Transcriptomic analysis and epigenetic regulators in human oocytes at different stages of oocyte meiotic maturation.

Human oocytes are highly specialized cells with the capacity to store and regulate mRNAs during oocyte maturation, in preparation for post-fertilization steps. Here we performed single-oocyte transcriptomic analysis of human oocytes in three meitoic maturation stages - Germinal Vesicle (GV; n = 6), Metaphase I (MI; n = 6) and Metaphase II (MII; n = 7). Single-oocyte transcriptomic analysis revealed that the total number of expressed genes progressively decreased from GV to MII stages, with 9660 genes being transcribed in GV, 8734 in MI and 5889 in MII.

Dynamic Cellular Proteome Remodeling during SARS-CoV-2 Infection. Identification of Plasma Protein Readouts.

The outbreak of COVID-19, led to an ongoing pandemic with devastating consequences for the global economy and human health. With the global spread of SARS-CoV-2, multidisciplinary initiatives were launched to explore new diagnostic, therapeutic, and vaccination strategies. From this perspective, proteomics could help to understand the mechanisms associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection and to identify new therapeutic options.

Proteomic analysis of endothelial cells and extracellular vesicles in response to indoxyl sulfate: Mechanisms of endothelial dysfunction in chronic kidney disease.

Aims: Cardiovascular pathology is the main cause of death in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. CKD is associated with the accumulation of uremic toxins in the bloodstream, and indoxyl sulfate (IS) is one of the most abundant uremic toxins found in the blood of CKD patients. We conducted an in vitro study to assess the mechanisms underlying the IS-induced endothelial dysfunction that could lead to cardiovascular diseases.

Proteomic snapshot of saliva samples predicts new pathways implicated in SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis.

Background: Information on the microbiome's human pathways and active members that can affect SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and pathogenesis in the salivary proteome is very scarce. Here, we studied a unique collection of samples harvested from April to June 2020 from unvaccinated patients.

Methods: We compared 10 infected and hospitalized patients with severe (n = 5) and moderate (n = 5) coronavirus disease (COVID-19) with 10 uninfected individuals, including non-COVID-19 but susceptible individuals (n = 5) and non-COVID-19 and nonsusceptible healthcare workers with repeated high-risk exposures (n = 5).

Refinement of paramagnetic bead-based digestion protocol for automatic sample preparation using an artificial neural network.

Despite technological advances in the proteomics field, sample preparation still represents the main bottleneck in mass spectrometry (MS) analysis. Bead-based protein aggregation techniques have recently emerged as an efficient, reproducible, and high-throughput alternative for protein extraction and digestion. Here, a refined paramagnetic bead-based digestion protocol is described for Opentrons® OT-2 platform (OT-2) as a versatile, reproducible, and affordable alternative for the automatic sample preparation for MS analysis.

Cryogels and Monoliths: Promising Tools for Chromatographic Purification of Nucleic Acids.

The increasing demand for highly pure biopharmaceuticals has put significant pressure on the biotechnological industry to innovate in production and purification processes. Nucleic acid purification, crucial for gene therapy and vaccine production, presents challenges due to the unique physical and chemical properties of these molecules. Meeting regulatory standards necessitates large quantities of biotherapeutic agents of high purity.

Serum and Vitreous Levels of Placenta Growth Factor in Diabetic Retinopathy Patients: Correlation With Disease Severity and Optical Coherence Tomographic Parameters.

Purpose The primary objective of this study was to compare placenta growth factor (PlGF) levels in the serum and vitreous of diabetic retinopathy (DR) patients to non-diabetic controls. Additionally, the study aimed to establish associations between serum and vitreous PlGF concentrations and to examine the correlation between vitreous PlGF in DR patients and morphological parameters. Methods This study included serum and vitreous samples from 38 patients, including 21 patients with DR and 17 non-diabetic controls.

Multigenerational exposure of Ag materials (nano and salt) in soil - environmental hazards in (Oligochaeta).

Because of its properties, silver is among the most used metals both as salt and as nanomaterials (NMs), hence reaching the environment. Multigenerational (MG) exposure testing is scarce, and especially so for NMs and soil invertebrates. In this study the MG effects of Ag NMs (Ag NM300K) and Ag salt (AgNO) were assessed, using in LUFA 2.

Molecular basis of progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis 3. A proteomics study.

Progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis type 3 (PFIC3) is a severe rare liver disease that affects between 1/50,000 and 1/100,000 children. In physiological conditions, bile is produced by the liver and stored in the gallbladder, and then it flows to the small intestine to play its role in fat digestion. To prevent tissue damage, bile acids (BAs) are kept in phospholipid micelles.

SARS-CoV-2 accessory proteins involvement in inflammatory and profibrotic processes through IL11 signaling.

SARS-CoV-2, the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic, possesses eleven accessory proteins encoded in its genome. Their roles during infection are still not completely understood. In this study, transcriptomics analysis revealed that both and were significantly up-regulated in A549 cells expressing individual accessory proteins ORF6, ORF8, ORF9b or ORF9c from SARS-CoV-2 (Wuhan-Hu-1 isolate).

Proteomic analysis of STEAP1 knockdown in human LNCaP prostate cancer cells.

