scholarly journals Fluorescent Carbon Dots for Sensitive and Rapid Monitoring of Intracellular Ferrous Ion

Biosensors ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Le Minh Tu Phan ◽  
Thi Xoan Hoang ◽  
Sungbo Cho
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dots ◽  
Neuronal Damage ◽  
Cellular Level ◽  
Fluorescence Probes ◽  
Ferrous Ions ◽  
Intracellular Iron ◽  
Rapid Monitoring ◽  
Low Cytotoxicity ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Almost All

Although iron is an essential constituent for almost all living organisms, iron dyshomeostasis at a cellular level may trigger oxidative stress and neuronal damage. Hence, there are numerous reported carbon dots (CDs) that have been synthesized and applied to determine intracellular iron ions. However, among reported CDs focused to detect Fe3+ ions, only a few CDs have been designed to specifically determine Fe2+ ions over Fe3+ ions for monitoring of intracellular Fe2+ ions. We have developed the nitrogen-doped CDs (NCDs) for fluorescence turn-off detection of Fe2+ at cellular level. The as-synthesized NCDs exhibit a strong blue fluorescence and low cytotoxicity, acting as fluorescence probes to detect Fe2+ as low as 0.702 µM in aqueous solution within 2 min and visualize intracellular Fe2+ in the concentration range from 0 to 500 µM within 20 min. The as-prepared NCDs possess some advantages such as high biocompatibility, strong fluorescence properties, selectivity, and rapidity for intracellular Fe2+ monitoring, making NCDs an excellent nanoprobe for biosensing of intracellular ferrous ions.

scholarly journals The Diverse Calpain Family in Trypanosomatidae: Functional Proteins Devoid of Proteolytic Activity?

Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 299
Author(s):  
Vítor Ennes-Vidal ◽  
Marta Helena Branquinha ◽  
André Luis Souza dos Santos ◽  
Claudia Masini d’Avila-Levy
Keyword(s):  
Proteolytic Activity ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Current Therapy ◽  
Calcium Dependent ◽  
Administration Routes ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Open Question ◽  
Calpain Inhibitors

Calpains are calcium-dependent cysteine peptidases that were originally described in mammals and, thereafter, their homologues were identified in almost all known living organisms. The deregulated activity of these peptidases is associated with several pathologies and, consequently, huge efforts have been made to identify selective inhibitors. Trypanosomatids, responsible for life-threatening human diseases, possess a large and diverse family of calpain sequences in their genomes. Considering that the current therapy to treat trypanosomatid diseases is limited to a handful of drugs that suffer from unacceptable toxicity, tough administration routes, like parenteral, and increasing treatment failures, a repurposed approach with calpain inhibitors could be a shortcut to successful chemotherapy. However, there is a general lack of knowledge about calpain functions in these parasites and, currently, the proteolytic activity of these proteins is still an open question. Here, we highlight the current research and perspectives on trypanosomatid calpains, overview calpain description in these organisms, and explore the potential of targeting the calpain system as a therapeutic strategy. This review gathers the current knowledge about this fascinating family of peptidases as well as insights into the puzzle: are we unable to measure calpain activity in trypanosomatids, or are the functions of these proteins devoid of proteolytic activity in these parasites?

scholarly journals Circadian Deregulation as Possible New Player in Pollution-Induced Tissue Damage

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 116
Author(s):  
Mascia Benedusi ◽  
Elena Frigato ◽  
Cristiano Bertolucci ◽  
Giuseppe Valacchi
Keyword(s):  
Cardiovascular Diseases ◽  
Air Pollutants ◽  
Environmental Stressors ◽  
Common Mechanism ◽  
Particulate Matters ◽  
Circadian Misalignment ◽  
Pathological Conditions ◽  
Peripheral Clocks ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Almost All

