Iron is a critical nutrient for all organisms ranging from bacteria to humans. Ensuring control of this strategic vital resource significantly influences the dynamics of the struggle between host and invading pathogen. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of the pulmonary disease tuberculosis (TB), has been plaguing humans for millennia and has evolved to successfully persist and multiply within host cells evading the mammalian immune defences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiabetes mellitus (DM) is a major risk factor for tuberculosis (TB), though the underlying mechanisms linking DM and TB remain ambiguous. Macrophages are a key player in the innate immune response and their phagocytic ability is enhanced in response to microbial infections. Upon infection or inflammation, they also repel invading pathogens by generating; reactive oxygen species (ROS), reactive nitrogen species (RNS), pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β and IL-6), and anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-10).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 caused by coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has emerged as an aggressive viral pandemic. Health care providers confront a challenging task for rapid development of effective strategies to combat this and its long-term after effects. Virus entry into host cells involves interaction between receptor-binding domain (RBD) of spike (S) protein S1 subunit with angiotensin converting enzyme present on host cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe development of strategies for targeting the asymptomatic carriage of Typhi in chronic typhoid patients has suffered owing to our basic lack of understanding of the molecular mechanisms that enable the formation of . Typhi biofilms. Traditionally, studies have relied on cholesterol-attached biofilms formed by a closely related serovar, Typhimurium, to mimic multicellular Typhi communities formed on human gallstones.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCoronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) can induce severe inflammation of the lungs and respiratory system. Severe COVID-19 is frequently associated with hyper inflammation and hyper-ferritinemia. High iron levels are known to trigger pro-inflammatory effects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), the major causative agent of tuberculosis, has evolved mechanisms to evade host defenses and persist within host cells. Host-directed therapies against infected cells are emerging as an effective option.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTyphoid fever is an acute illness caused by Salmonella Typhi and the current diagnostic gap leads to inaccurate, over-diagnosis of typhoid leading to excessive use of antibiotics. Herein, to address the challenges we describe a new rapid color-shift assay based on a novel bifunctional nanobioprobe (Vi-AgNP probe) that is functionalized with specific biomarker Vi polysaccharide and also has the co-presence of Ag as urease inhibitor. The immunoreactions between the Vi with specific antibodies (Abs) present in typhoid patient sample forms a shielding barrier over Vi-AgNP probe rendering the urease to be active, generating colored output.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfections due to Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) are rapidly increasing worldwide and consequently therapeutic options for treatment are limited. The emergence of multi drug resistant (MDR) strains has rendered available antibiotics ineffective, necessitating the urgent discovery of new drugs and drug targets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGold nanoparticles (GNP) were bio-fabricated utilizing the methanolic extract of the endophytic isolate . The biosynthesised gold nanoparticles (GNP023) were characterised using UV-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis); transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier-transform nfrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies. The bio-fabricated GNP023 displayed a sharp SPR peak at 536 nm, were spherically shaped, and had an average size between 10-16 nm.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAvailability of iron is a key factor in the survival and multiplication of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) within host macrophage phagosomes. Despite host cell iron regulatory machineries attempts to deny supply of this essential micronutrient, intraphagosomal M.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRapid clearance of apoptotic cells by phagocytes is crucial for organogenesis, tissue homeostasis, and resolution of inflammation. This process is initiated by surface exposure of various 'eat me' ligands. Though phosphatidylserine (PS) is the best recognized general recognition ligand till date, recent studies have shown that PS by itself is not sufficient for clearance of apoptotic cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProtein aggregate accumulation is a pathological hallmark of several neurodegenerative disorders. Autophagy is critical for clearance of aggregate-prone proteins. In this study, we identify a novel role of the multifunctional glycolytic enzyme glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) in clearance of intracellular protein aggregates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiochim Biophys Acta Mol Basis Dis
October 2021
Onset of protein aggregation reflects failure of the cellular folding machinery to keep aggregation-prone protein from misfolding and accumulating into a non-degradable state. FRET based analysis and biochemical data reveal that cytosolic prion (cyPrP) and httQ-103 interact with the multifunctional protein glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) leading to few detectable aggregates in GAPDH-over expressing cells.The preventive effect of GAPDH suggests that this abundant and long-lived cytoplasmic protein has an active role in the shielding and maintenance, in soluble form of proteins as heterogeneous as huntingtin and cyPrP.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF(L.) Zopf is a well-known epiphytic lichen commonly used in Indian spice mixtures and food preparations such as curries. This study is an attempt to find the best extraction methodology with respect to extractive yield, total polyphenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content and antioxidant activities of lichen .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCryptdins are disulfide-rich cationic antimicrobial peptides secreted by mouse Paneth cells and are known to exhibit potent antimicrobial activity against various deadly pathogens. Keeping in view the extremely low yield obtained from mouse Paneth cells and high cost of synthetic peptide(s), herein, we have attempted to produce cryptdin-2 in Escherichia coli using recombinant technology. To avoid lethal effects of peptide on the host cells, cryptdin-2 was expressed as a fusion protein with thioredoxin as fusion partner which yielded 40 mg/L protein in the soluble fraction.
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