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Aquatic Plants Native to Europe
Published in Namrita Lall, Aquatic Plants, 2020
Isa A. Lambrechts, Lydia Gibango, Antonios Chrysargyris, Nikolaos Tzortzakis, Namrita Lall
Cyperus rotundus is well documented in the literature, and many compounds have been isolated from different parts of the plant, not only from the essential oils but also from the rhizomes, foliage, and tubers. Terpenoids, in particular sesquiterpenes, are some of the most active components reported in this plant. Many reports indicate a great number of phenolic acids (benzoic acid, coumaric acid, cinnamic acid, gallic acid, caffeic acid, ellagic acid), flavonoids (catechin, quercetin, ammiol), and alkaloids (rotundine A, B, C), among others (Peerzada 2017). Ferredoxin has also been isolated from C. rotundus.
Molecular Organization of Entamoeba Histolytica
Published in Roberto R. Kretschmer, Amebiasis: Infection and Disease by Entamoeba histolytica, 2020
Isaura Meza, Haydee K. Torres-Guerrero, Marco A. Meraz
A cDNA clone encoding apoferredoxin was utilized to isolate a genomic ferredoxin clone.9 Comparison of the genomic and cDNA sequences revealed that the ferredoxin gene is also unspliced. The deduced amino acid sequence of E. histolytica ferredoxin resembles clostridial type of ferredoxins and shows an arrangement of cysteines characteristic for the coordination of 2(4Fe-4S) centers. These genes are arranged in a family of at least two ferredoxin genes, one of which is marked by restriction length polymorphism in different strains of E. histolytica.
Molecular Analysis of Plant DNA Genomes: Conserved and Diverged DNA Sequences
Published in S. K. Dutta, DNA Systematics, 2019
The list of slowly evolving plant genes suitable for long-distant comparisons is increasing very fast. Judging by the related physical and chemical properties of plant and animal tubulin,59 the genes of this protein have evolved slowly. Ferredoxin genes may be a suitable probe for distant phylogenetic comparisons as well; this follows from the results of comparative studies of amino acid sequences.60 Complications may come because different ferredoxins function in diverse metabolic systems, and also because the evolution of ferredoxin genes included repeated duplications. Thus, instead of orthological, paralogical sequences may be erroneously compared. The pronounced relatedness of the primary structures of these proteins, present in pro- and eukaryote cells may indicate that they originate from the same ancestor sequence. Methods of comparisons, elaborated for animal globin genes, may help in this and other phylogenetic studies.
COVID-19: captures iron and generates reactive oxygen species to damage the human immune system
Published in Autoimmunity, 2021
We downloaded 184306 SOD enzyme sequences of various bacteria from the UniProt website. We further adopted the local MEME tool to search for motif between each sequence and the E protein (E-value < 0.05). We subsequently explored the conserved domain name corresponding to the motif on the SOD sequence from the UniProt website through the web crawler method. Finally, we searched for the conserved domains containing “Fe”. The conserved domains related to the SOD enzyme properties of E protein were listed in Table 1. “CAYCC” was the haem-binding motif found in haem theory. As shown in Table 1, E protein has the N-terminal and C-terminal conserved domains of Fe/Mn-SOD. “CAYCC” and its left is Sod_Fe_N, “CAYCC” and its right is Sod_Fe_C. “CAYCC” also was the conserved motif of ferritin, ferric oxidoreductase and ferredoxin (2Fe-2S ferredoxin-type, 4Fe-4S ferredoxin-type). Therefore, E protein had the catalytic regions of SOD enzyme at 1-69, including the transmembrane area and the outer part of the membrane: “MYSFVSEETGTLIVNSVLLFLAFVVFLLVTLAILTALRLCAYCCNIVNVSLVKPSFYVYSRVKNLNSSR”.
Emerging therapies in Friedreich’s Ataxia
Published in Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 2020
Theresa A. Zesiewicz, Joshua Hancock, Shaila D. Ghanekar, Sheng-Han Kuo, Carlos A. Dohse, Joshua Vega
Frataxin, which is involved in Fe–S cluster biosynthesis, may affect steroidogenesis through decreased ferredoxin activity [86]. Positive anecdotal evidence of corticosteroid treatment in FRDA and observed benefits of steroid treatment in other neurologic disorders, namely Duchenne muscular dystrophy, has sparked investigation into controlled benefits of steroids in FRDA. The effect of steroids was tested in a small open-label pilot study in 11 FRDA patients [87]. Study participants received a methylprednisolone dose of 48 mg at the start of the study and tapered the dose by 8 mg each day; subjects repeated this cycle every four weeks for seven cycles. Study assessments included the FARS, the timed 25-foot walk, and 9-hole peg test. Only pediatric patients were found to have improvements in their 1-meter walk at study endpoint compared to baseline (p < 0.05), while the timed 25-foot walk did not change. Nonetheless, methylprednisolone was generally well tolerated, indicating potential usage in the treatment of ambulatory FRDA pediatric patients [87].
Antiviral drugs and plasma therapy used for Covid-19 treatment: a nationwide Turkish algorithm
Published in Drug Metabolism Reviews, 2020
The mechanism of action of the drug Nitazoxanide is believed to be due to the interaction with the pyruvate: ferredoxin oxidoreductase (PFOR) enzyme-dependent electron transfer reaction, which is necessary for anaerobic energy metabolism. The most accepted hypothesis in the mechanism of action of the drug Nitazoxanide is that pyruvate: ferredoxin/flavodoxin oxidoreductase (PFOR) disrupts the energy metabolism in the cycle and inactivates anaerobic microorganisms (Broekhuysen et al. 2000). Nitazoxanide drug is active in vitro against both facultatively anaerobic gram positive and gram negative bacteria. It is also active against Mycobacterium tuberculosis replica and non-replicated strains (Dubreuil et al. 1996). It has been suggested to act on parasitic-protozoa and anaerobic bacteria by inducing lesions in Nitazoxanide cell membranes and by storing the mitochondrial membrane while inhibiting the enzymes of quinone oxidoreductase (NQO1), nitroreductase-1 and protein disulfide isomerase enzymes (Dubreuil et al. 1996). Nitazoxanide stops viral replication by activating the eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2a by inhibiting it in the first phase of the viral transcription factor. In addition, its effectiveness has been determined on tumor cells (Shakya et al. 2018).