Mitochondrial Disorders in Alzheimer’s Disease

Biochemistry (Moscow) - Alzheimer’s disease is the most common age-related neurodegenerative disease. Understanding of its etiology and pathogenesis is constantly expanding. Thus, the...     

Formation of pyrogallol ether during oxidative destruction of oak lignin with air oxygen

Formation of pyrogallol ether during thermal oxidation of oak (Quercus iberica L.) lignin in the presence of air oxygen was investigated. A model reaction demonstrated that the substance identified by us as pyrogallol ether (1,2-dioxy-3-methoxybenzene) is derived from syringic aldehyde.     

Bovine sperm chromatin is not protected from the effects of ultrasmall gold nanoparticles

The response of ejaculated bovine spermatozoa to gold nanoparticles was studied by the standard method of nuclear chromatin decondensation in vitro. After the treatment of semen samples with a hydrosol containing gold nanoparticles with an average diameter of ～3.0 nm and a concentration of 1 × 10¹⁵ particles/mL, the ability of sperm nuclei to decondense in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and dithiothreitol (DTT) dramatically changed compared to the control. The frequencies of gametes with nondecondensed (“intact”), partially decondensed, and completely decondensed nuclei correlated as 40: 32: 28% and 0: 36: 64% in the experiment and the control, respectively. Moreover, the appearance of a sufficiently large number of gametes with destructed and almost completely destroyed nuclei was noticed in the spermatozoa treated with gold nanoparticles. This article suggests the putative mechanisms of action of ultrasmall gold nanoparticles on the structural and functional integrity of the deoxyribonucleoprotein (DNP) complex of mature male gametes.     

Cytogenetic Activity of Gold Nanoparticles in Germ and Somatic Cells of 129 Mice with a Nonsense Mutation in the DNA Polymerase Iota Gene

In this study, we investigated the cytogenetic effects of single and quadruple exposure of spermatogenic cells and hepatocytes of 129 mice, which have a mutation in the gene that encodes DNA polymerase iota, to ultrasmall gold nanoparticles (GNPs). The combined effects of GNPs and chemical mutagen dipin were evaluated. In all cases, except for the experiment with the quadruple GNP injection, we observed a slight, statistically nonsignificant increase in the frequency of round spermatids with micronuclei compared to the negative control (saline). It is established that, in the intact liver of 129 mice, in all variants of the experiment, GNPs behaved as a potentially cytotoxic agent, as evidenced by the decrease in the frequency of the micronucleated hepatocytes.     

Gold nanoparticles: Mutagen,antimutagen, or comutagen?

The effect of ultrasmall gold nanoparticles (GNPs), both direct and in combination with the alkylating mutagen dipin, on the genetic structures of male germ cells in mice were studied using the meiotic micronucleus assay. It was shown for the first time that GNPs can exhibit mutagenic, antimutagenic, and comutagenic activity depending on the experimental conditions.