From 2006 to 2011, an average of 15 novel recombinant protein therapeutics have been approved by US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) annually. In addition, the expiration of blockbuster biologics has also spurred the emergence of biosimilars. The i...
Background: The development of stable producer cell lines (SCLs) represents a promising alternative for lentiviral vector (LVV) manufacturing, offering improved reproducibility and reduced manufacturing costs. In previous work, our group established...
Within this first part of the two-part series on phage manufacturing, we will give an overview of the process leading to bacteriophages as a drug substance, before covering the formulation into a drug product in the second part. The principal goal is...
The human adrenal cortex is composed of distinct zones that are the main source of steroid hormone production. The mechanism of adrenocortical cell differentiation into several functionally organized populations with distinctive identities remains po...
Background: Chronic skin wounds are a growing financial burden for healthcare providers, causing discomfort/immobility to patients. Whilst animal chronic wound models have been developed to allow for mechanistic studies and to develop/test potential...
Background: Acute erythroid leukemia (AEL) or AML-M6 predominantly affects older adults and is rare in childhood. Compared with other AML subtypes, AEL remains relatively understudied because of its rarity. We established LS-CHM, a novel AEL cell lin...
Background/Objectives: Immune checkpoint blockade, particularly targeting the programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) receptor, is a promising strategy in cancer immunotherapy. The interaction between PD-1 and its ligands, PD-L1 and PD-L2, is crucial in immun...
Mandarin fish ranavirus (MRV) infection poses a substantial challenge to the mandarin fish culture industry as no effective preventive or therapeutic measures currently exist. The creation of a highly permissive cell line from a natural host is cruci...
N-glycan, a critical quality attribute (CQA) of monoclonal antibodies, profoundly impacts potency, immunogenicity, safety, and clinical efficiency. Therefore, N-glycan should be monitored and controlled during development. The conventional 2-AB metho...
The immortalized porcine kidney-derived macrophage (IPKM) cell line is an excellent resource that has proven to be an effective for the production of various strains of African swine fever virus (ASFV). In this study, we developed a serum-free medium...
Background/Objectives: To date, nearly 300 lentiviral-based gene therapy clinical trials have been conducted, with eight therapies receiving regulatory approval for commercialization. These advances, along with the increased number of advanced-phase...
Soluble glycoprotein 130 kDa (sgp130)-Fc fusion protein, an innovative therapeutic bio-macromolecular drug specifically targeting IL-6 trans-signaling, proved to have good potential for application in the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases. A...
A key element for the cost-effective development of cultured meat is a cell line culturable in serum-free conditions to reduce production costs. Heme supplementation in cultured meat mimics the original meat flavor and color. This study introduced a...
Preclinical models play a critical role in the development of PSMA-targeted radiopharmaceuticals for prostate cancer. However, many existing models have practical limitations, including slow tumor growth, low engraftment rates, and restricted availab...
Background/Objectives: Advances in treatment options have barely improved the prognosis of ovarian carcinoma (OC) in recent decades. The inherent heterogeneity of OC underlies challenges in treatment (development) and patient stratification. One hurd...
The Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell line is a well-established platform for the production of biopharmaceuticals due to its ability to express complex therapeutic proteins with human-like glycopatterns in high amounts. The advent of CRISPR technolog...
BAFF has a critical role in B-cell survival, maturation and function, which makes its pathway a prime therapeutic target for various autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis and Sjögren’s syndrome. A cell...
Germ line development and the origin of the primordial germ cells (PGCs) are very variable and may occur across a range of developmental stages and in several developmental contexts. In establishing and maintaining germ line, a conserved set of genes...
Cell culture banks play a crucial role in advancing biomedical research by providing standardized, reproducible biological materials essential for various applications, from drug development to regenerative medicine. This opinion article presents a c...
Melanoma is difficult to treat with chemotherapy, prompting the need for new treatments. Protease inhibitors have emerged as promising candidates as tumor cell proteases promote metastasis. Researchers have developed a chimeric form of the Bauhinia b...
Alpha-Synuclein (α-Syn) is a presynaptic neuronal protein implicated in the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and other synucleinopathies, primarily through its aggregation into insoluble fibrils. The extended α-Syn half-life...
Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecological malignancy among women worldwide and is characterized by aggressiveness, cancer stemness, and frequent relapse due to resistance to platinum-based therapy. Ovarian cancer cells metastasize through ascit...
Kv3.1 channel is abundantly expressed in neurons and its dysfunction causes sleep loss, neurodegenerative diseases and depression. Fluoxetine, a serotonin selective reuptake inhibitor commonly used to treat depression, acts also on Kv3.1. To define t...
Cancer cachexia is a complex malnutrition syndrome that causes progressive dysfunction. This syndrome is accompanied by protein and energy losses caused by reduced nutrient intake and the development of metabolic disorders. As many as 80% of patients...
Background/Objectives: Screening for neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) or antiviral small-molecule inhibitors (SMIs) using live virus is laborious and often confined to higher biosafety levels, thus restricting accessibility. The use of murine leukemia...
