The biochemistry of asthma

Background

Asthma is not one disease. Different patients have biochemically distinct phenotypes.

Scope of review

Biomarker analysis was developed to identify inflammation in the asthmatic airway. It has led to a renewed interest in biochemical abnormalities in the asthmatic airway. The biochemical determinants of asthma heterogeneity are many. Examples include decreased activity of superoxide dismutases; increased activity of eosinophil peroxidase, S-nitrosoglutathione reductase, and arginases; decreased airway pH; and increased levels of asymmetric dimethyl arginine.

Major conclusions

New discoveries suggest that biomarkers such as exhaled nitric oxide reflect complex airway biochemistry. This biochemistry can be informative and therapeutically relevant.

General significance

Improved understanding of airway biochemistry will lead to new tests to identify biochemically unique subpopulations of patients with asthma. It will also likely lead to new, targeted treatments for these specific asthma subpopulations. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Biochemistry of Asthma.     

生物化学教学改革的实践探索

作为福建省省级精品课程,生物化学课的教学注重教学方法和教学手段的改革。课程教学改革围绕生物化学在食品、环保等多个领域的应用,以设计创新性实验为依托,构建具有专业特色的创新型教学模式。实施教学改革后,既激发学生对生物化学的兴趣,又培养了学生自主创新的能力。     

The biochemistry of blister fluid from pediatric burn injuries: proteomics and metabolomics aspects

Burn injury is a prevalent and traumatic event for pediatric patients. At present, the diagnosis of burn injury severity is subjective and lacks a clinically relevant quantitative measure. This is due in part to a lack of knowledge surrounding the biochemistry of burn injuries and that of blister fluid. A more complete understanding of the blister fluid biochemistry may open new avenues for diagnostic and prognostic development. Burn insult induces a highly complex network of signaling processes and numerous changes within various biochemical systems, which can ultimately be examined using proteome and metabolome measurements. This review reports on the current understanding of burn wound biochemistry and outlines a technical approach for ‘omics’ profiling of blister fluid from burn wounds of differing severity.     

Microcomputers in biochemistry

The development of the microcomputer has meant that for the first time individual departments of biochemistry or even laboratories can have their own computing facilities. For less than the cost of a single-beam spectrophotometer it is possible to purchase a complete microcomputer system that is relatively easily programmed and operated. However, a considerable investment of labour is needed tom ake the microcomputer effective in biochemistry and it is a challenge to pare away the mystique from small-scale computing so that it becomes as common a tool as spectrophotometry. In the belief that there are few biochemists who could not benefit from the use of the microcomputer this brief article will explore some of the current and future applications of the microcomputer in biochemistry.     

案例教学法在医学院校生物化学教学中的应用

生物化学是高等医学院校难学、难教的课程.采用案例教学法应用于生物化学理论课的教学,这种方法提高了学生的学习兴趣和学习主动性,培养了学生的临床思维能力和分析问题、解决问题的能力;另一方面也提高了教师自身的知识水平和综合素质.案例教学使生物化学课程的教学效果显著提高,是一种值得推广的教学方法.     

The use of multiple tools for teaching medical biochemistry

In this work, we describe the use of several strategies employing the philosophies of active learning and problem-based learning (PBL) that may be used to improve the teaching of metabolic biochemistry to medical and nutritional undergraduate students. The main activities are as follows: 1) a seminar/poster system in a mini-congress format (using topics of applied biochemistry); 2) a true/false applied biochemistry exam (written by peer tutors); 3) a 9-h exam on metabolism (based in real publications); 4) the Advanced Biochemistry course (directed to peer tutors, where students learn how to read and criticize real medical papers); 5) experiments about nutrition and metabolism, using students as volunteers, and about free radicals (real science for students); 6) the BioBio blog (taking advantage of the "web age," this enhances out of class exchanges of information between the professor, students, and peer tutors); 7) student lectures on public health issues and metabolic disorders directed to the community and lay people; and 8) the BioBio quiz show. The main objective of these activities is to provide students with a more practical and interesting approach to biochemistry, such as the application of theoretical knowledge to real situations (diseases, experiments, media information, and scientific discoveries). In addition, we emphasize the importance of peer tutor activities for optimized learning of both students and peer tutors, the importance of a closer interaction between students and teaching staff, and the necessity to initiate students precociously in two broad fields of medical activity: "real" basic science and contact with the public (also helping students--future doctors and nutritionists--to be able to communicate with lay people). Most activities were evaluated by the students through written questionnaires and informal conversations, along various semesters, indicating good acceptance and approval of these methods. Good student scores in the biochemistry exams and seminars indicated that these activities are also working as valid educational tools.     

