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Topic Review
Biography
Topic Review
A Bioinformatics Workflow of Metabolomics Analysis
Metabolomics is an emerging field that quantifies numerous metabolites systematically. The key purpose of metabolomics is to identify the metabolites corresponding to each biological phenotype, and then provide an analysis of the mechanisms involved. Although metabolomics is important to understand the involved biological phenomena, the approach’s ability to obtain an exhaustive description of the processes is limited. Thus, an analysis-integrated metabolomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and other omics approach is recommended. Such integration of different omics data requires specialized statistical and bioinformatics software.
1.8K
25 May 2022
Topic Review
Epigenetic Regulations of T Cell Differentiation
T cell differentiation is a tightly regulated process. Recent studies have shown that epigenetics plays a significant role at all stages of the differentiation process. The different stages of T cell differentiation are introduced and recent findings on the epigenetic regulation of this process will be discussed. The epigenetic modifications associated with T cell differentiation related to cancer are discussed as well.
1.8K
18 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy
Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) has been firstly introduced and proposed for analytical applications almost immediately after the invention of the laser in 1960. Since then, it has been proposed and today is widely used as an alternative analytical method for numerous applications. The operating principle of LIBS is quite simple and is based on the interaction of a powerful enough laser beam, focused usually on or in a sample, inducing a dielectric breakdown of the material, thus resulting in plasma formation consisting of excited and non-excited atoms and molecules, fragments of molecular species, electrons and ions, and emitting characteristic radiations, whose spectroscopic analysis can in principle provide the elemental composition fingerprint of the material. The required instrumentation consisting basically of a laser source, and a spectrometer/monochromator equipped with the appropriate light detector (nowadays being almost exclusively some CCD or ICCD type detector) is relatively simple and economically affordable, while significant progresses have been achieved to small size and/or portable equipment, facilitating largely the in situ operation.
1.8K
31 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Extracellular Calcium and Inflammation
Burn injury serves as an example of a condition with a robust systemic inflammatory response. The elevation of circulating interleukins (IL)-1β and -6 in children and adolescents with severe burn injury upregulates the parathyroid calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR), resulting in hypocalcemic hypoparathyroidism accompanied by urinary calcium wasting. This effect protects the body from the hypercalcemia that results from bone resorption, liberating calcium into the circulation. Extracellular calcium can exacerbate and prolong the inflammatory response by stimulating mononuclear cell chemokine production as well as the NLRP3 inflammasome of the innate immune system, resulting in increased IL-1 production by monocytes and macrophages. Interestingly, the CaSR upregulation in response to inflammatory cytokines disappears with age, potentially trapping calcium from bone resorption in the circulation, allowing it to contribute to increased inflammation and possibly increased calcium deposition in small arteries, such as the coronaries, as conditions with increased chronic inflammation, such as spinal cord injury, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis have an incidence of cardiovascular disease and coronary artery calcium deposition significantly higher than the unaffected age-matched population.
1.8K
08 Aug 2022
Topic Review
CAR-T Cells in Pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer has the worst prognosis and lowest survival rate among all types of cancers and thus, there exists a strong need for novel therapeutic strategies. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-modified T cells present a new potential option after successful FDA-approval in hematologic malignancies, however, current CAR T cell clinical trials in pancreatic cancer failed to improve survival and were unable to demonstrate any significant response. The physical and environmental barriers created by the distinct tumor microenvironment (TME) as a result of the desmoplastic reaction in pancreatic cancer present major hurdles for CAR T cells as a viable therapeutic option in this tumor entity. Cancer cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts express extracellular matrix molecules, enzymes, and growth factors, which can attenuate CAR T cell infiltration and efficacy. Recent efforts demonstrate a niche shift where targeting the TME along CAR T cell therapy is believed or hoped to provide a substantial clinical added value to improve overall survival.
1.8K
16 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Azaphilone Pigments
Filamentous fungi are known to biosynthesize an extraordinary range of azaphilones pigments with structural diversity and advantages over vegetal-derived colored natural products such agile and simple cultivation in the lab, acceptance of low-cost substrates, speed yield improvement, and ease of downstream processing. Modern genetic engineering allows industrial production, providing pigments with higher thermostability, water-solubility, and promising bioactivities combined with ecological functions.
1.8K
29 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Algae as Potential Bio-Pesticides
The term algae encompasses a wide range of photosynthetic organisms that are found primarily in freshwater and marine environments, although certain representatives can thrive in terrestrial niches, either on their own or by developing symbiotic relationships with other organisms.
1.8K
10 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Bioremediation of Heavy Metals by Microorganisms
Heavy metal pollution is a major environmental problem because metal ions persist in the environment due to their non-degradable nature. The toxicity and bioaccumulation tendency of heavy metals in the environment is a serious threat to the health of living organisms. Unlike organic contaminants, chemical or biological processes cannot break down heavy metals. Hence, they can only be transformed into less toxic species.
1.8K
10 Jan 2023
Topic Review
SARS-CoV-2
In December of 2019, the first few cases of novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia were reported in Wuhan, China. Since then, in a series of novel reports, a research group from Nankai University of China (the Nankai group) presented several important findings of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2): (1) The alternative translations of Nankai CDS (a 465- or 468-bp genomic region) could produce more than 17 putative proteins of the betacoronavirus subgroup B (BB coronavirus); (2) A furin protease cleavage site (FCS) was discovered in the Spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2; (3) 5' UTR barcoding can be used for the detection, identification, classification and phylogenetic analysis of, but not limited to coronavirus; (4) The FCS in the SARS-CoV-2 genome was acquired through the combination of copy number variations of short tandem repeats and single nucleotide substitutions [4]; and (5) two criteria were proposed to determine the intermediate host(s).
1.8K
13 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Aldosterone
Aldosterone is a steroid hormone that is produced in the adrenal cortex. Its major renal effect is to regulate electrolyte and water homeostasis in the distal tubule, thus maintaining blood pressure and extracellular fluid homeostasis through the activation of mineralocorticoid receptors (MR) in epithelial cells [2]. Aldosterone enters an epithelial cell and binds to the MR. The complex of aldosterone and MR translocates into the nucleus and regulates gene transcription of, among others, the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) and the signaling proteins and kinases that impact channel and transporter activity, such as serum/glucocorticoid kinases (SGKs).
1.8K
30 Oct 2020
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