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Topic Review
CYP21A2 Deficiency
Deficiency of 21-hydroxylase enzyme (CYP21A2) represents 90% of cases in congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), an autosomal recessive disease caused by defects in cortisol biosynthesis. Computational prediction and functional studies are often the only way to classify variants to understand the links to disease-causing effects.
  • 1.2K
  • 29 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Ceramide Transport Protein CERT and Its Inhibitors
Lipid transfer proteins (LTPs) are recognized as key players in the inter-organelle trafficking of lipids and are rapidly gaining attention as a novel molecular target for medicinal products. In mammalian cells, ceramide is newly synthesized in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and converted to sphingomyelin in the trans-Golgi regions. The ceramide transport protein CERT, a typical LTP, mediates the ER-to-Golgi transport of ceramide at an ER-distal Golgi membrane contact zone. A potent inhibitor of CERT, named (1R,3S)-HPA-12, was found by coincidence among ceramide analogs. Since then, various ceramide-resembling compounds have been found to act as CERT inhibitors. Nevertheless, the inevitable issue remains that natural ligand-mimetic compounds might directly bind both to the desired target and to various undesired targets that share the same natural ligand. To resolve this issue, a ceramide-unrelated compound named E16A, or (1S,2R)-HPCB-5, that potently inhibits the function of CERT has been developed, employing a series of in silico docking simulations, efficient chemical synthesis, quantitative affinity analysis, protein–ligand co-crystallography, and various in vivo assays. (1R,3S)-HPA-12 and E16A together provide a robust tool to discriminate on-target effects on CERT from off-target effects. 
  • 1.2K
  • 14 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Potential of microRNAs to Attenuate Diabetic Kidney Disease
Diabetic Kidney Disease (DKD) is a significant complication of diabetes and primary cause of end-stage renal disease globally. The exact mechanisms underlying DKD remain poorly understood, but multiple factors, including the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system (RAAS), play a key role in its progression. Aldosterone, a mineralocorticoid steroid hormone, is one of the key components of RAAS and a potential mediator of renal damage and inflammation in DKD. miRNAs, small noncoding RNA molecules, have attracted interest due to their regulatory roles in numerous biological processes. These processes include aldosterone signaling and mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) expression. Numerous miRNAs have been recognized as crucial regulators of aldosterone signaling and MR expression. These miRNAs affect different aspects of the RAAS pathway and subsequent molecular processes, which impact sodium balance, ion transport, and fibrosis regulation.
  • 1.2K
  • 17 Jan 2024
Topic Review
Tyrosine Hydroxylase Phosphorylation
Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) is the rate-limiting enzyme of dopamine biosynthesis. The phosphorylation of TH is strictly regulated.
  • 1.2K
  • 06 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Tumour Immune Microenvironment
Targeting altered tumour metabolism is an emerging therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment. The metabolic reprogramming that accompanies the development of malignancy creates targetable differences between cancer cells and normal cells, which may be exploited for therapy. In this entry, we focus on the metabolic dysregulation exerted by tumour cells on the immune microenvironment, leading to tumour immunosuppression. This metabolic rewiring and crosstalk with the tumour microenvironment also play a key role in cell proliferation, metastasis, and the development of treatment resistance. Nonetheless, greater understanding of the metabolic crosstalk presents strategies that aid in the precision targeting of altered tumour metabolism, including therapeutic strategies combining metabolic inhibition with immunotherapy.
  • 1.2K
  • 09 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Liquid Biopsies on Breast Cancer
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide. In the clinic today, imaging techniques like mammography and tissue biopsies are used to diagnose breast cancer. Even though these methods are important in primary diagnosis, they have limitations when it comes to longitudinal monitoring of residual disease after treatment, disease progression, therapy responses, and disease recurrence. Circulating cancer-derived material, including circulating cancer cells (CTCs), circulating DNA (ctDNA), and biomolecules encapsulated in extracellular vesicles,  acquired through liquid biopsies are currently focus of research as diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive biomarkers in breast cancer.
