Review

Authors: Giuseppe Mannino, Giorgia Chinigò, Graziella Serio...

Proanthocyanidins (PACs) are a class of polyphenolic compounds that are attracting considerable interest in the nutraceutical field due to their potential health benefits. However, knowledge about the chemistry, biosynthesis, and distribution of PACs is limited. This review summarizes the main chemical characteristics and biosynthetic pathways and the main analytical methods aimed at their identification and quantification in raw plant matrices. Furthermore, meta-analytic approaches were used to identify the main plant sources in which PACs were contained and to investigate their potential effect on human health. In particular, a cluster analysis identified PACs in 35 different plant families and 60 different plant parts normally consumed in the human diet. On the other hand, a literature search, coupled with forest plot analyses, highlighted how PACs can be actively involved in both local and systemic effects. Finally, the potential mechanisms of action through which PACs may impact human health were investigated, focusing on their systemic hypoglycemic and lipid-lowering effects and their local anti-inflammatory actions on the intestinal epithelium. Overall, this review may be considered a complete report in which chemical, biosynthetic, ecological, and pharmacological aspects of PACs are discussed.

PubMed: 34439477
DOI: 10.3390/antiox10081229

Authors: Victoria I Bunik

In recent decades, biology has made tremendous progress in the high-throughput analytic and genetic techniques used to characterize the molecular components of living cells and their interactions [...].

Topics: Humans; Proteins; Animals; Multiprotein Complexes

PubMed: 39595519
DOI: 10.3390/biom14111342

Review

Authors: Shintaro Iwasaki, Nicholas T Ingolia

Protein synthesis stands at the last stage of the central dogma of molecular biology, providing a final regulatory layer for gene expression. Reacting to environmental cues and internal signals, the translation machinery can quickly tune the translatome from a pre-existing pool of RNAs, before the transcriptome changes. Although the translation reaction itself has been known since the 1950s, the quantitative or even qualitative measurement of its efficacy in cells has posed experimental and analytic hurdles. In this review, we outline the array of state-of-the-art methods that have emerged to tackle the hidden aspects of translational control.

Topics: Flow Cytometry; Mass Spectrometry; Protein Biosynthesis; Proteins; RNA; Ribosomes

PubMed: 28566214
DOI: 10.1016/j.tibs.2017.05.004

Review

Authors: Gustavo A Lara-Cruz, Andres Jaramillo-Botero

Sucrose is a primary metabolite in plants, a source of energy, a source of carbon atoms for growth and development, and a regulator of biochemical processes. Most of the traditional analytical chemistry methods for sucrose quantification in plants require sample treatment (with consequent tissue destruction) and complex facilities, that do not allow real-time sucrose quantification at ultra-low concentrations (nM to pM range) under in vivo conditions, limiting our understanding of sucrose roles in plant physiology across different plant tissues and cellular compartments. Some of the above-mentioned problems may be circumvented with the use of bio-compatible ligands for molecular recognition of sucrose. Nevertheless, problems such as the signal-noise ratio, stability, and selectivity are some of the main challenges limiting the use of molecular recognition methods for the in vivo quantification of sucrose. In this review, we provide a critical analysis of the existing analytical chemistry tools, biosensors, and synthetic ligands, for sucrose quantification and discuss the most promising paths to improve upon its limits of detection. Our goal is to highlight the criteria design need for real-time, in vivo, highly sensitive and selective sucrose sensing capabilities to enable further our understanding of living organisms, the development of new plant breeding strategies for increased crop productivity and sustainability, and ultimately to contribute to the overarching need for food security.

Topics: Sucrose; Carbon; Chemistry, Analytic; Crop Production; Recognition, Psychology

PubMed: 36502213
DOI: 10.3390/s22239511

Authors: Sungjune Kim, Seokpyo Hong, Kilsoo Ahn...

OBJECTIVES

This study presents the indicators and proxy variables for the quantitative assessment of green chemistry technologies and evaluates the relative importance of each assessment element by consulting experts from the fields of ecology, chemistry, safety, and public health.

METHODS

The results collected were subjected to an analytic hierarchy process to obtain the weights of the indicators and the proxy variables.

RESULTS

These weights may prove useful in avoiding having to resort to qualitative means in absence of weights between indicators when integrating the results of quantitative assessment by indicator.

CONCLUSIONS

This study points to the limitations of current quantitative assessment techniques for green chemistry technologies and seeks to present the future direction for quantitative assessment of green chemistry technologies.

