Asphyxiated neonates often undergo therapeutic hypothermia (TH) to reduce morbidity and mortality. As perinatal asphyxia and TH impact neonatal physiology, this could also influence enzyme functionality. Therefore, this study aimed to unravel the impact of age, hypothermia and hypoxia on porcine hepatic cytochrome P450 (CYP) gene expression, protein abundance and activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAsphyxiated neonates often undergo therapeutic hypothermia (TH) to reduce morbidity and mortality. Since both perinatal asphyxia (PA) and TH influence physiology, altered pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) are expected. Given that TH is the standard of care for PA with moderate to severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, disentangling the effect of PA versus TH on PK/PD is not possible in clinical settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInitiation of development requires differential gene expression and metabolic adaptations. Here we show in the nematode-trapping fungus, Arthrobotrys flagrans, that both are achieved through a dual-function G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR). A.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBerberine (BBR) and silymarin (SM) are natural compounds extracted from plants known for their antioxidant and chemoprotective effects on the liver. The present study aimed to investigate the beneficial properties of BBR and SM and the association of BBR with SM on liver function using fish as "in vivo" models. Moreover, the study investigated their hepatoprotective role after acetaminophen (APAP) exposure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhere does one draw the line between primary and secondary metabolism? The answer depends on the perspective. Microbial secondary metabolites (SMs) were at first believed not to be very important for the producers because they are dispensable for growth under laboratory conditions. However, such compounds become important in natural niches of the organisms, and some are of prime importance for humanity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExpert Opin Drug Metab Toxicol
November 2023
Introduction: Perinatal asphyxia (PA) still causes significant morbidity and mortality. Therapeutic hypothermia (TH) is the only effective therapy for neonates with moderate to severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy after PA. These neonates need additional pharmacotherapy, and both PA and TH may impact physiology and, consequently, pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough the interaction between prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms is crucial for the functioning of ecosystems, information about the processes driving microbial interactions within communities remains scarce. Here we show that arginine-derived polyketides (arginoketides) produced by Streptomyces species mediate cross-kingdom microbial interactions with fungi of the genera Aspergillus and Penicillium, and trigger the production of natural products. Arginoketides can be cyclic or linear, and a prominent example is azalomycin F produced by Streptomyces iranensis, which induces the cryptic orsellinic acid gene cluster in Aspergillus nidulans.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnimal models provide useful information on mechanisms in human disease conditions, but also on exploring (patho)physiological factors affecting pharmacokinetics, safety, and efficacy of drugs in development. Also, in pediatric patients, nonclinical data can be critical for better understanding the disease conditions and developing new drug therapies in this age category. For perinatal asphyxia (PA), a condition defined by oxygen deprivation in the perinatal period and possibly resulting in hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) or even death, therapeutic hypothermia (TH) together with symptomatic drug therapy, is the standard approach to reduce death and permanent brain damage in these patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis article's objective is the synthesis of new composites based on thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and TiO nanowires (NWs) as free-standing films, highlighting their structural and optical properties. The free-standing TPU-TiO NW films were prepared by a wet chemical method accompanied by a thermal treatment at 100 °C for 1 h, followed by air-drying for 2 h. X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies indicated that the starting commercial TiO NW sample contains TiO tetragonal anatase (A), cubic TiO (C), and orthorhombic TiO (OR), as well as monoclinic HTiO (M).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this work, new information concerning the optical properties of black phosphorus (BP) sheets chemically/electrochemically functionalized with diphenyl amine (DPA) and its macromolecular compound (poly(diphenylamine) (PDPA)) in the absence/presence of phosphotungstic acid (PTA) is reported. Raman scattering and FTIR spectroscopy studies indicate that the interaction of BP with PTA leads to the elimination of the PO layer onto the surface of the BP sheets. In the case of the chemical interaction of BP with DPA, the reaction product corresponds to DPA chemically functionalized BP sheets having an imino-phosphorane (IP) structure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhotosynthetic microorganisms including the green alga are essential to terrestrial habitats as they start the carbon cycle by conversion of CO to energy-rich organic carbohydrates. Terrestrial habitats are densely populated, and hence, microbial interactions mediated by natural products are inevitable. We previously discovered such an interaction between releasing the marginolactone azalomycin F in the presence of Whether the alga senses and reacts to azalomycin F remained unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAtrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia caused by structural remodeling of the atria, also called atrial myopathy. Current therapies only target the electrical abnormalities and not the underlying atrial myopathy. For the development of novel therapies, a reproducible large animal model of atrial myopathy is necessary.