Search Results (12)

Despite extensive research on 5-methylcytosine (5mC) in relation to smoking, there has been limited exploration into the interaction between smoking and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC). In this study, total DNA methylation (5mC+5hmC), true DNA methylation (5mC) and hydroxymethylation (5hmC) levels were profiled utilizing conventional bisulphite (BS) and oxidative bisulphite (oxBS) treatment, measured with the Illumina Infinium Methylation EPIC BeadChip. An epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) of 5mC+5hmC methylation revealed a total of 38,575 differentially methylated positions (DMPs) and 2023 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) associated with current smoking, along with 82 DMPs and 76 DMRs associated with former smoking (FDR-adjusted p < 0.05). Additionally, a focused examination of 5mC identified 33 DMPs linked to current smoking and 1 DMP associated with former smoking (FDR-adjusted p < 0.05). In the 5hmC category, eight DMPs related to current smoking and two DMPs tied to former smoking were identified, each meeting a suggestive threshold (p < 1 × 10⁻⁵). The substantial number of recognized DMPs, including 5mC+5hmC (7069/38,575, 2/82), 5mC (0/33, 1/1), and 5hmC (2/8, 0/2), have not been previously reported. Our findings corroborated previously established methylation positions and revealed novel candidates linked to tobacco smoking. Moreover, the identification of hydroxymethylated CpG sites with suggestive links provides avenues for future research. Full article

Orexins A (OXA) and B (OXB) and their specific receptors, receptor 1 (OX1R) and 2 (OX2R) for orexins, are hypothalamic peptides involved in orchestrating several functions in the central nervous system and peripheral organs, including sleep, excitement, nutrition, reward, circadian rhythm, anxiety, cognition, and reproduction. The aim of this narrative review is, in particular, to speculate the role of orexins in the male genital tract of animal species and human beings. The experimental evidence collected in recent years assumed that in the testes of the animal species here described, orexins are directly involved in steroidogenesis and spermatogenesis regulation. In the epididymis, these peptides are locally synthesized, thus suggesting their role governing the fertilizing capability of the immature male gamete. In addition to playing a physiological role, orexins are involved in numerous inflammatory and/or neoplastic pathologies too. The expression of the orexinergic system in prostate cancer suggests that they might play a potential therapeutic function. Overall, the future directions of this literature review allow us to hypothesize a role of the orexinergic complex not only as a marker for the diagnosis of certain tumors affecting the male genital tract but also for the treatment of hypo/infertility condition. Full article

The brief longevity of tree peony blossoms constrains its ornamental value and economic worth. Gibberellins (GAs) are crucial in the modulation of flower senescence, and GA 20-oxidase (GA20ox), GA 3-oxidase (GA3ox), and GA 2-oxidase (GA2ox) catalyze the synthesis and deactivation of bioactive GAs. In Paeonia ostii, a total of three PoGA20ox, ten PoGA3ox, and twelve PoGA2ox proteins were identified and comprehensively analyzed. The analysis of the gene structures, conserved domains, and motifs revealed structural similarities and variances among the GA20ox, GA3ox, GA2ox-A, and GA2ox-B subfamilies. The synteny analysis indicated a scarcity of collinear blocks within the P. ostii genome, with no tandem or whole-genome duplication/segmental duplications found in PoGAoxs. The investigation into the binding of transcription factors to PoGAox promoters and the assessments of the expression levels suggest that PoGA2ox1 and PoGA2ox8.1 are promising candidate genes implicated in the regulation of floral senescence. Further, Pos.gene61099 (BPC6) and Pos.gene61094 (CIL2) appear to modulate PoGA2ox1 transcription in a positive and negative manner, respectively, while Pos.gene38359 (DDF1) and Pos.gene17639 (DREB1C) likely enhance PoGA2ox8.1’s expression. This study lays a foundation for an in-depth understanding of PoGAox functions and the development of strategies to delay flower senescence in tree peony. Full article

