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Halophilic Microbiome
Published in Ajar Nath Yadav, Ali Asghar Rastegari, Neelam Yadav, Microbiomes of Extreme Environments, 2021
Mrugesh Dhirajlal Khunt, Rajesh Ramdas Waghunde, Chandrashekhar Uttamrao Shinde, Dipak Maganlal Pathak
Apart from potential industrial applications of lipases and proteases, several other halophilic enzymes have also been explored with high degrees of thermo and solvent tolerance. Moderately halophilic microbes are more useful for the industrial enzymes production due to the broad range of salt tolerance over extreme halophiles and produce salt-adapted enzymes (Rastegari et al. 2020). Sanchez-Porro et al. (2003) explored moderately halophilic microbes for their potential role in the production of amylases, lipases, proteases, inulinases, cellulases, pullulanases, xylanases, DNases and pectinases. Overall, Gram positive halophiles showed more potential in enzyme secretion over Gram negative halophiles. Many more microbes inhabitants of saline environments have been studied for their extracellular enzyme production like Salinococcus for the production of extracellular protease, amylase, gelatinase and inulinase (Jayachandra et al. 2012), nucleases from Micrococcus varians subsp. halophiles (Kamekura et al. 1982), cellulases from haloalkalophilic Bacillus sp. (Zhang et al. 2012), and xylanases from Bacillus pumilus (Subramaniyan 2012).
FRET Reporter Molecules for Identification of Enzyme Functions
Published in Grunwald Peter, Biocatalysis and Nanotechnology, 2017
Jing Mu, Hao Lun Cheong, Bengang Xing
Fibroblast activation protein-α (FAPα) is membrane-bound gelatinase belonging to the serine protease family. It has been found to be highly and selectively expressed in over 90% of human epithelial cancers, but not in normal adult tissues (Scanlan et al., 1994). FAPα play important roles in tumor growth and invasion though dipeptidyl peptidase and collagenase proteolytic activities. As a biomarker and potential target of the cancer- associated fibroblasts, FAPα attracted a lot of attention and the design of sensitive FAPα-based probes become of great importance. Li et al. (2012) developed a near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probe by linking the peptide sequence short peptide sequence (KGPGPNQC) with Cy5.5/QSY21 FRET pairs for in vivo optical imaging of FAPα (Fig. 13.17). The in vivo imaging results demonstrated that in the FAPα-expressed U87MG tumor models, the probes presented faster tumor uptake and higher fluorescence signals when compared to FAPα-negative C6 tumor models. Results indicated that the designed probe could be used for early detection of FAPα-expressing tumors in future studies.
Red Blood Cell-Mimicking Hybrid Nanoparticles
Published in Feng Chen, Weibo Cai, Hybrid Nanomaterials, 2017
Shreya Goel, Feng Chen, Weibo Cai
This strategy was extended towards the encapsulation of other inorganic and organic nanoparticles for immune evasive camouflage and enhanced therapeutics. RBC membrane cloaked gold nanoparticles (~70 nm; RBCAuNPs ~100 nm) (Gao et al. 2013b) and nanocages (~71.20 nm; RBC-AuNCs ~89.05 nm) (Piao et al. 2014) have been reported. RBC-AuNCs were found to retain the near infrared photothermal properties of the nanocages, with the cloaked dispersion exhibiting a temperature rise of ≥ 15°C within 2 min of 850 nm laser irradiation (Fig. 2.4). Repeated NIR irradiation partially ablated the RBC membrane covering which then rendered the RBC-AuNCs more effective in generating higher temperature profiles (Piao et al. 2014). The circulation half-life of RBC-AuNCs was calculated to be ~9.5 h when compared to ~1 h for control polyvinylpyrrolidone coated AuNCs (PVPAuNCs). This prolonged blood circulation proved to be advantageous for photothermal ablation when tested in 4T1 murine breast cancer models. 250 μg RBC-AuNCs elevated the local tumor temperatures to 47.1°C, as compared to 41.2°C for PVP-AuNCs, when irradiated with 850 nm laser for 10 min. Moreover, based on the average tumor volume, body weight and survival, RBC-AuNCs were shown to consistently out-perform PVP-AuNCs, indicating their improved photothermal treatment efficacy. RBC membrane cloaking was also used to disguise the core-shell supramolecular gelatin nanoparticles (SGNPs) for adaptive and “on-demand” vancomycin delivery to infection sites (Li et al. 2014). Site-specific release of the antibiotic stemmed from the propensity of gelatin nanoparticles to disassemble in the presence of gelatinase known to be secreted by a wide spectrum of bacteria. Erythrocyte membrane coating served to reduce clearance by the immune system during the antibiotic delivery, as well as to absorb the bacterial exotoxin to relieve the symptoms caused by bacterial infection.
Age-specific response of skeletal muscle extracellular matrix to acute resistance exercise: A pilot study
Published in European Journal of Sport Science, 2019
Barbara Wessner, Michael Liebensteiner, Werner Nachbauer, Robert Csapo
Classically, the muscular ECM is subdivided into endomysial (around the muscle cell), perimysial (around groups of muscle cells), and epimysial (around the whole muscle) connective tissues building a complex architecture which involves numerous collagens, laminins, proteoglycans, and various other proteins (Gillies & Lieber, 2011). Remodelling of the ECM is an integral process of skeletal muscle stem cell activity to support propagation and self-renewal (Rayagiri et al., 2018). A so-called “transitional matrix” characterised by an upregulation of tenascin-C, hyaluronic acid and fibronectin has been identified during the regeneration of amputated limbs in newts (Calve, Odelberg, & Simon, 2010). In humans, the basement membrane has recently been shown to play an important role in the regeneration of muscle subjected to electrically-induced lengthening contractions (Mackey & Kjaer, 2017a). Simultaneously, ECM components, such as collagen, proteoglycans and glycoproteins, are degraded by matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), particularly gelatinase A (MMP-2) and gelatinase B (MMP-9), thereby contributing to the remodelling of the ECM (Carmeli, Moas, Reznick, & Coleman, 2004).