Cancer Prevention by Synbiotics Effect of Fiber-Rich Sourdough Fermentation

Sourdough is a very complex biological system, which obtained from water and cereal fermentation. Sourdough fermentation usually consists of combinations of probiotic lactobacilli starters and prebiotic dietary fibers called synbiotics which have a synergistic effect, greater than that of either the probiotic or prebiotic administered individually. Preliminary research suggests that synbiotics offer anti-cancer benefits to the human body. The risk of lung, colon, liver, breast and bladder cancer may be reduced with the help of synbiotic effects. The most promising research is the ability of synbiotics to improve the health of cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy. Proposed mechanisms of action of probiotics lactobacilli starters and prebiotics dietary fibers in cancer include binding of carcinogens, alteration in gut microbiota formation and metabolism of carcinogens, stimulation suppression of carcinogenesis, improvement in epithelial barrier function, anti-inflammatory effects, inductance of apoptosis, and inductance of protective enzymes. Briefly these mechanisms and synbiotics effect of fiber-rich sourdough fermentation in cancer prevention will be discussed in this mini review

A conventional PCR for differentiating common taeniid species of dogs based on in silico microsatellite analysis

Canine taeniids are among the major tapeworms with remarkable medical and economic significance. Reliable diagnosis and differentiation of dog taeniids using simple and sensitive tools are of paramount importance for establishing an efficient surveillance system. Microsatellites as abundant unique tandem repeats of short DNA motifs are useful genetic markers for molecular epidemiological studies. The purpose of the present study was to find a primer pair for rapid differentiation of major tapeworms of dogs, Taenia hydatigena, T. multiceps, T. ovis and Echinococcus granulosus, by screening existing nucleotide data. All the mitochondrial genome records as well as non-coding ITS1 sequences of Taeniidae species were downloaded from Nucleotide database from NCBI. For prediction and analysis of potential loci of STR/SSR in ITS1 as well as mitochondrial regions, we used ChloroMitoSSRDB 2.0 and GMATo v1.2. software. Different tapeworm species were categorized according to different motif sequences and type and size of each microsatellite locus. Three primer sets were designed and tested for differentiating taeniid species and evaluated in a conventional PCR system. Four taeniid species were successfully differentiated using a primer pair in a simple conventional PCR system. We predicted 2-19 and 1-4 microsatellite loci in ITS1 and mitochondrial genome, respectively. In ITS1, 41 Di and 21 Tri motifs were found in the taeniids while the majority of the motifs in the mitochondrial genome were Tetra (89) and Tri (70). It is documented that the number and diversity of microsatellite loci is higher in nuclear ITS1 region than mostly coding mitochondrial genome

Identification of Novel MicroRNAs and Their Targets in Leukemia Cancers: A Computational Approach

MicroRNAs (miRNAs), one of the most abundant groups of regulatory non coding RNAs in multicellular organisms, play important roles in many fundamental cellular processes. More than four hundred miRNAs have been identified in humans and the deregulated expression of miR-NA has been also shown in many cancers. Despite the postulated in-volvement of miRNAs in tumourigenesis, there are only a few exam-ples where an oncogene or a tumour suppressor has been identified as a miRNA target. Here, we present an in silico analysis of potential miR-NA- MYC interactions. We showed evidence for the regulation of c-MYC, one of the most potent and frequently deregulated oncogenes, via the predicted binding site in transcriptional and post transcriptional re-gions. In this work, bioinformatics approach for the prediction and vali-dation of possible targets for miRNAs has been used. A list of putative targets is available and validation of which would be experimentally validated

Inhibitors of dihydroorotate dehydrogenase cooperate with molnupiravir and N4-hydroxycytidine to suppress SARS-CoV-2 replication

Funding Information: We thank Thorsten Wolff, Daniel Bourquain, Jessica Schulz, and Christian Mache from the Robert-Koch Institute and Martin Beer from the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) for providing isolates of SARS-CoV-2 variants. We thank Anna Kraft and Gabriele Czerwinski (both FLI) for support in the preparation of samples for pathology, and Catherine Hambly (University of Aberdeen) for help with daily energy expenditure measurements. We would like to thank Cathrin Bierwirth (University Medical Center Göttingen), Isabell Schulz, Anne-Kathrin Donner, and Frank-Thorben Peters for excellent technician assistance and Jasmin Fertey and Alexandra Rockstroh for providing the virus stocks for the mice experiment (Fraunhofer Institute IZI Leipzig). We acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of the Göttingen University. KMS was a member of the Göttingen Graduate School GGNB during this work. This work was funded by the COVID-19 Forschungsnetzwerk Niedersachsen (COFONI) to MD, by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research Germany ( Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung; BMBF ; OrganSARS , 01KI2058 ) to SP and TM, and by a grant of the Max Planck Foundation to DG. Declaration of interests AS, HK, EP, and DV are employees of Immunic AG and own shares and/or stock-options of the parent company of Immunic AG, Immunic Inc. Some of the Immunic AG employees also hold patents for the Immunic compounds described in this manuscript (WO2012/001,148, WO03006425). KMS, AD, and MD are employees of University Medical Center Göttingen, which has signed a License Agreement with Immunic AG covering the combination of DHODH inhibitors and nucleoside analogs to treat viral infections, including COVID-19 (inventors: MD, KMS, and AD). The other authors declare no conflict of interest.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

In silico identification of novel pre-microRNA genes in Rift valley fever virus suggest new pathomechanisms for embryo-fetal dysgenesis

ABSTRACTMicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that regulate the post-transcriptional expression of target genes. Virus-encoded miRNAs play an important role in the replication of viruses, modulate gene expression in both the virus and host, and affect their persistence and immune evasion in hosts. This renders viral miRNAs as potential targets for therapeutic applications, especially against pathogenic viruses that infect humans and animals. Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is a mosquito-borne zoonotic RNA virus that causes severe disease in both humans and livestock. High mortality among newborn lambs and abortion storms are key characteristics of an RVF outbreak. To date, limited information is available on RVFV-derived miRNAs. In this study, computational methods were used to analyse the RVFV genome for putative pre-miRNA genes, which were then analysed for the presence of mature miRNAs. We detected 19 RVFV-encoded miRNAs and identified their potential mRNAs targets in sheep (Ovis aries), the most susceptible host. The identification of significantly enriched O. aries genes in association with RVFV miRNAs will help elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying RVFV pathogenesis and potentially uncover novel drug targets for RVFV

A hybrid gene selection algorithm for microarray cancer classification using genetic algorithm and learning automata

Cancer classification is an important problem in cancer diagnosis and treatment. One of the most effective methods in cancer classification is gene selection. However, selecting a subset of genes which increases the classification accuracy is an NP-Hard problem. A variety of algorithms were proposed for gene selection in cancer classification in previous studies. In this study, a hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm, which is an integration of Genetic Algorithm and Learning Automata (GALA), is proposed for this purpose. The time complexity of GALA is O(G.m.n3) and it has acceptable accuracy and performance on some well-known cancer datasets. To evaluate the performance of GALA, six different cancer datasets including Colon, ALL_AML, SRBCT, MLL, Tumors_9 and Tumors_11 were selected. Based on the evaluation process, the GALA algorithm provided remarkable results on each dataset compared to some recently proposed algorithms

A serological and molecular study on Francisella tularensis in rodents from Hamadan province, Western Iran

