A subpopulation of astrocyte progenitors defined by Sonic hedgehog signaling

Background The molecular signaling pathway, Sonic hedgehog (Shh), is critical for the proper development of the central nervous system. The requirement for Shh signaling in neuronal and oligodendrocyte development in the developing embryo are well established. However, Shh activity is found in discrete subpopulations of astrocytes in the postnatal and adult brain. Whether Shh signaling plays a role in astrocyte development is not well understood. Methods Here, we use a genetic inducible fate mapping approach to mark and follow a population of glial progenitor cells expressing the Shh target gene, Gli1, in the neonatal and postnatal brain. Results In the neonatal brain, Gli1-expressing cells are found in the dorsolateral corner of the subventricular zone (SVZ), a germinal zone harboring astrocyte progenitor cells. Our data show that these cells give rise to half of the cortical astrocyte population, demonstrating their substantial contribution to the cellular composition of the cortex. Further, these data suggest that the cortex harbors astrocytes from different lineages. Gli1 lineage astrocytes are distributed across all cortical layers, positioning them for broad influence over cortical circuits. Finally, we show that Shh activity recurs in mature astrocytes in a lineage-independent manner, suggesting cell-type dependent roles of the pathway in driving astrocyte development and function. Conclusion These data identify a novel role for Shh signaling in cortical astrocyte development and support a growing body of evidence pointing to astrocyte heterogeneity.

Microbial Contributions for Rice Production: From Conventional Crop Management to the Use of ‘Omics’ Technologies

Rice, the main staple food for about half of the world’s population, has had the growth of its production stagnate in the last two decades. One of the ways to further improve rice production is to enhance the associations between rice plants and the microbiome that exists around, on, and inside the plant. This article reviews recent developments in understanding how microorganisms exert positive influences on plant growth, production, and health, focusing particularly on rice. A variety of microbial species and taxa reside in the rhizosphere and the phyllosphere of plants and also have multiple roles as symbiotic endophytes while living within plant tissues and even cells. They alter the morphology of host plants, enhance their growth, health, and yield, and reduce their vulnerability to biotic and abiotic stresses. The findings of both agronomic and molecular analysis show ways in which microorganisms regulate the growth, physiological traits, and molecular signaling within rice plants. However, many significant scientific questions remain to be resolved. Advancements in high-throughput multi-omics technologies can be used to elucidate mechanisms involved in microbial–rice plant associations. Prospectively, the use of microbial inoculants and associated approaches offers some new, cost-effective, and more eco-friendly practices for increasing rice production.

Channel Capacity of Molecular Signaling via Diffusion in Confined Microenvironment

Aims: To model molecular signal propagation in confined environment. Background: Molecular communication (MC) is rooted in the concepts of understanding, modeling, and engineering information exchange among naturally and artificially synthesized nanosystems. To develop or analyze an MC system, there is the need to model the communication channel through which the molecular signal diffuse, from the transmitter to the receiver. Many models for the diffusion-based MC channel have been proposed in the literature for evaluating the performance of MC systems. Most of the contemporary works assume, and rightly so for some scenarios, that the MC channels under consideration have infinite boundaries. However, this assumption becomes invalid in bounded domains such as the interiors of natural cells and artificially synthesized nanosystems. Objective: In this paper, the model of molecular propagation in a confined. microenvironment is employ to explore the effect of such an environment on the MC system. Method: The mutual information of the channel and specifically the closed-form expression of the channel capacity of the molecular signaling in the confined geometry is derive. Result: Numerical results showing the variation in the channel capacity as the function of the channel dimension are presented. Conclusion: Results showed that the channel capacity increases with the decrease in the channel dimension. Subsequently, as the dimension of the channel tends to the nanoscale range typical of many artificially synthesized nanosystems, the effect of the channel width on the capacity and by induction on many other system metrics increases.

Effects of Various Muscle Disuse States and Countermeasures on Muscle Molecular Signaling

Skeletal muscle is capable of changing its structural parameters, metabolic rate and functional characteristics within a wide range when adapting to various loading regimens and states of the organism. Prolonged muscle inactivation leads to serious negative consequences that affect the quality of life and work capacity of people. This review examines various conditions that lead to decreased levels of muscle loading and activity and describes the key molecular mechanisms of muscle responses to these conditions. It also details the theoretical foundations of various methods preventing adverse muscle changes caused by decreased motor activity and describes these methods. A number of recent studies presented in this review make it possible to determine the molecular basis of the countermeasure methods used in rehabilitation and space medicine for many years, as well as to identify promising new approaches to rehabilitation and to form a holistic understanding of the mechanisms of gravity force control over the muscular system.

