Association between Gene Polymorphism of Manganese Superoxide Dismutase and Prostate Cancer Risk

Manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) is the most effective antioxidant enzyme in mitochondria and protects cells from reactive oxygen species‐induced oxidative damage. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between MnSOD Ala‐9Val gene polymorphism and prostate cancer (PCa) risk in Turkish men with prostate cancer. 33 patients with PCa and 81 control individuals were included in the study. We observed an association between MnSOD Ala/Ala frequency and a higher PCa risk. In addition, we found that the increased risk of early‐onset PCa (under age of 65) in the men homozygous for Ala allele was higher than the men homozygous for Val allele. However, we determined that MnSOD Ala‐9Val genotype was not associated with the aggressiveness of the disease. The results of our study suggest that MnSOD Ala/Ala genotype may influence on early‐onset of PCa patients, but no effect on subsequent development of the disease in Turkish men. However, our study has a limitation that is small numbers of individuals for cases and controls. Therefore, the presented study limited our statistical power to fully investigate the gene polymorphism on cancer risk. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J BiochemMol Toxicol 27:213‐218, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com . DOI 10.1002/jbt.21472     

A new sighting of the Mediterranean Monk Seal,Monachus monachus (Hermann, 1779), in the Marmara Sea (Turkey)

Rhagodes Pocock, 1897 is the most speciose genus within the family Rhagodidae and species diagnosis is often very difficult. We found Rhagodes eylandti (Walter, 1889) for the first time again since the 1930s and redescribe some morphological features of the male and compare them with the literature. The main diagnostic characters are illustrated.     

BioSig3D: High Content Screening of Three-Dimensional Cell Culture Models

BioSig3D is a computational platform for high-content screening of three-dimensional (3D) cell culture models that are imaged in full 3D volume. It provides an end-to-end solution for designing high content screening assays, based on colony organization that is derived from segmentation of nuclei in each colony. BioSig3D also enables visualization of raw and processed 3D volumetric data for quality control, and integrates advanced bioinformatics analysis. The system consists of multiple computational and annotation modules that are coupled together with a strong use of controlled vocabularies to reduce ambiguities between different users. It is a web-based system that allows users to: design an experiment by defining experimental variables, upload a large set of volumetric images into the system, analyze and visualize the dataset, and either display computed indices as a heatmap, or phenotypic subtypes for heterogeneity analysis, or download computed indices for statistical analysis or integrative biology. BioSig3D has been used to profile baseline colony formations with two experiments: (i) morphogenesis of a panel of human mammary epithelial cell lines (HMEC), and (ii) heterogeneity in colony formation using an immortalized non-transformed cell line. These experiments reveal intrinsic growth properties of well-characterized cell lines that are routinely used for biological studies. BioSig3D is being released with seed datasets and video-based documentation.     

Allyl isothiocyanate attenuates oxidative stress and inflammation by modulating Nrf2/HO-1 and NF-κB pathways in traumatic brain injury in mice

Molecular Biology Reports - Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in young adults and children in the industrialized countries; however, there are presently...     

Selenium and zinc levels in volatile substance abusers

Plasma and erythrocyte levels of selenium (Se) and zinc (Zn) have not been investigated in volatile (inhalant) substance abusers previously, although changes in the activities of antioxidant enzymes resulting from oxidative damage caused by various constituents of volatile substances have been shown in a few animal and human studies. Concentrations of these two elements in erythrocytes and plasma of 37 adolescents with inhalant abuse were measured by atomic absorption spectrophotometry and compared with those of 37 age-matched healthy controls. Erythrocyte and plasma levels of Se and plasma level of Zn were significantly lower in the study group when compared to the control group. Chronic inhalation of volatile substances can decrease the plasma levels of Se and Zn and, thus, may lead to a decrease in the activity of antioxidant enzyme systems in adolescent abusers. The role of Se and Zn supplementation in children with inhalant abuse remains to be determined considering the reduced antioxidant activity resulting from deficiency of these trace elements.     

