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katherine-medina

Plants | Free Full-Text | Expression of a Stilbene Synthase Gene from the Vitis labrusc... - 0 views

  • Stilbenes are found in plants of different families, but the best studied stilbene is resveratrol (3,5,4′-trihydroxystilbene) isolated from grape plants.
  • Resveratrol synthesis in transgenic plants did not always render them fully resistant to one or another pathogen.
  • The aim of our investigation was to isolate a VlvSTS stilbene synthase gene from the hybrid grape V. labrusca x V. vinifera L. and obtain transgenic tobacco plants overexpressing the gene to study their resistance to a number of bacterial and fungal pathogens, among them bacteria as E. carotovora and fungi as B. cinerea, F. oxysporum, F. sporotrichioides, F. culmorum.
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  • by PCR. F
    • katherine-medina
       
      PCR is a method with which scientists are able to amplify a gene
  • Based on the results of the VlvSTS gene transcription analysis, seven transgenic tobacco lines were selected for further experiments.
  • Expression of the VlvSTS gene in tobacco plants led to a significant increase in the pollen grain size, but with a tendency to a decrease in the total number of pollen grains per anther
    • katherine-medina
       
      Too much of that gene leads to a decrease of fertility.
  • In all tests with E. carotovora bacteria, transgenic plants expressing the VlvSTS gene demonstrated a significantly higher resistance versus control plants
    • katherine-medina
       
      interesting
  • The leaf involvement was significantly smaller in transgenic plants expressing the VlvSTS gene.
  • Overexpression of the VlvSTS gene reduced the corolla pigmentation in transgenic plants.
    • katherine-medina
       
      Why did the overexpression of that gene reduce the corolla pgmentation.
  • binary vector
    • katherine-medina
       
      like a DNA transfer
  • showed a significant fertility reduction,
  • For the first time it was shown that plants expressing the VlvSTS gene had enhanced resistance to the bacterial pathogen E. carotovora subsp. carotovora B15.
    • katherine-medina
       
      Interesting that it took this long for it to be shown that this specific stilbene can fight against certain pathogens.
  • Interestingly, resistance correlated with the expression level of the stilbene synthase gene. In plants with a higher gene expression (L10 and L23), the area of Erwinia-caused leaf damage was in a range from 0 to 40% respect to the control, while the leaves of line L24 were affected up to 60–100%.
  • hile in transgenic lines, the lysis areas were significantly smaller, probably due to the synthesis of the phytoalexin resveratrol.
  • Some studies showed that Arabidopsis plants transformed with wild grape stilbene synthase genes responded to a pathogen attack by activating genes responsible for the synthesis of signaling molecules such as salicylic and jasmonic acids (SA and JA, respectively) [
  • Our data show a decrease in the total flavonoid content in the flower petals but not in the leaves of plants upon expression of the VlvSTS gene.
    • katherine-medina
       
      That seems rather odd.
  • We were the first to show that transgenic tobacco plants carrying the VlvSTS gene had a significantly larger pollen grain size and a smaller number of pollen grains per anther. At the same time, the number of fertile pollen grains decreased, especially in the plant line with the highest expression of the VlvSTS gene.
  • For example, in apple plants with the grape stilbene synthase gene Vst1 under its own promoter, the expression of the gene had no effect on pollen development
  • The study showed that the expression of a VlvSTS stilbene syntase gene in tobacco transgenic plants increases their resistance to bacterial pathogen E. carotovora. There was a significant reduction of disease symptoms after infection of leaves by grey mould fungus B. cinerea, but not to Fusarium fungi. We were the first to show that transgenic tobacco plants carrying the VlvSTS gene had a significantly larger pollen grain size and a smaller number of pollen grains per anther. The number of fertile pollen grains decreased, especially in the plant line with the highest expression of the VlvSTS gene. These changes resulted in a decreased weight of seed bolls in the transgenic tobacco lines.
    • katherine-medina
       
      Overall, this article is one that I may come back to depending on what path I go down when searching to develop a research topic further.
Hannah Herrera

