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Topic Review
Lectins as Toxins from Marine Animals
Due to their remarkable structural diversity, glycans play important roles as recognition molecules on cell surfaces of living organisms. Carbohydrates exist in numerous isomeric forms and can adopt diverse structures through various branching patterns. Despite their relatively small molecular weights, they exhibit extensive structural diversity. On the other hand, lectins, also known as carbohydrate-binding proteins, not only recognize and bind to the diverse structures of glycans but also induce various biological reactions based on structural differences. Initially discovered as hemagglutinins in plant seeds, lectins have been found to play significant roles in cell recognition processes in higher vertebrates. 
  • 636
  • 13 Jul 2023
Topic Review
MYC Deregulation in Burkitt Lymphoma
MYC deregulation, a cardinal event in Burkitt lymphoma (BL) pathogenesis, necessitates the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms governing MYC activation to devise innovative and effective therapeutic strategies.
  • 633
  • 20 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Anti-Viral Pattern Recognition Receptors
Pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) play a central role in the inflammation that ensues following microbial infection by their recognition of molecular patterns present in invading microorganisms but also following tissue damage by recognising molecules released during disease states. Such receptors are expressed in a variety of cells and in various compartments of these cells. PRR binding of molecular patterns results in an intracellular signalling cascade and the eventual activation of transcription factors and the release of cytokines, chemokines, and vasoactive molecules. PRRs and their accessory molecules are subject to tight regulation in these cells so as to not overreact or react in unnecessary circumstances. They are also key to reacting to infection and in stimulating the immune system when needed. Therefore, targeting PRRs offers a potential therapeutic approach for chronic inflammatory disease, infections and as vaccine adjuvants. The current knowledge on anti-viral PRRs and their signalling pathways is reviewed. Finally, compounds that target PRRs and that have been tested in clinical trials for chronic infections and as adjuvants in vaccine trials are discussed. 
  • 630
  • 19 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Oxazolone-Induced Colitis in Brief
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) represents a complex and debilitating group of disorders that include Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Understanding the pathogenesis and developing effective treatments for IBD necessitate reliable experimental models. Oxazolone-induced colitis is one such model that has contributed significantly to our understanding of mucosal immune responses and potential therapeutic interventions. This research explores the utility of the oxazolone-induced colitis model, covering its induction methods, histopathological features, immune responses, and applications in drug development. While this model offers valuable insights into IBD, it also presents certain limitations that must be considered. By providing an in-depth analysis of oxazolone-induced colitis, this research highlights its significance in advancing IBD research and the quest for improved therapies.
  • 630
  • 08 Oct 2023
Topic Review
L-Arginine Metabolism in Cancer
L-Arginine plays a crucial role in detoxification of ammonia—a protein breakdown product acts as a secretagogue and serves as a substrate for the synthesis of NO, an important signaling molecule that regulates vascular tone and cytotoxic functions of macrophages. L-Arg is also a precursor in the synthesis of L-ornithine and agmatine, creatine and polyamines. Metabolism of L-Arg is involved in immune cell regulation. It is now clear that L-Arg metabolism is engaged in the pathogenesis of tumor growth, inflammation, infectious diseases, and fibrotic processes, as well as physiological immunodeficiencies in newborns and pregnant women. 
  • 627
  • 21 Sep 2023
Topic Review
Organophosphate-Pesticide-Mediated Immune Response Modulation
Organophosphate pesticides (OPs) have greatly facilitated food production worldwide, and their use is not limited to agriculture and the control of pests and disease vectors. However, these substances can directly affect the immune response of non-target organisms. In this sense, exposure to OPs can have negative effects on innate and adaptive immunity, promoting deregulation in humoral and cellular processes such as phagocytosis, cytokine expression, antibody production, cell proliferation, and differentiation, which are crucial mechanisms for host defense against external agents. It found that there is an important gap in the study of non-target organisms, examples of which are echinoderms and chondrichthyans. It is therefore important to increase the number of studies on other species directly or indirectly affected by Ops, to assess the degree of impact at the individual level and how this affects higher levels, such as populations and ecosystems.
