Background: Bovine mastitis is one of the main causes of reduced production in dairy cows. The infection of the mammary gland is mainly caused by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, whose resistant strains make the treatment of mastitis with conventional antibiotics very difficult and result in high losses. Therefore, it is important to develop novel therapeutic agents to overcome the resistance of mastitis-causing strains.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHepatic fibrosis progresses concomitantly with a variety of biomechanical alternations, especially increased liver stiffness. These biomechanical alterations have long been considered as pathological consequences. Recently, growing evidence proposes that these alternations result in the fibrotic biomechanical microenvironment, which drives the activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBalanced bacterial metabolism is essential for cell homeostasis and growth and can be impacted by various stress factors. In particular, bacteria exposed to metals, including the nanoparticle form, can significantly alter their metabolic processes. It is known that the extensive and intensive use of food and feed supplements, including zinc, in human and animal nutrition alters the intestinal microbiota and this may negatively impact the health of the host.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAging is generally regarded as an irreversible process, and its intricate relationship with the immune system has garnered significant attention due to its profound implications for the health and well-being of the aging population. As people age, a multitude of alterations occur within the immune system, affecting both innate and adaptive immunity. In the realm of innate immunity, aging brings about changes in the number and function of various immune cells, including neutrophils, monocytes, and macrophages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAging encompasses a wide array of detrimental effects that compromise physiological functions, elevate the risk of chronic diseases, and impair cognitive abilities. However, the precise underlying mechanisms, particularly the involvement of specific molecular regulatory proteins in the aging process, remain insufficiently understood. Emerging evidence indicates that c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) serves as a potential regulator within the intricate molecular clock governing aging-related processes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIncreased awareness of the impact of human activities on the environment has emerged in recent decades. One significant global environmental and human health issue is the development of materials that could potentially have negative effects. These materials can accumulate in the environment, infiltrate organisms, and move up the food chain, causing toxic effects at various levels.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFElectrochemical sensors and electroanalytical techniques become emerging as effective and low-cost tools for rapid assessment of special parameters of the food quality. Chemically modified electrodes are developed to change properties and behaviour, particularly sensitivity and selectivity, of conventional electroanalytical sensors. Within this comprehensive review, novel trends in chemical modifiers material structure, electrodes construction and flow analysis platforms are described and evaluated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDetermination of plasma uracil was reported as a method for evaluation of Dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) activity that is highly demanded to ensure the safe administration of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-based therapies to cancer patients. This work reports the development of a simple electroanalytical method based on adsorptive stripping square wave voltammetry (AdSWV) at mercury film-coated glassy carbon electrode (MF/GCE) for the highly sensitive determination of uracil in biological fluids that can be used for diagnosis of decreased DPD activity. Due to the formation of the Hg-Uracil complex at the electrode surface, the accuracy of the measurement was not affected by the complicated matrices in biological fluids including human serum, plasma, and urine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA substantial development in nanoscale materials possessing catalytic activities comparable with natural enzymes has been accomplished. Their advantages were owing to the excellent sturdiness in an extreme environment, possibilities of their large-scale production resulting in higher profitability, and easy manipulation for modification. Despite these advantages, the main challenge for artificial enzyme mimetics is the lack of substrate selectivity where natural enzymes flourish.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNutrient or energy deprivation, especially glucose restriction, is a promising anticancer therapeutic approach. However, establishing a precise and potent deprivation strategy remains a formidable task. The Golgi morphology is crucial in maintaining the function of transport proteins (such as GLUT1) driving glycolysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeutrophils play a Janus-faced role in the complex landscape of cancer pathogenesis and immunotherapy. As immune defense cells, neutrophils release toxic substances, including reactive oxygen species and matrix metalloproteinase 9, within the tumor microenvironment. They also modulate the expression of tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand and Fas ligand, augmenting their capacity to induce tumor cell apoptosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground & Aims: Metallothionein-3 (hMT3) is a structurally unique member of the metallothioneins family of low-mass cysteine-rich proteins. hMT3 has poorly characterized functions, and its importance for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells has not yet been elucidated. Therefore, we investigated the molecular mechanisms driven by hMT3 with a special emphasis on susceptibility to sorafenib.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHerby, the interaction of metallothioneins with commonly used Pt-based anticancer drugs - cisplatin, carboplatin, and oxaliplatin - was investigated using the combined power of elemental (i.e. LA-ICP-MS, CE-ICP-MS) and molecular (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLow-cost, rapid, and easy-to-use biosensors for various cancer biomarkers are of utmost importance in detecting cancer biomarkers for early-stage metastasis control and efficient diagnosis. The molecular complexity of cancer biomarkers is overwhelming, thus, the repeatability and reproducibility of measurements by biosensors are critical factors. Electrochemical biosensors are attractive alternatives in cancer diagnosis due to their low cost, simple operation, and promising analytical figures of merit.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTwo-dimensional materials have recently gained significant awareness. A representative of such materials, black phosphorous (BP), earned attention based on its comprehensive application potential. The presented study focuses on the mode of cellular response underlying the BP interaction with Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as an algal model organism.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Resistance of pathogenic strains of to β-lactams, particularly to ampicillin, is on the rise and it is attributed to intrinsic and acquired mechanisms. One important factor contributing to resistance, together with primarily resistance mechanisms, is a mutation and/or an over-expression of the intrinsic efflux pumps in the resistance-nodulation-division (RND) superfamily. Among these efflux pumps, AcrA, AcrB, TolC, and AcrD play an important role in antimicrobial co-resistance, including resistance to β-lactams.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLiver fibrosis is a reversible pathological process caused by chronic liver damage and a major risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Hepatic stellate cell (HSC) activation is considered the main target for liver fibrosis therapy. However, the efficiency of this strategy is limited due to the complex microenvironment of liver fibrosis, including excessive extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition and hypoxia-induced imbalanced ECM metabolism.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA long-term exposure of bacteria to zinc oxide and zinc oxide nanoparticles leads to major alterations in bacterial morphology and physiology. These included biochemical and physiological processes promoting the emergence of strains with multi-drug resistance and virulence traits. After the removal of zinc pressure, bacterial phenotype reversed back to the original state; however, certain changes at the genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic level remained.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Resistance to antibiotics among bacteria of clinical importance, including Staphylococcus aureus, is a serious problem worldwide and the search for alternatives is needed. Some metal complexes have antibacterial properties and when combined with antibiotics, they may increase bacterial sensitivity to antimicrobials. In this study, we synthesized the iron complex and tested it in combination with ampicillin (Fe16 + AMP) against S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOver decades, synthetic dyes have become increasingly dominated by azo dyes posing a significant environmental risk due to their toxicity. Microalgae-based systems may offer an alternative for treatment of azo dye effluents to conventional physical-chemical methods. Here, microalgae were tested to decolorize industrial azo dye wastewater (ADW).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPaper-based analysis has captivated scientists' attention in the field of analytical chemistry and related areas for the last two decades. Arguably no other area of modern chemical analysis is so broad and diverse in its approaches spanning from simple 'low-tech' low-cost paper-based analytical devices (PADs) requiring no or simple instrumentation, to sophisticated PADs and microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (μPADs) featuring elements of modern material science and nanomaterials affording high selectivity and sensitivity. Correspondingly diverse is the applicability, covering resource-limited scenarios on the one hand and most advanced approaches on the other.
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