Introduction and purpose Tularemia is a zoonotic disease, the most important hosts of which are rodents. Endemic regions and reservoirs of F. tularensis are not well-researched areas in Iran. The present study aimed to study F. tularensis infection in the rodent populations of western Iran. Materials and methods Samples were collected in different areas of Kabudar Ahang County in Hamadan province (west of Iran) from 2014 to 2017. Tularemia serological and molecular tests were conducted using the tube agglutination test and Real-time PCR method tracking the ISFtu2 gene. Positive serum samples were evaluated for cross-reactivity with brucellosis. Results A total of 433 rodents, collected from 33 localities, were included in the study. The most abundant species belonged to the Persian jird (Meriones persicus; 75.5%), and Libyan jird (Meriones libycus; 10.1%). Among the studied samples, three (0.74 %) were seropositive and five (1.15%) were PCR positive. Seropositive samples were two M. persicus and one M. libycus, and PCR positive rodents were four M. persicus and one M. vinogradovi. Tularemia seropositive samples showed no cross-reactivity with brucellosis. Conclusion Given the presence of infection in rodents with tularemia agent in the studied area, it is crucial to elucidate the risks of rodent exposure to tularemia for physicians, health personnel and the general population

Baseline of Physiological Body Temperature and Hematological Parameters in Captive Rousettus aegyptiacus and Eidolon helvum Fruit Bats

The discovery of bats as reservoir hosts for a number of highly pathogenic zoonotic agents has led to an increasing interest of infectious disease research in experimental studies with bats. Therefore, we established breeding colonies of Rousettus aegyptiacus and Eidolon helvum fruit bats, which both have been identified as reservoir hosts for relevant zoonotic disease agents, such as Marburg virus and Lagos bat virus. Since 2013, individuals of both species have been recruited to the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) from zoological gardens in Europe, to where these species had been introduced from the wild several decades ago. The aviaries have been designed according to national recommendations published by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. Under these conditions, both species have been reproducing for years. To better understand the physiology of these animals, and to generate baseline knowledge for infection experiments, we monitored the body core temperatures of R. aegyptiacus bats in the aviaries, and found a circadian variation between 34 degrees C and 41.5 degrees C. We also determined the hematological parameters of both species, and detected specific differences between both bat species. For values of clinical chemistry, no correlation to age or sex was observed. However, species-specific differences were detected since ALT, BUN and CREA were found to be significantly higher in R. aegyptiacus and GLU and TP were significantly higher in E. helvum bats. A higher hematocrit, hemoglobin and red blood cell level was observed in subadult R. aegyptiacus, with hemoglobin and red blood cells also being significantly increased compared to E. helvum. Lymphocytes were found to be the dominant white blood cells in both species and are higher in female E. helvum. Neutrophil granulocytes were significantly higher in E. helvum bats. This underlines the necessity to define baseline profiles for each bat species prior to their use in experimental challenge

Comparative analysis of miRNA expressions in different developmental stages of Echinococcus granulosus in mono-phasic and di-phasic culture systems

Background: The dog tapeworm, Echinococcus granulosus, is a zoonotic parasite affecting human and livestock across the globe. Basic research on the molecular biology and genetics of E. granulosus improves our understanding of the biology and potential drug targets in various developmental stages of E. granulosus in both definitive and intermediate hosts. There has been increasing interest in identification of microRNAs in parasitic organisms. The purpose of the current study was to compare the activity of a selected profile of miRNAs in different developmental stages of E. granulosus. Methods: Different developmental stages of the parasite were obtained from ex vivo as well as in vitro cultured E. granu-losus. MicroRNAs were extracted from the ex vivo germinal layer and invaginated protoscoleces as well as the in vitro gen-erated microcysts, evaginated protoscoleces and strobilated worms. Expression of the selected miRNAs was evaluated by RT-qPCR for each stage. Results: Four out of five miRNAs were present and active in different developmental stages of E. granulosus. A significant over-expression of miR-61 was observed in germinal layer and during the protoscolex transformation into the microcysts, however miR-10 was more expressed in the mature strobilated forms than the other stages. Let-7 and miR-3489 showed a high expression in germinal layer. Conclusion: Differential expression of four miRNAs among different in vitro and ex vivo developmental stages of E. granu-losus was documented in the present study. Further experimental investigations are required to elucidate the probable role of the miRNAs in bi-directional differentiation of protoscoleces either into the strobilated worm or to a secondary hydatid cyst and the potential of these miRNAs as drug targets. Keywords: Cultivation; Helminth infection; Hydatid disease; Microcyst; Small RNA; Strobilization