Topic Review
Natural Killer Cells in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Natural killer (NK) cells were first described in the 1970's and belong to a subgroup of the innate lymphoid cell family. They arise from common lymphoid progenitors, but unlike T cells and B cells, they lack genetically rearranged receptors, are independent of antigen specificity and rely on a balance of signals transduced via activating and inhibitory receptors to induce activation.
  • 1.2K
  • 29 Mar 2022
Topic Review
L1 Syndrome
L1 syndrome describes a group of conditions that primarily affect the nervous system and occur almost exclusively in males. These conditions vary in severity and include, from most severe to least, X-linked hydrocephalus with stenosis of the aqueduct of Sylvius (HSAS), MASA syndrome, spastic paraplegia type 1, and X-linked complicated corpus callosum agenesis.
  • 1.2K
  • 23 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Aflatoxins
Aflatoxins family includes a great number of lipophilic molecules produced by aerobic micro fungi belonging to the genus Aspergillus. Aflatoxins are secondary metabolites produced by the microfungi.
  • 1.2K
  • 06 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Iron Homeostasis in Plants
Plants are able to synthesize all essential metabolites from minerals, water, and light to complete their life cycle. This plasticity comes at a high energy cost, therefore plants need to tightly allocate resources in order to control their economy. Being sessile, plants can only adapt to fluctuating environmental conditions, relying on quality control mechanisms. Remodeling of cellular components plays a crucial role, not only in response to stress, but also in normal plant development. Dynamic protein turnover is ensured through regulated protein synthesis and degradation processes. To effectively target a wide range of proteins for degradation, plants utilize ubiquitination as an essential signal of substrate recognition for the 26S proteasome. Recent progress has been made in understanding the cellular homeostasis of iron. In this review, we highlight the latest publications elucidating the role of Ubiquitin-Proteasome System (UPS) in control of iron metabolism during plant development, as well as environmental stresses.
  • 1.2K
  • 06 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Life
Life is the characteristic state of organisms. Properties common to terrestrial organisms (plants, animals, fungi, protists and bacteria) are that they are cellular, carbon-and-water-based with complex organization, having a metabolism, a capacity to grow, respond to stimuli, reproduce and—through natural selection—adapt. An entity with the above properties is considered to be organic life. However, not every definition of life considers all of these properties to be essential. For example, the capacity for descent with modification is often taken as the only essential property of life. This definition notably includes viruses, which do not qualify under narrower definitions as they are acellular and do not metabolise. Broader definitions of life may also include theoretical non-carbon-based life and other alternative biology. The entire Earth contains about 75 billion tons of biomass (life), which lives within various environments within the biosphere.
  • 1.2K
  • 26 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Limb Development
The function of retinoic acid (RA) during limb development is still debated, as loss and gain of function studies led to opposite conclusions. With regard to limb initiation, genetic studies demonstrated that activation of FGF10 signaling is required for the emergence of limb buds from the trunk, with Tbx5 and RA signaling acting upstream in the forelimb field, whereas Tbx4 and Pitx1 act upstream in the hindlimb field. Early studies in chick embryos suggested that RA as well as Meis1 and Meis2 (Meis1/2) are required for subsequent proximodistal patterning of both forelimbs and hindlimbs, with RA diffusing from the trunk, functioning to activate Meis1/2 specifically in the proximal limb bud mesoderm. However, genetic loss of RA signaling does not result in loss of limb Meis1/2 expression and limb patterning is normal, although Meis1/2 expression is reduced in trunk somitic mesoderm. More recent studies demonstrated that global genetic loss of Meis1/2 results in a somite defect and failure of limb bud initiation. Other new studies reported that conditional genetic loss of Meis1/2 in the limb results in proximodistal patterning defects, and distal FGF8 signaling represses Meis1/2 to constrain its expression to the proximal limb.
  • 1.2K
  • 19 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive interstitial lung disease. Chronic lung inflammation is linked to the pathogenesis of IPF. DROSHA, a class 2 ribonuclease III enzyme, has an important role in the biogenesis of microRNA (miRNA). The function of miRNAs has been identified in the regulation of the target gene or protein related to inflammatory responses via degradation of mRNA or inhibition of translation. The absent-in-melanoma-2 (AIM2) inflammasome is critical for inflammatory responses against cytosolic double stranded DNA (dsDNA) from pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and self-DNA from danger-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). The AIM2 inflammasome senses double strand DNA (dsDNA) and interacts with the adaptor apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase recruitment domain (ASC), which recruits pro-caspase-1 and regulates the maturation and secretion of interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18. A recent study showed that inflammasome activation contributes to lung inflammation and fibrogenesis during IPF. In the current review, we discuss recent advances in our understanding of the DROSHA–miRNA–AIM2 inflammasome axis in the pathogenesis of IPF.
  • 1.2K
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Antibiotics Detection in Food Products
Overuse of antibiotics leads to their circulation in the food chain due to unmanaged discharge. These circulating antibiotics and their residues are a major cause of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), so comprehensive and multifaceted measures aligning with the One Health approach are crucial to curb the emergence and dissemination of antibiotic resistance through the food chain. Different chromatographic techniques and capillary electrophoresis (CE) are being widely used for the separation and detection of antibiotics and their residues from food samples.
  • 1.2K
  • 02 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Optogenetics
The cerebellum is most renowned for its role in sensorimotor control and coordination, but a growing number of anatomical and physiological studies are demonstrating its deep involvement in cognitive and emotional functions. Recently, the development and refinement of optogenetic techniques boosted research in the cerebellar field and, impressively, revolutionized the methodological approach and endowed the investigations with entirely new capabilities. This translated into a significant improvement in the data acquired for sensorimotor tests, allowing one to correlate single-cell activity with motor behavior to the extent of determining the role of single neuronal types and single connection pathways in controlling precise aspects of movement kinematics. These levels of specificity in correlating neuronal activity to behavior could not be achieved in the past, when electrical and pharmacological stimulations were the only available experimental tools. The application of optogenetics to the investigation of the cerebellar role in higher-order and cognitive functions, which involves a high degree of connectivity with multiple brain areas, has been even more significant. It is possible that, in this field, optogenetics has changed the game, and the number of investigations using optogenetics to study the cerebellar role in non-sensorimotor functions in awake animals is growing. The main issues addressed by these studies are the cerebellar role in epilepsy (through connections to the hippocampus and the temporal lobe), schizophrenia and cognition, working memory for decision making, and social behavior. It is also worth noting that optogenetics opened a new perspective for cerebellar neurostimulation in patients (e.g., for epilepsy treatment and stroke rehabilitation), promising unprecedented specificity in the targeted pathways that could be either activated or inhibited.
  • 1.2K
  • 29 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Plants Secondary Metabolites
Plant secondary metabolites were reported to inhibit carbohydrate metabolizing enzymes, possess kinase activating capacity, thereby affecting all the metabolic pathways of carbohydrate, lipid and protein, and can intervene in the insulin-signaling pathway, inflammatory response, and oxidative stress and restore molecular aberrations leading to insulin resistance and glucose intolerance.
  • 1.2K
  • 09 Oct 2021
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