Wilson's disease (WD) (OMIM 277900) or hepatolenticular degeneration is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by impaired copper excretion with subsequent accumulation in the liver, brain, and other tissues of the body. The defects in copper metabolism are based on various pathogenic variants of the ATP7B gene encoding copper-transporting P-type ATPase. The aim of this work is to search for pathogenic variants of the ATP7B gene among Eastern Eurasian patient cohorts and to pick correlations between pathogenic variants, gender, age of onset of the disease, and the course of the disease.
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View Article and Find Full Text PDFFeeding on mixed, alternating, or changing diets often favor insect development. With the aim to optimize mass rearing and use for the biological control of insect pests, we investigated the effects of various combinations of high-quality (the green peach aphid ) and low-quality (eggs of the grain moth ) foods on the larval development of a predatory ladybird In the first experiment, eggs and aphids were mixed in different proportions; in the second experiment, larvae switched from feeding on aphids to feeding on eggs. Although the beneficial additive effect of mixed foods was detected in some treatments with limited diets, feeding on various combinations of eggs with aphids never resulted in higher survival, faster development, or a larger size of emerging adults than those observed for feeding on unlimited amounts of aphids.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGene therapy has the potential to facilitate targeted expression of therapeutic proteins to promote cartilage regeneration in osteoarthritis (OA). The dense, avascular, aggrecan-glycosaminoglycan (GAG) rich negatively charged cartilage, however, hinders their transport to reach chondrocytes in effective doses. While viral vector mediated gene delivery has shown promise, concerns over immunogenicity and tumorigenic side-effects persist.
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