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Topic Review
Host Small GTPases in Apicomplexan Parasite Infection
The Apicomplexa are obligate intracellular parasites responsible for several important human diseases. These protozoan organisms have evolved several strategies to modify the host cell environment to create a favorable niche for their survival. The host cytoskeleton is widely manipulated during all phases of apicomplexan intracellular infection. Moreover, the localization and organization of host organelles are altered in order to scavenge nutrients from the host. Small GTPases are a class of proteins widely involved in intracellular pathways governing different processes, from cytoskeletal and organelle organization to gene transcription and intracellular trafficking. These proteins are already known to be involved in infection by several intracellular pathogens, including viruses, bacteria and protozoan parasites.
  • 713
  • 15 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Essential Factors for a Healthy Microbiome
Discoveries of the purpose and potential of microbial interactions with humans have broad implications for understanding of metabolism, immunity, the host–microbe genetic interactions. Bioavailability and bioaccessibility of phytonutrients in foods not only enrich microbial diversity in the lower human gastrointestinal tract (GIT) but also direct the functioning of the metagenome of the microbiota. Thus, healthy choices must include foods that contain nutrients that satisfy both the needs of humans and their microbes. Physical activity interventions at a moderate level of intensity have shown positive effects on metabolism and the microbiome, while intense training (>70% VO2max) reduces diversity in the short term. The microbiome of elite endurance athletes is a robust producer of short-chain fatty acids. A lifestyle lacking activity is associated with the development of chronic disease, and experimental conditions simulating weightlessness in humans demonstrate loss of muscle mass occurring in conjunction with a decline in gut short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production and the microbes that produce them.
  • 712
  • 19 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Immunomodulation, Bioavailability and Safety of Bacteriocins
Bacteriocins can help in the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases. Moreover, bacteriocins can be obtained in prokaryotic organisms, and contribute s to their widespread use. While the use of bacteriocins is currently limited to the food industry (for example, nisin is used as a preservative, E234), a large number of studies on their microbicidal properties suggest that their use in medicine may increase in the foreseeable future. However, for the successful use of bacteriocins in medicine, it is necessary to understand their effect on the immune system, especially in cases where immunity is weakened due to infectious processes, oncological, allergic, or autoimmune diseases. Studies on the immuno-modulatory activity of bacteriocins in animal models and human cells have revealed their ability to induce both pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory factors involved in the implementation of innate immunity. The influence of bacteriocins on acquired immunity is revealed by an increase in the number of T-lymphocytes with a simultaneous decrease in B-lymphocyte levels, which makes them attractive substances for reducing inflammation. The widespread use of bacteriocins in the food industry, their low toxicity, and their broad and narrow specificity are reasons for researchers to pay attention to their immunomodulatory properties and explore their medical applications. Inflammation regulation by bacteriocins can be used in the treatment of various pathologies.
  • 712
  • 24 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Composition and Metabolic Activity of Gut Microbiota
The gut microbiota comprises species from all three domains of life (bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes) as well as viruses, with each human individual harbouring a unique combination of constituent species. 
  • 710
  • 25 May 2023
Topic Review
Antifungal and Anticancer Activity of Amphidinium spp.
Dinoflagellates make up the second largest marine group of marine unicellular eukaryotes in the world ocean and comprise both heterotrophic and autotrophic species, encompassing a wide genetic and chemical diversity. They produce a plethora of secondary metabolites that can be toxic to other species and are mainly used against predators and competing species. Dinoflagellates are indeed often responsible for harmful algal bloom, where their toxic secondary metabolites can accumulate along the food chain, leading to significant damages to the ecosystem and human health. Secondary metabolites from dinoflagellates have been widely investigated for potential biomedical applications and have revealed multiple antimicrobial, antifungal, and anticancer properties. Species from the genus Amphidinium seem to be particularly interesting for the production of medically relevant compounds.
  • 707
  • 29 Dec 2023
Topic Review
Non-Aflatoxigenic Aspergillus flavus Control Aflatoxins
Aflatoxins (AFs) are carcinogenic compounds causing liver cancer in humans and animals. Several methodologies have been developed to control AF contamination, yet; they are usually expensive and unfriendly to the environment. Consequently, interest in biocontrol agents has increased, as they are convenient, advanced, and friendly to the environment. Using non-aflatoxigenic strains of A. flavus (AF−) as biocontrol agents is the most promising method to control AFs’ contamination in cereal crops. 
  • 706
  • 23 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Bacteria–Cancer Interface
Epidemiological evidence reveal a very close association of malignancies with chronic inflammation as a result of persistent bacterial infection. Recently, more studies have provided experimental evidence for an etiological role of bacterial factors disposing infected tissue towards carcinoma. When healthy cells accumulate genomic insults resulting in DNA damage, they may sustain proliferative signalling, resist apoptotic signals, evade growth suppressors, enable replicative immortality, and induce angiogenesis, thus boosting active invasion and metastasis.
  • 704
  • 26 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Bacteria and Their Association with Plants
The salinization of soils is a growing agricultural concern worldwide. Irrigation practices, drought, and climate change are leading to elevated salinity levels in many regions, resulting in reduced crop yields. However, there is potential for a solution in the microbiome of halophytes, which are naturally salt-tolerant plants. These plants harbor a salt-tolerant microbiome in their rhizosphere (around roots) and endosphere (within plant tissue). These bacteria may play a significant role in conferring salt tolerance to the host plants. 
