International Journal of Molecular Sciences, Volume 22, Issue 3

Application of diazotrophs (N₂-fixing microorganisms) can decrease the overuse of nitrogen (N) fertilizer. Until now, there are few studies on the effects of diazotroph application on microbial communities of major crops. In this study, the diazotrop...

Cancer metastasis, the final stage of tumor progression, is a complex process governed by the interplay of multiple types of cells and the tumor microenvironment. One of the aspects of this interplay involves the release of various factors by the tum...

Significant variations from the normal QT interval range of 350 to 450 milliseconds (ms) in men and 360 to 460 ms in women increase the risk for ventricular arrhythmias. This difference in the QT interval between men and women has led to the understa...

The existence of a complete oxidative phosphorylation system (OXPHOS) supercomplex including both electron transport system and ATP synthases has long been assumed based on functional evidence. However, no structural confirmation of the docking betwe...

In plants, mTERF proteins are primarily found in mitochondria and chloroplasts. Studies have identified several mTERF proteins that affect plant development, respond to abiotic stresses, and regulate organellar gene expression, but the functions and...

The polypeptide Pep19-2.5 (Aspidasept^®) has been described to act efficiently against infection-inducing bacteria by binding and neutralizing their most potent toxins, i.e., lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and lipoproteins/peptides (LP), independent of the...

This study explored circulating miRNAs and target genes associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS) and cardiometabolic risk in obese patients. Small-RNA sequencing was used to assess the peripheral blood miRNome of 12 obese subjects (6 MetS and 6 non-...

Locomotion is a fundamental animal behavior required for survival and has been the subject of neuroscience research for centuries. In terrestrial mammals, the rhythmic and coordinated leg movements during locomotion are controlled by a combination of...

Drought represents a major threat to plants in natural ecosystems and agricultural settings. The biostimulant Super Fifty (SF), produced from the brown alga Ascophyllum nodosum, enables ecologically friendly stress mitigation. We investigated the phy...

Cancer cell metabolism is dependent on cell-intrinsic factors, such as genetics, and cell-extrinsic factors, such nutrient availability. In this context, understanding how these two aspects interact and how diet influences cellular metabolism is impo...

Methanol dehydrogenase (Mdh), is a crucial enzyme for utilizing methane and methanol as carbon and energy sources in methylotrophy and synthetic methylotrophy. Engineering of Mdh, especially NAD-dependent Mdh, has thus been actively investigated to e...

Diseases such as myocardial infarction, ischaemic stroke, peripheral vascular disease and venous thromboembolism are major contributors to morbidity and mortality. Procoagulant, anticoagulant and fibrinolytic pathways are finely regulated in healthy...

Methamphetamine (MA) is a highly addictive psychomotor stimulant drug. In recent years, MA use has increased exponentially on a global scale, with the number of MA-involved deaths reaching epidemic proportions. There is no approved pharmacotherapy fo...

In this study, we found that the loss of OmpR, the response regulator of the two-component EnvZ/OmpR system, increases the cellular level of Fur, the master regulator of iron homeostasis in Y. enterocolitica. Furthermore, we demonstrated that transcr...

The estrogen receptor alpha (ESR1) is an important gene transcriptional regulator, known to mediate the effects of estrogen. Canonically, ESR1 is activated by its ligand estrogen. However, the role of unliganded ESR1 in transcriptional regulation has...

The metabolic microenvironment, comprising all soluble and insoluble nutrients and co-factors in the extracellular milieu, has a major impact on cancer cell proliferation and survival. A large body of evidence from recent studies suggests that tumor...

Restraint stress causes various maternal diseases during pregnancy. β₂-Adrenergic receptor (β₂-AR) and Forkhead transcription factor class O 1 (FOXO1) are critical factors not only in stress, but also in reproduction. However, the role of FOXO1 in re...

D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO) is an enzyme that catalyzes the oxidation of D-amino acids generating H₂O₂. The enzymatic chimera formed by DAAO bound to the choline-binding domain of N-acetylmuramoyl-L-alanine amidase (CLytA) induces cytotoxicity in sev...

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification on RNA plays an important role in tumorigenesis and metastasis, which could change gene expression and even function at multiple levels such as RNA splicing, stability, translocation, and translation. In this stu...

Lipidomics is a lipid-targeted metabolomics approach that aims to the comprehensive analysis of lipids in biological systems in order to highlight the specific functions of lipid species in health and disease. Lipids play pivotal roles as they are ma...

Cardiac tissue engineering is very much in a current focus of regenerative medicine research as it represents a promising strategy for cardiac disease modelling, cardiotoxicity testing and cardiovascular repair. Advances in this field over the last t...

Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), a key regulator of the fibrinolytic system, is the main physiological inhibitor of plasminogen activators. By interacting with matrix components, including vitronectin (Vn), PAI-1 plays a regulatory role in...

The macroscopic and microscopic anatomy of the oral cavity is complex and unique in the human body. Soft-tissue structures are in close interaction with mineralized bone, but also dentine, cementum and enamel of our teeth. These are exposed to intens...

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the major health concerns worldwide. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of TB, can flexibly change its metabolic processes during different life stages. Regulation of key metabolic enzyme activities...

