scholarly journals Zinc: Multidimensional Effects on Living Organisms

Biomedicines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 208
Author(s):  
Math Cuajungco ◽  
Maria Ramirez ◽  
Marcelo Tolmasky
Keyword(s):  
Chelating Agents ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Synergistic Action ◽  
Signaling Proteins ◽  
Bacterial Proliferation ◽  
Free Ion ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Multidimensional Effects ◽  
In Cells

Zinc is a redox-inert trace element that is second only to iron in abundance in biological systems. In cells, zinc is typically buffered and bound to metalloproteins, but it may also exist in a labile or chelatable (free ion) form. Zinc plays a critical role in prokaryotes and eukaryotes, ranging from structural to catalytic to replication to demise. This review discusses the influential properties of zinc on various mechanisms of bacterial proliferation and synergistic action as an antimicrobial element. We also touch upon the significance of zinc among eukaryotic cells and how it may modulate their survival and death through its inhibitory or modulatory effect on certain receptors, enzymes, and signaling proteins. A brief discussion on zinc chelators is also presented, and chelating agents may be used with or against zinc to affect therapeutics against human diseases. Overall, the multidimensional effects of zinc in cells attest to the growing number of scientific research that reveal the consequential prominence of this remarkable transition metal in human health and disease.

scholarly journals Zinc: Multidimensional Effects on Living Organisms

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Math P. Cuajungco ◽  
Maria Soledad Ramirez ◽  
Marcelo E. Tolmasky
Keyword(s):  
Chelating Agents ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Synergistic Action ◽  
Signaling Proteins ◽  
Bacterial Proliferation ◽  
Free Ion ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Multidimensional Effects ◽  
In Cells

Zinc is a redox-inert trace element that is second only to iron in abundance in biological systems. In cells, zinc is typically buffered and bound to metalloproteins, but may also exist as a labile or chelatable (free ion) form. Zinc plays a critical role in prokaryotes and eukaryotes ranging from structural to catalytic to replication to demise. This review discusses the influential properties of zinc on various mechanisms of bacterial proliferation and synergistic action as anti-microbial element. We also touch upon the significance of zinc among eukaryotic cells and how it may modulate their survival and death through its inhibitory or modulatory effect on certain receptors, enzymes, and signaling proteins. A brief discussion on zinc chelators is also presented and chelating agents may be used with or against zinc to affect therapeutics against human diseases. Overall, the multidimensional effects of zinc in cells attest to the growing numbers of scientific research that reveal the consequential prominence of this remarkable transition metal in human health and disease.

The Laryngeal Epithelium in Reflux

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 112-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Erickson-Levendoski ◽  
Mahalakshmi Sivasankar
Keyword(s):  
Laryngopharyngeal Reflux ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
Laryngeal Disease ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Impact

The epithelium plays a critical role in the maintenance of laryngeal health. This is evident in that laryngeal disease may result when the integrity of the epithelium is compromised by insults such as laryngopharyngeal reflux. In this article, we will review the structure and function of the laryngeal epithelium and summarize the impact of laryngopharyngeal reflux on the epithelium. Research investigating the ramifications of reflux on the epithelium has improved our understanding of laryngeal disease associated with laryngopharyngeal reflux. It further highlights the need for continued research on the laryngeal epithelium in health and disease.

scholarly journals Reactive Oxygen Species: Beyond Their Reactive Behavior

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-87
Author(s):  
Arnaud Tauffenberger ◽  
Pierre J. Magistretti
Keyword(s):  
Reactive Oxygen Species ◽  
Second Messengers ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Complex Function ◽  
Reactive Oxygen ◽  
High Reactivity ◽  
Oxygen Species ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
Cellular Dysfunction ◽  
The Brain

AbstractCellular homeostasis plays a critical role in how an organism will develop and age. Disruption of this fragile equilibrium is often associated with health degradation and ultimately, death. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been closely associated with health decline and neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease. ROS were first identified as by-products of the cellular activity, mainly mitochondrial respiration, and their high reactivity is linked to a disruption of macromolecules such as proteins, lipids and DNA. More recent research suggests more complex function of ROS, reaching far beyond the cellular dysfunction. ROS are active actors in most of the signaling cascades involved in cell development, proliferation and survival, constituting important second messengers. In the brain, their impact on neurons and astrocytes has been associated with synaptic plasticity and neuron survival. This review provides an overview of ROS function in cell signaling in the context of aging and degeneration in the brain and guarding the fragile balance between health and disease.

scholarly journals Signal-mediated localization of Candida albicans pheromone response pathway components

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Carolina Borges Pereira Costa ◽  
Raha Parvizi Omran ◽  
Chris Law ◽  
Vanessa Dumeaux ◽  
Malcolm Whiteway
Keyword(s):  
Candida Albicans ◽  
Map Kinase ◽  
Nuclear Localization ◽  
Map Kinases ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Cell Periphery ◽  
Pheromone Response ◽  
Pheromone Response Pathway ◽  
Localization Signal ◽  
In Cells

