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Topic Review
Regulatory miRNAs and Copper
Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), including microRNAs (miRNAs), are key regulators of differentiation and development. In the cell, transcription factors regulate the production of miRNA in response to different external stimuli. Copper (Cu) is a heavy metal and an essential micronutrient with widespread industrial applications. It is involved in a number of vital biological processes encompassing respiration, blood cell line maturation, and immune responses.
  • 855
  • 24 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Hippo Signaling in Fibrotic Diseases
Fibrosis results from defective wound healing processes often seen after chronic injury and/or inflammation in a range of organs. Progressive fibrotic events may lead to permanent organ damage/failure. The hallmark of fibrosis is the excessive accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM), mostly produced by pathological myofibroblasts and myofibroblast-like cells. The Hippo signaling pathway is an evolutionarily conserved kinase cascade, which has been described well for its crucial role in cell proliferation, apoptosis, cell fate decisions, and stem cell self-renewal during development, homeostasis, and tissue regeneration.
  • 855
  • 14 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Human Olfactory Receptor Sensor for Odor Reconstitution
Among the five human senses, light, sound, and force perceived by the eye, ear, and skin, respectively are physical phenomena, and therefore can be easily measured and expressed as objective, univocal, and simple digital data with physical quantity. However, as taste and odor molecules perceived by the tongue and nose are chemical phenomena, it has been difficult to express them as objective and univocal digital data, since no reference chemicals can be defined. Therefore, while the recording, saving, transmitting to remote locations, and replaying of human visual, auditory, and tactile information as digital data in digital devices have been realized (this series of data flow is defined as DX (digital transformation) herein), the DX of human taste and odor information is not yet in the realization stage. 
  • 854
  • 20 Jul 2023
Topic Review
TNFα
About 60 years ago, it was reported that bacterial endotoxin administration to mice resulted in the release of a serological protein with necrotic anti-tumor activity at high concentrations. Due to the latter characteristic, this protein was termed tumor necrosis factor (TNF)  and considered a breakthrough for cancer therapy. Today, the TNF superfamily consists of 19 members and 29 TNF receptors .Within this family, functional TNFα is represented by a trimer of 17.35 kDa monomers, folded into a rigid bell-shaped “jelly roll” composed of antiparallel filaments. It exists in two forms: a transmembrane form (tmTNFα) next to a soluble (sTNFα) form. The latter one is cleaved from tmTNFα by the metalloproteinase TNF-alpha-converting enzyme (TACE).
  • 854
  • 18 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Metabolism and Bone Diseases
Bone, a highly mineralized organ that serves as a skeleton of the body, is continuously depositing and resorbing bone matrix to maintain homeostasis. This highly coordinated event is regulated throughout life by bone cells such as osteoblasts, osteoclasts, and osteocytes, and requires synchronized activities from different metabolic pathways. The dysregulation of these metabolic pathways leads to bone disorders.
  • 853
  • 30 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Exosome-Regulated Oxidative Stress Responses
A thrombus in a coronary artery causes ischemia, which eventually leads to myocardial infarction (MI) if not removed. However, removal generates reactive oxygen species (ROS), which causes ischemia–reperfusion (I/R) injury that damages the tissue and exacerbates the resulting MI. The mechanism of I/R injury is currently extensively understood. However, supplementation of exogenous antioxidants is ineffective against oxidative stress (OS). Enhancing the ability of endogenous antioxidants may be a more effective way to treat OS, and exosomes may play a role as targeted carriers. Exosomes are nanosized vesicles wrapped in biofilms which contain various complex RNAs and proteins. They are important intermediate carriers of intercellular communication and material exchange.
