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Objective: Alcohol intake is a major risk factor for various diseases. Elucidating alcohol use disorder (AUD) is important in preventing diseases and promoting health. We aimed to investigate the effect of art therapy on emotional (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 [MMPI-2]) and physical (natural killer [NK] cell count, expression of stress-associated proteins [SAP], and electroencephalography) changes in patients with AUD. Methods: Participants were randomly divided into two groups (n = 35), with the experimental group undergoing art therapy involving weekly 60-min group therapy sessions for 10 weeks. Statistical analysis was performed using Ranked ANCOVA and Wilcoxon's signed rank test. Western blotting was performed to analyze serum SAP levels. Results: We observed an association between psychological mechanisms and stress proteins. There was an increased number of NK cells in the experimental group after the program. Moreover, compared with the control group, the experimental group showed significant changes in SAP expression. Further, the experimental group showed a positive change in the MMPI-2 profile, as well as a decrease in depression, anxiety, impulsivity, and alcohol dependence. Conclusions: Continuous psychological support could be applied as a stress-control program for preventing stress recurrence and post-discharge relapse. Our findings strengthen the link between biomedical science and mental health in rehabilitation treatment for AUD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conjugation of nanoparticles (NPs) with antibiotics for treating multidrug resistant pathogens has been enormously studied now a days. In the current investigation, calcium phosphate (CaP) NPs were produced by co-precipitation using red ginseng extract as the reducing agent and were conjugated to the antibiotic streptomycin to form streptomycin-conjugated NPs (CPG-S NPs). The CPG-S NPs antibacterial activity was evaluated in this study against eight plant and five foodborne pathogenic bacteria. The synthesized CPG-S NPs were characterized by UV-VIS spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, and thermogravimetric and differential thermogravimetric analysis. CPG-S NPs exhibited promising antibacterial activity against all eight plant pathogenic bacteria and three of the five foodborne pathogenic bacteria tested; the diameter of inhibition zones ranged between 9.74–16.95 mm and 9.82–15.84 mm, respectively. CPG-S NPs displayed 50–100 μg/mL of minimum inhibitory concentration and 100 μg/mL of minimum bactericidal concentration against the plant and foodborne pathogenic bacterial strains, respectively. Furthermore, the SEM image of bacteria treated with CPG-S NPs displayed cells with a ruptured cell wall and fewer cells compared to the SEM image of untreated control bacteria displaying uniform and intact cells. SEM confirmed that CPG-S NPs degraded the bacterial cell wall and membrane resulting in lysed bacterial cells. In conclusion, the results suggest that CPG-S NPs could be effectively utilized in formulating drugs to treat bacterial plant or dental diseases and in manufacturing dental products such as toothpaste, mouthwashes, and artificial teeth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transcription factor selectively binds with the cis-regulatory elements of the promoter and regulates the differential expression of genes. In this study, we aimed to identify and validate the presence of GCC-box and TCC-box motifs in the promoters of upregulated differentially expressed genes (UR-DEGs) and downregulated differentially expressed genes (DR-DEGs) under anoxia using molecular beacon probe (MBP) based real-time PCR. The GCC-box motif was detected in UR-DEGs (DnaJ and 60S ribosomal protein L7 genes), whereas, the TCC-box was detected in DR-DEGs (DnaK and CPuORF11 genes). In addition, the mechanism of interaction of AP2/EREBP family transcription factor (LOC_Os03g22170) with GCC-box promoter motif present in DnaJ gene (LOC_Os06g09560) and 60S ribosomal protein L7 gene (LOC_Os08g42920); and TCC-box promoter motif of DnaK gene (LOC_Os02g48110) and CPuORF11 gene (LOC_Os02g01240) were explored using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations analysis including binding free energy calculations, principal component analyses, and free energy landscapes. The binding free energy analysis revealed that AP2/EREBP model residues such as Arg68, Arg72, Arg83, Lys87, and Arg90 were commonly involved in the formation of hydrogen bonds with GCC and TCC-box promoter motifs, suggesting that these residues are critical for strong interaction. The movement of the entire protein bound to DNA was restricted, confirming the stability of the complex. This study provides comprehensive binding information and a more detailed view of the dynamic interaction between proteins and DNA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbial cell performance in food biotechnological processes has become an important concern for improving human health worldwide. Lactobacillus plantarum, which is widely distributed in nature, is a lactic acid bacterium with many industrial applications for fermented foods or functional foods (e.g., probiotics). In the present study, using capillary electrophoresis time of flight mass spectrometry, the metabolomic profile of dried Orostachys japonicus A. Berger, a perennial medicinal herb with L. plantarum was compared with that of O. japonicus fermented with L. plantarum to elucidate the metabolomic changes induced by the fermentation process. The levels of several metabolites were changed by the fermentation process, indicating their involvement in microbial performance. For example, glycolysis, the pentose phosphate pathway, the TCA cycle, the urea cycle-related metabolism, nucleotide metabolism, and lipid and amino acid metabolism were altered significantly by the fermentation process. Although the fermented metabolites were not tested using in vivo studies to increase human health benefits, our findings provide an insight into the alteration of metabolites induced by fermentation, and indicated that the metabolomic analysis for the process