Mass spectrometry-based proteomics and metabolomics tackle the complex interactions between proteins and metabolites in fruits. Independently used to discern phenotypic disparities among plant accessions, these analytical approaches complement well-established DNA fingerprinting methods for assessing genetic variability and hereditary distance. To verify the applicability of integrated proteomic and metabolomic procedures in evaluating phenotypic differences between sweet cherry cultivars, and to potentially relate these findings to specific pomological traits, we conducted a comparative analysis of fruits from ten Italian accessions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Chronic pain significantly impacts quality of life and poses substantial public health challenges. Buprenorphine, a synthetic analog of thebaine, is recognized for its potential in managing moderate to severe chronic pain with fewer side effects and a lower incidence of tolerance compared to traditional opioids.
Objective: This retrospective study aimed to assess the long-term efficacy and safety of buprenorphine transdermal patches in patients with moderate and severe chronic pain, with a focus on pain relief sustainability and tolerance development.
Objectives: The aim of this work was to rapidly produce in plats two recombinant antigens (RBDw-Fc and RBDo-Fc) containing the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the spike (S) protein from SARS-CoV-2 variants Wuhan and Omicron as fusion proteins to the Fc portion of a murine IgG2a antibody constant region (Fc).
Results: The two recombinant antigens were expressed in Nicotiana benthamiana plants, engineered to avoid the addition of N-linked plant-typical sugars, through vacuum agroinfiltration and showed comparable purification yields (about 35 mg/kg leaf fresh weight).
Conclusions: Their Western blotting and Coomassie staining evidenced the occurrence of major in planta proteolysis in the region between the RBD and Fc, which was particularly evident in RBDw-Fc, the only antigen bearing the HRV 3C cysteine protease recognition site.
Front Cell Infect Microbiol
April 2024
Edible plant and fruit-derived nanovesicles (NVs) are membrane-enclosed particles with round-shape morphology and signaling functions, which resemble mammalian cell-derived extracellular vesicles. These NVs can transmit cross-kingdom signals as they contain bioactive molecules and exert biological effects on mammalian cells. Their properties and stability in the gastrointestinal tract suggest NVs as a promising nutraceutical tool.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTogether with phenological and genomic approaches, gel-based and label-free proteomic as well metabolomic procedures were separately applied to plants to highlight differences between ecotypes, to estimate genetic variability within/between organism populations, or to characterize specific mutants/genetically modified lines at metabolic level. To investigate the possible use of tandem mass tag (TMT)-based quantitative proteomics in the above-mentioned contexts and based on the absence of combined proteo-metabolomic studies on cultivars, we here applied integrated proteomic and metabolomic approaches to fruits from Italian persimmon ecotypes with the aim to characterize plant phenotypic diversity at molecular level. We identified 2255 proteins in fruits, assigning 102 differentially represented components between cultivars, including some related to pomological, nutritional and allergenic characteristics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Plant Sci
September 2022
L. is a glycophyte representing one of the most important plants in the Mediterranean area, both from an economic and agricultural point of view. Its adaptability to different environmental conditions enables its cultivation in numerous agricultural scenarios, even on marginal areas, characterized by soils unsuitable for other crops.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Plant Sci
September 2022
Monoclonal antibodies are considered to be highly effective therapeutic tools for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 patients. In the present work, we describe the production of two SARS-CoV-2 human IgG1 monoclonal antibodies recognizing the spike protein receptor-binding domain (RBD) and endowed with neutralizing activity (nAbs) in plants. The first one, mAbJ08-MUT, was previously isolated from a COVID-19 convalescent patient and Fc-engineered to prolong the half-life and reduce the risk of antibody-dependent enhancement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common cause of chronic knee pain, often a debilitating condition that can cause a significant reduction in functional capacity. Radiofrequency is a form of neuromodulation that modulates pain signal transmission and has become progressively more common as a treatment for knee pain. This retrospective study aims to evaluate the efficacy of intraarticular radiofrequency in patients with chronic knee OA pain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: A variety of skin manifestations have been associated with COVID-19 infection. Acral lesions on hands and feet, closely resembling chilblains, have been reported in association with COVID-19, which are nonspecific. These acro-ischemic painful lesions have been described mainly in asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic pediatric COVID-19 positive patients, without a precise pathogenetic mechanism.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChest pain following a trans-thoracic biopsy often has multiple etiologies, especially in patients with lymphomas. Pathological neuronal mechanisms integrate with an overproduction of IL-6, TNF-α, IL1-β by macrophages and monocytes, which amplifies inflammation and pain. In consideration of this complex pathogenesis, international guidelines recommend diversified analgesia protocols: thoracic epidural, paravertebral block, and systemic administration of opioids.