Circadian rhythms are 24-h oscillations driven by a hypothalamic master oscillator that entrains peripheral clocks in almost all cells, tissues and organs. Circadian misalignment, triggered by industrialization and modern lifestyles, has been linked to several pathological conditions, with possible impairment of the quality or even the very existence of life. Living organisms are continuously exposed to air pollutants, and among them, ozone or particulate matters (PMs) are considered to be among the most toxic to human health. In particular, exposure to environmental stressors may result not only in pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases, but, as it has been demonstrated in the last two decades, the skin can also be affected by pollution. In this context, we hypothesize that chronodistruption can exacerbate cell vulnerability to exogenous damaging agents, and we suggest a possible common mechanism of action in deregulation of the homeostasis of the pulmonary, cardiovascular and cutaneous tissues and in its involvement in the development of pathological conditions.

Magnitude and variation of ratio of total body potassium to fat-free mass: a cellular level modeling study

2001 ◽  
Vol 281 (1) ◽  
pp. E1-E7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zimian Wang ◽  
F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer ◽  
Donald P. Kotler ◽  
Jack Wang ◽  
Richard N. Pierson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Fat ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Physiological Model ◽  
Cellular Level ◽  
Fat Free Mass ◽  
Total Body Potassium ◽  
Fluid Compartment ◽  
Total Body Fat ◽  
Total Body ◽  
Living Organisms

Potassium is an essential element of living organisms that is found almost exclusively in the intracellular fluid compartment. The assumed constant ratio of total body potassium (TBK) to fat-free mass (FFM) is a cornerstone of the TBK method of estimating total body fat. Although the TBK-to-FFM (TBK/FFM) ratio has been assumed constant, a large range of individual and group values is recognized. The purpose of the present study was to undertake a comprehensive analysis of biological factors that cause variation in the TBK/FFM ratio. A theoretical TBK/FFM model was developed on the cellular body composition level. This physiological model includes six factors that combine to produce the observed TBK/FFM ratio. The ratio magnitude and range, as well as the differences in the TBK/FFM ratio between men and women and variation with growth, were examined with the proposed model. The ratio of extracellular water to intracellular water ( E/I) is the major factor leading to between-individual variation in the TBK/FFM ratio. The present study provides a conceptual framework for examining the separate TBK/FFM determinants and suggests important limitations of the TBK/FFM method used in estimating total body fat in humans and other mammals.

scholarly journals A Review of Carbon Dots Produced from Biomass Wastes

Nanomaterials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 2316
Author(s):  
Chao Kang ◽  
Ying Huang ◽  
Hui Yang ◽  
Xiu Fang Yan ◽  
Zeng Ping Chen
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dots ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Disease Diagnosis ◽  
Good Choice ◽  
Biomass Waste ◽  
Renewable Raw Materials ◽  
Wide Availability ◽  
Low Cytotoxicity ◽  
Synthetic Approaches

The fluorescent carbon dot is a novel type of carbon nanomaterial. In comparison with semiconductor quantum dots and fluorescence organic agents, it possesses significant advantages such as excellent photostability and biocompatibility, low cytotoxicity and easy surface functionalization, which endow it a wide application prospect in fields of bioimaging, chemical sensing, environmental monitoring, disease diagnosis and photocatalysis as well. Biomass waste is a good choice for the production of carbon dots owing to its abundance, wide availability, eco-friendly nature and a source of low cost renewable raw materials such as cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, carbohydrates and proteins, etc. This paper reviews the main sources of biomass waste, the feasibility and superiority of adopting biomass waste as a carbon source for the synthesis of carbon dots, the synthetic approaches of carbon dots from biomass waste and their applications. The advantages and deficiencies of carbon dots from biomass waste and the major influencing factors on their photoluminescence characteristics are summarized and discussed. The challenges and perspectives in the synthesis of carbon dots from biomass wastes are also briefly outlined.

scholarly journals BCSExplorer: a customized biosynthetic chemical space explorer with multifunctional objective function analysis

