishes, and mammals. However, small rodents are the most widely used due to their cost-effectiveness, physiology, and easy genetic manipulation. The induction of obesity in rats or mice can be achieved by the occurrence of spontaneous single-gene mutations or polygenic mutations, by genetic modifications, by surgical or chemical induction, and by ingestion of hypercaloric diets. 
  • 1.0K
  • 19 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Congenital Metabolic Bone Disorders's Fragility
Bone fragility is a pathological condition caused by altered homeostasis of the mineralized bone mass with deterioration of the microarchitecture of the bone tissue, which results in a reduction of bone strength and an increased risk of fracture, even in the absence of high-impact trauma. The most common cause of bone fragility is primary osteoporosis in the elderly. However, bone fragility can manifest at any age, within the context of a wide spectrum of congenital rare bone metabolic diseases in which the inherited genetic defect alters correct bone modeling and remodeling at different points and aspects of bone synthesis and/or bone resorption, leading to defective bone tissue highly prone to long bone bowing, stress fractures and pseudofractures, and/or fragility fractures. 
  • 1.0K
  • 09 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Phloroglucinol Derivatives in Plant-Beneficial Pseudomonas-spp.
Plant-beneficial Pseudomonas spp. aggressively colonize the rhizosphere and produce numerous secondary metabolites, such as 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol (DAPG). DAPG is a phloroglucinol derivative that contributes to disease suppression, thanks to its broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity. A famous example of this biocontrol activity has been previously described in the context of wheat monoculture where a decline in take-all disease (caused by the ascomycete Gaeumannomyces tritici) has been shown to be associated with rhizosphere colonization by DAPG-producing Pseudomonas spp.
  • 997
  • 30 Mar 2021
Topic Review
ERα
Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer among women worldwide. More than 70% of BC cases express estrogen receptor alpha (ERα), a central transcription factor that stimulates the proliferation of breast cancer cells, usually in the presence of estrogen.
  • 996
  • 25 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Lipid Metabolic Alterations in ALS–FTD Spectrum of Disorders
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) presentation is within a disorder spectrum with Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), and many patients present mixed forms of ALS and FTD, thus increasing the variability. Lipid metabolic and other systemic metabolic alterations have not been well studied in FTD, or in ALS–FTD mixed forms, as has been in pure ALS. With the recent development in lipidomics and the integration with other -omics platforms, there is now emerging data that not only facilitates the identification of biomarkers but also enables understanding of the underlying pathological mechanisms. 
  • 992
  • 15 Jan 2023
Topic Review
Extracellular Vesicles in Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is characterized by low bone mass and damage to the bone tissue’s microarchitecture, leading to increased fracture risk. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are intercellular communicators, transfer substances encapsulated in them, modify the phenotype and function of target cells, mediate cell-cell communication, and, therefore, have critical applications in disease progression and clinical diagnosis and therapy.
  • 990
  • 10 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Glycation-Associated Diabetic Nephropathy and Long Noncoding RNAs
The glycation of various biomolecules is the root cause of many pathological conditions associated with diabetic nephropathy and end-stage kidney disease. Glycation imbalances metabolism and increases renal cell injury. Numerous therapeutic measures have narrowed down the adverse effects of endogenous glycation, but efficient and potent measures are miles away. Recent advances in the identification and characterization of noncoding RNAs, especially the long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), have opened a mammon of new biology to explore the mitigations for glycation-associated diabetic nephropathy. Furthermore, tissue-specific distribution and condition-specific expression make lncRNA a promising key for second-generation therapeutic interventions.
  • 986
  • 03 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Plasminogen in Cancer
Fibrinolytic factors like plasminogen, tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA), and urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) dissolve clots. Though mere extracellular-matrix-degrading enzymes, fibrinolytic factors interfere with many processes during primary cancer growth and metastasis contributing to the hallmarks of cancer. Their many receptors give them access to cellular functions that tumor cells have widely exploited to promote tumor cell survival, growth, and metastatic abilities. Fibrinolytic factors give cancer cells tools to ensure their own survival by interfering with the signaling pathways involved in senescence, anoikis, and autophagy. Dependent on the cell type, plasminogen was shown to either enhance or suppress cancer cell survival via autophagy. The Kringle 5 of plasminogen after engagement with the glucose-regulated protein 78 induces autophagy in endothelial cells. Plasmin drives cellular extracellular matrix loss that induces programmed cell death or anoikis. Tumor cells by upregulating plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 suppress plasmin production. Now, they can escape anoikis and metastasize. The preparation of the premetastatic niche is prepared by exosomes, small membrane-bound extracellular vesicles. Exosomes carry fibrinolytic factors and thereby might be important for ECM preparation during the metastatic process. Finally, fibrinolytic factors and their receptors including uPAR and LRP1 are upregulated in cancer cells after myelosuppressive treatment and contribute to drug resistance. Targeting receptors of fibrinolytic factors including uPAR and LRP1 can be a strategy to overcome drug resistance.
