Search results for "DOM"
showing 10 items of 12668 documents
Antimicrobial and Antibiofilm Activity of a Recombinant Fragment of β-Thymosin of Sea Urchin Paracentrotus lividus
2018
With the aim to obtain new antimicrobials against important pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, we focused on antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) from Echinoderms. An example of such peptides is Paracentrin 1 (SP1), a chemically synthesised peptide fragment of a sea urchin thymosin. In the present paper, we report on the biological activity of a Paracentrin 1 derivative obtained by recombination. The recombinant paracentrin RP1, in comparison to the synthetic SP1, is 22 amino acids longer and it was considerably more active against the planktonic forms of S. aureus ATCC 25923 and P. aeruginosa ATCC 15442 at concentrations of 50 µ
Human Intrinsic Factor Expression for Bioavailable Vitamin B12 Enrichment in Microalgae
2018
Dietary supplements and functional foods are becoming increasingly popular complements to regular diets. A recurring ingredient is the essential cofactor vitamin B12(B12). Microalgae are making their way into the dietary supplement and functional food market but do not produce B12, and their B12 content is very variable. In this study, the suitability of using the human B12-binding protein intrinsic factor (IF) to enrich bioavailable B12 using microalgae was tested. The IF protein was successfully expressed from the nuclear genome of the model microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and the addition of an N-terminal ARS2 signal peptide resulted in efficient IF secretion to the medium. Co-abunda…
PCSK9-D374Y mediated LDL-R degradation can be functionally inhibited by EGF-A and truncated EGF-A peptides: An in vitro study.
2019
Abstract Background and aims Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) binds to low density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) through the LDLR epidermal growth factor-like repeat A (EGF-A) domain and induces receptor internalization and degradation. PCSK9 has emerged as a novel therapeutic target for hypercholesterolemia. Clinical studies with PCSK9 inhibiting antibodies have demonstrated strong LDL-c lowering effects, but other therapeutic approaches using small molecule inhibitors for targeting PCSK9 functions may offer supplementary therapeutic options. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of synthetic EGF-A analogs on mutated (D374Y) PCSK9-D374Y mediated LDLR degradatio…
Impact of poplar-based phytomanagement on soil properties and microbial communities in a metal-contaminated site
2016
Despite a long history of use in phytomanagement strategies, the impacts of poplar trees on the structure and function of microbial communities that live in the soil remain largely unknown. The current study combined fungal and bacterial community analyses from different management regimes using Illumina-based sequencing with soil analysis. The poplar phytomanagement regimes led to a significant increase in soil fertility and a decreased bioavailability of Zn and Cd, in concert with changes in the microbial communities. The most notable changes in the relative abundance of taxa and operational taxonomic units unsurprisingly indicated that root and soil constitute distinct ecological microbi…
Dissecting the role of ADAM10 as a mediator of Staphylococcus aureus α-toxin action
2016
Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of bacterial infections in humans, including life-threatening diseases such as pneumonia and sepsis. Its small membrane-pore-forming α-toxin is considered an important virulence factor. By destroying cell–cell contacts through cleavage of cadherins, the metalloproteinase ADAM10 (a disintegrin and metalloproteinase 10) critically contributes to α-toxin-dependent pathology of experimental S. aureus infections in mice. Moreover, ADAM10 was proposed to be a receptor for α-toxin. However, it is unclear whether the catalytic activity or specific domains of ADAM10 are involved in mediating binding and/or subsequent cytotoxicity of α-toxin. Also, it is not k…
Targeting Bacterial Sortase A with Covalent Inhibitors: 27 New Starting Points for Structure-Based Hit-to-Lead Optimization.
2019
Because of its essential role as a bacterial virulence factor, enzyme sortase A (SrtA) has become an attractive target for the development of new antivirulence drugs against Gram-positive infections. Here we describe 27 compounds identified as covalent inhibitors of
Formyl-peptide receptor 2 governs leukocyte influx in local Staphylococcus aureus infections
2017
Leukocytes express formyl-peptide receptors (FPRs), which sense microbe-associated molecular pattern (MAMP) molecules, leading to leukocyte chemotaxis and activation. We recently demonstrated that phenol-soluble modulin (PSM) peptides from highly pathogenic Staphylococcus aureus are efficient ligands for the human FPR2. How PSM detection by FPR2 impacts on the course of S. aureus infections has remained unknown. We characterized the specificity of mouse FPR2 (mFpr2) using a receptor-transfected cell line, homeobox b8 (Hoxb8), and primary neutrophils isolated from wild-type (WT) or mFpr2−/− mice. The influx of leukocytes into the peritoneum of WT and mFpr2−/− mice was analyzed. We demonstrat…
Two-Stage Bayesian Approach for GWAS With Known Genealogy
2019
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) aim to assess relationships between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and diseases. They are one of the most popular problems in genetics, and have some peculiarities given the large number of SNPs compared to the number of subjects in the study. Individuals might not be independent, especially in animal breeding studies or genetic diseases in isolated populations with highly inbred individuals. We propose a family-based GWAS model in a two-stage approach comprising a dimension reduction and a subsequent model selection. The first stage, in which the genetic relatedness between the subjects is taken into account, selects the promising SNPs. The se…
Interactions of human P-glycoprotein transport substrates and inhibitors at the drug binding domain: Functional and molecular docking analyses
2015
Rhodamine 123 (R123) transport substrate sensitizes P-glycoprotein (P-gp) to inhibition by compound 2c (cis-cis) N,N-bis(cyclohexanolamine)aryl ester isomer in a concentration-dependent manner in human MDR1-gene transfected mouse T-lymphoma L5178 cells as shown previously. By contrast, epirubicin (EPI) concentration changes left unaltered 2c IC50 values of EPI efflux. To clarify this discrepancy, defined molecular docking (DMD) analyses of 12 N,N-bis(cyclohexanolamine)aryl esters, the highly flexible aryl ester analog 4, and several P-gp substrate/non-substrate inhibitors were performed on human P-gp drug- or nucleotide-binding domains (DBD or NBD). DMD measurements yielded lowest binding e…
Stem Cells and the Endometrium: From the Discovery of Adult Stem Cells to Pre-Clinical Models.
2021
Adult stem cells (ASCs) were long suspected to exist in the endometrium. Indeed, several types of endometrial ASCs were identified in rodents and humans through diverse isolation and characterization techniques. Putative stromal and epithelial stem cell niches were identified in murine models using label-retention techniques. In humans, functional methods (clonogenicity, long-term culture, and multi-lineage differentiation assays) and stem cell markers (CD146, SUSD2/W5C5, LGR5, NTPDase2, SSEA-1, or N-cadherin) facilitated the identification of three main types of endogenous endometrial ASCs: stromal, epithelial progenitor, and endothelial stem cells. Further, exogenous populations of stem c…