International Journal of Molecular Sciences, Volume 21, Issue 2

Photodynamic therapy is a non-invasive method where light activates a photosensitizer bound to cancer cells, generating reactive oxygen species and resulting in cell death. This study assessed the oncolytic potential of photodynamic therapy, comparin...

Abiotic stresses, such as drought and salt, are major environmental stresses, affecting plant growth and crop productivity. Plant bZIP transcription factors (bZIPs) confer stress resistances in harsh environments and play important roles in each phas...

DNA modification is a naturally occurring DNA modification in prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms and is involved in several biological processes. Although genome-wide methylation has been studied in many insects, the understanding of global and gen...

Our previous study indicated that glycerol application induced resistance to powdery mildew (Bgt) in wheat by regulating two important signal molecules, glycerol-3-phosphate (G3P) and oleic acid (OA18:1). Transcriptome analysis of wheat leaves treate...

The objective of this article was to document the energy-transducing and regulatory interactions in supramolecular complexes such as motor, pump, and clock ATPases. The dynamics and structural features were characterized by motion and distance measur...

Aging modifies not only multiple cellular and homeostatic systems, but also biological rhythms. The circadian system is driven by a central hypothalamic oscillator which entrains peripheral oscillators, in both cases underlain by circadian genes. Our...

Cerebral cavernous malformation (CCM) is a disease characterized by mulberry shaped clusters of dilated microvessels, primarily in the central nervous system. Such lesions can cause seizures, headaches, and stroke from brain bleeding. Loss-of-functio...

The Th17 immune response plays a key role in autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Expression of Th17-related genes in inflamed tissues has been reported in autoimmune diseases. However, values are...

Bone fracture healing involves the combination of intramembranous and endochondral ossification. It is known that Indian hedgehog (Ihh) promotes chondrogenesis during fracture healing. Meanwhile, Sonic hedgehog (Shh), which is involved in ontogeny, h...

Neuroinflammation is considered a key pathological process in neurodegenerative diseases of aging, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Many studies have defined phenotypes of reactive microglia, the brain-resident macrophages, with different an...

Perlecan is a heparan sulfate proteoglycan protein in the extracellular matrix that structurally and biochemically supports the cerebrovasculature by dynamically responding to changes in cerebral blood flow. These changes in perlecan expression seem...

The genus Macrostomum represents a diverse group of rhabditophoran flatworms with >200 species occurring around the world. Earlier we uncovered karyotype instability linked to hidden polyploidy in both M. lignano (2n = 8) and its sibling species M...

Recent data show that cardiac hypertrophy contributes substantially to the overall heart failure burden. Mitochondrial dysfunction is a common feature of cardiac hypertrophy. Recent studies have reported that isosteviol inhibits myocardial ischemia-r...

Melanotan II (MTII), a synthetic analogue of the alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (α-MSH), has been applied for skin tanning in humans. However, the carcinogenic consequence of topical MTII has been equivocal. This study aims to delineate t...

Anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) antibodies are effective in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, the effect is not optimal because a sufficient concentration of antibodies cannot be maintained at the site of inflamm...

Cancer is one of the most serious diseases endangering human health. In view of the side effects caused by chemotherapy and radiotherapy, it is necessary to develop low-toxic anti-cancer compounds. Polyphenols are natural compounds with anti-cancer p...

Recently, several studies focused on the genetics of gliomas. This allowed identifying several germline loci that contribute to individual risk for tumor development, as well as various somatic mutations that are key for disease classification. Unfor...

Nitrogen (N) is an essential macronutrient for crops. Plants have developed several responses to N fluctuations, thus optimizing the root architecture in response to N availability. Nitrate and ammonium are the main inorganic N forms taken up by plan...

Porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV), first identified in 2012, is a swine enteropathogen now found in many countries. The nucleocapsid (N) protein, a core component of PDCoV, is essential for virus replication and is a significant candidate in the devel...

Since the discovery of the first microRNA (miRNA) decades ago, studies of miRNA biology have expanded in many biomedical research fields, including eye research. The critical roles of miRNAs in normal development and diseases have made miRNAs useful...

Sjögren Syndrome (SS) is an autoimmune disease that affects the exocrine glands, mainly salivary and lacrimal glands [...]

In two recent studies we have shown that three of the most abundant human hematopoietic serine proteases—mast cell chymase, mast cell tryptase and neutrophil cathepsin G—show a highly selective cleavage of cytokines and chemokines with a...

Worldwide use of electronic cigarettes has been rapidly expanding over recent years, but the long-term effect of e-cigarette vapor exposure on human health and environment is not well established; however, its mechanism of action entails the producti...

Mammalian telomere lengths are primarily regulated by telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein consisting of a reverse transcriptase (TERT) and an RNA subunit (TERC). TERC is constitutively expressed in all cells, whereas TERT expression is temporally and spa...

HMGA (high mobility group A) (HMGA1 and HMGA2) are small non-histone proteins that can bind DNA and modify chromatin state, thus modulating the accessibility of regulatory factors to the DNA and contributing to the overall panorama of gene expression...

