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Search results for: TRANSCRIPTION FACTORS
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DNAffinity: a machine-learning approach to predict DNA binding affinities of transcription factors
PublicationWe present a physics-based machine learning approach to predict in vitro transcription factor binding affinities from structural and mechanical DNA properties directly derived from atomistic molecular dynamics simulations. The method is able to predict affinities obtained with techniques as different as uPBM, gcPBM and HT-SELEX with an excellent performance, much better than existing algorithms. Due to its nature, the method can...
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Multiple transcriptional factors regulate transcription of the rpoE gene in Escherichia coli under different growth conditions and when the lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis is defective.
PublicationThe RpoE sigma factor is essential for the viability of Escherichia coli. RpoE regulates extracytoplasmic functions including lipopolysaccharide (LPS) translocation and some of its non-stoichiometric modifications. Transcription of the rpoE gene is positively autoregulated by EσE and by unknown mechanisms that control the expression of its distally located promoter(s). Mapping of 5′ ends of rpoE mRNA identified five new transcriptional...
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Interaction of the conserved region 4.2 of sigma(E) with the RseA anti-sigma factor
PublicationEo-E RNA polymerase transcribes a regulon of folding factors for the bacterial envelope and is induced by physical and chemical stresses. The RseA anti-sigma factor inhibits the activity of Esigma(E) RNA, polymerase. It is shown here that the N-terminal portion of sigma(E), residues 1-153, binds core RNA polymerase. RseA interacts with residues 154-191 of sigma(E), a site that is homologous to region 4, the sigma factor binding...
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Regulated assembly of lipopolysaccharide and sensing of its alterations in Escherichia coli
PublicationThis thesis describes mechanism of the regulation of the transcription of the rpoE gene encoding an essential RNA polymerase subunit in Escherichia coli. The RpoE regulates extracytoplasmic stress response regulon and is required to initiate transcription of genes, whose products are involvedin the folding of periplasmic proteins and synthesis and transport of outer membrane components. The transcriptional regulation of the rpoE...
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Cabbage Juices and Indoles Modulate the Expression Profile of AhR, ERα, and Nrf2 in Human Breast Cell Lines
PublicationOur previous studies showed the diversified effect of cabbage juices and indoles on the estrogen metabolism key enzymes (CYP1A1, CYP1A2, CYP1B1) in breast epithelial cells differing in ER status, i.e., in tumorigenic—MCF7, MDA-MB-231 and non-tumorigenic—MCF10A cells. The aim of the present study was to further investigate the mechanism of chemopreventive action of cabbage juice and its active components by evaluating their effect...
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How acidic amino acid residues facilitate DNA target site selection
PublicationDespite the negative charge of the DNA backbone, acidic residues (Asp/Glu) commonly participate in the base readout, with a strong preference for cytosine. In fact, in the solved DNA/protein structures, cytosine is recognized almost exclusively by Asp/Glu through a direct hydrogen bond, while at the same time, adenine, regardless of its amino group, shows no propensity for Asp/Glu. Here, we analyzed the contribution of Asp/Glu...
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Molecular and structural basis of inner core lipopolysaccharide alterations in Escherichia coli: incorporation of glucuronic acid and phosphoethanolamine in the heptose region.
PublicationIt is well established that lipopolysaccharide (LPS) often carries nonstoichiometric substitutions in lipid A and in the inner core. In this work, the molecular basis of inner core alterations and their physiological significance are addressed. A new inner core modification of LPS is described, which arises due to the addition of glucuronic acid on the third heptose with a concomitant loss of phosphate on the second heptose. This...
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The role of glucuronidation in drug resistance
PublicationThe final therapeutic effect of a drug candidate, which is directed to a specific molecular target strongly depends on its absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME). The disruption of at least one element of ADME may result in serious drug resistance. In this work we described the role of one element of this resistance: phase II metabolism with UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs). UGT function is the transformation...
