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Topic Review
Andean Blueberry
Andean blueberry (Vaccinium floribundum Kunth), also known as mortiño, is a promising wild berry of the family Ericaceae that grows spontaneously in the Andean regions of Ecuador. The demand for these small (~8 mm diameter), black, and round fruits has been increasing due to their antioxidant characteristic, similar to other Vaccinium species, such as cranberry, blueberry, or bilberry, mostly related to the high content of (poly) phenolic compounds.
  • 1.6K
  • 14 May 2021
Topic Review
Hemiboreal Tree Dynamics
Climate change and the associated disturbances have disrupted the relative stability of tree species composition in hemiboreal forests. The natural ecology of forest communities, including species occurrence and composition, forest structure, and food webs, have been affected. Yet, the hemiboreal forest zone of Lithuania is the least studied in the country for climate change risks and possible management adaption techniques. Moreover, the adverse effects of the phenomenon of global climate change can undermine the resilience of forest ecology in terms of its capacity for natural regeneration to occur successfully on the scale of the expected time. Especially since forests are meta-networks that constantly evolve toward the successional processes and patterns that cannot be reached at an individual species level. Therefore, in the context of hemiboreal forests, assisted natural regeneration lays the groundwork necessary to consider the life-cycle features of trees that affect the organic relationships between individual species and ecological communities indirectly via their effects on growth, reproduction, and survival, such as tree regeneration strategies that correspond to the various trade-offs in the adaptations to competition, stress, and forest disturbances. With the concept of assisted natural regeneration, embedded in the principle of deep ecology, the natural powers of forest ecology can be revitalized and fast-tracked to keep up with the pace of global climate change or even overtake it ahead its disruptions.
  • 1.6K
  • 03 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Coenzyme Q10 in Cardiovascular Diseases
Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is a ubiquitous factor present in cell membranes and mitochondria, both in its reduced (ubiquinol) and oxidized (ubiquinone) forms. Its levels are high in organs with high metabolism such as the heart, kidneys, and liver because it acts as an energy transfer molecule but could be reduced by aging, genetic factors, drugs (e.g., statins), cardiovascular (CV) diseases, degenerative muscle disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases. As CoQ10 is endowed with significant antioxidant and anti-inflammatory features, useful to prevent free radical-induced damage and inflammatory signaling pathway activation, its depletion results in exacerbation of inflammatory processes. Therefore, exogenous CoQ10 supplementation might be useful as an adjuvant in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and myocardial infarction and in associated risk factors such as hypertension, insulin resistance, dyslipidemias, and obesity.
  • 1.6K
  • 09 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Trichoderma
There is no doubt that Trichoderma is an inhabitant of the rhizosphere that plays an important role in how plants interact with the environment. Beyond the production of cell wall degrading enzymes and metabolites, Trichoderma spp. can protect plants by inducing faster and stronger immune responses, a mechanism known as priming, which involves enhanced accumulation of dormant cellular proteins that function in intracellular signal amplification. One example of these proteins is the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) that are triggered by the rise of cytosolic calcium levels and cellular redox changes following a stressful challenge. Transcription factors such as WRKYs, MYBs, and MYCs, play important roles in priming as they act as regulatory nodes in the transcriptional network of systemic defence after stress recognition.
  • 1.6K
  • 06 May 2021
Topic Review
Camellia sinensis
Tea, Camellia sinensis, which belongs to the family Theaceae, is a shrub or evergreen tree up to 16 m in height. Green tea is very popular because of its marked health benefits comprising its anticancer, anti-oxidant, and antimicrobial activities, as well as its effectiveness in reducing body weight. Additionally, it was recognized by Chinese people as an effective traditional drink required for the prophylaxis against many health ailments. This is due to the complex chemical composition of green tea, which comprises different classes of chemical compounds, such as polyphenols, alkaloids, proteins, minerals, vitamins, amino acids, and others. The beneficial health effects of green tea ultimately led to its great consumption and increase its liability to be adulterated by either low-quality or non-green tea products with concomitant decrease in activity.