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Tian ◽  
Ling Wu ◽  
Le Yuan ◽  
Shaozhen Ding ◽  
Fu Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Space ◽  
Function Analysis ◽  
Supplementary Information ◽  
Bulk Chemicals ◽  
Toxicity Analysis ◽  
Novel Method ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Almost All ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Rule Library

Abstract Summary The biosynthetic ability of living organisms has important applications in producing bulk chemicals, biofuels and natural products. Based on the most comprehensive biosynthesis knowledgebase, a computational system, BCSExplorer, is proposed to discover the unexplored chemical space using nature’s biosynthetic potential. BCSExplorer first integrates the most comprehensive biosynthetic reaction database with 280 000 biochemical reactions and 60 000 chemicals biosynthesized globally over the past 130 years. Second, in this study, a biosynthesis tree is computed for a starting chemical molecule based on a comprehensive biotransformation rule library covering almost all biosynthetic possibilities, in which redundant rules are removed using a new algorithm. Moreover, biosynthesis feasibility, drug-likeness and toxicity analysis of a new generation of compounds will be pursued in further studies to meet various needs. BCSExplorer represents a novel method to explore biosynthetically available chemical space. Availability and implementation BCSExplorer is available at: http://www.rxnfinder.org/bcsexplorer/. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

scholarly journals Wnt signalling at the crossroads of nutritional regulation

2008 ◽  
Vol 416 (2) ◽  
pp. e11-e13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaswinder K. Sethi ◽  
Antonio J. Vidal-Puig
Keyword(s):  
Protein Kinase ◽  
Glucose Sensing ◽  
Cellular Level ◽  
Wnt Signalling ◽  
Nutritional Regulation ◽  
Biochemical Journal ◽  
Hexosamine Pathway ◽  
Attractive Therapeutic Target ◽  
Sense And Respond ◽  
Living Organisms

The ability to sense and respond to nutritional cues is among the most fundamental processes that support life in living organisms. At the cellular level, a number of biochemical mechanisms have been proposed to mediate cellular glucose sensing. These include ATP-sensitive potassium channels, AMP-activated protein kinase, activation of PKC (protein kinase C), and flux through the hexosamine pathway. Less well known is how cellularly heterogenous organs couple nutrient availability to prioritization of cell autonomous functions and appropriate growth of the entire organ. Yet what is clear is that when such mechanisms fail or become inappropriately active they can lead to dire consequences such as diabetes, metabolic syndromes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. In this issue of the Biochemical Journal, Anagnostou and Shepherd report the identification of an important link between cellular glucose sensing and the Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway in macrophages. Their data strongly indicate that the Wnt/β-catenin pathway of Wnt signalling is responsive to physiological concentrations of nutrients but also suggests that that this system could be inappropriately activated in the diabetic (hyperglycaemic) or other metabolically compromised pathological states. This opens the exciting possibility that organ-selective modulation of Wnt signalling may become an attractive therapeutic target to treat these diseases.

RADIATION, THE CELLULAR APPROACH

1960 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 320-325
Author(s):  
Gordon M. Clark ◽  
Donald G. Baker
Keyword(s):  
Cell Division ◽  
Chemical Synthesis ◽  
Dose Rate ◽  
Current Trend ◽  
Biological Action ◽  
Cellular Level ◽  
Chromosome Breaks ◽  
Effect Of Oxygen ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Dose Rate Effect

The basic biological action of radiation must initially involve particular cells. The sensitivity of various cells differs but some of the differences may be due to a dose-rate effect. When cells are irradiated with doses in the lethal range, inhibition of cell division occurs. A notable feature of mitotic inhibition is that it depends not only on dose but on dose rate. Chromosome breaks produced in cells may be a visible manifestation of an interruption in chemical synthesis produced by the passage of ionizing particles. The effect of oxygen is apparently of primary importance in biological changes produced by irradiation. Almost all are decreased in its absence. The current trend in research on the cellular level is towards determining the more obscure injuries which cannot be seen under the microscope.