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Chemical Aspects of Biological Activity of Isothiocyanates and Indoles, the Products of Glucosinolate Decomposition
PublicationThere is growing evidence that cancer chemoprevention employing natural, bioactive compounds may halt or at least slow down the different stages of carcinogenesis. A particularly advantageous effect is attributed to derivatives of sulfur-organic phytochemicals, such as glucosinolates (GLs) synthesized mainly in Brassicaceae plant family. GLs are hydrolysed enzymatically to bioactive isothiocyanates (ITC) and indoles, which exhibit strong...
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Checkpoints that regulate balanced biosynthesis of lipopolysaccharide and its essentiality in Escherichia coli
PublicationThe outer membrane (OM) of Gram-negative bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, is essential for their viability. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) constitutes the major component of OM, providing the permeability barrier, and a tight balance exists between LPS and phospholipids amounts as both of these essential components use a common metabolic precursor. Hence, checkpoints are in place, right from the regulation of the first committed step...
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IFI16 Impacts Metabolic Reprogramming during Human Cytomegalovirus Infection
PublicationCellular lipid metabolism plays a pivotal role in human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection, as increased lipogenesis in HCMV-infected cells favors the envelopment of newly synthesized viral particles. As all cells are equipped with restriction factors (RFs) able to exert a protective effect against invading pathogens, we asked whether a similar defense mechanism would also be in place to preserve the metabolic compartment from HCMV...
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Modelling gene expression of a self-regulating protein
PublicationWe analyze a model of gene transcription and protein synthesis. We take into account the number of sites on the protein’s promoter at which the protein’s dimers can bind blocking transcription of protein mRNA.
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Genome-Wide DNA Methylation and Gene Expression in Patients with Indolent Systemic Mastocytosis
PublicationMastocytosis is a clinically heterogenous, usually acquired disease of the mast cells with a survival time that depends on the time of onset. It ranges from skin-limited to systemic disease, including indolent and more aggressive variants. The presence of the oncogenic KIT p. D816V gene somatic mutation is a crucial element in the pathogenesis. However, further epigenetic regulation may also affect the expression of genes that...
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Changes in gene methylation patterns in neonatal murine hearts: Implications for the regenerative potential
PublicationBackground The neonatal murine heart is able to regenerate after severe injury; this capacity however, quickly diminishes and it is lost within the first week of life. DNA methylation is an epigenetic mechanism which plays a crucial role in development and gene expression regulation. Under investigation here are the changes in DNA methylation and gene expression patterns which accompany the loss of regenerative potential. Results The...
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Optimizing Medical Personnel Speech Recognition Models Using Speech Synthesis and Reinforcement Learning
PublicationText-to-Speech synthesis (TTS) can be used to generate training data for building Automatic Speech Recognition models (ASR). Access to medical speech data is because it is sensitive data that is difficult to obtain for privacy reasons; TTS can help expand the data set. Speech can be synthesized by mimicking different accents, dialects, and speaking styles that may occur in a medical language. Reinforcement Learning (RL), in the...
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Hopf bifurcation in time‐delayed gene expression model with dimers
PublicationWe study a mathematical model of gene transcription and protein synthesis with negative feedback. We consider a system of equations taking into account the formation of dimers (i.e., complex formed by two protein monomers), the way in which dimers bind to DNA and time delay in translation process. For the model consisting of three ordinary differential equations with time delay, we derive conditions for stability of the positive...
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Regulation of LPS assembly via controlled proteolysis and sensing of LPS stress in Escherichia coli
PublicationLipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a complex glycolipid, essential for the bacterial viability and along with phospholipids, it constitutes the major amphiphilic component of outer membrane (OM) in most of the Gram-negative bacteria, including Escherichia coli. LPS molecules confer an effective permeability barrier to the OM and play a crucial role in bacteria-environment and -host interactions. The synthesis and accumulation of this...