  • 853
  • 30 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Spiro-Flavonoids in Nature
The research collects 65 unique structures, including spiro-biflavonoids, spiro-triflavonoids, spiro-tetraflavonoids, spiro-flavostilbenoids, and scillascillin-type homoisoflavonoids. Scillascillin-type homoisoflavonoids comprise spiro[bicyclo[4.2.0]octane-7,3′-chromane]-1(6),2,4-trien-4′-one, while the other spiro-flavonoids contain either 2H,2′H-3,3′-spirobi[benzofuran]-2-one or 2′H,3H-2,3′-spirobi[benzofuran]-3-one in the core of their structures. Spiro-flavonoids have been described in more than 40 species of eight families, including Asparagaceae, Cistaceae, Cupressaceae, Fabaceae, Pentaphylacaceae, Pinaceae, Thymelaeaceae, and Vitaceae. The possible biosynthetic pathways for each group of spiro-flavonoids are summarized in detail. Anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities are the most important biological activities of spiro-flavonoids, both in vitro and in vivo.
  • 853
  • 25 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Methoxyfuranocoumarins of Natural Origin
Plant secondary metabolites, including furanocoumarins, have attracted attention for decades as active molecules with therapeutic potential, especially those occurring in a limited number of species as evolutionarily specific and chemotaxonomically important. The most famous methoxyfuranocoumarins (MFCs), bergapten, xanthotoxin, isopimpinellin, phellopterin, byakangelicol, byakangelicin, isobergapten, pimpinellin, sphondin, as well as rare ones such as peucedanin and 8-methoxypeucedanin, apaensin, cnidilin, moellendorffiline and dahuribiethrins, have been investigated for their various biological activities.
  • 853
  • 24 Jan 2024
Topic Review
Regulation of COX Assembly
Complex IV, or cytochrome c oxidase (COX), is the terminal and probably rate-limiting enzyme of the electron transport chain, responsible for accepting electrons from cytochrome c, pumping protons to contribute to the gradient utilized by ATP synthase to produce ATP, and reducing oxygen to water. As such, COX is tightly regulated through numerous mechanisms including protein–protein interactions.
  • 852
  • 25 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Psychobiological Biomarkers of the COVID-19 Pandemic
The rapid spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), which led to a pandemic over the last two years, has also led to an increased focus on mental health disorders. This is because measures applied to mitigate the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (such as quarantine and social isolation) may have contributed to the onset of long-term psychological distress, including high levels of depression, stress, and anxiety.
  • 852
  • 02 Feb 2023
Topic Review
Chronic Muscle Disuse
Periods of muscle disuse promote diminished muscle quality along with muscle atrophy that is characterized by reductions in muscle fiber cross-sectional area (CSA). Skeletal muscle disuse may be brought about by chronic sedentarism, periods of immobilization due to injury, bed rest as result of illness, or even exposure to microgravity. Such inactivity elicits functional and metabolic derangements in the affected tissue including marked mitochondrial alterations that contribute to the impaired metabolic health and degree of atrophy in the muscle. These impairments within the tissue prompt a net increase in catabolic processes in conjunction with reductions in skeletal muscle protein synthesis. Skeletal muscle mitochondrial decline and atrophy are underlying features of many diseases and they exacerbate disease progression and reduced mobility with aging. Thus, understanding the molecular underpinnings of muscle mitochondrial deficits with prolonged inactivity is of considerable interest.
  • 851
  • 21 May 2021
Topic Review
The Receptor Tyrosine Kinase AXL
AXL is a member of the TAM family of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) that also includes TYRO3 and MER. This was the last family of RTKs to be identified and because their inactivation in mice resulted in rather mild phenotypes, their biological roles were slow to be characterized. 
  • 851
  • 18 Apr 2022
Topic Review
New Horizons in Structural Biology of Membrane Proteins
A third of both pro- and eukaryotic proteomes consist of membrane proteins. Housed in a milieu of hydrophobic molecules, they serve as crucial contacts of communication between the cytoplasm and non-cytosolic environments, making them essential pharmaceutical targets. While membrane proteins are notoriously difficult to investigate at any level, high-resolution structures of these targets only became feasible at the very end of the twentieth century. It was not until robust technological developments in the fields of X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy and cryo-EM, that the scientific community at large, finally gained access to an ever-increasing number of atomic resolution structures, and began to rationalize how membrane proteins accommodate their function. As if the lack of structural information wasn’t enough to hamper progress, a higher level of complexity arose from the modern understanding of “one structure—one function” paradigm, a primitive simplification useful at the dawn of the scientific era, that has promptly lost credence to the complex maneuvers of membrane proteins.