  • 625
  • 15 May 2023
Topic Review
Mitochondrial Impairment in the Cardiorenal Syndrome Type 4
Cardiorenal syndrome type 4 (CRS type 4) occurs when chronic kidney disease (CKD) leads to cardiovascular damage, resulting in high morbidity and mortality rates. Mitochondria, vital organelles responsible for essential cellular functions, can become dysfunctional in CKD. This dysfunction can trigger inflammatory responses in distant organs by releasing Damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). These DAMPs are recognized by immune receptors within cells, including Toll-like receptors (TLR) like TLR2, TLR4, and TLR9, the nucleotide-binding domain, leucine-rich-containing family pyrin domain-containing-3 (NLRP3) inflammasome, and the cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP)–adenosine monophosphate (AMP) synthase (cGAS)–stimulator of interferon genes (cGAS-STING) pathway. Activation of these immune receptors leads to the increased expression of cytokines and chemokines. Excessive chemokine stimulation results in the recruitment of inflammatory cells into tissues, causing chronic damage. Experimental studies have demonstrated that chemokines are upregulated in the heart during CKD, contributing to CRS type 4. 
  • 625
  • 19 Jan 2024
Topic Review
Intravenous Immunoglobulin in Kawasaki Disease
Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute vasculitis of childhood that affects the medium vessels with a special predilection to the involvement of coronary arteries. The major morbidity of this disease is due to coronary artery aneurysm, which occurs in about 25–30% of untreated cases. Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) has consistently been shown to reduce the risk of CAAs to less than 5%. However, the mechanism of immunomodulation remains unclear. Several studies on the role of IVIg in the modulation of toll-like receptor pathways, autophagy, and apoptosis of the mononuclear phagocytic system, neutrophil extracellular trap, and dendritic cell modulation suggest a modulatory effect on the innate immune system. Similarly, certain studies have shown its effect on T-cell differentiation, cytokine release, and regulatory T-cell function.
  • 624
  • 14 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Cytotoxic Immune Cell Dysfunction in Leukemia
Leukemia is a malignancy of the bone marrow and blood resulting from the abnormal differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). There are four main types of leukemia including acute myeloid leukemia (AML), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). While chemotherapy and radiation have been conventional forms of treatment for leukemia, these therapies increase infection susceptibility, adverse side effects and immune cell inactivation. Immunotherapies are becoming promising treatment options for leukemia, with targeted therapies opening the door to a variety of options that maximize cancer cell neutralization and minimize off-target host tissue damage. In order to generate efficacious targeted therapies, it is crucial to pinpoint specific immune cell populations that are impaired to reverse this exhaustion.
  • 623
  • 09 Mar 2022
Topic Review
SARS-CoV-2 Specific T Cell Epitopes
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused extensive loss of lives and economic hardship. In response, infectious disease experts and vaccine developers promptly responded by bringing forth candidate vaccines, some of which have been listed in the World Health Organization’s Emergency Use Listing.  Differences in the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) in variation of the T cell epitopes of SARS-CoV-2 genetic mutations left room for improvement of the vaccines.
  • 617
  • 11 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Intracellular Antibodies for Drugs and Drug Discovery
The application of antibodies in cells was first shown in the early 1990s, and subsequently, the field of intracellular antibodies has expanded to encompass antibody fragments and their use in target validation and as engineered molecules that can be fused to moieties (referred to as warheads) to replace the Fc effector region of a whole immunoglobulin to elicit intracellular responses, such as cell death pathways or protein degradation. These various forms of intracellular antibodies have largely been used as research tools to investigate function within cells by perturbing protein activity. New applications of such molecules are on the horizon, namely their use as drugs per se and as templates for small-molecule drug discovery. The former is a potential new pharmacology that could harness the power and flexibility of molecular biology to generate new classes of drugs (herein referred to as macrodrugs when used in the context of disease control). Delivery of engineered intracellular antibodies, and other antigen-binding macromolecules formats, into cells to produce a therapeutic effect could be applied to any therapeutic area where regulation, degradation or other kinds of manipulation of target proteins can produce a therapeutic effect.
  • 616
  • 13 Jul 2023
Topic Review
P2RX7
P2RX7 belongs to the family of P2X receptors that are assembled and active when in their trimeric form. Each monomer is composed of two transmembrane domains that are connected by a large extracellular loop, and an N- and C- termini domain located intracellularly. However, unlike other members, P2RX7 has a long intracellular C-terminal domain that structurally distinguishes it from the others and confers its unique biological activities. Even though all seven members of the P2X receptors recognize eATP, they are activated with various affinities that range from 0.5 µM for P2RX3 to over 100 µM for P2RX7. Thus, activation of P2RX7 requires high levels of eATP, levels that are found in the tumor microenvironment (TME) which controls the three main activities of the receptor: cationic exchange, macropore opening and NLRP3 inflammasome activation.
  • 613
  • 09 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Cellular Component of the Hepatic Tumor Microenvironment
Organ microenvironments are irrefutable modules enabling the proliferation of cancer cells to organ systems exterior to the primary tumor. The hepatic tumor immune microenvironment constitutes cellular and non-cellular components including a complex mixture of immune cells.
