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Topic Review
Vitamin D for COVID-19 Vaccination
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is a new, highly pathogenic virus that has recently elicited a global pandemic called the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19). COVID-19 is characterized by significant immune dysfunction, which is caused by strong but unregulated innate immunity with depressed adaptive immunity. Reduced and delayed responses to interferons (IFN-I/IFN-III) can increase the synthesis of proinflammatory cytokines and extensive immune cell infiltration into the airways, leading to pulmonary disease. The development of effective treatments for severe COVID-19 patients relies on our knowledge of the pathophysiological components of this imbalanced innate immune response. Strategies to address innate response factors will be essential. Significant efforts are currently underway to develop vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 vaccines, such as inactivated DNA, mRNA, and protein subunit vaccines, have already been applied in clinical use. Various vaccines display different levels of effectiveness, and it is important to continue to optimize and update their composition in order to increase their effectiveness. However, due to the continuous emergence of variant viruses, improving the immunity of the general public may also increase the effectiveness of the vaccines. Many observational studies have demonstrated that serum levels of vitamin D are inversely correlated with the incidence or severity of COVID-19. Extensive evidence has shown that vitamin D supplementation could be vital in mitigating the progression of COVID-19 to reduce its severity. Vitamin D defends against SARS-CoV-2 through a complex mechanism through interactions between the modulation of innate and adaptive immune reactions, ACE2 expression, and inhibition of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS). 
  • 890
  • 07 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Oral Sulfated Fucose-Rich Polysaccharides
Sulfated fucose-rich polysaccharides from marine organisms are unique molecules with various pharmacological effects. They might have promising therapeutic applications in different diseases.
  • 889
  • 24 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Acyclic Nucleic Acids with Phosphodiester Linkages
The pseudo-rotational flexibility of the ribonucleotide is considerably limited due to the anomeric effect, and RNA/RNA and RNA/DNA duplexes are generally more thermally stable than DNA/DNA duplexes. The rigidity of the cyclic scaffold has been considered important for the formation of thermally stable duplexes, and the unexpectedly high thermal stability of duplexes formed with the participation of LNA oligomers could serve as an excellent justification for this point of view. However, this generalization is not consistent with the behavior of Peptide Nucleic Acids (PNA), in which the heterocyclic bases are attached to a linear peptide-like backbone, since duplexes composed of RNA or DNA and PNA strands are far more stable than RNA/RNA and DNA/DNA ones. This phenomenon may be attributed to the absence of a negative charge in the backbone, such that the absence of repulsive interactions balances the entropic cost of proper spatial organization of the flexible PNA scaffolds. Nonetheless, the widely accepted importance of the cyclic sugar components for the stability of the duplexes could be questioned. There is another perspective that can be applied to the acyclic analogs of nucleic acids that is related to the origin of life. The synthetic efforts on acyclic analogs of nucleic acids and provides information on the most interesting features of selected classes of such compounds, are here described. The selection includes the following types of analogs: Flexible (FNA), Unlocked (UNA), Glycol (GNA), Butyl (BuNA), Threoninol (TNA) and Serinol Nucleic Acids (SNA). These classes of analogs are discussed in terms of their synthetic methods, the thermal stability of their homo- and hetero-duplexes and their applicability in biological and biochemical research and nanotechnology.
  • 888
  • 10 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Aberrant BMP2 Signaling
The most common bone disease in humans is osteoporosis (OP). Current therapeutics targeting OP have several negative side effects. Bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) is a potent growth factor that is known to activate both osteoblasts and osteoclasts. It completes these actions through both SMAD-dependent and SMAD-independent signaling. A novel interaction between the BMP type Ia receptor (BMPRIa) and casein kinase II (CK2) was discovered, and several CK2 phosphorylation sites were identified. A corresponding blocking peptide (named CK2.3) was designed to further elucidate the phosphorylation site’s function. Previously, CK2.3 demonstrated an increased osteoblast activity and decreased osteoclast activity in a variety of animal models, cell lines, and isolated human osteoblasts. It is hypothesized that CK2.3 completes these actions through the BMP signaling pathway. Furthermore, it was recently discovered that BMP2 did not elicit an osteogenic response in osteoblasts from patients diagnosed with OP, while CK2.3 did.
