Multiple heteroatom-doped photoluminescent carbon dots for ratiometric detection of Hg2+ ions in cell imaging and environmental applications

Photoluminescent detection and imaging of Hg2+ ions in the biochemical living system are of great importance. In this study, a new photoluminescent probe based on nitrogen (N), sulfur (S), and...

Oxidative Stress in Multiple Sclerosis Disease (Review Article)

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system, in which the myelin sheaths got injured. The prevalence of MS is on grow, as well as, it affects the young ages. Females are most common to have MS compared to males. Oxidative stress is the situation of imbalance between oxidants (free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS)) and antioxidants in a living system, in which either the oxidants are elevated or antioxidants are reduced, or sometimes both. ROS and oxidative stress have been implicated in the progression of many degenerative diseases, which is important in cracking the unrevealed mysteries of MS. In this review article, some of the proposed mechanisms that link oxidative stress with MS disease would be described. Keywords: Oxidative stress, ROS, multiple sclerosis, antioxidants

Free radicals and oxidative stress: signaling mechanisms, redox basis for human diseases, and cell cycle regulation

: Free radical contained one or more unpaired electrons in its valence shell, thus making it unstable, short-lived and highly reactive specie. Excessive generation of these free radicals ultimately leads to oxidative stress causing oxidation and damage to significant macromolecules in the living system and essentially disrupting signal transduction pathways and antioxidants equilibrium. At lower concentrations, ROS serves as “second messengers” influencing many physiological processes in the cell. However, at higher concentrations beyond cell capacity causes oxidative stress, which contributes to much human pathology such as diabetes, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, cardiovascular diseases, cataract, asthma, hypertension, atherosclerosis, arthritis and Alzheimer’s disease. Signaling pathways such as NF-κB, MAPKs, PI3K/Akt/ mTOR and Keap1-Nrf2-ARE modulates the detrimental effects of oxidative stress by increasing the expression of cellular antioxidant defenses, phase II detoxification enzymes and decreased production of ROS. Free radicals such as H2O2 are indeed needed for the advancement of cell cycle as these molecules influences DNA, proteins and enzymes in the cell cycle pathway. In the course of cell cycle progression, the cellular redox environment becomes more oxidized moving from G1 phase, becomes higher in G2/M and moderate in S phase. Signals in the form of an increase in cellular pro-oxidant levels are required and these signals are often terminated by a rise in the amount of antioxidants and MnSOD with a decrease in the level of cyclin D1 proteins. Therefore, understanding the mechanism of cell cycle redox regulation will help in therapy of many diseases.

Permutation Entropy as a Universal Disorder Criterion: How Disorders at Different Scale Levels Are Manifestations of the Same Underlying Principle

What do bacteria, cells, organs, people, and social communities have in common? At first sight, perhaps not much. They involve totally different agents and scale levels of observation. On second thought, however, perhaps they share everything. A growing body of literature suggests that living systems at different scale levels of observation follow the same architectural principles and process information in similar ways. Moreover, such systems appear to respond in similar ways to rising levels of stress, especially when stress levels approach near-lethal levels. To explain such communalities, we argue that all organisms (including humans) can be modeled as hierarchical Bayesian controls systems that are governed by the same biophysical principles. Such systems show generic changes when taxed beyond their ability to correct for environmental disturbances. Without exception, stressed organisms show rising levels of ‘disorder’ (randomness, unpredictability) in internal message passing and overt behavior. We argue that such changes can be explained by a collapse of allostatic (high-level integrative) control, which normally synchronizes activity of the various components of a living system to produce order. The selective overload and cascading failure of highly connected (hub) nodes flattens hierarchical control, producing maladaptive behavior. Thus, we present a theory according to which organic concepts such as stress, a loss of control, disorder, disease, and death can be operationalized in biophysical terms that apply to all scale levels of organization. Given the presumed universality of this mechanism, ‘losing control’ appears to involve the same process anywhere, whether involving bacteria succumbing to an antibiotic agent, people suffering from physical or mental disorders, or social systems slipping into warfare. On a practical note, measures of disorder may serve as early warning signs of system failure even when catastrophic failure is still some distance away.

Nanone interactions in antibody of living systems

One of the facts about how nanoparticle assemble and act is revealed using carbon value in biomolecule of living system here. This is how the biomolecules interact to bring about a micro or even macro level interaction in system of interest. This study shows micro level understanding can be better utilized from carbon analysis at nano level. I plan to extend this phenomena of change from nano to micro for building large scale applications in human nature. Applications include corrections in both at sequence and structure level for permanent recovery of defective one, adding flavor to the existing biomolecule for faster delivery or recovery etc. I have demonstrated here the active role played by carbon and all. This might be extended to another system of setup where new applications yet to be created. One can extend this phenomena of change from nano to large scale one.

