Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Greek Version of the SARC-F for evaluating sarcopenia in Greek older adults

Objective:To translate and validate into Greek, the SARC-F questionnaire, a screening tool for sarcopenia.Methods:Questionnaire was back-translated and culturally adapted into Greek according to guidelines proposed by the World Health Organization. A convenience sample of 197 Greek elderly people (71.6±7.8 years, 68.5% women) was recruited, 64 of which were classified as persons at risk of sarcopenia according to the SARC-F. Internal consistency, test-retest and inter-rater reliability were evaluated. Validity (sensitivity, specificity, predictive positive value and predictive negative value) was assessed against the definition from the European Working Group of Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP2), which is considered gold standard. Receiver-operating characteristic analysis was also performed to calculate the area under the curve.Results:SARC-F demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha of 0.93) and excellent inter-rater and test-retest reliability, with intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.91 (95% CI 0.79-0.96), and 0.93 (95% CI 0.91-0.95), respectively. According to the definition of sarcopenia from the EWGSOP2, 53 (26.85) participants were identified as probable sarcopenic and 23 (11.6%) as sarcopenic. Sensitivity of the tool for sarcopenia was 34.4 and specificity was 93.2. Positive predictive values were 26.4 and negative predictive values were 66.6%.Conclusion:Τhe SARC-F was successfully adapted into Greek language. The Greek SARC-F revealed low sensitivity but high specificity with EWGSOP2 sarcopenia definitions, indicating that it can detect with precision the absence of sarcopenia.     

Melatonin ameliorates cardiac remodelling in fructose-induced metabolic syndrome rat model by using genes encoding cardiac potassium ion channels

Molecular Biology Reports - Metabolic syndrome comprises a group of disorders, including cardiac abnormalities. Ventricular arrhythmias observed in metabolic syndrome are due to the impaired...     

Protective role of zinc in liver damage in experimental diabetes demonstrated via different biochemical parameters

Diabetes mellitus is a serious worldwide metabolic disease, which is accompanied by hyperglycaemia and affects all organs and body system. Zinc (Zn) is a basic cofactor for many enzymes, which also plays an important role in stabilising the structure of insulin. Liver is the most important target organ after pancreas in diabetic complications. In this study, we aimed to investigate the protective role of Zn in liver damage in streptozotocin (STZ)‐induced diabetes mellitus. There are four experimental groups of female Swiss albino rats: group I: control; group II: control + ZnSO₄; group III: STZ‐induced diabetic animals and group IV: STZ‐diabetic + ZnSO₄. To induce diabetes, STZ was injected intraperitoneally (65 mg/kg). ZnSO₄ (100 mg/kg) was given daily to groups II and IV by gavage for 60 days. At the end of the experiment, rats were killed under anaesthesia and liver tissues were collected. In the diabetic group, hexose, hexosamine, fucose, sialic acid levels, arginase, adenosine deaminase, tissue factor activities and protein carbonyl levels increased, whereas catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione‐S‐transferase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase and Na⁺/K⁺‐ATPase activities decreased. The administration of Zn to the diabetic group reversed all the negative effects/activities. According to these results, we can suggest that Zn has a protective role against STZ‐induced diabetic liver damage.     

The effect of ellagic acid on caspase-3/bcl-2/Nrf-2/NF-kB/TNF-α /COX-2 gene expression product apoptosis pathway: a new approach for muscle damage therapy

Molecular Biology Reports - The goal of this study was to determine the protective role of ellagic acid (EA) against CCl4-induced muscle injury in rats. In this study, 36 Wistar albino rats...     

Immobilization rapidly selects for chemoresistant ovarian cancer cells with enhanced ability to enter dormancy

Around 20–30% of ovarian cancer patients exhibit chemoresistance, but there are currently no methods to predict whether a patient will respond to chemotherapy. Here, we discovered that chemoresistant ovarian cancer cells exhibit enhanced survival in a quiescent state upon experiencing the stress of physical confinement. When immobilized in stiff silica gels, most ovarian cancer cells die within days, but surviving cells exhibit hallmarks of single-cell dormancy. Upon extraction from gels, the cells resume proliferation but demonstrate enhanced viability upon reimmobilization, indicating that initial immobilization selects for cells with a higher propensity to enter dormancy. RNA-seq analysis of the extracted cells shows they have signaling responses similar to cells surviving cisplatin treatment, and in comparison to chemoresistant patient cohorts, they share differentially expressed genes that are associated with platinum-resistance pathways. Furthermore, these extracted cells demonstrate greater resistance to cisplatin and paclitaxel, despite being proliferative. In contrast, serum starvation and hypoxia could not effectively select for chemoresistant cells upon removal of the environmental stress. These findings demonstrate that ovarian cancer chemoresistance and the ability to enter dormancy are linked, and immobilization rapidly distinguishes chemoresistant cells. This platform could be suitable for mechanistic studies, drug development, or as a clinical diagnostic tool.     

