The authors investigated prophages present in Streptococcus bacteria that may increase their survival in different environments.
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Estimation of cytokines in PHA-activated mononuclear cells isolated from human peripheral and cord blood
In this study, the authors investigated the time-dependent cytokine secretion ability of phyto-hemagglutinin (PHA)-activated T cells derived from human peripheral (PB) and cord blood (CB). They hypothesized that the anti-inflammatory cytokine, IL-10, and pro-inflammatory cytokine, TNFα, levels would be higher in PHA-activated T cells obtained from PB as compared to the levels obtained from CB and would decrease over time. Upon PHA-activation, the IL-10 levels were relatively high while the TNFα levels decreased, making these findings applicable in therapeutic treatments e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and organ transplantation.
Read More...TNF signaling pathway upregulation as a potential pharmaceutical target for cocaine-addicted individuals
In this article, the authors investigate the RNA expression differences between groups of chronic cocaine abusers and drug-free subjects.
Read More...Structure-activity relationship of berberine and G4 DNA reveals aromaticity’s effect on binding affinity
Berberine is a natural quaternary alkaloid that has anti-microbial and anti-cancer effects. This compound can bind to Guanine Quadruplex (G4) DNA secondary complexes to help inhibit cancer cell proliferation. In this study, the authors investigate whether incorporating large aromatic rings helps to stabilize berberine-G4 interactions.
Read More...The Role of a Mask - Understanding the Performance of Deep Neural Networks to Detect, Segment, and Extract Cellular Nuclei from Microscopy Images
Cell segmentation is the task of identifying cell nuclei instances in fluorescence microscopy images. The goal of this paper is to benchmark the performance of representative deep learning techniques for cell nuclei segmentation using standard datasets and common evaluation criteria. This research establishes an important baseline for cell nuclei segmentation, enabling researchers to continually refine and deploy neural models for real-world clinical applications.
Read More...Sepia bandensis ink inhibits polymerase chain reactions
While cephalopods play significant roles in both ecosystems and medical research, there is currently no assembled genome. In an attempt to sequence the Sepia bandensis genome, it was found that there was inhibition from the organism during DNA extraction, resulting in PCR failure. In this study, researchers tested the hypothesis that S. bandensis ink inhibits PCR. They then assessed the impact of ink on multiple methods of DNA extraction
Read More...Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma: An Analysis of Drug Therapy Options through Interaction Maps and Graph Theory
Cancer is often caused by improper function of a few proteins, and sometimes it takes only a few proteins to malfunction to cause drastic changes in cells. Here the authors look at the genes that were mutated in patients with a type of pancreatic cancer to identify proteins that are important in causing cancer. They also determined which proteins currently lack effective treatment, and suggest that certain proteins (named KRAS, CDKN2A, and RBBP8) are the most important candidates for developing drugs to treat pancreatic cancer.
Read More...A Phylogenetic Study of Conifers Describes Their Evolutionary Relationships and Reveals Potential Explanations for Current Distribution Patterns
Many species of trees are distributed widely around the world, though not always in a way that makes immediate sense. The authors here use genetic information to help explain the geographic distribution of various conifer species throughout the world.
Read More...Genetic underpinnings of the sex bias in autism spectrum disorder
Here, seeking to identify a possible explanation for the more frequent diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in males than females, they sought to investigate a potential sex bias in the expression of ASD-associated genes. Based on their analysis, they identified 17 ASD-associated candidate genes that showed stronger collective sex-dependent expression.
Read More...Mismatch repair is not correlated with genomic alterations in glioblastoma patients
The authors looked at biomarkers in glioblastoma patients they hypothesized to be correlated with survival rate. Ultimately they did not find hMSH2 or hMSH6, genes involved in mismatch repair, to be significantly associated with outcomes related to increased survival.
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