JIANFEI GAO¹, KANGNING XIONG^2,*, WEIJIE LI¹, WEI ZHOU³

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.1, pp. 285-296, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.016253

Abstract Kadsura coccinea (Lem.) is a woody wine plant with a peculiar fruit enriched in important health-promoting compounds. The non-editable part of the fruit, i.e., the seed and peel, represents more than 60% of the fruit and is considered a biowaste. This significantly restricts the development of the K. coccinea fruit industry. Clarifying the metabolic components of the different fruit parts can help to improve the utilization rate and valorization of K. coccinea. Herein, we evaluated K. coccinea fruit peel, pulp, and seed using widely-targeted metabolomics and quantified a set of 736 bioactive compounds from 11 major metabolite classes. The most… More >

PENG YANG^1,*, ZHIYING ZOU¹, XULING GAO²

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.1, pp. 207-218, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.014728

Abstract Recent studies have shown that the microtubule disrupting protein Stathmin 1 (STMN1) is differentially expressed in AML patients and healthy control. The aim of this study was to explore the effects and molecular mechanism of STMN1 in AML. Here, the expression of STMN1 in peripheral blood cells (PBMCs) and bone marrow of AML patients and healthy volunteers was detected by RT-PCR and Western blot. STMN1 expression was regulated by transfected with STMN1 overexpressed plasmid or shRNA in two human leukemia cell lines K562 and HL60. Cell proliferation was examined by CCK8 and Edu staining. Annexin V and TUNEL assays were… More >

JIANBO LU^1,2,#,*, XIAOHAN SUN^3,#, XU MA^1,2,*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.1, pp. 185-193, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.015301

Abstract The concentration of cell-free fetal DNA fragments should be detected before noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT). The fetal DNA molecules have significant clinical potential in determining the overall performance of NIPT and clinical interpretation. It is important to measure fetal DNA fraction before NIPT. However, there is still little research on how to calculate the concentration of female fetuses. Two estimation approaches were proposed to calculate fetal DNA fraction, including the fragments size-based approach, aneuploid-based approach, which are all approaches based on chromosome segments. Based on high-throughput sequencing data, two approaches to calculate the DNA fraction of male fetuses were tested… More >

QIANSHAN TAO^#, QING ZHANG^#, HUIPING WANG, HAO XIAO, MEI ZHOU, LINLIN LIU, HUI QIN, JIYU WANG, FURUN AN, ZHIMIN ZHAI^*, YI DONG^*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.1, pp. 159-169, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.014139

Abstract Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is regarded as a stem cell disease. However, no one unique marker is expressed on leukemia stem cells (LSC) but not on leukemic blasts nor normal hematopoietic stem cells (HSC). CD34⁺ CD38- with or without CD123 or CD44 subpopulations are immunophenotypically defined as putative LSC fractions in AML. Nevertheless, markers that can be effectively and simply held responsible for the intrinsical heterogeneity of LSC is still unclear. In the present study, we examined the frequency of three different LSC subtypes (CD34⁺ CD38^-, CD34⁺ CD38^- CD123⁺ , CD34⁺ CD38^- CD44⁺ ) in AML at diagnosis. We then… More >

SICONG WANG¹, RUIJIN LIU², QIUYUAN HAN², KAIJIANG YU^3,*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.1, pp. 149-158, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.013027

Abstract Acute kidney injury (AKI), commonly occurring as complications of sepsis, cardiac surgery, and liver or kidney transplantation, is a critical care syndrome. It is well known that lipopolysaccharide (LPS) shock is a common triggering factor for AKI. This study is aimed to examine the effect of flavonoid compound hispidulin on LPS-induced AKI. For this, renal tubular epithelial cell HK-2 was treated with LPS to establish an in vitro model of AKI. The effect of hispidulin on HK-2 cell viability was examined using CCK-8 assay. Cell apoptosis was determined by TUNEL and flow cytometry. Apoptosis marker proteins were determined by using… More >

