scholarly journals Prospecting Biomarkers for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Approaches in Pythiosis

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 423
Author(s):  
Jéssica Luana Chechi ◽  
Tiwa Rotchanapreeda ◽  
Giselle Souza da Paz ◽  
Ana Carolina Prado ◽  
Alana Lucena Oliveira ◽  
...  

Pythiosis, whose etiological agent is the oomycete Pythium insidiosum, is a life-threatening disease that occurs mainly in tropical and subtropical countries, affecting several animal species. It is frequently found in horses in Brazil and humans in Thailand. The disease is difficult to diagnose because the pathogen’s hyphae are often misdiagnosed as mucoromycete fungi in histological sections. Additionally, there is no specific antigen to use for rapid diagnosis, the availability of which could improve the prognosis in different animal species. In this scenario, we investigated which P. insidiosum antigens are recognized by circulating antibodies in horses and humans with pythiosis from Brazil and Thailand, respectively, using 2D immunoblotting followed by mass spectrometry for the identification of antigens. We identified 23 protein spots, 14 recognized by pooled serum from horses and humans. Seven antigens were commonly recognized by both species, such as the heat-shock cognate 70 KDa protein, the heat-shock 70 KDa protein, glucan 1,3-beta-glucosidase, fructose-bisphosphate aldolase, serine/threonine-protein phosphatase, aconitate hydratase, and 14-3-3 protein epsilon. These results demonstrate that there are common antigens recognized by the immune responses of horses and humans, and these antigens may be studied as biomarkers for improving diagnosis and treatment.

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 117793221880970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arwa A Mohammed ◽  
Ayman MH ALnaby ◽  
Solima M Sabeel ◽  
Fagr M AbdElmarouf ◽  
Amina I Dirar ◽  
...  

Background: Mycetoma is a distinct body tissue destructive and neglected tropical disease. It is endemic in many tropical and subtropical countries. Mycetoma is caused by bacterial infections ( actinomycetoma) such as Streptomyces somaliensis and Nocardiae or true fungi ( eumycetoma) such as Madurella mycetomatis. To date, treatments fail to cure the infection and the available marketed drugs are expensive and toxic upon prolonged usage. Moreover, no vaccine was prepared yet against mycetoma. Aim: The aim of this study is to predict effective epitope-based vaccine against fructose-bisphosphate aldolase enzymes of M. mycetomatis using immunoinformatics approaches. Methods and materials: Fructose-bisphosphate aldolase of M. mycetomatis sequence was retrieved from NCBI. Different prediction tools were used to analyze the nominee’s epitopes in Immune Epitope Database for B-cell, T-cell MHC class II and class I. Then the proposed peptides were docked using Autodock 4.0 software program. Results and conclusions: The proposed and promising peptides KYLQ show a potent binding affinity to B-cell, FEYARKHAF with a very strong binding affinity to MHC I alleles and FFKEHGVPL that shows a very strong binding affinity to MHC II and MHC I alleles. This indicates a strong potential to formulate a new vaccine, especially with the peptide FFKEHGVPL which is likely to be the first proposed epitope-based vaccine against fructose-bisphosphate aldolase of M. mycetomatis. This study recommends an in vivo assessment for the most promising peptides especially FFKEHGVPL.


Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 1080
Author(s):  
Hanna Yolanda ◽  
Theerapong Krajaejun

The fungus-like microorganism Pythium insidiosum causes pythiosis, a life-threatening infectious disease increasingly reported worldwide. Antimicrobial drugs are ineffective. Radical surgery is an essential treatment. Pythiosis can resume post-surgically. Immunotherapy using P. insidiosum antigens (PIA) has emerged as an alternative treatment. This review aims at providing up-to-date information of the immunotherapeutic PIA, with the focus on its history, preparation, clinical application, outcome, mechanism, and recent advances, in order to promote the proper use and future development of this treatment modality. P. insidiosum crude extract is the primary source of immunotherapeutic antigens. Based on 967 documented human and animal (mainly horses) pythiosis cases, PIA immunotherapy reduced disease morbidity and mortality. Concerning clinical outcomes, 19.4% of PIA-immunized human patients succumbed to vascular pythiosis instead of 41.0% in unimmunized cases. PIA immunotherapy may not provide an advantage in a local P. insidiosum infection of the eye. Both PIA-immunized and unimmunized horses with pythiosis showed a similar survival rate of ~70%; however, demands for surgical intervention were much lesser in the immunized cases (22.8% vs. 75.2%). The proposed PIA action involves switching the non-protective T-helper-2 to protective T-helper-1 mediated immunity. By exploring the available P. insidiosum genome data, synthetic peptides, recombinant proteins, and nucleic acids are potential sources of the immunotherapeutic antigens worth investigating. The PIA therapeutic property needs improvement for a better prognosis of pythiosis patients.


Antioxidants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
María López-Pedrouso ◽  
José M. Lorenzo ◽  
Paula Borrajo ◽  
Daniel Franco

The search for antioxidant peptides as health-promoting agents is of great scientific interest for their biotechnological applications. Thus, the main goal of this study was to identify antioxidant peptides from pork liver using alcalase, bromelain, flavourzyme, and papain enzymes. All liver hydrolysates proved to be of adequate quality regarding the ratio EAA/NEAA, particularly flavourzyme hydrolysates. The peptidomic profiles were significantly different for each enzyme and their characterizations were performed, resulting in forty-four differentially abundant peptides among the four treatments. Porcine liver hydrolysates from alcalase and bromelain are demonstrated to have the most antioxidant capacity. On the other hand, hydrophobic amino acid residues (serine, threonine, histidine and aspartic acid) might be reducing the hydrolysates antioxidant capacity. Seventeen peptides from collagen, albumin, globin domain-containing protein, cytochrome β, fructose-bisphosphate aldolase, dihydropyrimidinase, argininosuccinate synthase, and ATP synthase seem to be antioxidant. Further studies are necessary to isolate these peptides and test them in in vivo experiments.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mateus Rodrigues Pereira ◽  
Bianca Castro Gouvêa ◽  
Francismar Corrêa Marcelino-Guimarães ◽  
Humberto Josué de Oliveira Ramos ◽  
Maurilio Alves Moreira ◽  
...  

