Biotechnological potential of lipases from Pseudomonas: Sources, properties and applications

Development of nanobiocatalysts through the immobilization of Pseudomonas fluorescens lipase for applications in efficient kinetic resolution of racemic compounds.

Despite aggressive multimodal treatment, glioblastoma (GBM), a grade IV primary brain tumor, still portends a poor prognosis with a median overall survival of 12–16 months. The complexity of GBM treatment mainly lies in the inter- and intra-tumoral heterogeneity, which largely contributes to the treatment-refractory and recurrent nature of GBM. By paving the road towards the development of personalized medicine for GBM patients, the cancer genome atlas classification scheme of GBM into distinct transcriptional subtypes has been considered an invaluable approach to overcoming this heterogeneity. Among the identified transcriptional subtypes, the mesenchymal subtype has been found associated with more aggressive, invasive, angiogenic, hypoxic, necrotic, inflammatory, and multitherapy-resistant features than other transcriptional subtypes. Accordingly, mesenchymal GBM patients were found to exhibit worse prognosis than other subtypes when patients with high transcriptional heterogeneity were excluded. Furthermore, identification of the master mesenchymal regulators and their downstream signaling pathways has not only increased our understanding of the complex regulatory transcriptional networks of mesenchymal GBM, but also has generated a list of potent inhibitors for clinical trials. Importantly, the mesenchymal transition of GBM has been found to be tightly associated with treatment-induced phenotypic changes in recurrence. Together, these findings indicate that elucidating the governing and plastic transcriptomic natures of mesenchymal GBM is critical in order to develop novel and selective therapeutic strategies that can improve both patient care and clinical outcomes. Thus, the focus of our review will be on the recent advances in the understanding of the transcriptome of mesenchymal GBM and discuss microenvironmental, metabolic, and treatment-related factors as critical components through which the mesenchymal signature may be acquired. We also take into consideration the transcriptomic plasticity of GBM to discuss the future perspectives in employing selective therapeutic strategies against mesenchymal GBM.

/pdf/perspective-of-mesenchymal-transformation-in-glioblastoma-1o9l3nxcy5.pdf

Perspective of mesenchymal transformation in glioblastoma

Water pollution kills nearly 2 million people and costs trillions of dollars every year, which continuously threatens the survival of both human and animal species in the world. The textile industry is considered as pollutant-releasing industries in water. In this research work, we firstly report the synthesis of cerium oxide (CeO2) nanoparticles in the range of quantum dots (QDs). Syntheses of cerium oxide nanomaterials were assisted by using three different surfactants, i.e., sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS; anionic), cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB; cationic), and cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC; cationic); the surfactants control the growth and particle size of the prepared material. The nanomaterials were characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometer (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and thermogravimetric/differential thermal analyses (TG/DTA), together with Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL). The particle size of such CeO2 nanoparticles ranges between 1.66 and 4.36 nm. Their catalytic role was successfully investigated in Fenton reaction for the oxidative removal of methylene blue (MB) dye. The efficiency of Fenton reaction using such CeO2 QDs has been used to highlight the importance of such nanosized catalysts for wastewater treatment.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s42114-020-00159-z.pdf

Surfactant-assisted cerium oxide and its catalytic activity towards Fenton process for non-degradable dye

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2017/gc/c7gc00896a

Immobilization engineering – How to design advanced sol–gel systems for biocatalysis?

Background and Objectives: Over decades, prostate cancer (PCa) has become one of the leading causes of cancer mortality in men. Extensive evidence exists that microRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) are key players in PCa and a new class of non-invasive cancer biomarkers. Materials and Methods: We performed miRNA profiling in plasma and tissues of PCa patients and attempted the validation of candidate individual miRs as biomarkers. Results: The comparison of tissue and plasma profiling results revealed five commonly dysregulated miRs, namely, miR-130a-3p, miR-145-5p, miR-148a-3p, miR-150-5p, and miR-365a-3p, of which only three show concordant changes-miR-130a-3p and miR-150-5p were downregulated and miR-148a-3p was upregulated in both tissue and plasma samples, respectively. MiR-150-5p was validated as significantly downregulated in both plasma and tissue cancer samples, with a fold change of -2.697 (p < 0.001), and -1.693 (p = 0.035), respectively. ROC analysis showed an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.817 (95% CI: 0.680-0.995) for plasma samples and 0.809 (95% CI: 0.616-1.001) for tissue samples. Conclusions: We provide data indicating that miR-150-5p plasma variations in PCa patients are associated with concordant changes in prostate cancer tissues; however, given the heterogeneous nature of previous findings of miR-150-5p expression in PCa cells, additional future studies of a larger sample size are warranted in order to confirm the biomarker potential and role of miRNA-150-5p in PCa biology.

https://www.mdpi.com/1648-9144/55/9/564/pdf

Biomarker Potential of Plasma MicroRNA-150-5p in Prostate Cancer.

Lipase from Pseudomonas fluorescens (Amano AK) was immobilized using the sol-gel entrapment technique and sol-gel entrapment combined with adsorption on a solid support (Celite 545). The sol-gel matrices were obtained using as precursors ternary mixtures of tetramethoxysilane and trimethoxysilanes substituted with phenyl or vinyl groups, at different molar ratios, and l-octyl-3-methyl-immidazolium tetrafluoroborate as additive. The obtained enzymatic preparates were efficient biocatalysts in the acylation reaction of racemic secondary alcohols. Several methods were employed for the characterization of the resulting bioactive materials, in order to correlate the catalytic performance with the morphological and physico-chemical properties of the matrix: Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), BET-analysis of specific surface and porosity, laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). An extensive stu...

