Biomolecules, Volume 10, Issue 8

The search for new compounds with antimalarial activity is urgent, as resistance to ones in the classical drug, has already been described in more than one continent. Compounds derived from 1,2,3-triazoles are effective against parasites and bacteria...

Monoacylglycerol lipase inhibition (MAGL) has emerged as an interesting therapeutic target for neurodegenerative disease treatment due to its ability to modulate the endocannabinoid system and to prevent the production of proinflammatory mediators. T...

Decorin, the prototype member of the small leucine-rich proteoglycan gene family of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, acts as a powerful tumor suppressor by inducing the p21^Waf1/Cip1 cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, as well as through its abilit...

Mitochondrial potassium channels have been described as important factors in cell pro-life and death phenomena. The activation of mitochondrial potassium channels, such as ATP-regulated or calcium-activated large conductance potassium channels, may h...

Although gastric cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer death in the world, mechanisms underlying this type of tumor have not been fully understood. In this study, we found that IQGAP3, a member of the IQGAP gene family, was significantly...

Grapevine canes are viticulture waste that is usually discarded without any further use. However, recent studies have shown that they contain significant concentrations of health-promoting compounds, such as stilbenes, secondary metabolites of plants...

Injury progression associated with cerebral laceration is insidious. Following the initial trauma, brain tissues become hyperexcitable, begetting further damage that compounds the initial impact over time. Clinicians have adopted several strategies t...

To function as a metabolic hub, plant mitochondria have to exchange a wide variety of metabolic intermediates as well as inorganic ions with the cytosol. As identified by proteomic profiling or as predicted by MU-LOC, a newly developed bioinformatics...

Catechin is a plant polyphenol with valuable antioxidant and health-promoting properties. Polymerization is one way to stabilize flavonoids and may cause changes in their specific properties. The aim of this study is to obtain a polymeric complex cat...

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) molecules are packaged into compact nucleo-protein structures called mitochondrial nucleoids (mt-nucleoids). Their compaction is mediated in part by high-mobility group (HMG)-box containing proteins (mtHMG proteins), whose a...

The intrinsically disordered protein α-synuclein (aSN) is, in its fibrillated state, the main component of Lewy bodies—hallmarks of Parkinson’s disease. Additional Lewy body components include glycosaminoglycans, including heparan s...

Naphthoquinone-based meroterpenoids are hybrid polyketide-terpenoid natural products with chemical diversity and a broad range of biological activities. Here, we report the isolation of a group of naphthoquinone-containing compounds from Streptomyces...

A hallmark common to many age-related neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), is that patients develop proteinaceous deposits in their central nervou...

Free-radical-mediated processes, such as peroxidation, isomerization and hydrogenation affecting fatty acid integrity and biological functions, have a trans-disciplinary relevance. Cardiolipins (CL, (1,3-diphosphatidyl-sn-glycerol)) and tetra-linoleo...

Anti-fibrotic therapies are of increasing interest to combat cardiac remodeling and heart failure progression. Recently, anti-fibrotic circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been identified in human and rodent cardiac tissue. In vivo (rodent) experiments prov...

Background: Cilia are actin based cellular protrusions conserved from algae to complex multicellular organisms like Homo sapiens. Respiratory motile cilia line epithelial cells of the tracheobronchial tree, beat in a synchronous, metachronal wave, mo...

The two-component system DesK-DesR regulates the synthesis of unsaturated fatty acids in the soil bacteria Bacillus subtilis. This system is activated at low temperature and maintains membrane lipid fluidity upon temperature variations. Here, we foun...

Based on a biotechnological strategy, in the present work several peptones are produced from the Alcalase hydrolysis (0.1–0.2% v/w, 56–64 °C, pH 8.27–8.98, 3 h) and thermal processing (105 °C, 60 min) of wastes generated fro...

Polysaccharides are widely used as building blocks of scaffolds and hydrogels in tissue engineering, which may require their chemical modification to permit crosslinking. The goal of this study was to generate a library of oxidized alginate (oALG) an...

Multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii is well-known for its rapid acclimatization in hospital environments. The ability of the bacterium to endure desiccation and starvation on dry surfaces for up to a month results in outbreaks of health care...

Histamine intolerance, also referred to as enteral histaminosis or sensitivity to dietary histamine, is a disorder associated with an impaired ability to metabolize ingested histamine that was described at the beginning of the 21st century. Although...

Understanding and targeting the molecular basis of peritoneal solute and protein transport is essential to improve peritoneal dialysis (PD) efficacy and patient outcome. Supplementation of PD fluids (PDF) with alanyl-glutamine (AlaGln) increased smal...

The proper development of the early gastrointestinal tract (GIT) microbiota is critical for newborn ruminants. This microbiota is susceptible to modification by diverse external factors (such as diet) that can lead to long-lasting results when occurr...

Platelet concentrate (PC) transfusions are widely used to save the lives of patients who experience acute blood loss. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) comprise a class of molecules with a biological role which is relevant to the understanding of storage lesions in...

The DNA phosphorothioate (PT) modification existing in many prokaryotes, including bacterial pathogens and commensals, confers multiple characteristics, including restricting gene transfer, influencing the global transcriptional response, and reducin...