  • 888
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Lysosomes Support DNA Replication
Lysosomes, acidic, membrane-bound organelles, are not only the core of the cellular recycling machinery, but they also serve as signaling hubs regulating various metabolic pathways. Lysosomes maintain energy homeostasis and provide pivotal substrates for anabolic processes, such as DNA replication. Every time the cell divides, its genome needs to be correctly duplicated; therefore, DNA replication requires rigorous regulation. Challenges that negatively affect DNA synthesis, such as nucleotide imbalance, result in replication stress with severe consequences for genome integrity. The lysosomal complex mTORC1 is directly involved in the synthesis of purines and pyrimidines to support DNA replication.
  • 886
  • 25 May 2021
Topic Review
Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species
Oxidative stress is the result of an imbalance between the presence of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the ability of a biological system to detoxify them and their side products. Similarly, nitrosative stress is an imbalance of reactive nitrogen species (RNS). Some of these molecules can play an important role in signalization in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes.
  • 886
  • 16 May 2022
Topic Review
Mechanism of Mild-Temperature Photothermal Therapy
Conventional photothermal therapy (PTT) irradiates the tumor tissues by elevating the temperature above 48 °C to exert thermal ablation, killing tumor cells. However, thermal ablation during PTT harmfully damages the surrounding normal tissues, post-treatment inflammatory responses, rapid metastasis due to the short-term mass release of tumor-cellular contents, or other side effects. To circumvent this limitation, mild-temperature photothermal therapy (MTPTT) was introduced to replace PTT as it exerts its activity at a therapeutic temperature of 42–45 °C.
  • 886
  • 04 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Decoding CD271 in melanoma
The evolution of melanoma, the most aggressive type of skin cancer, is triggered bydriver mutations that are acquired in the coding regions of particularly BRAF (rat fibrosarcomaserine/threonine kinase, isoform B) or NRAS (neuroblastoma-type ras sarcoma virus) in melanocytes.Although driver mutations strongly determine tumor progression, additional factors are likelyrequired and prerequisite for melanoma formation. Melanocytes are formed during vertebratedevelopment in a well-controlled di erentiation process of multipotent neural crest stem cells(NCSCs). However, mechanisms determining the properties of melanocytes and melanoma cellsare still not well understood. The nerve growth factor receptor CD271 is likewise expressed inmelanocytes, melanoma cells and NCSCs and programs the maintenance of a stem-like and migratoryphenotype via a comprehensive network of associated genes. Moreover, CD271 regulates phenotypeswitching, a process that enables the rapid and reversible conversion of proliferative into invasive ornon-stem-like states into stem-like states by yet largely unknown mechanisms. Here, we summarizecurrent findings about CD271-associated mechanisms in melanoma cells and illustrate the role ofCD271 for melanoma cell migration and metastasis, phenotype-switching, resistance to therapeuticinterventions, and the maintenance of an NCSC-like state.
  • 885
  • 28 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Trypsin Induced Degradation of Amyloids
Proteolytic enzymes are known to be involved in the formation and degradation of various monomeric proteins, but the effect of proteases on the ordered protein aggregates, amyloid fibrils, which are considered to be extremely stable, remains poorly understood. In this work we study resistance to proteolytic degradation of lysozyme amyloid fibrils with two different types of morphology and beta-2-microglobulun amyloids.
  • 885
  • 15 Jun 2021
Topic Review
CRISPR/Cas in Research of Telomeres
Telomeres are highly specialized nucleoprotein complexes that play a critical role in cell senescence and aging. Each chromosomal end must be “capped” with a critical amount of telomere repeats to prevent DNA repair pathways from being activated. As a result of the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-associated system’s (Cas) method, targeted genetic studies are now underway to change telomerase, the genes that govern it as well as telomeres.
  • 885
  • 24 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Nanopore Sequencing
Nanopore sequencing is a third generation approach used in the sequencing of biopolymers — specifically, polynucleotides in the form of DNA or RNA. Using nanopore sequencing, a single molecule of DNA or RNA can be sequenced without the need for PCR amplification or chemical labeling of the sample. Nanopore sequencing has the potential to offer relatively low-cost genotyping, high mobility for testing, and rapid processing of samples with the ability to display results in real-time. Publications on the method outline its use in rapid identification of viral pathogens, monitoring ebola, environmental monitoring, food safety monitoring, human genome sequencing, plant genome sequencing, monitoring of antibiotic resistance, haplotyping and other applications.
