Search results for "BOX"
showing 10 items of 2676 documents
Extracellular histones disarrange vasoactive mediators reléase through COX-NOS interaction in human endothelial cells
2017
Abstract Extracellular histones are mediators of inflammation, tissue injury and organ dysfunction. Interactions between circulating histones and vascular endothelial cells are key events in histone‐mediated pathologies. Our aim was to investigate the implication of extracellular histones in the production of the major vasoactive compounds released by human endothelial cells (HUVECs), prostanoids and nitric oxide (NO). HUVEC exposed to increasing concentrations of histones (0.001 to 100 μg/ml) for 4 hrs induced prostacyclin (PGI2) production in a dose‐dependent manner and decreased thromboxane A2 (TXA2) release at 100 μg/ml. Extracellular histones raised cyclooxygenase‐2 (COX‐2) and prostac…
Insights into the inhibited form of the redox-sensitive SufE-like sulfur acceptor CsdE
2017
17 p.-8 fig.
DICER- and MMSET-catalyzed H4K20me2 recruits the nucleotide excision repair factor XPA to DNA damage sites
2017
The endoribonuclease DICER facilitates chromatin decondensation during lesion recognition following UV exposure. Chitale and Richly show that DICER mediates the recruitment of the methyltransferase MMSET, which catalyzes the dimethylation of histone H4 at lysine 20 and facilitates the recruitment of the nucleotide excision repair factor XPA.
Defects in the NC2 repressor affect both canonical and non-coding RNA polymerase II transcription initiation in yeast.
2016
BACKGROUND: The formation of the pre-initiation complex in eukaryotic genes is a key step in transcription initiation. The TATA-binding protein (TBP) is a universal component of all pre-initiation complexes for all kinds of RNA polymerase II (RNA pol II) genes, including those with a TATA or a TATA-like element, both those that encode proteins and those that transcribe non-coding RNAs. Mot1 and the negative cofactor 2 (NC2) complex are regulators of TBP, and it has been shown that depletion of these factors in yeast leads to defects in the control of transcription initiation that alter cryptic transcription levels in selected yeast loci. RESULTS: In order to cast light on the molecular func…
Extracellular Assembly of the Elastin Cable Line Element in the Developing Lung
2017
In the normal lung, a dominant structural element is an elastic "line element" that originates in the central bronchi and inserts into the distal airspaces. Despite its structural importance, the process that leads to development of the cable line element is unknown. To investigate the morphologic events contributing to its development, we used optical clearing methods to examine the postnatal rat lung. An unexpected finding was numerous spheres, with a median diameter of 1-2 µm, within the primary septa of the rat lung. The spheres demonstrated green autofluorescence, selective fluorescent eosin staining, reactivity with carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester, and specific labeling with ant…
From Genesis to Revelation: The Role of Inflammatory Mediators in Chronic Respiratory Diseases and their Control by Nucleic Acid-based Drugs.
2015
Asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cystic fibrosis, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, are among the most common chronic diseases and their prevalence is increasing. Each of these diseases is characterized by the secretion of cytokines and pro-inflammatory molecules which are thought to play a critical role in their pathogenesis. Moreover, immune cells, particularly neutrophils, macrophages and dendritic cells as well structural cells such as epithelial and airway smooth muscle cells are also involved in the pathogenic cycle of these diseases. There is a pressing need for the development of new therapies for these pulmonary diseases, particularly as no existing treatment has bee…
Regulating T-cell differentiation through the polyamine spermidine
2021
Background The cross-talk between the host and its microbiota plays a key role in the promotion of health. The production of metabolites such as polyamines by intestinal-resident bacteria is part of this symbiosis shaping host immunity. The polyamines putrescine, spermine, and spermidine are abundant within the gastrointestinal tract and might substantially contribute to gut immunity. Objective We aimed to characterize the polyamine spermidine as a modulator of T-cell differentiation and function. Methods Naive T cells were isolated from wild-type mice or cord blood from healthy donors and submitted to polarizing cytokines, with and without spermidine treatment, to evaluate CD4+ T-cell diff…
Synthesis and biofilm formation reduction of pyrazole-4-carboxamide derivatives in some Staphylococcus aureus strains
2016
The ability of several N-phenyl-1H-pyrazole-4-carboxamide derivatives and other pyrazoles opportunely modified at the positions 3, 4 and 5, to reduce the formation of the biofilm in some Staphylococcus aureus strains (ATCC 29213, ATCC 25923 and ATCC 6538) were investigated. All the tested compounds were able, although to a different extent, to reduce the biofilm formation of the three bacterial strains considered. Among these, the 1-(2,5-dichlorophenyl)-5-methyl-N-phenyl-1H-pyrazole-4-carboxamide 14 resulted as the best inhibitor of biofilm formation showing an IC50 ranging from 2.3 to 32 μM, against all the three strains of S. aureus. Compound 14 also shows a good protective effect in vivo…
Reverse screening on indicaxanthin from Opuntia ficus-indica as natural chemoactive and chemopreventive agent
2018
Indicaxanthin is a bioactive and bioavailable betalain pigment extracted from Opuntia ficus indica fruits. Indicaxanthin has pharmacokinetic proprieties, rarely found in other phytochemicals, and it has been demonstrated that it provides a broad-spectrum of pharmaceutical activity, exerting anti-proliferative, anti-inflammatory, and neuromodulator effects. The discovery of the Indicaxanthin physiological targets plays an important role in understanding the biochemical mechanism. In this study, combined reverse pharmacophore mapping, reverse docking, and text-based database search identified Inositol Trisphosphate 3-Kinase (ITP3K-A), Glutamate carboxypeptidase II (GCPII), Leukotriene-A4 hydr…
Bioprotection Can Be Tuned with Proper Protein/Saccharide Ratio: The Case of Solid Amorphous Matrices
2018
Saccharides, and in particular trehalose, are well known for their high efficiency in protecting biostructures against adverse environmental conditions. The protein dynamics is known to be highly inhibited in a low-water trehalose host medium, the inhibition being markedly dependent on the amount of residual water. Besides hydration, the protein/sugar ratio is expected to affect the properties of saccharide amorphous matrices. In this work, we report an infrared spectroscopy study in dry amorphous matrices of various sugars (the disaccharides trehalose, maltose, sucrose, and lactose, and the trisaccharide raffinose) containing myoglobin, at different protein/sugar ratios. We analyze the str…