Structural and mechanistic insights into the transport of aristolochic acids and their active metabolites by human serum albumin.

Aristolochic acids I and II (AA-I/II) are carcinogenic principles of Aristolochia plants, which have been employed in traditional medicinal practices and discovered as food contaminants. While the deleterious effects of AAs are broadly acknowledged, there is a dearth of information to define the mechanisms underlying their carcinogenicity. Following bioactivation in the liver, N-hydroxyaristolactam and N-sulfonyloxyaristolactam metabolites are transported via circulation and elicit carcinogenic effects by reacting with cellular DNA.

Mechanisms of antiviral action and toxicities of ipecac alkaloids: Emetine and dehydroemetine exhibit anti-coronaviral activities at non-cardiotoxic concentrations.

The emergence of highly infectious pathogens with their potential for triggering global pandemics necessitate the development of effective treatment strategies, including broad-spectrum antiviral therapies to safeguard human health. This study investigates the antiviral activity of emetine, dehydroemetine (DHE), and congeneric compounds against SARS-CoV-2 and HCoV-OC43, and evaluates their impact on the host cell. Concurrently, we assess the potential cardiotoxicity of these ipecac alkaloids.

Political science meets physical science: The shared concept of stability.

A biophysical chemist and a political scientist team up to explore striking parallels between the requisites of "stability" and the causes of instability within both the cellular/molecular world of biophysical chemistry and the world of social and political organization of self-assembled, societal structures, such as sovereign states and institutions. The structure, function, and organizational similarities of such parallelisms are particularly noteworthy, given that human agency introduces greater contingency in the sociopolitical world than do the "laws of Nature" in the natural-scientific world. In this perspective piece, we critically identify and analyze these parallels between the natural and the social realms through the prism of the shared concept of stability, including causal factors that embrace the full "stability spectrum" from instability to stability.

HSF1, Aging, and Neurodegeneration.

Unlabelled: Heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) is a master transcription regulator that mediates the induction of heat shock protein chaperones for quality control (QC) of the proteome and maintenance of proteostasis as a protective mechanism in response to stress. Research in this particular area has accelerated dramatically over the past three decades following successful isolation, cloning, and characterization of HSF1. The intricate multi-protein complexes and transcriptional activation orchestrated by HSF1 are fundamental processes within the cellular QC machinery.