scholarly journals Quantum monitoring of cellular metabolic activities in single mitochondria

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (21) ◽  
pp. eabf0573
Author(s):  
L. Nie ◽  
A. C. Nusantara ◽  
V. G. Damle ◽  
R. Sharmin ◽  
E. P. P. Evans ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Free Radicals ◽  
Immune Responses ◽  
Optical Signal ◽  
Living Cells ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Isolated Mitochondria ◽  
Fluorescent Nanodiamonds ◽  
Metabolic Activities ◽  
Subcellular Resolution

Free radicals play a vital role in all kinds of biological processes including immune responses. However, free radicals have short lifetimes and are highly reactive, making them difficult to measure using current methods. Here, we demonstrate that relaxometry measurement, or T1, inherited from the field of diamond magnetometry can be used to detect free radicals in living cells with subcellular resolution. This quantum sensing technique is based on defects in diamond, which convert a magnetic signal into an optical signal, allowing nanoscale magnetic resonance measurements. We functionalized fluorescent nanodiamonds (FNDs) to target single mitochondria within macrophage cells to detect the metabolic activity. In addition, we performed measurements on single isolated mitochondria. We were able to detect free radicals generated by individual mitochondria in either living cells or isolated mitochondria after stimulation or inhibition.

Nanodiamond-enabled biomedical imaging

Nanomedicine ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (16) ◽  
pp. 1599-1616
Author(s):  
Yen-Yiu Liu ◽  
Be-Ming Chang ◽  
Huan-Cheng Chang
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Contrast Agent ◽  
Biomedical Imaging ◽  
Photoacoustic Imaging ◽  
Living Cells ◽  
In Vivo Studies ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
New Type ◽  
Fluorescent Nanodiamonds

Biomedical imaging allows in vivo studies of organisms, providing valuable information of biological processes at both cellular and tissue levels. Nanodiamonds have recently emerged as a new type of probe for fluorescence imaging and contrast agent for magnetic resonance and photoacoustic imaging. Composed of sp3-carbon atoms, diamond is chemically inert and inherently biocompatible. Uniquely, its matrix can host a variety of optically and magnetically active defects suited for bioimaging applications. Since the first production of fluorescent nanodiamonds in 2005, a large number of experiments have demonstrated that fluorescent nanodiamonds are useful as photostable markers and nanoscale sensors in living cells and organisms. In this review, we focus our discussion on the recent advancements of nanodiamond-enabled biomedical imaging for preclinical applications.

Artificial cells containing sustainable energy conversion engines

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 573-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwanwoo Shin
Keyword(s):  
Energy Conversion ◽  
Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide ◽  
Sustainable Energy ◽  
Living Cells ◽  
Energy Transduction ◽  
Artificial Cells ◽  
Energy Conversion Process ◽  
Metabolic Reactions ◽  
Metabolic Activities ◽  
Reduced Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide

Living cells naturally maintain a variety of metabolic reactions via energy conversion mechanisms that are coupled to proton transfer across cell membranes, thereby producing energy-rich compounds. Until now, researchers have been unable to maintain continuous biochemical reactions in artificially engineered cells, mainly due to the lack of mechanisms that generate energy-rich resources, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH). If these metabolic activities in artificial cells are to be sustained, reliable energy transduction strategies must be realized. In this perspective, this article discusses the development of an artificially engineered cell containing a sustainable energy conversion process.

LncRNAs a New Target for Post-Stroke Recovery

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (26) ◽  
pp. 3115-3121
Author(s):  
Jun Yang ◽  
Jingjing Zhao ◽  
Xu Liu ◽  
Ruixia Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Ischemic Stroke ◽  
Microglial Activation ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Stroke Recovery ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Current Development ◽  
Post Stroke ◽  
Cascade Processes ◽  
Non Coding Rnas ◽  
Neuron Injury

