Biomolecules, Volume 10, Issue 6

In silico models to predict which tumors will respond to a given drug are necessary for Precision Oncology. However, predictive models are only available for a handful of cases (each case being a given drug acting on tumors of a specific cancer type)...

During embryonic development and adulthood, Reelin exerts several important functions in the brain including the regulation of neuronal migration, dendritic growth and branching, dendritic spine formation, synaptogenesis and synaptic plasticity. As a...

Peritoneal dialysis (PD) offers specific advantages over hemodialysis, enabling increased autonomy of patients with end-stage renal disease, but PD-related complications need to be detected in a timely manner. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectr...

Recently, a new class of prokaryotic compartments, collectively called encapsulins or protein nanocompartments, has been discovered. The shell proteins of these structures self-organize to form icosahedral compartments with a diameter of 25–42...

A detailed understanding of the molecular mechanisms of plant stress resistance in the face of ever-changing environmental stimuli will be helpful for promoting the growth and production of crop and forage plants. Investigations of plant responses to...

Antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs) have emerged as the most promising strategy in targeted cancer treatment. Recent strategies for the optimization ADCs include the development of antibody fragment–drug conjugates (FDCs). The critical factor...

Ligand-targeted toxins (LTTs) are bioengineered molecules which are composed of a targeting component linked to a toxin that induces cell death once the LTT binds its target. Bispecific targeting allows for the simultaneous targeting of two receptors...

Aging is accompanied by the accumulation of senescent cells that alter intercellular communication, thereby impairing tissue homeostasis and reducing organ regenerative potential. Recently, the administration of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC)-derived e...

Effective metabolism is highly dependent on a narrow therapeutic range of oxygen. Accordingly, low levels of oxygen, or hypoxia, are one of the most powerful inducers of gene expression, metabolic changes, and regenerative processes, including angiog...

Salinity stress is one of the major threats to agricultural productivity across the globe. Research in the past three decades, therefore, has focused on analyzing the effects of salinity stress on the plants. Evidence gathered over the years supports...

Matrix metalloproteinase-7 (MMP-7) is a secreted zinc-dependent endopeptidase that is implicated in regulating kidney homeostasis and diseases. MMP-7 is produced as an inactive zymogen, and proteolytic cleavage is required for its activation. MMP-7 i...

The coordination of zinc ions by histidine residues of amyloid-beta peptide (Aβ) plays a critical role in the zinc-induced Aβ aggregation implicated in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathogenesis. The histidine to arginine substitution at p...

The aggregation of α-synuclein (α-Syn) is a characteristic of Parkinson’s disease (PD). α-Syn oligomerization/aggregation is accelerated by the serine peptidase, prolyl oligopeptidase (POP). Factors that affect POP conformatio...

Type 3 long QT syndromes (LQT3) are associated with arrhythmogenic gain-of-function mutations in the cardiac voltage-gated Na⁺ channel (hNa_V1.5). The citrus flavanone hesperetin (HSP) was previously suggested as a template molecule to develop new ant...

Preeclampsia (PE) is a serious pregnancy complication, affecting about 5–7% of pregnancies worldwide and is characterized by hypertension and damage to multiple maternal organs, primarily the liver and kidneys. PE usually begins after 20 weeks&...

The pandemic associated with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV2) and its disease named COVID-19 challenged the scientific community to discover effective therapeutic solutions in a short period. Repurposing existing drugs...

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide, being largely characterized by motor features. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs, whose deregulation has been associated with neurodegeneration i...

How sequences of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) code for their conformational dynamics is poorly understood. Here, we combined NMR spectroscopy, small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to characterize th...

N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists such as phencyclidine (PCP), dizocilpine (MK-801) and ketamine have long been considered a model of schizophrenia, both in animals and humans. However, ketamine has been recently approved for treatment...

Elsholtzia ciliata essential oil (E. ciliata) has been developed in Lithuania and internationally patented as exerting antiarrhythmic properties. Here we demonstrate the pharmacological effects of this herbal preparation on cardiac electrical activit...

Isoflavones are transformed in the gut into more estrogen-like compounds or into inactive molecules. However, neither the intestinal microbes nor the pathways leading to the synthesis of isoflavone-derived metabolites are fully known. In the present...

The revelation that the human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I locus encodes a ubiquitin-like protein designated HLA-F adjacent transcript 10 (FAT10) or ubiquitin D (UBD) has attracted increasing attention to the function of this protei...

Dendrimers are nanosized, arborescent macromolecules synthesized in a stepwise fashion with attractive degrees of functionality and structure definition. This is one of the reasons why they are widely used for biomedical applications. Previously, we...

Decrypting the interface residues of the protein complexes provides insight into the functions of the proteins and, hence, the overall cellular machinery. Computational methods have been devised in the past to predict the interface residues using ami...

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic immune-related disorder designated by a lack of tolerance to self-antigens and the over-secretion of autoantibodies against several cellular compartments. Although the exact pathophysiology of SLE has n...

