Carbohydrate binding agents (CBAs), including natural lectins, are more and more considered as broad-spectrum antivirals. These molecules are able to directly inhibit many viruses such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), Dengue Virus, Ebola Virus or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus through binding to envelope protein N-glycans. In the case of HIV, it has...

World Alzheimer Report of 2015 [1] has estimated that 46.8 million people are currently living with dementia worldwide which will be further increased to 74.7 million by 2030 and 131.5 million by 2050. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neuro-degenerative disorder and common form of dementia, which progress gradually with the age. The common symptom of AD is memory impairment and cognitive shortfall...

In the present studies, an attempt has been made to develop a method of liquid nitrogen preservation of plant explants propagated in vitro in the laboratory of the Department of Ornamental Plants, of Agricultural University in Kraków: shoot apical and axillary meristems of Rosa ‘New Dawn’, somatic embryos of snowdrops Galanthus nivalis L. and G. elwesii Hook, and gametophyte of Phlebodium aureu...

Expression of N-cadherin an adhesion molecule of the cadherin family, in tumor cells is associated with their increased invasive potential. Many studies suggested the role of N-linked oligosaccharides as important factors that contribute to metastasis by influencing tumor cell invasion and adhesion. N-cadherin is a heavily glycosylated protein. We have analysed the carbohydrate profile of this ...

A re-investigation of the occurrence and taxonomic distribution of proteins built up of protomers consisting of two tandem arrayed domains equivalent to the GNA [Galanthus nivalis (snowdrop) agglutinin] revealed that these are widespread among monotyledonous plants. Phylogenetic analysis of the available sequences indicated that these proteins do not represent a monophylogenetic group but most ...

The complete amino acid sequence of a lectin from the green alga Boodlea coacta (BCA), which was determined by a combination of Edman degradation of its peptide fragments and cDNA cloning, revealed the following: 1) B. coacta used a noncanonical genetic code (where TAA and TAG codons encode glutamine rather than a translation termination), and 2) BCA consisted of three internal tandem-repeated ...

Identifying molecular targets for eliciting broadly virus-neutralizing antibodies is one of the key steps toward development of vaccines against emerging viral pathogens. Owing to genomic and somatic diversities among viral species, identifying protein targets for broad-spectrum virus neutralization is highly challenging even for the same virus, such as HIV-1. However, viruses rely on host glyc...

Limited data are available on the genotypic and phenotypic resistance profile of the alpha-(1-2)mannose oligomer-specific prokaryotic lectin cyanovirin (CV-N). Therefore, a more systematic investigation was carried out to obtain a better view of the interaction between CV-N and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) gp120. When HIV-1-infected CEM cell cultures were exposed to CV-N in a dos...

Asetilkolinesteraz (AChE) ve bütirilkolinesteraz (BChE) inhibisyonu, beyinde β-amiloit birikimini azaltmak asetilkolin kullanımını artırmada, yani Alzheimer hastalığının (AD) tedavisinde önemli hedeflerden biridir. Oksidatif stres nedeniyle oluşan serbest radikallerin nöron metal akümülasyonuna verdiği hasar AD’nin patojeneziyle doğrudan ilişkilidir. Amaryllidaceae familyası üyelerinin (Galanth...

In order to assess the risk that insecticidal transgenic plants may pose for bumblebees, we tested whether Bombus terrestris (L.) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) workers are able to detect insecticidal proteins dissolved in sucrose solution and whether consumption of these proteins will affect survival and offspring production. Feeders containing either Bacillus thuringiensis toxin (Cry1Ab), Kunitz soybe...