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Bimodal classification of English allophones employing acoustic speech signal and facial motion capture
PublicationA method for automatic transcription of English speech into International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) system is developed and studied. The principal objective of the study is to evaluate to what extent the visual data related to lip reading can enhance recognition accuracy of the transcription of English consonantal and vocalic allophones. To this end, motion capture markers were placed on the faces of seven speakers to obtain lip...
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Multicopy Suppressor Analysis of Strains Lacking Cytoplasmic Peptidyl-Prolyl cis/trans Isomerases Identifies Three New PPIase Activities in Escherichia coli That Includes the DksA Transcription Factor
PublicationConsistent with a role in catalyzing rate-limiting step of protein folding, removal of genes encoding cytoplasmic protein folding catalysts belonging to the family of peptidyl-prolyl cis/trans isomerases (PPIs) in Escherichia coli confers conditional lethality. To address the molecular basis of the essentiality of PPIs, a multicopy suppressor approach revealed that overexpression of genes encoding chaperones (DnaK/J and GroL/S),...
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Methodology and technology for the polymodal allophonic speech transcription
PublicationA method for automatic audiovisual transcription of speech employing: acoustic and visual speech representations is developed. It adopts a combining of audio and visual modalities, which provide a synergy effect in terms of speech recognition accuracy. To establish a robust solution, basic research concerning the relation between the allophonic variation of speech, i.e. the changes in the articulatory setting of speech organs for...
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Methodology and technology for the polymodal allophonic speech transcription
PublicationA method for automatic audiovisual transcription of speech employing: acoustic, electromagnetical articulography and visual speech representations is developed. It adopts a combining of audio and visual modalities, which provide a synergy effect in terms of speech recognition accuracy. To establish a robust solution, basic research concerning the relation between the allophonic variation of speech, i.e., the changes in the articulatory...
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Description of the Dataset Rhetoric at School – a Selection of the Syllabi from the Academic Gymnasium in Gdańsk – Transcription and Photographs
PublicationThe research dataset described in the article was based on photographs and transcription of a textual record from Latin syllabi for classes at the Gdańsk Academic Gymnasium. The syllabi concern the years 1645/1648/1652/1653. The original document is held in the collection of the Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences [reference number: Ma 3920 8o]. The collected research material can be used for studying the practical...
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Analysis of a gene expression model
PublicationWe study a mathematical model of gene transcription and protein synthesis with negative feedback. We consider a system of equations taking into account the number of active binding sites, the way in which dimers bind to DNA and time delay in translation process. For a simplified model that consist of three ordinary differential equations with time delay we derive conditions for stability of the positive steady state and for the...
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Building Knowledge for the Purpose of Lip Speech Identification
PublicationConsecutive stages of building knowledge for automatic lip speech identification are shown in this study. The main objective is to prepare audio-visual material for phonetic analysis and transcription. First, approximately 260 sentences of natural English were prepared taking into account the frequencies of occurrence of all English phonemes. Five native speakers from different countries read the selected sentences in front of...
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Mathematical analysis of a generalised p53-Mdm2 protein gene expression model
PublicationWe propose the generalisation of the p53-Mdm2 protein gene expression model introduced by Monk (2003). We investigate the stability of a unique positive steady state and formulate conditions which guarantee the occurrence of the Hopf bifurcation. We show that oscillatory behaviour can be caused not only by time lag in protein transcription process, but also can be present in the model without time delay. Moreover, we investigate...
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Description of the Dataset Hanow – Praecepta de Arte Disputandi – Transcription and Photographs
PublicationThis article briefly characterises the “Hanow – Praecepta de arte disputandi – transcription and photographs” research dataset. The dataset was created based on photographs and transcriptions of the manuscript of the Latin lectures on the rules of effective discussion (the title of the manuscript: Praecepta de arte disputandi) by Michael Chris-toph Hanow (1695–1773), professor of Gdańsk Academic Gymnasium. The original document...