Legionella are Gram-stain-negative rods associated with water environments: either natural or man-made systems. The inhalation of aerosols containing Legionella bacteria leads to the development of a severe pneumonia termed Legionnaires’ disease. To...

The skin barrier consists of mucus, primarily comprising highly glycosylated mucins, and the epithelium. Host mucin glycosylation governs interactions with pathogens and stress is associated with impaired epithelial barrier function. We characterized...

Hip osteoarthritis (HOA) is characterized by degradation of the cartilage and synovitis. However, the pathohistological effects of synovial tissue inflammation on HOA are not clear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of iNOS, BCL-2...

Distinct from ovarian estradiol, the steroid hormone 17ß-estradiol (E2) is produced in the brain and is involved in numerous functions, particularly acting as a neurosteroid. However, the physiological role of E2 and the mechanism of its effects are...

Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) provide vital contractile force within blood vessel walls, yet can also propagate cardiovascular pathologies through proliferative and pro-inflammatory activities. Such phenotypes are driven, in part, by the diver...

The role of melatonin has been extensively investigated in pathophysiological conditions, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Reduced melatonin secretion has been reported in ASD and led to many clinical trials using immediate-release and prolo...

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer-related death, and the prevalence of CRC in young adults is on the rise, making this a largescale clinical concern. Advanced CRC patients often present with liver metastases (LM) and an increased i...

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are key receptors through which infectious and non-infectious challenges act with consequent activation of the inflammatory cascade that plays a critical function in various acute and chronic diseases, behaving as amplifica...

In almost all cases, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) develops as the endpoint of a sequence that starts with chronic liver injury, progresses to liver cirrhosis, and finally, over years and decades, results in liver cancer. Recently, the role of non-c...

The adherence and shear-resistance of human umbilical venous endothelial cells (HUVEC) on polymers is determined in vitro in order to qualify cardiovascular implant materials. In these tests, variable fractions of HUVEC do not adhere to the material...

Yellow peel will adversely affect the appearance quality of cucumber fruit, but the metabolites and the molecular mechanism of pigment accumulation in cucumber peel remain unclear. Flavonoid metabolome and transcriptome analyses were carried out on t...

One of the essential functions of microglia is to continuously sense changes in their environment and adapt to those changes. For this purpose, they use a set of genes termed the sensome. This sensome is comprised of the most abundantly expressed rec...

The structures of the adducts formed upon reaction of the cytotoxic paddlewheel dirhodium complex [Rh₂(μ-O₂CCH₃)₄] with the model protein hen egg white lysozyme (HEWL) under different experimental conditions are reported. Results indicate that [Rh₂(μ...

Macrophages are essential immune cells of the innate immune system. They participate in the development and regulation of inflammation. Macrophages play a fundamental role in fighting against bacterial infections by phagocytosis of bacteria, and they...

Heart failure remains the most common cause of death in the industrialized world. In spite of new therapeutic interventions that are constantly being developed, it is still not possible to completely protect against heart failure development and prog...

Tissue engineering (TE) is the approach to combine cells with scaffold materials and appropriate growth factors to regenerate or replace damaged or degenerated tissue or organs. The scaffold material as a template for tissue formation plays the most...

The mechanisms of how obesity contributes to the development of cardio-metabolic diseases are not entirely understood. Obesity is frequently associated with adipose tissue dysfunction, characterized by, e.g., adipocyte hypertrophy, ectopic fat accumu...

Human epidermal keratinocytes are constantly exposed to UV radiation. As a result, there is a significant need for safe and effective compounds to protect skin cells against this environmental damage. This study aimed to analyze the effect of phytoca...

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is characterized by a progressive elevation of mean arterial pressure followed by right ventricular failure and death. Previous studies have indicated that numerous inhibitors of receptor tyrosine kinase signaling could be...

Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-derived exosomes (MSC-Exo) are nano-sized extracellular vesicles enriched with MSC-sourced neuroprotective and immunomodulatory microRNAs, neural growth factors, and anti-inflammatory cytokines, which attenuate neuro-infla...

Ribosome-inactivating proteins (RIPs) are a class of cytotoxic enzymes that can inhibit protein translation by depurinating rRNA. Most plant RIPs are synthesized with a leader sequence that sequesters the proteins to a cell compartment away from the...

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is associated with meta-inflammation related to obesity but the role of adipose tissue in PH pathogenesis is unknown. We hypothesized that adipose tissue-derived metabolic regulators are altered in human and experimental P...

The free volume fraction of a macromolecular structure can be assessed theoretically by using a suitable model; however, it can also be evaluated from experimental data obtained from dilatometry and positron annihilation lifetime spectra. In this sec...

Pleural and parenchymal lung injury have long been characterized by acute inflammation and pathologic tissue reorganization, when severe. Although transitional matrix deposition is a normal part of the injury response, unresolved fibrin deposition ca...

Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is a unique lipid ligand binding to S1P receptors to transduce various cell survival or proliferation signals via small G proteins. S1P lyase (S1PL) is the specific enzyme that degrades S1P to phosphoethanolamine and (2E...

Protein oligomerization is key to countless physiological processes, but also to abnormal amyloid conformations implicated in over 25 mortal human diseases. Human Angiogenin (h-ANG), a ribonuclease A family member, produces RNA fragments that regulat...