PubMed: 26206364
DOI: 10.5620/eht.s2015003

Review

Authors: Timothy Wiryaman, Navtej Toor

Group II introns are self-splicing catalytic RNAs that are able to excise themselves from pre-mRNAs using a mechanism identical to that utilized by the spliceosome. Both structural and phylogenetic data support the hypothesis that group II introns and the spliceosome share a common ancestor. Structures of group II introns have given insight into the active site required for the catalysis of RNA splicing. This review outlines crucial aspects of the structure determination of group II introns such as sample preparation and data processing. Given that group II introns are large RNAs that must be synthesized through in vitro transcription, there are special considerations that must be taken into account in terms of purification and crystallization, as compared to the isolation of large intact ribonucleoprotein complexes such as the ribosome. We specifically focus on the methodology used to determine the structure of the eukaryotic group II intron lariat from the brown algae Pylaiella littoralis. The techniques described in this review can also be applied for the structure determination of other large RNAs.

Topics: Analytic Sample Preparation Methods; Cryoelectron Microscopy; Crystallography, X-Ray; Introns; Nucleic Acid Conformation; Phaeophyceae; Phylogeny; RNA Precursors; RNA Splicing; RNA, Catalytic; Spliceosomes

PubMed: 28648679
DOI: 10.1016/j.ymeth.2017.06.020

Authors: Richard Brown

Modern scientific endeavour is increasingly delivered within an interdisciplinary framework. Analytical environmental chemistry is a long-standing example of an interdisciplinary approach to scientific research where value is added by the close cooperation of different disciplines. This editorial piece discusses the rise of environmental analytical chemistry as an interdisciplinary activity and outlines the scope of the Analytical Chemistry and the Environmental Chemistry domains of TheScientificWorldJOURNAL (TSWJ), and the appropriateness of TSWJ's domain format in covering interdisciplinary research. All contributions of new data, methods, case studies, and instrumentation, or new interpretations and developments of existing data, case studies, methods, and instrumentation, relating to analytical and/or environmental chemistry, to the Analytical and Environmental Chemistry domains, are welcome and will be considered equally.

Topics: Chemistry, Analytic; Environmental Monitoring; Environmental Pollutants; Environmental Pollution; Research; Research Design

PubMed: 19578710
DOI: 10.1100/tsw.2009.78

Review

Authors: S M Ashiqul Islam, Christopher Michel Kearney, Erich Baker...

Cystine-stabilized peptides represent a large family of peptides characterized by high structural stability and bactericidal, fungicidal, or insecticidal properties. Found throughout a wide range of taxa, this broad and functionally important family can be subclassified into distinct groups dependent upon their number and type of cystine bonding patters, tertiary structures, and/or their species of origin. Furthermore, the annotation of proteins related to the cystine-stabilized family are under-represented in the literature due to their difficulty of isolation and identification. As a result, there are several recent attempts to collate them into data resources and build analytic tools for their dynamic prediction. Ultimately, the identification and delivery of new members of this family will lead to their growing inclusion into the repertoire of commercial viable alternatives to antibiotics and environmentally safe insecticides. This review of the literature and current state of cystine-stabilized peptide biology is aimed to better describe peptide subfamilies, identify databases and analytics resources associated with specific cystine-stabilized peptides, and highlight their current commercial success.

Topics: Animals; Computer Simulation; Cystine; Databases, Factual; Peptides

PubMed: 29921767
DOI: 10.3390/toxins10060251

Authors: Ewa Bulska

Topics: Chemistry Techniques, Analytical; Chemistry, Analytic; Conservation of Natural Resources; Europe; Humans; Poland; Societies, Medical

PubMed: 24691720
DOI: 10.1007/s00216-014-7731-x

Authors: Hamed Almohammadi, Sayyed Ahmad Khadem, Massimo Bagnani...

Facile geometric-structural response of liquid crystalline colloids to external fields enables many technological advances. However, the relaxation mechanisms for liquid crystalline colloids under mobile boundaries remain still unexplored. Here, by combining experiments, numerical simulations and theory, we describe the shape and structural relaxation of colloidal liquid crystalline micro-droplets, called tactoids, where amyloid fibrils and cellulose nanocrystals are used as model systems. We show that tactoids shape relaxation bears a universal single exponential decay signature and derive an analytic expression to predict this out of equilibrium process, which is governed by liquid crystalline anisotropic and isotropic contributions. The tactoids structural relaxation shows fundamentally different paths, with first- and second-order exponential decays, depending on the existence of splay/bend/twist orientation structures in the ground state. Our findings offer a comprehensive understanding on dynamic confinement effects in liquid crystalline colloidal systems and may set unexplored directions in the development of novel responsive materials.

Topics: Amyloid; Anisotropy; Colloids; Liquid Crystals; Nanoparticles

PubMed: 35589676
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30123-y