Space travel alters gene expression in white blood cells, weakening our immune system -... - 1 views

  • Space travel alters gene expression in white blood cells, weakening our immune system
    • Hannah Herrera
       
      very interesting article, there is a conclusion with insights to this underlining issue in the "read original paper" link in red. I overall think its a ear pricking issue that has yet to be solve or given the clear conclusion as to why it happens in the first place.
  • pre-flight strength: the length of this period is likely to depend on age, sex, genetic differences, and childhood exposure to pathogens.
  • These observations suggest that our immune system might be weakened by space travel.
    • Hannah Herrera
       
      could it have a possible connection with the strong gravitational pull while actually going up to space? (like the continuing feeling of a steep rollercoaster drop).
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  • change in gene expression of leukocytes under microgravity is triggered by ‘fluid shift’, where blood plasma is redistributed from the lower to the upper part of the body, including the lymphatic system. This causes a reduction in plasma volume by between 10% and 15% within the first few days in space. Fluid shift is known to be accompanied by large-scale physiological adaptations, apparently including altered gene expression.
katherine-medina

Dandelion root extract affects colorectal cancer proliferation and survival through the... - 0 views

  • of an aqueous dandelion root extract
  • caspase-8 activation was not essential for the induction of cell death in colon cancer cells as an inhibition of caspase-8 activation did not alter the cytotoxicity of DRE
  • We have been able to identify four pharmacologically active components, α-amyrin, β-amyrin, lupeol and taraxasterol, in two out of the six bioactive fractions, but the anti-cancer activities of the individual compounds were not as strong as that of the unfractionated DRE indicating, clearly, the benefits of using the whole extract.
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  • which might represent a novel non-toxic alternative to conventional cancer therapy available today.
  • These results clearly indicate that dandelion root extract can inhibit the ability of colorectal cancer cells to migrate and invade, and therefore metastasize to secondary locations.
    • katherine-medina
       
      Wow. I like to see that in 3 different studies DRE was proven to selectively pick the cancer cells, and ignore the normal cells.
  • morphological differences in tissue slices between the control untreated and the DRE treated group
  • aken together, these results established that systemic oral intake of the DRE was safe and its anti-cancer efficacy should be further investigated.
    • katherine-medina
       
      I love the fact that they yet again state that I should look more into this topic.
  • , but the DRE treatment efficiently suppressed the growth of both p53 WT and p53 mutant tumors in-vivo (Figure 4B – 4C)
    • katherine-medina
       
      great, they suppressed the growth of the tumors.
  • with no difference between the control and DRE treated samples of NCM460
    • katherine-medina
       
      I would not have thought that the mitochondria would be left alone by the drug.
  • Others suggest that following activation, caspases re-localize to the mitochondria, where they interact with other pro-apoptotic proteins during the progression of apoptosis [15]. A third option, put forward by Qin and colleagues, suggests that inactive caspases are kept in the mitochondria, but following apoptotic stimuli and activation, they are released from the mitochondria into the cytoplasmic peri-nuclear space [
  • The results showed a progressive destabilization of the mitochondrial membrane following the DRE treatment, which was observed as early as 30 minutes post treatment (Figure ​6C). Pro-caspase-8 (green) was localized in the mitochondria (red) in control untreated cells; however, following the DRE treatment, activated caspase-8 was released from the mitochondria into cytoplasmic space, as indicated by the dispersed green fluorescence (Figure ​6C
    • katherine-medina
       
      Pro-capase-8 helps to fight against the cancer
  • suggesting that in HT-29 colorectal cancer cells the DRE-induced cell death was caspase-8 independent.
    • katherine-medina
       
      So essentially caspase 8 had nothing to do with it
  • We observed a decrease in the viability of cells treated with α-amyrin, with 10 μM as the most effective concentration.
    • katherine-medina
       