Nowadays, the study of air quality has become an increasingly prominent field of research, particularly in large urban centers, given its significant impact on human health. In many countries, government departments and research centers use official high-cost scientific instruments to monitor air quality in their regions. Meanwhile, concerned citizens interested in studying the air quality of their local areas often employ low-cost air quality sensors for monitoring purposes. The optimization and evaluation of low-cost sensors have been a field of research by many research groups. This paper presents an extensive study to identify the safe percentage change limits that low-cost electrochemical air quality sensors can have, in order to optimize their measurements. For this work, three low-cost air quality monitoring stations were used, which include an electrochemical sensor for nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) (Alphasense NO2-B43F) and an electrochemical sensor for ozone (O₃) (Alphasense OX-B431). The aim of this work is to explore the variance of the aforementioned sensors and how this variability can be used to optimize the measurements of low-cost electrochemical sensors, closer to real ones. The analysis is conducted by employing diagrams, boxplot and violin curves of the groups of sensors used, with satisfactory results. Full article

Orexin-A (OX-A) and orexin-B (OX-B) are neuropeptides produced in the hypothalamus. Preclinical and clinical studies suggest that depression and anxiety are associated with the orexin system. In the current study, we used the learned helplessness (LH) animal model of depression to identify rats displaying LH behaviors (LH rats) and those that did not (No-LH rats). We compared the number of orexin-containing neurons in the hypothalamus of LH, No-LH, and control rats. Orexin peptides, orexin receptor 1 (OXR1) and 2 (OXR2) in brain areas involved in major depression and serum OX-A and corticosterone (CORT) concentrations were quantified and compared between rat groups. We found that LH and No-LH rats displayed higher serum OX-A concentrations compared with control rats. Comparison between LH and No-LH rats revealed that No-LH rats had significantly higher OX-A levels in the brain, more OX-A neurons, and more OX-A neuron activation. LH rats had more OX-B neurons and more OX-B neuron activation. Orexin peptides and receptors in the brain areas involved in major depression exhibited different patterns in LH and NoLH rats. Our findings revealed that activation of OX-A neurons could promote resilient behaviors under stressful situations and OX-A and OX-B neuropeptides exhibit dissimilar functions in LH behaviors. Full article

Manganese (Mn) oxidation is performed through oxidative Mn-oxidizing bacteria (MnOxb) as the main bio-weathering mechanism for Mn(III/IV) deposits during soil formation. However, with an increase in temperature, the respiration rate also increases, producing Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) as by-products, which are harmful to microbial cells. We hypothesize that bacterial ROS oxidize Mn(II) to Mn(III/IV) as a secondary non-enzymatic temperature-dependent mechanism for cell protection. Fourteen MnOxb were isolated from Antarctic soils under the global warming effect, and peroxidase (PO) activity, ROS, and Mn(III/IV) production were evaluated for 120 h of incubation at 4 °C, 15 °C, and 30 °C. ROS contributions to Mn oxidation were evaluated in Arthrobacter oxydans under antioxidant (Trolox) and ROS-stimulated (menadione) conditions. The Mn(III/IV) concentration increased with temperature and positively correlated with ROS production. ROS scavenging with Trolox depleted the Mn oxidation, and ROS-stimulant increased the Mn precipitation in A. oxydans. Increasing the Mn(II) concentration caused a reduction in the membrane potential and bacterial viability, which resulted in Mn precipitation on the bacteria surface. In conclusion, bacterial ROS production serves as a complementary non-enzymatic temperature-dependent mechanism for Mn(II) oxidation as a response in warming environments. Full article