Peroxisomes are eukaryotic organelles that are essential for growth and development. They are highly metabolically active and house many biochemical reactions, including lipid metabolism and synthesis of signaling molecules. Most of these metabolic p...

Iron (Fe), copper (Cu), and zinc (Zn) are microelements essential for the proper functioning of living organisms. These elements participatein many processes, including cellular metabolism and antioxidant and anti-inflammatory defenses, and also infl...

Synaptic degeneration is an early phenomenon in Parkinson’s disease (PD) pathogenesis. We aimed to investigate whether levels of synaptic proteins contactin-1 and contactin-2 in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of PD patients are reduced compared to d...

Skin is the largest organ of the human body, protecting it against the external environment. Despite high self-regeneration potential, severe skin defects will not heal spontaneously and need to be covered by skin substitutes. Tremendous progress has...

Skin consists of the epidermis and dermis, which are connected by a specialized basement membrane—the epidermal basement membrane. Both the epidermal basement membrane and the underlying interstitial extracellular matrix (ECM) created by dermal...

Recently, the stabilization of the endothelium has been explicitly identified as a therapeutic goal in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Adrecizumab (HAM8101) is a first-in-class humanized monoclonal anti-Adrenomedullin (anti-ADM) antibody, target...

Schizophrenia is a chronic and disabling psychiatric disorder characterized by disturbances of thought, cognition, and behavior. Despite massive research efforts to date, the etiology and pathophysiology of schizophrenia remain largely unknown. The d...

Intracellular protein inclusions are diverse cellular entities with distinct biological properties. They vary in their protein content, sequestration sites, physiological function, conditions for their generation, and turnover rates. Major distinctio...

Zinc therapy is normally utilized for treatment of Wilson disease (WD), an inherited condition that is characterized by increased levels of non-ceruloplasmin bound (‘free’) copper in serum and urine. A subset of patients with Alzheimer&rs...

Glycosylation may strongly affect protein structure and functions. A high risk of cardiovascular complications seen in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is, at least partly associated with delayed clot formation, increased clot strength, a...

Elevated matrix metalloproteinase-8 (MMP-8) activity contributes to the etiology of many diseases, including atherosclerosis, pulmonary fibrosis, and sepsis. Yet, very few small molecule inhibitors of MMP-8 have been identified. We reasoned that the...

Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) contributes to the pathogenesis of coronary ischemia/reperfusion (IR). To test whether the new TLR4 antagonist, ApTOLL, may prevent coronary IR damage, we administered 0.078 mg/kg ApTOLL or Placebo in pigs subjected to IR,...

As a nodal mediator of pyruvate metabolism, the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier (MPC) plays a pivotal role in many physiological and pathological processes across the human lifespan, from embryonic development to aging-associated neurodegeneration. Em...

Plant-derived pentacyclic triterpenic acids (TAs) have gained increasing attention due to their multiple biological activities. Betulinic acid (BA) and ursolic acid (UA) modulate diverse pathways in carcinogenesis, offering increased changes of succe...

Neurodegenerative diseases are the second most common cause of death and characterized by progressive impairments in movement or mental functioning in the central or peripheral nervous system. The prevention of neurodegenerative disorders has become...

Bladder cancer (BC) is the 11th most common diagnosed cancer, and a number of factors including environmental and genetic ones participate in BC development. Metastasis of BC cells into neighboring and distant tissues significantly reduces overall su...

The ribonome interconnects the proteome and the transcriptome. Specific biology is situated at this interface, which can be studied in bulk using omics approaches or specifically by targeting an individual protein or RNA species. In this review, we f...

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat (CRISPR) loci are found in bacterial and archaeal genomes where they provide the molecular machinery for acquisition of immunity against foreign DNA. In addition to the cas genes fundamentally...

This study performs a screening of potential Ionic Liquids (ILs) for the extraction of Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) compounds by the calculation of capacity values. For this purpose, a Conductor-Like Screening Model for Real Solvents (COSMO-RS) was emp...

The etiological factors of oral cancer are complex including drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, betel quid chewing, human papillomavirus infection, and nutritional deficiencies. Understanding the molecular mechanism of oral cancer is vital. The tradi...

Adult neurogenesis—resulting in adult-generated functioning, integrated neurons—is still one of the most captivating research areas of neuroplasticity. The addition of new neurons in adulthood follows a seemingly consistent multi-step pro...

Granulins are a family of unique protein growth factors which are found in a range of species and have several bioactivities that include cell proliferation and wound healing. They typically contain six disulfide bonds, but the sequences, structures...

One of the basic building blocks of all life forms are lipids—biomolecules that dissolve in nonpolar organic solvents but not in water. Lipids have numerous structural, metabolic, and regulative functions in health and disease; thus, complex ne...

The Eugenia and Syzygium genera include approximately 1000 and 1800 species, respectively, and both belong to the Myrtaceae. Their species present economic and medicinal importance and pharmacological properties. Due to their chemical diversity and b...

Microalgae are a group of autotrophic microorganisms that live in marine, freshwater and soil ecosystems and produce organic substances in the process of photosynthesis. Due to their high metabolic flexibility, adaptation to various cultivation condi...