Our dream of defeating the processes of organ damage and aging remains a challenge scientists pursued for hundreds of years. Although the goal is to successfully treat the body as a whole, steps towards regenerating individual organs are even considered significant. Since initial approaches utilizing only progenitor cells appear limited, we propose interconnecting our collective knowledge regarding aging and embryonic development may lead to the discovery of molecules which provide alternatives to effectively reverse cellular damage. In this review, we introduce and summarize our results regarding Thymosin beta-4 (TB4) to support our hypothesis using the heart as model system. Accordingly, we investigated the developmental expression of TB4 in mouse embryos and determined the impact of the molecule in adult animals by systemically injecting the peptide following acute cardiac infarction or with no injury. Our results proved, TB4 is expressed in the developing heart and promotes cardiac cell migration and survival. In adults, the peptide enhances myocyte survival and improves cardiac function after coronary artery ligation. Moreover, intravenous injections of TB4 alter the morphology of the adult epicardium, and the changes resemble the characteristics of the embryo. Reactivation of the embryonic program became equally reflected by the increased number of cardiac vessels and by the alteration of the gene expression profile typical of the embryonic state. Moreover, we discovered TB4 is capable of epicardial progenitor activation, and revealed the effect is independent of hypoxic injury. By observing the above results, we believe, further discoveries and consequential postnatal administration of developmentally relevant candidate molecules such as TB4 may likely result in reversing aging processes and accelerate organ regeneration in the human body.

Our dream of defeating the processes of aging has occupied the curious and has challenged scientists globally for hundreds of years. The history is long, and sadly, the solution is still elusive. Our endeavors to reverse the magnitude of damaging cellular and molecular alterations resulted in only a few, yet significant advancements. Furthermore, as our lifespan increases, physicians are facing more mind-bending questions in their routine practice than ever before. Although the ultimate goal is to successfully treat the body as a whole, steps towards regenerating individual organs are even considered significant. As our initial approach to enhance the endogenous restorative capacity by delivering exogenous progenitor cells appears limited, we propose, utilizing small molecules critical during embryonic development may prove to be a powerful tool to increase regeneration and to reverse the processes associated with aging. In this review, we introduce Thymosin beta-4, a 43aa secreted peptide fulfilling our hopes and capable of numerous regenerative achievements via systemic administration in the heart. Observing the broad capacity of this small, secreted peptide, we believe it is not the only molecule which nature conceals to our benefit. Hence, the discovery and postnatal administration of developmentally relevant agents along with other approaches may result in reversing the aging process.

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) is one of the prioritized diseases of the World Health Organization, considering its potential to create a public health emergency and, more importantly, the absence of efficacious drugs and/or vaccines for treatment. The highly pathogenic characteristic of CCHFV restricts research to BSL-4 laboratories, which complicates effective research and developmental strategies. In consideration of antiviral therapies, RNA interference can be used to suppress viral replication by targeting viral genes. RNA interference uses small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) to silence genes. The aim of our study was to design and test siRNAs in vitro that inhibit CCHFV replication and can serve as a basis for further antiviral therapies. A549 cells were infected with CCHFV after transfection with the siRNAs. Following 72 h, nucleic acid from the supernatant was extracted for RT Droplet Digital PCR analysis. Among the investigated siRNAs we identified effective candidates against all three segments of the CCHF genome. Consequently, blocking any segment of CCHFV leads to changes in the virus copy number that indicates an antiviral effect of the siRNAs. In summary, we demonstrated the ability of specific siRNAs to inhibit CCHFV replication in vitro. This promising result can be integrated into future anti-CCHFV therapy developments.

Recently, demands towards identifying various molecules in support of stress detection and potential clinical utilization are dramatically increasing. Moreover, the accuracy with which researchers quantify these informative molecules is now far more improved when compared to the past. As RNA or protein markers are conventionally detected via repeated invasive procedures from blood, it is critical to develop secure technologies to obtain the desired information via less stressful methodologies, such as saliva collection. Moreover, for superb interpretation, it became equally significant to obtain the information from the same exact specimen. RNA is easily degradable, thus it is paramount to supplement the samples with protective agents, such as RNAlater, to achieve accurate quantitative results. In our research we investigated whether and how this commonly applied RNA protection procedure influences protein and peptide separation of the human saliva via quantitative two-dimensional protein electrophoresis. Our results revealed, in contrary to previously published data regarding plasma, the addition of RNAlater to saliva samples negatively influences isoelectric focusing and protein detection. We equally found the application oftentimes employed referred to as selective precipitation and reduction-alkylation, partially rescued separation, however, with a significant loss in protein yield and quality when compared to untreated samples. Our results suggest collection of human saliva for biomarker identification must be performed with extreme diligence. We propose application of RNAlater should be avoided and snap freezing of the collected saliva is recommended when joint protein and RNA quantification is the ultimate goal.