Polyphenols and Antioxidant Activity of Different Vinegrape Leaves

The volume of the grape waste produced directly relates to the volume of grapes pressed and in turn depends on the specific climatic conditions of the relevant vintage. The aim of this work is to evaluate vinegrape leaves as a potential source of natural antioxidants – polyphenols for their possible use as dietary supplement or food antioxidants. To this purpose antioxidant activity and contents of phenolic compounds of the leaves extracts of five grape varieties of Vitis vinifera L (Vranac, Prokupac, Merlot, Gamay and Italian Rizling), grown in southern Serbia were investigated. The analysis show high content of polyphenols reflecting their high antioxidant activity (R2 = 0.9819, p<0.01). According to the obtained results, the leaves extracts, can be considered rich natural source of phenolic compounds with good antioxidant properties

Quality Red Wines: Changing the Content of Anthocyanins in the Process of Ripening Grapes

The content of anthocyanins in grape affects the color and sensory properties of red wine. This paper deals with the quality of Cabernet Sauvignon wines examining changes in the content of anthocyanins in the process of ripening grapes. The HPLC results show that the skin extracts obtained from the early defoliation plants showed up to 6 % and corresponding wine up to 24 % increase of the content of total anthocyanins as compared to the extracts from the control grape and corresponding wine samples. Partial early defoliation may be an excellent tool for control of anthocyanins in grapes and may be employed as a management practice as parameter for quality of red wines

A Wireless LC Sensor Coated with Ba0.9Bi0.066TiO3 for Measuring Temperature

This paper presents a passive LC wireless sensor for measuring temperature. The sensor is designed as a parallel connection of a spiral inductor and an interdigitated capacitor and it was fabricated in a conductive layer using LTCC (Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic) technology. The inderdigitated capacitor electrodes were coated with a thin film of bismuth doped barium titanate (Ba0.9Bi0.066TiO3), whose permittivity changes with temperature, which directly induces changes in the capacitance of the interdigitated capacitor and consequently changes the resonant frequency of the sensor. The measurements of S-parameter of the sensor were performed using a Vector Network Analyzer (E5071B, Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA), whose port was connected to the antenna coil that was placed around the sensor in order to be able to wirelessly detect temperature, in the temperature range from 25 degrees C to 165 degrees C

DDESC: Dragon database for exploration of sodium channels in human

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Sodium channels are heteromultimeric, integral membrane proteins that belong to a superfamily of ion channels. The mutations in genes encoding for sodium channel proteins have been linked with several inherited genetic disorders such as febrile epilepsy, Brugada syndrome, ventricular fibrillation, long QT syndrome, or channelopathy associated insensitivity to pain. In spite of these significant effects that sodium channel proteins/genes could have on human health, there is no publicly available resource focused on sodium channels that would support exploration of the sodium channel related information.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We report here Dragon Database for Exploration of Sodium Channels in Human (DDESC), which provides comprehensive information related to sodium channels regarding different entities, such as "genes and proteins", "metabolites and enzymes", "toxins", "chemicals with pharmacological effects", "disease concepts", "human anatomy", "pathways and pathway reactions" and their potential links. DDESC is compiled based on text- and data-mining. It allows users to explore potential associations between different entities related to sodium channels in human, as well as to automatically generate novel hypotheses.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>DDESC is first publicly available resource where the information related to sodium channels in human can be explored at different levels. This database is freely accessible for academic and non-profit users via the worldwide web <url>http://apps.sanbi.ac.za/ddesc</url>.</p

DDEC: Dragon database of genes implicated in esophageal cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Esophageal cancer ranks eighth in order of cancer occurrence. Its lethality primarily stems from inability to detect the disease during the early organ-confined stage and the lack of effective therapies for advanced-stage disease. Moreover, the understanding of molecular processes involved in esophageal cancer is not complete, hampering the development of efficient diagnostics and therapy. Efforts made by the scientific community to improve the survival rate of esophageal cancer have resulted in a wealth of scattered information that is difficult to find and not easily amendable to data-mining. To reduce this gap and to complement available cancer related bioinformatic resources, we have developed a comprehensive database (Dragon Database of Genes Implicated in Esophageal Cancer) with esophageal cancer related information, as an integrated knowledge database aimed at representing a gateway to esophageal cancer related data.</p> <p>Description</p> <p>Manually curated 529 genes differentially expressed in EC are contained in the database. We extracted and analyzed the promoter regions of these genes and complemented gene-related information with transcription factors that potentially control them. We further, precompiled text-mined and data-mined reports about each of these genes to allow for easy exploration of information about associations of EC-implicated genes with other human genes and proteins, metabolites and enzymes, toxins, chemicals with pharmacological effects, disease concepts and human anatomy. The resulting database, DDEC, has a useful feature to display potential associations that are rarely reported and thus difficult to identify. Moreover, DDEC enables inspection of potentially new 'association hypotheses' generated based on the precompiled reports.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We hope that this resource will serve as a useful complement to the existing public resources and as a good starting point for researchers and physicians interested in EC genetics. DDEC is freely accessible to academic and non-profit users at <url>http://apps.sanbi.ac.za/ddec/</url>. DDEC will be updated twice a year.</p