Multiscale feature analysis of salivary gland branching morphogenesis

Pattern formation in developing tissues involves dynamic spatio-temporal changes in cellular organization and subsequent evolution of functional adult structures. Branching morphogenesis is a developmental mechanism by which patterns are generated in many developing organs, which is controlled by underlying molecular pathways. Understanding the relationship between molecular signaling, cellular behavior and resulting morphological change requires quantification and categorization of the cellular behavior. In this study, tissue-level and cellular changes in developing salivary gland in response to disruption of ROCK-mediated signaling by are modeled by building cell-graphs to compute mathematical features capturing structural properties at multiple scales. These features were used to generate multiscale cell-graph signatures of untreated and ROCK signaling disrupted salivary gland organ explants. From confocal images of mouse submandibular salivary gland organ explants in which epithelial and mesenchymal nuclei were marked, a multiscale feature set capturing global structural properties, local structural properties, spectral, and morphological properties of the tissues was derived. Six feature selection algorithms and multiway modeling of the data was performed to identify distinct subsets of cell graph features that can uniquely classify and differentiate between different cell populations. Multiscale cell-graph analysis was most effective in classification of the tissue state. Cellular and tissue organization, as defined by a multiscale subset of cell-graph features, are both quantitatively distinct in epithelial and mesenchymal cell types both in the presence and absence of ROCK inhibitors. Whereas tensor analysis demonstrate that epithelial tissue was affected the most by inhibition of ROCK signaling, significant multiscale changes in mesenchymal tissue organization were identified with this analysis that were not identified in previous biological studies. We here show how to define and calculate a multiscale feature set as an effective computational approach to identify and quantify changes at multiple biological scales and to distinguish between different states in developing tissues.     

The Effects of Chromium Picolinate and Chromium Histidinate Administration on NF-κB and Nrf2/HO-1 Pathway in the Brain of Diabetic Rats

The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effects of supplemental chromium picolinate (CrPic) and chromium histidinate (CrHis) on nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-??B p65) and nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) signaling pathway in diabetic rat brain. Nondiabetic (n?=?45) and diabetic (n?=?45) male Wistar rats were either not supplemented or supplemented with CrPic or CrHis via drinking water to consume 8???g elemental chromium (Cr) per day for 12?weeks. Diabetes was induced by streptozotocin injection (40?mg/kg i.p., for 2?weeks) and maintained by high-fat feeding (40?%). Diabetes was associated with increases in cerebral NF-??B and 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE) protein adducts and decreased in cerebral nuclear factor of kappa light polypeptide gene enhancer in B cells inhibitor, alpha (I??B??) and Nrf2 levels. Both Cr chelates were effective to decrease levels of NF-??B and 4-HNE protein adducts and to increase levels of I??B?? and Nrf2 in the brain of diabetic rats. However, responses of these increases and decreases were more notable when Cr was supplemented as CrHis than as CrPic. In conclusion, Cr may play a protective role in cerebral antioxidant defense system in diabetic subjects via the Nrf2 pathway by reducing inflammation through NF-??B p65 inhibition. Histidinate form of Cr was superior to picolinate form of Cr in reducing NF-??B expression and increasing Nrf2 expression in the brain of diabetic rats.     

Imidazo[1,2‐c]pyrimidin‐5(6H)‐one as a novel core of cyclin‐dependent kinase 2 inhibitors: Synthesis,activity measurement,docking, and quantum mechanical scoring

We report on the synthesis, activity testing, docking, and quantum mechanical scoring of novel imidazo[1,2‐c]pyrimidin‐5(6H)‐one scaffold for cyclin‐dependent kinase 2 (CDK2) inhibition. A series of 26 compounds substituted with aromatic moieties at position 8 has been tested in in vitro enzyme assays and shown to inhibit CDK2. 2D structure‐activity relationships have ascertained that small substituents at position 8 (up to the size of naphtyl or methoxyphenyl) generally lead to single‐digit micromolar IC₅₀ values, whereas bigger substituents (substituted biphenyls) decreased the compounds' activities. The binding modes of the compounds obtained using Glide docking have exhibited up to 2 hinge‐region hydrogen bonds to CDK2 and differed in the orientation of the inhibitor core and the placement of the 8‐substituents. Semiempirical quantum mechanics‐based scoring identified probable favourable binding modes, which will serve for future structure‐based design and synthetic optimization of substituents of the heterocyclic core. In summary, we have identified a novel core for CDK2 inhibition and will explore it further to increase the potencies of the compounds and also monitor selectivities against other protein kinases.