Short protocols in molecular biology

Mushrooms have been consumed since earliest history; ancient Greeks believed that mushrooms provided strength for warriors in battle, and the Romans perceived them as the “Food of the Gods.” For centuries, the Chinese culture has treasured mushrooms as a health food, an “elixir of life.” They have been part of the human culture for thousands of years and have considerable interest in the most important civilizations in history because of their sensory characteristics; they have been recognized for their attractive culinary attributes. Nowadays, mushrooms are popular valuable foods because they are low in calories, carbohydrates, fat, and sodium: also, they are cholesterol-free. Besides, mushrooms provide important nutrients, including selenium, potassium, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin D, proteins, and fiber. All together with a long history as food source, mushrooms are important for their healing capacities and properties in traditional medicine. It has reported beneficial effects for health and treatment of some diseases. Many nutraceutical properties are described in mushrooms, such as prevention or treatment of Parkinson, Alzheimer, hypertension, and high risk of stroke. They are also utilized to reduce the likelihood of cancer invasion and metastasis due to antitumoral attributes. Mushrooms act as antibacterial, immune system enhancer and cholesterol lowering agents; additionally, they are important sources of bioactive compounds. As a result of these properties, some mushroom extracts are used to promote human health and are found as dietary supplements.

/pdf/edible-mushrooms-improving-human-health-and-promoting-3oob3blqbm.pdf

Edible Mushrooms: Improving Human Health and Promoting Quality Life

The orderly migration of various white blood cell types to inflammatory sites is a highly regulated process that involves a diversity of adhesion and signaling molecules. This cellular influx is initiated by relatively low affinity interactions that allow for leukocytes to roll along the vascular surfa ce. This rolling phe­ nomenon is mediated by adhesive interactions between lectin containing ad­ hesion molecules, termed selectins, on both the vascular endothelium and leukocytes, and car bohydrate ligands immobilized on mucin-like scaffolds. This adhesion allows for a rapid recognition of various cell types under the conditions of vascular flow, with the result that inflammatory cells are spe­

Interactions and the initiation of the inflammatory response

Oxidative stress (OS) is considered as one of the etiologic factors involved in several signals and symptoms of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) that include diarrhea, toxic megacolon and abdominal pain. This systematic review discusses approaches, challenges and perspectives into the use of nontraditional antioxidant therapy on IBD, including natural and synthetic compounds in both human and animal models. One hundred and thirty four papers were identified, of which only four were evaluated in humans. Some of the challenges identified in this review can shed light on this fact: lack of standardization of OS biomarkers, absence of safety data and clinical trials for the chemicals and biological molecules, as well as the fact that most of the compounds were not repeatedly tested in several situations, including acute and chronic colitis. This review hopes to stimulate researchers to become more involved in this fruitful area, to warrant investigation of novel, alternative and efficacious antioxidant-based therapies.

Antioxidant therapy for treatment of inflammatory bowel disease: Does it work?

Bioactive proteins from mushrooms

Lectins are nonimmune proteins or glycoproteins that bind specifically to cell surface carbohydrates, culminating in cell agglutination. These are known to play key roles in host defense system and also in metastasis. Many new sources have been explored for the occurrence of lectins during the last few years. Numerous novel lectins with unique specificities and exploitable properties have been discovered. Mushrooms have attracted a number of researchers in food and pharmaceuticals. Many species have long been used in traditional Chinese medicines or functional foods in Japan and other Asian countries. A number of bioactive constituents have been isolated from mushrooms including polysaccharides, polysaccharopeptides, polysaccharide–protein complexes, proteases, ribonucleases, ribosome inactivating proteins, antifungal proteins, immunomodulatory proteins, enzymes, lectins, etc. Mushroom lectins are endowed with mitogenic, antiproliferative, antitumor, antiviral, and immunestimulating potential. In this review, an attempt has been made to collate the information on mushroom lectins, their blood group and sugar specificities, with an emphasis on their biomedical potential and future perspectives.

Mushroom lectins: Current status and future perspectives

Lectins are widespread in nature and have been isolated from plants, animals, microorganisms, and viruses. Although several lectins have been reported from microfungi, many more genera still remain unexplored and their physiological role is also uncertain. Microfungal lectins show wide disparity regarding their specificity to erythrocytes. Only a few lectins display specificity to particular human blood types. In addition, they also show agglutination to various animal erythrocytes. Many lectins from microfungi exhibit stringent specificity to animal glycoproteins, while a few have much more simplified sugar binding properties. The role of few microfungal lectins in host-parasite interactions, as storage proteins, and in growth and morphogenesis has been proposed. The current review focuses on an overview of lectins from microfungi, their specificity towards erythrocytes and carbohydrates, physicochemical characteristics, and their possible role and applications.

Current trends of lectins from microfungi.

Characteristics of yeast lectins and their role in cell-cell interactions.

Ten species of Aspergillus were screened for occurrence of lectins. Each of the species was investigated for the occurrence of extracellular, surface-bound and intracellular lectin activities. As many as four species namely, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus versicolor, Aspergillus rugulosus and Aspergillus nidulans, were found to possess intracellular lectin activities, while none of the species showed extracellular or surface-bound lectin activities. Each of the lectin was characterized with respect to blood group and carbohydrate specificities. All the lectins were found to agglutinate human erythrocytes, irrespective of their blood group and pig erythrocytes. However, they did not show agglutination with sheep or goat erythrocytes. Of the various carbohydrates tested, all lectins were found to be specific for inulin, mucin, asialofetuin, N-acetyl galactosamine, melibiose, D-ribose, L-fucose, D-arabinose, D-sucrose and D-mannitol. The minimum inhibitory concentration of each of the specific sugars was also determined. The lectins were partially purified using ammonium sulfate precipitation technique. Each of the lectin was found to be precipitated at 40-50% saturation of ammonium sulfate, yielding about 80% of lectin activity.

Screening of Aspergillus species for occurrence of lectins and their characterization

Keratinases hydrolyze structural protein called keratin into constituent peptides. The present study reports excellent washing efficiency and dehairing properties of thermostable and halotolerant keratinase from Bacillus aerius NSMk2. Alkaline keratinase with molecular mass of 9 kDa displayed remarkable thermostability. K+ , Na+ , Ca2+ , Mn2+ , β-mercaptoethanol, sodium sulfite, dithiothreitol, ethanol, isopropanol, Tween-20, and Tween-80 stimulated keratinase activity, while Hg2+ and Ba2+ were found to be inhibitory. The enzyme efficiently hydrolyzed a variety of complex protein substrates and exhibited high catalytic efficiency toward keratin-rich substrates and least toward collagen. Keratinase showed exceptional stability to salinity and was found to be compatible with most of the commercial detergents. Efficient removal of chocolate, blood, and egg albumin stains from clothes and tolerance to elevated temperature and salinity potentiated the suitability of keratinase from B. aerius NSMk2 as laundary additive. Keratinase could efficiently dehair goat skin after 15 hr of incubation without damaging the grain structure and collagen layers that assures its use as a promising contender for leather industry.

Ranjeeta Bhari

Papers

Mushroom lectins: Current status and future perspectives

Current trends of lectins from microfungi.

Characteristics of yeast lectins and their role in cell-cell interactions.

Screening of Aspergillus species for occurrence of lectins and their characterization

Thermostable and halotolerant keratinase from Bacillus aerius NSMk2 with remarkable dehairing and laundary applications.