Viruses compete with each other for limited cellular resources, and some deliver defence mechanisms that protect the host from competing genetic parasites. The phage antirestriction induced system (PARIS) is a defence system, often encoded in viral genomes, that is composed of a 55 kDa ABC ATPase (AriA) and a 35 kDa TOPRIM nuclease (AriB). However, the mechanism by which AriA and AriB function in phage defence is unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOrthodontic tooth movement (OTM) is a critical process in dental alignment, driven by the application of calibrated orthodontic forces. This study delves into the intricate molecular and cellular mechanisms by which vitamin D3 influences OTM. Vitamin D3 is identified as a critical regulator in bone metabolism, enhancing osteoblast activity and bone formation while also modulating osteoclast quantity and RANKL expression, essential for the remodeling of the alveolar bone.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe SOS response is a condition that occurs in bacterial cells after DNA damage. In this state, the bacterium is able to reсover the integrity of its genome. Due to the increased level of mutagenesis in cells during the repair of DNA double-strand breaks, the SOS response is also an important mechanism for bacterial adaptation to the antibiotics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFType VI CRISPR-Cas systems are among the few CRISPR varieties that target exclusively RNA. The CRISPR RNA-guided, sequence-specific binding of target RNAs, such as phage transcripts, activates the type VI effector, Cas13. Once activated, Cas13 causes collateral RNA cleavage, which induces bacterial cell dormancy, thus protecting the host population from the phage spread.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA nucleus-like structure composed of phage-encoded proteins and containing replicating viral DNA is formed in cells infected by jumbo bacteriophage phiKZ. The PhiKZ genes are transcribed independently from host RNA polymerase (RNAP) by two RNAPs encoded by the phage. The virion RNAP (vRNAP) transcribes early viral genes and must be injected into the cell with phage DNA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPharmaceuticals (Basel)
October 2023
The toxicity of local anesthetics is a serious problem, given their widespread use. One of the main causes of the side effects of local anesthetics is their non-selectivity of action in the body. A possible way to increase the selectivity of the action of drugs is to use the photopharmacology approach.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVitamin C plays a very important role in the repair of connective tissue, especially for sports whose training causes the most damage to this tissue. Therefore, many people believe that L-ascorbic acid (CHO: vitamin C) reduces the recovery time between sports exercises. The most abundant form of structural protein in the body is collagen.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe review focuses on the surface modification of Zr and its alloys, which is necessary to expand the applications of these kinds of materials. Data on the properties of pure zirconium and its alloys are presented. Since surface engineering and the operation of the above materials are in most cases associated with the formation of oxide coatings, information on the characteristics of ZrO is given.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIt is shown that the potassium polytitanate powder (PPT) synthesized at 500 °C via the treatment of powdered TiO (rutile) in molten mixtures of KOH and KNO is a cheap and effective catalyst of HO chemical decomposition in aqueous solutions. At the same time, the PPT catalytic activity strongly depends on the [TiO]:[KOH]:[KNO] weight ratio in the mixture used for the synthesis, increasing with [KNO] in the order of PPT (30:30:40) < PPT (30:50:20) < PPT (30:70:0). The obtained results are explained by increased [Ti] in the PPT structure (XPS data), which is grown in this order from 0 to 4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Dental diseases occur in children with cerebral palsy three times higher than in healthy children. Low values of the unstimulated salivation rate (<0.3 ml per minute), pH and buffer capacity, changes in enzyme activity and sialic acid concentration, as well as increased saliva osmolarity and total protein concentration, which indicates impaired hydration, are the factors in the development of a gingiva disease in case of cerebral palsy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhotodynamic therapy (PDT) is currently regarded as a promising method for the treatment of oncological diseases. However, it involves a number of limitations related to the specific features of the method and the specific characteristics of photosensitizer molecules, including tumor hypoxia, small depth of light penetration into the tumor tissue, and low accumulation sensitivity. These drawbacks can be overcome by combining PDT with other treatment methods, for example, chemotherapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe action of Type II restriction-modification (RM) systems depends on restriction endonuclease (REase), which cleaves foreign DNA at specific sites, and methyltransferase (MTase), which protects host genome from restriction by methylating the same sites. We here show that protection from phage infection increases as the copy number of plasmids carrying the Type II RM Esp1396I system is increased. However, since increased plasmid copy number leads to both increased absolute intracellular RM enzyme levels and to a decreased MTase/REase ratio, it is impossible to determine which factor determines