International Journal of Molecular Sciences, Volume 23, Issue 10

The corneal endothelium is the inner corneal mono-layered epithelium, fundamental for preserving corneal hydration and transparency. However, molecular mechanisms that regulate corneal endothelial cells (CEnCs), in particular regarding their prolifer...

In glioblastoma, non-classical human leucocyte antigen E (HLA-E) and HLA-G are frequently overexpressed. HLA-E loaded with peptides derived from HLA class I and from HLA-G contributes to inhibition of natural killer (NK) cells with expression of the...

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are nanosized lipid bilayer-encapsulated particles secreted by virtually all cell types. EVs play an essential role in cellular crosstalk in health and disease. The cellular origin of EVs determines their composition and...

The formative period of adolescence plays a crucial role in the development of skills and abilities for adulthood. Adolescents who are affected by mental health conditions are at risk of suicide and social and academic impairments. Gene–environ...

Inhibition of the papain-like protease (PLpro) of SARS-CoV-2 has been demonstrated to be a successful target to prevent the spreading of the coronavirus in the infected body. In this regard, covalent inhibitors, such as the recently proposed VIR251 l...

Plasma factor XIII (pFXIII) is a heterotetramer of FXIII-A and FXIII-B subunits. The cellular form (cFXIII), a dimer of FXIII-A, is present in a number of cell types. Activated FXIII (FXIIIa), a transglutaminase, plays an important role in clot stabi...

Pluripotent stem cells (PSC) possess unlimited proliferation, self-renewal, and a differentiation capacity spanning all germ layers. Appropriate culture conditions are important for the maintenance of self-renewal, pluripotency, proliferation, differ...

Low pH-induced alterations in gene expression profiles and organic acids (OA) and free amino acid (FAA) abundances were investigated in sweet orange [Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck cv. Xuegan] leaves. We identified 503 downregulated and 349 upregulated...

(1) Background: Fibrosis in early-stage alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) is commonly under-diagnosed in routine clinical practice. This study characterized the liver-injury and cell death response in alcohol use disorder (AUD) patients with ALD...

Huntington’s disease (HD) is caused by the production of a mutant huntingtin (HTT) with an abnormally long poly-glutamine (polyQ) tract, forming aggregates and inclusions in neurons. Previous work by us and others has shown that an increase or...

Mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS) are rare lysosomal storage disorders (LSD) characterized by the excessive accumulation of glycosaminoglycans (GAG). Conventional MPS, caused by inborn deficiencies of lysosomal enzymes involved in GAG degradation, display...

The novel psychoactive substance (NPS) 4-Methyl-5-(4-methylphenyl)-4,5-dihydroxazol-2-amine (4,4′-DMAR) shows psychostimulant activity. Data on the acute toxicity of 4,4′-DMAR are becoming increasingly available, yet the long-term effects...

Transposable elements (TEs) have been extensively studied for decades. In recent years, the introduction of whole-genome and whole-transcriptome approaches, as well as single-cell resolution techniques, provided a breakthrough that uncovered TE invol...

Among types of trinucleotide repeats, there is some disproportion in the frequency of their occurrence in the human exome. This research presents new data describing the folding and thermodynamic stability of short, tandem RNA repeats of 23 types, fo...

Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a transdifferentiation process wherein epithelial cells acquire characteristics typical of mesenchymal cells [...]

Epithelial ovarian cancer has the highest mortality among all gynecological malignancies. The main reasons for high mortality are late diagnosis and development of resistance to chemotherapy. Resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs can result from alter...

Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) is an economically important vegetable crop with the unique growth habit and typical trailing shoot architecture of Cucurbitaceae. Elucidating the regulatory mechanisms of growth and development is significant for improv...

Deficient acid β-glucocerebrosidase activity due to biallelic mutations in GBA1 results in Gaucher disease (GD). Patients with this lysosomal storage disorder exhibit a wide range of associated manifestations, spanning from virtually asymptomati...

Defects in the intestinal epithelial barrier functions characterize inflammatory conditions such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Overexpression of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IL-1B, IL-6 and INF-γ trigger epithelial damage. These c...

Although various methods for selective protein tagging have been established, their ap plications are limited by the low fluorescent tagging efficiency of specific terminal regions of the native proteins of interest (NPIs). In this study, the highly...

Therapeutic oligonucleotides have achieved great clinical interest since their approval as drug agents by regulatory agencies but their access and distribution in blood cells are not completely known. We evaluated by flow cytometry the ability of sho...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are evolutionarily conserved small non-coding RNAs, that are involved in the multistep process of carcinogenesis, contributing to all established hallmarks of cancer. In this review, implications of miRNAs in hematological malignan...

There has been significant progress in immune checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) therapy in many solid tumor types. However, only a single failed study has been published in treating Ph(-) myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN). To make progress in CPI studies on...

Nucleic acids have essential roles in all biological processes related to genetic information, such as replication, transcription, translation, repair, and recombination [...]

Benzo(a)Pyrene (BaP) is one of the most widespread polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with endocrine disrupting properties and carcinogenic effects. In the present study, we tested the effect of BaP on thyroid development and function, using zeb...

Nature continuously produces biologically useful molecules and provides mankind with life-saving drugs or therapies [...]

The naturally occurring dipeptide carnosine (β-alanyl-L-histidine) specifically attenuates tumor growth. Here, we ask whether other small imidazole-containing compounds also affect the viability of tumor cells without affecting non-malignant cel...

Mice feed with coffee polyphenols (CPP, chlorogenic acid) and milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) has increased survival rates and helps retain long-term memory. In the cerebral cortex of aged mice, CPP intake decreased the expression of the proinflamma...

Responding to environmental stimuli with appropriate molecular mechanisms is essential to all life forms and particularly so in sessile organisms such as plants [...]

Anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs) are involved in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis. N-glycosylation pattern of ACPA-IgG and healthy IgG Fc differs. The aim of this study is to determine the relative sialylation and galactosylation...

Aging is a complex process which leads to progressive loss of fitness/capability/ability, increasing susceptibility to disease and, ultimately, death. Regardless of the organism, there are some features common to aging, namely, the loss of proteostas...

Polylactic acid–glycolic acid (PLGA) has been widely used in bone tissue engineering due to its favorable biocompatibility and adjustable biodegradation. 3D printing technology can prepare scaffolds with rich structure and function, and is one...

Pulmonary embolism is a life-threatening condition, which can result in respiratory insufficiency and death. Blood clots occluding branches of the pulmonary artery (PA) are traditionally considered to originate from thrombi in deep veins (usually in...

A proper diet is the basis of a healthy life; according to the WHO, approximately 1/3 of cardiovascular diseases and cancers can be avoided with a balanced and healthy diet [...]

In the present decade, we are seeing a rapid increase in available genetics and multiomics information on blood and vascular components of the human and mammalian circulation, involved in haemostasis, athero- and venous thrombosis, and thrombo-inflam...

Previous studies towards reduced oxygen availability have mostly focused on changes in total mRNA expression, neglecting underlying transcriptional and post-transcriptional events. Therefore, we generated a comprehensive overview of hypoxia-induced c...

Vining growth (VG) and high plant height (PH) are the physiological traits of wild soybean that preclude their utilization for domesticated soybean breeding and improvement. To identify VG- and PH-related quantitative trait loci (QTLs) in different g...

The efficiency and accuracy of the synthesis of structural lipids are closely related to the regiospecificity of lipases. Understanding the structural mechanism of their regiospecificity contributes to the regiospecific redesign of lipases for meetin...

In animals, malectin is well known to play an essential role in endoplasmic reticulum quality control (ERQC) by interacting with ribophorin I, one unit of the oligosaccharyltransferase (OST) complex. However, the functions of malectin in plants remai...

For the last six decades, cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (CYPs/P450s), heme thiolate proteins, have been under the spotlight due to their regio- and stereo-selective oxidation activities, which has led to the exploration of their applications in almo...

Amyloid-β 40 peptides [Aβ1-40 (Aβ40)] are present within amyloid plaques in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Even though Aβ peptides are considered neurotoxic, they can mediate many biological processes,...

Cell lines of monocyte/macrophage origin are often used as model systems to study monocyte/macrophage biology. A relevant question is how similar these cell lines are to their in vivo counterparts? To address this issue, we performed a detailed analy...

Using repositioning to find new indications for existing functional substances has become a global target of research. The objective of this study is to investigate the anti-inflammatory potential of psoralen derivatives (5-hydroxypsoralen, 5-methoxy...

Neurotrophins, such as nerve growth factor (NGF), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and neurotrophin 3 (NT-3), NT-4, and NT-5, are proteins involved in several important functions of the central nervous system. The activation of the signaling...

Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based therapy and tissue repair necessitate the use of an ideal clinical biomaterial capable of increasing cell proliferation and differentiation. Recently, MXenes 2D nanomaterials have shown remarkable potential for impro...

Insulin resistance (IR) is a key component in the etiopathogenesis of hypertension (HS) in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). Several pathways have been found to be involved in this mechanism in recent literature. For the above-mentioned reasons,...

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is a post-transcriptional RNA modification and one of the most abundant types of RNA chemical modifications. m6A functions as a molecular switch and is involved in a range of biomedical aspects, including cardiovascular disea...

Aptamers are single-stranded, short DNA or RNA oligonucleotides that can specifically bind to various target molecules. To diagnose the infected cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in time, numerous conventional meth...

Descurainia sophia L. (flixweeds) is a noxious broad-leaf weed infesting winter wheat fields in China that has evolved high resistance to tribenuron-methyl. In this work, a brand new gene CYP77B34 was cloned from tribenuron-methyl-resistant (TR) D. s...

3-PBA is a major degradation intermediate of pyrethroids. Its widespread existence in the environment poses a severe threat to the ecosystem and human health. This study evaluated the adsorption capacity of L. plantarum RS20 toward 3-PBA. Batch adsor...