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Topic Review
Parthenin
Parthenin, a sesquiterpene lactone of pseudoguaianolide type, is the representative secondary metabolite of the tropical weed Parthenium hysterophorus (Asteraceae). It accounts for a multitude of biological activities, including toxicity, allergenicity, allelopathy, and pharmacological aspects of the plant. Thus far, parthenin and its derivatives have been tested for chemotherapeutic abilities, medicinal properties, and herbicidal/pesticidal activities. However, due to the lack of toxicity-bioactivity relationship studies, the versatile properties of parthenin are relatively less utilised. The possibility of exploiting parthenin in different scientific fields (e.g., chemistry, medicine, and agriculture) makes it a subject of analytical discussion. It is important to highlight that the toxic nature of parthenin can be overcome by thoroughly understanding its structural basis, designing suitable derivatives, and deciding the appropriate doses.
  • 1.7K
  • 09 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Glutathione System from Cyanobacteria to Higher Eukaryotes
From bacteria to plants and humans, the glutathione system plays a pleiotropic role in cell defense against metabolic, oxidative and metal stresses. Glutathione (GSH), the γ-L-glutamyl-L-cysteinyl-glycine nucleophile tri-peptide, is the central player of this system that acts in redox homeostasis, detoxification and iron metabolism in most living organisms. GSH directly scavenges diverse reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as singlet oxygen, superoxide anion, hydrogen peroxide, hydroxyl radical, nitric oxide and carbon radicals. It also serves as a cofactor for various enzymes, such as glutaredoxins (Grxs), glutathione peroxidases (Gpxs), glutathione reductase (GR) and glutathione-S-transferases (GSTs), which play crucial roles in cell detoxication.
  • 1.7K
  • 08 Jun 2023
Topic Review
RNA-Binding Proteins (RBPs)
RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are multi-faceted proteins in the regulation of RNA or its RNA splicing, localisation, stability, and translation.
  • 1.7K
  • 31 May 2021
Topic Review
Toll-Like Receptor 2
TLRs are one of four major families of pattern recognition receptor (PRRs), which include also NOD-like receptors (NLRs), RIG-like receptors (RLRs), C-type lectin receptors (CLRs), and represent the cornerstone of the innate immune response. TLR2, together with TLR1, TLR3, TLR4, and TLR5, was first identified and characterized in 1998. TLR2 is the only TLR that forms functional heterodimers with more than two other types of TLRs, forming dimers with TLR1, TLR6, and in some cases with TLR4. TLR2 recognizes molecules frequently associated with pathogens, the so-called pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), leading to activation of downstream signal transduction pathways, which result in the production of inflammatory cytokines, type I interferons (IFNs), and other mediators necessary for the development of effective immune responses. Moreover, TLR2 is involved in the recognition of damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs), released by damaged tissues.
  • 1.7K
  • 18 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Glutamate Receptor in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases
Glutamate excitotoxicity is a complex biological process that initiates when glutamate receptors are activated, leading to damage in dendrites and eventually causing cell death.
  • 1.7K
  • 13 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Plant Abiotic Stress Responses
Abiotic stresses are among the principal limiting factors for productivity in agriculture. In the current era of continuous climate changes, the understanding of the molecular aspects involved in abiotic stress response in plants is a priority. The rise of -omics approaches provides key strategies to promote effective research in the field, facilitating the investigations from reference models to an increasing number of species, tolerant and sensitive genotypes. Integrated multilevel approaches, based on molecular investigations at genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics levels, are now feasible, expanding the opportunities to clarify key molecular aspects involved in responses to abiotic stresses. To this aim, bioinformatics has become fundamental for data production, mining and integration, and necessary for extracting valuable information and for comparative efforts, paving the way to the modeling of the involved processes. We provide here an overview of bioinformatics resources for research on plant abiotic stresses, describing collections from -omics efforts in the field, ranging from raw data to complete databases or platforms, highlighting opportunities and still open challenges in abiotic stress research based on -omics technologies.
  • 1.7K
  • 27 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 Signaling in Mammalian Hearing
Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) is a peptide hormone belonging to the insulin family of proteins. Almost all of the biological effects of IGF-1 are mediated through binding to its high-affinity tyrosine kinase receptor (IGF1R), a transmembrane receptor belonging to the insulin receptor family. Factors, receptors and IGF-binding proteins form the IGF system, which has multiple roles in mammalian development, adult tissue homeostasis, and aging. Consequently, mutations in genes of the IGF system, including downstream intracellular targets, underlie multiple common pathologies and are associated with multiple rare human diseases. Here we review the contribution of the IGF system to our understanding of the molecular and genetic basis of human hearing loss by describing, (i) the expression patterns of the IGF system in the mammalian inner ear; (ii) downstream signaling of IGF-1 in the hearing organ; (iii) mouse mutations in the IGF system, including upstream regulators and downstream targets of IGF-1 that inform cochlear pathophysiology; and (iv) human mutations in these genes causing hearing loss.
  • 1.7K
  • 22 Oct 2021
Topic Review
The Chemistry of Reactive Oxygen Species Revisited
Living species are continuously subjected to all extrinsic forms of reactive oxidants and others that are produced endogenously. There is extensive literature on the generation and effects of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in biological processes, both in terms of alteration and their role in cellular signaling and regulatory pathways. Cells produce ROS as a controlled physiological process, but increasing ROS becomes pathological and leads to oxidative stress and disease. The induction of oxidative stress is an imbalance between the production of radical species and the antioxidant defense systems, which can cause damage to cellular biomolecules, including lipids, proteins and DNA. Cellular and biochemical experiments have been complemented in various ways to explain the biological chemistry of ROS oxidants. However, it is often unclear how this translates into chemical reactions involving redox changes. 
