Venoms of snakes of the family Elapidae (cobras, kraits, mambas, and relatives) are predominantly composed of numerous phospholipases A2 (PLA2s) and three-finger toxins (3FTxs), some of which are lethal while others are not significantly toxic. Currently, the only identified prey-specific toxins...

Snake venoms have demonstrated antinociceptive activity, and certain isolated neurotoxins have demonstrated significant analgesia in animal models. Here we report a novel analgesic toxin which was isolated from Naja naja atra and was given the name ‘najanalgesin’. The LD50 of the crude venom a...

Naja naja is a medically important species that is distributed widely in South Asia. Its venom lethality and neutralization profile have been reported to vary markedly, but the understanding of this phenomenon has been limited without a comprehensive venom profile for the Pakistani N. naja. This...

Podocyte insulin sensitivity is critical for glomerular function, and the loss of appropriate insulin signaling leads to alterations and disorders featuring diabetic nephropathy. Energy-sensing pathways, such as AMP-dependent protein kinase (AMPK) and protein deacetylase SIRT1, have been shown t...

Altered blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability may contribute to pathogenesis of diabetes-related central nervous system disorders. Considering the presence of glycated insulin in plasma of type 2 diabetic patients, we hypothesized that glycated insulin could induce changes in paracellular perme...

Insulin-degrading enzyme, IDE, is a metalloprotease implicated in the metabolism of key peptides such as insulin, glucagon, β-amyloid peptide. Recent studies have pointed out its broader role in the cell physiology. In order to identify new drug-like inhibitors of IDE with optimal pharmacokinet...

Vaspin, as a newly discovered adipocytokine, can modulate obesity with insulin-sensitizing effects. This study mainly focused on the plasma level of vaspin in insulin resistant rats, which received high-fat diet (HFD) and diazinon (DZN) (70 mg/kg). Upon 30-day experiment, related oxidative stres...

ABSTRACTLow-grade inflammation has been implicated as a contributor to metabolic disease during the transition to lactation. In previous work, administration of sodium salicylate (SS) for 7 d led to hypoglycemia in mature dairy cows in early lactation. The purpose of this study was to identify t...

Insulin resistance, defined as attenuated sensitivity responding to insulin, impairs insulin action. Direct causes and molecular mechanisms of insulin resistance have thus far remained elusive. Here we show that alternative translation initiation (ATI) of Caveolin-2 (Cav-2) regulates insulin sen...

The number of people with diabetes is estimated to be over 370 million, in 2030 it will increase to 552 million. In Poland, the number of people with diabetes is estimated to be 3.5 million (9.1%). According to the estimates of the International Diabetes Federation, the percentage of patients in...

Osteoporosis treatment with PTH 1–34 injections significantly reduces the incidence of bone fracture. Potential further reductions in fracture rate should be observed through nasal spray delivery to address the poor compliance associated with patient dislike of repeated PTH 1–34 subcutaneous i...

Intra-articular injection of dexamethasone (Dex) is occasionally used to relieve pain and inflammation in osteoarthritis (OA) patients. Dex induces terminal differentiation of chondrogenic mesenchymal stem cells in vitro and causes impaired longitudinal skeletal growth in vivo. Parathyroid hormo...

In this study a new biomimetic lignin-peroxidase-like catalyst was investigated. Such a heterogeneous catalyst could be of potential interest for oxidative degradation of plant effluents, containing soluble lignin derivatives. 5,10,15,20-Tetrakis(4-sulfonato-phenyl)porphine-Mn(III) was coordinat...

Interactions of the water soluble Fe(III)- and Zn(II)-tetra(4-sulfonatophenyl) porphyrins, FeTPPS4 and ZnTPPS4, with ionic and nonionic micelles in aqueous solutions have been studied by optical absorption, fluorescence, resonance light-scattering (RLS), and 1H NMR spectroscopies. The presence o...

BackgroundElectroporation with calcium (calcium electroporation) can induce ATP depletion-associated cellular death. In the clinical setting, the cytotoxic drug bleomycin is currently used with electroporation (electrochemotherapy) for palliative treatment of tumors. Calcium electroporation offe...

In this study, the effects of glycerol on cephalosporin C production by Acremonium chrysogenum M35 were evaluated. The addition of glycerol increased cephalosporin production by up to 12-fold. Glycerol caused the upregulation of the transcription of the isopenicillin synthase (pcbC) and transpor...

In this study, the role of glycerol in cephalosporin C production was evaluated in Acremonium chrysogenum M35. Methionine-unsupplemented culture with glycerol stimulated cephalosporin C production in A. chrysogenum M35 by up to 10-fold while increasing the amount of cysteine. Glycerol caused the...

Six σ-alkyl-π-cyclopentadienyltungsten tricarbonyls, π-C5H5W(CO)3-σ-R (R = i-Pr, n-Bu, i-Bu, sec-Bu, n-Am and i-Am) have been synthesised. The IR spectra of these derivatives exhibited two strong CO stretching bands, one between 2012–2000 and the other between 1931–1922 cm1̄. In addition...

Ethyl-, isopropyl-, diethyl-, butyl- and cyclohexyl-amines reacted with cyclopentadienyltungsten tricarbonyl dimer at ambient temperatures to give (π-C5H5)2W2(CO)5L (L = amines). Potential chelating bidentate ligands like ethylenediamine. o-phenanthroline and 2,2′-bipyridine also displaced onl...

Background. We examined the ability of zinc-bis-histidinate to preserve postarrest myocardial function when added to a standard crystalloid cardioplegic solution.Methods. Domestic pigs (35 to 50 kg) on left-sided cardiopulmonary bypass were subjected to 90 minutes of regional ischemia followed b...