Protein Interactions and Fluctuations in a Proteomic Network using an Elastic Network Model

Abstract

A set of protein conformations are analyzed by normal mode analysis. An elastic network model is used to obtain fluctuation and cooperativity of residues with low amplitude fluctuations across different species. Slow modes that are associated with the function of proteins have common features among different protein structures. We show that the degree of flexibility of the protein is important for proteins to interact with other proteins and as the species gets more complex its proteins become more flexible. In the complex organism, higher cooperativity arises due to protein structure and connectivity.     

Core-shell encapsulation formulations to stabilize desiccated Bradyrhizobium against high environmental temperature and humidity

Engineered materials to improve the shelf-life of desiccated microbial strains are needed for cost-effective bioaugmentation strategies. High temperatures and humidity of legume-growing regions challenge long-term cell stabilization at the desiccated state. A thermostable xeroprotectant core and hydrophobic water vapour barrier shell encapsulation technique was developed to protect desiccated cells from the environment. A trehalose core matrix increased the stability of desiccated Bradyrhizobium by three orders of magnitude over 20 days at 32°C and 50% relative humidity (RH) compared to buffer alone; however, the improvement was not deemed sufficient for a shelf-stable bioproduct. We tested common additives (skim milk, albumin, gelatin and dextran) to increase the glass transition temperature of the desiccated product to provide further stabilization. Albumin increased the glass transition temperature of the trehalose-based core by 40°C and stabilized desiccated Bradyrhizobium for 4 months during storage at high temperature (32°C) and moderate humidity (50% RH) with only 1 log loss of viability. Although the albumin-trehalose core provided exceptional protection against high temperature, it was ineffective at higher humidity conditions (75%). We therefore incorporated a paraffin shell, which protected desiccated cells against 75% RH providing proof of concept that core and shell encapsulation is an effective strategy to stabilize desiccated cells.     

Altered -3 substrate specificity of Escherichia coli signal peptidase 1 mutants as revealed by screening a combinatorial peptide library

Signal peptidase functions to cleave signal peptides from preproteins at the cell membrane. It has a substrate specificity for small uncharged residues at -1 (P1) and aliphatic residues at the -3 (P3) position. Previously, we have reported that certain alterations of the Ile-144 and Ile-86 residues in Escherichia coli signal peptidase I (SPase) can change the specificity such that signal peptidase is able to cleave pro-OmpA nuclease A in vitro after phenylalanine or asparagine residues at the -1 position (Karla, A., Lively, M. O., Paetzel, M. and Dalbey, R. (2005) J. Biol. Chem. 280, 6731-6741). In this study, screening of a fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based peptide library revealed that the I144A, I144C, and I144C/I86T SPase mutants have a more relaxed substrate specificity at the -3 position, in comparison to the wild-type SPase. The double mutant tolerated arginine, glutamine, and tyrosine residues at the -3 position of the substrate. The altered specificity of the I144C/I86T mutant was confirmed by in vivo processing of pre-beta-lactamase containing non-canonical arginine and glutamine residues at the -3 position. This work establishes Ile-144 and Ile-86 as key P3 substrate specificity determinants for signal peptidase I and demonstrates the power of the fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based peptide library approach in defining the substrate specificity of proteases.     

Selection of favorable alleles of genes controlling flowering and senescence improves malt barley quality

Molecular Breeding - Maize amylose is a type of high value-added starch used for medical, food, and chemical applications. Mutations in the starch branching enzyme (SBEIIb), with recessive ae...     

Graded alterations of RBC aggregation influence in vivo blood flow resistance

Although the effects of red blood cell (RBC) aggregation on low-shear rate blood viscosity are well known, the effects on in vivo flow resistance are still not fully resolved. The present study was designed to explore the in vivo effects of RBC aggregation on flow resistance using a novel technique to enhance aggregation: cells are covalently coated with a block copolymer (Pluronic F-98) and then suspended in unaltered plasma. RBC aggregation was increased in graded steps by varying the Pluronic concentration during cell coating and was verified by microscopy and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), which increased by 200% at the highest Pluronic level. RBC suspensions were perfused through an isolated in situ guinea pig hindlimb preparation while the arterial perfusion pressure was held constant at 100 mmHg via a pressure servo-controlled pump. No significant effects of enhanced RBC aggregation were observed when studies were conducted in preparations with intact vascular control mechanisms. However, after inhibition of smooth muscle tone (using 10(-4) M papaverin), a significant change in flow resistance was observed in a RBC suspension with a 97% increase of ESR. Additional enhancements of RBC aggregation (i.e., 136 and 162% increases of ESR) decreased flow resistance almost to control values. This was followed by another significant increase in flow resistance during perfusion with RBC suspensions with a 200% increase of ESR. This triphasic effect of graded increases of RBC aggregation is most likely explained by an interplay of several hemodynamic mechanisms that are triggered by enhanced RBC aggregation.