Natural serine proteases and their applications in combating amyloid formation.

Background And Purpose: Amyloidosis is a group of diseases including diabetes type II and neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, prion disease, etc., where a common trait is observed; accumulation of misfolded protein at different parts of the body, especially the brain which manifests the typical symptoms like dementia, movement disorders, etc. These misfolded proteins, named amyloids, are protease resistant and thus it becomes difficult to manage these diseases in vivo.

Enhancing Wound Healing with Nanohydrogel-Entrapped Plant Extracts and Nanosilver: An In Vitro Investigation.

Wound healing is a complex process that can be improved through advanced biomedical approaches. Incorporating nanopolymers and plant extracts into wound dressings offers a favorable strategy for promoting tissue repair. Nanopolymers provide a controlled environment for sustained drug release while also protecting the wound from external contaminants.

Are violence, harmful alcohol/substance use and poor mental health associated with increased genital inflammation?: A longitudinal cohort study with HIV-negative female sex workers in Nairobi, Kenya.

Violence, alcohol use, substance use and poor mental health have been linked with increased HIV acquisition risk, and genital inflammation enhances HIV susceptibility. We examined whether past 6 month experience of these exposures was associated with increased genital inflammation, thereby providing a biological link between these exposures and HIV acquisition risk. The Maisha Fiti study was a longitudinal mixed-methods study of female sex workers in Nairobi, Kenya.

Exploring the amyloid degradation potential of nanoformulated carrageenan-bridging in vitro and in vivo perspectives.

Amyloids, with their β-sheet-rich structure, contribute to diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, and amyloidosis by aggregating within diverse anatomical compartments. Insulin amyloid (IA), sharing structural resemblances with amyloids linked to neurological disorders, acts as a prototype, while compounds capable of degrading these fibrils hold promise as therapeutic agents for amyloidosis intervention. In this research, liposomal nanoformulated iota carrageenan (nCG) was formulated to disrupt insulin amyloids, demonstrating about a 17-20 % higher degradation efficacy compared to conventional carrageenan through thioflavin T fluorescence, dynamic light scattering analysis, and turbidity quantification.