  • 1.7K
  • 30 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Principle of Liquid Crystal Biosensors
Liquid crystals (LCs) are phase transition materials that exist between the liquid and the crystal states, and they can flow as liquids and also have properties such as birefringence of crystals. LCs have been widely used as sensitive elements to construct LC biosensors based on the principle that specific bonding events between biomolecules can affect the orientation of LC molecules.
  • 1.7K
  • 25 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Signaling Pathways in Aging
Aging is a fundamental biological process accompanied by a general decline in tissue function. Indeed, as the lifespan increases, age-related dysfunction, such as cognitive impairment or dementia, will become a growing public health issue. 
  • 1.7K
  • 30 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Structure of G Domain among G Proteins
The ancient guanine nucleotide-binding (G) proteins are a group of critical regulatory and signal transduction proteins, widely involved in diverse cellular processes of all kingdoms of life. YchF is a kind of universally conserved novel unconventional G protein that appears to be crucial for growth and stress response in eukaryotes and bacteria. YchF is able to bind and hydrolyze both adenine nucleoside triphosphate (ATP) and guanosine nucleoside triphosphate (GTP), unlike other members of the P-loop GTPases.
  • 1.7K
  • 04 May 2023
Topic Review
Phosphorylation Signals Downstream of Dopamine Receptors in NAc
Dopamine regulates emotional behaviors, including rewarding and aversive behaviors, through the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway, which projects dopamine neurons from the ventral tegmental area to the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Protein phosphorylation is critical for intracellular signaling pathways and physiological functions, which are regulated by neurotransmitters in the brain. Previous studies have demonstrated that dopamine stimulated the phosphorylation of intracellular substrates, such as receptors, ion channels, and transcription factors, to regulate neuronal excitability and synaptic plasticity through dopamine receptors. Recent advances in proteomics techniques have clarified the mechanisms through which dopamine controls rewarding and aversive behaviors through signal pathways in the NAc.
  • 1.7K
  • 27 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Plant-Endophyte Interaction
Plants interact with diverse microbial communities and share complex relationships with each other. The intimate association between microbes and their host mutually benefit each other and provide stability against various biotic and abiotic stresses to plants. Endophytes are heterogeneous groups of microbes that live inside the host tissue without showing any apparent sign of infection.
  • 1.7K
  • 06 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Pleiotropic Anticancer of Withaferin A
Withaferin A, a natural bioactive molecule isolated from the Indian medicinal plant Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal, has been reported to impart anticancer activities against various cancer cell lines and preclinical cancer models by modulating the expression and activity of different oncogenic proteins.
  • 1.7K
  • 16 Feb 2023
Topic Review
ITS2 Secondary Structure
The secondary structure of ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) 
  • 1.7K
  • 22 Sep 2020
Topic Review
DNA Polymerases
Recent studies on tumor genomes revealed that mutations in genes of replicative DNA polymerases cause a predisposition for cancer by increasing genome instability. The past 10 years have uncovered exciting details about the structure and function of replicative DNA polymerases and the replication fork organization. The principal idea of participation of different polymerases in specific transactions at the fork proposed by Morrison and coauthors 30 years ago and later named “division of labor,” remains standing, with an amendment of the broader role of polymerase δ in the replication of both the lagging and leading DNA strands. However, cancer-associated mutations predominantly affect the catalytic subunit of polymerase ε that participates in leading strand DNA synthesis. 
  • 1.7K
  • 14 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Strategies to Increase HDR-Dependent CRISPR-Cas9 Mediated Genome Editing
CRISPR (Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) technology affords a simple and robust way to edit the genomes of cells, providing powerful tools for basic research and medicine. While using Cas9 to cleave a genomic site is very efficient, making a specific mutation at that site is much less so, as it depends on the endogenous DNA repair machinery. Various strategies have been developed to increase the efficiency of knock-in mutagenesis, mostly focusing on improving homology-directed repair (HDR) while reducing non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). Some approaches affect these repair mechanisms globally, while others target their modulations to the site of the Cas9-induced double-strand break (DSB). Other innovations serve to increase the specificity and the efficiency of the editing mechanisms. In addition, methods such as base editing and prime editing produce knock-in mutations without a DSB.
  • 1.7K
  • 19 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Sophorolipids—Bio-Based Antimicrobial Formulating Agents
Sophorolipids are well-known glycolipid biosurfactants, produced mainly by non-pathogenic yeast species such as Candida bombicola with high yield. Its unique environmental compatibility and high biodegradable properties have made them a focus in the present review for their promising applications in diverse areas.
  • 1.7K
  • 27 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Hypoxia-Inducible Factor
The hypoxia signalling pathway enables adaptation of cells to decreased oxygen availability. When oxygen becomes limiting, the central transcription factors of the pathway, hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs), are stabilised and activated to induce the expression of hypoxia-regulated genes, thereby maintaining cellular homeostasis.
  • 1.7K
  • 18 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Sea Slug Elysia crispata
Some species of sacoglossan sea slugs are able to steal chloroplasts from the algae they feed on and maintain them functional for several months, a process termed “kleptoplasty”. One of these photosynthetic slugs is Elysia crispata, found in coral reefs of the Gulf of Mexico. This sacoglossan inhabits different depths (0–25 m), being exposed to different food sources and contrasting light conditions.
  • 1.7K
  • 19 Apr 2022
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