scholarly journals Advanced Nanoscale Approaches to Single-(Bio)entity Sensing and Imaging

Biosensors ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Neves ◽  
Daniel Martín-Yerga
Keyword(s):  
Nucleic Acids ◽  
Physicochemical Properties ◽  
Biological Systems ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Average Response ◽  
Single Entity ◽  
Conventional Methods ◽  
Stochastic Events ◽  
Conventional Detection

Individual (bio)chemical entities could show a very heterogeneous behaviour under the same conditions that could be relevant in many biological processes of significance in the life sciences. Conventional detection approaches are only able to detect the average response of an ensemble of entities and assume that all entities are identical. From this perspective, important information about the heterogeneities or rare (stochastic) events happening in individual entities would remain unseen. Some nanoscale tools present interesting physicochemical properties that enable the possibility to detect systems at the single-entity level, acquiring richer information than conventional methods. In this review, we introduce the foundations and the latest advances of several nanoscale approaches to sensing and imaging individual (bio)entities using nanoprobes, nanopores, nanoimpacts, nanoplasmonics and nanomachines. Several (bio)entities such as cells, proteins, nucleic acids, vesicles and viruses are specifically considered. These nanoscale approaches provide a wide and complete toolbox for the study of many biological systems at the single-entity level.

scholarly journals Enantioselective Catalytic C-H Amidations: An Highlight

Catalysts ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 471
Author(s):  
Eleonora Tosi ◽  
Renata Marcia de Figueiredo ◽  
Jean-Marc Campagne
Keyword(s):  
Biological Activity ◽  
Chemical Synthesis ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Medicinal Chemistry ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Chiral Molecules ◽  
Material Sciences ◽  
Innovative Approaches

The crucial role played by compounds bearing amide functions, not only in biological processes but also in several fields of chemistry, life polymers and material sciences, has brought about many significant discoveries and innovative approaches for their chemical synthesis. Indeed, a plethora of strategies has been developed to reach such moieties. Amides within chiral molecules are often associated with biological activity especially in life sciences and medicinal chemistry. In most of these cases, their synthesis requires extensive rethinking methodologies. In the very last years (2019–2020), enantioselective C-H functionalization has appeared as a straightforward alternative to reach chiral amides. Therein, an overview on these transformations within this timeframe is going to be given.

scholarly journals Silencing Antibiotic Resistance with Antisense Oligonucleotides

Biomedicines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 416
Author(s):  
Saumya Jani ◽  
Maria Soledad Ramirez ◽  
Marcelo E. Tolmasky
Keyword(s):  
Antibiotic Resistance ◽  
Nucleic Acids ◽  
Antisense Oligonucleotides ◽  
Bacterial Infections ◽  
Genetic Disorders ◽  
Antibiotic Resistance Genes ◽  
Short Review ◽  
Rnase H ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Locked Nucleic Acids

Antisense technologies consist of the utilization of oligonucleotides or oligonucleotide analogs to interfere with undesirable biological processes, commonly through inhibition of expression of selected genes. This field holds a lot of promise for the treatment of a very diverse group of diseases including viral and bacterial infections, genetic disorders, and cancer. To date, drugs approved for utilization in clinics or in clinical trials target diseases other than bacterial infections. Although several groups and companies are working on different strategies, the application of antisense technologies to prokaryotes still lags with respect to those that target other human diseases. In those cases where the focus is on bacterial pathogens, a subset of the research is dedicated to produce antisense compounds that silence or reduce expression of antibiotic resistance genes. Therefore, these compounds will be adjuvants administered with the antibiotic to which they reduce resistance levels. A varied group of oligonucleotide analogs like phosphorothioate or phosphorodiamidate morpholino residues, as well as peptide nucleic acids, locked nucleic acids and bridge nucleic acids, the latter two in gapmer configuration, have been utilized to reduce resistance levels. The major mechanisms of inhibition include eliciting cleavage of the target mRNA by the host’s RNase H or RNase P, and steric hindrance. The different approaches targeting resistance to β-lactams include carbapenems, aminoglycosides, chloramphenicol, macrolides, and fluoroquinolones. The purpose of this short review is to summarize the attempts to develop antisense compounds that inhibit expression of resistance to antibiotics.

