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Księga poświęcona Profesorowi Hieronimowi Kubiakowi w 75. rocznicę urodzin. Tom ofiarowany przez przyjaciół i uczniów

Myśl i polityka: księga pamiątkowa dedykowana profesorowi Jackowi Marii Majchrowskiemu T. 2

Publikacja jubileuszowa z okazji 40-lecia pracy naukowej profesora Jacka Majchrowskieg

Lvov – Wrocław. Two towns, two regions, two universities

Wrocław and Lvov are two big metropolises full of historical monuments which were located on the borderlands of terrains occupied by nations with glorious past and their own universities. The location played a decisive role in the fact that both universities were involved in political and national conflicts. Lvov defended Polish traditions in the East and Wrocław initiated and organized the intellectual fight for maintaining the German eastern borderland. Jan Kazimierz University (Uniwersytet Jana Kazimierza) in Lvov was founded earlier than the University of Wrocław. The first was Polish in character, the latter was German. Political changes after the Second World War resulted in liquidation of the Jan Kazimierz university in Lvov. It was replaced by the national Ukrainian university. The German university in Wrocław was also liquidated. The new Polish university used its building and libraries. At the same time inherited from Jan Kazimierz University its cadre and ethos and referred to the most prominent German scholars

High affinity of copper(II) towards amoxicillin, apramycin and ristomycin. Effect of these complexes on the catalytic activity of HDV ribozyme

Three representatives of the distinct antibiotics groups: amoxicillin, apramycin and ristomycin A were studied regarding their impact on hepatitis D virus (HDV) ribozyme both in the metal-free form and complexed with copper(II) ions. Hence the Cu(II)-ristomycin A complex has been characterized by means of NMR, EPR, CD and UV-visible spectroscopic techniques and its binding pattern has been compared with the coordination modes estimated previously for Cu(II)-amoxicillin and Cu(II)-apramycin complexes. It has thus been found that all three antibiotics bind the Cu(II) ion in a very similar manner, engaging two nitrogen and two oxygen donors into coordination with the square planar symmetry in physiological conditions. All three tested antibiotics were able to inhibit the HDV ribozyme catalysis. However, in the presence of the complexes, the catalytic reactions were almost completely inhibited. It was important therefore to check whether the complexes used in lower concentrations could inhibit the HDV ribozyme catalytic activity, thus creating opportunities for their practical application. It turned out that the complexes used in the concentrations of 50μM influenced the catalysis much less effectively comparing to the 200 micromolar concentration. The kobs values were lower than those observed in the control reaction, in the absence of potential inhibitors: 2-fold for amoxicillin, ristomycin A and 3.3-fold for apramycin, respectively

Expression of pre-selected TMEMs with predicted ER localization as potential classifiers of ccRCC tumors

BACKGROUND: VHL inactivation is the most established molecular characteristic of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), with only a few additional genes implicated in development of this kidney tumor. In recently published ccRCC gene expression meta-analysis study we identified a number of deregulated genes with limited information available concerning their biological role, represented by gene transcripts belonging to transmembrane proteins family (TMEMs). TMEMs are predicted to be components of cellular membranes, such as mitochondrial membranes, ER, lysosomes and Golgi apparatus. Interestingly, the function of majority of TMEMs remains unclear. Here, we analyzed expression of ten TMEM genes in the context of ccRCC progression and development, and characterized these proteins bioinformatically. METHODS: The expression of ten TMEMs (RTP3, SLC35G2, TMEM30B, TMEM45A, TMEM45B, TMEM61, TMEM72, TMEM116, TMEM207 and TMEM213) was measured by qPCR. T-test, Pearson correlation, univariate and multivariate logistic and Cox regression were used in statistical analysis. The topology of studied proteins was predicted with Metaserver, together with PSORTII, Pfam and Localizome tools. RESULTS: We observed significant deregulation of expression of 10 analyzed TMEMs in ccRCC tumors. Cluster analysis of expression data suggested the down-regulation of all tested TMEMs to be a descriptor of the most advanced tumors. Logistic and Cox regression potentially linked TMEM expression to clinical parameters such as: metastasis, Fuhrman grade and overall survival. Topology predictions classified majority of analyzed TMEMs as type 3 and type 1 transmembrane proteins, with predicted localization mainly in ER. CONCLUSIONS: The massive down-regulation of expression of TMEM family members suggests their importance in the pathogenesis of ccRCC and the bioinformatic analysis of TMEM topology implies a significant involvement of ER proteins in ccRCC pathology