Zhurnal evoliutsionnoi biokhimii i fiziologii最新文献

From ancient times the mankind has been interested in a topical issue: why is it necessary to spend about one-third of human life for sleep? This review considers the main data on the key function of slow-wave sleep (SWS) and the molecular mechanisms of its regulation; the basic conclusions are presented below as a summary and hypotheses. 1. SWS has an energy-conserving function developed simultaneously with the evolution of tachimetabolism and endothermy/homoiothermy. 2. The most significant reduction of energy demands in the brain occurs during the deep SWS (characterized by increased EEG-delta power), thus creating the optimal conditions for enhancing anabolic processes and realizing the key biological function of sleep--the increase in protein synthesis rate in the brain. 3. The conditions of the paradoxical sleep (PS) as an 'archeowakefulness' state, containing the elements of endogenous stress, seem to be acceptable for expression of chaperones required for repairing misfolded proteins newly synthesized during the deep SWS. 4. The close integration of two molecular systems, HSP70 and HSP40, contained in the sleep 'center' in the preoptic area of the hypothalamus, and their compensatory interrelations contribute significantly to the maintenance of sleep homeostasis and to implementation of its functions under non-stress conditions and during long-term deficiency of chaperones in the brain that is intrinsic for aging and various neuropathologies. 5. Occurring daily throughout the lifetime cyclical changes of the protein synthesis rate (during the deep SWS) and the expression of HSP70 chaperonez (during wakefulness and, possibly, during PS) are crucial for functions of homeothermic organisms, including recuperation of the nervous system's structure and functions.

The set of normal biochemical indicators of the hemolymph plasma of gastropod pulmonate mollusc Achatinafulica is described. Comparative analysis of the whole plasma and its subfractions enriched and depleted of oxygen-carrying protein hemocyanin was performed by spectrophotometry and spectrofluorimetry methods. Individual features of the absorption spectra were analyzed using fourth derivatives. The optimum method for estimating protein concentration was chosen. To characterize acid-base properties of plasma hemolymph and its sub-fractions we calculated buffer capacity, equivalence points and pK values of dominant buffer groups. It is shown that the major role in maintaining the buffer capacity of hemolymph belongs to the bicarbonate system. These results are compared with data for Helix pomatia available in literature. In the future the indicators studied in this work will be used to develop ecotoxicological criteria for the environmental assessment.

Sex steroids and corticol levels in Leibovitz's L-15 media samples after incubation of intact female and male sterlet (Acipenser rhutenus L.) tissue fragments and those if fishes treated with a superactive analogue of mammalian luteinising hormone-releasing hormone (LH-RH-A) were compared. 17,20β,21-trihydroxy-4-pregnen-3-one (20βS) levels were significantly higher in the media samples after incubation of ovarian follicles taken from females 5 h after treatment with LH-RH-A in comparison with 20βS levels in intact female samples. 20βS levels also increased after 1 μM progesterone (P4) adding to the media before incubation of ovarian follicles. Cortisol and testosterone levels in the media samples demonstrated the same tendency. Significant elevation of cortisol levels was observed in the blood serum samples of females 5 h after LH-RH-A treatment. The androgens (testosterone and 11-ketotestosterone) levels after incubation of testicular and liver fragments were high in the media samples in males who had high serum levels of these androgens before hormonal stimulation. Sex steroids and cortisol production was stimulated by P4 adding to the media before incubation of gonad fragments. 20βS media levels increased after P4 adding before incubation of liver fragments.

The review contains data on functional shifts in fishes, amphibians and birds caused by changes in the otolith system operation after stay under weightlessness conditions. These data are of theoretical and practical significance and are important to resolve some fundamental problems of vestibulogy. The analysis of the results of space experiments has shown that weightlessness conditions do not exert a substantial impact on formation and functional state of the otolith system in embryonic fishes, amphibians and birds developed during space flight. Weightlessness conditions do pot inhibit embryonic development of lower vertebrates but even have rather beneficial effect on it. This is consistent with conclusions concerning development of mammalian fetuses. The experimental results show that weightlessness can cause similar functional and behavioral vestibular shifts both in lower vertebrates and in mammals. For example, immediately after an orbital flight the vestibuloocular reflex in fish larvae and tadpoles (without lordosis) was stronger than in control individuals. A similar shift of the otolith reflex was observed in the majority of cosmonauts after short-term orbital flights. Immediately after landing adult terrestrial vertebrates, as well as human beings, exhibit lower activity levels, worse equilibrium and coordination of movements. Another interesting finding observed after landing of the cosmic apparatus was an unusual looping character of tadpole swimming. It is supposed that the unusual motor activity of animals as well as appearance of illusions in cosmonauts and astronauts after switching from 1 to 0 g have the same nature and are related to the change in character of otolith organs stimulation. Considering this similarity of vestibular reactions, using animals seems rather perspective. Besides it allows applying in experiments various invasive techniques.

