Article
Cell Biology
Richa B. Shah, Jennifer L. Kernan, Anya van Hoogstraten, Kiyohiro Ando, Yuanyuan Li, Alicia L. Belcher, Ivy Mininger, Andrei M. Bussenault, Renuka Raman, Ramanagouda Ramanagoudr-Bhojappa, Tony T. Huang, Alan D. D'Andrea, Settara C. Chandrasekharappa, Aneel K. Aggarwal, Ruth Thompson, Samuel Sidi
Summary: Cells count DNA damage through repair or apoptosis, with the FANCI protein playing a key role in switching from repair to apoptosis signaling when interstrand crosslink repair fails. Data also shows that monoubiquitination and deubiquitination at FANCI K523 impact interactor selection, allowing damaged cells to offset apoptotic defects via de novo attempts at lesion repair.
DEVELOPMENTAL CELL
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Simin Zhao, Chengzi Huang, Yajuan Yang, Weiwei Xu, Yongze Yu, Canxin Wen, Lili Cao, Fei Gao, Yingying Qin, Zi-Jiang Chen, Ting Guo, Shidou Zhao
Summary: When DNA interstrand crosslink lesions occur, a core complex of Fanconi anemia proteins promotes the ubiquitination of FANCD2 and FANCI, which recruit downstream factors to repair the lesion. FANCD2 maintains genome stability through both its ubiquitination-dependent and ubiquitination-independent functions. This study analyzed germ cell development in Fancd2 KO and ubiquitination-deficient mutant mice, and found that the ubiquitination-dependent and ubiquitination-independent functions of FANCD2 were required for different aspects of germ cell development.
JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Emma L. Traband, Sarah R. Hammerlund, Mohammad Shameem, Ananya Narayan, Sanjiv Ramana, Anika Tella, Alexandra Sobeck, Naoko Shima
Summary: This study reports FANCD2-driven MiDAS in untransformed human cells. This form of MiDAS requires a prerequisite step of FANCD2 mono-ubiquitination and primarily acts to preserve CFS stability rather than prevent chromo-some mis-segregation.
JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Attila Andor, Mahendravarman Mohanraj, Zsuzsanna Anna Pato, Katalin Uri, Beata Biri-Kovacs, Qing Cheng, Elias S. J. Arner
Summary: TXNL1 has dual functions, acting as a supporting factor for TrxR1-driven redox activities in disulfide reduction reactions and functioning as an ATP-independent chaperone.
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ines Paniagua, Jacqueline J. L. Jacobs
Summary: TLS polymerases, originally known for their error-prone functions in bypassing DNA lesions, have been found to play pivotal roles in various cellular processes. Besides lesion bypass, these enzymes are involved in DNA replication, DNA repair, epigenetics, immune signaling, and viral infection. Due to their multitasking ability to alleviate replication stress, TLS polymerases are both a cellular dependency and a critical vulnerability of cancer cells. This review highlights the current and emerging strategies for targeting TLS polymerases in cancer therapy.
Review
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Yiwei Li, Wenhui Tang, Ming Guo
Summary: Viewing cells as matter to understand the intracellular biomolecular processes and multicellular tissue behavior represents an emerging research area at the interface of physics and biology. Cellular material displays various physical and mechanical properties that can strongly affect both intracellular and multicellular biological events.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Faisal Bin Rashed, Diana Diaz-Dussan, Fatemeh Mashayekhi, Dawn Macdonald, Patrick Nicholas Nation, Xiao-Hong Yang, Sargun Sokhi, Alexandru Cezar Stoica, Hassan El-Saidi, Carolynne Ricardo, Ravin Narain, Ismail Hassan Ismail, Leonard Irving Wiebe, Piyush Kumar, Michael Weinfeld
Summary: Solid tumors often exhibit resistance to standard treatment due to poor oxygenation. Nitroimidazoles (NIs) can selectively target hypoxic cells and show potential as hypoxia-directed therapeutics. In a head and neck cancer model, hypoxic cells were found to be more sensitive to IAZA and FAZA, which altered cell morphology, compromised DNA replication, slowed down cell cycle progression, induced replication stress, and ultimately led to cytostasis.
