Effect of the conditioned medium of mesenchymal stem cells on the expression levels of P2X4 and P2X7 purinergic receptors in the spinal cord of rats with neuropathic pain

Purinergic Signalling - Recent studies have shown that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and their conditioned medium (CM) have potential therapeutic effects in animal models of neuropathic pain (NP)....     

The Role of Peptide-Based Tumor Vaccines on Cytokines of Adaptive Immunity: A Review

International Journal of Peptide Research and Therapeutics - Recently, peptide-based materials have been applied to solving many therapeutic problems and have shown particular efficacy as cancer...     

Centrifugal isolation of SARS-CoV-2: numerical simulation for purification of hospitals’ air

Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology - Coronavirus and its spread all over the world have been the most challenging crisis in 2020. Hospitals are categorized among the most vulnerable...     

Therapeutic effects of Typha elephantina leave’s extract against paracetamol induced renal injury in rabbits

Present study focuses on ameliorative potential of Typha elephantina leave’s aqueous (TE.AQ) extract against Paracetamol (PCM) induced toxicity in rabbits. We fed the male rabbits with 300 mg PCM in alone and in combination with TE.AQ at different doses i.e. (100, 200 and 300 mg/kg body weight) or silymarin (100 mg/kg) daily for 21 days. PCM in alone significantly (P < 0.5) increased serum urea, uric acid, creatinine, total protein, albumin, globulin and blood urea nitrogen. Serum sodium, potassium and magnesium level were high. The glutathione, radical scavenging activity and Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances were significantly reduced. Treatment with TE.AQ at dose rate 300 mg/kg body weight and Silymarin significantly ameliorated all the parameters when compared with PCM administered group. The 100 and 200 mg of TE.AQ showed no significant effects. The histopathological examination confirmed the therapeutic potential of TE.AQ. These results established the presence of natural antioxidants in Typha elephantina leaves.     

A Tunable Perfect THz Metamaterial Absorber with Three Absorption Peaks Based on Nonstructured Graphene

In this paper, a graphene-based tunable multi-band terahertz absorber is proposed and numerically investigated. The proposed absorber can achieve perfect absorption within both sharp and ultra-broadband absorption spectra. This wide range of absorption is gathered through a unique combination of periodically cross- and square-shaped dielectrics sandwiched between two graphene sheets; the latter enables it to offer more absorption in comparison with the traditional single-layer graphene structures. The aforementioned top layer is mounted on a gold plate separated by a Topas layer with zero volume loss. Furthermore, in our proposed approach, we investigated the possibility of changing the shapes and sizes of the dielectric layers instead of the geometry of the graphene layers to alleviate the edge effects and manufacturing complications. In numerical simulations, parameters, such as graphene Fermi energy and the dimensions of the proposed dielectric layout, have been optimally tuned to reach perfect absorption. We have verified that the performance of our dielectric layout called fishnet, with two widely investigated dielectric layouts in the literature (namely, cross-shaped and frame-and-square). Our results demonstrate two absorption bands with near-unity absorbance at frequencies of 1.6–2.3 and 4.2–4.9 THz, with absorption efficiency of 98% in 1.96 and 4.62 THz, respectively. Moreover, a broadband absorption in the 7.77–9.78 THz is observed with an absorption efficiency of 99.6% that was attained in 8.44–9.11 THz. Finally, the versatility provided by the tunability of three operation bands of the absorber makes it a great candidate for integration into terahertz optoelectronic devices.

     

New Insight into the Interactions of Arbutin with Mushroom Tyrosinase

The Protein Journal - As a safe substitute for hydroquinone, β-arbutin, a natural plant substance, and its synthetic counterpart, α-arbutin, are used in depigmentation formulations....     

