Cells, Volume 9, Issue 4

Ribosome biogenesis is among the founding processes in the cell. During the first stages of ribosome biogenesis, polycistronic precursor of ribosomal RNA passes complex multistage maturation after transcription. Quality control of preribosomal RNA (p...

Chondrosarcomas (CHS) are malignant cartilaginous neoplasms with diverse morphological features, characterized by resistance to chemo- and radiation therapies. In this study, we investigated the role of tumor-associated macrophages (TAM)s in tumor ti...

The co-expression of androgen (AR) and estrogen (ER) receptors, in terms of higher AR/ER ratio, has been recently associated with poor outcome in ER-positive (ER+) breast cancer (BC) patients. The aim of this study was to analyze if the biological ag...

Mitochondria plays privotal role in diverse pathways that regulate cellular function and survival, and have emerged as a prime focus in aging and age-associated motor neuron diseases (MNDs), such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotempo...

Silicon is a non-essential element for plants and is available in biota as silicic acid. Its presence has been associated with a general improvement of plant vigour and response to exogenous stresses. Plants accumulate silicon in their tissues as amo...

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancer types urgently requiring effective therapeutic strategies. Autophagy occurs in several compartments of pancreatic cancer tissue including cancer cells, cancer associated fibroblasts, and immune cells w...

Regenerative strategies for human articular cartilage are still challenging despite the presence of resident progenitor cell population. Today, many efforts in the field of regenerative medicine focus on the use of platelet derivatives due to their a...

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is considered the main cause of kidney disease in which myofibroblasts lead to renal fibrosis. Macrophages were recently identified as the major source of myofibroblasts in a process known as macrophage–myofibroblast t...

Satellite cells (SCs) participate in skeletal muscle plasticity/regeneration. Activation of SCs implies that nuclear changes underpin a new functional status. In hibernating mammals, periods of reduced metabolic activity alternate with arousals and r...

Background: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) displays a glycolytic phenotype (Warburg effect). Increased lactate production, impacting on tumor biology and microenvironment modulation, has been implicated in epigenetic mechanisms’ regulation, leading...

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is one of the most common human pathogens, affecting half of the world’s population. Approximately 20% of the infected patients develop gastric ulcers or neoplastic changes in the gastric stroma. An infection als...

Ligand-based selectivity in signal transduction (biased signaling) is an emerging field of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) research and might allow the development of drugs with targeted activation profiles. Human formyl peptide receptor 1 (FPR1) i...

We previously showed that in polarized Madin–Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells, aquaporin-2 (AQP2) is continuously targeted to the basolateral plasma membrane from which it is rapidly retrieved by clathrin-mediated endocytosis. It then undertake...

Wound repair of cell membrane is a vital physiological phenomenon. We examined wound repair in Dictyostelium cells by using a laserporation, which we recently invented. We examined the influx of fluorescent dyes from the external medium and monitored...

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) can generate immunological tolerance due to their regulatory activity in many immune cells. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) release is a pivotal mechanism by which MSCs exert their actions. In this study, we evaluate whe...

Lithium chloride (LiCl) is a widely used drug for the treatment of bipolar disorders, but as a side effect, 40% of the patients develop diabetes insipidus. LiCl affects the activity of the glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3), and mice deficient for GSK...

The prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and obesity is an alarming health issue worldwide. Obesity is characterized by an excessive accumulation of white adipose tissue (WAT), and it is associated with diminished brown adipose tissue (BAT) activi...

Cigarette smoke is a known exacerbator of age-related pathologies, such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), atherosclerosis, and cellular aging (senescence). However, the role of nicotine and its major metabolite cotinine is yet to be elucidated. Consid...

Wendy Havran, Professor and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies at Scripps Research, passed away on January 20th, 2020 following a heart attack [...]

The molecular mechanisms underlying fate decisions of human neural stem cells (hNSCs) between neurogenesis and gliogenesis are critical during neuronal development and neurodegenerative diseases. Despite its crucial role in the murine nervous system,...

Myc is a transcription factor driving growth and proliferation of cells and involved in the majority of human tumors. Despite a huge body of literature on this critical oncogene, our understanding of the exact molecular determinants and mechanisms th...

The β-blocker propranolol (PROP) has been proposed as a repurposed treatment for breast cancer. The similarity of action between β-agonists and antagonists found on breast cells encouraged us to compare PROP and isoproterenol (ISO, agonist)...

Metabolic remodelling of the tumour microenvironment is a major mechanism by which cancer cells survive and resist treatment. The pro-oncogenic inflammatory cascade released by adipose tissue promotes oncogenic transformation, proliferation, angiogen...

Extracellular vesicles (EV) are secretory membranous elements used by cells to transport proteins, lipids, mRNAs, and microRNAs (miRNAs). While their existence has been known for many years, only recently has research begun to identify their function...

Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a step-wise process observed in normal and tumor cells leading to a switch from epithelial to mesenchymal phenotype. In tumors, EMT provides cancer cells with a metastatic phenotype characterized by E-cad...

