Clear-cutting impacts nutrient,carbon and water exchange parameters in woody plants in an east Fennoscandian pine forest

Plant and Soil - Clear-cut logging currently is a key factor transforming forest communities in many boreal regions. The dynamics of biogeochemical processes taking place in clear-cuts makes them a...     

The Role of Human LRRK2 in Acute Methylmercury Toxicity in Caenorhabditis elegans

Neurochemical Research - Methylmercury (MeHg) exposure and its harmful effects on the developing brain continue to be a global environmental health concern. Decline in mitochondrial function is...     

Cytotoxic Effects of the Selective Ligands of Membrane Progesterone Receptors in Human Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Cells BxPC3

Biochemistry (Moscow) - Progesterone and its synthetic analogues act on cells through different types of receptors, affecting proliferation and apoptosis. These compounds exert their effect through...     

Molecular deconvolution of the neutralizing antibodies induced by an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 virus vaccine

Dear Editor, The rapid emergence and persistence of the pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2) has had enormous impacts on global health and the economy.Effective vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 are urgently needed to control the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) pandemic,and multiple vaccines have been found to be efficacious in preventing symptomatic COVID-19(Polack et al.,2020;Wu et al.,2020;Jones and Roy,2021).We have developed a traditional beta-propiolactone-inacti-vated aluminum hydroxide-adjuvanted whole-virion SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (BBIBP-CorV),which elicited protective immune responses in clinical trials (Wang et al.,2020;Xia et al.,2021).The vaccine has been granted conditional approvals or emergency use authorizations (EUAs) in China and other countries.     

Mechanisms of Candida Resistance to Antimycotics and Promising Ways to Overcome It: The Role of Probiotics

Probiotics and Antimicrobial Proteins - Pathogenic Candida and infections caused by those species are now considered as a serious threat to public health. The treatment of candidiasis is...     

Consideration on Efficient Recombinant Protein Production: Focus on Substrate Protein-Specific Compatibility Patterns of Molecular Chaperones

The Protein Journal - Expression of recombinant proteins requires at times the aid of molecular chaperones for efficient post-translational folding into functional structure. However, predicting...     

Aging aggravates ischemic stroke‐induced brain damage in mice with chronic peripheral infection

Ischemic stroke is confounded by conditions such as atherosclerosis, diabetes, and infection, all of which alter peripheral inflammatory processes with concomitant impact on stroke outcome. The majority of the stroke patients are elderly, but the impact of interactions between aging and inflammation on stroke remains unknown. We thus investigated the influence of age on the outcome of stroke in animals predisposed to systemic chronic infection. Th1‐polarized chronic systemic infection was induced in 18–22 month and 4‐month‐old C57BL/6j mice by administration of Trichuris muris (gut parasite). One month after infection, mice underwent permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion and infarct size, brain gliosis, and brain and plasma cytokine profiles were analyzed. Chronic infection increased the infarct size in aged but not in young mice at 24 h. Aged, ischemic mice showed altered plasma and brain cytokine responses, while the lesion size correlated with plasma prestroke levels of RANTES. Moreover, the old, infected mice exhibited significantly increased neutrophil recruitment and upregulation of both plasma interleukin‐17α and tumor necrosis factor‐α levels. Neither age nor infection status alone or in combination altered the ischemia‐induced brain microgliosis. Our results show that chronic peripheral infection in aged animals renders the brain more vulnerable to ischemic insults, possibly by increasing the invasion of neutrophils and altering the inflammation status in the blood and brain. Understanding the interactions between age and infections is crucial for developing a better therapeutic regimen for ischemic stroke and when modeling it as a disease of the elderly.     

Synthesis of Biotin-Containing Phosphoramidite Linker with Polyether Spacer Arm

A phosphoramidite linker unit, based on glycerol backbone and containing a biotin residue attached through a tetraethylene glycol spacer arm, was synthesized. DMTr-Glycidol and tetraethylene glycol were used as starting materials. After conversion of one of hydroxy groups in tetraethylene glycol into an amino group, the epoxy cycle in DMTr-glycidol was opened by this amino alcohol, resulting in the corresponding ether and some quantity of secondary amine. After attaching of biotin residue to the ether followed by phosphitylation, the desirable linker was obtained. The structure of the linker was confirmed by ¹H-¹H COSY, ¹H-¹³C HSQC, ¹H-¹³C HMBC, ¹H-¹⁵N HSQC, and ¹H-¹⁵N HMBC spectra. The resulted phosphoramidite linker unit is suitable for use in common DNA synthesizers. This approach can be used for preparation of various modifiers containing reporter groups attached to the primary amino function using conventional procedures.     

Reagents For The Selective Immobilization Of Oligonucleotides On Solid Supports

New reagents (CPGs and phosphoramidites) for automatic solid phase synthesis of modified oligonucleotides were designed. Three oligonucleotides carrying fluorescent label at the 5′-terminus and an anchor group at the 3′-terminus were prepared and their immobilization in orthogonal conditions on solid supports was studied.