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Neotenic phenomenon in gene expression in the skin of Foxn1- deficient (nude) mice - a projection for regenerative skin wound healing
PublicationMouse fetuses up to 16 day of embryonic development and nude (Foxn1- deficient) mice are examples of animals that undergo regenerative (scar-free) skin healing. The expression of transcription factor Foxn1 in the epidermis of mouse fetuses begins at embryonic day 16.5 which coincides with the transition point from scar-free to scar-forming skin wound healing. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that Foxn1 expression...
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The role of epigenetics in regeneration
PublicationComplex changes in chromatin structure and at the transcriptional level occur from the creation of a single parental gamete throughout fertilization, embryo development and the life of an adult organism. Epigenetic changes, such as methylation and hydroxymethylation of DNA or histone methylation and acetylation, are an important part of these processes. Epigenetic regulation has an essential influence on gene expression level. DNA...
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Anticancer imidazoacridinone C-1311 inhibits hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and angiogenesis
PublicationAntitumor imidazoacridinone C-1311 is a DNA-reactive topoisomerase II and FLT3 receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Here, we demonstrate the mechanism of C-1311 inhibitory action on novel targets: hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), vascular-endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and angiogenesis. In a cell-free system, C-1311 prevented HIF-1α binding to an oligonucleotide encompassing a canonical hypoxia-responsive element (HRE),...
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Material for Automatic Phonetic Transcription of Speech Recorded in Various Conditions
PublicationAutomatic speech recognition (ASR) is under constant development, especially in cases when speech is casually produced or it is acquired in various environment conditions, or in the presence of background noise. Phonetic transcription is an important step in the process of full speech recognition and is discussed in the presented work as the main focus in this process. ASR is widely implemented in mobile devices technology, but...
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Sound engineering as our commitment to its creators in Poland
PublicationSound engineering is an interdisciplinary and rapidly expanding domain. It covers many aspects, such as sound perception, studio and sound mastering technology, music information retrieval including content-based search systems and automatic music transcription frameworks, sound synthesis, sound restoration, electroacoustics, and other ones constituting multimedia technology. Moreover, machine learning methods applied to the topics...
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Justification of quasi-stationary approximation in models of gene expression of a self-regulating protein
PublicationWe analyse a model of Hes1 gene transcription and protein synthesis with a negative feedback loop. The effect of multiple binding sites in the Hes1 promoter as well as the dimer formation process are taken into account. We consider three, possibly different, time scales connected with: (i) the process of binding to/dissolving from a binding site, (ii) formation and dissociation of dimers, (iii) production and degradation of Hes1...
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HDAC Inhibitors: Innovative Strategies for Their Design and Applications
PublicationHistone deacetylases (HDACs) are a large family of epigenetic metalloenzymes that are involved in gene transcription and regulation, cell proliferation, differentiation, migration, and death, as well as angiogenesis. Particularly, disorders of the HDACs expression are linked to the development of many types of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, making them interesting molecular targets for the design of new efficient drugs...
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Triazoloacridone C-1305 impairs XBP1 splicing by acting as a potential IRE1α endoribonuclease inhibitor
PublicationInositol requiring enzyme 1 alpha (IRE1α) is one of three signaling sensors in the unfolding protein response (UPR) that alleviates endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in cells and functions to promote cell survival. During conditions of irrevocable stress, proapoptotic gene expression is induced to promote cell death. One of the three signaling stressors, IRE1α is an serine/threonine-protein kinase/endoribonuclease (RNase) that...
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Analysis of allophones based on audio signal recordings and parameterization
PublicationThe aim of this study is to develop an allophonic description of English plosive consonants based on recordings of 600 specially selected words. Allophonic variations addressed in the study may have two sources: positional and contextual. The former one depends on the syllabic or prosodic position in which a particular phoneme occurs. Contextual allophony is conditioned by the local phonetic environment. Co-articulation overlapping...
