30 results match your criteria: "Center for Biodiversity and Drug Discovery[Affiliation]"

Background: Carotenoids, potent antioxidants in fruits and vegetables, have recently garnered attention for their potential therapeutic effects against neurodegenerative diseases. This study focuses on the interaction and anti-aggregation properties of conventional and unconventional carotenoids found in red mamey fruit, a nutraceutical fruit that is a rich source of these compounds.

Objective: To assess computational the interaction between of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide with a set of carotenoids and three carotenoids previously explored in experimental assays as well as to assess ADMET prediction of carotenoids selected by computational analysis results.

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Molecular Characterization of Enteric Viruses Causing Acute Gastroenteritis among Children under 5 Years Old in Distrito Central, Honduras.

Intervirology

July 2024

Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Introduction: Diarrheal diseases constitute a significant public health problem in terms of mortality and morbidity. In Honduras and around the world, RVs have consistently emerged as the single most important etiologic agent in acute childhood diarrhea. However, other viruses, such as NoVs and HAstVs, have also been shown to be responsible for viral gastroenteritis.

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Tetrahydrocurcumin, the most abundant curcumin transformation product in biological systems, can potentially be a new alternative therapeutic agent with improved anti-inflammatory activity and higher bioavailability than curcumin. In this article, we describe the synthesis and evaluation of the anti-inflammatory activities of tetrahydrocurcumin derivatives. Eleven tetrahydrocurcumin derivatives were synthesized via Steglich esterification on both sides of the phenolic rings of tetrahydrocurcumin with the aim of improving the anti-inflammatory activity of this compound.

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Herein, we describe the synthesis and evaluation of anti-inflammatory activities of new curcumin derivatives. The thirteen curcumin derivatives were synthesized by Steglich esterification on one or both of the phenolic rings of curcumin with the aim of providing improved anti-inflammatory activity. Monofunctionalized compounds showed better bioactivity than the difunctionalized derivatives in terms of inhibiting IL-6 production, and known compound presented the highest activity.

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Advancements in the Use of Hydrogels for Regenerative Medicine: Properties and Biomedical Applications.

Int J Biomater

November 2022

Biological Engineering, Faculty of Biosciences and Public Health, Universidad Especializada de las Americas (UDELAS), Panama City, Panama.

Article Synopsis
  • * They mimic the complex structure of human tissues, making them especially useful for delicate areas like the nervous system, where traditional methods may be inadequate.
  • * Hydrogels have biocompatible properties, allowing them to be used safely within the human body, presenting a promising solution for regenerating tissue lost from brain tumors or injuries and addressing central nervous system challenges.
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Diversity of culturable endophytic fungi vary through time in Manihot esculenta Crantz.

Braz J Biol

January 2022

Center for Biodiversity and Drug Discovery, Institute of Scientific Research and High Technology Services (INDICASAT-AIP), City of Knowledge, Clayton, Panama, Republic of Panama.

Endophytic fungi are a ubiquituos group that colonize all plant species on earth. Studies comparing the location of endophytic fungi within the leaves and the sampling time in Manihot esculenta Crantz (cassava) are limited. In this study, mature leaves of M.

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is the most important fungal pathogen of coffee and the causal agent of recurrent disease epidemics that have invaded nearly every coffee growing region in the world. The development of coffee varieties resistant to requires fundamental understanding of the biology of the fungus. However, the complete life cycle of remains unknown, and conflicting studies and interpretations exist as to whether the fungus is undergoing sexual reproduction.

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Antibacterial Activity of Volatile Organic Compounds Produced by the Octocoral-Associated Bacteria sp. BO53 and sp. GA327.

Antibiotics (Basel)

December 2020

Center for Biodiversity and Drug Discovery, Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología (INDICASAT AIP), Panama City 0843-01103, Panama.

The present research aimed to evaluate the antibacterial activity of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by octocoral-associated bacteria sp. BO53 and sp. GA327.

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Aspirin Bioactivity for Prevention of Cardiovascular Injury in COVID-19.

Front Cardiovasc Med

November 2020

Biomedicine Research Unit, Center for Biodiversity and Drug Discovery, Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología (INDICASAT Asociation of Public Interest), Panama City, Panama.

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Ecological release from herbivory due to chemical novelty is commonly predicted to facilitate biological invasions by plants, but has not been tested on a community scale. We used metabolomics based on mass spectrometry molecular networks to assess the novelty of foliar secondary chemistry of 15 invasive plant species compared to 46 native species at a site in eastern North America. Locally, invasive species were more chemically distinctive than natives.

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Article Synopsis
  • Two new carotenoids, sapotexanthin 5,6-epoxide and sapotexanthin 5,8-epoxide, were discovered in ripe red mamey fruit.
  • Sapotexanthin 5,6-epoxide was also synthesized through epoxidation of sapotexanthin, and its stereoisomers were analyzed using HPLC-ECD.
  • The study compared the spectroscopic data of these natural and semi-synthetic derivatives to help understand their structures better.
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Premise: Interactions between fungal endophytes and their host plants present useful systems for identifying important factors affecting assembly of host-associated microbiomes. Here we investigated the role of secondary chemistry in mediating host affinity of asymptomatic foliar endophytic fungi using Psychotria spp. and Theobroma cacao (cacao) as hosts.