Modularize and Unite: Toward Creating a Functional Artificial Cell

An artificial cell is a simplified model of a living system, bringing breakthroughs into both basic life science and applied research. The bottom-up strategy instructs the construction of an artificial cell from nonliving materials, which could be complicated and interdisciplinary considering the inherent complexity of living cells. Although significant progress has been achieved in the past 2 decades, the area is still facing some problems, such as poor compatibility with complex bio-systems, instability, and low standardization of the construction method. In this review, we propose creating artificial cells through the integration of different functional modules. Furthermore, we divide the function requirements of an artificial cell into four essential parts (metabolism, energy supplement, proliferation, and communication) and discuss the present researches. Then we propose that the compartment and the reestablishment of the communication system would be essential for the reasonable integration of functional modules. Although enormous challenges remain, the modular construction would facilitate the simplification and standardization of an artificial cell toward a natural living system. This function-based strategy would also broaden the application of artificial cells and represent the steps of imitating and surpassing nature.

Discontinuous and continuous transitions of collective behaviors in living systems

Living systems are full of astonishing diversity and complexity of life. Despite differences in the length scales and cognitive abilities of these systems, collective motion of large groups of individuals can emerge. It is of great importance to seek for the fundamental principles of collective motion, such as phase transitions and their natures. Via an eigen microstate approach, we have found a discontinuous transition of density and a continuous transition of velocity in the Vicsek models of collective motion, which are identified by the finite-size scaling form of order-parameter. At strong noise, living systems behave like gas. With the decrease of noise, the interactions between the particles of a living system become stronger and make them come closer. The living system experiences then a discontinuous gas-liquid like transition of density. The even stronger interactions at smaller noise make the velocity directions of particles become ordered and there is a continuous phase transition of collective motion in addition.

Two-dimensional Infrared Spectroscopy Reveals Better Insights of Structure and Dynamics of Protein

Proteins play an important role in biological and biochemical processes taking place in the living system. To uncover these fundamental processes of the living system, it is an absolutely necessary task to understand the structure and dynamics of the protein. Vibrational spectroscopy is an established tool to explore protein structure and dynamics. In particular, two-dimensional infrared (2DIR) spectroscopy has already proven its versatility to explore the protein structure and its ultrafast dynamics, and it has essentially unprecedented time resolutions to observe the vibrational dynamics of the protein. Providing several examples from our theoretical and experimental efforts, it is established here that two-dimensional vibrational spectroscopy provides exceptionally more information than one-dimensional vibrational spectroscopy. The structural information of the protein is encoded in the position, shape, and strength of the peak in 2DIR spectra. The time evolution of the 2DIR spectra allows for the visualisation of molecular motions.

TOSANGSEREKAN, A Theological Reflection on the Integrity of Creation in the Torajan Context

What is the aboriginal concept of Tosangserekan itself? The philosophy of Tosangserekan in Aluk to dolo concept: All creatures (the ancestors) were made by Puang Matua, The material for producing those ancestors was gold, The tool to forged–to form was a pair of bellows (sauan sibarrung). And all ancestors were made (forged) in the sky, therefore the tosangserekan is not just merely a philosophy of human beings (moral value) nor culture, but it is more like an integration of cosmic living system (intact, interrelatedness and wholeness). The consequence is Tosangserekan as a cosmic system is very close with natural law (organic holism). The entire life dimension CANNOT be separated; everything is in oneness of intact union. The Theology of Life and the Philosophy of To Sangserekan: theology of restoration with ecological spirit, so humans are aware and have a self-control base on their cultural life, especially when it involves nature. One thing that is certain is: this earth is only one, and our planet is in a problem and then it is going towards to destruction. And the most responsible for this damages one is human beings. Because he is given an authorization to manage nature wisely (Theocentric-holistic). Nature or creatures has been treated arbitrarily, without having a pity, and unfairly. The fact that a lot of species of plant and animal have totally disappeared. The requirements are not only the conservation techniques and the knowledge on the environment but primarily more to the basic attitude, which is expressed from the deepest inner self. This basic attitude then will give the influence to the viewpoint on nature. Even it could be able to shift and form a new paradigm or a new ethic on the environment.