|
Coated Pits
In biology, caveolae (Latin for "little caves"; singular, caveola), which are a special type of lipid raft, are small (50–100 nanometer) invaginations of the plasma membrane in the cells of many vertebrates. They are the most abundant surface feature of many vertebrate cell types, especially endothelial cells, adipocytes and embryonic notochord cells. They were originally discovered by E. Yamada in 1955. These flask-shaped structures are rich in proteins as well as lipids such as cholesterol and sphingolipids and have several functions in signal transduction. They are also believed to play a role in mechanoprotection, mechanosensation, endocytosis, oncogenesis, and the uptake of pathogenic bacteria and certain viruses. Caveolins Formation and maintenance of caveolae was initially thought to be primarily due to caveolin, a 21 kD protein. There are three homologous genes of caveolin expressed in mammalian cells: Cav1, Cav2 and Cav3. These proteins have a common topology: cytop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary information encoded in genes, which can be transmitted to future generations. Another major theme is evolution, which explains the unity and diversity of life. Energy processing is also important to life as it allows organisms to move, grow, and reproduce. Finally, all organisms are able to regulate their own internal environments. Biologists are able to study life at multiple levels of organization, from the molecular biology of a cell to the anatomy and physiology of plants and animals, and evolution of populations.Based on definition from: Hence, there are multiple subdisciplines within biology, each defined by the nature of their research questions and the tools that they use. Like other scientists, biologists use the sc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nystatin
Nystatin, sold under the brandname Mycostatin among others, is an antifungal medication. It is used to treat '' Candida'' infections of the skin including diaper rash, thrush, esophageal candidiasis, and vaginal yeast infections. It may also be used to prevent candidiasis in those who are at high risk. Nystatin may be used by mouth, in the vagina, or applied to the skin. Common side effects when applied to the skin include burning, itching, and a rash. Common side effects when taken by mouth include vomiting and diarrhea. During pregnancy use in the vagina is safe while other formulations have not been studied in this group. It works by disrupting the cell membrane of the fungal cells. Nystatin was discovered in 1950 by Rachel Fuller Brown and Elizabeth Lee Hazen. It was the first polyene macrolide antifungal. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. It is available as a generic medication. It is made from the bacterium '' Streptomyces noursei'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genistein
Genistein (C15H10O5) is a naturally occurring compound that structurally belongs to a class of compounds known as isoflavones. It is described as an angiogenesis inhibitor and a phytoestrogen. It was first isolated in 1899 from the dyer's broom, ''Genista tinctoria''; hence, the chemical name. The compound structure was established in 1926, when it was found to be identical with that of prunetol. It was chemically synthesized in 1928. It has been shown to be the primary secondary metabolite of the ''Trifolium'' species and ''Glycine max L''. Natural occurrences Isoflavones such as genistein and daidzein are found in a number of plants including lupin, fava beans, soybeans, kudzu, and psoralea being the primary food source, also in the medicinal plants, '' Flemingia vestita'' and '' F. macrophylla'', and coffee. It can also be found in ''Maackia amurensis'' cell cultures. Biological effects Besides functioning as an antioxidant and anthelmintic, many isoflavones have been sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Filipin
Filipin is a mixture of chemical compounds first isolated by chemists at the Upjohn company in 1955 from the mycelium and culture filtrates of a previously unknown actinomycete, '' Streptomyces filipinensis''. It was discovered in a soil sample collected in the Philippine Islands, hence the name filipin. The isolate possessed potent antifungal activity. It was identified as a polyene macrolide based on its characteristic UV-Vis and IR spectra. Functions Although the polyene macrolide antibiotics exhibit potent antifungal activity, most are too toxic for therapeutic applications, with the exceptions of amphotericin B and nystatin A1. Unlike amphotericin B and nystatin A1 which form sterol-dependent ion channels, filipin is thought to be a simple membrane disrupter. Since filipin is highly fluorescent and binds specifically to cholesterol, it has found widespread use as a histochemical stain for cholesterol. This method of detecting cholesterol in cell membranes is used clin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clathrin
Clathrin is a protein that plays a major role in the formation of coated vesicles. Clathrin was first isolated and named by Barbara Pearse in 1976. It forms a triskelion shape composed of three clathrin heavy chains and three light chains. When the triskelia interact they form a polyhedral lattice that surrounds the vesicle, hence the protein's name, which is derived from the Latin ''clathrum'' meaning lattice. Coat-proteins, like clathrin, are used to build small vesicles in order to transport molecules within cells. The endocytosis and exocytosis of vesicles allows cells to communicate, to transfer nutrients, to import signaling receptors, to mediate an immune response after sampling the extracellular world, and to clean up the cell debris left by tissue inflammation. The endocytic pathway can be hijacked by viruses and other pathogens in order to gain entry to the cell during infection. Structure The clathrin triskelion is composed of three clathrin heavy chains inter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SDPR
