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Dec 2025
The body interacts with endogenous and exogenous molecules through various receptor networks at the cellular and organismal levels by which the different physiological processes of the organ systems get activated. Life could no longer exist without the body’s interaction with these signaling molecules. The number of molecules interacted with a receptor type within the body determines the efficiency of biological processes that would determine the biochemistry and anatomy behind the basic body functions. The dose plays a complex role in multiple physiological processes by modulating the natural processes of the different biological systems. It is always connected to the physiological and anatomical aspects of the biological sciences in which it manifests the biological sensitivity that would determine the efficiency of biological responses of the body systems. There are always physiologic and non-physiologic doses for every compound administered into the biological systems. The does that facilitated the body to manifest that biological sensitivity which has maintained the physiological processes of the body systems was noted as physiologic dose, whereas the dose that has suppressed the biological sensitivity of the body that became inefficient in maintaining the physiological processes of the different biological systems was termed non-physiologic dose. It is important to adjust the dose or dosage based on physical and biological factors such as the efficiency of the different organ systems, body weight, and the timing of the dose triggering a biological response to maintain the natural processes of the body systems. This means that integrated biological data is required in order to be able to identify the physiologic and non physiologic doses for biological or pharmacological use.
Aug 2025 DOI 10.14302/issn.2690-4829.jen-25-5617
Redox enzymes are a type of enzyme that catalyzes redox reactions, that is, electron transfer reactions between two chemical species. Redox enzymes are essential for many biological processes, including cellular respiration, photosynthesis, energy production, and the elimination of free radicals. They are divided into two main types: oxidoreductases and electron transferases. Oxidoreductases catalyze the direct transfer of electrons between two chemical species, while electron transferases catalyze electron transfer by cofactors. Examples of redox enzymes include cytochrome c oxidase, NADH dehydrogenase, succinate dehydrogenase, and catalase. Each of these enzymes play an important role in cellular metabolism and organism homeostasis.
Jun 2022 DOI 10.14302/issn.2641-4538.jphi-22-4197
Aim and Objective Despite the growing concerns about the relationship between exposure to radiofrequency radiation (RFR) and detrimental health effects due to the changes in biological processes of experimental animals, there is still ongoing debate on the significance of these findings in causing significant public health problems with the growing advancement in internet technology. The aim of this study is to review existing literature on the effects of high RFR on wistar rats. Method A search was conducted on Google scholar and PubMed to identify relevant peer-reviewed articles to be included into the review. Studies eligible for inclusion included free full text articles on wistar rats exposed to ≥ 2.45GHz RFR conducted in the past 5 years. Studies included in this review were written or transcribed in English language. From 286 titles, 36 eligible studies were included in the review and assessed for quality using the Strengthening the Report of Observational Studies in Epidemiology – Veterinary Extension (STROBE-Vet) quality assessment tool. Results Studies included in this review generally had good quality (>60%) based on the STROBE-Vet assessment. This review identified numerous biological changes in wistar rats exposed to high RFR including variations in biochemical, cholinergic, genetic, histopathologic, psychological, optical, and dermatological parameters. In this review, studies identified variations in protein and liver enzymes while high RFR was found to induce oxidative stress and cellular damage of exposed wistar rats compared to the unexposed groups. This was seen in the changes in protein, lipids, enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants. Studies also identified changes in expression of genes and neurotransmitters with imbalance in hormones. In addition, this review identified structural changes of cells, tissues and organs indicative of apoptosis, damage and death. Exposed rats were identified to have behavioral changes indicative of anxiety and memory decline while studies identified optical and dermatologic changes in exposed rats compared to the unexposed. Conclusion With numerous biological changes identified in wistar rats exposed to high RFR, there is an increasing risk of detrimental health events giving the advancement in internet technology and limited regulations to control exposures to RFR. Therefore, studies should be conducted to identify strategies to mitigate human exposure to RFR while policies are developed and enforced to protect human health.
