by Giuseppe Cocco  and Philipp Amiet

Received: 23 March 2021;  Published: 30 July 2021;  doi: 10.21926/obm.genet.2103133

“Epigenetics is the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work. Unlike genetic changes, epigenetic changes are reversible and do not change your DNA sequence, but they can change how your body reads a DNA sequence” (https://www.cdc.gov/genomics/disease/epigenetics.htm). Epigenetic interactions, along with the genetic expression in innate cells, change the structure and function of chromatin, and thus, turn the genes on and off. Epigenetic changes influence dise [...]

by Ciro Comparetto  and Franco Borruto

Received: 29 June 2021;  Published: 19 July 2021;  doi: 10.21926/obm.genet.2103132

Medical genetics plays an important role in the screening and prevention of numerous diseases. Thus, it is important to develop effective screening and prevention programs and improve the assessment of the susceptibility of diseases. The development of screening and prevention programs depends on the identification of early biomarkers (including functional and behavioral) for the risk and onset of the disease, and such programs need to be designed according to internationally accepted criteria. Cervical cancer repr [...]

by Jessica Lin  , Valentina L Kouznetsova  and Igor F Tsigelny

Received: 08 December 2020;  Published: 24 May 2021;  doi: 10.21926/obm.genet.2102131

Feline cancers have not been studied as extensively as canine cancers, though they may offer similar advantages, with cats being immunocompetent animals subject to similar conditions as their human counterparts. The most common feline cancers include lymphoma, squamous cell carcinoma, sarcoma, and mammary tumors, though mast cell tumors were also investigated in this review. As the pathogenesis of many feline cancers remains unclear, this study seeks to elucidate some molecular mechanisms behind feline cancers. Fel [...]

by Diane B. Paul

Received: 29 March 2021;  Published: 14 May 2021;  doi: 10.21926/obm.genet.2102130

This article explores difficulties encountered by those with no personal experience of a chronic disease or disability in accurately evaluating the quality of life with a condition present from birth. In most countries, cost-effectiveness analysis relies on ratings of health states by members of the general population, who must try to imagine what life for those affected is like based on (usually brief) descriptions of the conditions. That task is challenging for reasons that have been well-discussed in the literat [...]

by Vidhula R Ahire  , Amit Kumar  , Sushma Bhosle  and Kaushala Prasad Mishra

Received: 22 September 2020;  Published: 14 May 2021;  doi: 10.21926/obm.genet.2102129

Ellagic acid (EA) is a polyphenol found in grapes, pomegranates, walnuts, etc. exhibits anti-cancer properties. The current study was conducted to understand the radiosensitizing role of EA on HeLa cells. Monotherapy of EA and radiation was initially studied on HeLa cells. The addition of EA before the radiation treatment subsequently made DNA more susceptible to damage thereby developing DNA beaks, which are known to be lethal for cell survival. This was evaluated by performing comet and γ-foci formation ass [...]

by Loren Pickart  and Anna Margolina

Received: 20 January 2021;  Published: 06 April 2021;  doi: 10.21926/obm.genet.2102128

The human copper-binding peptide GHK-Cu is a naturally occurring small plasma tripeptide (glycyl-l-histidyl-l-lysine) with a high affinity for copper (2+). GHK-Cu has multiple biological effects. It is known to stimulate regeneration of skin, nervous tissue, bones, lungs and liver, protect liver from oxidative damage, restore activity of irradiated fibroblasts, reduce inflammation and increase levels of antioxidant enzymes. Recent studies established that GHK modulates activity of a number of genes. It has been sho [...]

by Macyn Leung  , Alexander Pipchuk  and Xiaolong Yang

Received: 11 January 2021;  Published: 24 March 2021;  doi: 10.21926/obm.genet.2101127

PD-L1 is an immune checkpoint protein that is frequently overexpressed by the cells in the tumor microenvironment. PD-L1 binds to PD-1 present on the activated antitumor T-cells, which allows for tumor immune escape. The ability of the PD-1/PD-L1 axis to suppress antitumor immunity enables its application as a potential target for small-molecule-based immunotherapies. Targeting the PD-L1-mediated tumor immune evasion represents a promising approach for immune checkpoint blockade therapies. However, the existing mon [...]

by Masahiro Sato  , Issei Saito  , Eri Akasaka  and Emi Inada

Received: 11 October 2020;  Published: 10 March 2021;  doi: 10.21926/obm.genet.2101126

Direct colony cloning of adherent mammalian cells using rings or dilution cloning has been used frequently for obtaining stable transfectants after gene delivery. As an alternative to these methods, successful isolation of the cells in a single colony is possible by placing a trypsin-immersed small paper disk onto the colony and subsequently picking up the paper with the assumption that it carries the trypsinized cells. However, the cloning success using this technique largely relies on the cell type used. In the p [...]

by Andrew G.L. Douglas  and Diana Baralle

Received: 31 December 2020;  Published: 08 March 2021;  doi: 10.21926/obm.genet.2101125

A large proportion of rare disease patients remain undiagnosed and the vast majority of such conditions remain untreatable whether diagnosed or not. RNA splicing analysis is able to increase the diagnostic rate in rare disease by identifying cryptic splicing mutations and can help in interpreting the pathogenicity of genomic variants. Whilst targeted RT-PCR analysis remains a highly sensitive tool for assessing the splicing effects of known variants, RNA-seq can provide a more comprehensive transcriptome-wide analy [...]

by Mohamed Abutineh  , Nicholas Pizzo  , Nicholas Nifakos  , Xiao-Lu Jin  , John M Harlin  and Xing-Hai Zhang

Received: 26 October 2020;  Published: 18 February 2021;  doi: 10.21926/obm.genet.2101124

Citrus is an important group of globally produced fruit crops, holding great economic, cultural, and health value. Belonging to the Rutacaeae family, the genus Citrus includes some of the most iconic and widely appreciated variants of fruits such as the orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit, and tangerine. The spread of various diseases threatens the worldwide production of citrus fruit crops. Diseases such as Asiatic citrus canker, citrus tristeza virus, citrus leprosis, and especially citrus greening disease (also know [...]