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Topic Review
Biography
Topic Review
Computational Drug Design of TB
Developing new, more effective antibiotics against resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis that inhibit its essential proteins is an appealing strategy for combating the global tuberculosis (TB) epidemic. Finding a compound that can target a particular cavity in a protein and interrupt its enzymatic activity is the crucial objective of drug design and discovery. Such a compound is then subjected to different tests, including clinical trials, to study its effectiveness against the pathogen in the host. In recent times, new techniques, which involve computational and analytical methods, enhanced the chances of drug development, as opposed to traditional drug design methods, which are laborious and time-consuming. The computational techniques in drug design have been improved with a new generation of software used to develop and optimize active compounds that can be used in future chemotherapeutic development to combat global tuberculosis resistance.
1.2K
17 Dec 2021
Topic Review
BBSOAS Neurodevelopmental Disorder: Clinical Manifestations and Mouse Models
Bosch–Boonstra–Schaaf Optic Atrophy Syndrome (BBSOAS; OMIM 615722; ORPHA 401777) is a genetic neurodevelopmental syndrome caused by the haploinsufficiency of the NR2F1 gene, a key transcriptional regulator of brain and eye development. Although intellectual disability, developmental delay and visual impairment are arguably the most common symptoms affecting BBSOAS patients, multiple additional features are often reported, including epilepsy, autistic traits and hypotonia. These features can be present alone or as comorbidities, with a severity degree that presumably varies depending on the type of NR2F1 genetic perturbation, following a still not well characterized genotype–phenotype correlation. Pathogenic BBSOAS point mutations are principally located in the two most conserved functional domains of the NR2F1 protein: the DNA-binding domain (DBD), responsible for the interaction with target gene regulatory sequences, and the ligand-binding domain (LBD), necessary for dimerization and co-factor binding.
1.2K
27 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Participatory Plant Breeding
Biodiversity in general, and agrobiodiversity in particular are crucial for adaptation to climate change, for resilience and for human health as related to dietary diversity. Plant breeding is a cyclic process during which breeders generate diversity, most commonly by making crosses; select, within the diversity generated during a varying number of years, which depends on the crop, the methodology and the type of variety to be produced; and eventually obtain as a final product a new variety, which in several countries must be distinct, uniform and stable for its seed to be legally commercialized. Participatory plant breeding (PPB) has been promoted for its advantages to increase selection efficiency, variety adoption and farmers’ empowerment, and for being more socially equitable and gender responsive than conventional plant breeding.
1.2K
18 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Genetic Engineering of Eggplant
Eggplant (Solanum melongena) is the third most important vegetable in Asia and of considerable importance in the Mediterranean belt. Although global eggplant production has been increasing in recent years, productivity is limited due to insects, diseases, and abiotic stresses. Genetic engineering offers new traits to eggplant, such as seedless parthenocarpic fruits, varieties adapted to extreme climatic events (i.e., sub- or supra-optimal temperatures), transcription factor regulation, overexpressing osmolytes, antimicrobial peptides, Bacillusthuringiensis (Bt) endotoxins, etc.
1.2K
04 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Toxicology of Deoxynivalenol
Deoxynivalenol is a toxic compound produced by filamentous fungi and represents a threat to public health. It is not possible to totally extinguish fungal contamination in crops such as wheat and corn and thereby avoid the production of this toxin.
1.2K
03 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Novel Delivery Systems of Polyphenols
Polyphenols encapsulated in liposomes are known to produce more substantial effects on targeted cells than unencapsulated polyphenols, while having minimal cytotoxicity in healthy cells.
1.2K
29 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Peer Reviewed
Effects of High Hydrostatic Pressure on Fungal Spores and Plant Bioactive Compounds
Fungi, and their spores, are responsible for the spoilage of several foods and plants and are susceptible to contamination with mycotoxins, which have associated health hazards. In this context, proper methodologies for inactivating such fungi and controlling mycotoxin production are critical. High-pressure processing (HPP) has recently become popular as a nonthermal alternative to conventional thermal pasteurization processes. Even though HPP can effectively eliminate some fungal spores, some species, such as those from the genera Byssochlamys, Talaromyces, and Aspergillus, are quite resistant to this treatment. Additionally, high pressure can also be used as a cold extraction technique for bioactive compounds from medicinal plants and other matrices (termed high pressure-assisted extraction, HPE). With this method, safe use for food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical applications is guaranteed. This method simultaneously works (depending on the applied pressure level) as an extraction technique and induces the pasteurization effect on the extracts. This encyclopedia entry aims to highlight the effects of nonthermal HPP on fungal spores, the prevalence of mycotoxins in plant materials and how high pressure can be used as an extraction technique to produce high-value cold pasteurized extracts with biological activity.
1.2K
18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Passive Electrolocation in Fish
Passive electrolocation is a process where certain species of fish or aquatic amphibians can detect electric fields using specialized electroreceptors to detect and to locate the source of an external electric field in its environment creating the electric field. These external electric fields can be produced by any bioelectrical process in an organism, especially by actions of the nerves or muscles of fish, or indeed by the specially developed electric organs of fish. Other fields are induced by movement of a conducting organism through the earth's magnetic field, or from atmospheric electricity. Electrolocating fish use this ability to detect prey, locate other fish, avoid predators, and perhaps to navigate by the Earth's magnetic field. Electroreceptors probably evolved once or twice early in vertebrate evolution, but the sense was apparently lost in amniotes, and in a large number of the Actinopterygii (ray finned fishes) only to reappear independently in two teleost clades. In fish, the ampullary receptor is a specialized receptor that it uses to sense these electric fields and allows the fish to follow electric field lines to their source. Sharks primarily use specialized receptors, called Ampullae of Lorenzini, to detect their prey's low frequency DC fields and may also use their receptors in navigation by the Earth's magnetic field. Weakly electric fish use their ampullary receptors and tuberous receptors to detect the weakly electric fields produced by other fish, as well as for possible predator avoidance. Passive electrolocation contrasts with active electrolocation, in which the animal emits its own weak self generated electric field and detects nearby objects by detecting the distortion of its produced electric field. In active electrolocation the animal senses its own electromotor discharge or reafference instead of some externally generated electric field or discharge.
1.2K
17 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Health Benefits of Noni Juice
Noni juice is a globally popular health beverage originating in the tropics. Traditional healers believe the noni plant to be useful in treating a wide range of maladies. Consumers throughout the world have similar perceptions. To better understand the potential health benefits of noni juice, human intervention studies are reviewed and discussed.
1.2K
22 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Cocktail Anti-Tick Vaccines
Cocktail vaccines are a combination of at least two anti-tick vaccines. The concept of anti-tick vaccines was first demonstrated in 1939 [1], after which numerous antigens were identified [2-6]. However, until now, Bm86- based vaccines (Gavac TM in Cuba and TickGARD PLUSTM in Australia) are the only commercialized tick vaccines and are the most successful under field conditions [7-8]. Consequently, Willadsen [9], proposed that a combination of tick-antigens could enhance the efficacy of anti-tick vaccines. Additionally, this could broaden the vaccine protection- spectrum: (A) against multiple tick species (B) against tick-borne pathogens. Similar to single anti-tick vaccines [10-12], when ingested, antibodies induced against the cocktail vaccine-antigen constituents can traverse the gut epithelium, through the hemolymph to react against the corresponding tissue proteins, hence interfering with physiological functions of the proteins.
1.2K
01 Nov 2020
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