Low-cost gas sensors detect pollutants gas at the parts-per-billion level and may be installed in small devices to densify air quality monitoring networks for the spread analysis of pollutants around an emissive source. However, these sensors suffer from several issues such as the impact of environmental factors and cross-interfering gases. For instance, the ozone (O₃) electrochemical sensor senses nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and O₃ simultaneously without discrimination. Alphasense proposes the use of a pair of sensors; the first one, NO2-B43F, is equipped with a filter dedicated to measure NO₂. The second one, OX-B431, is sensitive to both NO₂ and O₃. Thus, O₃ concentration can be obtained by subtracting the concentration of NO₂ from the sum of the two concentrations. This technique is not practical and requires calibrating each sensor individually, leading to biased concentration estimation. In this paper, we propose Partial Least Square regression (PLS) to build a calibration model including both sensors’ responses and also temperature and humidity variations. The results obtained from data collected in the field for two months show that PLS regression provides better gas concentration estimation in terms of accuracy than calibrating each sensor individually. Full article

We designed and built a network of monitors for ambient air pollution equipped with low-cost gas sensors to be used to supplement regulatory agency monitoring for exposure assessment within a large epidemiological study. This paper describes the development of a series of hourly and daily field calibration models for Alphasense sensors for carbon monoxide (CO; CO-B4), nitric oxide (NO; NO-B4), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂; NO2-B43F), and oxidizing gases (OX-B431)—which refers to ozone (O₃) and NO₂. The monitor network was deployed in the Puget Sound region of Washington, USA, from May 2017 to March 2019. Monitors were rotated throughout the region, including at two Puget Sound Clean Air Agency monitoring sites for calibration purposes, and over 100 residences, including the homes of epidemiological study participants, with the goal of improving long-term pollutant exposure predictions at participant locations. Calibration models improved when accounting for individual sensor performance, ambient temperature and humidity, and concentrations of co-pollutants as measured by other low-cost sensors in the monitors. Predictions from the final daily models for CO and NO performed the best considering agreement with regulatory monitors in cross-validated root-mean-square error (RMSE) and R² measures (CO: RMSE = 18 ppb, R² = 0.97; NO: RMSE = 2 ppb, R² = 0.97). Performance measures for NO₂ and O₃ were somewhat lower (NO₂: RMSE = 3 ppb, R² = 0.79; O₃: RMSE = 4 ppb, R² = 0.81). These high levels of calibration performance add confidence that low-cost sensor measurements collected at the homes of epidemiological study participants can be integrated into spatiotemporal models of pollutant concentrations, improving exposure assessment for epidemiological inference. Full article

In addition to the well-known central modulatory role of orexins, we recently demonstrated a peripheral involvement in swine granulosa cells for orexin A and in adipose tissue for orexin B (OXB). The aim of present research was to verify immunolocalization of OXB and its potential role in modulating the main features of swine granulosa cells. In particular, we explored the effects on granulosa cell proliferation (through the incorporation of bromodeoxyuridine), cell metabolic activity (as indirect evaluation by the assessment of ATP), steroidogenic activity (by immunoenzymatic examination) and redox status (evaluating the production of superoxide anion by means of the WST test, production of nitric oxide through the use of the Griess test and the non-enzymatic reducing power by FRAP test). Our data point out that OXB does not modify granulosa cell growth, steroidogenesis and superoxide anion generation. On the contrary, the peptide stimulates (p < 0.05) nitric oxide output and non-enzymatic reducing power. Since new vessel growth is crucial for ovarian follicle development, a further aim of this study was to explore the expression of prepro-orexin and the effects of OXB on swine aortic endothelial cells. We found that the peptide is ineffective in modulating cell growth, while it inhibits redox status parameters. In addition, we demonstrated a stimulatory effect on angiogenesis evaluated in fibrin gel angiogenesis assay. Taken together, OXB appears to be potentially involved in the modulation of redox status in granulosa and endothelial cells and we could argue an involvement of the peptide in the follicular angiogenic events. Full article