The prokaryotic phylum Cyanobacteria are some of the oldest known photosynthetic organisms responsible for the oxygenation of the earth. Cyanobacterial species have been recognised as a prosperous source of bioactive secondary metabolites with antiba...

There is a need for improved in vitro models of inherited cardiac diseases to better understand basic cellular and molecular mechanisms and advance drug development. Most of these diseases are associated with arrhythmias, as a result of mutations in...

The existence of a temperature effect of insecticides frustrated the control of the green plant bug Apolygus lucorum (Meyer-Dür). Previous studies mostly focused on the application of insecticides, but the underlying mechanism remains incomplete...

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a traumatic lesion that causes disability with temporary or permanent sensory and/or motor deficits. The pharmacological approach still in use for the treatment of SCI involves the employment of corticosteroid drugs. Howev...

Ultraviolet treatment of titanium implants makes their surfaces hydrophilic and enhances osseointegration. However, the mechanism is not fully understood. This study hypothesizes that the recruitment of fibrinogen, a critical molecule for blood clot...

The fundamental challenge in fighting cancer is the development of protective agents able to interfere with the classical pathways of malignant transformation, such as extracellular matrix remodeling, epithelial–mesenchymal transition and, alte...

Terpenoids play vital roles in tea aroma quality and plants defense performance determination, whereas the scenarios of genes to metabolites of terpenes pathway remain uninvestigated in tea plants. Here, we report the use of an integrated approach co...

Plant Nodulin 26-like Intrinsic Proteins (NIPs) are multifunctional membrane channels of the Major Intrinsic Protein (MIP) family. Unlike other homologs, they have low intrinsic water permeability. NIPs possess diverse substrate selectivity, ranging...

Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) throughout the body are the focus of much current interest. Most occur in the gastrointestinal tract and have shown a major increase in incidence over the past 30 years, roughly paralleling the world-wide increase in the...

Beef quality is a complex phenotype that can be evaluated only after animal slaughtering. Previous research has investigated the potential of genetic markers or muscle-derived proteins to assess beef tenderness. Thus, the use of low-invasive biomarke...

Exosomes are nano-sized membranous vesicles produced by nearly all types of cells. Since exosome-like vesicles are produced in an evolutionarily conserved manner for information and function transfer from the originating cells to recipient cells, an...

Matrilins (MATN1, MATN2, MATN3 and MATN4) are adaptor proteins of the cartilage extracellular matrix (ECM), which bridge the collagen II and proteoglycan networks. In humans, dominant-negative mutations in MATN3 lead to various forms of mild chondrod...

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common cancers and the second leading cause of cancer-related death among men worldwide. Despite progresses in early diagnosis and therapeutic strategies, prognosis for patients with advanced PCa remains poor....

The editorial team greatly appreciates the reviewers who have dedicated their considerable time and expertise to the journal’s rigorous editorial process over the past 12 months, regardless of whether the papers are finally published or not.[...]

Banana (Musa acuminata, AAA group) is a representative climacteric fruit with essential nutrients and pleasant flavors. Control of its ripening determines both the fruit quality and the shelf life. NAC (NAM, ATAF, CUC2) proteins, as one of the larges...

The transition from pregnancy to lactation is characterized by a progressive decrease in insulin sensitivity. Propionate increases with dietary fiber consumption and has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity. Recent studies suggest that plasma od...

Immune checkpoints are crucial in the maintenance of antitumor immune responses. The activation or blockade of immune checkpoints is dependent on the interactions between receptors and ligands; such interactions can provide inhibitory or stimulatory...

Adipocytes are dynamic cells that have critical functions to maintain body energy homeostasis. Adipocyte physiology is affected by the adipogenic differentiation, cell program, as well as by the exogenous stimulation of biochemical factors, such as s...

DNA methylation in mammals is essential for numerous biological functions, such as ensuring chromosomal stability, genomic imprinting, and X-chromosome inactivation through transcriptional regulation. Gene knockout of DNA methyltransferases and demet...

In our study, we performed retroviral transduction to overexpress codon-optimized variant of gene encoding human carbonic anhydrase I (optiCA1) in two tumor cell lines PC3 and MDA-MB-231, derived from human prostatic and breast carcinoma respectively...

In the case of neurodegenerative pathologies, the therapeutic arsenal available is often directed towards the consequences of the disease. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to evaluate the ability of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a molecule pres...

Jatropha curcas L. is monoecious with a low female-to-male ratio, which is one of the factors restricting its seed yield. Because the phytohormone cytokinins play an essential role in flower development, particularly pistil development, in this study...

Experimental data indicate that low-calcemic vitamin D derivatives (VDDs) exhibit anticancer properties, both in vitro and in vivo. In our search for a vitamin D analog as potential anticancer agent, we investigated the influence of chirality in the...

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is age-related interstitial lung disease of unknown etiology. About 100,000 people in the U.S have IPF, with a 3-year median life expectancy post-diagnosis. The development of an effective treatment for pulmonary f...

TFF1 is a peptide of the gastric mucosa co-secreted with the mucin MUC5AC. It plays a key role in gastric mucosal protection and repair. Tff1-deficient (Tff1^KO) mice obligatorily develop antropyloric adenoma and about 30% progress to carcinomas. Thus...