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Carotenoids as Novel Therapeutic Molecules Against Neurodegenerative Disorders: Chemistry and Molecular Docking Analysis.

Int J Mol Sci

November 2019

Center for Neuroscience, Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología (INDICASAT AIP), Clayton, City of Knowledge 0843-01103, Panama.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most devastating neurodegenerative disorder that affects the aging population worldwide. Endogenous and exogenous factors are involved in triggering this complex and multifactorial disease, whose hallmark is Amyloid-β (Aβ), formed by cleavage of amyloid precursor protein by β- and γ-secretase. While there is no definitive cure for AD to date, many neuroprotective natural products, such as polyphenol and carotenoid compounds, have shown promising preventive activity, as well as helping in slowing down disease progression.

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Plant interactions with other organisms are mediated by chemistry, yet chemistry varies among conspecific and within individual plants. The foliar metabolome-the suite of small-molecule metabolites found in the leaf-changes during leaf ontogeny and is influenced by the signaling molecule jasmonic acid. Species differences in secondary metabolites are thought to play an important ecological role by limiting the host ranges of herbivores and pathogens, and hence facilitating competitive coexistence among plant species in species-rich plant communities such as tropical forests.

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Lianas are more abundant in seasonal forests than in wetter forests and are thought to perform better than trees when light is abundant and water is limited. We tested the hypothesis that lianas perform better than trees during seasonal drought using a common garden experiment with 12 taxonomically diverse species (six liana and six tree species) in 12 replicated plots. We irrigated six of the plots during the dry season for four years, while the remaining six control plots received only ambient rainfall.

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Background: Anthracyclines are highly effective anticancer medication prescribed for the treatment of breast cancer. Nevertheless, the use of anthracyclines as chemotherapeutic agents involves a risk for development of cardiac toxicity which may cause restrictive and dilated cardiomyopathy. Currently, genetic predisposition is not considered as a risk factor for cardiotoxicity associated to the use of anthracyclines.

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Recent advances in understanding the role of secondary metabolites in species-rich multitrophic networks.

Curr Opin Insect Sci

April 2019

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 0843-03092, Balboa, Ancón, Panama; Center for Biodiversity and Drug Discovery, Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología, Apartado 0843-01103, Ciudad del Saber, Ancón, Panama. Electronic address:

Understanding coexistence in species-rich communities remains a primary challenge of ecology. Interactions mediated through multitrophic networks are thought to play an important role in sustaining species coexistence in the face of competition for resources. The identity of trophic partners and the intensity with which they interact are often mediated by diverse secondary metabolites.

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Plant enemies that attack chemically similar host species are thought to mediate competitive exclusion of chemically similar plants and select for chemical divergence among closely related species. This hypothesis predicts that plant defenses should diverge rapidly, minimizing phylogenetic signal. To evaluate this prediction, we quantified metabolomic similarity for 203 tree species that represent >89% of all individuals in large forest plots in Maryland and Panama.

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Premise Of The Study: We describe a field collection, sample processing, and ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) instrumental and bioinformatics method developed for untargeted metabolomics of plant tissue and suitable for molecular networking applications.

Methods And Results: A total of 613 leaf samples from 204 tree species was collected in the field and analyzed using UHPLC-MS/MS. Matching of molecular fragmentation spectra generated over 125,000 consensus spectra representing unique molecular structures, 26,410 of which were linked to at least one structurally similar compound.

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Anti-amyloid aggregation activity of novel carotenoids: implications for Alzheimer's drug discovery.

Clin Interv Aging

November 2017

Center for Biodiversity and Drug Discovery, Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología (INDICASAT AIP), Panama, Republic of Panama.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia, affecting approximately 33.5 million people worldwide. Aging is the main risk factor associated with AD.

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Background: In order to identify new ways to prevent transmission of vector-borne diseases such as malaria, efforts have been made to understand how insects are attracted to humans. Vector-host interaction studies have shown that several volatile compounds play an important role in attracting mosquitoes to human targets. A headspace solid-phase micro-extraction/gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HSPME GC-MS) analysis of the volatile organic composition of extracellular vesicles (EVs) and supernatants of ultracentrifugation (SNUs) was carried out in Plasmodium falciparum-infected cultures with high and low parasitemias.

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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder affecting the elderly population worldwide. Brain inflammation plays a key role in the progression of AD. Deposition of senile plaques in the brain stimulates an inflammatory response with the overexpression of pro-inflammatory mediators, such as the neuroinflammatory cytokine.

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Specialist herbivores and pathogens could induce negative conspecific density dependence among their hosts and thereby contribute to the diversity of plant communities. A small number of hyperdiverse genera comprise a large portion of tree diversity in tropical forests. These closely related congeners are likely to share natural enemies.

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Three new diterpenes, uprolide N (1), uprolide O (2), uprolide P (3) and a known one, dolabellane (4), were isolated from the CH₂Cl₂-MeOH extract of the gorgonian octocoral Eunicea succinea, collected from Bocas del Toro, on the Caribbean coast of Panama. Their structures were determined using spectroscopic analyses, including 1D and 2D NMR and high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) together with molecular modeling studies. Compounds 1-3 displayed anti-inflammatory properties by inhibiting production of Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) and Interleukin (IL)-6 induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in murine macrophages.

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