Prostate cancer (PCa) continues to be one of the most common cancers in men worldwide. The six transmembrane epithelial antigen of the prostate 1 (STEAP1) protein is overexpressed in several types of human tumors, particularly in PCa. Our research group has demonstrated that STEAP1 overexpression is associated with PCa progression and aggressiveness.

Assessment of Aptamer as a Potential Drug Targeted Delivery for Retinal Angiogenesis Inhibition.

AT11-L0 is an aptamer derivative of AS1411 composed of G-rich sequences that can adopt a G-quadruplex (G4) structure and target nucleolin (NCL), a protein that acts as a co-receptor for several growth factors. Hence, this study aimed to characterize the AT11-L0 G4 structure and its interaction with several ligands for NCL targeting and to evaluate their capacity to inhibit angiogenesis using an in vitro model. The AT11-L0 aptamer was then used to functionalize drug-associated liposomes to increase the bioavailability of the aptamer-based drug in the formulation.

Proteomics profiling of vitreous humor reveals complement and coagulation components, adhesion factors, and neurodegeneration markers as discriminatory biomarkers of vitreoretinal eye diseases.

Introduction: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are leading causes of visual impairment and blindness in people aged 50 years or older in middle-income and industrialized countries. Anti-VEGF therapies have improved the management of neovascular AMD (nAMD) and proliferative DR (PDR), no treatment options exist for the highly prevalent dry form of AMD.

Methods: To unravel the biological processes underlying these pathologies and to find new potential biomarkers, a label-free quantitative (LFQ) method was applied to analyze the vitreous proteome in PDR (n=4), AMD (n=4) compared to idiopathic epiretinal membranes (ERM) (n=4).

Multi-omics analyses demonstrate a critical role for EHMT1 methyltransferase in transcriptional repression during oogenesis.

EHMT1 (also known as GLP) is a multifunctional protein, best known for its role as an H3K9me1 and H3K9me2 methyltransferase through its reportedly obligatory dimerization with EHMT2 (also known as G9A). Here, we investigated the role of EHMT1 in the oocyte in comparison to EHMT2 using oocyte-specific conditional knockout mouse models ( cKO, cKO, cDKO), with ablation from the early phase of oocyte growth. Loss of EHMT1 in cKO and cDKO oocytes recapitulated meiotic defects observed in the cKO; however, there was a significant impairment in oocyte maturation and developmental competence in cKO and cDKO oocytes beyond that observed in the cKO.

Vitreous humor proteome: unraveling the molecular mechanisms underlying proliferative and neovascular vitreoretinal diseases.

Proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR), proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR), and neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) are among the leading causes of blindness. Due to the multifactorial nature of these vitreoretinal diseases, omics approaches are essential for a deeper understanding of the pathophysiologic processes underlying the evolution to a proliferative or neovascular etiology, in which patients suffer from an abrupt loss of vision. For many years, it was thought that the function of the vitreous was merely structural, supporting and protecting the surrounding ocular tissues.

Stable Cobalt-Mediated Monolithic Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells by Full Glass Encapsulation.

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) emerged in the market as one of the most promising indoor photovoltaic technologies to address the need for wireless powering of low-consuming electronics and sensor nodes of the internet of things (IoT). The monolithic design structure of the cell (M-DSSCs) makes the devices simpler and cheaper, and it is straightforward for constructing in-series modules. The most efficient DSSCs reported so far are Co(III/II)-mediated liquid junction cells with acetonitrile electrolytes; however, they are mostly unstable.

Toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics of chromium in the soil invertebrate Enchytraeus crypticus (Oligochaeta).

Chromium emissions led to increased concentrations in soil, where it can affect soil organisms to relevant levels. With the aim of better understanding the effects of Cr throughout time, its toxicokinetics-toxicodynamics (TKTD) were evaluated in the soil model organism Enchytraeus crypticus to assess the development of internal concentrations and consequent toxic effects. To achieve this goal, organisms were exposed in LUFA 2.

Exploring the Applicability of Calorespirometry to Assess Seed Metabolic Stability Upon Temperature Stress Conditions- L. Used as a Case Study.

The availability of phenotyping tools to assist breeding programs in the selection of high-quality crop seeds is of obvious interest with consequences for both seed producers and consumers. Seed germination involves the activation of several metabolic pathways, such as cellular respiration to provide the required ATP and reducing power. This work tested the applicability of calorespirometry, the simultaneous measurement of heat and CO rates, as a phenotyping tool to assess seed respiratory properties as a function of temperature.

Toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics of copper and cadmium in the soil invertebrate Enchytraeus crypticus (Oligochaeta).

The aim of this study was to evaluate the toxicokinetics-toxicodynamics (TKTD) of Cu and Cd in the soil model organism Enchytraeus crypticus, and assess the development of internal effect concentrations over time. Animals were exposed in LUFA 2.2 soil spiked with increasing concentrations of Cu and Cd.

Multi-omic rejuvenation of human cells by maturation phase transient reprogramming.

Ageing is the gradual decline in organismal fitness that occurs over time leading to tissue dysfunction and disease. At the cellular level, ageing is associated with reduced function, altered gene expression and a perturbed epigenome. Recent work has demonstrated that the epigenome is already rejuvenated by the maturation phase of somatic cell reprogramming, which suggests full reprogramming is not required to reverse ageing of somatic cells.