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Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology

The Lipid Peroxidation Product Ekode Exacerbates Colonic Inflammation And Colon Tumorigenesis, Lei Lei, Jun Yang, Jianan Zhang, Guodong Zhang Jan 2021

The Lipid Peroxidation Product Ekode Exacerbates Colonic Inflammation And Colon Tumorigenesis, Lei Lei, Jun Yang, Jianan Zhang, Guodong Zhang

Food Science Department Faculty Publication Series

Oxidative stress is emerging as an important contributor to the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer (CRC), however, the molecular mechanisms by which the disturbed redox balance regulates CRC development remain undefined. Using a liquid chromatography?tandem mass spectrometry-based lipidomics, we found that epoxyketooctadecenoic acid (EKODE), which is a lipid peroxidation product, was among the most dramatically increased lipid molecules in the colon of azoxymethane (AOM)/dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced CRC mice. This is, at least in part, due to increased oxidative stress in colon tumors, as assessed by analyzing gene expression of oxidative markers in AOM/DSS-induced CRC mice and human CRC patients in …


Evidence For The Role Of Cyp51a And Xenobiotic Detoxification In Differential Sensitivity To Azole Fungicides In Boxwood Blight Pathogens, Stefanos Stravoravdis, Robert E. Marra, Nicholas R. Leblanc, Joanne Crouch, Jonathan P. Hulvey Jan 2021

Evidence For The Role Of Cyp51a And Xenobiotic Detoxification In Differential Sensitivity To Azole Fungicides In Boxwood Blight Pathogens, Stefanos Stravoravdis, Robert E. Marra, Nicholas R. Leblanc, Joanne Crouch, Jonathan P. Hulvey

Microbiology Department Faculty Publication Series

Boxwood blight, a fungal disease of ornamental plants (Buxus spp.), is caused by two sister species, Calonectria pseudonaviculata (Cps) and C. henricotiae (Che). Compared to Cps, Che is documented to display reduced sensitivity to fungicides, including the azole class of antifungals, which block synthesis of a key fungal membrane component, ergosterol. A previous study reported an ergosterol biosynthesis gene in Cps, CYP51A, to be a pseudogene, and RNA-Seq data confirm that a functional CYP51A is expressed only in Che. The lack of additional ergosterol biosynthesis genes showing significant differential expression suggests that the functional CYP51A in Che could contribute to …


How The Protein Data Bank Changed Biology: An Introduction To The Jbc Reviews Thematic Series, Part 1, Helen M. Berman, Lila M. Gierasch Jan 2021

How The Protein Data Bank Changed Biology: An Introduction To The Jbc Reviews Thematic Series, Part 1, Helen M. Berman, Lila M. Gierasch

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Department Faculty Publication Series

This collection of articles celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Protein Data Bank (PDB), the single global digital archive of biological macromolecular structures. The impact of the PDB is immense; we have invited a number of top researchers in structural biology to illustrate its influence on an array of scientific fields. What emerges is a compelling picture of the synergism between the PDB and the explosive progress witnessed in many scientific areas. Availability of reliable, openly accessible, well-archived structural information has arguably had more impact on cell and molecular biology than even some of the enabling technologies such as PCR. …


The Thermogenic Characteristics Of Adipocytes Are Dependent On The Regulation Of Iron Homeostasis, Jin-Seon Yook, Mikyoung You, Yongeun Kim, Mi Zhou, Zhenhua Liu, Young-Cheul Kim, Jaekwon Lee, Soonkyu Chung Jan 2021

The Thermogenic Characteristics Of Adipocytes Are Dependent On The Regulation Of Iron Homeostasis, Jin-Seon Yook, Mikyoung You, Yongeun Kim, Mi Zhou, Zhenhua Liu, Young-Cheul Kim, Jaekwon Lee, Soonkyu Chung

Nutrition Department Faculty Publication Series

The development of thermogenic adipocytes concurs with mitochondrial biogenesis, an iron-dependent pathway. Iron regulatory proteins (IRP) 1 and 2 are RNA-binding proteins that regulate intracellular iron homeostasis. IRPs bind to the iron-response element (IRE) of their target mRNAs, balancing iron uptake and deposition at the posttranscriptional levels. However, IRP/IRE-dependent iron regulation in adipocytes is largely unknown. We hypothesized that iron demands are higher in brown/beige adipocytes than white adipocytes to maintain the thermogenic mitochondrial capacity. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the IRP/IRE regulatory system in different depots of adipose tissue. Our results revealed that 1) IRP/IRE interaction was increased …


Polymeric Nanoparticles Active Against Dual-Species Bacterial Biofilms, Jessa Marie V. Makabenta, Jungmi Park, Cheng-Hsuan Li, Aritra Nath Chattopadhyay, Ahmed Nabawy, Ryan F. Landis, Akash Gupta, Suzannah Schmidt-Malan, Robin Patel, Vincent M. Rotello Jan 2021

Polymeric Nanoparticles Active Against Dual-Species Bacterial Biofilms, Jessa Marie V. Makabenta, Jungmi Park, Cheng-Hsuan Li, Aritra Nath Chattopadhyay, Ahmed Nabawy, Ryan F. Landis, Akash Gupta, Suzannah Schmidt-Malan, Robin Patel, Vincent M. Rotello