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Cytokine IL6, but not IL-1β, TNF-α and NF-κB is increased in paediatric cancer patients
PublicationCytokines are responsible for maintaining homeostasis as cell growth, differentiation, migration and apoptosis mediators. They play a pivotal role in immune responses to inflammatory reactions. In oncological diseases, the cross-talk between cells of the immunological system and cells of the tumour microenvironment is led by cytokines. Also, the overproduction of cytokines may change the tumour microenvironment and stimulate tumour...
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Palindromic carbazole derivatives: unveiling their antiproliferative effect via topoisomerase II catalytic inhibition and apoptosis induction
PublicationHuman DNA topoisomerases are essential for crucial cellular processes, including DNA replication, transcription, chromatin condensation, and maintenance of its structure. One of the significant strategies employed in cancer treatment involves the inhibition of a specific type of topoisomerase, known as topoisomerase II (Topo II). Carbazole derivatives, recognised for their varied biological activities, have recently become a significant...
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Changes in Epigenetic Patterns Related to DNA Replication in Vicia faba Root Meristem Cells under Cadmium-Induced Stress Conditions
PublicationExperiments on Vicia faba root meristem cells exposed to 150 µM cadmium chloride (CdCl2) were undertaken to analyse epigenetic changes, mainly with respect to DNA replication stress. Histone modifications examined by means of immunofluorescence labeling included: (1) acetylation of histone H3 on lysine 56 (H3K56Ac), involved in transcription, S phase, and response to DNA damage during DNA biosynthesis; (2) dimethylation of histone...
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Dissection of σE‐dependent cell lysis in Escherichia coli: roles of RpoE regulators RseA, RseB and periplasmic folding catalyst PpiD
PublicationTo understand the mechanism of sigma(E)-dependent cell lysis, we examined the consequences of deletion derivatives of rpoE regulators rseA, rseB and rseC on sigma(E) transcription, on levels of free versus membrane-bound sigma(E) and on OMP-biogenesis limiting factor(s) that could impact cell lysis. RT-PCR showed that individual nonpolar DeltarseA and DeltarseB increased the rpoE expression to varying extents, with pronounced induction...
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Regulation of the First Committed Step in Lipopolysaccharide Biosynthesis Catalyzed by LpxC Requires the Essential Protein LapC (YejM) and HslVU Protease
PublicationWe previously showed that lipopolysaccharide (LPS) assembly requires the essential LapB protein to regulate FtsH-mediated proteolysis of LpxC protein that catalyzes the first committed step in the LPS synthesis. To further understand the essential function of LapB and its role in LpxC turnover, multicopy suppressors of ΔlapB revealed that overproduction of HslV protease subunit prevents its lethality by proteolytic degradation...
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CHEMOTHERAPY-MEDIATED COMPLICATIONS OF WOUND HEALING. AN UNDERSTUDIED SIDE EFFECT
PublicationSignificance: Chemotherapy is a primary method to treat cancer, but while cytotoxic drugs are designed to target rapidly dividing cancer cells, they can also affect other cell types, including dermal cells and macrophages involved in wound healing, which often leads to the development of chronic wounds. The situation becomes even more severe when chemotherapy is combined with surgical tumor excision. Recent advances: Despite its...
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Marking the Allophones Boundaries Based on the DTW Algorithm
PublicationThe paper presents an approach to marking the boundaries of allophones in the speech signal based on the Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) algorithm. Setting and marking of allophones boundaries in continuous speech is a difficult issue due to the mutual influence of adjacent phonemes on each other. It is this neighborhood on the one hand that creates variants of phonemes that is allophones, and on the other hand it affects that the border...
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Transcriptomic landscape of blood platelets in healthy donors
PublicationBlood platelet RNA-sequencing is increasingly used among the scientific community. Aberrant platelet transcriptome is common in cancer or cardiovascular disease, but reference data on platelet RNA content in healthy individuals are scarce and merit complex investigation. We sought to explore the dynamics of platelet transcriptome. Datasets from 204 healthy donors were used for the analysis of splice variants, particularly with...
