TRPV ion channels realize a huge variety of functions in the human body participating in the temperature and pain sensation, cell division, calcium uptake. Researchers from IBCh RAS and Columbia University analyzed the structure of the key TRPV domain – the ion conducting pore. Using the original “dynamic molecular portrait” approach, they identified three major states of the pore that are common for all TRPVs, called α-closed, π-closed, and π-open. It was shown that the α-closed state is the most hydrophobic and always nonconducting. While the π-closed one is less stable and can easily transit to the open state, which has favorable hydrophobic properties for the ion conduction. The results were published in Communications Chemistry.

The journey of discovery in scientific research sometimes follows a familiar path: discover, admire, investigate, disappoint, and forget. Nevertheless, in some disciplines, it seems repeating many times. One of such cycles in the field of immune system blockade by nanoparticles is analysed in a recent article published in Nature Communications journal. Scientists from the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Uppsala University and Boston University propose that advancements in nanomaterial development may finally disrupt this cycle, potentially introducing the method of macrophage blockade into clinical practice to improve cancer therapy.

Researchers from the Laboratory of Molecular Foundations of Embryogenesis at the GNC IBCh RAS have identified the main factors that rendered limb regeneration impossible in modern amniotes (reptiles, birds, and mammals). The authors suggested that after the ancestors of amniotes transitioned to land, their ability to regenerate limbs was suppressed by the side effects of various innovations that emerged at that time, which were necessary for successful colonization of land. This, in turn, stimulated the disappearance of many genes that ceased to participate in regeneration from that moment on. As a result, in modern amniotes, including humans, the inability to regenerate limbs became firmly fixed at the genomic level.

Researchers from the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Harvard University, Sechenov University, the Pasteur Institute, and other scientific institutions in Russia and abroad have proposed a new method for controlling elevated intraocular pressure, which is a major damaging factor in glaucoma. They have developed a new type of contact lenses that incorporate metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for the controlled and prolonged release of brimonidine, a medication used to reduce intraocular pressure. This innovation was presented in the high-ranking scientific journal Aggregate, highlighting its innovative nature and potential impact on ophthalmological practice.

The staff of the Laboratory of structural biology of ion channels and the Science–Educational center for the first time studied the thermodynamics of the dimerization process of a β-hairpin peptide in the membrane-mimicking environment of detergent micelles using the example of the antimicrobial peptide (AMP) capitellacin of the marine polychaete Capitella teleta. The study also describes the mechanism of capitellacin action on bacterial membranes. The results of the work were published in the journal Biomolecules.

Ribosome biogenesis is a sophisticated time-ordered process, which adjusts the protein synthesis rate to consumption of nutrients and external stimuli. It begins with transcription of the ribosomal primary RNA precursor. 13.3 kB 47S (fig.) pre-rRNA processing is coupled with the sequential recruitment of ribosome biogenesis factors and non-coding RNAs as well as ordered coating of rRNA with ~80 ribosomal proteins during formation of the functional 60S and 40S ribosomal subunits.

The antiviral T-1105 and T-705 (Favipiravir) compounds are inactive prodrugs that undergo metabolic transformation into the active form through phosphoribosylation in vivo. The efficiency of this process in human cells is very low, making the production of the phosphoribosylated pyrazine-2-carboxamide derivatives in vitro is a worthy challenge.

A significant proportion of modern ideas about the molecular mechanisms of body axis induction and differentiation of vertebrate embryos are based on studies of classical laboratory model objects - fishes, amphibians and mammals - that belong to only one of the two major clades of extant vertebrates - gnathostomes. In these animals, genes of Noggin family have been described as key embryonic inducers of the main body axis.

The discovery of the neural inducer Noggin1 in 1992 was one of the most important events in the history of molecular developmental biology. Subsequently, several genes of the Noggin family were discovered and described in vertebrates, which appeared as a result of genomic duplications in ancestral vertebrates and differed in their expression patterns and functional properties. A series of studies carried out at the Laboratory of Molecular Bases of Embryogenesis of the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, in 2006-2020, was devoted to the study of Noggins in vertebrates. The key roles of Noggins in the regulation of intracellular signaling cascades and a wide range of developmental processes, including the development of the telencephalon unique to vertebrates, have been demonstrated.

This research, performed by the members of the Laboratory of Expression Systems and Plant Genome Modification (BIOTRON), Department of Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, together with colleagues from the All-Russia Research Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, reports the first time production of edited hexaploid triticale (× Triticosecale) through CRISPR/Cas9-mediated multiplexed induction of multilocular mutations in genes associated with starch biosynthesis.