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Topic Review
Aquaporin Inhibitors
Aquaporins (AQPs) are water channel proteins that are essential to life, being expressed in all kingdoms. In humans, there are 13 AQPs, at least one of which is found in every organ system. The structural biology of the AQP family is well-established and many functions for AQPs have been reported in health and disease. AQP expression is linked to numerous pathologies including tumor metastasis, fluid dysregulation, and traumatic injury. The targeted modulation of AQPs therefore presents an opportunity to develop novel treatments for diverse conditions. Various techniques such as video microscopy, light scattering and fluorescence quenching have been used to test putative AQP inhibitors in both AQP-expressing mammalian cells and heterologous expression systems. The inherent variability within these methods has caused discrepancy and many molecules that are inhibitory in one experimental system (such as tetraethylammonium, acetazolamide, and anti-epileptic drugs) have no activity in others. Some heavy metal ions (that would not be suitable for therapeutic use) and the compound, TGN-020, have been shown to inhibit some AQPs. Clinical trials for neuromyelitis optica treatments using anti-AQP4 IgG are in progress. However, these antibodies have no effect on water transport. More research to standardize high-throughput assays is required to identify AQP modulators for which there is an urgent and unmet clinical need.
  • 4.7K
  • 06 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Molecular Mechanisms of Homologous Recombination
Homologous recombination (HR) is a fundamental evolutionarily conserved process that plays prime role(s) in genome stability maintenance through DNA repair and through the protection and resumption of arrested replication forks. HR promotes the exchange between homologous DNA sequences resulting in a novel combination of the genetic material. Therefore, HR is essential in genome stability maintenance but also plays an important role in genome diversity; such as in the case of meiosis. Many HR genes are deregulated in cancer cells. Notably, the breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2, two important HR players, are the most frequently mutated genes in familial breast and ovarian cancer. 
  • 4.7K
  • 28 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Fatty Acid Synthase
Fatty acid synthase is a multi-enzyme protein that involves in fatty acid synthesis. It's main function is to synthesise palmitate, a 16-carbon long chain saturated fatty acid from acetyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA, in the presence of NADPH.
  • 4.6K
  • 01 Sep 2020
Topic Review
Disse (Space of Disse)
Space of Disse: a thin perisinusoidal area between the endothelial cells and hepatocytes filled with blood plasma, nutrients and oxygen, but also debris from our organism, that have acquired great importance in liver disease
  • 4.5K
  • 20 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Food Wastes as Packaging Materials
Packaging materials have to allow controlled respiration, maintain polymer structure against mechanical damage, prevent microbiological and chemical spoilage of food, and act as a selective gas and water vapor barrier. The most widely used materials in the food packaging industry are glass, plastics, metals, and paper. As mechanical properties of materials are important for food protection, mostly flexible and rigid synthetic packaging materials are preferred.
  • 4.5K
  • 19 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Sesquiterpene Lactones
Sesquiterpene lactones, a vast group of terpenoids isolated from Asteraceae family species, exhibit a wide variety of biological activities and several of them are already available on the medicines market, such as artemisinin. Here are presented and discussed the most recent and impactful results in vivo, preclinical and clinical studies, involving a selection of ten sesquiterpene lactones (alantolactone, arglabin, costunolide, cynaropicrin, helenalin, inuviscolide, lactucin, parthenolide, thapsigargin and tomentosin) and some of their derivatives.
  • 4.5K
  • 28 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Protein Quality Control (PQC)
Eukaryotic cells have a well-organized, tightly regulated protein quality control (PQC) system. This quality control system includes the molecular chaperones, ubiquitin/proteasome-dependent protein degradation, and autophagy machinery (target and uptake of non-native conformer in the spatial compartments) that consistently monitors and maintains the conformational state of cellular proteins.
  • 4.3K
  • 18 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Wood Formation in Plants
Unlike herbaceous plants, woody plants undergo volumetric growth (a.k.a. secondary growth) through wood formation, during which the secondary xylem (i.e., wood) differentiates from the vascular cambium. Wood is the most abundant biomass on Earth and, by absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide, functions as one of the largest carbon sinks. As a sustainable and eco-friendly energy source, lignocellulosic biomass can help address environmental pollution and the global climate crisis.