4. Measurement in the life sciences, medicine, and health

2016 ◽  
pp. 60-72
Author(s):  
David J. Hand
Keyword(s):  
Biological Systems ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Modern Medicine ◽  
Pain Anxiety ◽  
Measurement Issues ◽  
Distribution Of Values ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Biological Domain ◽  
Medical Measurement ◽  
Biological Organisms

Biological systems pose particularly challenging measurement issues. This is partly because the biological domain is characterized by complexity and diversity. As a consequence, the results of measuring biological organisms will often result in a distribution of values. A further complication in medicine is that much measurement is of attributes or characteristics relating to internal or subjective phenomena such as of pain, anxiety, and dizziness. ‘Measurement in the life sciences, medicine, and health’ considers the scope of medical measurement, how to measure patients, and how to measure the health of populations. In modern medicine, there are many different reasons for taking a measurement, and hence many different types of measurement.

scholarly journals Platelet Extracellular Vesicles

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Puhm ◽  
Eric Boilard ◽  
Kellie R. Machlus
Keyword(s):  
Bone Marrow ◽  
Synovial Fluid ◽  
Nucleic Acids ◽  
Extracellular Vesicles ◽  
Cell Communication ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Vascular Integrity ◽  
Pathological Conditions ◽  
Broad Array

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are a means of cell-to-cell communication and can facilitate the exchange of a broad array of molecules between adjacent or distant cells. Platelets are anucleate cells derived from megakaryocytes and are primarily known for their role in maintaining hemostasis and vascular integrity. Upon activation by a variety of agonists, platelets readily generate EVs, which were initially identified as procoagulant particles. However, as both platelets and their EVs are abundant in blood, the role of platelet EVs in hemostasis may be redundant. Moreover, findings have challenged the significance of platelet-derived EVs in coagulation. Looking beyond hemostasis, platelet EV cargo is incredibly diverse and can include lipids, proteins, nucleic acids, and organelles involved in numerous other biological processes. Furthermore, while platelets cannot cross tissue barriers, their EVs can enter lymph, bone marrow, and synovial fluid. This allows for the transfer of platelet-derived content to cellular recipients and organs inaccessible to platelets. This review highlights the importance of platelet-derived EVs in physiological and pathological conditions beyond hemostasis.

Integrating the whole from the sum of the parts: vignettes in computational biology

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-243
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Skolnick
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
Drug Discovery ◽  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Personalized Medicine ◽  
Computational Biology ◽  
Biological Systems ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Biological Variables

As is typical of contemporary cutting-edge interdisciplinary fields, computational biology touches and impacts many disciplines ranging from fundamental studies in the areas of genomics, proteomics transcriptomics, lipidomics to practical applications such as personalized medicine, drug discovery, and synthetic biology. This editorial examines the multifaceted role computational biology plays. Using the tools of deep learning, it can make powerful predictions of many biological variables, which may not provide a deep understanding of what factors contribute to the phenomena. Alternatively, it can provide the how and the why of biological processes. Most importantly, it can help guide and interpret what experiments and biological systems to study.

New perspectives on the use of nucleic acids in pharmacological applications: inhibitory action of extracellular self-DNA in biological systems

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 937-946 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Mazzoleni ◽  
Fabrizio Cartenì ◽  
Giuliano Bonanomi ◽  
Guido Incerti ◽  
Maria Luisa Chiusano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nucleic Acids ◽  
Inhibitory Action ◽  
Biological Systems

scholarly journals Prebiotic oligomerization and self-assembly of structurally diverse xenobiological monomers

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuhan Chandru ◽  
Tony Z. Jia ◽  
Irena Mamajanov ◽  
Niraja Bapat ◽  
H. James Cleaves
Keyword(s):  
Nucleic Acids ◽  
Self Assembly ◽  
Cyclic Nucleotide ◽  
Biological Systems ◽  
Kinetic Control ◽  
Mild Conditions ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Ring Structures ◽  
Drying Conditions ◽  
Stable Ring

Abstract Prebiotic chemists often study how modern biopolymers, e.g., peptides and nucleic acids, could have originated in the primitive environment, though most contemporary biomonomers don’t spontaneously oligomerize under mild conditions without activation or catalysis. However, life may not have originated using the same monomeric components that it does presently. There may be numerous non-biological (or “xenobiological”) monomer types that were prebiotically abundant and capable of facile oligomerization and self-assembly. Many modern biopolymers degrade abiotically preferentially via processes which produce thermodynamically stable ring structures, e.g. diketopiperazines in the case of proteins and 2′, 3′-cyclic nucleotide monophosphates in the case of RNA. This weakness is overcome in modern biological systems by kinetic control, but this need not have been the case for primitive systems. We explored here the oligomerization of a structurally diverse set of prebiotically plausible xenobiological monomers, which can hydrolytically interconvert between cyclic and acyclic forms, alone or in the presence of glycine under moderate temperature drying conditions. These monomers included various lactones, lactams and a thiolactone, which varied markedly in their stability, propensity to oligomerize and apparent modes of initiation, and the oligomeric products of some of these formed self-organized microscopic structures which may be relevant to protocell formation.

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