Archive 24/10/30

SARS-CoV-2 antiviral activities using vegetable exosomes

A group from Nebraska Center for Virology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE 68583, USA has reported about a new lectin found from shiitake exosomes.
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/16/10/1546

Exosomes from fifteen local common vegetables were isolated by ultracentrifugation. These exosomes were evaluated for their antiviral activities against SARS-CoV-2 infection using an in vitro pseudovirus platform.
Their cytotoxicity using the standard MTT method indicated that all fifteen samples did not show significant cytotoxicity in a concentration of 1 × 10^10/mL exosomes. The antiviral activities of shiitake exosomes exhibited the lowest EC50 value 5.2 × 10^8/mL.
From the proteomic analysis of the exosomes, it was found that a lectin (named Shictin) of shiitake exosomes Contributed to the Antiviral Activities and exhibited strong activity against the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant with an IC50 value of 87 nM. It was also found that shictin is a C-type lectin and binds to GlcNAc.

Lectin staining is significantly different between formalin-fixed tissue samples and frozen tissue samples

A group from Department of Gastroenterological surgery, Gifu University School of Medicine, Gifu, Japan, has reported about differences in glycocalyx morphology and composition in frozen and formalin-fixed liver tumor sections.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0344033824005715?via%3Dihub

It was found that surprisingly, there were many differences in lectin staining findings between frozen and formali-fixed tissue preparations, suggesting that FFPE processing affects lectin receptors, rendering frozen sections more reliable for accurate lectin staining.

From the lectin staining in frozen sections, the followings were found:
Normal hepatocytes showed strongly positive staining for PNA, RCA I, SBA, UEA I, GSL I, succinylated WGA, ECL, GSL II, STL, and VVL.
In contrast, hepatocellular carcinoma samples were strongly positive for DSL and GSL II.
Normal hepatocytes were positive for multiple GalNAc-related lectins (PNA, SBA, GSL I, and VVL), but these were not detected in hepatocellular carcinoma samples.

It was also found that DBA and UEA I staining were strongly positive in liver metastases from colorectal cancer and in melanoma liver metastases, ConA, WGA, succinylated WGA, and GSL II were strongly expressed.

It is strange that Shun-ichi Amari is not included in the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics

It is well-known that the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to two scientists who contributed to neural networks.
When I was working at Fujitsu, I read papers written by Prof. Shun-ichi Amari, a pioneer in neural networks, and I remembered that I was passionately discussing the possibilities of future computers with my colleagues, and I was surprised that Prof. Amari was not included as one of the recipients of the award. I felt very uncomfortable with it.
By the way, with the power of computers at that time, it was impossible to realize a neural network as software, so I and my colleagues were thinking about building it as hardware.

Prof. Amari’s pioneering researches:
1. A Theory of Adaptive Pattern Classifiers、1967
2. Characteristics of randomly connected threshold-element networks and network systems、1971
3. Learning Patterns and Pattern Sequences by Self-Organizing Nets of Threshold Elements、1972
4. Characteristics of Random Nets of Analog Neuron-Like Elements、1972

A human lectin microarray

A group from Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom has reported about human lectin microarray.
https://www.jbc.org/article/S0021-9258(24)02371-8/fulltext

A human lectin array containing 39 different human CRDs from 36 sugar-binding receptors representing 7 different structural groups has been developed.
The following is a list of 39 lectins clasified into 7 groups.
MBP, SP-A, SP-D, Colk1
MMR CRD4, Langerin, DC-SIGN, DC-SIGNR, Prolectin, LSECtin, Endo180 CRD2, Mincle, Dectin-2, BDCS-2, Dectin-1
ASGPR1, ASGPR2, MGL, SRCL
Galectin-1, Galectin-2, Galectin-3, Galectin-7, Galectin-4N, Galectin-4C, Galectin-8C, Galectin-9N, Galectin-9C
Siglec-1, Siglec-3, Siglec-5, Siglec-7, Soglec-9, Siglec-11
Intelectin-1, Intelectin-2
MMR-CR, Ficolin-1, Chl3-L2

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