resistance/susceptibility to infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNitrites are widely used in the food industry, particularly for the preservation of meat products. Controlling the nitrate content in food is an important task to ensure people's health is not at risk; therefore, the search for, and research of, new materials that will modify the electrodes in the electrochemical sensors that detect and control the nitrate content in food products is an urgent task. In this paper, we describe the electrochemical behavior of a glass carbon electrode (GCE), modified with a Fe(II) tetra-tert-butyl phthalocyanine film (FePc(tBu)/GCE), and decorated with gold nanoparticles (Au/FePc(tBu)/GCE); this electrode was deposited using gas-phase methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis work is aimed at the development of new heterostructures based on cobalt phthalocyanines (CoPc) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), and the evaluation of the prospects of their use to determine low concentrations of ammonia and nitric oxide. For this purpose, CoPc films were decorated with AuNPs by gas-phase methods (MOCVD and PVD) and drop-casting (DC), and their chemiresistive sensor response to low concentrations of NO (10-50 ppb) and NH (1-10 ppm) was investigated. A comparative analysis of the characteristics of heterostructures depending on the preparation methods was carried out.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecA protein mediates homologous recombination repair in bacteria through assembly of long helical filaments on ssDNA in an ATP-dependent manner. RecX, an important negative regulator of RecA, is known to inhibit RecA activity by stimulating the disassembly of RecA nucleoprotein filaments. Here we use a single-molecule approach to address the regulation of () RecA-ssDNA filaments by RecX () within the framework of distinct conformational states of RecA-ssDNA filament.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPain is a common symptom that impairs the quality of life for people around the world. Local anesthetics widely used for pain relief have a number of side effects, which makes the development of both new drugs and new ways to control their activity particularly important. Photopharmacology makes it possible to reduce the side effects of an anesthetic and control its biological activity in the body.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiochem Biophys Res Commun
July 2022
RecA is a central enzyme of homologous recombination in bacteria, which plays a major role in DNA repair, natural transformation and SOS-response activation. RecA forms nucleoprotein filaments on single-stranded DNA with a highly conserved architecture that is also shared by eukaryotic recombinases. One of the key features of these filaments is the ability to switch between stretched and compressed conformations in response to ATP binding and hydrolysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo search for new suitable Pd precursors for MOCVD/ALD processes, the extended series of fluorinated palladium complexes [Pd(CHCXCHCO(R))] with β-diketone [tfa-1,1,1-trifluoro-2,4-pentanedionato (); pfpa-5,5,6,6,6-pentafluoro-2,4-hexanedionato (); hfba-5,5,6,6,7,7,7-heptafluoro-2,4-heptanedionato ()] and β-iminoketone [i-tfa-1,1,1-trifluoro-2-imino-4-pentanonato (); i-pfpa-5,5,6,6,6-pentafluoro-2-imino-4-hexanonato (); i-hfba-5,5,6,6,7,7,7-heptafluoro-2-imino-4-heptanonato ()] ligands were synthesized with 70-80% yields and characterized by a set of experimental (SXRD, XRD, IR, NMR spectroscopy, TG) and theoretical (DFT, Hirshfeld surface analysis) methods. Solutions of Pd β-diketonates contained both and isomers, while only isomers were detected in the solutions of Pd β-iminoketonates. The molecules - and new polymorphs of complexes and were arranged preferentially in stacks, and the distance between molecules in the stack generally increased with elongation of the fluorine chain in ligands.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCRISPR-Cas systems provide prokaryotes with an RNA-guided defense against foreign mobile genetic elements (MGEs) such as plasmids and viruses. A common mechanism by which MGEs avoid interference by CRISPR consists of acquisition of escape mutations in regions targeted by CRISPR. Here, using microbiological, live microscopy and microfluidics analyses we demonstrate that plasmids can persist for multiple generations in some Escherichia coli cell lineages at conditions of continuous targeting by the type I-E CRISPR-Cas system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMaterials that can efficiently convert heat into electricity are widely utilized in energy conversion technologies. The existing thermoelectrics demonstrate rather limited performance characteristics at room temperature, and hence, alternative materials and approaches are very much in demand. Here, it is experimentally shown that manipulating an applied stress can greatly improve a thermoelectric power factor of layered p-type SnSe single crystals up to ≈180 µW K cm at room temperature.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn order to demonstrate the role of the fluorination and some solvents in the structural organization of the Ag(I) coordination polymers with β-diketonate ligands (RC(O)CHC(O)R) we synthesized a series of the compounds containing tfac- (R = CH, R = CF) and pfpac- (R = CH, R = CF) anions. Solvent-free [Ag(L)] (L = tfac , pfpac ) compounds and the corresponding acetonitrile and toluene adducts have been characterized by elemental analysis and/or NMR, IR and single-crystal XRD. This series includes five new coordination polymers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF