COMMBINI: an experimentally-informed COmputational Model of Macrophage dynamics in the Bone INjury Immunoresponse.

Bone fracture healing is a well-orchestrated but complex process that involves numerous regulations at different scales. This complexity becomes particularly evident during the inflammatory stage, as immune cells invade the healing region and trigger a cascade of signals to promote a favorable regenerative environment. Thus, the emergence of criticalities during this stage might hinder the rest of the process.

Access to Anti-Biofilm Compounds from Endolichenic Fungi Using a Bioguided Networking Screening.

Endolichenic microorganisms represent a new source of bioactive natural compounds. Lichens, resulting from a symbiotic association between algae or cyanobacteria and fungi, constitute an original ecological niche for these microorganisms. Endolichenic fungi inhabiting inside the lichen thallus have been isolated and characterized.

Detection of ergosterol using liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization mass spectrometry: Investigation of unusual in-source reactions.

Rationale: In the field of natural products, de-replication of complex mixtures has become a usual practice to annotate known compounds and avoid their re-isolation. For this purpose, many groups rely on liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS) to deduce molecular formulae of compounds allowing comparison with public or in-house databases. Electrospray ionization (ESI) is usually considered as the method of choice for investigating a large panel of compounds but, in some cases, it may lead to unusual results as described in this article for ergosterol.

4-cholesten-3-one decreases breast cancer cell viability and alters membrane raft-localized EGFR expression by reducing lipogenesis and enhancing LXR-dependent cholesterol transporters.

Background: The alteration of lipid metabolism in cancer cells is recognized as one of the most important metabolic hallmarks of cancer. Membrane rafts defined as plasma membrane microdomains enriched in cholesterol and sphingolipids serve as platforms for signaling regulation in cancer. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of the cholesterol metabolite, 4-cholesten-3-one, on lipid metabolism and membrane raft integrity in two breast cancer cell lines, MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231.

Steroids from Marine-Derived Fungi: Evaluation of Antiproliferative and Antimicrobial Activities of Eburicol.

The most common sterol in fungi is ergosterol, which has frequently been investigated in human pathogenic fungal strains. This sterol, and others isolated from fungal strains, has also demonstrated cytotoxicity against cancer cell lines and antimicrobial activities. Marine fungi can produce high amounts of bioactive compounds.