Reactive oxygen species modify oligosaccharides of glycoproteins in vivo: a study of a spontaneous acute hepatitis model rat (LEC rat)

A systematic overview of metal nanoparticles as alternative disinfectants for emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants

Coronaviruses are a diverse family of viruses, and new strains can emerge. While the majority of coronavirus strains cause mild respiratory illnesses, a few are responsible for severe diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, is an example of a coronavirus that has led to a pandemic. Coronaviruses can mutate over time, potentially leading to the emergence of new variants. Some of these variants may have increased transmissibility or resistance to existing vaccines and treatments. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in the recent past has sparked innovation in curbing virus spread, with sanitizers and disinfectants taking center stage. These essential tools hinder pathogen dissemination, especially for unvaccinated or rapidly mutating viruses. The World Health Organization supports the use of alcohol-based sanitizers and disinfectants globally against pandemics. However, there are ongoing concerns about their widespread usage and their potential impact on human health, animal well-being, and ecological equilibrium. In this ever-changing scenario, metal nanoparticles hold promise in combating a range of pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2, as well as other viruses such as norovirus, influenza, and HIV-1. This review explores their potential as non-alcoholic champions against SARS-CoV-2 and other pandemics of tomorrow. This extends beyond metal nanoparticles and advocates a balanced examination of pandemic control tools, exploring their strengths and weaknesses. The manuscript thus involves the evaluation of metal nanoparticle-based alternative approaches as hand sanitizers and disinfectants, providing a comprehensive perspective on this critical issue.

Nanoscale Interaction Mechanisms of Antiviral Activity

Nanomaterials have now found applications across all segments of society including but not limited to energy, environment, defense, agriculture, purification, food medicine, diagnostics, and others. The pandemic and the vulnerability of humankind to emerging viruses and other infectious diseases has renewed interest in nanoparticles as a potential new class of antivirals. In fact, a growing body of evidence in the literature suggests nanoparticles may have activity against multiple viruses including HIV, HNV, SARS-CoV-2, HBV, HCV, HSV, RSV, and others. The most described antiviral nanoparticles include copper, alloys, and oxides including zinc oxide (ZnO), titanium oxide, iron oxide, and their composites, nitrides, and other ceramic nanoparticles, as well as gold and silver nanoparticles, and sulfated and nonsulfated polysaccharides and other sulfated polymers including galactan, cellulose, polyethylenimine, chitosan/chitin, and others. Nanoparticles, synthesized via the biological or green method, also have great importance and are under major consideration these days, as their method of synthesis is easy, reliable, cost-effective, efficient, and eco-friendly, and is done using easily available sources such as bacteria, actinomycetes, yeast, fungi, algae, herbs, and plants, in comparison to chemically mediated synthesis. Chemical synthesis is highly expensive and involves toxic solvents, high pressure, energy, and high temperature conversion. Examples of biologically synthesized NPs include iron oxide, Cu and CuO NPs, and platinum and palladium NPs. In contrast to traditional medications, nanomedications have multiple advantages: their small size, increased surface to volume ratio, improved pharmacokinetics, improved biodistribution, and targeted delivery. In terms of antiviral activity, nanoscale interactions represent a unique mode of action. As reviewed here their biomedical application as an antiviral has shown four major mechanisms: (1) direct viral interaction prohibiting the virus from infecting the cell, (2) interaction to receptor or cell surface preventing the virus from entering the host cells, (3) preventing the replication of the virus, or (4) other processing mechanisms which inhibit the spread of virus. Here these pharmacologic mechanisms are reviewed and the challenges for technology translation are discussed in more detail.