Apr 2019 DOI 10.14302/issn.2328-0182.japst-19-2759
Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide, and there is a constant need for new treatment strategies. Sesquiterpene lactones containing a 3-methylenedihydrofuran-2(3H)-one (or α-methylene-γ-lactone) moiety, for example damsin (1), are Michael acceptors that affect biological processes such as cell proliferation, death/apoptosis, and cell migration, by interfering with cell signalling pathways. Although the reactivity of the α-methylene-γ-lactone moiety is important for these effects, the Michael addition is reversible and it can be assumed that also other parts of the molecules will moderate any given biological activity. In this investigation, the cytotoxicity of 23 -methylene--lactones towards normal breast epithelial MCF-10A cells as well as breast cancer JIMT-1 cells is compared. Most of the investigated compounds are semisynthetic derivatives prepared by the condensation of the natural product damsin (1) with aldehydes. The two cell lines were treated with various concentrations of the compounds in dose response assays, and the 50 % inhibitory concentration (IC50) was determined from dose response curves. The IC50 values were found to depend strongly on the overall structure. The ratio between the IC50 values for MCF-10A and JIMT-1 cells, as a measure for the selectivity of a compound to kill cancer cells, was calculated, and found to vary between just over 1 to more than 10. The most potent derivatives formed from the condensation of 1 with aromatic aldehydes towards JIMT-1 cells are 3a and 3i, both with ratios between the IC50 values for MCF-10A and JIMT-1 cells close to 5. Also some aldol condensation products with acyclic aldehydes, i.e. 3r and 3u, were equally potent, and the latter showed the highest selectivity (ratio > 10). Structure-activity relationships that may explain the observed differences in potency and selectivity are discussed.
Oct 2018 DOI 10.14302/issn.2326-0793.jpgr-18-2312
All aspects of life activities in living cells are mediated/executed and regulated by a vast number of networks, comprising a wide spectrum of components, starting with simple biomolecules and ending with the whole organism, and functioning within a precisely organized tight framework. Proper mediation of cellular activities necessitates their inclusion within the context of structured and organized network systems capable of regulating/coordinating and synchronizing the countless numbers of biological processes occurring within living cells. The number of biological networks and pathways within the living cell is considerably huge, being dependent on the structural complexity and functional capabilities of the cell. Pathogenesis and progression of human diseases result from functional disturbances of biological networks within the cell as disturbed network function leads to deleterious effects on physiological processes dependent on, and mediated by, affected network(s). Ensuing pathological processes, defined by the nature of disturbed networks and the specific organs or tissues affected, pave the way for the development of pathognomonic and characteristic disease entities. As most network functions are dependent on relatively small number of key regulatory biomolecules, i.e. enzymes/proteins and signal transducing factors, it follows that functional disturbances of biological networks and pathogenesis of disease states can be attributed, in most instances, to quantitative and/or qualitative abnormalities of these key regulatory molecules. Study and analysis of the structural designs and the functional mechanisms of biological networks would have crucial and important impacts on many theoretical and applied aspects of biology, in general, and of medical sciences in particular. Meticulous study of biological networks represents an important and integral aspect in study of biology. Interpretation and analysis of key information deduced from observing and analyzing structural designs and functional characteristics and dynamics of biological networks discloses and defines the basic framework within which life activities in living cells are initiated, adapted to physiological requirements, maintained, and terminated upon completion of their aims. More important, however, is the contribution of this information to proper understanding of the different mechanisms responsible for regulating and synchronizing the functions and performances of the vast spectrum of different network categories within the cell. In addition to its vital scientific significance, discovering and defining the key pivotal structural and regulatory molecules within life-mediating networks, and along different pathways responsible for controlling functional dynamics of the network, represent an indispensable diagnostic approach insistent for designing proper therapeutic approaches to diseases caused by network defects.
