Secreted Protein Acidic and Rich in Cysteine as an Exercise-Induced Gene: Towards Novel Molecular Therapies for Immobilization-Related Muscle Atrophy in Elderly Patients

Obesity and Bone Mineral Density Protection Paradox in Chronic Kidney Disease: Secreted Protein Acidic and Rich in Cysteine as a Piece of the Puzzle?

Obesity is a health condition that represents a risk factor for numerous diseases and complications. However, obesity might also have-to some extent-some "benefits" in certain situations. This includes potential bone protection in patients suffering from chronic kidney disease. In an attempt to explain such a paradox, we highlight secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) as a hypothetical mediator of this protection. Indeed, SPARC properties provide a logical rationale to describe such bone protection via its overexpression combined with its calcium-binding and collagen-binding properties. We believe that exploring such hypotheses could open new doors to elucidate unknown pathways towards developing a new generation of molecular therapies.

Secreted Protein Acidic and Rich in Cysteine (SPARC) to Manage Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic and the Post-COVID-19 Health Crisis

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has had and will have impacts on public health and health system expenses. Indeed, not only it has led to high numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, but its consequences will remain even after the end of the COVID-19 crisis. Therefore, therapeutic options are required to both tackle the COVID-19 crisis and manage its consequences during the post COVID-19 era. Secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) is a biomolecule that is associated with various properties and functions that situate it as a candidate which may be used to prevent, treat and manage COVID-19 as well as the post-COVID-19-era health problems. This paper highlights how SPARC could be of such therapeutic use.

Secreted Protein Acidic and Rich in Cysteine (SPARC)-Mediated Exercise Effects: Illustrative Molecular Pathways against Various Diseases

The strong benefits of exercise, in addition to the development of both the therapeutic applications of physical activity and molecular biology tools, means that it has become very important to explore the underlying molecular patterns linking exercise and its induced phenotypic changes. Within this context, secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) has been characterized as an exercise-induced protein that would mediate and induce some important effects of exercise. Herein, we suggest some underlying pathways to explain such SPARC-induced exercise-like effects. Such mechanistic mapping would not only allow us to understand the molecular processes of exercise and SPARC effects but would also highlight the potential to develop novel molecular therapies. These therapies would be based on mimicking the exercise benefits via either introducing SPARC or pharmacologically targeting the SPARC-related pathways to produce exercise-like effects. This is of a particular importance for those who do not have the ability to perform the required physical activity due to disabilities or diseases. The main objective of this work is to highlight selected potential therapeutic applications deriving from SPARC properties that have been reported in various publications.

Mapping Genetics and Epigenetics to Explore the Pathways beyond the Correlated Ageing Phenotype

Ageing is defined by the decline in the biological and physiological functions over time, which leads to health problems and increases risks of diseases. The modern societies are characterised by an ageing population, which represents challenges for the healthcare system. Within this context, there is a need to better understand the biological mechanisms beyond ageing in order to optimise geriatric therapies and medical approaches. Herein, we suggest exploring the genetic and epigenetic patterns related to ageing and correlate them with the ageing-related phenotype of the biological entities in order to establish mechanistic links and map the molecular pathways. Such links would have diverse implications in basic research, in clinics, as well as for therapeutic studies.

In Vitro Mimicking of Obesity-Induced Biochemical Environment to Study Obesity Impacts on Cells and Tissues

Obesity represents a heavy burden for modern healthcare. The main challenge facing obesity research progress is the unknown underlying pathways, which limits our understanding of the pathogenesis and developing therapies. Obesity induces specific biochemical environments that impact the different cells and tissues. In this piece of writing, we suggest mimicking obesity-induced in vivo biochemical environments including pH, lipids, hormones, cytokines, and glucose within an in vitro environment. The concept is to reproduce such biochemical environments and use them to treat the tissue cultures, explant cultures, and cell cultures of different biological organs. This will allow us to clarify how the obesity-induced biochemistry impacts such biological entities. It would also be important to try different environments, in terms of the compositions and concentrations of the constitutive elements, in order to establish links between the effects (impaired regeneration, cellular inflammation, etc.) and the factors constituting the environment (hormones, cytokines, etc.) as well as to reveal dose-dependent effects. We believe that such approaches will allow us to elucidate obesity mechanisms, optimize animal models, and develop therapies as well as novel tissue engineering applications.