Smp76, a Scorpine-Like Peptide Isolated from the Venom of the Scorpion Scorpio maurus palmatus,with a Potent Antiviral Activity Against Hepatitis C Virus and Dengue Virus

Growing global viral infections have been a serious public health problem in recent years. This current situation emphasizes the importance of developing m     

Low Glucose but Not Galactose Enhances Oxidative Mitochondrial Metabolism in C2C12 Myoblasts and Myotubes

Background

Substituting galactose for glucose in cell culture media has been suggested to enhance mitochondrial metabolism in a variety of cell lines. We studied the effects of carbohydrate availability on growth, differentiation and metabolism of C2C12 myoblasts and myotubes.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We measured growth rates, ability to differentiate, citrate synthase and respiratory chain activities and several parameters of mitochondrial respiration in C2C12 cells grown in media with varying carbohydrate availability (5 g/l glucose, 1 g/l glucose, 1 g/l galactose, and no added carbohydrates). C2C12 myoblasts grow more slowly without glucose irrespective of the presence of galactose, which is not consumed by the cells, and they fail to differentiate without glucose in the medium. Cells grown in a no-glucose medium (with or without galactose) have lower maximal respiration and spare respiratory capacity than cells grown in the presence of glucose. However, increasing glucose concentration above physiological levels decreases the achievable maximal respiration. C2C12 myotubes differentiated at a high glucose concentration showed higher dependency on oxidative respiration under basal conditions but had lower maximal and spare respiratory capacity when compared to cells differentiated under low glucose condition. Citrate synthase activity or mitochondrial yield were not significantly affected by changes in the available substrate concentration but a trend towards a higher respiratory chain activity was observed at reduced glucose levels.

Conclusions/Significance

Our results show that using galactose to increase oxidative metabolism may not be applicable to every cell line, and the changes in mitochondrial respiratory parameters associated with treating cells with galactose are mainly due to glucose deprivation. Moderate concentrations of glucose (1 g/l) in a growth medium are optimal for mitochondrial respiration in C2C12 cell line while supraphysiological concentrations of glucose cause mitochondrial dysfunction in C2C12 myoblasts and myotubes.     

Post-nesting migrations patterns of Green Turtles (Chelonia mydas) from the Egyptian Red Sea

In order to identify the migratory pathways and foraging grounds of post-nesting Green Turtles (Chelonia mydas) in the Red Sea, we attached satellite transmitters to four females immediately after egg deposition and tracked them between 207 and 647 days. We identified four geographically distinct post-nesting habitat areas and migration paths from Zabargad Island, Egypt which was remarkable given our small sample size. Our shortest migration was 140?km and the longest 940?km, with the migrations and post-nesting habitat encompassing the boundaries of four of the seven Red Sea countries (Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, and Saudi Arabia). The post-nesting habitats were located in shallow coastal habitat and three consisted of near-shore archipelagos. Two turtles moved past areas of suitable post-nesting habitat that was occupied by other turtles, which suggests that these turtles may be exhibiting fidelity to certain feeding and nesting sites. Our results suggest that regional and multi-national cooperation will be needed to protect sea turtles that nest on Zabargad Island, a nesting site that is important for Egypt and other Red Sea nations.     

Diet and reproductive biology of the Starred Agama,Laudakia stellio (Linnaeus, 1758) (Squamata: Agamidae), in the northern Sinai,Egypt

We quantified sexual size dimorphism, diet and reproduction in the Starred Agama, Laudakia stellio, in northern Sinai. Males were larger than females in snout-vent length and head index. The species is a sit-and-wait predator and feeds on insects, mainly coleopterans. About 30% of stomachs included plant material. No difference between sexes existed in terms of prey size preference. The reproductive season is seen to be year round with no distinctive seasonality. The smallest sexually mature female measured 92 mm SVL, whereas the smallest sexually reproductive male was 89 mm SVL. Clutch size ranged from 6 to 18 eggs.     

Individual differences in odor imaging ability reflect differences in olfactory and emotional perception

We asked whether the large variability in odor imaging ability is underlain by interindividual differences in the processing of smells and emotion. Olfactory imaging ability, anhedonia level, and odor perception were measured in 40 subjects, using the Vividness of Olfactory Imagery Questionnaire (VOIQ), the Physical Anhedonia Scale, and the European Test of Olfactory Capabilities. "Good" olfactory imagers, defined primarily on the basis of the VOIQ, rated pleasant smells as more familiar and had lower anhedonia scores than "bad" olfactory imagers. Based on self-reported measures, these results suggest that, like olfactory perception, the mental imagery of smells is related to emotion and that, beyond their differences in vividness, good and bad olfactory imagers differ in their experience of emotion and long-term memory of smells.     

