印度藏茴香植物精油对温室棉蚜的熏蒸毒性及其成分分析（英文）

【目的】棉蚜Aphis gossypii是世界各地室内和室外果树、蔬菜和观赏植物上最具危害性的害虫之一。这一害虫取食植物汁液,产生蜜露,传播植物病毒,对植物从质和量上产生破坏。为了控制温室中的这一害虫,植物精油可用作化学农药的替代药物。本实验研究了印度藏茴香Carum copticum植物精油对棉蚜成虫的熏蒸毒性。【方法】将研磨的印度藏茴香干种子用改良的挥发油提取器(Clevenger-type apparatus)进行水蒸馏。所有生物测定均在27±2℃,相对湿度65%±5%和光周期16L∶8D条件下进行。研究采用完全随机设计,6个处理(5个不同浓度的精油加对照)。每一浓度3次重复,每一重复20头成虫。【结果】结果表明,棉蚜成蚜接触印度藏茴香精油24 h后出现明显的死亡。该精油对棉蚜成蚜的致死中浓度(LC50)为1.21μL/L空气。棉蚜成蚜的死亡百分率对精油的施用表现出较高的敏感性。精油浓度为1.21μL/L空气时,估计的棉蚜的致死中时(LT50)为11.79 h。这一精油的熏蒸毒性与浓度和接触时间之间具有一定的相关性。GC/MS组分分析结果表明,该精油由18种化合物组成,最重要的是一些化合物引起了熏蒸毒性,如麝香草酚(占50.07%)、γ-萜品烯(占23.99%)和对异丙基苯甲烷(占22.90%)。【结论】本研究结果表明印度藏茴香植物精油对棉蚜具有较好的杀虫效果。印度藏茴香精油对棉蚜产生较大的影响,由于它具有较高的熏蒸毒性潜力,因此可在温室中用于这一害虫的综合治理。     

Detection of Vero Cells Infected with Herpes Simplex Types 1 and 2 and Varicella Zoster Viruses Using Raman Spectroscopy and Advanced Statistical Methods

Of the eight members of the herpes family of viruses, HSV1, HSV2, and varicella zoster are the most common and are mainly involved in cutaneous disorders. These viruses usually are not life-threatening, but in some cases they might cause serious infections to the eyes and the brain that can lead to blindness and possibly death. An effective drug (acyclovir and its derivatives) is available against these viruses. Therefore, early detection and identification of these viral infections is highly important for an effective treatment. Raman spectroscopy, which has been widely used in the past years in medicine and biology, was used as a powerful spectroscopic tool for the detection and identification of these viral infections in cell culture, due to its sensitivity, rapidity and reliability. Our results showed that it was possible to differentiate, with a 97% identification success rate, the uninfected Vero cells that served as a control, from the Vero cells that were infected with HSV-1, HSV-2, and VZV. For that, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was performed on the Raman spectra after principal component analysis (PCA) with a leave one out (LOO) approach. Raman spectroscopy in tandem with PCA and LDA enable to differentiate among the different herpes viral infections of Vero cells in time span of few minutes with high accuracy rate. Understanding cell molecular changes due to herpes viral infections using Raman spectroscopy may help in early detection and effective treatment.     

Biodegradation pathway and detoxification of the diazo dye Reactive Black 5 by Phanerochaete chrysosporium

The in vivo biodegradation of the diazo dye Reactive Black 5 (RB5) by Phanerochaete chrysosporium immobilised on cubes of nylon sponge and on sunflower-seed shells (SS) in laboratory-scale bioreactors was investigated. The SS cultivation led to the best results with a decolouration percentage of 90.3% in 72 h for an initial RB5 concentration of 100 mg/L. It was found that the addition of 0.4 mM veratryl alcohol (VA) into the medium considerably increased the decolouration rate in SS cultivation. However, the addition of VA had no effect in the nylon cultivation. Thin layer chromatography (TLC) revealed that RB5 was transformed into one metabolite after 24 h. UV-vis spectroscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) also confirmed the biodegradation of RB5. Toxicity of RB5 solutions before and after fungal treatment was assayed using Sinorhizobium meliloti as a sensitive soil microorganism. P. chrysosporium transformed the toxic dye RB5 into a non-toxic product.     

THI1, a protein involved in the biosynthesis of thiamin in Arabidopsis thaliana: Structural analysis of THI1(A140V) mutant

In eukaryotes, there are still steps of the vitamin B₁ biosynthetic pathway not completely understood. In Arabidopsis thaliana, THI1 protein has been associated with the synthesis of the thiazole ring, a finding supported by the identification of a thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP)-like compound in its structure. Here, we investigated THI1 and its mutant THI1(A140V), responsible for the thiamin auxotrophy in a A. thaliana mutant line, aiming to clarify the impact of this mutation in the stability and activity of THI1. Recently, the THI1 orthologue (THI4) was revealed to be responsible for the donation of the sulfur atom from a cysteine residue to the thiazole ring in the thiamine intermediate. In this context, we carried out a cysteine quantification in THI1 and THI1(A140V) using electron spin resonance (ESR). These data showed that THI1(A140V) contains more sulfur-containing cysteines than THI1, indicating that the function as a sulfur donor is conserved, but the rate of donation reaction is somehow affected. Also, the bound compounds were isolated from both proteins and are present in different amounts in each protein. Unfolding studies presented differences in melting temperatures and also in the concentration of guanidine at which half of the protein unfolds, thus showing that THI1(A140V) has its conformational stability affected by the mutation. Hence, despite keeping its function in the early steps during the synthesis of TPP precursor, our studies have shown a decrease in the THI1(A140V) stability, which might be slowing down the biological activity of the mutant, and thus contributing to thiamin auxotrophy.     

