Search results for "A2"
showing 10 items of 1101 documents
Biofiltration of airborne VOCs with green wall systems : microbial and chemical dynamics
2018
Botanical air filtration is a promising technology for reducing indoor air contaminants, but the underlying mechanisms need better understanding. Here, we made a set of chamber fumigation experiments of up to 16 weeks of duration, to study the filtration efficiencies for seven volatile organic compounds (VOCs; decane, toluene, 2-ethylhexanol, α-pinene, octane, benzene, and xylene) and to monitor microbial dynamics in simulated green wall systems. Biofiltration functioned on sub-ppm VOC levels without concentration-dependence. Airflow through the growth medium was needed for efficient removal of chemically diverse VOCs, and the use of optimized commercial growth medium further improved the e…
Annexin A2-Mediated Plasminogen Activation in Endothelial Cells Contributes to the Proangiogenic Effect of Adenosine A2A Receptors
2021
Adenosine A2A receptor mediates the promotion of wound healing and revascularization of injured tissue, in healthy and animals with impaired wound healing, through a mechanism depending upon tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), a component of the fibrinolytic system. In order to evaluate the contribution of plasmin generation in the proangiogenic effect of adenosine A2A receptor activation, we determined the expression and secretion of t-PA, urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA), plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) and annexin A2 by human dermal microvascular endothelial cells stimulated by the selective agonist CGS-21680. The plasmin generation was assayed through an enzymatic assay a…
Berberine Mediated Positive Inotropic Effects on Rat Hearts via a Ca2+-Dependent Mechanism
2020
Previous studies showed that berberine, an alkaloid from Coptis Chinensis Franch, might exert a positive inotropic effect on the heart. However, the underlying mechanisms were unclear. Here, we reported that berberine at 10-20 µM increased the left ventricular (LV) developed pressure and the maximal rate of the pressure rising, and it increased the maximal rate of the pressure descending at 20 µM in Langendorff-perfused isolated rat hearts. These effects diminished with the concentration of berberine increasing to 50 µM. In the concentration range of 50-300 µM, berberine increased the isometric tension of isolated left ventricular muscle (LVM) strips with or without electrical stimulations,…
Pharmacological modulation of protein kinases as a new approach to treat addiction to cocaine and opiates.
2016
Drug addiction shares brain mechanisms and molecular substrates with learning and memory processes, such as the stimulation of glutamate receptors and their downstream signalling pathways. In the present work we provide an up-to-date review of studies that have demonstrated the implication of the main memory-related calcium-dependent protein kinases in opiate and cocaine addiction. The effects of these drugs of abuse in different animal models of drug reward, dependence and addiction are altered by manipulation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) family, particularly extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK), calcium/calmodulin-dependent kinase II (CaMKII), the protein kinase C…
Potential Therapeutic Applications of MDA-9/Syntenin-NF-κB-RKIP Loop in Human Liver Carcinoma
2019
Background Overexpression of MDA-9/Syntenin occurs in multiple human cancer cell lines and is associated with higher grade of tumor classification, invasiveness and metastasis. In some cases, its role in cancer biology depends on relationships between MDA-9/Syntenin and NF-κB. Objective This study aims to analyze the presence of a regulation loop like that between MDA-9/Syntenin - NF-κB - RKIP in human liver carcinoma. Methods Transient transfection was performed with siRNA anti-MDA-9/Syntenin. Expression of different factors was evaluated by Real time-PCR and Western blotting, while NF-κB activation by TransAM assay. Invasion capacity was analyzed by Matrigel Invasion Assay and the effects…
Unusual roles of caspase-8 in triple-negative breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231
2015
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a clinically aggressive form of breast cancer that is unresponsive to endocrine agents or trastuzumab. TNBC accounts for ~10-20% of all breast cancer cases and represents the form with the poorest prognosis. Patients with TNBC are at higher risk of early recurrence, mainly in the lungs, brain and soft tissue, therefore, there is an urgent need for new therapies. The present study was carried out in MDA-MB-231 cells, where we assessed the role of caspase-8 (casp-8), a critical effector of death receptors, also involved in non‑apoptotic functions. Analysis of casp-8 mRNA and protein levels indicated that they were up-regulated with respect to the normal…
Meta-analysis identifies novel risk loci and yields systematic insights into the biology of male-pattern baldness
2017
Male-pattern baldness (MPB) is a common and highly heritable trait characterized by androgen-dependent, progressive hair loss from the scalp. Here, we carry out the largest GWAS meta-analysis of MPB to date, comprising 10,846 early-onset cases and 11,672 controls from eight independent cohorts. We identify 63 MPB-associated loci (P<5 × 10−8, METAL) of which 23 have not been reported previously. The 63 loci explain ∼39% of the phenotypic variance in MPB and highlight several plausible candidate genes (FGF5, IRF4, DKK2) and pathways (melatonin signalling, adipogenesis) that are likely to be implicated in the key-pathophysiological features of MPB and may represent promising targets for the de…
12q14.3 microdeletion involving HMGA2 gene cause a Silver-Russell syndrome-like phenotype: a case report and review of the literature
2020
Abstract Background Silver-Russell Syndrome (SRS) is a genetic disorder characterized by intrauterine and postnatal growth restriction and normal head circumference with consequent relative macrocephaly. Addictional findings are protruding forehead in early life, body asymmetry (of upper and lower limbs) and substantial feeding difficulties. Although several genetic mechanisms that cause the syndrome are known, more than 40% of patients with a SRS-like phenotype remain without an etiological diagnosis. In the last few years, different clinical reports have suggested that mutations or deletions of the HMGA2 gene can be responsible for a SRS-like phenotype in patients with negative results of…
Bi-allelic JAM2 Variants Lead to Early-Onset Recessive Primary Familial Brain Calcification
2020
International audience; Primary familial brain calcification (PFBC) is a rare neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a combination of neurological, psychiatric, and cognitive decline associated with calcium deposition on brain imaging. To date, mutations in five genes have been linked to PFBC. However, more than 50% of individuals affected by PFBC have no molecular diagnosis. We report four unrelated families presenting with initial learning difficulties and seizures and later psychiatric symptoms, cerebellar ataxia, extrapyramidal signs, and extensive calcifications on brain imaging. Through a combination of homozygosity mapping and exome sequencing, we mapped this phenotype to chromo…
Alzheimer's disease in the gut : major changes in the gut of 5xFAD model mice with ApoA1 as potential key player
2019
Alzheimer's disease (AD) affects around 33 million people worldwide, which makes it the most prominent form of dementia. The main focus of AD research has been on the central nervous system (CNS) for long, but in recent years, the gut gained more attention. The intestinal tract is innervated by the enteric nervous system (ENS), built of numerous different types of neurons showing great similarity to neurons of the CNS. It already has been demonstrated that the amyloid precursor protein, which plays a major role in AD pathology, is also expressed in these cells. We analyzed gut tissue of AD model mice (5xFAD) and the respective wild-type littermates at different pathological stages: pre-path…