  • 1.2K
  • 08 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Telomeres and Cancer
Telomeres cap the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes and are indispensable chromatin structures for genome protection and replication. Telomere length maintenance has been attributed to several functional modulators, including telomerase, the shelterin complex, and the CST complex, synergizing with DNA replication, repair, and the RNA metabolism pathway components. As dysfunctional telomere maintenance and telomerase activation are associated with several human diseases, including cancer, the molecular mechanisms behind telomere length regulation and protection need particular emphasis. Cancer cells exhibit telomerase activation, enabling replicative immortality. Telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) activation is involved in cancer development through diverse activities other than mediating telomere elongation.
  • 1.2K
  • 23 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Applications of Two-Photon Microscopy
Fluorescence microscopy has represented a crucial technique to explore the cellular and molecular mechanisms in the field of biomedicine. However, the conventional one-photon microscopy exhibits many limitations when living samples are imaged. The new technologies, including two-photon microscopy (2PM), have considerably improved the in vivo study of pathophysiological processes, allowing the investigators to overcome the limits displayed by previous techniques. 2PM enables the real-time intravital imaging of the biological functions in different organs at cellular and subcellular resolution thanks to its improved laser penetration and less phototoxicity. The development of more sensitive detectors and long-wavelength fluorescent dyes as well as the implementation of semi-automatic software for data analysis allowed to gain insights in essential physiological functions, expanding the frontiers of cellular and molecular imaging. The future applications of 2PM are promising to push the intravital microscopy beyond the existing limits. 
  • 1.2K
  • 17 May 2022
Topic Review
Epigenetics of Atrial Fibrillation
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is known to be the most common supraventricular arrhythmia affecting up to 1% of the general population. Its prevalence exponentially increases with age and could reach up to 8% in the elderly population. The management of AF is a complex issue that is addressed by extensive ongoing basic and clinical research. AF centers around different types of disturbances, including ion channel dysfunction, Ca2+-handling abnormalities, and structural remodeling. 
  • 1.2K
  • 15 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Role of Neuroinflammation on Migraine
Neurogenic inflammation in migraine is mainly characterized by the release of neuropeptides such as CGRP and substance P from the trigeminal nerve, leading to arterial vasodilation, plasma protein extravasation, and mast cell degranulation. The involvement of these neuropeptides in migraine is evident, and pro-inflammatory cytokines or chemokines may be involved in this series of reactions.
  • 1.2K
  • 26 Aug 2021
Topic Review
PVT1: novel colorectal cancer biomarker
Colorectal cancer is a very deadly disease with a current lack of a reliable biomarker for early detection, non-invasive diagnosis, treatment, prognostication, and monitoring of treatment. This entry provides information that indicates that PVT1 is a novel biomarker in colorectal cancer. Further research is required to establish how this knowledge can be used for clinical applications.
  • 1.2K
  • 04 Aug 2020
Topic Review
Didymo
Didymosphenia geminata diatoms, or Didymo, was first found to be an invasive species that could have negative impacts on the environment due to the aggressive growth of its polysaccharide-based stalks.
  • 1.2K
  • 08 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Targeting Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) lacks estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 expressions, making targeted therapies ineffective. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have emerged as a promising approach for TNBC treatment by modulating the tumor microenvironment (TME) and interacting with cancer cells.
  • 1.2K
  • 08 May 2023
Topic Review
Role of PARP in TNBC
Triple-negative breast cancer is a combative cancer type with a highly inflated histological grade that leads to poor theragnostic value. Gene, protein, and receptor-specific targets have shown effective clinical outcomes in patients with TNBC. Cells are frequently exposed to DNA-damaging agents. DNA damage is repaired by multiple pathways; accumulations of mutations occur due to damage to one or more pathways and lead to alterations in normal cellular mechanisms, which lead to development of tumors. Advances in target-specific cancer therapies have shown significant momentum; most treatment options cause off-target toxicity and side effects on healthy tissues. PARP (poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase) is a major protein and is involved in DNA repair pathways, base excision repair (BER) mechanisms, homologous recombination (HR), and nonhomologous end-joining (NEJ) deficiency-based repair mechanisms. DNA damage repair deficits cause an increased risk of tumor formation. Inhibitors of PARP favorably kill cancer cells in BRCA-mutations. For a few years, PARPi has shown promising activity as a chemotherapeutic agent in BRCA1- or BRCA2-associated breast cancers, and in combination with chemotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer.