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Antitumor Activity of Triazine Mimic Antibiotics for DNA-binding Implications (Impressive Activity in Vitro Against a Variety of Tumor Types in the NCI-60 Screen): NSC 710607 To Fight HCT-116 Human Colon Carcinoma Cell Lines in Vivo Using the Hollow Fiber Assay and Xenograft Mouse Models
PublicationPurpose Successful clinical applications of DNA-directed selective cytotoxic agents disrupt the vital replication/transcription processes and ultimately lead to cancer cell death. This study aimed to examine the growth screen of two lead triazine compounds in a number of cell lines and xenografts and to develop anticancer agents with noncovalent binding affinity bringing fewer side effects. Methods The NCI initial hollow...
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The transfer of names in various translations of brothers Grimm’s "Rumpelstilzchen"
PublicationVarious scholars point out the transfer of proper nouns as a difficulty. This paper examines the transfer of names in twenty‑one translations of the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale originally titled Rumpelstilzchen. The article analyses English,Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Turkish, and Japanese editions of this originally German story. The analysis focuses on the true name of a title dwarf and other names provided by the Queen....
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Transcriptomic landscape of blood platelets in healthy donors
PublicationBACKGROUND Blood platelet RNA-sequencing is increasingly used among the scientific community. Aberrant platelet transcriptome is common in cancer or cardiovascular disease, but reference data on platelet RNA content in healthy individuals are scarce and merit complex investigation. METHODS We sought to explore the dynamics of platelet transcriptome. Datasets from 204 healthy donors were used for the analysis of splice variants,...
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Fluconazole resistant Candida auris clinical isolates have increased levels of cell wall chitin and increased susceptibility to a glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase inhibitor
PublicationIn 2009 Candida auris was first isolated as fungal pathogen of human disease from ear canal of a patient in Japan. In less than a decade, this pathogen has rapidly spread around the world and has now become a major health challenge that is of particular concern because many strains are resistant to multiple class of antifungal drugs. The lack of available antifungals and rapid increase of this fungal pathogen provides an incentive...
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Beyond Antioxidant Activity: Redox Properties of Catechins May Affect Changes in the DNA Methylation Profile—The Example of SRXN1 Gene
PublicationThe role of catechins in the epigenetic regulation of gene expression has been widely studied; however, if and how this phenomenon relates to the redox properties of these polyphenols remains unknown. Our earlier study demonstrated that exposure of the human colon adenocarcinoma HT29 cell line to these antioxidants affects the expression of redox-related genes. In particular, treatment with (−)-epigallocatechin (EGC) downregulated...
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Generation and Characterization of a DNA-GCN4 Oligonucleotide-Peptide Conjugate: The Impact DNA/Protein Interactions on the Sensitization of DNA
PublicationRadiotherapy, the most common therapy for the treatment of solid tumors, exerts its effects by inducing DNA damage. To fully understand the extent and nature of this damage, DNA models that mimic the in vivo situation should be utilized. In a cellular context, genomic DNA constantly interacts with proteins and these interactions could influence both the primary radical processes (triggered by ionizing radiation) and secondary reactions,...
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Structure and evolution of the 4-helix bundle domain of Zuotin, a J-domain protein co-chaperone of Hsp70
PublicationThe J-domain protein Zuotin is a multi-domain eukaryotic Hsp70 co-chaperone. Though it is primarily ribosome-associated, positioned at the exit of the 60S subunit tunnel where it promotes folding of nascent polypeptide chains, Zuotin also has off-ribosome functions. Domains of Zuotin needed for 60S association and interaction with Hsp70 are conserved in eukaryotes. However, whether the 4-helix bundle (4HB) domain is conserved remains...