AASTHA MITTAL¹, NEELAM MAHALA¹, KOWTHAVARAPU VENKATA KRISHNA², UMA S. DUBEY^1,*, SUNIL KUMAR DUBEY^2,3,*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.1, pp. 127-136, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.015932

Abstract Sorafenib, a multikinase inhibitor used for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma, is limited by its low oral bioavailability. To overcome this drawback, we have developed novel camel milk casein-derived nanoparticles as a drug delivery system. Camel milk casein is not only biocompatible on oral administration but is actually a dietary protein of pharmaceutical relevance. Casein is used because of its amphiphilic nature, self-assembling property, ability to show sustained release, and capability of encapsulating both hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs. In this study, camel milk casein nanoparticles loaded with sorafenib were developed and characterized. Characterization of casein nanoparticles was done by dynamic… More >

FRANCISCO J. CORPAS^*, SALVADOR GONZÁLEZ-GORDO, MARTA RODRÍGUEZ-RUIZ, MARÍA A. MUÑOZ-VARGAS, JOSÉ M. PALMA

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.1, pp. 1-5, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2021.017300

Abstract Nitric oxide (NO) and hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) are two molecules that share signaling properties in plant and animal cells. NO and H₂S originate two families of derived molecules designated reactive nitrogen and sulfur species (RNS and RSS, respectively). These molecules are responsible for certain protein regulatory processes through posttranslational modifications (PTMs), being the most remarkable S-nitrosation and persulfidation, which affect the thiol group of cysteine residues. NO and H₂S can also exert regulatory functions due to their interaction through the iron present in proteins that contain heme groups or iron-sulfur clusters, as reported mainly in animal cells. However, the available… More >

SEAN J. O’SULLIVAN^1,2,*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.1, pp. 7-11, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.017680

Abstract The development of effective treatments for psychiatric disease has been disappointing in recent decades given the advancements in neuroscience. Moreover, rising rates of mental illness such as addiction and depression compel scientists and physicians to discover novel and creative solutions. One such approach that has proven effective is systems neuroscience: A focus on networks as opposed to mechanism. Further, investigation at the single-cell and circuit level is likely to be fruitful in such endeavors as this resolution describes the functional psychopathology that allows for intervention. More >

ALI H. ABU ALMAATY¹, BASMA M. HENDAM², FAYEZ ALTHOBAITI³, EMAN FAYAD^3,*, YASMIN M. ABD EL-AZIZ¹

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.1, pp. 219-234, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.017623

Abstract The hepatotoxic effect of potassium bromide (KBr) on rat liver tissues were determined, as well as the potential protective effect of Tegillaraca granosa (T. granosa) flesh body extract. Twenty adult male albino rats were equally distributed into four groups; Group (I) treated with physiological saline (control group), Group (II) was orally gavaged by 200 mg/kg of T. granosa body extract day after day, Group (III) was intoxicated by KBr (150 mg/kg bwt day after day orally) and finally, Group (IV) was given a combination of T. granosa flesh body extract plus KBr with similar doses in the second and third… More >

GASTÓN AMABLE^#, EDUARDO MARTÍNEZ-LEÓN^#, MARÍA E. PICCO, OSVALDO REY

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.1, pp. 51-59, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.017565

Abstract Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the main causes of cancer-related mortality in the developed world despite recent developments in detection and treatment. Several epidemiological studies indicate that metformin, a widely prescribed antidiabetic drug, exerts a protective effect on different cancers including CRC. Furthermore, a recent double-blind placebo-controlled, randomized trial showed that metformin significantly decreased colorectal adenoma recurrence. Studies exploring the mechanism of action of metformin in cells derived from different types of cancers reported many effects including respiratory chain complex 1 inhibition, Akt phosphorylation inhibition, ATP depletion, PKA activation and Wnt signaling inhibition. However, many of these results were… More >