-
McCullough Henry posted an update 1 day, 8 hours ago
Salt stress is a major constrain to the productivity of nutritionally rich pigeonpea, an important legume of SE Asia and other parts of the world. The present study provides a comprehensive insight on integrated proteomic and transcriptomic analysis of root and shoot tissues of contrasting pigeonpea varieties (ICP1071- salt-sensitive; ICP7- salt-tolerant) to unravel salt stress induced pathways. Proteome analysis revealed 82 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) with ≥±1.5 fold expression on 2-Dimensional (2D) gel. Of these, 25 DEPs identified through MALDI-TOF/TOF were classified using Uniprot software into functional categories. Pathways analyses using KAAS server showed the highest abundance of functional genes regulating metabolisms of carbohydrate followed by protein folding/degradation, amino acids and lipids. Expression studies on six genes (triosephosphate isomerase, oxygen evolving enhancer protein 1, phosphoribulokinase, cysteine synthase, oxygen evolving enhancer protein 2 and early nodulin like protein 2) with ≥±3 fold change were performed, and five of these showed consistency in transcript and protein expressions. Transcript analysis of root and shoot led to positive identification of 25 differentially expressed salt-responsive genes, with seven genes having ≥±5 fold change have diverse biological functions. Our combinatorial analysis suggests important role of these genes/proteins in providing salt tolerance in pigeonpea.Artrhospira (Spirulina) platensis produced fibrinolytic enzyme under mixotrophic conditions using corn steep liquor (CSL). The enzyme was extracted, purified by combination of two chromatographic techniques and biochemically characterized. Padcev Maximum fibrinolytic production (268.14 U mg-1) was obtained using liquid medium culture composed by 0.2% CLS after 10th day of cultivation. Fibrinolytic activity was higher when extracted by homogenization methods and was purified 32.72-fold with specific activity of 7988 U mg-1. Fibrin zymography showed an active band, indicated acts as a plasmin-like protein with molecular weight of 72 kDa. Fibrinolytic enzyme have optimum pH of 6.0, stable in the range of 6.0 to 10.0 during 24 h and optimum temperature at 40 °C with a stability below 50 °C. Fibrinolytic enzyme is a serine metalloprotease by to be enhanced by Fe2+ and inhibited by PMSF. The enzyme has higher enzymatic activity than most other fibrinolytic enzymes and is stable at temperature and pH human physiological. Overall, the fibrinolytic enzyme from A. platensis has attractive biochemical properties to potential applications in the treatment of thrombosis.In this study, an ultrasonic-extracted polysaccharide (nCPTP-55) was obtained with the highest yield (61.08%, w/w) from tamarind pulp, which consisted chiefly of total sugar (85.98%, w/w) with few protein (2.10%, w/w). Monosaccharide analysis showed nCPTP-55 was mainly composed of arabinose (39.19 mol%) and glucose (50.48 mol%) with negligible GlcA (2.05 mol%), indicating the neutral nature of nCPTP-55, which was further elucidated structurally via GC-MS and NMR, i.e., an arabinoglucan composed of →3)-β-D-Glcp-(1→ backbone with only T-α-L-Araf-(1→ branched at O-4 (27.82%) and O-6 (39.99%), resulting in relatively high A/G ratio (0.68-0.70). Based on MM2 minimized energy, the 3D schematic structures of nCPTP-55 could be considered as structural basis for its conformational behavior, which was preliminarily estimated via HPSEC-MALLS as between compact sphere and loosely hyper-branched chain (ρ = 0.84). Therefore, the relationship between molecular structure and conformational behavior was basically established for nCPTP-55, which was in a bid to have a better knowledge of its structure-property and structure-bioactivity relationships potentially required for more applications in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical fields.Bilirubin is a yellow-colored metabolite of heme degradation (a bile pigment), once believed to be toxic, but recently recognized as a powerful endogenous antioxidant of physiologic importance. During the past two decades, several studies have demonstrated the potential of bilirubin in theranostic applications. Here this paper summarizes the current state of the field, providing a detailed review of the published literature on the theranostic applications of bilirubin-conjugated nanoparticles and the basis and mechanisms underlying their efficacy. This review covers the analytical description of the construction of the nanoparticulate bilirubin system, primary mechanisms of therapeutic action, drug delivery, and imaging potential. It also lays out the possible translational future of bilirubin-conjugated nanoparticles in therapy and diagnosis.A significant proportion of urinary tract infection (UTI) patients experience recurrent episodes, due to deep tissue infection and treatment-resistant bacterial reservoirs. Direct bladder instillation of antibiotics has proved disappointing in treating UTI, likely due to the failure of infused antibiotics to penetrate the bladder epithelium and accumulate to high enough levels to kill intracellular bacteria. This work investigates the use of nitrofurantoin loaded poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) particles to improve delivery to intracellular targets for the treatment of chronic UTI. Using electrohydrodynamic atomisation, we produced particles with an average diameter of 2.8 μm. In broth culture experiments, the biodegradable particles were effective against a number of UTI-relevant bacterial strains. Dye-loaded particles demonstrated that intracellular delivery was achieved in all cells in 2D cultures of a human bladder epithelial progenitor cell line in a dose-dependent manner, achieving far higher efficiency and concentration than equivalent quantities of free drug. Time-lapse video microscopy confirmed that delivery occurred within 30 min of administration, to 100% of cells. Moreover, the particles were able to deliver the drug to cells through multiple layers of a 3D human bladder organoid model causing minimal cell toxicity, displaying superior killing of bacterial reservoirs harboured within bladder cells compared with unencapsulated drug. The particles were also able to kill bacterial biofilms more effectively than the free drug. These results illustrate the potential for using antibiotic-loaded microparticles to effectively treat chronic UTIs. Such a delivery method could be extrapolated to other clinical indications where robust intracellular delivery is required, such as oncology and gene therapy.