should be accompanied by fermenting strains and conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) is a pivotal chemokine in the inflammatory response, which plays an important role in recruiting monocytes to sites of injury and infection. However, the exact mechanism of Mcp-1 associated with PCOS risk was unknown. In this study, we explored whether the Mcp-1 -2518G>A polymorphism increases the risk of PCOS. We performed a comparative study of -2518G>A polymorphism of the Mcp-1 gene with PCOS. In addition, luciferase reporter assay was performed to evaluate the Mcp-1 transcriptional activity. A strong association was observed between the -2518G>A polymorphism of Mcp-1 gene and PCOS (p-value = 0.016, odd ratio (OR) = 0.693). A p-value under 0.05 is considered statistically significant. The genotype and allelic frequencies were assumed to be in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE). The luciferase assays in 2 cell lines showed that the Mcp-1 -2518G>A substitution can increase the expression of Mcp-1. MCP-1 levels in serum for PCOS group were significantly higher than those in serum for controls (p-value = 0.02). Furthermore, the patients carrying a genotype A/A had significantly increased levels of MCP-1 in serum compared with levels of the MCP-1 of the patients with genotypes G/G and G/A (p-value = 0.031). This is the first study on the genetic variation of the Mcp-1 gene and PCOS. This finding suggests that the Mcp-1 -2518G>A polymorphism is associated with PCOS risk by affecting transcriptional activity, leading to an increased expression level of Mcp-1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Specific wavelengths of light can exert various physiological changes in plants, including effects on responses to disease incidence. To determine whether specific light wavelength had effects on rotting disease caused by Pseudomonas putida 229, soybean sprouts were germinated under a narrow range of wavelengths from light emitting diodes (LEDs), including red (650–660), far red (720–730) and blue (440–450 nm) or broad range of wavelength from daylight fluorescence bulbs. The controls were composed of soybean sprouts germinated in darkness. After germination under different conditions for 5 days, the soybean sprouts were inoculated with P. putida 229 and the disease incidence was observed for 5 days. The sprouts exposed to red light showed increased resistance against P. putida 229 relative to those grown under other conditions. Soybean sprouts germinated under red light accumulated high levels of salicylic acid (SA) accompanied with up-regulation of the biosynthetic gene ICS and the pathogenesis- related (PR) gene PR-1, indicating that the resistance was induced by the action of SA via de novo synthesis of SA in the soybean sprouts by red light irradiation. Taken together, these data suggest that only the narrow range of red light can induce disease resistance in soybean sprouts, regulated by the SA-dependent pathway via the de novo synthesis of SA and up-regulation of PR genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We previously reported that the USP17 deubiquitinating enzyme having hyaluronan binding motifs (HABMs) interacts with human SDS3 (suppressor of defective silencing 3) and specifically deubiquitinates Lys-63 branched polyubiquitination of SDS3 resulting in negative regulation of histone deacetylase (HDAC) activity in cancer cells. Furthermore, USP17 and SDS3 mutually interact with each other to block cell proliferation in HeLa cells but the mechanism for this inhibition in cell proliferation is not known. We wished to investigate whether the HABMs of USP17 were responsible for tumor suppression activity., Methodology/principal Findings: Similarly to USP17, we have identified that SDS3 also has three consecutive HABMs and shows direct binding with hyaluronan (HA) using cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) assay. Additionally, HA oligosaccharides (6-18 sugar units) competitively block binding of endogenous HA polymer to HA binding proteins. Thus, administration of HA oligosaccharides antagonizes the interaction between HA and USP17 or SDS3. Interestingly, HABMs deleted USP17 showed lesser interaction with SDS3 but retain its deubiquitinating activity towards SDS3. The deletion of HABMs of USP17 could not alter its functional regulation on SDS3-associated HDAC activity. Furthermore, to explore whether HABMs in USP17 and SDS3 are responsible for the inhibition of cell proliferation, we investigated the effect of USP17 and SDS3-lacking HABMs on cell proliferation by soft agar, apoptosis, cell migration and cell proliferation assays., Conclusions: Our results have demonstrated that these HABMs in USP17 and its substrate SDS3 are mainly involved in the inhibition of anchorage-independent tumor growth.

Background: A plethora of biological metabolisms are regulated by the mechanisms of ubiquitination, wherein this process is balanced with the action of deubiquitination system. Dub-2 is an IL-2-inducible, immediate-early gene that encodes a deubiquitinating enzyme with growth regulatory activity. DUB-2 presumably removes ubiquitin from ubiquitin-conjugated target proteins regulating ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis, but its specific target proteins are unknown yet., Methodology/principal Findings: To elucidate the functional role of Dub-2, we generated genetically modified mice by introducing neo cassette into the second exon of Dub-2 and then homologous recombination was done to completely abrogate the activity of DUB-2 proteins. We generated Dub-2+/- heterozygous mice showing a normal phenotype and are fertile, whereas new born mouse of Dub-2-/- homozygous alleles could not survive. In addition, Dub-2-/- embryo could not be seen between E6.5 and E12.5 stages. Furthermore, the number of embryos showing normal embryonic development for further stages is decreased in heterozygotes. Even embryonic stem cells from inner cell mass of Dub-2-/- embryos could not be established., Conclusions: Our study suggests that the targeted disruption of Dub-2 may cause embryonic lethality during early gestation, possibly due to the failure of cell proliferation during hatching process.