1,721,083 research outputs found
Antiviral properties of whey proteins and their activity against SARS-CoV-2 infection
Full text linkNative and chemically modified whey proteins and their peptide derivatives are encountering the interest of nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries, due to the numerous properties, ranging from antimicrobial to immunological and antitumorigenic, that result in the possibility to employ milk and its protein components in a wide range of treatment and prevention strategies. Importantly, whey proteins were found to exert antiviral actions against different enveloped and non-enveloped viruses. Recently, the scientific community is focusing on these proteins, especially lactoferrin, since in vitro studies have demonstrated that they exert an important antiviral activity also against SARS-CoV-2. Up-to date, several studies are investigating the efficacy of lactoferrin and other whey proteins in vivo. Aim of this review is to shed light on the most relevant findings concerning the antiviral properties of whey proteins and their potential applications in human health, focussing on their application in prevention and treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection
Involvement of bovine lactoferrin metal saturation, sialic acid and protein fragments in the inhibition of rotavirus infection
No full textAn Update on the Antifungal Activities of Lactoferrin: New Promising Applications in Diagnostic, Therapeutics and Biotechnology
No full text""Abstract: Lactoferrin is an iron binding protein belonging to the transferrin superfamily. Its main function is the protection. towards infections. In a previous article (Leboffe et al., Anti-Infective Agents in Medicinal Chemistry, 2009), we. have reviewed the antifungal and antiparasitic activity of lactoferrin. In the present updated review we focused the attention. on the newly discovered antifungal properties of lactoferrin and its derived peptides in clinical, diagnostic and biotechnological. applications. In particular, we discuss the new findings on diagnosis of fungal infections utilizing Lf and on. emerging pharmacological treatments exploiting combined effects of Lf and classical antifungal drugs. We also reported. recent studies on the use of Lf antifungal activity for food and beverage preservation. These new properties have found. applications both “in vitro” and “in vivo”, opening new scenarios about the use of this protein as an antinfective agent. both in translational medicine and biotechnology"
Physiological roles of ovotransferrin
No full textBackground: Ovotransferrin is an iron-binding glycoprotein, found in avian egg white and in avian serum,
belonging to the family of transferrin iron-binding glycoproteins. All transferrins show high sequence
homology. In mammals are presents two different soluble glycoproteins with different functions: i) serum
transferrin that is present in plasma and committed to iron transport and iron delivery to cells and
ii) lactoferrin that is present in extracellular fluids and in specific granules of polymorphonuclear
lymphocytes and committed to the so-called natural immunity. To the contrary, in birds, ovotransferrin
remained the only soluble glycoprotein of the transferrin family present both in plasma and egg white.
Scope of review: Substantial experimental evidences are summarized, illustrating the multiple physiological
roles of ovotransferrin in an attempt to overcome the common belief that ovotransferrin is a protein dedicated
only to iron transport and to iron withholding antibacterial activity.
Major conclusions: Similarly to the better known familymember protein lactoferrin, ovotransferrin appears to
be a multi-functional protein with a major role in avian natural immunity.
General significance: Biotechnological applications of ovotransferrin and ovotransferrin-related peptides could
be considered in the near future, stimulating further research on this remarkable protein. This article is part of
a Special Issue entitled Transferrins: Molecular mechanisms of iron transport and disorders
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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