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Metabolome Database is a free online resource to perform metabolite annotation in mass spectrometry studies devoted to the genus . The database was created by retrieving and curating information on 2811 compounds present in 601 different species and subspecies of the genus . A total of 1514 scientific journals where these metabolites are mentioned were added as meta-information linked to their respective compounds in the database.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA new method to obtain poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) spheres, which consists of an interaction between commercial PVC grains and hexyl ethyl cellulose and lauroyl peroxide at a temperature of 60 °C, is reported. The addition of the graphene oxide (GO) sheets dispersed in dimethylformamide to the reaction mixture leads to the generation of composites made of PVC spheres coated with GO sheets. Scanning electron microscopy studies have demonstrated that this method allows for the transformation of PVC grains with sizes between 75 and 227 μm into spheres with sizes varying from 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this work, new films containing composite materials based on blends of thermoplastic polymers of the polyurethane (TPU) and polyolefin (TPO) type, in the absence and presence of BaTiO nanoparticles (NPs) with the size smaller 100 nm, were prepared. The vibrational properties of the free films depending on the weight ratio of the two thermoplastic polymers were studied. Our results demonstrate that these films are optically active, with strong, broad, and adjustable photoluminescence by varying the amount of TPU.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPharmacotherapy in pediatric patients is challenging in view of the maturation of organ systems and processes that affect pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Especially for the youngest age groups and for pediatric-only indications, neonatal and juvenile animal models can be useful to assess drug safety and to better understand the mechanisms of diseases or conditions. In this respect, the use of neonatal and juvenile pigs in the field of pediatric drug discovery and development is promising, although still limited at this point.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe influence of Ag and Au nanoparticles and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) sheets on the photodegradation of α-lipoic acid (ALA) was determined by UV-VIS spectroscopy. The ALA photodegradation was explained by considering the affinity of thiol groups for the metallic nanoparticles synthesized in the presence of trisodium citrate. The presence of excipients did not induce further changes when ALA interacts with Ag and Au nanoparticles with sizes of 5 and 10 nm by exposure to UV light.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn order for eukaryotes to efficiently detect and respond to environmental stimuli, a myriad of protein signaling pathways are utilized. An example of highly conserved signaling pathways in eukaryotes are the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways. In fungi, MAPK pathways have been shown to regulate a diverse array of biological processes, such as asexual and sexual development, stress responses and the production of secondary metabolites (SMs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this work, new optical properties of composites based on polystyrene (PS) microspheres and graphene oxide (GO) are reported. The radical polymerization of styrene in the presence of benzoyl peroxide, pentane and GO induces the appearance of new ester groups in the PS macromolecular chains remarked through an increase in the absorbance of the infrared (IR) band at 1743 cm. The decrease in the GO concentration in the PS/GO composites mass from 5 wt.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPolymorphonuclear granulocytes (PMNs) are indispensable for controlling life-threatening fungal infections. In addition to various effector mechanisms, PMNs also produce extracellular vesicles (EVs). Their contribution to antifungal defense has remained unexplored.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicroorganisms produce numerous secondary metabolites (SMs) with various biological activities. Many of their encoding gene clusters are silent under standard laboratory conditions because for their activation they need the ecological context, such as the presence of other microorganisms. The true ecological function of most SMs remains obscure, but understanding of both the activation of silent gene clusters and the ecological function of the produced compounds is of importance to reveal functional interactions in microbiomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAspergillus fumigatus faces abrupt changes in oxygen concentrations at the site of infection. An increasing number of studies has demonstrated that elevated production of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) under low oxygen conditions plays a regulatory role in modulating cellular responses for adaptation to hypoxia. To learn more about this process in A.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe eukaryotic epigenetic machinery can be modified by bacteria to reprogram the response of eukaryotes during their interaction with microorganisms. We discovered that the bacterium triggered increased chromatin acetylation and thus activation of the silent secondary metabolism gene cluster in the fungus . Using this model, we aim understanding mechanisms of microbial communication based on bacteria-triggered chromatin modification.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe opportunistic fungal pathogen can cause life-threatening infections, particularly in immunocompromised patients. Most pathogenic microbes control host innate immune responses at the earliest time, already before infiltrating host immune cells arrive at the site of infection. Here, we identify Aspf2 as the first Factor H-binding protein.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHeterologous expression of multi-gene biosynthetic pathways in eukaryotic hosts is limited by highly regulated individual monocistrons. Dissimilar to prokaryotes, each eukaryotic gene is strictly controlled by its own regulatory elements, such as promoter and terminator. Consequently, parallel transcription can occur only when a group of genes is synchronously activated.
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