      Hmm. the beginnings of narrowing down what it is about the plant that is able to fight cancer.
  • However, these results indicate that DRE and its anti-cancer components must be absorbed and circulated, in order to reach the site of the tumor (in order to inhibit tumor growth).
    • katherine-medina
       
      So it needs to be drank, or swallowed in a pill form to work.
  • , we confirmed the vulnerability of cancer cell mitochondria by showing that the DRE treatment led to a decrease in the mitochondrial membrane potential and increase in ROS levels in the isolated mitochondria.
  • caspase-8 specific inhibitor, IETD-fmk, did not change the DRE response in these cells. This was in contrast to our previous study in leukemia and pancreatic cancer cells
    • katherine-medina
       
      For each different cancer a new slightly different result is produced
  • he pro-apoptotic genes including Caspase-1, Interferon gamma and the TNF ligands and receptors, were up-regulated in HT-29 cells, prior to the apoptosis induction, while the same genes were down-regulated in NCM460 cells.
  • Previous findings show that taraxasterol has anti-inflammatory and chemopreventive activit
  • suggesting its importance in the anti-cancer activity of dandelion root extract, especially on the expression levels of COX-2. Additionally, we show that 10 μM lupeol is not very effective on its own
  •  
    Yet another article about how DRE can fight against cancer.
Sean Nash

Low-dose radiation from A-bombs elongated lifespan and reduced cancer mortality relativ... - 1 views

  • individuals
    • Sean Nash
       
      These "individuals" could just as easily be plants of lower invertebrates (as model organisms at this level). This is fascinating to me. There is no doubt that we would be limited in our ability to work with ionizing radiation, but that's not to say a project couldn't be developed along these lines. I never cease to be amazed at what a motivated student can resourcefully come up with when their passion for a particular line of research is so high.
katherine-medina

https://assets.researchsquare.com/files/rs-2962278/v1/95a4813e-7c91-423d-8608-d3e697f79... - 0 views

    • katherine-medina
       
      A. Besides, the results implied that these stilbenes effectively inhibited the levels of adhesion and virulence genes and downregulate the production of -hemolysin. This study showed that stilbenes from pigeon pea have anti-Staphylococcus potential, and they also inhibited bacterial proliferation, biofilm formation, and key gene expressions related to adhesion and virulence of MRSA.
    • katherine-medina
       
      "Over the past few years, bacterial biofilm has aroused wide attention. And the biofilm can be called sessile microbial community where cells are attached to the surface or to other cells and can embed themselves in a protective extracellular polymeric matrix." This is a pretty interesting piece of information.
    • katherine-medina
       
      Moreover, as an ethnological herb, pigeon pea is adopted in traditional medicine for its treatments of diabetes (Al-Saeedi and Hossain 2015; Talukdar 2013), hepatic-disorder (Ghosh et al. 2006), necrosis of femoral head (Luo et al. 2009), measles (Nwodo Page 4/20 et al. 2011) and osteoporosis HUH that is really interesting considering the amount of pigeon peas I have had in arroz con gondules.
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    • katherine-medina
       
      Additionally, the epidermis was the external barrier of the body and thus HaCaT (human keratinocyte) was used to investigate the cytotoxicity of these stilbenes. As a result, these compounds had no discernible harmful effects on HaCaT at concentrations of 1/4 of their MIC, and their IC50 on HaCaT were 9.58 ± 0.22, 12.76 ± 0.31, 18.38 ± 0.41 µg/mL, respectively. Hence, the maximum concentrations of these stilbenes were set at 1/4 MIC in the follow-up research It is quite remarkable that pigeon peas are that effective.
    • katherine-medina
       
      The growth cures suggested that 1 MIC and 1/2 MIC of these compounds had remarkable inhibitory effects on the MRSA growth. Wow
    • katherine-medina
       
      It is incredibly important that the article states this, "However, current researches barely reveal the anti-MRSA biofilm ability of stilbenes from pigeon pea." This makes me want to learn more and more about how pigeon pea polyphenols work mostly because it is a very unexplored area of biochemistry.
  •  
    This article is about three different stilbenes in pigeon peas that were found to fight against MRSA.
katherine-medina