Transgenic sequences are frequently lost in Phytophthora parasitica transformants without reversion of the transgene-induced silenced state

Little data exist on the mechanism and stability of transformation in Phytophthora parasitica, a major oomycete parasite of plants. Here, we studied the stability of drug-resistant protoplast transformants by analyzing single-zoospore derivatives. We show that the transgenic sequences are not stably integrated into the chromosomes, resulting in the loss of drug resistance in single-zoospore derivatives. However, in strains where the P. parasitica gene encoding the CBEL elicitor was silenced by transformation with sense or antisense constructs, silencing is not reversed when the transgenic sequences are lost. This suggests that instability of P. parasitica transformants is not an obstacle for loss-of-function studies in this organism.     

Binding sites of miRNA on the overexpressed genes of oral cancer using 7mer-seed match

The microRNAs having a length of?~?19–22 nucleotides are the small, non-coding RNAs. The evolution of microRNAs in many disorders may hold the key to tackle complex challenges. Oral cancer belongs to the group of head and neck cancer. It occurs in the mouth region that appears as an ulcer. In this study, we collected information on the overexpressed genes of oral cancer. The coding sequences of the genes were derived from NCBI and the entire set of human microRNAs present in miRBASE 21 was retrieved. The human microRNAs that can target the overexpressed genes of oral cancer were determined with the aid of our in-house software. The interaction between microRNAs and the overexpressed genes was evaluated with 7mer-m8 model of microRNA targeting. The genes DKK1 and APLN paired with only one miRNA i.e., miR-447 and miR-6087, respectively. But the genes INHBA and MMP1 were found to be targeted by 2 miRNAs, while the genes FN1, FAP, TGFPI, COL4A1, COL4A2, and LOXL2 were found to be targeted by 16, 5, 9, 18, 29, and 11 miRNAs. Subsequently, several measures such as free energy, translation efficiency, and cosine similarity metric were used to estimate the binding process. It was found that the target region’s stability was higher than the upstream and downstream zones. The overexpressed genes’ GC contents were calculated, revealing that the codons in target miRNA region were overall GC rich as well as GC3 rich. Lastly, gene ontology was performed to better understand each gene’s involvement in biological processes, molecular function, and cellular component. Our study showed the role of microRNAs in gene repression, which could possibly aid in the prognosis and diagnosis of oral cancer.

     

Expression of lipogenic markers is decreased in subcutaneous adipose tissue and adipocytes of older women and is negatively linked to GDF15 expression

Journal of Physiology and Biochemistry - In aging, the capacity of subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) to store lipids decreases and this results in metabolically unfavorable fat redistribution....     

Fibroblast growth factor 21 is induced upon cardiac stress and alters cardiac lipid homeostasis

Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is a PPARα-regulated gene elucidated in the liver of PPARα-deficient mice or PPARα agonist-treated mice. Mice globally lacking adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) exhibit a marked defect in TG catabolism associated with impaired PPARα-activated gene expression in the heart and liver, including a drastic reduction in hepatic FGF21 mRNA expression. Here we show that FGF21 mRNA expression is markedly increased in the heart of ATGL-deficient mice accompanied by elevated expression of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress markers, which can be reversed by reconstitution of ATGL expression in cardiac muscle. In line with this assumption, the induction of ER stress increases FGF21 mRNA expression in H9C2 cardiomyotubes. Cardiac FGF21 expression was also induced upon fasting of healthy mice, implicating a role of FGF21 in cardiac energy metabolism. To address this question, we generated and characterized mice with cardiac-specific overexpression of FGF21 (CM-Fgf21). FGF21 was efficiently secreted from cardiomyocytes of CM-Fgf21 mice, which moderately affected cardiac TG homeostasis, indicating a role for FGF21 in cardiac energy metabolism. Together, our results show that FGF21 expression is activated upon cardiac ER stress linked to defective lipolysis and that a persistent increase in circulating FGF21 levels interferes with cardiac and whole body energy homeostasis.