MCAI在《生物化学》实验教学中的应用

研究了多媒体计算机辅助教学(MCAI)应用于《生物化学》实验教学导入环节、实验模拟和演示、知识强化以及实验教学结束环节的模式和效果,着重探讨了MCAI在培养大学生创新精神方面的应用。     

Animals and environments: resisting schisms in comparative physiology and biochemistry

The articles in this volume are a product of the enthusiasm shown by delegates to meet in a remote corner of southern Africa and to discuss comparative physiology and biochemistry in their wider interpretation and future course. This collection reflects a small but long-standing commitment to fostering the engagement of biological research with African issues and colleagues. Comparative physiology and biochemistry are evolving, but in this we must guard against fractionation of effort and purpose. Increasingly available molecular methods are seductive in encouraging work on model species and in employing these species in place of more appropriate comparative models. Concomitantly, the comparative approach is reaching out beyond the individual organism and organism-organism interactions to establish underlying principles at ecosystem and landscape levels. The integration of molecular methods into comparative studies will require judicious selection and use of such skills if it is to be achieved without abandoning nonmodel species. The physiological and metabolic bases of ecosystem and evolutionary approaches must be underpinned by relevant data, requiring comparative researchers to accommodate colleagues contributing this specialist knowledge. These articles report distinct symposia, prefaced by a plenary paper. While each paper is itself a review of an entire symposium, they all exhibit a common theme, that comparative physiology and biochemistry are about interactions. It is our hope that the Comparative Physiology and Biology in Africa meetings will continue to facilitate special interactions between the people who make this happen.     

Role of tautomerism in RNA biochemistry

Heterocyclic nucleic acid bases and their analogs can adopt multiple tautomeric forms due to the presence of multiple solvent-exchangeable protons. In DNA, spontaneous formation of minor tautomers has been speculated to contribute to mutagenic mispairings during DNA replication, whereas in RNA, minor tautomeric forms have been proposed to enhance the structural and functional diversity of RNA enzymes and aptamers. This review summarizes the role of tautomerism in RNA biochemistry, specifically focusing on the role of tautomerism in catalysis of small self-cleaving ribozymes and recognition of ligand analogs by riboswitches. Considering that the presence of multiple tautomers of nucleic acid bases is a rare occurrence, and that tautomers typically interconvert on a fast time scale, methods for studying rapid tautomerism in the context of nucleic acids under biologically relevant aqueous conditions are also discussed.     

Biogenic amines and polyamines: similar biochemistry for different physiological missions and biomedical applications

Biogenic amines are organic polycations derived from aromatic or cationic amino acids. All of them have one or more positive charges and a hydrophobic skeleton. Nature has evolved these molecules to play different physiological roles in mammals, but maintains similar patterns for their metabolic and intracellular handling. As deduced from this review, many questions still remain to be solved around their biochemistry and molecular biology, blocking our aims to control the relevant pathologies in which they are involved (cancer and immunological, neurological, and gastrointestinal diseases). Advances in this knowledge are dispersed among groups working on different biomedical areas. In these pages, we put together the most relevant information to remark how fruitful it can be to learn from Nature and to take advantage of the biochemical similarities (key protein structures and their regulation data on metabolic interplays and binding properties) to generate new hypothesis and develop different biomedical strategies based on biochemistry and molecular biology of these compounds.     

Ecological biochemistry and its development

The concept that chemistry and biochemistry may play significant roles in ecological relationships is not a new one. It is only within the last quarter of a century, however, that this concept has gained general acceptance and ecological biochemistry has become a well defined interdisciplinary subject in its own right. Examples are given of different types of biochemical relationships involving plants and animals and reference to other areas of the subject are made.     