Antiviral nanoparticles for sanitizing surfaces: A roadmap to self-sterilizing against COVID-19

Nanoparticles provide new opportunities in merging therapeutics and new materials, with current research efforts just beginning to scratch the surface of their diverse benefits and potential applications. One such application, the use of inorganic nanoparticles in antiseptic coatings to prevent pathogen transmission and infection, has seen promising developments. Notably, the high reactive surface area to volume ratio and unique chemical properties of metal-based nanoparticles enables their potent inactivation of viruses. Nanoparticles exert their virucidal action through mechanisms including inhibition of virus-cell receptor binding, reactive oxygen species oxidation and destructive displacement bonding with key viral structures. The prevention of viral outbreaks is one of the foremost challenges to medical science today, emphasizing the importance of research efforts to develop nanoparticles for preventative antiviral applications. In this review, the use of nanoparticles to inactivate other viruses, such as influenza, HIV-1, or norovirus, among others, will be discussed to extrapolate broad-spectrum antiviral mechanisms that could also inhibit SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis. This review analyzes the published literature to highlight the current state of knowledge regarding the efficacy of metal-based nanoparticles and other antiviral materials for biomedical, sterile polymer, and surface coating applications.

Copper Toxicity Is Not Just Oxidative Damage: Zinc Systems and Insight from Wilson Disease

Essential metals such as copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) are important cofactors in diverse cellular processes, while metal imbalance may impact or be altered by disease state. Cu is essential for aerobic life with significant functions in oxidation-reduction catalysis. This redox reactivity requires precise intracellular handling and molecular-to-organismal levels of homeostatic control. As the central organ of Cu homeostasis in vertebrates, the liver has long been associated with Cu storage disorders including Wilson Disease (WD) (heritable human Cu toxicosis), Idiopathic Copper Toxicosis and Endemic Tyrolean Infantile Cirrhosis. Cu imbalance is also associated with chronic liver diseases that arise from hepatitis viral infection or other liver injury. The labile redox characteristic of Cu is often discussed as a primary mechanism of Cu toxicity. However, work emerging largely from the study of WD models suggests that Cu toxicity may have specific biochemical consequences that are not directly attributable to redox activity. This work reviews Cu toxicity with a focus on the liver and proposes that Cu accumulation specifically impacts Zn-dependent processes. The prospect that Cu toxicity has specific biochemical impacts that are not entirely attributable to redox may promote further inquiry into Cu toxicity in WD and other Cu-associated disorders.

Desialylation in physiological and pathological processes: New target for diagnostic and therapeutic development

Desialylation is a pivotal part of sialic acid metabolism, which initiates the catabolism of glycans by removing the terminal sialic acid residues on glycans, thereby modulating the structure and functions of glycans, glycoproteins, or glycolipids. The functions of sialic acids have been well recognized, whereas the function of desialylation process is underappreciated or largely ignored. However, accumulating evidence demonstrates that desialylation plays an important role in a variety of physiological and pathological processes. This chapter summarizes the current knowledge pertaining to desialylation in a variety of physiological and pathological processes, with a focus on the underlying molecular mechanisms. The potential of targeting desialylation process for diagnostic and therapeutic development is also discussed.

Animal models of Wilson disease

Wilson disease (WD) is an autosomal recessive disorder of copper metabolism manifesting with hepatic, neurological and psychiatric symptoms. The limitations of the currently available therapy for WD (particularly in the management of neuropsychiatric disease), together with our limited understanding of key aspects of this illness (e.g. neurological vs. hepatic presentation) justify the ongoing need to study WD in suitable animal models. Four animal models of WD have been established: the Long-Evans Cinnamon rat, the toxic-milk mouse, the Atp7b knockout mouse and the Labrador retriever. The existing models of WD all show good similarity to human hepatic WD and have been helpful in developing an improved understanding of the human disease. As mammals, the mouse, rat and canine models also benefit from high homology to the human genome. However, important differences exist between these mammalian models and human disease, particularly the absence of a convincing neurological phenotype. This review will first provide an overview of our current knowledge of the orthologous genes encoding ATP7B and the closely related ATP7A protein in C. elegans, Drosophila and zebrafish (Danio rerio) and then summarise key characteristics of rodent and larger mammalian models of ATP7B-deficiency.

