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Topic Review
SnR30/U17 Small Nucleolar Ribonucleoprotein
The small nucleolar RNA snR30 (U17 in humans) plays a unique role during ribosome synthesis. Unlike most members of the H/ACA class of guide RNAs, the small nucleolar ribonucleoprotein (snoRNP) complex assembled on snR30 does not direct pseudouridylation of ribosomal RNA (rRNA), but instead snR30 is critical for 18S rRNA processing during formation of the small subunit (SSU) of the ribosome. Specifically, snR30 is essential for three pre-rRNA cleavages at the A0/01, A1/1, and A2/2a sites in yeast and humans, respectively. Accordingly, snR30 is the only essential H/ACA guide RNA in yeast. However, the molecular mechanism of snR30 and how it promotes pre-rRNA processing remains under investigation.
  • 1.0K
  • 21 Oct 2020
Topic Review
DSResSol
Protein solubility is an important thermodynamic parameter that is critical for the characterization of a protein’s function, and a key determinant for the production yield of a protein in both the research setting and within industrial (e.g., pharmaceutical) applications. Experimental approaches to predict protein solubility are costly, time-consuming, and frequently offer only low success rates. To reduce cost and expedite the development of therapeutic and industrially relevant proteins, a highly accurate computational tool for predicting protein solubility from protein sequence is sought. While a number of in silico prediction tools exist, they suffer from relatively low prediction accuracy, bias toward the soluble proteins, and limited applicability for various classes of proteins. In this study, researchers developed a novel deep learning sequence-based solubility predictor, DSResSol, that takes advantage of the integration of squeeze excitation residual networks with dilated convolutional neural networks and outperforms all existing protein solubility prediction models. This model captures the frequently occurring amino acid k-mers and their local and global interactions and highlights the importance of identifying long-range interaction information between amino acid k-mers to achieve improved accuracy, using only protein sequence as input. DSResSol outperforms all available sequence-based solubility predictors by at least 5% in terms of accuracy when evaluated by two different independent test sets. Compared to existing predictors, DSResSol not only reduces prediction bias for insoluble proteins but also predicts soluble proteins within the test sets with an accuracy that is at least 13% higher than existing models. Researchers derive the key amino acids, dipeptides, and tripeptides contributing to protein solubility, identifying glutamic acid and serine as critical amino acids for protein solubility prediction. Overall, DSResSol can be used for the fast, reliable, and inexpensive prediction of a protein’s solubility to guide experimental design.
  • 1.0K
  • 14 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Microglial Phagocytosis
       Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common autoimmune and demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS), characterized, in the majority of cases, by initial relapses that later evolve into progressive neurodegeneration, severely impacting patients’ motor and cognitive functions. Despite the availability of immunomodulatory therapies effective to reduce relapse rate and slow disease progression, they all failed to restore CNS myelin that is necessary for MS full recovery. Microglia are the primary inflammatory cells present in MS lesions, therefore strongly contributing to demyelination and lesion extension. Thus, many microglial-based therapeutic strategies have been focused on the suppression of microglial pro-inflammatory phenotype and neurodegenerative state to reduce disease severity.
  • 1.0K
  • 25 Aug 2020
Topic Review
MG53 Tissue Repair Regenerative Medicine
Mitsugumin 53 (MG53), a TRIM family protein, plays a key role in repairing cell membrane damage and facilitating tissue regeneration. Clarifying the role of MG53 and its molecular mechanism are important for the application of MG53 in regenerative medicine. In this review, we analyze current research dissecting MG53's function in cell membrane repair and tissue regeneration, and highlight the development of recombinant human MG53 protein as a potential therapeutic agent to repair multiple-organ injuries.  
  • 1.0K
  • 22 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Exosomes in Designing Drug Delivery Systems
Exosomes are a subpopulation of extravascular vesicles with a diameter of 30–150 nm. They are cellular-communication mediators, often reaching very distant organism tissues. Information is transferred by exosomal cargo, composed of a wide variety of macromolecules such as nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids. Exosomes possess natural specific cell targeting properties that are desirable in designing targeted macromolecules (DNA and RNA) and drug delivery systems (doxorubicin, paclitaxel, and taxol). In this context, exosomes can be defined as bio-derived drug transporting and protecting devices for the treatment of bacterial (toxoplasmosis and salmonellosis), viral (AIDS and hepatitis B), and cancer (lung, pancreatic, colon, brain, and breast) diseases. Extensive research proves that exosomes’ natural cargo can double-act, both increasing and decreasing the disease severity. In this case, the exosomes need to be prepared, namely, their origin and their cargo need to be screened and known. Thus, appropriate methods for intact and price-effective exosome isolation are needed with further exosome properties description. Among many utilized isolation methods, the most common are ultracentrifugation, polymer-based precipitation, and affinity precipitation-isolation systems, but novel microfluidic methods compromising high efficacy and purity are being developed. 