Abstract Candida albicans opaque cells release pheromones to stimulate cells of opposite mating type to activate their pheromone response pathway. Although this fungal pathogen shares orthologous proteins involved in the process with Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the pathway in each organism has unique characteristics. We have used GFP-tagged fusion proteins to investigate the localization of the scaffold protein Cst5, as well as the MAP kinases Cek1 and Cek2, during pheromone response in C. albicans. In wild-type cells, pheromone treatment directed Cst5-GFP to surface puncta concentrated at the tips of mating projections. These puncta failed to form in cells defective in either the Gα or β subunits. However, they still formed in response to pheromone in cells missing Ste11, but with the puncta distributed around the cell periphery in the absence of mating projections. These puncta were absent from hst7Δ/Δ cells, but could be detected in the ste11Δ/Δ hst7Δ/Δ double mutant. Cek2-GFP showed a strong nuclear localization late in the response, consistent with a role in adaptation, while Cek1-GFP showed a weaker, but early increase in nuclear localization after pheromone treatment. Activation loop phosphorylation of both Cek1 and Cek2 required the presence of Ste11. In contrast to Cek2-GFP, which showed no localization signal in ste11Δ/Δ cells, Cek1-GFP showed enhanced nuclear localization that was pheromone independent in the ste11Δ/Δ mutant. The results are consistent with CaSte11 facilitating Hst7-mediated MAP kinase phosphorylation and also playing a potentially critical role in both MAP kinase and Cst5 scaffold localization.

scholarly journals Creatine in Health and Disease

Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 447
Author(s):  
Richard B. Kreider ◽  
Jeffery R. Stout
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Creatine Supplementation ◽  
Cellular Metabolism ◽  
Medical Evidence ◽  
Therapeutic Benefits ◽  
Nutritional Strategy ◽  
Severity Of Injury ◽  
Health And Disease

Although creatine has been mostly studied as an ergogenic aid for exercise, training, and sport, several health and potential therapeutic benefits have been reported. This is because creatine plays a critical role in cellular metabolism, particularly during metabolically stressed states, and limitations in the ability to transport and/or store creatine can impair metabolism. Moreover, increasing availability of creatine in tissue may enhance cellular metabolism and thereby lessen the severity of injury and/or disease conditions, particularly when oxygen availability is compromised. This systematic review assesses the peer-reviewed scientific and medical evidence related to creatine’s role in promoting general health as we age and how creatine supplementation has been used as a nutritional strategy to help individuals recover from injury and/or manage chronic disease. Additionally, it provides reasonable conclusions about the role of creatine on health and disease based on current scientific evidence. Based on this analysis, it can be concluded that creatine supplementation has several health and therapeutic benefits throughout the lifespan.

Localization and quantification of endoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+)-ATPase isoform transcripts

1995 ◽  
Vol 269 (3) ◽  
pp. C775-C784 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. D. Wu ◽  
W. S. Lee ◽  
J. Wey ◽  
D. Bungard ◽  
J. Lytton
Keyword(s):  
Endoplasmic Reticulum ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Qualitative Assessment ◽  
Cell Physiology ◽  
Striated Muscles ◽  
Physiological Processes ◽  
Alternatively Spliced ◽  
Spleen Lymphocytes ◽  
Fast Twitch ◽  
In Cells

The Ca(2+)-adenosinetriphosphatase pump of the sarcoplasmic or endoplasmic reticulum (SERCA) plays a critical role in Ca2+ signaling and homeostasis in all cells and is encoded by a family of homologous and alternatively spliced genes. To understand more clearly the role the different isoforms play in cell physiology, we have undertaken a quantitative and qualitative assessment of the tissue distribution of transcripts encoding each SERCA isoform. SERCA1 expression is restricted to fast-twitch striated muscles, SERCA2a to cardiac and slow-twitch striated muscles, whereas SERCA2b is ubiquitously expressed. SERCA3 is expressed most abundantly in large and small intestine, thymus, and cerebellum and at lower levels in spleen, lymph node, and lung. In situ hybridization analyses revealed SERCA3 transcripts in cells of the intestinal crypt, the thymic cortex, and Purkinje cells in cerebellum. In addition, SERCA3 was expressed abundantly in isolated rat spleen lymphocytes, in various murine lymphoid cell lines, and in primary cultured microvascular endothelial cells. This analysis demonstrates that SERCA3 is expressed selectively in cells in which Ca2+ signaling plays a critical and sensitive role in regulating physiological processes.

scholarly journals CIRFESS: An interactive resource for querying the set of theoretically detectable peptides for cell surface and extracellular enrichment proteomic studies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Waas ◽  
Jack Littrell ◽  
Rebekah L. Gundry
Keyword(s):  
Cell Surface ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Affinity Reagents ◽  
Extracellular Proteome ◽  
Online Resource ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
Limited Mass ◽  
Multiple Prediction ◽  
Surface Proteome ◽  
Cell Surface Proteome