Secondary metabolites from marine sources have a wide range of biological activity. Marine natural products are promising candidates for lead pharmacological compounds to treat diseases that plague humans, including cancer. Cancer is a life-threateni...
Red sea bream (Pagrosomus major) is one of the most popular farmed marine teleost fish species. Fish cell lines are becoming important research tool in the aquaculture field, and they are suitable models to study fish virology, immunology and toxicol...
The development of preclinical in vitro models has provided significant progress to the studies of cystic fibrosis (CF), a frequently fatal monogenic disease caused by mutations in the gene encoding the CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) p...
Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) is a key enzyme in the last step of glycolysis, playing a role in the pyruvate-to-lactate reaction. It is associated with the prognosis and metastasis of many cancers, including breast cancer. In this study, we investigate...
The transcription factor MYC is transiently expressed during B lymphocyte development, and its correct modulation is essential in defined developmental transitions. Although temporary downregulation of MYC is essential at specific points, basal level...
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is considered as the strongest independent risk factor for lung cancer (LC) development, suggesting an overlapping genetic background in both diseases. A common feature of both diseases is aberrant immunit...
Cumulative evidence from several pre-clinical studies suggests that restoration of plasma DNase activity in a thrombo-inflammatory state may improve clinical outcomes. Following injury, hyperactivated immune cells release large amounts of granular pr...
Genome editing is widely used and conceptually simple, yet in practice, it is hindered by laborious workflows and high costs. These challenges stem from the difficulty of identifying and isolating cells that contain the desired user-defined modificat...
In a previous study, a novel human corneal-like epithelium model utilizing an immortalized human corneal epithelial cell line (iHCE-NY1) was developed as an alternative to animal models to identify chemicals not classified under the United Nations Gl...
The Pv11 cell line established from an African chironomid, Polypedilum vanderplanki, is the only cell line tolerant to complete desiccation. In Pv11 cells, a constitutive expression system for Pv11 cells was previously exploited and several reporter...
Human rhinoviruses (HRVs) are small non-enveloped RNA viruses that belong to the Enterovirus genus within the Picornaviridae family and are known for causing the common cold. Though symptoms are generally mild in healthy individuals, the economic bur...
Background and aim: Resistance to chemotherapy is the key obstacle to the effective treat- ment of various cancers. Accumulating evidence suggests significant involvement of the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in the chemoresistance of mos...
Pulmonary inflammations such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cystic fibrosis are widespread and can be fatal, especially when they are characterized by abnormal mucus accumulation. Inhaled corticosteroids are commonly used for lung infla...
Today, recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vectors represent the vector systems which are mostly used for in vivo gene therapy for the treatment of rare and less-rare diseases. Although most of the past developments have been performed by using...
Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy R9 (LGMDR9) is a dystroglycanopathy caused by Fukutin-related protein (FKRP) defects leading to the deficiency of α-DG glycosylation, essential to membrane integrity. Recombinant adeno-associated viral vector (rAA...
Abstract: Paclitaxel (PTX) is a cytotoxic agent derived from Taxus brevifolia used for lung cancer. Poly d,l-lactide- co-glycolide (PLGA) is an FDA-approved biodegradable polymer used for preparation of nanoparticles carrying cytotoxic drug agents. T...
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) remains a major global health threat because covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) persists in hepatocytes and limits the efficacy of current antiviral therapies. Effective HBV research and drug screening require culture mod...
Paclitaxel (PTX), cytotoxic agent extracted from Taxus brevifolia has significant antineoplastic activity against breast cancer. Poly d,l-lactide-co-glycolide (PLGA) has been widely used for the preparation of nanoparticles carrying cytotoxic drug ag...
Background: Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors (PARPi) were initially deployed to target breast and ovarian tumors with mutations in DNA damage response genes. Recently, PARPi have been shown to be beneficial in the treatment of prostate cancer...
In genetic toxicology, there is a trend against the increased use of in vivo models as highlighted by the 3R strategy, thus encouraging the development and implementation of alternative models. Two-dimensional (2D) hepatic cell models, which are gene...
Steroid 5-α reductase (5AR) is responsible for the reduction of steroids to 5-α reduced metabolites, such as the reduction of testosterone to 5-α dihydrotestosterone (DHT). A new adverse outcome pathway (AOP) for 5AR inhibition to reduce female repro...
Background/Objectives: Ocrelizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody targeting CD20, approved for the treatment of adult patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis (RMS) and primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS). The neutralizing activity of...
Primary or acquired resistance to therapeutic agents is a major obstacle in the treatment of cancer patients. Cervical cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths among women worldwide and, despite major advances in cancer screening and treat...
The Cancer Genome Atlas study in thyroid cancer exposed the genomic landscape of ~500 PTCs and revealed BRAFV600E-mutant tumors as having different prognosis, contrasting indolent cases and those with more invasive disease. Here, we describe the gene...
Skeletal muscle regeneration depends on muscle stem cells, which give rise to myoblasts that drive muscle growth, repair, and maintenance. In bats—the only mammals capable of powered flight—these processes must also sustain contractile pe...
of 201