Search results for "Density"
showing 10 items of 4402 documents
Palmitoylethanolamide Promotes a Proresolving Macrophage Phenotype and Attenuates Atherosclerotic Plaque Formation
2018
Objective— Palmitoylethanolamide is an endogenous fatty acid mediator that is synthetized from membrane phospholipids by N -acyl phosphatidylethanolamine phospholipase D. Its biological actions are primarily mediated by PPAR-α (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors α) and the orphan receptor GPR55. Palmitoylethanolamide exerts potent anti-inflammatory actions but its physiological role and promise as a therapeutic agent in chronic arterial inflammation, such as atherosclerosis remain unexplored. Approach and Results— First, the polarization of mouse primary macrophages towards a proinflammatory phenotype was found to reduce N -acyl phosphatidylethanolamine phospholipase D expression …
Toxicity and cell density monitoring in monolayer and three-dimensional cultures with the XTT assay
1998
The application of viability criteria (MTT and XTT tests) to monolayer cultures and immobilised cells in three-dimensional systems was investigated in order to assess cell viability and cell proliferation. The suitability and accuracy of these tests were compared with the conventional criteria (cellular protein and DNA content) used in monolayer cultures for the same purpose. The colorimetric assay based on the metabolic reduction of the tetrazolium salt XTT to a water-soluble formazan proved to be very useful, rapid and sensitive. This automated spectrophotometric enzymatic method, due to its lack of toxicity, also permits repeated nondestructive assays on a single cellular culture for the…
A Dehydrogenase Dual Hydrogen Abstraction Mechanism Promotes Estrogen Biosynthesis: Can We Expand the Functional Annotation of the Aromatase Enzyme?
2018
Cytochrome P450 (CYP450) enzymes are involved in the metabolism of exogenous compounds and in the synthesis of signaling molecules. Among the latter, human aromatase (HA) promotes estrogen biosynthesis, which is a key pharmacological target against breast cancers. After decades of debate, interest in gaining a comprehensive picture of HA catalysis has been renewed by the recent discovery that compound I (Cpd I) is the reactive species of the peculiar aromatization step. Herein, for the first time, a complete atomic-level picture of all controversial steps of estrogen biosynthesis is presented. By performing cumulative quantum-classical molecular dynamics and metadynamics simulations of abou…
Mechanism of the OH Radical Addition to Adenine from Quantum-Chemistry Determinations of Reaction Paths and Spectroscopic Tracking of the Intermediat…
2016
The OH radical is a well-known mediator in the oxidation of biological structures like DNA. Over the past decades, the precise events taking place after reaction of DNA nucleobases with OH radical have been widely investigated by the scientific community. Thirty years after the proposal of the main routes for the reaction of •OH with adenine (Vieira, A.; Steenken, S. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1990, 112, 6986−6994), the present work demonstrates that the OH radical addition to C4 position is a minor pathway. Instead, the dehydration process is mediated by the A5OH adduct. Conclusions are based on density functional theory calculations for the ground-state reactivity and highly accurate multiconfigur…
Myelin: Methods for Purification and Proteome Analysis
2019
Molecular characterization of myelin is a prerequisite for understanding the normal structure of the axon/myelin-unit in the healthy nervous system and abnormalities in myelin-related disorders. However, reliable molecular profiles necessitate very pure myelin membranes, in particular when considering the power of highly sensitive "omics"-data acquisition methods. Here, we recapitulate the history and recent applications of myelin purification. We then provide our laboratory protocols for the biochemical isolation of a highly pure myelin-enriched fraction from mouse brains and for its proteomic analysis. We also supply methodological modifications when investigating posttranslational modifi…
[Au(9-methylcaffein-8-ylidene) 2 ] + /DNA Tel23 System: Solution, Computational, and Biological Studies
2017
International audience; Physicochemical methods have been used to investigate interactions occurring in solution between the dicarbene gold(I) complex [Au(9‐methylcaffein‐8‐ylidene)2]BF4 (AuNHC) and a human telomeric DNA sequence, namely Tel23. Circular dichroism measurements allow identification of the conformational changes experienced by Tel23 upon interaction with AuNHC, and the respective binding stoichiometries and constants were determined. Computational studies provide a good link between previous crystallographic results of the same system and the present solution data, offering an exhaustive description of the inherent noncovalent metallodrug–DNA interactions. Remarkably, we found…
The NG2 Protein Is Not Required for Glutamatergic Neuron-NG2 Cell Synaptic Signaling.
2014
NG2 glial cells (as from now NG2 cells) are unique in receiving synaptic input from neurons. However, the components regulating formation and maintenance of these neuron–glia synapses remain elusive. The transmembrane protein NG2 has been considered a potential mediator of synapse formation and alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor (AMPAR) clustering, because it contains 2 extracellular Laminin G/Neurexin/Sex Hormone-Binding Globulin domains, which in neurons are crucial for formation of transsynaptic neuroligin– neurexin complexes. NG2 is connected via Glutamate Receptor-Interacting Protein with GluA2/3-containing AMPARs, thereby possibly mediating receptor clus…
A comprehensive review of energy sources for unmanned aerial vehicles, their shortfalls and opportunities for improvements
2020
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles were first introduced almost 40 years ago and their applications have increased and diversified substantially since then, in both commercial and private use. One of the UAVs main issues when it comes to mobility is that the power sources available are inadequate, this highlights an area for improvement as the interest in drones is on the increase. There exist many different types of power supplies applied to UAVs, however each has their own limitations and strengths that pertain to weight contributions, charging and discharging times, size, payload capabilities, energy density and power density. The aim of this paper is to review the main power sources available for…
The Binding Mechanism of Epolactaene to Hsp60 Unveiled by in Silico Modelling
2016
Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations and DFT/MM calculations were performed in order to rationalize available experimental results and to provide structural details on the binding mechanism of Epolactaene (EPO) to the 60 KDa Heat Shock Protein (Hsp60). The available crystal structure of Hsp60 represents the last step of the chaperone folding cycle, while the Hsp60-EPO complex was obtained by using a homology model of Hsp60, in order to simulate a state related to the beginning of the folding cycle (Rs1). The results of MD simulations point out that EPO shows the highest binding affinity for the empty ATP binding site. The presence of ATP opens a channel that allows the entrance of both EPO d…
Improving risk assessments in conservation ecology
2019
Conservation efforts and management decisions on the living environment of our planet often rely on the results from statistical models. Yet, these models are imperfect and quantification of risk associated with the estimate of management-relevant quantities becomes crucial in providing robust advice. Here we demonstrate that estimates of risk themselves could be substantially biased but by combining data fitting with an extensive simulation–estimation procedure, one can back-calculate the correct values. We apply the method to 627 time series of population abundance across four taxa using the Gompertz state-space model as an example. We find that the risk of large bias in population status…