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity changes were examined in the adult, prenatally stressed male rats in the experimental depression model--the paradigm of "learned helplessness". It was shown that in males descending from intact mothers a depressive-like state was accompanied by an increase in HPA activity. The expression of corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH) in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) increases, coupled with a rise in plasma levels of ACTH and corticosterone as well as in adrenal weight. At the same time in males born from mothers stressed during the last week of pregnancy we observed a decrease in activity of both the central (hypothalamus) and the peripheral (adrenal cortex) parts of regulation of this hormonal axis similar to that revealed for these animals in our previous study in "stress-restress" paradigm. It is concluded that prenatal stress modifies the sensitivity of animals to the inescapable intense stress impact, which manifests itself in a specific pattern of the HPA axis activity after stress load.

Neurodegenerative changes and neuronal death are the basis for development of the nervous system aging. We investigated the mechanism of apoptosis of the sensorimotor cortex neurons of transgenic mice HER2/neu during aging, changes in the cortex function and the participation of exogenous neurometabolites (cytoflavin, piracetam) in regulation of neuronal death and locomotor and psycho-emotional status of mice. The level of apoptosis and expression of apoptosis markers (TUNEL, immunohistochemistry, Western blotting) in HER2/neu transgenic mice as compared to wild type mice (FBV line) were determined. In aging FBV mice the basal activity was shown to decrease and anxiety to increase correlating with the high level of neuronal apoptosis. We identified behavioral characteristics of transgenic HER2/neu mice and found that their low basal activity does not change with aging. Previously we have shown that in this strain of mice the apoptosis level is low, without any age-related changes, due to the suppression, first of all, of the p53-dependent pathway by HER2 (tyrosine kinase receptor) overexpression. Cytoflavin and piracetam were revealed to possess a marked neuroprotective effect, preserving and restoring functions of the nervous system (improving locomotion and psychological status) in both strains of mice. The effect of neurometabolites studied on neuronal apoptosis is ambiguous. In case of its low level it is a moderate stumulation of apoptosis via the external p53-dependent pathways with activation of caspase-3 in transgenic HER2/neu mice with high carcinogenesis level that can possibly prevent tumor development. On the contrary, in old wild-type animals we observed a significant decrease of age-dependent apoptosis level (by stimulating expression of the anti-apoptotic protein Mcl-1), which prevents neurodegeneration.

An integral part of modern evolutionary biology is comparative analysis of structure and function of macromolecules such as proteins. The first and critical step to understand evolution of homologous proteins is their amino acid sequence alignment. However, standard algorithms fop not provide unambiguous sequence alignments for proteins of poor homology. More reliable results can be obtained by comparing experimental 3D structures obtained at atomic resolution, for instance, with the aid of X-ray structural analysis. If such structures are lacking, homology modeling is used, which may take into account indirect experimental data on functional roles of individual amino-acid residues. An important problem is that the sequence alignment, which reflects genetic modifications, does not necessarily correspond to the functional homology. The latter depends on three-dimensional structures which are critical for natural selection. Since alignment techniques relying only on the analysis of primary structures carry no information on the functional properties of proteins, including 3D structures into consideration is very important. Here we consider several examples involving ion channels and demonstrate that alignment of their three-dimensional structures can significantly improve sequence alignments obtained by traditional methods.

The review presents data on the activity and some temperature characteristics of proteases in the potential food objects of fishes and some enteral microbiota representatives that provide induced autolysis and symbiotic digestion. It is shown that during the active feeding period the total protease activity in the prey tissues exceeds the total protease activity in the fish gastric mucosa by 5-10 times. At low temperature, the relative activity of the prey tissue lysosomal hydrolases (20-35%) and the enteral microbiota enzymes (up to 45%) may exceed that of proteases synthesized by the hepatopancreas and functioning in the consumers' intestinal mucosa (less than 10% maximal activity). The data presented indicate the important role of proteases of food objects and enteral microbiota in nutritive adaptations of the fish digestive system.

Adaptation to sound source motion can cause noticeable changes in spatial perception of the following sound stimuli. Neural mechanisms of selective sensitivity to motion are the basis of this phenomenon, called the auditory motion aftereffect. The auditory motion aftereffects were demonstrated under different stimulation conditions, both after the presentation of different motion models and in the real sound source motion. The auditory aftereffects are specifically characterized by its spatial and frequency selectivity as well as by the optimal motion velocity at which the effect is maximal. These features and the presence of the intersensory motion adaptation effects indicate a common nature of the auditory and visual motion aftereffects and allow suggesting the existence of the common system of motion adaptation for different modalities that provide spatial orientation.

A comparative analysis of the effect of the five acridine, three phenothiazine and one xanten (pyronine G) derivatives on the activity of liver mitochondrial monoamine oxidase (MAO) in sexually mature male river lampreys Lampetra fluviatilis has been conducted. Tyramine, dopamine, serotonin, noradrenaline, benzylamine, β-phenylethylamine and N-methylhistamine have been used as substrates for analyzing the monoamine oxidase activity of heterocyclic compounds. The analyzed synthetic hexamerous tricyclic compounds exhibit irreversible inhibition of the enzyme but no specificity depending on the desaminated substrate. The number and identity of heteroatoms in the analyzed heterocyclic compounds have been established to influence their inhibitory efficiency. The data of substrate-inhibitory analysis obtained with the use of the specific substrates provide indirect evidence for the existence of a single MAO form in the lamprey liver.