LncRNAs (long non-coding RNAs) are endogenous molecules, involved in complicated biological processes. Increasing evidence has shown that lncRNAs play a vital role in the post-stroke pathophysiology. Furthermore, several lncRNAs were reported to mediate ischemia cascade processes include apoptosis, bloodbrain barier breakdown, angiogenesis, microglial activation induced neuroinflammation which can cause neuron injury and influence neuron recovery after ischemic stroke. In our study, we first summarize current development about lncRNAs and post-stroke, focus on the regulatory roles of lncRNAs on pathophysiology after stroke. We also reviewed genetic variation in lncRNA associated with functional outcome after ischemic stroke. Additionally, lncRNA-based therapeutics offer promising strategies to decrease brain damage and promote neurological recovery following ischemic stroke. We believe that lncRNAs will become promising for the frontier strategies for IS and can open up a new path for the treatment of IS in the future.

Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Soybean : Regulated by ncRNA

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
YASIN JESHIMA KHAN ◽  
HUSNARA Tyagi ◽  
Anil kumar Singh ◽  
Santosh kumar. Magadum
Keyword(s):  
Abiotic Stresses ◽  
Target Genes ◽  
Abiotic Stress Tolerance ◽  
Crop Improvement ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Grain Legume ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Small Interfering Rnas ◽  
Cellular Environment ◽  
Non Coding Rnas

Plants respond through a cascade of reactions resulting in varied cellular environment leading to alterations in the patterns of protein expression resulting in phonotypic changes. Single cell genomics and global proteomics came out to be powerful tools and efficient techniques in studying stress tolerant plants. Non-coding RNAs are a distinct class of regulatory RNAs in plants and animals that control a variety of biological processes. Small ncRNAs play a vital role in post transcriptional gene regulation by either translational repression or by inducing mRNA cleavage. The major classes of small RNAs include microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), which differ in their biogenesis. miRNAs control the expression of cognate target genes by binding to complementary sequences, resulting in cleavage or translational inhibition of the target RNAs. siRNAs too have a similar structure, function, and biogenesis like miRNAs but are derived from long double-stranded RNAs and can often direct DNA methylation at target sequences.In this review, we focus on the involvement of ncRNAs in comabting abiotic stresses of soybean. This review emphasis on previously known miRNAs as they play important role in several abiotic stresses like drought, salinity, chilling and heat stress by their diverse roles in mediating biological processes like gene expression, chromatin formation, defense of genome against invading viruses. This review attempts to elucidate the various kinds of non-coding RNAs explored, their discovery, biogenesis, functions, and response for different type of abiotic stresses and future aspects for crop improvement in the context of soybean, a representative grain legume.

Computational insights into the calcium ions role in protein-glycosaminoglycan systems

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Małgorzata M Kogut ◽  
Martyna Maszota-Zieleniak ◽  
Mateusz Marcisz ◽  
Sergey Samsonov
Keyword(s):  
Extracellular Matrix ◽  
Calcium Ions ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Periodic Linear

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are anionic periodic, linear polysaccharides which are composed of periodic disaccharide units. They play a vital role in many biological processes ongoing in the extracellular matrix. In terms...

scholarly journals Emerging Roles of Protein Deamidation in Innate Immune Signaling

2016 ◽  
Vol 90 (9) ◽  
pp. 4262-4268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Zhao ◽  
Junhua Li ◽  
Simin Xu ◽  
Pinghui Feng
Keyword(s):  
Immune Responses ◽  
Innate Immune ◽  
Microbial Pathogens ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Innate Immune Responses ◽  
Immune Signaling ◽  
Host Immune Responses ◽  
Innate Immune Signaling ◽  
Enzyme Deficient ◽  
Signaling Components

Protein deamidation has been considered a nonenzymatic process associated with protein functional decay or “aging.” Recent studies implicate protein deamidation in regulating signal transduction in fundamental biological processes, such as innate immune responses. Work investigating gammaherpesviruses and bacterial pathogens indicates that microbial pathogens deploy deamidases or enzyme-deficient homologues (pseudoenzymes) to induce deamidation of key signaling components and evade host immune responses. Here, we review studies on protein deamidation in innate immune signaling and present several imminent questions concerning the roles of protein deamidation in infection and immunity.

scholarly journals Recent Advances in Nanovaccines Using Biomimetic Immunomodulatory Materials