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common cause of chronic liver disease and ranges from steatosis to steatohepatitis and to liver fibrosis. Lipotoxicity in hepatocytes, elevated oxidative stress and the activation of proinflammatory medi...

Doxorubicin is a strong inducer of immunogenic cell death (ICD), but it is ineffective in P-glycoprotein (Pgp)-expressing cells. Indeed, Pgp effluxes doxorubicin and impairs the immunesensitizing functions of calreticulin (CRT), an “eat-me&rdqu...

Heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) is the primary component for initiation of the powerful heat shock response (HSR) in eukaryotes. The HSR is an evolutionarily conserved mechanism for responding to proteotoxic stress and involves the rapid expression of hea...

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common liver disease worldwide, and its prevalence is reaching epidemic characteristics both in adults and in children. The increase of NAFLD prevalence parallels that of obesity, now representing...

Anti-hypertensive therapies are usually prescribed empirically and are often ineffective. Given the prevalence and deleterious outcomes of hypertension (HTN), improved strategies are needed. We reported that the Rho-GAP GRAF3 is selectively expressed...

Maternal immune activation (MIA) during pregnancy impacts offspring neurodevelopmental trajectories and induces lifelong consequences, including emotional and cognitive alterations. Using the polyinosinic:polycytidilic acid (PIC) MIA model we have pr...

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex autoimmune disorder involving a dysregulated immune response which ultimately leads to multiple organ failure. Several immunological and cellular checkpoints are available as drug targets. However, the...

This study is aimed at exploring the mechanism underlying the homeostasis between myogenesis and adipogenesis in skeletal muscle using a special porcine model with a distinct phenotype on muscle growth rate and intramuscular fat deposition. Different...

Voltage-dependent anion channels (VDACs) are essential components of the mitochondrial outer membrane. VDACs are involved in the exchange of numerous ions and molecules, from ATP to larger molecules such as tRNAs, and are supposed to adjust exchanges...

Wnt/β-catenin is a crucial repressor of adipogenesis. We have shown that E2 promoter binding factor 1 (E2F1) suppresses Wnt/β-catenin activity through transactivation of β-catenin interacting protein 1 (CTNNBIP1), also known as inhibit...

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a severe illness imposing an increasing social and economic burden worldwide. Numerous rodent models have been developed to investigate the pathophysiology of MDD. One of the best characterized and most widely used...

Although the relevance of spike bracts in stress acclimation and contribution to wheat yield was recently revealed, the metabolome of this organ and its response to water stress is still unknown. The metabolite profiles of flag leaves, glumes and lem...

The homologs EpCAM and TROP2, which both interact with claudin-1 and claudin-7, are frequently coexpressed in epithelia including skin. Intestine uniquely expresses high levels of EpCAM but not TROP2. We previously identified EpCAM as a substrate of...

The plasma membrane surrounds every single cell and essentially shapes cell life by separating the interior from the external environment. Thus, maintenance of cell membrane integrity is essential to prevent death caused by disruption of the plasma m...

Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is an aggressive subtype of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Despite being responsive to combination chemotherapy, median survival remains around 5 years due to high rates of relapse. Sphingolipid metabolism regulates MCL surv...

The rare autosomal dominant Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 2B (CMT2B) is associated with mutations in the RAB7A gene, involved in the late endocytic pathway. CMT2B is characterized by predominant sensory loss, ulceromutilating features, with lesser-to-abse...

Background: The purpose of the study is to establish and quantitatively assess protein markers and their combination in association with insulin uptake that may be have value for early prospective recognition of diabetic fetopathy (DF) as a complicat...

Citrate, generated in the mitochondria, is a key metabolite that might link metabolism with signaling, chromatin structure and transcription to orchestrate mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) fate determination. Based on a detailed morphological analysis o...

Tobacco smoking is a common risk factor for lung cancer and head and neck cancer. Molecular changes such as deregulation of miRNA expression have been linked to tobacco smoking in both types of cancer. Dysfunction of the Mismatch DNA repair (MMR) mec...

The zebrafish is now an important model organism for cancer biology studies and provides unique and complementary opportunities in comparison to the mammalian equivalent. The translucency of zebrafish has allowed in vivo live imaging studies of tumou...

Background: With recorded under-performance of current standard therapeutic strategies as highlighted by high rates of post-treatment (resection or local ablation) recurrence, resistance to chemotherapy, poor overall survival, and an increasing globa...

In eukaryotes, autophagy, a catabolic mechanism for macromolecule and protein recycling, allows the maintenance of amino acid pools and nutrient remobilization. For a better understanding of the relationship between autophagy and nitrogen metabolism,...

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) has extremely limited treatment despite a poor prognosis. Moreover, molecular targeted therapy for MPM has not yet been implemented; thus, a new targeted therapy is highly desirable. Near-infrared photoimmunothera...

Host-pathogen interactions are fundamental to our understanding of infectious diseases. Protein glycosylation is one kind of common post-translational modification, forming glycoproteins and modulating numerous important biological processes. It also...

X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) is a developmental process that aims to equalize the dosage of X-linked gene products between XY males and XX females in eutherian mammals. In female mouse embryos, paternal XCI is initiated at the 4-cell stage; howeve...