Influence of the Physico-Chemical Characteristics of the Hybrid Matrix on the Catalytic Properties of Sol-Gel Entrapped Pseudomonas Fluorescens Lipase

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been proven to regulate the development and progression of cancer through various mechanisms. The aim of the present study was to compare miRNA expression between primary melanomas from different sites. We analyzed the expression of 84 miRNAs in 27 primary melanoma and 5 nevus formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples using the Human Cancer PathwayFinder miScript miRNA PCR Array. The FFPE samples were obtained from the archives of the Municipal Clinical Emergency Hospital of Timisoara and included 10 cutaneous melanomas, 10 uveal melanomas, 7 mucosal melanomas, and 5 cutaneous nevi. Out of 84 miRNAs, 11 miRNAs showed altered expression in all types of melanoma compared with the nevi. Among these, miR-155-5p, miR-9-5p, miR-142-5p, miR-19a-3p, miR-134-5p, and miR-301a-3p were upregulated, while miR-205-5p, miR-203a-3p, miR-27b-3p, miR-218-5p, and miR-23b-3p were downregulated. The highest similarity in miRNA expression pattern was found between uveal and mucosal melanoma groups, i.e., 15 miRNAs had altered expression in both groups. Overall, we identified several miRNAs with significantly altered expression in primary melanomas, including those reported for the first time in this type of cancer. Among them, mir-9-5p, mir-203a-3p, mir-19a-3p, mir-27b-3p, and mir-218-5p showed altered expression in all three melanoma types vs. nevi. Further research should explore the potential of these miRNAs in melanoma.

/pdf/a-preliminary-study-of-microrna-expression-in-different-4la5kzmyy6.pdf

A preliminary study of microRNA expression in different types of primary melanoma.

Background: Prostate cancer (PCa) remains one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality in men worldwide, mainly due to unsatisfactory diagnostic methods used at present, which lead to overdiagnosis, unnecessary biopsies and treatment, or misdiagnosis in early asymptomatic stages. New diagnostic biomarkers are needed for a correct and early diagnosis. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been broadly studied for their involvement in PCa biology, as well as for their potential role as diagnostic biomarkers. Methods: We conducted lncRNA profiling in plasma and microdissected formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues of PCa patients and attempted validation for commonly dysregulated individual lncRNAs. Results: Plasma profiling revealed eight dysregulated lncRNAs, while microarray analysis revealed 717 significantly dysregulated lncRNAs, out of which only nuclear-enriched abundant transcript 1 (NEAT1) was commonly upregulated in plasma samples and FFPE tissues. NEAT1’s individual validation revealed statistically significant upregulation (FC = 2.101, p = 0.009). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed an area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.7298 for NEAT1 (95% CI = 0.5812–0.8785), suggesting a relatively high diagnostic value, thus having a potential biomarker role for this malignancy. Conclusions: We present herein data suggesting that NEAT1 could serve as a diagnostic biomarker for PCa. Additional studies of larger cohorts are needed to confirm our findings, as well as the oncogenic mechanism of NEAT1 in the development of PCa.

https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/11/4/320/pdf

Long Noncoding RNA NEAT1 as a Potential Candidate Biomarker for Prostate Cancer

Periodontal disease is an inflammatory, dysbiotic condition. Studies have shown that in the elderly, periodontal disease was associated with cognitive dysfunction and Alzheimer’s disease. To investigate whether young healthy subjects with periodontal disease have lower cognition compared to those without periodontal disease. The salivary cytokines (IL-1β, TNF-α) levels in relation to cognition were also tested. In a monocenter, cross-sectional study, forty subjects [mean age (SD) = 34 (5) and 48% female] from western Romania were classified into periodontal disease conditions using radiographic assessment: 10 subjects had aggressive periodontitis (AGG_P), 20 chronic mild-moderate periodontitis (CR_P), and 10 no periodontitis (NL_P). Neuropsychological assessment performed by standardized neurologists and psychologist included Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), Montreal Cognitive Assessment test (MOCA), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and Prague tests. Salivary cytokines levels were determined by ELISA. RAVLT and MOCA delayed recall scores were lower in AGG_P group compared to NL_P and CR_P. The learning curve was also different with subjects with AGG_P showing reduced learning performance. Contrary to our hypothesis, salivary IL-1β associated with immediate but not delayed cognitive scores. These results showed for the first time that subjects with AGG_P had cognitive dysfunction and IL-1β may play a role in this process.

/pdf/cognitive-dysfunction-in-young-subjects-with-periodontal-n3y57wav60.pdf

Anca Marcu

Papers

Biomarker Potential of Plasma MicroRNA-150-5p in Prostate Cancer.

Influence of the Physico-Chemical Characteristics of the Hybrid Matrix on the Catalytic Properties of Sol-Gel Entrapped Pseudomonas Fluorescens Lipase

A preliminary study of microRNA expression in different types of primary melanoma.

Long Noncoding RNA NEAT1 as a Potential Candidate Biomarker for Prostate Cancer

Cognitive dysfunction in young subjects with periodontal disease