Process perspective
Olaf Dammann in Etiological Explanations, 2020
According to the Gene Ontology Consortium, a biological process is defined as follows: A biological process is a recognized series of events or molecular functions. A process is a collection of molecular events with a defined beginning and end. Mutant phenotypes often reflect disruptions in biological processes.14A biological process term describes a series of events accomplished by one or more organized assemblies of molecular functions. Examples of broad biological process terms are “cellular physiological process” or “signal transduction.” Examples of more specific terms are “pyrimidine metabolic process” or “alpha-glucoside transport.” The general rule to assist in distinguishing between a biological process and a molecular function is that a process must have more than one distinct step.A biological process is not equivalent to a pathway. At present, the [gene ontology] does not try to represent the dynamics or dependencies that would be required to fully describe a pathway.15
The lived body and personal identity
Erik Malmqvist, Kristin Zeiler in Bodily Exchanges, Bioethics and Border Crossing, 2015
Medical science and technology are, as discussed above, certainly very important to body ontology. Biological processes make our lives possible and determine the limits of what we can experience and do in the world, and even what we can think and imagine to be there. New medical–technological inventions that can assist us when the body fails, or even extend our natural possibilities, are, as a consequence of this, essential for body-part ontology (Gordijn and Chadwick 2008). But as I have also pointed out, biological processes and medical knowledge are not the only things that matter to a human life, and how they matter will depend on how they are lived and interpreted in human culture. The lived dimension starts out from bodily experiences, but as soon as the person begins to act and reflect in a world shared with other persons, cultural processes will be significant in determining the meaning of medical knowledge and technologies. The lived body is culturally extended and, also, culturally impregnated by human beliefs and our search for meaning and understanding in a shared life world.
Application of Bioresponsive Polymers in Gene Delivery
Deepa H. Patel in Bioresponsive Polymers, 2020
Enzymes are proteins that play essentials roles in many biological processes such as metabolic process and many others under mild conditions, pH 5–8 and 37°C. They act like catalysts for numerous reactions in the living organism and they possess the properties to be selective and specific to a particular substrate. Thus, they can be used as trigger molecules for nucleic acids agents release at localized site, by incorporating their substrates in the polymeric carriers. Enzyme responsive carrier can be achieved by either graft/modify polymer with enzyme responsive moiety or by making the carrier with enzyme degradable polymers. As for the others bioresponsive system the polymeric materials used are mainly natural’s polymers such as CS, pectin, dextran, cyclodextrin, and/or synthetic polymers such as PLL, PNIPPAAM, and PEG.
Salt-induced phosphoproteomic changes in the subfornical organ in rats with chronic kidney disease
Published in Renal Failure, 2023
Xin Wang, Huizhen Wang, Jiawen Li, Lanying Li, Yifan Wang, Aiqing Li
The complete list of 2661 phosphoproteins corresponding to identified phosphopeptides from SFO in rats with chronic renal failure is depicted in Supplementary Table S2. GO analysis was used to annotate the differential phosphoproteins functionally. As displayed in Figures 2(a,c), the differential phosphoproteins in NC/NS comparison group were classified into 10 categories of molecular functions. Phosphoproteins involved in binding had the highest proportion (56.2%), followed by catalytic activity (17.8%) and molecule function regulation (7.5%). The differential phosphoproteins in HC/NC comparison group were classified into 11 categories of functions, including binding (55.6%), catalytic activity (15.3%), molecule function regulation (7.4%), and so on. In biological process analysis (Figures 2(b,d)), differential phosphoproteins in NC/NS comparison group involved 16 kinds of biological processes. The top three biological processes were cellular process (12.1%), single-organism process (11.1%), and biological regulation (10.1%). In HC/NC comparison group, the differential phosphoproteins were involved in 16 kinds of biological processes, topped by cellular process (11.3%), single-organism process (10.7%), and biological regulation (9.7%). The percentage and number of differential phosphoproteins relevant to molecular functions and biological processes are listed in Supplementary Tables S3 and S4.
Circadian phase, circadian period and chronotype are reproducible over months
Published in Chronobiology International, 2018
Thomas Kantermann, Charmane I Eastman
One of the most remarkable qualities of living organisms is the ability to time biological processes crucial to survival with respect to predictable environmental signals. The evolutionary ground for this biological quality in most organisms, including humans, is a circadian clock that is able to generate endogenous circadian rhythms, which, in turn, are entrainable to light/dark (LD) cycles (Pittendrigh and Daan 1976; Roenneberg et al. 2013; Wever et al. 1983). Circadian misalignment (sleeping, working, eating, etc. at the wrong phases of the internal circadian clock) results in poor sleep and health and performance decrements (Archer and Oster 2015; Akerstedt et al. 1984; Gold et al. 1992; Kantermann et al. 2012; Lunn et al. 2017; McHill et al. 2017; Smith and Eastman 2012). Hence, maintaining the proper alignment between circadian rhythms and the sleep schedule is essential for health and safety.
Safety review of current systemic treatments for severe chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps and future directions
Published in Expert Opinion on Drug Safety, 2021
Biological agents are medicines produced by a biological process. Monoclonal antibodies (mAB) are one type of biologic that are becoming more widely used in the treatment of inflammatory conditions where pharmacological therapy does not provide adequate symptom control. They target specific inflammatory mediators or immune cells in the pathophysiological pathways that produce chronic inflammatory diseases [99]. Studies have evaluated mAB in conditions such as asthma and atopic dermatitis leading to increasing interest that these agents may also offer some benefit in treating patients with CRSwNP. All currently available biologics used in the treatment of CRSwNP are given by injection. It should also be noted that biologics are considered as an add-on treatment for severe CRSwNP, given in addition to an intranasal corticosteroid. In all trials discussed below, mometasone furoate spray was given as a maintenance treatment in both active and placebo treatment arms and therefore adverse events may be attributable to this in both arms.