Integrated Transcriptomic and Glycomic Profiling of Glioma Stem Cell Xenografts

Bone marrow-derived human mesenchymal stem cells (BM-hMSCs) have the innate ability to migrate or home toward and engraft in tumors such as glioblastoma (GBM). Because of this unique property of BM-hMSCs, we have explored their use for cell-mediated therapeutic delivery for the advancement of GBM treatment. Extravasation, the process by which blood-borne cells—such as BM-hMSCs—enter the tissue, is a highly complex process but is heavily dependent upon glycosylation for glycan-glycan and glycan-protein adhesion between the cell and endothelium. However, in a translationally significant preclinical glioma stem cell xenograft (GSCX) model of GBM, BM-hMSCs demonstrate unequal tropism toward these tumors. We hypothesized that there may be differences in the glycan compositions between the GSCXs that elicit homing ("attractors") and those that do not ("non-attractors") that facilitate or impede the engraftment of BM-hMSCs in the tumor. In this study, glycotranscriptomic analysis revealed significant heterogeneity within the attractor phenotype and the enrichment of high mannose type N-glycan biosynthesis in the non-attractor phenotype. Orthogonal validation with topical PNGase F deglycosylation on the tumor regions of xenograft tissue, followed by nLC-ESI-MS, confirmed the presence of increased high mannose type N-glycans in the non-attractors. Additional evidence provided by our glycomic study revealed the prevalence of terminal sialic acid-containing N-glycans in non-attractors and terminal galactose and N-acetyl-glucosamine N-glycans in attractors. Our results provide the first evidence for differential glycomic profiles in attractor and non-attractor GSCXs and extend the scope of molecular determinates in BM-hMSC homing to glioma.

Xiaochaihu Decoction attenuates the vicious circle between the oxidative stress and the ALP inactivation through LPS-catecholamines interactions in gut, liver and brain during CCI4+ethanol-induced mouse HCC

BACKGROUND

Xiaochaihu Decoction (XCHD) prevents hepatocarcinogenesis in association with inhibition of oxidative stress. However, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, lipopolysaccharides (LPS)-catecholamines (CA) interactions in gut, liver and brain may play an important role in the status of oxidative stress. This study was to assess whether XCHD attenuates the vicious circle between oxidative stress and ALP inactivation through LPS-CA interactions.

METHODS

Hepatocellular carcinoma group (HCC) were induced by CCI4 + ethanol; HCC with Liver Depression and Spleen Deficiency (HCC + LDSD) were induced by squeezing tails (30 min/day), solitary breeding and intermittent fasting on the basis of HCC; XCHD was administered after 4 weeks of the HCC + LDSD. The degree of tissue injury were studied using a scoring system, and brain weights were measured. Peroxynitrite (ONOO(-)), malondialdehyde (MDA), 4-hydroxy-3-methoxymandelic acid (VMA, CA metabolites), lipopolysaccharide-phosphate (LPS-P), ALP activity (ALP-A) and Concanavalin A (ConA)-binding rate of ALP (ALP-C) were determined by colorimetric method and lectin (ConA) affinity precipitation method.

RESULTS

More injuries and ONOO(-), MDA, VMA, LPS-P, ALP-C were increased, ALP-A were decreased in the gut, liver and brain of HCC group, the most in HCC + LDSD group, after treatment with XCHD, all of which were improved. A positive association found between gut-liver-brain injury and ONOO(-), MDA, VMA, LPS-P, ALP-C, between ONOO(-), MDA, VMA, LPS-P and ALP-C in the gut, liver and brain, and a negative association found between gut-liver-brain injury and ALP-A, between ALP-A and ONOO(-), MDA, VMA, LPS-P, ALP-C in the gut, liver and brain.

CONCLUSIONS

XCHD can attenuates the vicious circle between the oxidative stress, nitrosative stress, N-glycan deficiency and inactivation of ALP through LPS-CA interactions in gut, liver and brain.