  • 4.3K
  • 15 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Adaptation of Seed Germination
Environmental conditions are the basis of plant reproduction and are the critical factors controlling seed dormancy and germination. Global climate change is currently affecting environmental conditions and changing the reproduction of plants from seeds. Disturbances in germination will cause disturbances in the diversity of plant communities. Models developed for climate change scenarios show that some species will face a significant decrease in suitable habitat area. Dormancy is an adaptive mechanism that affects the probability of survival of a species. The ability of seeds of many plant species to survive until dormancy recedes and meet the requirements for germination is an adaptive strategy that can act as a buffer against the negative effects of environmental heterogeneity. The influence of temperature and humidity on seed dormancy status underlines the need to understand how changing environmental conditions will affect seed germination patterns. 
  • 4.3K
  • 06 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Thermodynamic Dissipation Theory of Life
The Thermodynamic Dissipation Theory of the Origin and Evolution of Life argues that the escence of the origin of life was the microscopic dissipative structuring under UVC light of organic pigments (now known as the fundamental molecules of life - those common to all three domains) and their proliferation over the entire Earth surface, driven by the thermodynamic imperative of dissipating this part of the Archean solar spectrum into heat. With time, dissipative structuring led to ever more complex biosynthetic pathways for creating pigments and their support structures (and processes) which could dissipate not only the UVC region but also other UV regions and the visible wavelengths, until today reaching the "red edge" (at approximately 700 nm). The heat of dissipation of photons absorbed on organic pigments in water then catalyzes a host of coupled secondary dissipative processes such as; the water cycle, ocean and wind currents, hurricanes, etc. pushing the limit for dissipation of the incident light even further towards the infrared. The thermodynamic dissipation theory thus assgins an explicit thermodynamic function to life; the dissipative structuring, proliferation, and evolution of molecular pigments and their complexes from common precursor carbon based molecules under the impressed short wavelength solar photon potential to perform the explicit thermodynamic function of dissipating this light into long wavelength infrared light (heat). In a general sense, the origin of life is no different than the origin of other dissipative structuring processes like hurricanes and the water cycle, except that these latter processes deal with structuring involving hydrogen bonding while life deals with structuring involving covalent bonding. The external photon potential supplied continuously by the environment (our Sun), and its dissipation into heat by the assembly of dissipative structures, are, therefore, both integral components necessary for understanding life. Difficult problems related to the origin of life, such as enzyme-less replication of RNA and DNA, homochirality of the fundamental molecules, and the origin of amino acid -codon assignments (information encoding in RNA and DNA), also find simple explanations within this same dissipative thermodynamic framework once the existence of a relation between primordial RNA and DNA replication and UV-C photon dissipation is established.
  • 4.3K
  • 04 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Adipose tissue in the breast
       Breast is a dynamic organ mainly composed of adipose and fibroglandular tissues. The adipose tissue extends from the collarbone to the underarm and around the center of the ribcage. Adipose tissue as an endocrine organ constantly affects the dynamics of the breast. However, the role of adipose tissue in breast has been mostly studied in terms of obesity and cancer.  In this review, we have discussed the role of breast adipose tissue in breast development from embryonic stage to mature breast. Further, we draw attention to the involvement of breast adipose tissue in pregnancy, lactation and involution associated breast changes. Finally, we depict how breast adipose tissue can affect breast cancer. 
  • 4.2K
  • 26 Aug 2020
Topic Review
Dead Cas Systems
The gene editing tool CRISPR-Cas has become the foundation for developing numerous molecular systems used in research and, increasingly, in medical practice. In particular, Cas proteins devoid of nucleolytic activity (dead Cas proteins; dCas) can be used to deliver functional cargo to programmed sites in the genome. In this review, we describe current CRISPR systems used for developing different dCas-based molecular approaches and summarize their most significant applications
  • 4.2K
  • 30 Oct 2020
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Serum Albumin
Being one of the most abundant proteins in human and other mammals, albumin plays a crucial role in transporting various endogenous and exogenous molecules and maintaining of colloid osmotic pressure of the blood. It is not only the passive but also the active participant of the pharmacokinetic and toxicokinetic processes possessing a number of enzymatic activities. A free thiol group of the albumin molecule determines the participation of the protein in redox reactions. Its activity is not limited to interaction with other molecules entering the blood: of great physiological importance is its interaction with the cells of blood, blood vessels and also outside the vascular bed. This topic review contains data on the enzymatic, inflammatory and antioxidant properties of serum albumin. 