IJMS | Free Full-Text | The Combination of Catechin and Epicatechin Gallate f... - 1 views

  • efflux
  • efflux pumps
    • katherine-medina
       
      Wow, so MRSA can literally pump out antibiotics.
  • The advantage of the agents is that there is little or no direct selective pressure, and thus resistant strains are less likely to emerge
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  • The extracts and compounds from hawthorn have been reported to show a variety of pharmacological activities, such as a protective effect on patients with heart failure [17], as well as an increased force of myocardial contraction [18], improved coronary circulation [19], antioxidant effects [20] and antimicrobial activities [21].
  • Baicalin [8], diterpenes [9], tellimagrandin I [10], corilagin [11], tripeptide [12], epigallocatechin gallate (EGCg) [13] and epicatechin gallat
  • Figure 1
    • katherine-medina
       
      I could do something similar to this in a Petree dish like the photo above.
  • For example, galloy catechins, such as ECg and Cg, reduced the high MIC level of β-lactams to the antibiotic breakpoint or even lower than the breakpoint [14,15,26,27], but non-galloylated catechins, such as C and EC, had no such effect
    • katherine-medina
       
      use galloy catechins
  • WHO-2 but ECg (32 mg/L) increased the drug accumulation
    • katherine-medina
       
      So, at this specific concentration ECg helped with increasing the amount of antibiotic, but not necessarily assisting the ability of the antibiotic to do damage.
  • C or ECg (32 mg/L) in combination with oxacillin produced FICIs of more than 0.5 or 0.5, demonstrating no or very weak ILSMR effect.
  • via inhibiting mRNA expression of efflux pump genes,
  • In traditional Chinese medicine, hawthorn is used as a peptic agent for stimulating digestion and promoting the function of the stomach, improving blood circulation and removing blood stasis
  • Some natural products can enhance the efficacy of β-lactam antibiotics, and therefore they are termed intensifiers of β-lactam susceptibility in MRSA
    • katherine-medina
       
      I would like to look into using antibiotics that are currently available to the public, and trying to enhance their ability to fight bacteria through the use of certain polyphenols or some other type of natural product.
  • We also found that when C combined with ECg, the ILSMR effect was markedly increased and the ILSMR effect of the combination (C and ECg) was enhanced with the increase in the concentration of C, with a higher concentration of C resulting in a lower FICI.
  • Overall, the different abilities of C and EGC to potentiate the ILSMR effect of ECg was presumed to be due to the difference in steric hindrance provided by the hydroxy groups in the B ring of these compounds.
  • Our results showed that C in combination with ECg could significantly reduce the MIC of these six antibiotics against almost all of the clinical MRSA strains
  • These results are significant since they demonstrate the possibility that these antibiotics can be used in the clinic when combined with C and ECg.
    • katherine-medina
       
      I wonder if they have started implementing this in hospitals.
  • Herein, our results showed that reserpine down-regulated mRNA expressions of norA and norC, but not abcA, and C, in combination with ECg, down-regulated mRNA expressions of norA, norC and abcA among eight efflux pumps, while ECg or C alone could not.
  • he above results suggested the ILSMR effect of C and ECg was probably related to the inhibition of three pumps’ mRNA expressions. Which pump(s) played a more important role should be further investigated in the future experiments.
    • katherine-medina
       
      Interesting
  • . Therefore, a criterion suitable for more than two compounds should be investigated in the future.
    • katherine-medina
       
      I think that this will be a useful article to go back to when looking towards developing further ideas for experiments.
  • Sh
  •  
    An article discussing the affects of combining polyphenols with antibiotics in order to fight against MRSA.
katherine-medina

Anti-Oxidative and Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Ginger in Health and Physical Activity:... - 1 views

  • the rhizome
  • Ginger has staring potential for treating a number of ailments including degenerative disorders (arthritis and rheumatism), digestive health (indigestion, constipation and ulcer), cardiovascular disorders (atherosclerosis and hypertension), vomiting, diabetes mellitus, and cancer.
    • katherine-medina
       
