Telomeres and telomerase are nowadays exploring traits on targets for anticancer therapy. Telomerase is a unique reverse transcriptase enzyme, considered as a primary factor in almost all cancer cells, which is mainly responsible to regulate the telomere length. Hence, telomerase ensures the indefinite cell proliferation during malignancy-a hallmark of cancer-and this distinctive feature has pr...

tyrosinase is a multifunctional oxidase that is widely distributed in nature. it is a key enzyme in melanin biosynthesis and is involved in determining the color of mammalian skin and hair. in addition it is responsible for the undesirable enzymatic browning that occurs in plant-derived foods, limiting the shelf -life of fresh-cut products with the resultant economic loss.  in recent years ther...

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Microglial cells play a dual role in the central nervous system as they have both neurotoxic and neuroprotective effects. Uncontrolled and excessive activation of microglia often contributes to inflammation-mediated neurodegeneration. Recently, much attention has been paid to therapeutic strategies aimed at inhibiting neurotoxic microglial activation. Pharmacological inhibitors of microglial ac...

Natural killer (NK) cells are believed to play an important role in a variety of disease pathologies, including transplant rejection and autoimmunity. None of the therapeutic modalities currently available are known to potently interfere with NK cell activity. Here we demonstrate for the first time that low molecular weight inhibitors of the integrin lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1 (LF...

The function of microbial MDRs remains a hotly debated subject. Given the very broad substrate specificities of some MDRs, like the RND pumps that can extrude all classes of amphipathic compounds (cationic, neutral, and anionic), it seems difficult to develop a rationale for pinpointing possible natural substrates of these translocases. At the same time, several clues can be used to guide our s...

Fossilized calcareous structures in chalk collected from exposures of the Selma formation in Alabama yielded organic components comparable to the organic matrices of the calcium carbonate (CaCO3) shells of sea urchin and oyster. The organic matrix of the chalk was composed of 0.05% soluble protein and 0.17% soluble carbohydrate per dry weight. The possible role of the organic matrix as a regula...

UNLABELLED Diabetes is a metabolic disorder associated with either improper functioning of the beta-cells or wherein cells fail to use insulin properly. Insulin, the principal hormone regulates uptake of glucose from the blood into most of the cells except central nervous system. Therefore, deficiency of insulin or the insensitivity of its receptors plays a key role in all forms of diabetes. In...

Enzymatic activity mediated by recombinant human DNA ligase I (hLI), in conjunction with tannin removal procedures, has been applied to a natural-product screen involving approximately 1000 plant extracts and various pure compounds. The primary hLI activity assay involved the measurement of the amount of radiolabelled phosphate in a synthetic nucleic acid hybrid that becomes resistant to alkali...

INTRODUCTION The etiology of preeclampsia is not fully established. A few studies have shown a relationship between natural coagulation inhibitors and preeclampsia. OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of natural coagulation inhibitors and active protein C resistance (APC-R) in preeclampsia. PATIENTS AND METHODS We studied 70 women with preeclampsia recruited c...