Biochemical markers of bone turnover: part I: biochemistry and variability

With the ageing population in most countries, disorders of bone and mineral metabolism are becoming increasingly relevant to every day clinical practice. Consequently, the interest in, and the need for effective measures to be used in the screening, diagnosis and follow-up of such pathologies has markedly grown. Together with clinical and imaging techniques, biochemical tests play an important role in the assessment and differential diagnosis of metabolic bone disease. In recent years, the isolation and characterisation of cellular and extracellular components of the skeletal matrix have resulted in the development of molecular markers that are considered to reflect either bone formation or bone resorption. These biochemical indices are non-invasive, comparatively inexpensive and, when applied and interpreted correctly, helpful tools in the diagnostic and therapeutic assessment of metabolic bone disease. Part I of this article provides an overview of the basic biochemistry of bone markers, and sources of non-specific variability. Part II (to be published in a subsequent issue of this journal) will review the current evidence regarding the clinical use of biochemical markers of bone remodelling in metabolic and metastatic bone disease.     

A participatory learning approach to biochemistry using student authored and evaluated multiple-choice questions

A participatory learning approach, combined with both a traditional and a competitive assessment, was used to motivate students and promote a deep approach to learning biochemistry. Students were challenged to research, author, and explain their own multiple-choice questions (MCQs). They were also required to answer, evaluate, and discuss MCQs written by their peers. The technology used to support this activity was PeerWise--a freely available, innovative web-based system that supports students in the creation of an annotated question repository. In this case study, we describe students' contributions to, and perceptions of, the PeerWise system for a cohort of 107 second-year biomedical science students from three degree streams studying a core biochemistry subject. Our study suggests that the students are eager participants and produce a large repository of relevant, good quality MCQs. In addition, they rate the PeerWise system highly and use higher order thinking skills while taking an active role in their learning. We also discuss potential issues and future work using PeerWise for biomedical students.     

Thiol redox biochemistry: insights from computer simulations

Thiol redox chemical reactions play a key role in a variety of physiological processes, mainly due to the presence of low-molecular-weight thiols and cysteine residues in proteins involved in catalysis and regulation. Specifically, the subtle sensitivity of thiol reactivity to the environment makes the use of simulation techniques extremely valuable for obtaining microscopic insights. In this work we review the application of classical and quantum–mechanical atomistic simulation tools to the investigation of selected relevant issues in thiol redox biochemistry, such as investigations on (1) the protonation state of cysteine in protein, (2) two-electron oxidation of thiols by hydroperoxides, chloramines, and hypochlorous acid, (3) mechanistic and kinetics aspects of the de novo formation of disulfide bonds and thiol−disulfide exchange, (4) formation of sulfenamides, (5) formation of nitrosothiols and transnitrosation reactions, and (6) one-electron oxidation pathways.     

Novel biochemistry of methanogenesis

The biochemical diversity of life reaches an extreme in a group of highly specialized archaebacteria known as the methanogens where novel coenzymes are involved in the biochemistry of methanogenesis.     

Plant models to replace classical biochemistry practicals

The object of this general article is simply to suggest alternative inexpensive and novel procedures for biochemistry laboratory demonstrators and stil     

清华大学《生物化学》全英语教学调查与分析

为了解清华大学全英语教学效果及学生对全英语教学的认可程度,通过问卷调查的方式,收集和分析学生对《生物化学》全英语教学的态度,对教学方式、教学质量的评价以及对全英语教学影响因素分析等信息。结果表明,学生对《生物化学》开展全英语教学有较高的认可程度,教学质量较高,有很好的教学效果,为全英语教学和双语教学的进一步推广提供了借鉴和依据。     

临床生物化学与检验教育史话

临床生物化学与检验是在对人体正常、病理状况的生理生化变化过程认识的基础上,通过分析人体标本为疾病的诊断和治疗提供有用的信息。其课程主要内容包括糖类、脂类、核酸、蛋白质、酶、激素、有机小分子、血液气体、电解质、治疗性药物、临床毒物等的检测及其临床应用。临床生物化学与检验课程对临床医学和医学检验专业学生非常重要。本文对临床生物化学与检验课程建设的历史和现状进行了总结。     

Various methodological aspects of biochemistry

Certain methodological problems of present-day biochemistry are considered. Comprehension of the mechanisms of biochemical processes is shown to be possible on the basis of the structural and functional analysis at the molecular level. Ways of development and use of structural and functional approach to studies of supermolecular structures, cells and organisms on the whole are discussed.