      It has the potential for it, so there may not be many studies on these different things that ginger can supposedly do. So it makes me Infinitely more curious to look and see if there are other studies that actually have information about these said claims.
  • Furthermore, it has antimicrobial potential as well which can help in treating infectious diseases.[2
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  • The bioactive molecules of ginger like gingerols have shown antioxidant activity in various modules
  • Inflammatory disorders such as gastritis, esophagitis, and hepatitis, which are caused not only by infectious agents such as viruses, bacteria, and parasites but also by physical and chemical agents like heat, acid, cigarette smoke, and foreign bodies, are recognized as risk factors for human cancer
  • This study aimed to review the current evidence on ginger effects as an anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative.
  • es.[2
  • 6-Shogaol has exhibited the most potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties in ginger, which can be attributed to the presence of alpha, beta-unsaturated ketone moiety
  • Furthermore, feeding ginger to rats at 1% w/w during administration of malathion
    • katherine-medina
       
      Wow, so they fed the rats pesticides than ginger
  • so it can possibly value in treatment of Parkinson's disease.[17]
    • katherine-medina
       
      Really cool
  • This effect was improved by a treatment with 1% dietary ginger 1 month in rats which suggest that ginger may have protective role against the ethanol induced hepatotoxicity.
  • could be useful in preventing acute liver injury
  • Habib et al. showed that ginger extract can reduce the elevated expression of NFκB and TNF-α in rats with liver cancer
  • howed that gingerols can inhibit LPS-induced COX-2 expression while shogaol containing extracts has no effect on COX-2 expression
  • Ginger and its bioactive molecules are effective in controlling the extent of colorectal, gastric, ovarian, liver, skin, breast, and prostate cancers
    • katherine-medina
       
      Wow it can do a lot.
  • They observed that [6]-gingerol inhibits TRAIL-induced NF-κB activation by impairing the nuclear translocation of NF-κB, suppresses cIAP1 expression, and increases TRAIL-induced caspase-3/7 activation
  • Inhibition of angiogenesis in the mouse skin is the mechanism of ginger for treating of skin cancer.
  • However, ginger significantly lowered blood glucose, serum total cholesterol, LDL, VLDL, and triglycerides, and raised HDL in hyperglycemic rats, in models that are diabetic, deficient in the apolipoprotein E gene or those that have been fed a high lipid diet.
  • ethanolic extract of ginger reduced body weights and levels of glucose, insulin, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, free fatty acids, and phospholipids in high-fat diets.
  • CONCLUSIONS
    • katherine-medina
       
      Overall a good synopsis on what ginger can do.
katherine-medina

Increased 3-O-sulfated heparan sulfate in Alzheimer's disease brain is associated with ... - 1 views

  • Genetic factors contribute substantially to the pathological process of AD as demonstrated by the fact that the genetic heritability in AD is in the range of between 60 and 80% (10).
  • however, whether the variants alter the level of 3-OST-1 enzyme activity to change the structure of HS remains unknown
    • katherine-medina
       
      Good to note what exactly the article remains unsure about
  • The synthesis of additional 13C-labeled calibrants to cover these three reported 3-O-sulfated tetrasaccharides will be the subject for future study.
    • katherine-medina
       
      LOOK INTO THIS PART CAYSE THEY ARE SAYING THAT THEY ARE NOT FULLY SURE
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • the elevation of total HS and the percentage of the 3-O-sulfated domain in HS.
  • HS and tau revealed that the sugar mainly interacts with the proline-rich region 2, a repeat domain 2 in tau protein
  • Further analysis of the distribution of 3-O-sulfated HS from different areas of AD brains will be of interest and the subject for a subsequent study.
  • Experimental design
    • katherine-medina
       
      READ THIS IF THIS TOPIC COMES BACK UP AGAIN
  •  
    A interesting study about a sulfate that suggests that Alzheimer's is genetic
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