Search results for " molecule"

Endophytes from medicinal plants’ seeds: exploring new reservoirs of bioactive molecules

Plant-associated microorganisms have recently gained more attention for their influence on plant health and biotechnological relevance. Bioactive molecules have been already isolated from plant-associated bacteria. Seed-borne bacterial endophytes have not been much explored though. Such endophytes are particularly important, since they can influence germination and be transmitted from generation to generation. Interestingly, seed endophytes from medicinal plants could influence the production of molecules with therapeutic properties. Bacterial endophytic strains were extracted from surface-sterilized seeds of the medicinal plant Echinacea purpurea and their 16S rRNA genes were sequenced. Th…

Recent advances in smart biotechnology: Hydrogels and nanocarriers for tailored bioactive molecules depot

2017

Over the past ten years, the global biopharmaceutical market has remarkably grown, with ten over the top twenty worldwide high performance medical treatment sales being biologics. Thus, biotech R&D (research and development) sector is becoming a key leading branch, with expanding revenues. Biotechnology offers considerable advantages compared to traditional therapeutic approaches, such as reducing side effects, specific treatments, higher patient compliance and therefore more effective treatments leading to lower healthcare costs. Within this sector, smart nanotechnology and colloidal self-assembling systems represent pivotal tools able to modulate the delivery of therapeutics. A comprehens…

Enzyme and lateral flow monoclonal antibody-based immunoassays to simultaneously determine spirotetramat and spirotetramat-enol in foodstuffs.

2021

Spirotetramat is employed worldwide to fight insect pests due to its high efficiency. This chemical is quickly metabolized by plants into spirotetramat-enol, so current regulations establish that both compounds must be determined in foodstuffs for monitoring purposes. Nowadays, immunochemical methods constitute rapid and cost-effective strategies for chemical contaminant analysis at trace levels. However, high-affinity binders and suitable bioconjugates are required. In this study, haptens with opposite functionalisation sites were synthesized in order to generate high-affinity monoclonal antibodies. A direct competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with an IC50 value for the sum of sp…

Development of Polyamine‐Substituted Triphenylamine Ligands with High Affinity and Selectivity for G‐Quadruplex DNA

2019

Currently, significant efforts are devoted to designing small molecules able to bind selectively to guanine quadruplexes (G4s). These noncanonical DNA structures are implicated in various important biological processes and have been identified as potential targets for drug development. Previously, a series of triphenylamine (TPA)-based compounds, including macrocyclic polyamines, that displayed high affinity towards G4 DNA were reported. Following this initial work, herein a series of second-generation compounds, in which the central TPA has been functionalised with flexible and adaptive linear polyamines, are presented with the aim of maximising the selectivity towards G4 DNA. The acid-bas…

Cold-active molecules for a sustainable preservation and restoration of historic-artistic manufacts

2016

In the last decades biotechnology research provides sustainable alternatives to traditional procedures for preventive preservation of cultural assets. Recently, bioactive molecules (BMs) isolated from marine invertebrate organisms have been isolated and tested for bioremoval of protein layers (BMP) or to controlling microbial colonization (BMA), acting at temperature lower than 30°C. The Protease or Antimicrobial activity was tested on ad hoc assembled specimens and on different historic-artistic manufacts. In bio-removing protocol BMP molecules were applied as gelled solutions, in order to guarantees a selective action, respectful of constitutive materials and manufact integrity. Peculiari…

Mechanisms of cell activation by heavy metal ions

1998

Heavy metal ions can be released by corroding metallic implants into the surrounding tissue. When they enter blood vessels some of them are carried by proteins like albumin and can be taken up by endothelial cells lining the vessels. To study their involvement in the inflammatory response we investigated heavy metal ion induced effects in cultured human vascular endothelial cells (HUVECs). NiCl2 and CoCl2 upregulate, especially in concentrations of 1 mM, the expression of adhesion molecules (e.g., E-selectin and intercellular adhesion molecule-1), as well as the cytokines IL-6 and IL-8, as shown by enzyme immunoassay and Northern blot analysis. In addition, possible signal transduction mech…

EVpedia: a community web portal for extracellular vesicles research

2014

Abstract Motivation: Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are spherical bilayered proteolipids, harboring various bioactive molecules. Due to the complexity of the vesicular nomenclatures and components, online searches for EV-related publications and vesicular components are currently challenging. Results: We present an improved version of EVpedia, a public database for EVs research. This community web portal contains a database of publications and vesicular components, identification of orthologous vesicular components, bioinformatic tools and a personalized function. EVpedia includes 6879 publications, 172 080 vesicular components from 263 high-throughput datasets, and has been accessed more tha…

Role of calcium in E-selectin induced phenotype of T84 colon carcinoma cells

2003

The adhesion of cancer cells to the endothelium during the metastatic process involves the interaction of specific cell-cell adhesion receptors on the cell surface. E-selectin on endothelial cells and sialyl Lewis X carbohydrate component on tumor cells are mainly implicated in the adhesion of colon carcinoma cells to the endothelium of target organ. In this paper we show that binding of E-selectin to T84 colon tumor cells causes approximately a twofold increase in intracellular calcium concentration. In particular, using two inhibitors of receptor operated calcium channels, CAI and SK&F 96365, we present evidences that the augmentation in cytoplasmic calcium originates from ionic influx fr…

Vers le contrôle de l'alignement et de l'orientation : théorie et expérience

2010

This thesis is about the control and characterisation of the alignment and orientation of molecules by ultra short laser pulses on a theoretical and experimental approach. Alignment corresponds to a symmetric angular distribution of the molecular axis peaked along the laser field axis, whereas orientation provides an asymmetric distribution favouring one spatial direction. Orientation by sudden two-colour (2+1) pulses is studied extensively for the non resonant case and conditions required for achieving significant orientation are explored. A second two-colour scheme, where the second harmonic is in quasi resonance with a vibrational level of the molecule, is also presented and discussed. T…

Effects of oral niacin on endothelial dysfunction in patients with coronary artery disease: Results of the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controll…

2009

High-density-lipoproteins-cholesterol (HDL-C) is invertedly related to the incidence of cardiovascular events. Recent studies suggest that HDL-C directly improves endothelial function. Nicotinic acid (niacin) effectively raises serum HDL-C. We therefore hypothesized that treatment with niacin improves endothelial dysfunction in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). One hundred seven patients with CAD were randomly assigned to double-blinded treatment for 12 weeks with extended-release (ER)-niacin 1000 mg/day (N) or placebo (C), respectively. Flow-mediated dilation (FMD) of the brachial artery, nitroglycerin-mediated endothelium-independent dilation (NMD) and serum lipid concentration…