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRefeeding after caloric restriction induces weight regain and a disproportionate recovering of fat mass rather than lean mass (catch-up fat) that, in humans, associates with higher risks to develop chronic dysmetabolism. Studies in a well-established rat model of semistarvation-refeeding have reported that catch-up fat associates with hyperinsulinemia, glucose redistribution from skeletal muscle to white adipose tissue and suppressed adaptive thermogenesis sustaining a high efficiency for fat deposition. The skeletal muscle of catch-up fat animals exhibits reduced insulin-stimulated glucose utilization, mitochondrial dysfunction, delayed contraction-relaxation kinetics, increased proportion of slow fibers and altered local thyroid hormone metabolism, with suggestions of a role for iodothyronine deiodinases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLittle is known about the role of iodine in plant physiology. We evaluated the impact of low concentrations of iodine on the phenotype, transcriptome and proteome of . Our experiments showed that removal of iodine from the nutrition solution compromises plant growth, and restoring it in micromolar concentrations is beneficial for biomass accumulation and leads to early flowering.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHeald & Wolf is a worldwide-spread necrotrophic fungus closely related to the genus, well-known because many member species provoke severe diseases in cereal crops and studied because they produce sesterpenoid phytoxins named ophiobolins which possess interesting biological properties. The unfolded protein response (UPR) is a conserved mechanism protecting eukaryotic cells from the accumulation of unfolded/misfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In plants, consolidated evidence supports the role of UPR in the tolerance to abiotic stress, whereas much less information is available concerning the induction of ER stress by pathogen infection and consequent UPR elicitation as part of the defense response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Cell Sci
February 2021
KRIT1 is a scaffolding protein that regulates multiple molecular mechanisms, including cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesion, and redox homeostasis and signaling. However, rather little is known about how KRIT1 is itself regulated. KRIT1 is found in both the cytoplasm and the nucleus, yet the upstream signaling proteins and mechanisms that regulate KRIT1 nucleocytoplasmic shuttling are not well understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Neurol
November 2020
Introduction: In the last months of 2019, the advent of a new virus called SARS-CoV-2 caused the spread of a pandemic disease, COVID-19, that has afflicted patients with chronic pain.
Case Presentation: We describe a COVID-19 patient recently implanted with a spinal cord stimulator for FBSS, treated with Tocilizumab for cytokine storm complicating SARS-COV-2 infection. This patient developed a delayed hyperimmune reaction, causing an inflammatory reaction in the surgical pocket site, well treated with total remission.
The physiological role played by uncoupling protein 3 (UCP3) in brown adipose tissue (BAT) has not been fully elucidated so far. In the present study, we evaluated the impact of the absence of UCP3 on BAT mitochondrial functionality and morphology. To this purpose, wild type (WT) and UCP3 Knockout (KO) female mice were housed at thermoneutrality (30°C), a condition in which BAT contributes to energy homeostasis independently of its cold-induced thermogenic function.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMany spp. are successful plant beneficial microbial inoculants due to their ability to act as biocontrol agents with direct antagonistic activities to phytopathogens, and as biostimulants capable of promoting plant growth. This work investigated the effects of treatments with three selected strains (T22, TH1, and GV41) to strawberry plants on the productivity, metabolites and proteome of the formed fruits.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicroorganism resistance to conventional antibiotics represents one of the major global health concerns. This paper focuses on a peptide (OctoPartenopin) extracted from suckers of bioassay-guided chromatographic fractionation was used to identify this sequence, which holds significant antibacterial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. OctoPartenopin is encrypted within the calponin sequence and was associated with the high levels of proteolytic activity already reported in octopus arm suckers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFungi of the genus produce secondary metabolites having several biological activities that affect plant metabolism. We examined the effect of three bioactive metabolites (BAMs), namely, 6-pentyl-α-pyrone (6PP), harzianic acid (HA), and hydrophobin 1 (HYTLO1), on yield, fruit quality, and protein representation of strawberry plants. In particular, 6PP and HA increased the plant yield and number of fruits, when compared to control, while HYTLO1 promoted the growth of the roots and increased the total soluble solids content up to 19% and the accumulation of ascorbic acid and cyanidin 3--glucoside in red ripened fruits.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant cultivation on spacecraft or planetary outposts is a promising and actual perspective both for food and bioactive molecules production. To this aim, plant response to ionizing radiations, as an important component of space radiation, must be assessed through on-ground experiments due to the potentially fatal effects on living systems. Hereby, we investigated the effects of X-rays and γ-rays exposure on tomato "hairy root" cultures (HRCs), which represent a solid platform for the production of pharmaceutically relevant molecules, including metabolites and recombinant proteins.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) is the cause of an economically important highly contagious disease of poultry, and vaccines are regarded as the most beneficial interventions for its prevention. In this study, plants were used to produce a recombinant chimeric IBDV antigen for the formulation of an innovative subunit vaccine. The fusion protein (PD-FcY) was designed to combine the immunodominant projection domain (PD) of the viral structural protein VP2 with the constant region of avian IgY (FcY), which was selected to enhance antigen uptake by avian immune cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFcv. Hayward fruit is renowned for its micro- and macronutrients, which vary in their levels during berry physiological development and postharvest processing. In this context, we have recently described metabolic pathways/molecular effectors in fruit outer endocarp characterizing the different stages of berry physiological maturation.
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