Variation in noxiousness of different wheat species for celiac patients

Abstract

Peptic-tryptic (PT) digested prolamins from spelt wheat Triticum aestivum ssp. spelta and landraces ERSA 6 and ERSA 8 of farro wheat T. turgidum ssp. dicoccum were found to agglutinate K562(S) cells, and exert strong toxic effects on Caco-2/TC7 cells. Cytotoxicity of spelt prolamins against Caco-2/TC7 cells was greatly reduced by 10-mer peptide QQPQDAVQPF. By contrast, the PT digests from monoccum wheat (Triticum monococcum) and farro landraces Prometeo, L5563, L5540 and L5558 did not exhibit any negative effects on K562(S) and Caco-2/TC7 cells. Toxic genotypes ERSA 6 and ERSA 8 were found to share the same gliadin pattern, which was absent in inactive landraces. Monococcum, farro and spelt wheats differed from each other in their responses to antibodies specific for 13-mer cytotoxic sequence FPGQQQPFPPQQP and 10-mer peptide QQPQDAVQPF. This latter sequence was found to occur in high amounts in common wheat line FG, Phaseoulus vulgaris, Ph. coccineus and Lens culinaria.     

Biological rhythms in birds — development, insights and perspectives

The aim of this review is to show that probably the internal clock of precocial birds is imprinted in the prenatal period by exogenous factors (zeitgeber). The activity of organ functions occurs early during embryonic development, before this function is ultimately necessary to ensure the survival of the embryo. Prenatal activation of some functional systems may have a training effect on the postnatal efficiency.The development of physiological control systems is influenced by endogenous and exogenous factors during the late prenatal and early postnatal period: epigenetic adaptation processes play an important role in the development of animals; they have acquired characteristics which are innated but not genetically fixed. As a rule, the actual value during the determination period has a very strong influence on the set-point of the system. This will be explained using the example of thermoregulation.It is shown in detail that it seems to be possible to imprint the prenatal development of circadian rhythms by periodic changes of the light-dark cycle but not by rhythmic influence of acoustic signals.Altogether, there are more questions open than solved concerning the perinatal genesis of circadian rhythms in birds. Topics are given for the future research.     

COVID-19 and “natural” experiments arising from physical distancing: a hypothetical case study from chronobiology

ABSTRACT

With countless “natural” experiments triggered by the COVID-19-associated physical distancing, one key question comes from chronobiology: “When confined to homes, how does the reduced exposure to natural daylight arising from the interruption of usual outdoor activities plus lost temporal organization ordinarily provided from workplaces and schools affect the circadian timing system (the internal 24 h clock) and, consequently, health of children and adults of all ages?” Herein, we discuss some ethical and scientific facets of exploring such natural experiments by offering a hypothetical case study of circadian biology.     

Synthesis,Molecular Modeling,and Biological Evaluation of Novel Chiral Thiosemicarbazone Derivatives as Potent Anticancer Agents

A series of new chiral thiosemicarbazones derived from homochiral amines in both enantiomeric forms were synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro antiproliferative activity against A549 (human alveolar adenocarcinoma), MCF‐7 (human breast adenocarcinoma), HeLa (human cervical adenocarcinoma), and HGC‐27 (human stomach carcinoma) cell lines. Some of compounds showed inhibitory activities on the growth of cancer cell lines. Especially, compound 17b exhibited the most potent activity (IC₅₀ 4.6 μM) against HGC‐27 as compared with the reference compound, sindaxel (IC₅₀ 10.3 μM), and could be used as a lead compound to search new chiral thiosemicarbazone derivatives as antiproliferative agents. Chirality 27:177–188, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

用薄层色谱分离提纯单半乳糖和双半乳糖双甘油酯

本文选择两种溶剂体系,用两次单向薄层层析,从小麦抗寒与不抗寒品系天然橡胶胶乳分离提纯出6种单半乳糖和双半乳糖双甘油酯。并比较了它们的疏水侧链的脂肪酸组成。小麦糖脂疏水侧链脂肪酸的不饱和指数远大于天然胶乳糖脂。抗寒品系胶乳糖脂疏水侧链脂肪酸不饱和指数大于不抗寒品系。双半乳糖双甘油酯疏水侧链脂肪酸不饱和指数均大于其单半乳糖糖脂。     