Immobilization of biocatalysts is a current topic in research enabling the easy recovery of catalysts from the reaction medium after the reaction, and it is often accompanied by a stabilization of the catalysts, which enables recycling. Within our ongoing research on the utilization of aldoxime dehydratases in the cyanide-free synthesis of nitriles through dehydration of readily available aldoximes, a screening of different immobilization methods for free enzymes was performed. The applied immobilization methods are based on covalent binding and hydrophobic interactions of the enzyme with the carrier material and whole-cell immobilization in calcium alginate beads with and without subsequent coating. In our study, we found that the immobilization with purified free aldoxime dehydratases from OxdRE (Rhodococcus erythropolis) and OxdB (Bacillus sp. strain OxB-1) leads to high immobilization efficiencies, but also to a strong loss of activity with a residual activity of <20%, regardless of the carrier material used. However, when using whole cells for immobilization instead of purified enzymes, we could increase the residual activity significantly. Escherichia coli BL21(DE3)-CodonPlus-RIL OxdRE and OxdB whole cells were entrapped in calcium alginate beads and coated with silica using tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS), leading to immobilized catalysts with up to 75% residual activity and a higher stability compared to the free whole cells. Even after three rounds of recycling, which corresponds to a 3 d reaction time, the immobilized OxdB whole cells showed a residual activity of 85%. Full article

Yam (Dioscorea spp.) is a nutritional and medicinal staple tuber crop grown in the tropics and sub-tropics. Among the food yam species, water yam (Dioscorea alata L.) is the most widely distributed and cultivated species worldwide. Tuber dry matter content (DMC) and oxidative browning (OxB) are important quality attributes that determine cultivar acceptability in water yam. This study used a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) assay from a diversity arrays technology (DArT) platform for a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of the two quality traits in a panel of 100 water yam clones grown in three environments. The marker–trait association analysis identified significant SNPs associated with tuber DMC on chromosomes 6 and 19 and with OxB on chromosome 5. The significant SNPs cumulatively explained 45.87 and 12.74% of the total phenotypic variation for the tuber DMC and OxB, respectively. Gene annotation for the significant SNP loci identified important genes associated in the process of the proteolytic modification of carbohydrates in the dry matter accumulation pathway as well as fatty acid β-oxidation in peroxisome for enzymatic oxidation. Additional putative genes were also identified in the peak SNP sites for both tuber dry matter and enzymatic oxidation with unknown functions. The results of this study provide valuable insight for further dissection of the genetic architecture of tuber dry matter and enzymatic oxidation in water yam. They also highlight SNP variants and genes useful for genomics-informed selection decisions in the breeding process for improving food quality traits in water yam. Full article

There is a need to continue research to find out other anti-dermatophytic agents to inhibit causal pathogenic skin diseases including many types of tinea. We undertook the production, purification, and identification of an anti-dermatophytic substance by Streptomyces atrovirens. Out of 103 streptomycete isolates tested, only 20 of them showed antidermatophytic activity with variable degrees against Trichophyton tonsurans CCASU 56400 (T. tonsurans), Microsporum canis CCASU 56402 (M. canis), and Trichophyton mentagrophytes CCASU 56404 (T. mentagrophytes). The most potent isolate, S₁₀Q₆, was identified based on the tests conducted that identified morphological and physiological characteristics and using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The isolate was found to be closely correlated to previously described species Streptomyces atrovirens; it was designated Streptomyces atrovirens KM192347 (S. atrovirens). Maximum antifungal activity of the strain KM192347 was obtained in modified starch nitrate medium (MSNM) adjusted initially at pH 7.0 and incubated at 30 °C in shaken cultures (150 rpm) for seven days. The antifungal compound was purified by using two steps protocol including solvent extraction and column chromatography. The MIC of it was 20 µg/mL against the dermatophyte cultures tested. According to the data obtained from instrumental analysis and surveying the novel antibiotics database, the antidermatophytic substance produced by the strain KM192347 was characterized as an oxaborole-6-benzene sulphonamide derivative and designated oxaborole-6-benzene sulphonamide (OXBS) with the chemical formula C₁₃H₁₂ BNO₄S. The crude OXBS didn’t show any toxicity on living cells. Finally, the results obtained herein described another anti-dermatophytic substance named an OXBS derivative. Full article