BIOCELL, Vol.45, Suppl.3, pp. 1-117, 2021

Abstract This article has no abstract. More >

FRANCESCO MAININI^*

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.5, pp. 1171-1173, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.017399

Abstract Adoptive cell therapy and Immune Checkpoint Blockade Inhibitors have recently revolutionized the field of oncology. However, these types of immunotherapeutic approaches have limited success in treating solid tumors. In particular, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells efficacy is hampered by immunosuppressive signals in the tumor microenvironment (TME) and by a limited infiltration of re-infused T cells to the tumor site. The field of nanobiotechnology applied to oncology is also rapidly expanding. Nanoparticles-based delivery systems can be employed to modulate the activity of immune cells present in the TME enhancing the efficacy of CAR-T cells. Interestingly, nano-backpacks can be attached to CAR-T… More >

ANZANA PARVIN^1,3, BANG-HONG WEI¹, SHUANG-LI HAO¹, WAN-XI YANG^1,*, FU-QING TAN^1,2,*

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.5, pp. 1369-1391, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.016654

Abstract Mitotic kinesin KIFC1 plays critical roles in mitosis by regulating the spindle length, pole formation, and known for clustering extra centrosomes in cancer cells. Centrosome clustering is associated with the survival of cancer cells, but this phenomenon remains obscure in prostate cancer (PCa). The present study demonstrated that PCa cells showed centrosome amplification and clustering during interphase and mitosis, respectively. KIFC1 is highly expressed in PCa cells and tumor tissues of prostatic adenocarcinoma (PAC) patients. Up-regulation of KIFC1 facilitated the PCa cell survival in vitro by ensuring bipolar mitosis through clustering the multiple centrosomes, suggesting centrosome clustering could be a… More >

HUAN YIN¹, LIZHEN WANG¹, YUBO FAN¹, BINGMEI M. FU^1,2,*

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.5, pp. 1187-1199, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.016650

Abstract Primary cilium is an antenna-like and non-motile structure protruding from the apical surface of most mammalian cells including endothelial cells lining the inner side of all the blood vessels in our body. Although it has been over a century since primary cilia were discovered, the investigation about their mechano-sensing and other roles in maintaining normal functions of cardiovascular system has just started in recent years. This focused review aims to give an update about the current literature for the role of endothelial primary cilia in blood flow mechano-sensing and shear stress-shielding. To do this, we first summarized the characteristic features… More >

MIZUNA YANO¹, YUTA UMEHARA¹, TOMOKAZU KUDO¹, TAKAO NAKAMURA², TADASHI KOSAWADA¹, ATSUYOSHI NISHINA³, MASAKI SAZUKA⁴, DAISUKE SATO^1,*, ZHONGGANG FENG^1,*

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.5, pp. 1213-1229, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.016281

Abstract While fatty acids play essential roles in the physiology of the myocardium, conventional culture media contain little lipid. We previously revealed that rat neonatal myocardium mainly contains docosahexaenoic (DHA), linoleic (LA), and arachidonic (AA) acids as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), and these contents in cultured cardiomyocytes derived from fetal rats were markedly lower than those in the neonatal myocardium. In this study, we first assessed the effects of supplementation of DHA, LA, or AA on the fatty acid contents and the percentage change of contractile area in primarily cultured rat cardiomyocytes. Based on this assessment, we then evaluated the effects… More >

MURTAZA KHAN^1,*, TIBA NAZAR IBRAHIM AL AZZAWI², MUHAMMAD IMRAN³, ADIL HUSSAIN⁴, BONG-GYU MUN¹, ANJALI PANDE¹, BYUNG-WOOK YUN^1,*

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.5, pp. 1413-1423, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.015954