Relative cytotoxicity of psychotropic drugs in cultured rat hepatocytes

The relative cytotoxic effects of ten psychotropic drugs were assessed in rat hepatocyte monolayer cultures. Clear concentration-related toxicity was seen in the narrow range of 10^–5M to S × 10^–5M. The four cytotoxicity endpoints chosen were: release of the cytosolic enzyme, lactate dehydrogenase, and impairment of biosynthesis and secretion of proteins, bile acids and glycerolipids. LDH leakage and inhibition of protein secretion into the culture medium proved to be the parameters which allowed the best differentiation between the test compounds. The inhibition of glycerolipid secretion was the most sensitive test in relation to concentration and time of exposure. Based on the effects of these endpoints, the following ranking of relative in vitro toxicity, using equimolar drug concentrations, could be established: clomipramine > imipramine = thioridazine > chlorpromazine > amitriptyline = fluperlapine > haloperidol > promazine > clozapine sulpiride. This ranking order of in vitro cytotoxicity correlated well with the potential of the drugs to impair liver function in man. Only clozapine had to be classified as a false negative. There was, however, no correlation between the cytotoxicity and the intracellular accumulation of the test drugs. Furthermore, the comparison of the data obtained with psychotropics with the data from five other amphiphilic cationic drugs was consistent with the widely accepted concept of a direct toxic interaction of the drugs with cytomembranes. This nonspecific toxicity of the membrane-active drugs was further corroborated by a positive correlation between their potential to induce LDH leakage in hepatocytes and their ability to induce hemolysis in red cells. In conclusion, the results obtained in our study strongly suggest that it is possible to assess the relative cytotoxicity of psychotropic drugs in rat hepatocyte cultures. It is proposed that this in vitro system provides a useful tool to evaluate new drugs at an early stage of their development, and to identify the most promising candidates within a class of structurally related compounds. In addition, it allows information to be obtained on possible mechanisms of cytotoxicity.Abbreviations AIB aminoisobutyric acid - AMT amitriptyline - BSA bovine serum albumin - CLP clomipramine - CLZ clozapine - CPZ chlorpromazine - FLU fluperlapine - HAL haloperidol - HC₅₀ dose causing 50% hemolysis - IMP imipramine - LDH lactate dehydrogenase - PZ promazine - SUL sulpiride - TCA trichloroacetic acid - TRZ thioridazine     

Weather- and population density-induced infantilism in the landsnailTheba pisana in a semi-arid climate

Natural populations of the landsnailTheba pisana (Pulmonata: Helicidae) were studied in the Mediterranean coastal plains of Israel. The life cycle is annual. Egg-laying occurs in the winter and the descendants grow fast during the spring, except for a part of the population the ceases growing. These individuals, termed infantiles, retain immature size and shape and a rudimentary status of the genital system. The percentage of infantilism in the population is positively related to the density of the snail population in the winter, and is negatively related to the humidity of weather in the spring. A natural control mechanism ofT. pisana populations is proposed: (a) in a dense population of young snails infantilism prevents most of them from becoming parents and an over-sized population the following year; (b) in a humid spring a fall in the rate of infantilism enlarges the population size, thus compensating for reduced egg-laying in winter.     

Natural selection of allozyme polymorphisms: a microgeographic climatic differentiation in wild emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccoides)

Summary Allozymic variation in proteins encoded by 48 loci was analyzed electrophoretically in 1984 and 1985 in 137 individual plants of wild emmer wheat, Triticum dicoccoides, from a microsite in Yehudiyya, northeast of the Lake of Galilee, Israel. The test involved two climatic microniches in the open Tabor oak forest (1) sunny between trees and (2) shady under trees' canopies. Significant genetic differentiation at single-, two- and multilocus structures was found between neighboring climatic niches, which were only separated by a few meters. Our results suggest that allozyme polymorphisms in wild emmer wheat are partly adaptive, and differentiate primarily at the multilocus level by climatic factors presumably related to aridity stress.