Strategy of implementing aerobic exercise as a pleiotropic effect in cancer patients with a history of administration cardiotoxic agents: a systematic review

The development of health science, with the discovery of a type of treatment to reduce mortality due to cancer, namely using chemotherapy agents such as anthracycline and trastuzumab. From the number of studies that have been done, the types of drugs such as anthracycline and trastuzumab have a cardiotoxic effect which is often associated with decreased heart-lung function and the incidence of cardiomyopathy. Exercise is reported to have a pleiotropic effect. Therefore, this study aims to synthesize evidence from the application of pleiotropic exercise in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy with cardiotoxic agents. The search was performed according to the recommended reporting items for systematic review and meta-analyses (PRISMA). Obtained an accumulation of 2397 articles from PubMed and Google Scholar (2016-2020), which were assisted by the PICO search engine. The article was reviewed by the author within sorting using inclusion and exclusion criteria and obtained 28 articles accordingly. Aerobic exercise has pleiotropic effects by stimulating antioxidants and reducing reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, reducing pro-apoptosis molecular signaling, stimulating myofilament, facilitating concentric cardia hypertrophy remodeling, and changing cardiac metabolism via adenosine monophosphate (amp) with kinase-mediated. Pretreatment aerobic exercise with minimal supervised 30-min exercise sessions 3 times/week for ≥12 weeks effectively reduce the risk of chemotherapy-induced cardiomyopathy (CRC). Aerobic exercise has a significant pleiotropic effect in patients undergoing chemotherapy with cardiotoxic agents.

The Pharmacological Rationales and Molecular Mechanisms of Ganoderma lucidum Polysaccharides for the Therapeutic Applications of Multiple Diseases

As a versatile Chinese herb, Ganoderma lucidum (Leyss. ex Fr.) Karst (G. lucidum) has been applied to treat multiple diseases in clinics and improve the quality of life of patients. Among all of its extracts, the main bioactive components are G. lucidum polysaccharides (GLPs), which possess many therapeutic effects, such as antitumor, immunoregulatory, anti-oxidant, antidiabetic, antibacterial, and antifungal effects and neuroprotection activities. This review briefly summarized the recent studies of the pharmacological rationales of GLPs and their underlying molecular signaling transmission mechanisms in treating diseases. Until now, the clear mechanisms of GLPs for treating diseases have not been reported. In this review, we used the keywords of “Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides” and “tumor” to search in PubMed (years of 1992–2020), then screened and obtained 160 targets of antitumor activities in the literatures. The network pharmacology and mechanism framework were employed in this study as powerful approaches to systematically analyze the complicated potential antitumor mechanisms and targets of GLPs in cancer. We then found that there are 69 targets and 21 network pathways in “Pathways in cancer”. Besides, we summarized the effects of GLPs and the models and methods used in the research of GLPs. In conclusion, GLPs have been studied extensively, but more in-depth research is still needed to determine the exact mechanisms and pathways. Therefore, this review might provide new insights into the vital targets and pathways for researchers to study the pharmacological mechanisms of GLPs for the treatment of diseases.

(−)-Methyl-Oleocanthal, a New Oleocanthal Metabolite Reduces LPS-Induced Inflammatory and Oxidative Response: Molecular Signaling Pathways and Histones Epigenetic Modulation

The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory responses of (−)-methyl-oleocanthal (met-OLE), a new metabolite of the extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) phenolic oleocanthal (OLE), were explored in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced murine peritoneal macrophages. Possible signaling pathways and epigenetic modulation of histones were studied. Met-OLE inhibited LPS-induced intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and nitrite (NO) production and decreased the overexpression of the pro-inflammatory enzymes COX-2, mPGES-1 and iNOS in murine macrophages. In addition, met-OLE was able to significantly decrease the activation of p38, JNK, and ERK mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and blocked canonical and non-canonical inflammasome signaling pathways. On the contrary, met-OLE upregulated haem oxigenase 1 (HO-1) and nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf-2) expression in treated cells. Finally, met-OLE pretreated spleen cells counteracted LPS induction, preventing H3K18 acetylation or H3K9 and H3K27 demethylation. Overall, these results provide novel mechanistic insights into the beneficial effects of met-OLE regarding the regulation of the immune–inflammatory response through epigenetic changes in histone markers. This revealing evidence suggests that the methylated metabolite of OLE may contribute significantly to the beneficial effects that are associated with the secoiridoid-related compound and the usual consumption of EVOO.