Abstract

In rice, high concentration of lead (Pb) can cause phyto-toxicity affecting several physiological functions. Cultivation of rice varieties that are resistant to Pb-induced oxidative stress is an important management strategy in Pb-contaminated soils. In the current study, we evaluated four different rice cultivars for their response to Pb-induced stress. Three japonica type cultivars X-Jigna, Ediget, and Furat, and one Indica type cultivar Amber 33 were grown in soil containing different Pb concentrations (0 mM, 0.6 mM, and 1.2 mM). The soil was treated with 0 mM or 0.6 mM or 1.2 mM Pb solution one month prior to rice seedling… More >

LINMEI ZHENG¹, RONG TANG², ^1,*, ZHONGYI ZHOU³

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.5, pp. 1231-1240, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.015752

Abstract Pre-eclampsia is characterized by an excessive maternal inflammatory response. The cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway (CAP) has been shown as the efferent arm of a vagal reflex with the potential to limit inflammatory responses. Therefore, in this study, the CAP regulation through the nervous vagal stimulation (VNS) reduced the severity of NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME)-induced pre-eclampsia was determined in a rat model. Rats were given 125 mg/kg/day of L-NAME via subcutaneous injection on gestational day (GD) 10–16. In addition, the rats were treated by active or sham electrical stimulation once a day during GD 13–19. Systolic blood pressure (SBP), urinary albumin, and… More >

ALAA OMRAN ALMAGRABI¹, YASER DAANIAL KHAN², SHER AFZAL KHAN^3,*

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.5, pp. 1287-1298, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.013770

Abstract Phosphoaspartate is one of the major components of eukaryotes and prokaryotic two-component signaling pathways, and it communicates the signal from the sensor of histidine kinase, through the response regulator, to the DNA alongside transcription features and initiates the transcription of correct response genes. Thus, the prediction of phosphoaspartate sites is critical, and its experimental identification can be expensive, time-consuming, and tedious. For this purpose, we propose iPhosD-PseAAC, a new computational model for predicting phosphoaspartate sites in a particular protein sequence using Chou’s 5-steps rues: (1) Benchmark dataset. (2) The feature extraction techniques such as pseudo amino acid composition (PseAAC), statistical… More >

DEBI RANI DATTA¹, MOHD RAFII YUSOP^1,2,*, AZIZAH MISRAN², MASHITAH JUSOH², YUSUFF OLADOSU¹, FATAI AROLU¹, AZADUL HAQUE¹, NADZIRAH M. SULAIMAN¹

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.5, pp. 1393-1401, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.015321

Abstract Indo-Burmese region was the primary center of eggplant diversity from where the crop extended to several secondary origins of diversity. In this study, the genetic diversity among fifty-six eggplant accessions collected from three countries was assessed using sixteen polymorphic SSR markers to determine suitable parents for heterotic hybridization. The estimation of genetic diversity among the population of three countries (Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Thailand) varied from 0.57 to 0.74, with Shannon’s index value of 0.65. The mean value of expected heterozygosity and Nei’s index was 0.49, with an average PIC value of 0.83. A dendrogram was constructed based on UPGMA (unweighted… More >

ISIDORA PETROVIC¹, MILENA MILIVOJEVIC¹, ANA ARSENIJEVIC², ANDRIJANA LAZIC¹, NATASA KOVACEVIC GRUJICIC¹, MARIJA SCHWIRTLICH¹, JELENA POPOVIC³, MILENA STEVANOVIC^1,4,5,*

BIOCELL, Vol.45, No.5, pp. 1355-1367, 2021, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.015817

Abstract Genetic and molecular heterogeneity, together with intrinsic and acquired resistance to therapy, represent the major obstacles to the successful treatment of different types of breast carcinoma. Increasing evidence demonstrates that SOX transcription factors in breast carcinomas could act both as oncogenes and tumor suppressors and have been associated with tumor stage and grade, poor prognosis, and therapy resistance. Both SOX2 and SOX18 overexpression has been correlated with poor prognosis in breast carcinomas, and these genes are recognized as potential antitumor targets. Our aim was to evaluate the effect of retinoic acid (RA), a well-known cyto-differentiating agent, on breast carcinoma cells… More >