Feb 2018 DOI 10.14302/issn.2832-5311.jpcd-18-1955
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are covalently closed single-stranded loop RNA molecules with or without protein coding capability. CircRNAs were previously considered to be splicing intermediates or artifacts but are now found to be pervasively expressed in all eukaryotes studied with some demonstrated to have important molecular functions in various biological processes. CircRNA is now a hot study topic of molecular biology. In this review, we summarize the progress achieved so far on plant circRNAs, including identification and functional characterization, compare the similarities and differences of circRNAs between plants and animals, and discuss the challenges for confident detection and functional investigation of plant circRNAs. Similar to what have been found in animals, plant genomes contain a large number of circRNAs that potentially regulate a wide range of biological progresses related to plant development and biotic/abiotic responses. Despite only a few plant circRNAs have been functionally characterized, novel function/mechanism that has not been reported in animals was revealed, implying more exciting findings about plant circRNAs are expected in future studies.
Jul 2017 DOI 10.14302/issn.2326-0793.JPGR-17-1571
Perkinsus marinus is an intracellular parasitic protozoan that is responsible for serious disease epizootics in marine bivalve mollusks worldwide. Despite all available information on P. marinus genomics, more baseline data is required at the proteomic level. Our aim was to study the proteome profile of in vitro cultured P. marinus isolated from oysters Crassostrea spp. using a label-free shotgun UDMSE approach. A total of 4073 non-redundant proteins were identified across three biological replicates with stringent identification. Proteins specifically related to adaptive survival, cell recognition, antioxidants, regulation of apoptosis and others were detected. Important virulence factors of P. marinus were identified including serine protease and iron-dependent superoxide dismutase. Other proteins with involvement in several pathogens invasion strategies were rhoptries, serine-threonine kinases, and protein phosphatases. Interestingly, peptides corresponding to retroviruses polyproteins were identified in all replicates. The interactomic analysis of P. marinus proteins demonstrated extensive clusters network related to biological processes. In conclusion, we provide the first comprehensive proteomic profile of P. marinus that can be useful for further investigations on Perkinsus biology and virulence mechanisms.
Jan 2017 DOI 10.14302/issn.2574-4372.jesr-16-1395
Calcium (Ca2+) plays a central role in regulating many biological processes in the cell from muscle contraction to neurotransmitter release. The need for reliable fluorescent calcium indicator dyes is of vast importance for studying many aspects of cell biology as well as screening compounds using phenotypic high throughput assays. We have assessed two of the latest generation of calcium indicator dyes, FLIPR Calcium 6 and Cal-520 AM for studying calcium transients (CaTs) in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) -derived human cardiomyocytes. FLIPR Calcium 6 and Cal-520 dyes both displayed robust CaTs with a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and were non-toxic to the cells. The analysis showed that CaT amplitudes were stable between measurements, but CaT duration was more variable and tended to increase between reads. Two methods were compared for drug-screening hit-selection; difference in average (unstandardized) and standardized difference. The unstandardized difference was better for assessing CaT amplitude, whereas standardized difference was equal to or better for assessing CaT duration. In summary, FLIPR Calcium 6 and Cal-520 are suitable dyes for drug-screening using iPSC-derived human cardiomyocytes.
Jan 2014 DOI 10.14302/issn.2326-0793.jpgr-13-357
Mass spectrometry (MS) has been successfully used to analyze biological samples and advances of MS-based approaches have turn MS data from largely qualitative to quantitative. These MS-based quantitative approaches using label-free, tags, or stable isotope labeling have their own strengths and limitations. The variability introduced by different methods prior to quantitative mass spectrometry should be considered, and accuracy and precision of MS measurements can also vary depending on the strategy used for MS quantification. Therefore, the development of methods for accurate protein quantitation is one of the most challenging areas of proteomics. Using these quantitative approaches, one can investigate the dynamics of proteome through differential protein expression in normal biological processes and diseases.