EVALUATION OF BIOETHANOL PRODUCTION FROM CAROB PODS BY Zymomonas mobilis AND Saccharomyces cerevisiae IN SOLID SUBMERGED FERMENTATION

Bioethanol production from carob pods has attracted many researchers due to its high sugar content. Both Zymomonas mobilis and Saccharomyces cerevisiae have been used previously for this purpose in submerged and solid-state fermentation. Since extraction of sugars from the carob pod particles is a costly process, solid-state and solid submerged fermentations, which do not require the sugar extraction step, may be economical processes for bioethanol production. The aim of this study is to evaluate the bioethanol production in solid submerged fermentation from carob pods. The maximum ethanol production of 0.42 g g^?1 initial sugar was obtained for Z. mobilis at 30°C, initial pH 5.3, and inoculum size of 5% v/v, 9 g carob powder per 50 mL of culture media, agitation rate 0 rpm, and fermentation time of 40 hr. The maximum ethanol production for S. cerevisiae was 0.40 g g^?1 initial sugar under the same condition. The results obtained in this research are comparable to those of Z. mobilis and S. cerevisiae performance in other culture mediums from various agricultural sources. Accordingly, solid submerged fermentation has a potential to be an economical process for bioethanol production from carob pods.     

Inhibitory effects of flavonoids on aldehyde oxidase activity

Flavonoids are an important group of natural compounds that can interfere with the activity of some enzymes. In this study, effects of various flavonoids on aldehyde oxidase (AO) activity were evaluated in vitro. AO was partially purified from guinea pig liver. The effects of 12 flavonoids from three subclasses of flavon-3-ol, flavan-3-ol and flavanone on the oxidation of vanillin and phenanthridine as substrates of AO and xanthine as a substrate of xanthine oxidase (XO) were investigated spectrophotometrically. Among the 12 flavonoids, myricetin and quercetin were the most potent inhibitors of both AO and XO. In general, the oxidation of vanillin was more inhibited by flavonoids than that of phenanthridine. Almost all of the flavonoids inhibited AO activity more potently than XO, which was more evident with non-planner flavanols. A planner structure seems to be essential for a potent inhibitory effect and any substitution by sugar moieties reduces the inhibitory effects. This study could provide a new insight into AO natural inhibitors with potential to lead to some food-drug interactions.     

Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of Acyclic C-Nucleosides from 1,2- and 1,3-Diketones

A simple, rapid and regioselective approach for the synthesis of C-acyclic nucleosides 3, 4, 6, and 9 of dihydropyrimidine, imidazole and indeno[1,2-b]pyridine-9-one derived from 1,2- and 1,3-diketones was performed. By using DMF or pyridine as solvent or bentonite clay as a support, in the presence of TMSTf, ZnCl₂, NH₄OAc, or NH₄NO₃, all the desired products were obtained within 5–25 minutes under microwave irradiation (MWI). Acid hydrolysis of 6 and 9 afforded the free acyclic C-nucleosides 7 and 10, respectively. Upon treatment with NaOMe under MWI, 3 and 14 rearranged to the C-nucleoside 4 and 16.     

Identification of Pyrus Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) and Evaluation for Genetic Mapping in European Pear and Interspecific Pyrus Hybrids

We have used new generation sequencing (NGS) technologies to identify single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers from three European pear (Pyrus communis L.) cultivars and subsequently developed a subset of 1096 pear SNPs into high throughput markers by combining them with the set of 7692 apple SNPs on the IRSC apple Infinium® II 8K array. We then evaluated this apple and pear Infinium® II 9K SNP array for large-scale genotyping in pear across several species, using both pear and apple SNPs. The segregating populations employed for array validation included a segregating population of European pear (‘Old Home’בLouise Bon Jersey’) and four interspecific breeding families derived from Asian (P. pyrifolia Nakai and P. bretschneideri Rehd.) and European pear pedigrees. In total, we mapped 857 polymorphic pear markers to construct the first SNP-based genetic maps for pear, comprising 78% of the total pear SNPs included in the array. In addition, 1031 SNP markers derived from apple (13% of the total apple SNPs included in the array) were polymorphic and were mapped in one or more of the pear populations. These results are the first to demonstrate SNP transferability across the genera Malus and Pyrus. Our construction of high density SNP-based and gene-based genetic maps in pear represents an important step towards the identification of chromosomal regions associated with a range of horticultural characters, such as pest and disease resistance, orchard yield and fruit quality.