Cytotoxicity,apoptosis inducing activity and Western blot analysis of tanshinone derivatives from Stachys parviflora on prostate and breast cancer cells

Molecular Biology Reports - Cytotoxic activities of methanolic crude extract of Stachys parviflora (Lamiaceae family) and its sub-fractions were primarily evaluated against human breast...     

Tumour induction in BALB/c mice for imaging studies: An improved protocol

Dealing with nude mice, which lack thymus and therefore are sensitive to unsterile conditions, needs special care and laboratory conditions. For preclinical studies, especially tumour imaging purposes, in which therapeutic properties of drugs or therapeutic compounds are not studied, mice with normal immune system can be a favourable alternative if they carry tumours of interest. In the current study, we introduce an optimized protocol for induction of human tumours in BALB/c mice for preclinical studies. Immune system of BALB/c mice was suppressed by administration of cyclosporine A (CsA), ketoconazole and cyclophosphamide. The tumours of MDA-MB-231, A-431 and U-87-MG human cancer cells were induced by subcutaneous injection of the cells to the immunosuppressed mice. Tumour size was calculated weekly. Histopathological and metastatic analyses were performed using haematoxylin and eosin staining. The combination of the three drugs was found to suppress immune system and decrease the numbers of white blood cells, including lymphocytes. At the eighth week, tumours with a dimension of approximately 1400 mm³ developed. Large atypical nuclei with scant cytoplasm were found to exist using histopathological analysis. No metastasis was observed in the tumour-bearing mice. A combination of CsA, ketoconazole and cyclophosphamide can be used to suppress the immune system in BALB/c mice and induce tumours with significant size.     

Probiotic Soy Milk Consumption and Renal Function Among Type 2 Diabetic Patients with Nephropathy: a Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

Probiotics and Antimicrobial Proteins - Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is one the most important complications of diabetes leading to end-stage renal disease. Dietary approaches have been considered to...     

Elevational distribution and morphological attributes of the entomopathogenic fungi from forests of the Qinling Mountains in China

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology - Entomopathogenic fungi are considered to be a safe microbiological pesticide alternative to chemical control. Efforts are underway to understand precisely...     

A Novel Molecular Design for a Hybrid Phage-DNA Construct Against DKK1

Nucleic acid immunization has recently exhibited a great promise for immunotherapy of various diseases. However, it is now clear that powerful strategies are imminently needed to improve their efficiency. In this regard, whole bacteriophage particles have been described as efficient DNA vaccine delivery vehicles, capable of circumventing the limitations of naked DNA immunization. Moreover, phage particles could be engineered to display specific peptides on their surfaces. Given these inherent characteristics of phages, we have designed a novel hybrid phage-DNA immunization vector using both M13 and pAAV plasmid elements. Following the construction and in vitro confirmation of the designed vectors, they were used for comparative mice immunization, carrying the same DNA sequence. The results indicated the efficacy of the designed hybrid phage particles, to elicit higher humoral immunity, in comparison to conventional DNA-immunization vectors (pCI). In light of these findings, it could be concluded that using adeno-associated virus (AAV) expression cassette along with displaying TAT peptide on the surface of the phage particle could be deemed as an appealing strategy to enhance the DNA-immunization and vaccination efficacy.     

Molecular dynamic simulations of nanomechanic chaperone peptide and effects of in silico His mutations on nanostructured function

The nanoscale peptide YSGVCHTDLHAWHGDWPLPVK exhibits molecular chaperone activity and prevents protein aggregation under chemical and/or thermal stress. Here, His mutations of this peptide and their impact on chaperone activity were evaluated using theoretical techniques. Molecular dynamic (MD) simulations with simulated annealing (SA) of different mutant nanopeptides were employed to determine the contribution of the scaffolding His residues (H45, H49, H52), when mutated to Pro, on chaperone action in vitro. The in silico mutations of His residues to Pro (H45P, H49P, H52P) revealed loss of secondary ordered strand structure. However, a small part of the strand conformation was formed in the middle region of the native chaperone peptide. The His‐to‐Pro mutations resulted in decreased gyration radius (R_g) values and surface accessibility of the mutant peptides under the simulation times. The invariant dihedral angle (ϕ) values and the disrupting effects of the Pro residues indicated the coil conformation of mutant peptides. The failure of the chaperone‐like action in the Pro mutant peptides was consistent with their decreased effective accessible surfaces. The high variation of Φ value for His residues in native chaperone peptide leads to high flexibility, such as a minichaperone acting as a nanomachine at the molecular level. Our findings demonstrate that the peptide strand conformation motif with high flexibility at nanoscale is critical for chaperone activity. Copyright © 2008 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.