  • 1.6K
  • 28 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Colorectal Cancer Stem Cells Methods
Colorectal cancer (CRC) represents one of the most deadly cancers worldwide. Colorectal cancer stem cells (cCSCs) are the driving units of CRC initiation and development. After the concept of cCSC was first formulated in 2007, a huge bulk of research has contributed to expanding its definition, from a cell subpopulation defined by a fixed phenotype in a plastic entity modulated by complex interactions with the tumor microenvironment, in which cell position and niche-driven signals hold a prominent role. The wide development of cellular and molecular technologies recent years has been a main driver of advancements in cCSCs research
  • 1.6K
  • 22 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Common Underlying Mechanisms of Multiple Sclerosis and Epilepsy
Despite the significant differences in the pathological background of neurodegenerative diseases, epileptic seizures are comorbidity in many disorders such as Huntington disease (HD), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and multiple sclerosis (MS). Regarding the last one, specifically, it has been shown that the risk of developing epilepsy is three to six times higher in patients with MS compared to the general population. In this context, understanding the pathological processes underlying this connection will allow for the targeting of the common and shared pathological pathways involved in both conditions, which may provide a new avenue in the management of neurological disorders.
  • 1.6K
  • 15 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Silver and Gold Nanoparticles
Silver and gold nanoparticles can be found in a range of household products related to almost every area of life, including patches, bandages, paints, sportswear, personal care products, food storage equipment, cosmetics, disinfectants, etc. Their confirmed ability to enter the organism through respiratory and digestive systems, skin, and crossing the blood–brain barrier raises questions of their potential effect on cell function. Therefore, this manuscript aimed to summarize recent reports concerning the influence of variables such as size, shape, concentration, type of coating, or incubation time, on effects of gold and silver nanoparticles on cultured cell lines. Due to the increasingly common use of AgNP and AuNP in multiple branches of the industry, further studies on the effects of nanoparticles on different types of cells and the general natural environment are needed to enable their long-term use. However, some environmentally friendly solutions to chemically synthesized nanoparticles are also investigated, such as plant-based synthesis methods.
  • 1.6K
  • 29 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Iron and Glucose Metabolism
Iron is essential for energy metabolism, and states of iron deficiency or excess are detrimental for organisms and cells. Therefore, iron and carbohydrate metabolism are tightly regulated. Serum iron and glucose levels are subjected to hormonal regulation by hepcidin and insulin, respectively. Hepcidin is a liver-derived peptide hormone that inactivates the iron exporter ferroportin in target cells, thereby limiting iron efflux to the bloodstream. Insulin is a protein hormone secreted from pancreatic β-cells that stimulates glucose uptake and metabolism via insulin receptor signaling. There is increasing evidence that systemic, but also cellular iron and glucose metabolic pathways are interconnected. 
  • 1.6K
  • 27 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Heavy Metal Toxicity and Sequestration in Plants
Heavy metal (HM) toxicity has become a global concern in recent years and is imposing a severe threat to the environment and human health. In the case of plants, a higher concentration of HMs, above a threshold, adversely affects cellular metabolism because of the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) which target the key biological molecules. Moreover, some of the HMs such as mercury and arsenic, among others, can directly alter the protein/enzyme activities by targeting their –SH group to further impede the cellular metabolism. Particularly, inhibition of photosynthesis has been reported under HM toxicity because HMs trigger the degradation of chlorophyll molecules by enhancing the chlorophyllase activity and by replacing the central Mg ion in the porphyrin ring which affects overall plant growth and yield. Consequently, plants utilize various strategies to mitigate the negative impact of HM toxicity by limiting the uptake of these HMs and their sequestration into the vacuoles with the help of various molecules including proteins such as phytochelatins, metallothionein, compatible solutes, and secondary metabolites.
  • 1.6K
  • 28 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Oral–Gut Microbiome Axis
The oral cavity and gut are the two largest microbial ecosystems. The oral-to-gut and gut-to-oral microbial transmission can regulate pathogenesis, indicating the presence of the oral–gut microbiome axis. 
  • 1.6K
  • 12 May 2021
Topic Review
Nanotechnology for Precision Agriculture
By adopting nanotechnology-based precision agricultural practices, the farming community can reduce agrochemicals while maintaining high crop productivity, protecting soil and water health, and contributing to a cleaner environment.