  • 885
  • 16 Nov 2022
Topic Review
LncRNAs
Chemo and radiation therapies are the most commonly used therapies for cancer, but they can induce DNA damage, resulting in the apoptosis of host cells. DNA double-stranded breaks (DSBs) are the most lethal form of DNA damage in cells, which are constantly caused by a wide variety of genotoxic agents, both environmentally and endogenously. To maintain genomic integrity, eukaryotic organisms have developed a complex mechanism for the repair of DNA damage. Researches reported that many cellular long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) were involved in the response of DNA damage. The roles of lncRNAs in DNA damage response can be regulated by the dynamic modification of N6-adenosine methylation (m6A). The cellular accumulation of DNA damage can result in various diseases, including cancers. Additionally, lncRNAs also play roles in controlling the gene expression and regulation of autophagy, which are indirectly involved with individual development. The dysregulation of these functions can facilitate human tumorigenesis. In this review, we summarized the origin and overview function of lncRNAs and highlighted the roles of lncRNAs involved in the repair of DNA damage.
  • 885
  • 03 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Role of Marine Macroalgae in Cosmeceuticals
The cosmetic industry uses the term ‘cosmeceutical’ to refer to a cosmetic formula that has drug-like applicative advantages. Many marine algae are rich in biologically active components that have been reported to exhibit strong benefits to the skin, mainly for photoprotection, skin whitening, moisturization, anti-aging, anti-wrinkle, antioxidants, and antimicrobial uses. 
  • 884
  • 14 Mar 2022
Topic Review
General Reactivity of Heme Proteins with Nitric Oxide
Heme proteins (or hemeproteins or hemoproteins) are a structurally and functionally diverse group of metalloproteins exhibiting the heme moiety—an iron-coordinated porphyrin ring—as the prosthetic group. Nitric oxide (NO) is biosynthesized endogenously by heme proteins named NO synthases (NOSs), which oxidize the guanidino group of L-arginine into L-citrulline and NO in the presence of oxygen (O2) and reduced nicotinamide-adenine-dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH). 
  • 884
  • 23 Feb 2023
Topic Review
Resveratrol
Resveratrol (3,4′,5-trihy- droxystilbene), a natural phytoalexin polyphenol, exhibits anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-carcinogenic properties. This phytoalexin is well-absorbed， rapidly and extensively metabolized in the body. 
  • 883
  • 30 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Nasal Air Conditioning and SARS-CoV-2
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), as with the influenza virus, has been shown to spread more rapidly during winter. Severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which can follow SARS-CoV-2 infection, disproportionately affects older persons and males as well as people living in temperate zone countries with a tropical ancestry. The available data are consistent with optimal warming and humidifying of inspired air by the nose (nasal air conditioning) being essential for minimising SARS-CoV-2 infectivity of the upper respiratory tract (URT)  and, as a consequence, severe COVID-19. 
  • 883
  • 04 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Cardiac Autonomic Neuropathy
Cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) is one of the earliest manifestations of type 2 diabetes (T2D). It constitutes the major cause of silent cardiovascular events in patients without overt cardiac disease. The high prevalence of CAN in patients newly diagnosed with T2D suggests that its pathophysiology is rooted in an earlier stage of metabolic derangement, possibly being prediabetes.
  • 882
  • 11 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Structure and Function of FSP1
Ferroptosis suppressor protein 1 (FSP1), an NAD(P)H-ubiquinone oxidoreductase that reduces ubiquinone to ubiquinol, has emerged as a critical player in the regulation of ferroptosis. FSP1 operates independently of the canonical system xc–/glutathione peroxidase 4 pathway, making it a promising target for inducing ferroptosis in cancer cells and overcoming ferroptosis resistance.
  • 882
  • 14 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Biopesticides
Biopesticides are a type of pesticides derived from natural materials including plants and bacteria. In this entry, we reviewed the structural and biological features of Jaburetox and Soyuretox, two plant urease-derived recombinant peptides that present entomotoxic and fungitoxic effects without harming beneficial species or the environment. We also discussed other bioactive peptides in the context of their action mechanism.
  • 881
  • 15 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus and Dementia
Dementia is reported to be common in those with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Type 2 diabetes contributes to common molecular mechanisms and an underlying pathology with dementia. Brain cells becoming resistant to insulin leads to elevated blood glucose levels, impaired synaptic plasticity, microglial overactivation, mitochondrial dysfunction, neuronal apoptosis, nutrient deprivation, TAU (Tubulin-Associated Unit) phosphorylation, and cholinergic dysfunction.
  • 881
  • 30 Nov 2022
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