  • 851
  • 26 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Hsp90-R2TP in Macromolecular Complex Assembly and Stabilization
Hsp90 is a ubiquitous molecular chaperone involved in many cell signaling pathways, and its interactions with specific chaperones and cochaperones determines which client proteins to fold. Hsp90 has been shown to be involved in the promotion and maintenance of proper protein complex assembly either alone or in association with other chaperones such as the R2TP chaperone complex. Hsp90-R2TP acts through several mechanisms, such as by controlling the transcription of protein complex subunits, stabilizing protein subcomplexes before their incorporation into the entire complex, and by recruiting adaptors that facilitate complex assembly.
  • 851
  • 05 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Epigenetic Alterations in Pancreatic Cancer
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) has long been thought of as a disease arising and progressing from genetic mutations. More recently, it has become clear that epigenetic alterations are also important contributors to PDA progression and metastasis. While no single epigenetic regulator is commonly mutated in PDA, a growing body of evidence indicated that metastatic tissues exhibit distinct epigenetic status compared to primary tumor tissues, which might be exploited for cancer therapeutics and diagnostics.
  • 850
  • 10 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Salivary Volatile Metabolites in Oral Diseases
Oral diseases (ODs) are highly prevalent affecting over 3.5 billion people, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Saliva is often described as the "mirror of the body" and so different omics approaches such us proteomics, metabolomics and more recently, volatomics are being employed to explore the potential of this biofluid towards the non-invasive diagnosis of ODs.
  • 850
  • 30 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Cancer Stem Cells in Tumor Microenvironment
Cancer is a multi-step process during which cells acquire an untamed ability to grow, proliferate, and (most times) differentiate, ultimately leading to either improper organ growth or the establishment of inadequate cells in locations where they contribute negatively to the body homeostasis, causing (amongst other things) high levels of inflammation. Colorectal and gastric cancers are the most prevalent cancer in the digestive track. They represent the third and fifth leading causes of cancer-related deaths. With over 500,000–990,000 new cases worldwide, they typically have a five-year survival rate (mainly due to late diagnosis).
  • 850
  • 31 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Metal Ion-Directed Specific DNA Structures
Various DNA structures, including specific metal ion complexes, have been designed based on the knowledge of canonical base pairing as well as general coordination chemistry. The role of metal ions in these studies is quite broad and diverse. Metal ions can be targets themselves in analytical applications, essential building blocks of certain DNA structures that one wishes to construct, or they can be responsible for signal generation, such as luminescence or redox. 
  • 848
  • 29 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Imprinted Genes and Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system that arises from interplay between non-genetic and genetic risk factors. The epigenetics - the study of heritable changes in gene expression that do not involve changes in the primary DNA sequence or genotype - functions as a link between these factors, affecting gene expression in response to external influence. Among others, the epigenetic mechanisms underlie the establishment of parent-of-origin effects that appear as phenotypic differences depending on whether the allele was inherited from the mother or father. The most well described manifestation of parent-of-origin effects is genomic imprinting that causes monoallelic gene expression. It becomes more obvious that disturbances in imprinted genes affecting their expression do occur in MS and may be involved in its pathogenesis. 
  • 847
  • 07 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Interleukin-4 Promotes Acetylcholine Production
Tuft cells are taste-like chemosensory cells found in the intestinal epithelium involved in the activation of group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2). Although tuft cells in other tissues secrete the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh), their function in the gut remains poorly understood. We investigated changes in the expression of genes and cell differentiation of the intestinal epithelium by stimulation with interleukin-4 (IL-4) or IL-13 in macaque intestinal organoids. This study is the first to demonstrate ACh upregulation by IL-4 induction in primates, suggesting that IL-4 plays a role in Paneth cell granule secretion via paracrine stimulation.
  • 847
  • 25 Aug 2021
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