Systems biology approach to Wilson's disease

Wilson's disease (WD) is a severe disorder of copper misbalance, which manifests with a wide spectrum of liver pathology and/or neurologic and psychiatric symptoms. WD is caused by mutations in a gene encoding a copper-transporting ATPase ATP7B and is accompanied by accumulation of copper in tissues, especially in the liver. Copper-chelation therapy is available for treatment of WD symptoms and is often successful, however, significant challenges remain with respect to timely diagnostics and treatment of the disease. The lack of genotype-phenotype correlation remains unexplained, the causes of fulminant liver failure are not known, and the treatment of neurologic symptoms is only partially successful, underscoring the need for better understanding of WD mechanisms and factors that influence disease manifestations. Recent gene and protein profiling studies in animal models of WD began to uncover cellular processes that are primarily affected by copper accumulation in the liver. The results of such studies, summarized in this review, revealed new molecular players and pathways (cell cycle and cholesterol metabolism, mRNA splicing and nuclear receptor signaling) linked to copper misbalance. A systems biology approach promises to generate a comprehensive view of WD onset and progression, thus helping with a more fine-tune treatment and monitoring of the disorder.

Analysis of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry: an update for the period 2005-2006

This review is the fourth update of the original review, published in 1999, on the application of MALDI mass spectrometry to the analysis of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates and brings coverage of the literature to the end of 2006. The review covers fundamental studies, fragmentation of carbohydrate ions, method developments, and applications of the technique to the analysis of different types of carbohydrate. Specific compound classes that are covered include carbohydrate polymers from plants, N- and O-linked glycans from glycoproteins, glycated proteins, glycolipids from bacteria, glycosides, and various other natural products. There is a short section on the use of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry for the study of enzymes involved in glycan processing, a section on industrial processes, particularly the development of biopharmaceuticals and a section on the use of MALDI-MS to monitor products of chemical synthesis of carbohydrates. Large carbohydrate-protein complexes and glycodendrimers are highlighted in this final section.

Galactose toxicity in animals

In most organisms, productive utilization of galactose requires the highly conserved Leloir pathway of galactose metabolism. Yet, if this metabolic pathway is perturbed due to congenital deficiencies of the three associated enzymes, or an overwhelming presence of galactose, this monosaccharide which is abundantly present in milk and many non-dairy foodstuffs, will become highly toxic to humans and animals. Despite more than four decades of intense research, little is known about the molecular mechanisms of galactose toxicity in human patients and animal models. In this contemporary review, we take a unique approach to present an overview of galactose toxicity resulting from the three known congenital disorders of galactose metabolism and from experimental hypergalactosemia. Additionally, we update the reader about research progress on animal models, as well as advances in clinical management and therapies of these disorders.

Proteasome activity deregulation in LEC rat hepatitis: following the insights of transcriptomic analysis

LEC rats show spontaneous hepatitis and hepatocarcinoma development related to oxidative stress due to abnormal copper accumulation in the liver. We used DNA microarrays bearing 22,012 genes to investigate at the transcriptomic level the progression of the hepatitis in LEC rats in comparison to a control obtained from LEC rats treated with D-penicillamine, a copper chelating agent known to block hepatitis development. Multivariate statistical analyses as partial least square (PLS) regression between transcriptomic data and hepatitis markers in plasma led us to select 483 genes related to hepatitis development in these rats. After a complementary discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), 239 important genes for the separation between the different rat groups were selected. Gene ontology classification revealed an overrepresentation of genes involved in protein metabolism-related functions. More importantly, some genes implicated in proteasome pathway were upregulated. However, analysis of 20S proteasome activity showed that trypsin-like and peptidylglutamyl peptide hydrolase activities were diminished during hepatitis. Because oxidative stress is known to promote the inactivation of the proteasome complex, we propose the deregulation of the proteasome genes expression as a result of oxidative inactivation of proteasome activity during hepatitis in LEC rats. These results bring new insights in the hepatitis and the hepatocarcinogenesis development.