  • 611
  • 12 Jan 2023
Topic Review
Teleostei Innate Immune System
The innate immune system is the first line of defense in multicellular organisms. Danio rerio is widely considered a promising model for IIS-related research, with the most amount of scRNAseq data available among Teleostei.
  • 605
  • 29 Dec 2023
Topic Review
Targets on Astrocytes for the Treatment of ALS
Astrocytes, the most numerous and giant glial cells in the central nervous system (CNS), possess the unique ability to divide and proliferate throughout life. The cytosol of astrocytes exhibits a distinctive star-shaped morphology, housing a critical structural component known as the glial filament. Comprised of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), this intermediate filament is essential to the cytoskeleton and serves as a standard marker for astrocytes. Importantly, it is not entirely exclusive to astrocytes but also labels neural stem cells. Apart from organizing the blood–brain barrier (BBB) and supporting, sequestering, and isolating neurons, these cells perform a multitude of vital biological functions. These include the metabolism, synthesis, and secretion of neurotrophic factors, regulation of neurotransmitters and calcium homeostasis, maintenance of mitochondrial function, participation in nervous system and circuit development, and regulation of the immune status of the CNS. However, these functions are partially or wholly lost in reactive astrocytes. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal illness characterized by the degeneration of upper and lower motor neurons (MNs), with an average survival of 3–5 years.
  • 600
  • 18 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Implications of Flaviviruses Immunity on ZIKV Vaccine
The Zika virus (ZIKV) was first isolated from a rhesus macaque in the Zika forest of Uganda in 1947. Isolated cases were reported until 2007, when the first major outbreaks of Zika infection were reported from the Island of Yap in Micronesia and from French Polynesia in 2013. In 2015, ZIKV started to circulate in Latin America, and in 2016, ZIKV was considered by WHO to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern due to cases of Congenital Zika Syndrome (CZS), a ZIKV-associated complication never observed before. After a peak of cases in 2016, the infection incidence dropped dramatically but still causes concern because of the associated microcephaly cases, especially in regions where the dengue virus (DENV) is endemic and co-circulates with ZIKV. A vaccine could be an important tool to mitigate CZS in endemic countries. However, the immunological relationship between ZIKV and other flaviviruses, especially DENV, and the low numbers of ZIKV infections are potential challenges for developing and testing a vaccine against ZIKV.
  • 593
  • 02 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Heme Interactions
Heme (Fe2+-protoporphyrin IX) is a pigment of life, and as a prosthetic group in several hemoproteins, it contributes to diverse critical cellular processes. Direct interactions of extracellular heme with alternative pathway complement components (APCCs) may be implicated molecularly in diverse conditions at sites of abnormal cell damage and vascular injury. 
  • 593
  • 29 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Anti-DNA Antibodies in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Anti-DNA antibodies are hallmark autoantibodies produced in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), but their pathogenetic role is not fully understood. Accumulating evidence suggests that some anti-DNA antibodies enter different types of live cells and affect the pathophysiology of SLE by stimulating or impairing these cells.
  • 593
  • 27 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Targeted Accumulation of Macrophages Induced by Microbeam Irradiation
Macrophages are some of the first cells recruited to sites of radiation-induced injury where they can aid in tissue repair, propagate radiation-induced fibrogenesis and influence tumour dynamics. Radiation therapy (RT) is a vital component of multimodal cancer treatment, and its immunomodulatory effects are a major focus of current therapeutic strategies. Microbeam radiation therapy (MRT) is a unique, spatially fractionated radiation modality that has demonstrated exceptional tumour control and reduction in normal tissue toxicity, including fibrosis. 
  • 592
  • 02 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Damage-Associated Molecular Patterns in Psoriasis
Psoriasis is a chronic skin disorder that involves both innate and adaptive immune responses in its pathogenesis. Local tissue damage is a hallmark feature of psoriasis and other autoimmune diseases. In psoriasis, damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) released by damaged local tissue act as danger signals and trigger inflammatory responses by recruiting and activating immune cells. They also stimulate the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, which exacerbate the inflammatory response and contribute to disease progression. DAMPs have a dual function. On the one hand, they can regulate cell homeostasis and maintain cell function when present within cells. On the other hand, they can also act as endogenous molecules of cell death or injury and amplify the signal of inflammation through various cell receptors upon release. This leads to the activation of immune cells and the secretion of a large number of inflammatory factors. DAMPs not only play a pro-inflammatory role in acute inflammation, such as sepsis, acute liver injury, or acute pancreatitis, but they also mediate immunity in chronic immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and inflammatory bowel disease.
  • 589
  • 23 Jan 2024
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