  • 700
  • 12 Dec 2023
Topic Review
Aurora A Kinase
Aurora kinase A also known as serine/threonine-protein kinase 6 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the AURKA gene. Aurora A is a member of a family of mitotic serine/threonine kinases. It is implicated with important processes during mitosis and meiosis whose proper function is integral for healthy cell proliferation. Aurora A is activated by one or more phosphorylations and its activity peaks during the G2 phase to M phase transition in the cell cycle.
  • 697
  • 07 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Antibacterial Dendrimers Research Need Improvements
Antimicrobial resistance, based on the built-in abilities of bacteria to nullify the activity of current antibiotics, leaves a growing number of bacterial infections untreatable. The development of novel agents able to interact with the external layers of bacteria, causing irreparable damage, without the need to interact with processes or substances vital for the bacterium but subjected to mutation, is a recent approach to address this issue. In this contest, natural cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMPs), able to kill bacteria by non-specific detrimental interaction with the negative bacterial membranes, have inspired the syntesis of cationic polymers which proved to be promising solutions. Only recently, also dendrimers were considered suitable macromolecules for the preparation of more advanced cationic biomimetic nanoparticles, able to harmonize the typical properties of dendrimers, including nanosize, mono-dispersion, long-term stability, high functionality, and the non-specific mechanism of action of CAMPs. As reviewed in an article available on Nanomaterials at https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/10/10/2022/htm#, different types of cationic dendrimers which showed considerable antibacterial effects have been synthetized and studied in the last decade, but only few structures, such as PAMAM and peptides-based ones have been extensively investigated. Moreover, despite the very promising results deriving from the evaluations of the different cationic dendrimers, these devices require further studies and more rationalized investigations. In this new entry, we have reviewed the cationic dendrimers and their antibacterial effects, which until now have only been minimally studied. In addition, we have allowed ourselves to express our considerations on how the case studies reported in the last decade regarding the different types of cationic dendrimers should be improved.
  • 692
  • 19 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Gut Microbiota and Bipolar Disorder
The gut microbiota is the set of microorganisms that colonize the gastrointestinal tract of living creatures, establishing a bidirectional symbiotic relationship that is essential for maintaining homeostasis, for their growth and digestive processes.
  • 692
  • 18 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Bacteriophages and Their Interactions with Bacterial Hosts
Bacteriophages (or phages) are viruses that specifically infect and kill bacteria at the end of the phage infection cycle, causing bacterial cell death and lysis.
  • 691
  • 14 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Sanitizing Hatching Eggs with Essential Oils
Increased meat and egg production leads to concomitant changes in poultry practices, including the indiscriminate use of formaldehyde to sanitize hatching eggs. Although this sanitizer aids in the increase in poultry production, its toxic potential for man and for avian embryos represents an obstacle to its long-term use.
  • 690
  • 24 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Lyme Borreliosis
The diagnosis of Lyme borreliosis is based on two-tier testing using an ELISA and Western blot. About 5–10% of patients report persistent symptoms of unknown etiology after treatment, resulting in substantial difficulties in further diagnostic workup.
  • 685
  • 22 May 2023
Topic Review
Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infections
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an important Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen which causes many severe acute and chronic infections with high morbidity, and mortality rates as high as 40%. What makes P. aeruginosa a particularly challenging pathogen is its high intrinsic and acquired resistance to many of the available antibiotics. 
  • 682
  • 12 Jan 2023
Topic Review
The Urinary Microbiome
The recent discovery of the urinary microbiome bolstered the notion that microbes might play a role in bladder cancer. Although microbial involvement in bladder neoplastic transformation and metastatic progression, except schistosomiasis, has not been established, accumulating research suggests that dysbiosis of the urinary microbiome can produce a chronically inflammatory urothelial microenvironment and lead to bladder cancer.
  • 681
  • 30 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Microbe Interactions within the Skin Microbiome
The skin is the largest human organ and is responsible for many important functions, such as temperature regulation, water transport, and protection from external insults. It is colonized by several microorganisms that interact with each other and with the host, shaping the microbial structure and community dynamics. Through these interactions, the skin microbiota can inhibit pathogens through several mechanisms such as the production of bacteriocins, proteases, phenol soluble modulins (PSMs), and fermentation. Furthermore, these commensals can produce molecules with antivirulence activity, reducing the potential of these pathogens to adhere to and invade human tissues. Microorganisms of the skin microbiota are also able to sense molecules from the environment and shape their behavior in response to these signals through the modulation of gene expression. 
  • 681
  • 29 Jan 2024
Topic Review
Approach for Molecular Diagnosis of Periprosthetic Joint Infections
Periprosthetic joint infections (PJIs) represent some of the most challenging complications whose incidence will consequently rise in proportion to surgeries. The manifestation and evaluation of physical findings such as acute local inflammation, fever, and wound drainage, may correlate to the presence of PJIs; indeed, these clinical manifestation are of great value in raising the suspicion of PJIs. 
  • 680
  • 23 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Gut and Reproductive Tract Microbiota
Pregnancy is characterized by maternal adaptations that are necessary to create a welcoming and hospitable environment for the fetus. Studies have highlighted how the microbiota modulates several networks in humans through complex molecular interactions and how dysbiosis (de-fined as quantitative and qualitative alterations of the microbiota communities) is related to human pathologies including gynecological diseases.
  • 679
  • 18 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Host Factors Affect the Gut Microbiome
Living organisms in nature exist as communities of various species, interacting closely with each other. Microbial organisms are also present as heterogeneous populations. Microbial organisms frequently appear as a dense mixture of various species to interact with each other in nature.
  • 676
  • 29 Mar 2022
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