Trend of Cardio-Metabolic Risk Factors in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: A Population-Based Prospective Cohort Study

Objective

To see the changes of cardio-metabolic risk factors overtime in polycystic ovary syndrome vs. control women.

Methods

This study was conducted on 637 participants (85 PCOS and 552 control reproductive aged, 18–45 years) of Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study (TLGS), an ongoing population-based cohort study with 12 years of follow-up. The cardiovascular risk factors of these groups were assessed in three-year intervals using standard questionnaires, history taking, anthropometric measures, and metabolic/endocrine evaluation. Generalized estimating equation was used to analyze the data.

Results

Overall mean of insulin (3.55, CI: 0.66–6.45), HOMA-IR (0.63, CI: 0.08–1.18), and HOMA-β (45.90, CI: 0.86–90.93) were significantly higher in PCOS than in healthy women after adjustment for age, BMI, and baseline levels. However, the negative interaction (follow-up years × PCOS status) of PCOS and normal women converged overtime. Comparing third follow-up with first, insulin and HOMA-IR decreased 10.6% and 5%, respectively in PCOS women; and increased 6.7% and 14.6%, respectively in controls (P<0.05). The results did not show any significant result for other cardio-metabolic variables including WC, lipid profile, FPG, 2-h PG, SBP, and DBP.

Conclusion

While the insulin level and insulin resistance rate were higher in reproductive aged PCOS than in healthy women, the difference of these risk factors decreased overtime. Thus, the metabolic consequences of PCOS women in later life may be lower than those initially anticipated.     

Molecular interactions of thymol with bovine serum albumin: Spectroscopic and molecular docking studies

Thymol is the main monoterpene phenol present in the essential oils which is used in the food industry as flavoring and preservative agent. In this study, the interaction of thymol with the concentration range of 1 to 6 μM and bovine serum albumin (BSA) at fixed concentration of 1 μM was investigated by fluorescence, UV‐vis, and molecular docking methods under physiological‐like condition. Fluorescence experiments were performed at 5 different temperatures, and the results showed that the fluorescence quenching of BSA by thymol was because of a static quenching mechanism. The obtained binding parameters, K, were in the order of 10⁴ M^?1, and the binding number, n, was approximately equal to unity indicating that there is 1 binding site for thymol on BSA. Calculated thermodynamic parameters for enthalpy (ΔH), entropy (ΔS), and Gibb's free energy (ΔG) showed that the reaction was spontaneous and hydrophobic interactions were the main forces in the binding of thymol to BSA. The results of UV‐vis spectroscopy and Arrhenius' theory showed the complex formation in the interaction of thymol and BSA. Negligible conformational changes in BSA by thymol were observed in fluorescence experiments, and the same results were also obtained from UV‐vis studies. Results of molecular docking indicated that the subdomain IA of BSA was the binding site for thymol.     

Self‐assembly of designed coiled coil peptides studied by small‐angle X‐ray scattering and analytical ultracentrifugation

α‐Helical coiled coil structures, which are noncovalently associated heptad repeat peptide sequences, are ubiquitous in nature. Similar amphipathic repeat sequences have also been found in helix‐containing proteins and have played a central role in de novo design of proteins. In addition, they are promising tools for the construction of nanomaterials. Small‐angle X‐ray scattering (SAXS) has emerged as a new biophysical technique for elucidation of protein topology. Here, we describe a systematic study of the self‐assembly of a small ensemble of coiled coil sequences using SAXS and analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC), which was correlated with molecular dynamics simulations. Our results show that even minor sequence changes have an effect on the folding topology and the self‐assembly and that these differences can be observed by a combination of AUC, SAXS, and circular dichroism spectroscopy. A small difference in these methods was observed, as SAXS for one peptide and revealed the presence of a population of longer aggregates, which was not observed by AUC. Copyright © 2013 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Heat stress aggravates oxidative stress,apoptosis, and endoplasmic reticulum stress in the cerebellum of male C57 mice

Molecular Biology Reports - The current study was set to assess the effect of heat stress exposure on oxidative stress, apoptosis, and endoplasmic reticulum stress markers in the cerebellum of male...     

Molecular modelling of the TSR domain of R-spondin 4

R-spondin 4 is a secreted protein mainly associated with embryonic nail development. R-spondins have been recently identified as heparin-binding proteins with high affinity. Proteoglycan binding has been associated with both the TSR and the C terminal basic amino acid rich domains. In this paper, molecular modelling techniques were used to construct the model of R-spondin 4 TSR domain based on the structure of the F-spondin TSR domain 4 (30-40¢ sequence identity). Beside a positively charged surface in the TSR domain, presence of the basic amino acid rich domain which could forms a continuous heparin binding surface may explain the high affinity of R-spondins for heparin. Our results provide a framework for understanding the possible regulatory role of heparin in R-spondins signalling.