Conditioned media harvested from stem cell culturing have the potential to be innovative therapeutic tools against various diseases, due to their high content of growth, trophic and protective ...factors. The evaluation in vivo of the effects and biosafety of these products is essential, and zebrafish provides an ideal platform for high-throughput toxicological analysis, concurrently allowing the minimization of the use of mammalian models without losing reliability. In this study, we assessed the biological effects elicited by the exposure of zebrafish embryos to a conditioned medium derived from Wharton’s jelly mesenchymal stem cells. By a multiparametric investigation combining molecular, embryological, behavioural and in vivo imaging techniques, we found that exposure to a conditioned medium at a non-toxic/non-lethal dosage triggers antioxidant, anti-apoptotic and pro-regenerative effects, by upregulation of a set of genes involved in antioxidant defence (nrf2, brg1, sirt1, sirt6, foxO3a, sod2 and cat), glycolysis (ldha) and cell survival (bcl2l1, mcl1a and bim), coupled to downregulation of pro-apoptotic markers (baxa, caspase-3a and caspase-8). To our knowledge, this is the first study comprehensively addressing the effects of a conditioned medium on a whole organism from a developmental, molecular and behavioural perspective, and we are fairly confident that it will pave the way for future therapeutic application.
In the last years, the field of nanomedicine and drug delivery has grown exponentially, providing new platforms to carry therapeutic agents into the target sites. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are ...ready-to-use, biocompatible, and non-toxic nanoparticles that are revolutionizing the field of drug delivery. EVs are involved in cell-cell communication and mediate many physiological and pathological processes by transferring their bioactive cargo to target cells. Recently, nanovesicles from plants (PDNVs) are raising the interest of the scientific community due to their high yield and biocompatibility. This study aims to evaluate whether PDNVs may be used as drug delivery systems. We isolated and characterized nanovesicles from tangerine juice (TNVs) that were comparable to mammalian EVs in size and morphology. TNVs carry the traditional EV marker HSP70 and, as demonstrated by metabolomic analysis, contain flavonoids, organic acids, and limonoids. TNVs were loaded with DDHD1-siRNA through electroporation, obtaining a loading efficiency of 13%. We found that the DDHD1-siRNA complex TNVs were able to deliver DDHD1-siRNA to human colorectal cancer cells, inhibiting the target expression by about 60%. This study represents a proof of concept for the use of PDNVs as vehicles of RNA interference (RNAi) toward mammalian cells.
Plant microbial biostimulants application has become a promising and eco-friendly agricultural strategy to improve crop yields, reducing chemical inputs for more sustainable cropping systems. The ...soil dwelling bacterium Kocuria rhizophila was previously characterized as Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria (PGPB) for its multiple PGP traits, such as indole-3-acetic acid production, phosphate solubilization capability and salt and drought stress tolerance. Here, we evaluated by a multi-omics approach, the PGP activity of K. rhizophila on tomato, revealing the molecular pathways by which it promotes plant growth. Transcriptomic analysis showed several up-regulated genes mainly related to amino acid metabolism, cell wall organization, lipid and secondary metabolism, together with a modulation in the DNA methylation profile, after PGPB inoculation. In agreement, proteins involved in photosynthesis, cell division, and plant growth were highly accumulated by K. rhizophila. Furthermore, “amino acid and peptides”, “monosaccharides”, and “TCA” classes of metabolites resulted the most affected by PGPB treatment, as well as dopamine, a catecholamine neurotransmitter mediating plant growth through S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase (SAMDC), a gene enhancing the vegetative growth, up-regulated in tomato by K. rhizophila treatment. Interestingly, eight gene modules well correlated with differentially accumulated proteins (DAPs) and metabolites (DAMs), among which two modules showed the highest correlation with nine proteins, including a nucleoside diphosphate kinase, and cytosolic ascorbate peroxidase, as well as with several amino acids and metabolites involved in TCA cycle. Overall, our findings highlighted that sugars and amino acids, energy regulators, involved in tomato plant growth, were strongly modulated by the K. rhizophila-plant interaction.