DDPC: Dragon database of genes associated with prostate cancer

Prostate cancer (PC) is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in men. PC is relatively difficult to diagnose due to a lack of clear early symptoms. Extensive research of PC has led to the availability of a large amount of data on PC. Several hundred genes are implicated in different stages of PC, which may help in developing diagnostic methods or even cures. In spite of this accumulated information, effective diagnostics and treatments remain evasive. We have developed Dragon Database of Genes associated with Prostate Cancer (DDPC) as an integrated knowledgebase of genes experimentally verified as implicated in PC. DDPC is distinctive from other databases in that (i) it provides pre-compiled biomedical text-mining information on PC, which otherwise require tedious computational analyses, (ii) it integrates data on molecular interactions, pathways, gene ontologies, gene regulation at molecular level, predicted transcription factor binding sites on promoters of PC implicated genes and transcription factors that correspond to these binding sites and (iii) it contains DrugBank data on drugs associated with PC. We believe this resource will serve as a source of useful information for research on PC.DST/NRF Research Chair National Bioinformatics Network grants National Research Foundation of South Afric

ANTIOXIDANTS AND THEIR IMPORTANCE DURING MUSCULAR EXERCISE: A REVIEW

Physiological levels of reactive oxygen species, as an essential part of the homeostatic milieu, are required for normal functioning of skeletal muscle. High levels of reactive oxygen species promote contractile dysfunction resulting in muscle weakness and fatigue, oxidative stress, apoptosis and necrosis of muscle cells. It is known that both resting and contracting skeletal muscles produce reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen species. The first suggestion that physical exercise results in free radical-mediated damage to tissues appeared in 1978. The newest researches investigate the mechanisms by which oxidants influence skeletal muscle contractile properties and explore how to protect muscle from oxidant-mediated dysfunction. Principal antioxidant enzymes include superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and catalase. Numerous non-enzymatic antioxidants exist in cells within skeletal muscle fibers, the most abundant of which include glutathione, bilirubin, α-Lipoic acid , uric acid, and ubiquinones, or coenzyme Q (CoQ) andflavonoids. Dietary antioxidants are vitamins C- L ascorbic acid , vitamin A, retinol and their provitamins, carotenoids (especially β-carotene), vitamins E, tocopherol (especially a-tocoferol ), folic acid or folates. The usage of endogenous enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants protects muscle from strong damaging effects caused by free radicals during acute exercise or longer term physical exercise. Scientific researches now confirm that the long-term use of antioxidants is safe and effective. The actual recommendation for physically active individuals is to ingest a diet rich in antioxidants

IDPpi:Protein-protein interaction analyses of human intrinsically disordered proteins

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are characterized by the lack of a fixed tertiary structure and are involved in the regulation of key biological processes via binding to multiple protein partners. IDPs are malleable, adapting to structurally different partners, and this flexibility stems from features encoded in the primary structure. The assumption that universal sequence information will facilitate coverage of the sparse zones of the human interactome motivated us to explore the possibility of predicting protein-protein interactions (PPIs) that involve IDPs based on sequence characteristics. We developed a method that relies on features of the interacting and non-interacting protein pairs and utilizes machine learning to classify and predict IDP PPIs. Consideration of both sequence determinants specific for conformational organizations and the multiplicity of IDP interactions in the training phase ensured a reliable approach that is superior to current state-of-the-art methods. By applying a strict evaluation procedure, we confirm that our method predicts interactions of the IDP of interest even on the proteome-scale. This service is provided as a web tool to expedite the discovery of new interactions and IDP functions with enhanced efficiency. © 2018 The Author(s)