AbstractCell surface transmembrane, extracellular, and secreted proteins are high value targets for immunophenotyping, drug development, and studies related to intercellular communication in health and disease. As the number of specific and validated affinity reagents that target this subproteome are limited, mass spectrometry (MS)-based approaches will continue to play a critical role in enabling discovery and quantitation of these molecules. Given the technical considerations that make MS-based cell surface proteome studies uniquely challenging, it can be difficult to select an appropriate experimental approach. To this end, we have integrated multiple prediction strategies and annotations into a single online resource, Compiled Interactive Resource for Extracellular and Surface Studies (CIRFESS). CIRFESS enables rapid interrogation of the human proteome to reveal the cell surface proteome theoretically detectable by current approaches and highlights where current prediction strategies provide concordant and discordant information. We applied CIRFESS to identify the percentage of various subsets of the proteome which are expected to be captured by targeted enrichment strategies, including two established methods and one that is possible but not yet demonstrated. These results will inform the selection of available proteomic strategies and development of new strategies to enhance coverage of the cell surface and extracellular proteome. CIRFESS is available at www.cellsurfer.net/cirfess.

scholarly journals Microbial trend analysis for common dynamic trend, group comparison and classification in longitudinal microbiome study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chan Wang ◽  
Jiyuan Hu ◽  
Martin J. Blaser ◽  
Huilin Li
Keyword(s):  
Trend Analysis ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Human Microbiome ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Microbial Dynamics ◽  
Individual Subject ◽  
Microbial Profiling ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
Microbiome Data

AbstractMotivationThe human microbiome is inherently dynamic and its dynamic nature plays a critical role in maintaining health and driving disease. With an increasing number of longitudinal microbiome studies, scientists are eager to learn the comprehensive characterization of microbial dynamics and their implications to the health and disease-related phenotypes. However, due to the challenging structure of longitudinal microbiome data, few analytic methods are available to characterize the microbial dynamics over time.ResultsWe propose a microbial trend analysis (MTA) framework for the high-dimensional and phylogenetically-based longitudinal microbiome data. In particular, MTA can perform three tasks: 1) capture the common microbial dynamic trends for a group of subjects on the community level and identify the dominant taxa; 2) examine whether or not the microbial overall dynamic trends are significantly different in groups; 3) classify an individual subject based on its longitudinal microbial profiling. Our extensive simulations demonstrate that the proposed MTA framework is robust and powerful in hypothesis testing, taxon identification, and subject classification. Our real data analyses further illustrate the utility of MTA through a longitudinal study in mice.ConclusionsThe proposed MTA framework is an attractive and effective tool in investigating dynamic microbial pattern from longitudinal microbiome studies.

scholarly journals Cytokine and Growth Factor Activation In Vivo and In Vitro after Spinal Cord Injury

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Garcia ◽  
Jorge Aguilar-Cevallos ◽  
Raul Silva-Garcia ◽  
Antonio Ibarra
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Spinal Cord Injury ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Glutamate Excitotoxicity ◽  
Signaling Proteins ◽  
Neurodegenerative Process ◽  
Cord Injury ◽  
Ion Imbalance

Spinal cord injury results in a life-disrupting series of deleterious interconnected mechanisms encompassed by the primary and secondary injury. These events are mediated by the upregulation of genes with roles in inflammation, transcription, and signaling proteins. In particular, cytokines and growth factors are signaling proteins that have important roles in the pathophysiology of SCI. The balance between the proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory effects of these molecules plays a critical role in the progression and outcome of the lesion. The excessive inflammatory Th1 and Th17 phenotypes observed after SCI tilt the scale towards a proinflammatory environment, which exacerbates the deleterious mechanisms present after the injury. These mechanisms include the disruption of the spinal cord blood barrier, edema and ion imbalance, in particular intracellular calcium and sodium concentrations, glutamate excitotoxicity, free radicals, and the inflammatory response contributing to the neurodegenerative process which is characterized by demyelination and apoptosis of neuronal tissue.

Glycans in Immunologic Health and Disease

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Y. Zhou ◽  
Brian A. Cobb
Keyword(s):  
Immune Regulation ◽  
Secreted Proteins ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Cancer Disease ◽  
Disease States ◽  
Immunological Recognition ◽  
Immunologic Disease ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
Living Organisms

The surfaces of all living organisms and most secreted proteins share a common feature: They are glycosylated. As the outermost-facing molecules, glycans participate in nearly all immunological processes, including driving host-pathogen interactions, immunological recognition and activation, and differentiation between self and nonself through a complex array of pathways and mechanisms. These fundamental immunologic roles are further cast into sharp relief in inflammatory, autoimmune, and cancer disease states in which immune regulation goes awry. Here, we review the broad impact of glycans on the immune system and discuss the changes and clinical opportunities associated with the onset of immunologic disease. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Immunology, Volume 39 is April 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

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