Chemistry Department Faculty Publication Series

Biofilm infections are a global public health threat, necessitating new treatment strategies. Biofilm formation also contributes to the development and spread of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial strains. Biofilm-associated chronic infections typically involve colonization by more than one bacterial species. The co-existence of multiple species of bacteria in biofilms exacerbates therapeutic challenges and can render traditional antibiotics ineffective. Polymeric nanoparticles offer alternative antimicrobial approaches to antibiotics, owing to their tunable physico-chemical properties. Here, we report the efficacy of poly(oxanorborneneimide) (PONI)-based antimicrobial polymeric nanoparticles (PNPs) against multi-species bacterial biofilms. PNPs showed good dual-species biofilm penetration profiles as confirmed by confocal laser scanning microscopy. …


Improving Probabilistic Infectious Disease Forecasting Through Coherence, Graham Casey Gibson, Kelly R. Moran, Nicholas G. Reich, Dave Osthus Jan 2021

Improving Probabilistic Infectious Disease Forecasting Through Coherence, Graham Casey Gibson, Kelly R. Moran, Nicholas G. Reich, Dave Osthus

Biostatistics and Epidemiology Faculty Publications Series

Author summary Seasonal influenza causes a significant public health burden nationwide. Accurate influenza forecasting may help public health officials allocate resources and plan responses to emerging outbreaks. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports influenza data at multiple geographical units, including regionally and nationally, where the national data are by construction a weighted sum of the regional data. In an effort to improve influenza forecast accuracy across all models submitted to the CDC's annual flu forecasting challenge, we examined the effect of imposing this geographical constraint on the set of independent forecasts, made publicly available by the …


Modulating Glutathione Thiol Status Alters Pancreatic Β-Cell Morphogenesis In The Developing Zebrafish (Danio Rerio) Embryo, Archit Rastogi, Emily G. Severance, Haydee M. Jacobs, Sarah M. Conlin, Sadia T. Islam, Alicia R. Timme-Laragy Jan 2021

Modulating Glutathione Thiol Status Alters Pancreatic Β-Cell Morphogenesis In The Developing Zebrafish (Danio Rerio) Embryo, Archit Rastogi, Emily G. Severance, Haydee M. Jacobs, Sarah M. Conlin, Sadia T. Islam, Alicia R. Timme-Laragy

Environmental Health Sciences Faculty Publication Series

Emerging evidence suggests that redox-active chemicals perturb pancreatic islet development. To better understand potential mechanisms for this, we used zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos to investigate roles of glutathione (GSH; predominant cellular redox buffer) and the transcription factor Nrf2a (Nfe2l2a; zebrafish Nrf2 coortholog) in islet morphogenesis. We delineated critical windows of susceptibility to redox disruption of beta-cell morphogenesis, interrogating embryos at 24, 48 and 72 h post fertilization (hpf) and visualized Nrf2a expression in the pancreas using whole-mount immunohistochemistry at 96 hpf. Chemical GSH modulation at 48 hpf induced significant islet morphology changes at 96 hpf. Pro-oxidant exposures to tert-butylhydroperoxide (77.6 …


Computational Modeling Of The Gut Microbiota Reveals Putative Metabolic Mechanisms Of Recurrent Clostridioides Difficile Infection, Michael A. Henson Jan 2021

Computational Modeling Of The Gut Microbiota Reveals Putative Metabolic Mechanisms Of Recurrent Clostridioides Difficile Infection, Michael A. Henson

Chemical Engineering Faculty Publication Series

Author summary Clostridioides difficile is an opportunistic human pathogen responsible for acute and sometimes chronic infections of the colon. Elderly individuals who are immunocompromised, frequently hospitalized and antibiotic recipients are particular susceptible to C. difficile infection (CDI). Approximately 30% of CDI patients will suffer at least one episode of reinfection, commonly termed recurrence. The objective of the current study was to utilize computational metabolic modeling to investigate the hypothesis that recurrent infections are related to the composition of the gut bacterial community within each patient. Our modeling results suggest that patients who have high abundances of the bacterial family Enterobacteriaceae …


Unraveling The Mechanisms Of Surround Suppression In Early Visual Processing, Yao Li, Lai-Sang Young Jan 2021

Unraveling The Mechanisms Of Surround Suppression In Early Visual Processing, Yao Li, Lai-Sang Young

Mathematics and Statistics Department Faculty Publication Series

This paper uses mathematical modeling to study the mechanisms of surround suppression in the primate visual cortex. We present a large-scale neural circuit alistic modeling work are used. The remaining parameters are chosen to produce model outputs that emulate experimentally observed size-tuning curves. Our two main results are: (i) we discovered the character of the long-range connections in Layer 6 responsible for surround effects in the input layers; and (ii) we showed that a net-inhibitory feedback, i.e., feedback that excites I-cells more than E-cells, from Layer 6 to Layer 4 is conducive to producing surround properties consistent with experimental data. …