Copper Oxide Nanomaterials Derived from Zanthoxylum armatum DC. and Berberis lycium Royle Plant Species: Characterization,Assessment of Free Radical Scavenging and Antibacterial Activity

Copper oxide nanomaterials were synthesized by a facile sustainable biological method using two plant species (Zanthoxylum armatum DC. and Berberis lycium Royle ). The formation of materials was confirmed by FT‐IR, ATR, UV‐visible, XRD, TEM, SEM, EDX, TGA and PL. The antibacterial activity was evaluated by agar well diffusion method to ascertain the efficacy of plant species extract and extract derived copper oxide nanomaterials against six Gram‐positive bacteria namely Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus pyogenes, Corynebacterium diphtheriae, Corynebacterium xerosis, Bacillus cereus and four Gram‐negative bacteria such as Klebsiella pneumonia, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Proteus vulgaris against the standard drug, Ciprofloxacin for Gram‐positive and Gentamicin for Gram‐negative bacteria, respectively. In both cases, copper oxide nanomaterials were found to be sensitive in all the bacterial species. Sensitivity of copper oxide nanomaterials shows an be higher as compared to plant species extract against different bacteria. Scavenging activity of plant extracts along with nanomaterials have been accessed using previously reported protocols employing ascorbic acid as standard. Scavenging activity of copper oxide nanomaterials shows an increase with increase in concentration. The biological activity (bactericidal and scavenging efficiency) of plant derived copper oxide nanomaterials revealed that these materials can be used as potent antimicrobial agent and DPPH scavengers in industrial as well as pharmacological fields.     

Insulin-like growth factor type-1 receptor transactivation in vasoactive peptide and oxidant-induced signaling pathways in vascular smooth muscle cells

Transactivation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a well-documented mechanism by which vasoactive peptides and H2O2 elicit their cellular responses. However, a role for the insulin-like growth factor type-1 receptor (IGF-1R) transactivation in mediating the effects of angiotensin II (Ang II) and H2O2 in vascular smooth muscle cells from different artery types have also been recently recognized. By using a series of pharmacological inhibitors of various growth factor receptor tyrosine kinases and a direct analysis of the phosphorylation status of the beta-subunit of IGF-1R, a requirement of this growth factor receptor in Ang II and H2O2 response has been demonstrated. This review discusses some of the studies that highlight the importance of IGF-1R transactivation in mediating Ang II- and H2O2-induced mitogen-activated protein kinase and protein kinase B signaling pathways.     

Fossil psychodoid flies and their relation to parasitic diseases

Psychodid sand flies are blood-sucking fly vectors of several parasitic diseases. The oldest definitive record of this group is from the Lower Cretaceous amber of Lebanon (circa-135 to -125 My), but the high diversity within this group supports the idea that the psychodoids originated much earlier in history. The palaeontology demonstrates that the Lower Creataceous representatives of the different subfamilies of Psychodidae had similar morphology and were blood-feeders, which supports Hennig's hypothesis on the ground plan structure of this family. Historical relationship between sand flies and diseases is unclear up to the present time, but this relationship could be as old as the origin of psychodoids because of the blood-feeding life mode.     

GnRH-Bik/Bax/Bak chimeric proteins target and kill adenocarcinoma cells; the general use of pro-apoptotic proteins of the Bcl-2 family as novel killing components of targeting chimeric proteins

In recent years chimeric proteins carrying bacterial toxins as their killing moiety, have been developed to selectively recognize and kill cell populations expressing speciific receptors. The involvement of Gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) has been demonstrated in several adenocarcinomas and a GnRH-bacterial toxin chimeric protein (GnRH-PE66) was thus developed and found to specifically target and kill adenocarcinoma cells both in vitro and in vivo. Because of the immunogenicity and the non-specific toxicity of the bacterial toxins, we have developed new chimeric proteins, introducing apoptosis inducing proteins of the Bcl-2 family as novel killing components. Sequences encoding the human Bik, Bak or Bax proteins were fused to the GnRH coding sequence at the DNA level and were expressed in E. coli. GnRH-Bik, GnRH-Bak and GnRH-Bax new chimeric proteins efficiently and specifically inhibited the cell growth of adenocarcinoma cell lines and eventually led to cell death. All three Bcl2-proteins-based chimeric proteins seem to induce apoptosis within the target cells, without any additional cell death stimulus. Apoptosis-inducing-proteins of the Bcl-2 family targeted by the GnRH are novel potential therapeutic reagents for adenocarcinoma treatment in humans. This novel approach could be widely applied, using any molecule that binds a specific cell type, fused to an apoptosis-inducing protein.     

Detection and characterization of mutations in genes related to isoniazid resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates from Iran

Molecular Biology Reports - The global rise in drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), and especially the significant prevalence of isoniazid (INH)-resistance constitute a significant...     

Efficient and specific bioaccumulation of arsenic in the transgenic Escherichia coli expressing ArsR1 from Corynebacterium glutamicum

BioMetals - The toxic nature of arsenic has left a trail of disastrous health consequences around the world. Microorganisms have developed various strategies to deal with arsenic. The presence of...     

Functional characterization of neostatins, the MMP-derived, enzymatic cleavage products of type XVIII collagen

Several anti-angiogenic factors are derived from proteolytic processing of large molecules including endostatin from type XVIII collagen and angiostatin from plasminogen. In previous studies we showed that neostatin-7, the C-terminal 28kDa endostatin-spanning proteolytic fragment, is generated from the proteolytic action of matrix metalloproteinase matrilysin (MMP)-7 on type XVIII collagen. Now, we report a second member of the neostatin family of proteins, neostatin-14. Given the small quantities of neostatin-7 and -14 generated by the breakdown of naturally occurring collagen XVIII (using MMP-7 and -14, respectively), we used two other approaches to characterize the anti-angiogenic properties of these molecules: murine recombinant neostatin in vitro, and gene therapy. We demonstrate that murine recombinant neostatin-7 inhibits calf pulmonary artery endothelial cell proliferation and that microinjection of neostatin-7 and neostatin-14 naked DNA into the corneal stroma of mice results in significant reduction of basic fibroblast growth factor-induced corneal neovascularization. These results provide supportive evidence of the possible anti-angiogenic effect of neostatins.