Cavin-2 or Serum deprivation-response protein (SDPR) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''SDPR'' gene. Cavin-2 is highly expressed in a variety of human endothelial cells. This gene encodes a calcium-independent phospholipid-binding protein whose expression increases in serum-starved cells. This protein has also been shown to be a substrate for protein kinase C (PKC) phosphorylation. Function Cavin-2 is required for blood vessel formation (angiogenesis) in humans and zebrafish and required also for the endothelial cell proliferation, migration and invasion in humans. Cavin-2 plays an important role in endothelial cell maintenance by regulating eNOS activity. Cavin-2 controls the generation of nitric oxide (NO) in human endothelial cells by controlling the activity and stability of the protein endothelial nitric-oxide synthase (eNOS). Secretion Cavin-2 is highly secreted from human endothelial cells (HUVEC), they are secreted through endothelial microparticles (E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PTRF
Polymerase I and transcript release factor, also known as Cavin1, Cavin-1 or PTRF, is a protein which in humans is encoded by the ''PTRF'' gene. Function PTRF (Cavin1) has been shown to be crucial for caveola formation and function. Termination of RNA polymerase I catalyzed transcription is a 2-step process that involves pausing of transcription elongation and release of both the pre-ribosomal RNA and Pol I from the DNA template. The pausing is mediated by TTF1 and PTRF. PTRF is a soluble protein containing putative leucine zipper, nuclear localization signal, and PEST domains. Interactions PTRF (Cavin1) forms trimers with Cavin2 and Cavin3 in caveola formation and has been shown to interact with other membrane associating proteins such as EHD2 and caveolins. PTRF has been shown to interact with ZNF148 Zinc finger protein 148 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''ZNF148'' gene. Interactions ZNF148 has been shown to interact with PTRF and P53. See a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caveolin
In molecular biology, caveolins are a family of integral membrane proteins that are the principal components of caveolae membranes and involved in receptor-independent endocytosis. Caveolins may act as scaffolding proteins within caveolar membranes by compartmentalizing and concentrating signaling molecules. They also induce positive (inward) membrane curvature by way of oligomerization, and hairpin insertion. Various classes of signaling molecules, including G-protein subunits, receptor and non-receptor tyrosine kinases, endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), and small GTPases, bind Cav-1 through its 'caveolin-scaffolding domain'. The caveolin gene family has three members in vertebrates: CAV1, CAV2, and CAV3, coding for the proteins caveolin-1, caveolin-2, and caveolin-3, respectively. All three members are membrane proteins with similar structure. Caveolin forms oligomers and associates with cholesterol and sphingolipids in certain areas of the cell membrane, leading to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virus
A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1892 article describing a non-bacterial pathogen infecting tobacco plants and the discovery of the tobacco mosaic virus by Martinus Beijerinck in 1898,Dimmock p. 4 more than 9,000 virus species have been described in detail of the millions of types of viruses in the environment. Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and are the most numerous type of biological entity. The study of viruses is known as virology, a subspeciality of microbiology. When infected, a host cell is often forced to rapidly produce thousands of copies of the original virus. When not inside an infected cell or in the process of infecting a cell, viruses exist in the form of independent particles, or ''virions'', consisting of (i) the genetic material, i. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bacteria
Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among the first life forms to appear on Earth, and are present in most of its habitats. Bacteria inhabit soil, water, acidic hot springs, radioactive waste, and the deep biosphere of Earth's crust. Bacteria are vital in many stages of the nutrient cycle by recycling nutrients such as the fixation of nitrogen from the atmosphere. The nutrient cycle includes the decomposition of dead bodies; bacteria are responsible for the putrefaction stage in this process. In the biological communities surrounding hydrothermal vents and cold seeps, extremophile bacteria provide the nutrients needed to sustain life by converting dissolved compounds, such as hydrogen sulphide and methane, to energy. Bacteria also live in symbiotic and parasitic relationsh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pathogen
In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ. The term ''pathogen'' came into use in the 1880s. Typically, the term ''pathogen'' is used to describe an ''infectious'' microorganism or agent, such as a virus, bacterium, protozoan, prion, viroid, or fungus. Small animals, such as helminths and insects, can also cause or transmit disease. However, these animals are usually referred to as parasites rather than pathogens. The scientific study of microscopic organisms, including microscopic pathogenic organisms, is called microbiology, while parasitology refers to the scientific study of parasites and the organisms that host them. There are several pathways through which pathogens can invade a host. The principal pathways have different episodic time frames, but soil has the longest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