AbstractAsian soybean rust (ASR), which is incited by the fungus Phakopsora pachyrhizi, is considered one of the most aggressive diseases to the soybean culture. There are no commercial cultivars immune to the pathogen and the control measure currently used is the application of fungicides that harms the environment and increases production costs. For a better understanding of the host’s response to the pathogen at the molecular level, two soybean genotypes were analyzed (PI561356, resistant to ASR and Embrapa 48, susceptible) at 72 hours and 192 hours after inoculation with spores of P. pachyrhizi. Leaf protein profiles of the plants were compared by two-dimensional electrophoresis associated with mass spectrometry (MS). Twenty-two protein spots presented different levels when the two treatments were compared (inoculated vs. non-inoculated). From those, twelve proteins were identified by MS analysis. Some of them are involved in metabolic pathways related to plant defense against pathogens, as in the case of carbonic anhydrase, 1-deoxy-D-xylulose- 5-phosphate reductoisomerase, fructose-bisphosphate aldolase and glutamine synthetase. The possible biochemical-physiological meanings of our findings are discussed.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinwei Suo ◽  
Heng Zhang ◽  
Qi Zhao ◽  
Nan Zhang ◽  
Yongxue Zhang ◽  
...  

Alkali-salinity exerts severe osmotic, ionic and high-pH stresses to plants. To understand the alkali-salinity responsive mechanisms underlying photosynthetic modulation and reactive oxygen species (ROS) homeostasis, physiological and diverse quantitative proteomics analyses of alkaligrass (Puccinellia tenuiflora) under Na2CO3 stress were conducted. In addition, Western blot, real-time PCR, and transgenic techniques were applied to validate the proteomic results and test the functions of the Na2CO3-responsive proteins. A total of 104 and 102 Na2CO3-responsive proteins were identified in leaves and chloroplasts, respectively. In addition, 84 Na2CO3-responsive phosphoproteins were identified, including 56 new phosphorylation sites in 56 phosphoproteins from chloroplasts, which are crucial for the regulation of photosynthesis, ion transport, signal transduction and energy homeostasis. A full-length PtFBA encoding an alkaligrass chloroplastic fructose-bisphosphate aldolase (FBA) was overexpressed in wild-type cells of cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. Strain PCC 6803, leading to enhanced Na2CO3 tolerance. All these results indicate that thermal dissipation, state transition, cyclic electron transport, photorespiration, repair of photosystem (PS) II, PSI activity, and ROS homeostasis were altered in response to Na2CO3 stress, and they have improved our understanding of the Na2CO3-responsive mechanisms in halophytes.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivetta Danylesko ◽  
Katia Beider ◽  
Avichai Shimoni ◽  
Arnon Nagler

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a life-threatening haematological malignancy for which standard therapy is inadequate. Autologous stem cell transplantation is a relatively effective treatment, but residual malignant sites may cause relapse. Allogeneic transplantation may result in durable responses due to antitumour immunity mediated by donor lymphocytes. However, morbidity and mortality related to graft-versus-host disease remain a challenge. Recent advances in understanding the interaction between the immune system of the patient and the malignant cells are influencing the design of clinically more efficient study protocols for MM. Cellular immunotherapy using specific antigen-presenting cells (APCs), to overcome aspects of immune incompetence in MM patients, has received great attention, and numerous clinical trials have evaluated the potential for dendritic cell (DC) vaccines as a novel immunotherapeutic approach. This paper will summarize the data investigating aspects of immunity concerning MM, immunotherapy for patients with MM, and strategies, on the way, to target the plasma cell more selectively. We also include the MM antigens and their specific antibodies that are of potential use for MM humoral immunotherapy, because they have demonstrated the most promising preclinical results.


2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (9) ◽  
pp. 847 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adamantia Agalou ◽  
Herman P. Spaink ◽  
Andreas Roussis

The metabolic role and regulation of selenium, particularly in plants, is poorly understood. One of the proteins probably involved in the metabolic regulation of this element is the selenium-binding protein (SBP) with homologues present across prokaryotic and eukaryotic species. The high degree of conservation of SBP in different organisms suggests that this protein may play a role in fundamental biological processes. In order to gain insight into the biochemical function of SBP in plants we used the yeast two-hybrid system to identify proteins that potentially interact with an Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. homologue. Among the putative binding partners of SBP, a NADP-dependent glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and a fructose-bisphosphate aldolase (FBA) were found as reliable positive candidates. The interaction of these proteins with SBP was confirmed by in vitro binding assays. Previous findings in Escherichia coli, demonstrated the direct binding of selenium to both GAPDH and aldolase. Therefore our results reveal the interaction, at least in pairs, of three proteins that are possibly linked to selenium and suggest the existence of a protein network consisting of at least SBP, GAPDH and FBA, triggered by or regulating selenium metabolism in plant cells.


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