  • 1.0K
  • 19 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Gastrointestinal Disorders Involving ICCs and the ENS
The enteric nervous system (ENS) is organized into two plexuses—submucosal and myenteric—which regulate smooth muscle contraction, secretion, and blood flow along the gastrointestinal tract under the influence of the rest of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Interstitial cells of Cajal (ICCs) are mainly located in the submucosa between the two muscle layers and at the intramuscular level. They communicate with neurons of the enteric nerve plexuses and smooth muscle fibers and generate slow waves that contribute to the control of gastrointestinal motility. They are also involved in enteric neurotransmission and exhibit mechanoreceptor activity. A close relationship appears to exist between oxidative stress and gastrointestinal diseases, in which ICCs can play a prominent role. Thus, gastrointestinal motility disorders in patients with neurological diseases may have a common ENS and central nervous system (CNS) nexus. In fact, the deleterious effects of free radicals could affect the fine interactions between ICCs and the ENS, as well as between the ENS and the CNS.
  • 1.0K
  • 25 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Natural Resistance of Plants
The over-reliance on herbicides to reduce weed infestation in crops has led to the rapid evolution of herbicide-resistant (HR) weeds. Weed resistance to herbicides should be minimized, as this can lead to serious limitations in the food security for people around the world. Landing page resistance can occur as a result of changes in the biochemical sites of the action of one herbicide. Inappropriate resistance occurs through mechanisms that reduce the number of herbicide molecules and reach their target site. In major field crops, synthetic herbicides are used to control weeds worldwide. Cross-resistance can occur with herbicides from the same or different herbicide families, and with the same or different sites of action. Multiple resistance refers to the evolved mechanisms of resistance to more than one herbicide (e.g., resistance to inhibitors (ALS) and (ACC), and this resistance has resulted from separate selection processes). Currently, weed re-sistance has been transferred to 161 different herbicides, covering twenty-three of the twenty-six known herbicide sites. We can protect crops that are associated with herbicide tolerant weeds through biochemical, genetic and crop control strategies. The “European Green Deal” forces producers to change their approaches to plant protection. The emphasizes the importance and advantages of enhancing the natural resistance of plants to pests, with particular emphasis on the importance of oxylipins in plant protection. The summarize the latest research on the reaction of plants to pesticides, including herbicides, in order to assess the possibility of using jasmonates and brassinosteroids to stimulate the natural, induced systemic immunity of plants, as well as investigate the possibility of the interaction of oxylipins with ethylene, salicylates and other compounds.
  • 1.0K
  • 16 Nov 2022
Topic Review
PLXNA4 Gene
PLXNA4 gene, is known to play a role as a guide for axons in the development of the nervous system. When the PLXNA4 recombinant protein was added, neuron-related genes were increased. In the PLXNA4 gene knockdown experiment, the expression of neuron-related genes was not changed by LISSV exposure. The PLXNA4 gene is activated by sema family ligands. 
  • 1.0K
  • 08 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Animal Model Systems of Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson's disease is an advancing condition characterized by different types of physical and mental impairments. The characteristic features of Parkinson's disease include the buildup of improperly folded protein known as α-synuclein as Lewy bodies, as well as the deterioration of dopamine-producing neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) region, which impacts the patient's motor functions. Significant studies have been conducted to investigate the use of animal models for Parkinson's disease.
  • 1.0K
  • 05 Jun 2023
Topic Review
MSC Senescence
Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are a heterogeneous population of stromal cells capable of self-renewal and multi-lineage differentiation into various tissues of mesodermal origin.
  • 1.0K
  • 02 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Biosynthesis of DNA-Alkylating Antitumor Natural Products
DNA-alkylating natural products play an important role in drug development due to their significant antitumor activities. They usually show high affinity with DNA through different mechanisms with the aid of their unique scaffold and highly active functional groups. Therefore, the biosynthesis of these natural products has been extensively studied, especially the construction of their pharmacophores.
  • 1.0K
  • 25 Oct 2022
Topic Review
HIF2α/ARNT Expression for Ischemic Heart Disease Therapy
Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide, with novel therapeutic strategies urgently needed. Endothelial dysfunction is a hallmark of IHD, contributing to its development and progression. Hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) are transcription factors activated in response to low oxygen levels, playing crucial roles in various pathophysiological processes related to cardiovascular diseases.
  • 1.0K
  • 26 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Multiple Myeloma (MM)
Multiple myeloma (MM) is a hematologic malignancy characterized by the accumulation of bone marrow (BM) clonal plasma cells, which are strictly dependent on the microenvironment.