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•The Sicilian black honeybee (Apis mellifera ssp. sicula) is a slow food presidium that produces honey with exceptional nutraceutical properties.•An integrated approach of ...metabolomics and proteomics was used to characterize honey made by the Sicilian black honeybee in comparison to honey made by Apis mellifera ssp. ligustica, the more common Italian honeybee.•Metabolomics revealed that sicula honey is rich in nutraceutical compounds, and has higher levels of methylsyringate compared to ligustica honey.•The proteome of honey produced by sicula differs from that produced by ligustica.•Proteome profiling and machine learning identified two protein classifiers, laccase 5 and venom serine protease 34 isoform X2, which distinguish sicula from ligustica honey and can potentially be developed as a tool to ascertain its authenticity.
Apis mellifera ssp. sicula, also known as the Sicilian black honeybee, is a Slow Food Presidium that produces honey with outstanding nutraceutical properties, including high antioxidant capacity. In this study, we used high-resolution proteomics to profile the honey produced by sicula and identify protein classifiers that distinguish it from that made by the more common Italian honeybee (Apis mellifera ssp. ligustica).
We profiled the honey proteome of genetically pure sicula and ligustica honeybees bred in the same geographical area, so that chemical differences in their honey only reflected the genetic background of the two subspecies, rather than botanical environment. Differentially abundant proteins were validated in sicula and ligustica honeys of different origin, by using the so-called “rectangular strategy”, a proteomic approach commonly used for biomarker discovery in clinical proteomics. Then, machine learning was employed to identify which proteins were the most effective in distinguishing sicula and ligustica honeys. This strategy enabled the identification of two proteins, laccase-5 and venome serine protease 34 isoform X2, that were fully effective in predicting whether honey was made by sicula or ligustica honeybees.
In conclusion, we profiled the proteome of sicula honey, identified two protein classifiers of sicula honey in respect to ligustica, and proved that the rectangular strategy can be applied to uncover biomarkers to ascertain food authenticity.
Se describen los principales mecanismos de resistencia antimicrobiana mediante el sistema Vitek® 2 en uropatógenos aislados en adultos mayores de una clínica privada en Lima. Estudio descriptivo ...realizado entre enero de 2014 y octubre de 2016. Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae y Proteus mirabilis obtuvieron una sensibilidad mayor a 80% frente a piperacilina/tazobactam, amikacina y carbapenems. Asimismo, 83,6% de Escherichia coli fueron cepas sensibles a nitrofurantoina. El 41,7% de Escherichia coli, 50,9% de Klebsiella pneumoniae y 50% de Proteus mirabilis fueron productoras de betalactamasas de espectro extendido. De igual modo, 60% de Pseudomonas aeruginosa fueron productoras de carbapenemasas. La modificación de sitio activo (PBP) y la inactivación enzimática por penicilinasas se presentaron en el 7,8% de Enterococcus faecalis. La resistencia a aminoglicósidos se presentó en Escherichia coli (27,1%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (46,7%) y Proteus mirabilis (84,6%) por la producción de enzimas modificadoras. Existe un incremento de la resistencia bacteriana en relación a la edad. La inactivación enzimática de betalactámicos y aminoglicósidos es el mecanismo de resistencia más frecuente.
RESUMEN Se describen los principales mecanismos de resistencia antimicrobiana mediante el sistema Vitek® 2 en uropatógenos aislados en adultos mayores de una clínica privada en Lima. Estudio ...descriptivo realizado entre enero de 2014 y octubre de 2016. Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae y Proteus mirabilis obtuvieron una sensibilidad mayor a 80% frente a piperacilina/tazobactam, amikacina y carbapenems. Asimismo, 83,6% de Escherichia coli fueron cepas sensibles a nitrofurantoina. El 41,7% de Escherichia coli, 50,9% de Klebsiella pneumoniae y 50% de Proteus mirabilis fueron productoras de betalactamasas de espectro extendido. De igual modo, 60% de Pseudomonas aeruginosa fueron productoras de carbapenemasas. La modificación de sitio activo (PBP) y la inactivación enzimática por penicilinasas se presentaron en el 7,8% de Enterococcus faecalis. La resistencia a aminoglicósidos se presentó en Escherichia coli (27,1%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (46,7%) y Proteus mirabilis (84,6%) por la producción de enzimas modificadoras. Existe un incremento de la resistencia bacteriana en relación a la edad. La inactivación enzimática de betalactámicos y aminoglicósidos es el mecanismo de resistencia más frecuente.
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