Downgrading in the yield of crop is due to the inadequate availability of water. The way out for this trouble is to construct synthetic resources dependent on natural polymers with great water absorption and preservation limits. The present study inv...

Reelin has been implicated in the development of schizophrenia but the mechanisms involved in this interaction remain unclear. Chronic methamphetamine (Meth) use may cause dopaminergic sensitisation and psychosis and has been proposed to affect brain...

(1) Background: Tissue remodeling and extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulation contribute to the development of chronic inflammatory diseases of the upper airway. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is considered to be the key signal for triggering tiss...

Manganese-oxidizing bacteria have been widely investigated for bioremediation of Mn-contaminated water sources and for production of biogenic Mn oxides that have extensive applications in environmental remediation. In this study, a total of 5 Mn-resi...

Myticins are cysteine-rich antimicrobial peptides highly expressed in hemocytes of Mytilus galloprovincialis. Along with other antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), myticins are potent effectors in the mussel immune response to pathogenic infections. As int...

The present study described the extracellular synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using environmental bacterial isolate Citrobacter spp. MS5 culture supernatant. To our best knowledge, no previous study reported the biosynthesis of AgNPs using...

Goji (Lycium barbarum L.) leaves and fruits have been described as a valuable source of bioactive compounds with a great potential for the development of health-promoting formulations. The present study aimed to evaluate the potential of a sustainabl...

Medicinal plants are used to treat diseases and provide health benefits, and their applications are increasing around the world [...]

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for most liver cancers and represents one of the deadliest cancers in the world. Despite the global demand for liver cancer treatments, there remain few options available. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration...

Deep-learning workflows of microscopic image analysis are sufficient for handling the contextual variations because they employ biological samples and have numerous tasks. The use of well-defined annotated images is important for the workflow. Cancer...

In osteoarthritis (OA), inhibition of excessively expressed pro-inflammatory cytokines in the OA joint and increasing the anabolism for cartilage regeneration are necessary. In this ex-vivo study, we used an inflammatory model of human OA chondrocyte...

The seminal plasma (SP) modulates the female reproductive immune environment after mating, and microRNAs (miRNAs) could participate in the process. Considering that the boar ejaculate is built by fractions differing in SP-composition, this study eval...

Outer membrane protease (OmpT) is a 33.5 kDa aspartyl protease that cleaves at dibasic sites and is thought to function as a defense mechanism for E. coli against cationic antimicrobial peptides secreted by the host immune system. Despite carrying th...

Stingless bees are a type of honey producers that commonly live in tropical countries. Their use for honey is being abandoned due to its limited production. However, the recent improvements in stingless bee honey production, particularly in South Eas...

Plaque deposits composed of amyloid-β (Aβ) fibrils are pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Although copper ion dyshomeostasis is apparent in AD brains and copper ions are found co-deposited with Aβ peptides in pat...

In the complex tumor microenvironment, cancer stem cells (CSCs), a rare population of cells, are responsible for malignant tumor initiation, metastasis, drug resistance and recurrence. Controlling breast CSCs (BCSCs) using natural compounds is a nove...

Alterations of adipose tissue occurring in obesity have been recognized as a major risk factor for several cancers. The relationship between adipose tissue and lung cancer, which is the main cancer-related cause of death worldwide, still requires inv...

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is an economically important crop cultivated in temperate climates all over the world. Adverse environmental factors negatively affect its survival and productivity. RNA silencing is a conserved pathway involved in the reg...

Osteoporosis, one of the leading causes of bone fractures, is characterized by low bone mass and structural deterioration of bone tissue, which are associated with a consequent increase in bone fragility and predisposition to fracture. Current screen...

Oxysterol binding related proteins 5 and 8 (ORP5 and ORP8) are two close homologs of the larger oxysterol binding protein (OSBP) family of sterol sensors and lipid transfer proteins (LTP). Early studies indicated these transmembrane proteins, anchore...

8-hydroxyquinoline-2-carboxylic acid (8-HQA) has been found in high concentrations (0.5–5.0 mmol·dm⁻³) in the gut of Noctuid larvae (and in a few other lepidopterans), in which it is proposed to act as a siderophore. Since it is kn...

Linum usitatissimum biosynthesizes lignans and neolignans that are diet and medicinally valuable metabolites. In recent years, zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) have emerged as potential elicitors for the enhanced biosynthesis of commercial secondary...

A comparative study of the kinetic characteristics (specific activity, initial and maximum rate, and affinity for substrates) of key enzymes of assimilatory sulfate reduction (APS reductase and dissimilatory sulfite reductase) in cell-free extracts o...

Epidermal fish mucus comprises of diverse bioactive metabolites which plays an immense role in defense mechanisms and other important cellular activities. Primarily, this study aims to screen the unexplored mucus extract of Puntius sophore (P. sophor...

Although bevacizumab (Avastin^®) has been approved as an antiangiogenic agent against some cancers, the efficacy is transient and unsatisfactory in other cancers most likely owing to the presence of alternative proangiogenic factors. Therefore, si...