Academic Articles & Research Papers

Total mercury exposure in early pregnancy has no adverse association with scholastic ability of the offspring particularly if the mother eats fish

There is a public perception that relatively low doses of mercury found in seafood are harmful to the fetal brain but little consistent evidence to support this. In earlier publications we have shown no adverse associations between maternal...

Membrane Dysfunction as a Central Mechanism in LRRK2-Associated Parkinson’s Disease: Comparative Analysis of G2019S and I1371V Variants

Mutations in leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) are among the most common genetic causes of Parkinson’s disease (PD), yet substantial heterogeneity exists among pathogenic variants. How mutations in distinct functional domains of LRRK2 di...

Dielectric Properties of Phosphatidylcholine Membranes and the Effect of Sugars

Simple carbohydrates are associated with the enhanced risk of cardiovascular disease and adverse changes in lipoproteins in the organism. Conversely, sugars are known to exert a stabilizing effect on biological membranes, and this effect is...

Kinetic sculpting of the seven stripes of the Drosophila even-skipped gene

We used live imaging to visualize the transcriptional dynamics of the Drosophila melanogaster even-skipped gene at single-cell and high-temporal resolution as its seven stripe expression pattern forms, and developed tools to characterize an...

Encapsulated actomyosin patterns drive cell-like membrane shape changes

Summary: Cell shape changes from locomotion to cytokinesis are, to a large extent, driven by myosin-driven remodeling of cortical actin patterns. Passive crosslinkers such as α-actinin and fascin as well as actin nucleator Arp2/3 complex la...

<i>Vegfr3</i> and <i>Tbx1</i> Interact in Cardiac Morphogenesis

Gene inactivation in model organisms has identified numerous genes and signaling pathways involved in mammalian cardiac outflow tract (OFT) development. Human genetics data have implicated the VEGFR3 gene in OFT development, but when and wh...

Effects of the Brazilian Native Fruit Jaboticaba (<i>Plinia cauliflora</i>) Peel on Inflammatory and Oxidative Stress Pathways: Insights from a Pilot Study in Hemodialysis Patients and Renal Cell Models

Jaboticaba (Plinia cauliflora), a Brazilian native fruit rich in bioactive compounds, exhibits potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. This pilot study evaluated the effects of jaboticaba peel supplementation on inflammatory an...

The Role of Retinoic Acid in Establishing the Early Limb Bud

Retinoic acid (RA) was one of the first molecules in the modern era of experimental embryology to be shown capable of generating profound effects on limb development. In this review, we focus on the earliest events of limb development and s...

Clinical evaluation of DIAGNOVIR SARS-CoV-2 ultra-rapid antigen test performance compared to PCR-based testing

Abstract Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The development of rapid antigen tests has contributed to easing the burden on ...

Structural Design, Synthesis and Antioxidant, Antileishmania, Anti-Inflammatory and Anticancer Activities of a Novel Quercetin Acetylated Derivative

Quercetin (Q) is a bioflavonoid with biological potential; however, poor solubility in water, extensive enzymatic metabolism and a reduced bioavailability limit its biopharmacological use. The aim of this study was to perform structural mod...

Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain protein-1 is expressed and involved in the inflammatory response in human sebocytes

Sebocytes express Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptors (NLRs), which participate in the innate immune response of the skin. Although the roles of TLRs and NLR family pyrin domain-cont...

Pairwise Performance Comparison of Docking Scoring Functions: Computational Approach Using InterCriteria Analysis

Scoring functions are key elements in docking protocols as they approximate the binding affinity of a ligand (usually a small bioactive molecule) by calculating its interaction energy with a biomacromolecule (usually a protein). In this stu...

FAM83A as a Potential Biological Marker Is Regulated by miR-206 to Promote Cervical Cancer Progression Through PI3K/AKT/mTOR Pathway

Background and Objective: Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are effective treatment options for cervical cancer (CC), but their efficacy is limited by short survival rate of about 5 years particularly for advance stage CC. Bioinformatics analys...

Frontmatter

Synergistic effect of mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicle and miR-137 alleviates autism-like behaviors by modulating the NF-κB pathway

Abstract Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a multifaceted neurodevelopmental disorder predominant in childhood. Despite existing treatments, the benefits are still limited. This study explored the effectiveness of mesenchymal stem cell-deri...

Comparative Analysis of Tools and Approaches for Source Tracking Listeria monocytogenes in a Food Facility Using Whole-Genome Sequence Data

As WGS is increasingly used by food industry to characterize pathogen isolates, users are challenged by the variety of analysis approaches available, ranging from methods that require extensive bioinformatics expertise to commercial softwar...

Xanthine Oxidase-Induced Inflammatory Responses in Respiratory Epithelial Cells: A Review in Immunopathology of COVID-19

Xanthine oxidase (XO) is an enzyme that catalyzes the production of uric acid and superoxide radicals from purine bases: hypoxanthine and xanthine and is also expressed in respiratory epithelial cells. Uric acid, which is also considered a ...

An integrated analysis of multiple datasets reveals novel gene signatures in human granulosa cells

Abstract Granulosa cells (GCs) play crucial roles in oocyte maturation. Through gap junctions and extracellular vesicles, they mediate the exchange of molecules such as microRNAs and messenger RNAs. Different ovarian cell types exhibit uniq...

Identification of functional pathways for regenerative bioactivity of selected renal cells

Abstract Background Selected renal cells (SRC) are in Phase II clinical trials as a kidney-sourced, autologous, tubular epithelial cell-enriched cell-based therapy for chronic kidney disease (CKD). In preclinical studies with rodent models ...

Can Bacillus paranthracis cause bacteremia in a T-ALL patient? WGS-based diagnosis

Introduction: Most of Bacillus spp. generally avirulent species in healthy patients, but if there is a fragile in the patient, especially their immune system, Bacillus spp. can be an agent for infections. Case Report: In this case, we rep...