  • 1.6K
  • 14 Jun 2023
Topic Review
G-Quadruplex-Binding Proteins
G-quadruplexes (G4s) are non-canonical secondary nucleic acid structures. Sequences with the potential to form G4s are abundant in regulatory regions of the genome including telomeres, promoters and 5′ non-coding regions, indicating they fulfill important genome regulatory functions. In recent years, an increasing number of G-quadruplex-binding proteins have been identified with biochemical experiments. G4-binding proteins are involved in vital cellular processes such as telomere maintenance, DNA replication, gene transcription, mRNA processing. Therefore, G4-binding proteins are also associated with various human diseases.
  • 1.6K
  • 17 May 2022
Topic Review
Rabbit Sperm Cryopreservation
Sperm cryopreservation is one of the most efficient ways to preserve rabbit strains because it is easy to collect ejaculate repeatedly from a single male and inseminate artificially into multiple females. During the cooling, freezing and thawing process of sperms, the plasma membrane, cytoplasm and genome structures could be damaged by osmotic stress, cold shock, intracellular ice crystal formation, and excessive production of reactive oxygen species.
  • 1.6K
  • 07 May 2021
Topic Review
Mitochondrial-Derived Vesicles
Mitophagy is crucial for maintaining mitochondrial quality. The endosomal–lysosomal system is a more accessible pathway through which subtypes of extracellular vesicles, which also contain mitochondrial constituents, are released for disposal. The inclusion of mitochondrial components into extracellular vesicles occurs in the setting of mild mitochondrial damage and during impairment of lysosomal function. By releasing mitochondrial-derived vesicles, cells limit the unload of mitochondrial damage-associated molecular patterns with proinflammatory activity.
  • 1.6K
  • 17 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Phenolic Compounds in Functional Pasta
Phenolic compounds are lost during the refining of flour and semolina, hence commonly consumed pasta is not a carrier of these components. Consumption of food products rich in phenolic compounds has been associated to reduced risk of chronic disease onset. Hence, several strategies have been developed to formulate functional pasta rich in phenolic compounds.  Whole grain, legume and composite flours are the main substituents of durum wheat semolina used for this purpose. Plant by-products from industrial food wastes have been also used as functional ingredients. In addition, pre-processing technologies on raw materials such as sprouting, or the modulation of extrusion/extrusion-cooking conditions, are valuable approaches to increase phenolic content in pasta.
  • 1.6K
  • 22 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Sarcoglycanopathies
Sarcoglycanopathies are autosomal recessive disorders and are considered rare diseases as the worldwide reported frequency is around 1/200,000–1/350,000.
  • 1.6K
  • 03 Jun 2021
Topic Review
SALL4 as a Therapeutic Target in Cancer Treatment
Spalt-Like Transcription Factor 4 (SALL4) is a critical factor for self-renewal ability and pluripotency of stem cells. Also, Various reports show tight relation of SALL4 to cancer occurrence and metastasis. SALL4 exerts its effects not only by inducing gene expression but also by repressing a large cluster of genes through interaction with various epigenetic modifiers. Due to the high expression of this protein in cancer cells and its silence in almost all adult tissues, it is an ideal target for cancer therapy.
  • 1.6K
  • 20 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Edible Flowers Used in Some Countries
Edible flowers are becoming an essential component of people’s nutrition in the Mediterranean basin. Many researchers also have focused their attention on the nutritional composition of the edible flowers, as well as their antioxidant and antimicrobial properties, including studies on their safety issues.
  • 1.6K
  • 21 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Agrobacterium T−DNA Integration
Agrobacterium species transfer DNA (T−DNA) to plant cells where it may integrate into plant chromosomes. The process of integration is thought to involve invasion and ligation of T-DNA, or its copying, into nicks or breaks in the host genome. Integrated T−DNA often contains, at its junctions with plant DNA, deletions of T−DNA or plant DNA, filler DNA, and/or microhomology between T-DNA and plant DNA pre-integration sites. T−DNA integration is also often associated with major plant genome rearrangements, including inversions and translocations. These characteristics are similar to those often found after repair of DNA breaks, and thus DNA repair mechanisms have frequently been invoked to explain the mechanism of T−DNA integration. However, the involvement of specific plant DNA repair proteins and Agrobacterium proteins in integration remains controversial, with numerous contradictory results reported in the literature.
  • 1.6K
  • 31 Aug 2021
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