  • 1.2K
  • 29 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Amyloidogenic Regions in bPaS1
Bacterial S1 protein is a functionally important ribosomal protein. It is a part of the 30S ribosomal subunit and is also able to interact with mRNA and tmRNA. An important feature of the S1 protein family is a strong tendency towards aggregation. 
  • 1.2K
  • 20 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Antimicrobial Lipids from Plants and Marine Organisms
Medicinal plants and marine organisms are natural sources of many antimicrobial compounds. Plant components with antimicrobial activity include alkaloids, sulfur-containing compounds, diterpenes/terpenoids, fatty acids (FA), some carbohydrates, steroidal glycosides, and phenolic compounds. Both primary and secondary metabolites are “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) substances and the chance of triggering antimicrobial resistance is low. The most studied antimicrobial compounds of marine origin are peptides and alkaloids, contrarily to lipids. However, lipids are ubiquitously distributed in the different marine phyla, being quite abundant in some of them. Besides, several lipid classes from marine organisms have been recognized by their biological activity with a high potential to discover new antimicrobial compounds.
  • 1.2K
  • 15 Dec 2021
Topic Review
E3s That Target Wild-Type p53
p53 plays a role in different biological processes such as proliferation, invasion, pluripotency, metabolism, cell cycle control, ROS (reactive oxygen species) production, apoptosis, inflammation and autophagy. In the nucleus, p53 functions as a bona-fide transcription factor which activates and represses transcription of a number of target genes. In the cytoplasm, p53 can interact with proteins of the apoptotic machinery and by this also induces cell death. Despite being so important for the fate of the cell, expression levels of p53 are kept low in unstressed cells and the protein is largely inactive. 
  • 1.2K
  • 27 Feb 2023
Topic Review
LRRK2, Rab GTPases and Parkinson’s Disease
Studies point to the involvement of endolysosomal defects in parkinson’s disease (PD). The endolysosomal system, which tightly controls a flow of endocytosed vesicles targeted either for degradation or recycling, is regulated by a number of Rab GTPases. Their associations with leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2), a major causative and risk protein of PD, has also been one of the hot topics in the field.
  • 1.2K
  • 19 Jan 2024
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). 
  • 1.2K
  • 07 Sep 2021
Topic Review
DNA Damage Response (DDR)
DNA damage could occur in cells either endogenously, through normal cellular replication and metabolism, or exogenously through ultraviolet (UV), ionizing radiation (IR) or various genotoxic compounds] that could induce DNA damage. Different stressors will cause different types of DNA damage. Normal DNA replication could induce mismatch of the nucleotide and cause mutations. Stressors such as oxidative stress will produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) from normal cellular metabolism or from external genotoxic compound, which will cause DNA breaks, either single-stranded or double-stranded. Unrepaired DNA damage could cause severe mutations and chromosomal instability, which would have detrimental effects on the cells and lead to cell death, while DNA breaks that are repaired through non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) might cause mutations during the process.The DDR is the response mechanism which will detect any DNA damage that occurs throughout the chromosome and will activate a repair cascade to the damage site. This will help the cells either to proliferate normally if the repair was successful or to activate the cellular programmed cell death if the damage was too extensive and was unable to be repaired. The known DNA damage repair mechanisms include mismatch repair (MMR), base excision repair (BER), nucleotide excision repair (NER), homologous recombination (HR) and non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). Specific types of DNA damage could be fixed by a specific repair factor, such as the ATM kinase, which is the main factor in double-strand break repair through NHEJ. Figure 1 shows the causes and types of DNA damage as well as the response cascade involved in repairing the damages.
  • 1.2K
  • 08 Oct 2021
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