  • 984
  • 22 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Bionanomaterials against Gestational Diabetes Mellitus
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is the most frequent complication during pregnancy. This complex disease is characterized by glucose intolerance and consequent hyperglycemia that begins or is first diagnosed in pregnancy, and affects almost 7% of pregnant women. Previous reports have shown that GDM is associated with increased pregnancy complications and might cause abnormal fetal development. At present, treatments are not suitable for the prevention and management of these patients. As an alternative therapeutic opportunity and a leading scientific technique, nanotechnology has helped enlighten the health of these affected women. Theranostic nanomaterials with unique properties and small sizes (at least <100 nm in one of their dimensions) have been recently engineered for clinics and pharmaceutics. Reducing materials to the nanoscale has successfully changed their properties and enabled them to uniquely interact with cell biomolecules. Several biosensing methods have been developed to monitor glucose levels in GDM patients. 
  • 984
  • 19 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Deep Learning for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance-Based Metabolomics
The potentiality of the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique within the field of metabolomics is currently employed for several purposes, including the detection of viable microbes in microbial food safety, the assessment of aquatic living organisms subjected to contaminated water, the identification of novel biomarkers to diagnose cancer diseases and the monitoring of the plant growth status changing environmental parameters in view of smart agriculture. Even before the development of artificial intelligence, statistical analyses were successfully applied in food analysis but with some limitations. For example, traditional methods are usually not very accurate in the classification of similar foods in contrast to modern deep learning approaches that allow enhancing all small differences. However, traditional methods usually constitute the first step, providing the input for neural networks with the aim to achieve a more accurate and automatic output. Furthermore, advanced computational algorithms can be applied not only for statistical analysis, but also to execute simulations whose predictions depend on the considered conditions.
  • 983
  • 28 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Trimethylornithine Membrane Lipids
Trimethylornithine membrane lipids (TMOs) are a class of intact polar membrane lipids that were discovered in northern wetland Planctomycete species. The structure of TMOs is similar to ornithine lipids, but the terminal nitrogen of the ornithine amino acid head group is trimethylated, which gives the lipid a charged polar head group.
  • 978
  • 29 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Melatonin in Early Nutrition
Melatonin, or N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine, is an indolamine derived from the amino acid tryptophan that is synthesized by the mammalian pineal gland in response to dark–light cycles. Environmental light is sensed by the inner retina (retinal ganglion cells), which sends neural signals not only to the visual areas of the brain but also to the pineal gland through complex neuronal connections. Melatonin is synthesized every evening in the pineal gland in response to the decrease in light.
  • 977
  • 09 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Impact of Bariatric Surgery on Adipose Tissue Biology
Bariatric surgery (BS) procedures are actually the most effective intervention to help subjects with severe obesity achieve significant and sustained weight loss. White adipose tissue (WAT) is increasingly recognized as the largest endocrine organ. Unhealthy WAT expansion through adipocyte hypertrophy has pleiotropic effects on adipocyte function and promotes obesity-associated metabolic complications. WAT dysfunction in obesity encompasses an altered adipokine secretome, unresolved inflammation, dysregulated autophagy, inappropriate extracellular matrix remodeling and insufficient angiogenic potential. 
  • 977
  • 08 Dec 2021
Topic Review
CVD and Kidney Disease
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and kidney disease has stimulated research for strategies that could prevent, rather than just treat, both interconnected disorders. Resveratrol, a polyphenolic compound with pleiotropic biofunctions, has shown health benefits. Emerging epidemiological data supports that early life environmental insults are regarded as increased risks of developing CVDs and kidney disease in adulthood.
  • 976
  • 03 Jun 2021
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