  • 1.0K
  • 27 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress in Diseases Pathogenesis
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a dynamic structure, playing multiple roles including calcium storage, protein synthesis and lipid metabolism. During cellular stress, variations in ER homeostasis and its functioning occur. This condition is referred as ER stress and generates a cascade of signaling events termed unfolded protein response (UPR), activated as adaptative response to mitigate the ER stress condition. UPR is activated in several disorders, including inflammation, diabetes, metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases, as well as in cancer. 
  • 1.0K
  • 27 Dec 2022
Topic Review
3D Tissue and Organ Reconstruction
Bi-dimensional culture systems have represented the most used method to study cell biology outside the body for over a century. Although they convey useful information, such systems may lose tissue-specific architecture, biomechanical effectors, and biochemical cues deriving from the native extracellular matrix, with significant alterations in several cellular functions and processes. Notably, the introduction of three-dimensional (3D) platforms that are able to re-create in vitro the structures of the native tissue, have overcome some of these issues, since they better mimic the in vivo milieu and reduce the gap between the cell culture ambient and the tissue environment. 3D culture systems are currently used in a broad range of studies, from cancer and stem cell biology, to drug testing and discovery. 
  • 1.0K
  • 24 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Thromboembolic complications of SARS-CoV-2
Covid-19 has the potential to cause severe damage to many tissues, including systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), acute respiratory disease syndrome (ARDS), multiorgan involvement, and shock. One of the most feared complications are thromboembolic events which lead to severe clinical phenotypes: worsening of pulmonary conditions, oxygen desaturation, and acute respiratory distress. Management choices should be considered according to the critical or chronic setting.                             Main pathophysiological mechanisms underlying thrombosis from Covid-19 are discussed, including metabolic derangements and hormonal factors.
  • 1.0K
  • 17 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Timing of Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most frequently diagnosed cancer worldwide, where ~50% of patients develop metastasis, despite current improved management. Genomic characterisation of metastatic CRC, and elucidating the effects of therapy on the metastatic process, are essential to help guide precision medicine. Multi-region whole-exome sequencing was performed on 191 sampled tumour regions of patient-matched therapy-naïve and treated CRC primary tumours (n = 92 tumour regions) and metastases (n = 99 tumour regions), in 30 patients. Somatic variants were analysed to define the origin, composition, and timing of seeding in the metastatic progression of therapy-naïve and treated metastatic CRC. High concordance, with few genomic differences, was observed between primary CRC and metastases. Most cases supported a late dissemination model, via either monoclonal or polyclonal seeding. Polyclonal seeding appeared more common in therapy-naïve metastases than in treated metastases. Whereby, treatment prompted for the selection of distinct resistant clones, through monoclonal seeding to distant metastatic sites. Overall, this study reinforces the importance of early clinical detection and surgical excision of the CRC tumour, whilst further highlighting the clinical challenges for metastatic CRC with increased intratumour heterogeneity (either due to early dissemination or polyclonal metastatic spread) and the underlying risk of future therapeutic resistance in treated patients.
  • 1.0K
  • 20 Oct 2020
Topic Review
TRPA1 in Skin
The transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1), a member of the TRP superfamily of channels, acts as ‘polymodal cellular sensor’ on primary sensory neurons where it mediates the peripheral and central processing of pain, itch, and thermal sensation.
  • 1.0K
  • 19 May 2021
Topic Review
COVIDomics
COVIDomics, namely, the proteomic and metabolomic signatures of COVID-19. Omics-based technologies have been largely adopted during the unprecedented global COVID-19 pandemic, allowing the scientific community to perform research on a large scale to understand the pathobiology of the SARS-CoV-2 infection and its replication into human cells. The application of omics techniques has been addressed to every level of application, from the detection of mutations, methods of diagnosis or monitoring, drug target discovery, and vaccine generation, to the basic definition of the pathophysiological processes and the biochemical mechanisms behind the infection and spread of SARS-CoV-2. Thus, the term COVIDomics wants to include those efforts provided by omics-scale investigations with application to the COVID-19 research. 
  • 1.0K
  • 14 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Effects of Ellagic Acid in Neurological Diseases
Aging is associated with several diseases that threaten the health of older people, such as neurodegenerative diseases, which cause indelible and irreversible damage to both the physical and psychological well-being of older people and impose a heavy burden on their families and society. In recent years, a large number of studies have focused on the therapeutic effects of Ellagic Acid, demonstrating the health benefits of EA for neurodegenerative diseases. Three common neurological diseases are described here: AD, PD, and cerebral ischemia as well as the antioxidative and anti-inflammatory protective effects of EA.
  • 1.0K
  • 26 Oct 2022
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