scholarly journals Green Synthesis of Lutein-Based Carbon Dots Applied for Free-Radical Scavenging within Cells

Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 4146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dian Yang ◽  
Li Li ◽  
Lei Cao ◽  
Zhimin Chang ◽  
Qian Mei ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dots ◽  
Water Solubility ◽  
Synthesis Method ◽  
Radical Scavenging ◽  
The Body ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
High Yield ◽  
Environmental Friendliness ◽  
Problems In Living ◽  
Living Organisms

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the body play an important role in various processes. It is well known that harmful high levels of ROS can cause many problems in living organisms in a variety of ways. One effective way to remove intracellular ROS is to use reducing materials that can enter the cell. Herein, we developed a strong reducing carbon nano-dot from a natural product, lutein, as an initial raw material. This is a hydrothermal synthesis method with the advantages of simplicity, high yield, mild reaction conditions, and environmental friendliness. The prepared carbon dots exhibit bright blue fluorescence, and have good water solubility and biocompatibility. In particular, the carbon dots can easily enter the cell and effectively remove ROS. Therefore, the carbon dots are thought to protect cells from oxidative damage by high levels of ROS.

scholarly journals Involvement of Various Enzymes in the Physiology and Pathogenesis of Streptococcus suis

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 143
Author(s):  
Chengkun Zheng ◽  
Man Wei ◽  
Mengdie Jia ◽  
ManMan Cao
Keyword(s):  
Streptococcus Suis ◽  
Infection Process ◽  
Swine Industry ◽  
Serine Threonine Kinase ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Threonine Kinase ◽  
Severe Infections ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Almost All

Streptococcus suis causes severe infections in both swine and humans, making it a serious threat to the swine industry and public health. Insight into the physiology and pathogenesis of S. suis undoubtedly contributes to the control of its infection. During the infection process, a wide variety of virulence factors enable S. suis to colonize, invade, and spread in the host, thus causing localized infections and/or systemic diseases. Enzymes catalyze almost all aspects of metabolism in living organisms. Numerous enzymes have been characterized in extensive detail in S. suis, and have shown to be involved in the pathogenesis and/or physiology of this pathogen. In this review, we describe the progress in the study of some representative enzymes in S. suis, such as ATPases, immunoglobulin-degrading enzymes, and eukaryote-like serine/threonine kinase and phosphatase, and we highlight the important role of various enzymes in the physiology and pathogenesis of this pathogen. The controversies about the current understanding of certain enzymes are also discussed here. Additionally, we provide suggestions about future directions in the study of enzymes in S. suis.

Laboratory diagnostics of iron overload

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-42
Author(s):  
Paulina Dziatkiewicz-Warkocz ◽  
Lidia Gil ◽  
Maria Kozłowska-Skrzypczak
Keyword(s):  
Iron Overload ◽  
Liver Diseases ◽  
Laboratory Tests ◽  
Continuous Monitoring ◽  
Iron Absorption ◽  
Iron Concentration ◽  
The Body ◽  
Laboratory Diagnostics ◽  
Ferrous Ions ◽  
Living Organisms

Iron is a fundamental trace element, essential to maintain homeostasis in living organisms. Iron overload can result from increased iron absorption in the gastrointestinal system, repeated blood transfusions or liver diseases. The iron turnover is regulated by a group of specialized proteins, responsible for its absorption, transport, oxidation and preventing tissue damage that can be caused by the ferrous ions Fe2+. Diagnosis of iron overload states, as well the course of treatment oversight, is based on continuous monitoring of the iron concentration in the body. The use of numerous laboratory tests is the first stage of diagnostics. This work describes primary mechanisms responsible for the regulation of iron metabolism and the consequences of iron overload. Furthermore, it presents an analysis of the currently applied laboratory parameters and other methods used to evaluate iron overload conditions.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document