Pharmaceutics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vijayan ◽  
Mohapatra ◽  
Uthaman ◽  
Park
Keyword(s):  
Immune Responses ◽  
Targeted Delivery ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Polymeric Nanoparticles ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Effective Control ◽  
Therapeutic Vaccines ◽  
Hiv Therapy ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
Wide Range

The development of vaccines plays a vital role in the effective control of several fatal diseases. However, effective prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines have yet to be developed for completely curing deadly diseases, such as cancer, malaria, HIV, and serious microbial infections. Thus, suitable vaccine candidates need to be designed to elicit appropriate immune responses. Nanotechnology has been found to play a unique role in the design of vaccines, providing them with enhanced specificity and potency. Nano-scaled materials, such as virus-like particles, liposomes, polymeric nanoparticles (NPs), and protein NPs, have received considerable attention over the past decade as potential carriers for the delivery of vaccine antigens and adjuvants, due to their beneficial advantages, like improved antigen stability, targeted delivery, and long-time release, for which antigens/adjuvants are either encapsulated within, or decorated on, the NP surface. Flexibility in the design of nanomedicine allows for the programming of immune responses, thereby addressing the many challenges encountered in vaccine development. Biomimetic NPs have emerged as innovative natural mimicking biosystems that can be used for a wide range of biomedical applications. In this review, we discuss the recent advances in biomimetic nanovaccines, and their use in anti-bacterial therapy, anti-HIV therapy, anti-malarial therapy, anti-melittin therapy, and anti-tumor immunity.

scholarly journals A Nanodiamond-Based Theranostic Agent for Light-Controlled Intracellular Heating and Nanoscale Temperature Sensing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yingke Wu ◽  
Md Noor A Alam ◽  
Priyadharshini Balasubramanian ◽  
Anna Ermakova ◽  
Stefan Fischer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Indocyanine Green ◽  
Biological Activities ◽  
Local Effect ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Essential Factor ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Theranostic Agent ◽  
External Conditions ◽  
Fluorescent Nanodiamonds ◽  
High Control

Temperature is an essential factor in all biological processes and most of the biological activities are related to temperature. However, information about the temperature in living cells are limited. In photothermal therapy, an emerging cancer treatment due to its high spatial control and non-invasive nature, the local effect of intracellular temperature change is not well understood. Fluorescent nanodiamonds (ND) are a unique carbon material possessing optical defects inside the carbon lattice that enable sensing of temperature on a nanoscale completely independent of external conditions. Herein, we coat ND with polymers to form a nanogel shell around NDs that can absorb indocyanine green, a common photothermal agent, to obtain nanodiamond-nanogel-indocyanine green. Upon irradiation, we not only show successful killing of cancer cells with a high control in space but we are also able to sense the increase in temperature using single NDs as nanothermometers in cells.<br>

scholarly journals The RhoA-ROCK pathway in the regulation of T and B cell responses

F1000Research ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 2295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edd Ricker ◽  
Luvana Chowdhury ◽  
Woelsung Yi ◽  
Alessandra B. Pernis
Keyword(s):  
Immune Responses ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Dynamic Interactions ◽  
Cell Responses ◽  
Important Mediator ◽  
Downstream Effectors ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Response To Stress ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Rho Kinases

Effective immune responses require the precise regulation of dynamic interactions between hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic cells. The Rho subfamily of GTPases, which includes RhoA, is rapidly activated downstream of a diverse array of biochemical and biomechanical signals, and is emerging as an important mediator of this cross-talk. Key downstream effectors of RhoA are the Rho kinases, or ROCKs. The ROCKs are two serine-threonine kinases that can act as global coordinators of a tissue’s response to stress and injury because of their ability to regulate a wide range of biological processes. Although the RhoA-ROCK pathway has been extensively investigated in the non-hematopoietic compartment, its role in the immune system is just now becoming appreciated. In this commentary, we provide a brief overview of recent findings that highlight the contribution of this pathway to lymphocyte development and activation, and the impact that dysregulation in the activation of RhoA and/or the ROCKs may exert on a growing list of autoimmune and lymphoproliferative disorders.

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