  • 4.2K
  • 13 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Non-Enzymatic Antioxidants
Oxidative stress has long been considered one of the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in numerous diseases, which has led to the investigation of the antioxidant systems as a promising therapy more than two decades ago. A useful antioxidant must meet specific characteristics; it must be capable of interacting with biologically relevant oxidants and free radicals; its reaction by-products should be harmless; and finally, it must reach a sufficiently high concentration in the tissue and cell compartments to ensure its activity is quantitatively relevant.
  • 4.1K
  • 24 May 2022
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Microchip Electrophoresis
Microchip electrophoresis (MCE) is a miniaturized form of capillary electrophoresis. Electrophoresis is a common technique to separate macromolecules such as nucleic acids (DNA, RNA) and proteins. This technique has become a routine method for DNA size fragmenting and separating protein mixtures in most laboratories around the world. The application of higher voltages in MCE achieves faster and efficient electrophoretic separations. 
  • 4.0K
  • 13 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Classes of Transposable Elements
Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile genetic elements that constitute a sizeable portion of many eukaryotic genomes. Through their mobility, they represent a major source of genetic variation, and their activation can cause genetic instability and has been linked to aging, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.
  • 3.9K
  • 23 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Matrix Metalloproteinases and Their Inhibitors
Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a family of zinc-dependent extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling endopeptidases that have the capacity to degrade almost every component of the ECM. The degradation of the ECM is of great importance, since it is related to embryonic development and angiogenesis. It is also involved in cell repair and the remodeling of tissues. When the expression of MMPs is altered, it can generate the abnormal degradation of the ECM. This is the initial cause of the development of chronic degenerative diseases and vascular complications generated by diabetes. In addition, this process has an association with neurodegeneration and cancer progression. Within the ECM, the tissue inhibitors of MMPs (TIMPs) inhibit the proteolytic activity of MMPs. TIMPs are important regulators of ECM turnover, tissue remodeling, and cellular behavior. Therefore, TIMPs (similar to MMPs) modulate angiogenesis, cell proliferation, and apoptosis. An interruption in the balance between MMPs and TIMPs has been implicated in the pathophysiology and progression of several diseases.
  • 3.8K
  • 18 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Targeted Therapeutic Sites for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
The advent of precision medicine has brought light to the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), expanding the options for patients with advanced NSCLC by targeting therapy through genetic and epigenetic cues. Tumor driver genes in NSCLC patients have been uncovered one by one, including epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), mesenchymal lymphoma kinase (ALK), and receptor tyrosine kinase ROS proto-oncogene 1 (ROS1) mutants. Antibodies and inhibitors that target the critical gene-mediated signaling pathways that regulate tumor growth and development are anticipated to increase patient survival and quality of life. Targeted drugs continue to emerge, with as many as two dozen approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and chemotherapy and targeted therapy have significantly improved patient prognosis.
  • 3.8K
  • 06 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Significance of Glycerol in Biochemistry
Glycerol (C3H8O3), also known as propane-1,2,3-triol, is a significant biomolecule [1]. It is chemically classified as a ‘polyol with a molar mass of 92.09382 g/mol, a density of 1.26 g/cm3, and a boiling point of 554 °F (290 °C). In this section, we shall highlight some key roles this molecule plays in the biochemistry of life.
  • 3.7K
  • 26 Jan 2021
Topic Review
DPPH Radical Scavenging Assay
The 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazil (DPPH) radical removal is one of the most widely applied and used methods in food and pharmaceutical applications. DPPH method gives a better response for mostly phenolic compounds and then for compounds with limited polarity. In the case of polar and phenolic compounds, adding water to the reaction medium, that is, aqueous methanol, gives better results. When testing low-polarity compounds, ethyl acetate with a radical is suitable. DPPH reaction rates depend on the steric accessibility of the radical site rather than the chemical properties of the tested antioxidant compounds. The rate at which DPPH reacts with antioxidants depends on the varying ratios of mixed single-electron transfer (SET) and hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) mechanisms. The reaction mechanisms of DPPH∙ scavenging and responses are modified by many environmental and experimental factors.
  • 3.7K
  • 08 Sep 2023
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