Editorial Material
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Nieves Peltzer
Summary: This study found that M1-ubiquitination plays a protective role in cellular stress and can activate the NF-kappa B transcription factor. These findings may have important implications for the use of HOIP inhibitors in cancer treatment.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Michael F. Sharp, Rohan Bythell-Douglas, Andrew J. Deans, Wayne Crismani
Summary: DNA-damaging agents can cure some cancers, but with severe side effects. Inhibition of the DNA repair pathway offers a less toxic and more targeted alternative to chemotherapy. The FA core complex is identified as a compelling drug target for cancer therapy, specifically killing certain types of cancer cells.
Review
Cell Biology
Dale A. Ramsden, Juan Carvajal-Garcia, Gaorav P. Gupta
Summary: DNA polymerase theta (Pol theta)-mediated end joining is a recently characterized DNA repair pathway that functions in various cellular contexts to repair DNA double-strand breaks that are not repaired by other pathways. Pol theta-mediated end joining both helps maintain the genome and causes genome instability, and is an emerging therapeutic target in cancer.
NATURE REVIEWS MOLECULAR CELL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Chun-Yao Yang, Simone Bonelli, Matteo Calligaris, Anna Paola Carreca, Stephan A. Mueller, Stefan F. Lichtenthaler, Linda Troeberg, Simone D. Scilabra
Summary: ADAM15, a member of the ADAM family, plays an important role in various biological functions, particularly in cartilage homeostasis. Proteomic analysis of HTB94 cells manipulated to have altered ADAM15 expression levels showed that ADAM15 can modulate the secretome independent of its catalytic activity, notably increasing levels of TIMP-3. This suggests a novel mechanism by which ADAM15 exerts its biological functions beyond canonical substrate cleavage.
Article
Psychology, Biological
John Verssimo, Paul Verhaeghen, Noreen Goldman, Maxine Weinstein, Michael T. Ullman
Summary: The study found that efficiency of attentional orienting and executive inhibition increased into the 70s, while attentional alerting declined. Age has varied effects on attention and executive functions, with some aspects declining while others improving.
NATURE HUMAN BEHAVIOUR
(2022)
Article
Energy & Fuels
Ria Aniza, Wei-Hsin Chen, Yu-Ying Lin, Khanh-Quang Tran, Jo-Shu Chang, Su Shiung Lam, Young-Kwon Park, Eilhann E. Kwon, Meisam Tabatabaei
Summary: Microalgae have unique potentials for various applications, including biofuel production, wastewater treatment, and animal and aquaculture feed production. The study found that lipid and carbohydrates from microalgae are suitable feedstocks for liquid and solid biofuel production, while protein is not suitable. The study also developed a method to predict the kinetics parameters of the three constituents of microalgae.
Article
Fisheries
Mengshi Sun, Siting Wu, Xin Zhang, Zetian Liu, Luhao Zhang, Shaozhu Kang, Jiaming Liao, Mengke Liu, Qiwei Qin, Jingguang Wei
Summary: In this study, a homolog of T-cell intracellular antigen 1 (TIA-1) from orange-spotted grouper was cloned and characterized. It was found that TIA-1 plays a role in inhibiting viral replication and positively regulating interferon immune response in response to viral infection.
FISH & SHELLFISH IMMUNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Agronomy
Stefanie Neupert, Jennifer M. Jandt, Paul Szyszka
Summary: This study assessed different sugar alcohols as more species-selective feeding stimulants for pest insects. The results showed that sorbitol and xylitol were attractive to wasps, while erythritol acted as a non-nutritive feeding stimulant. None of the sugar alcohols acted as feeding stimulant for bees.
PEST MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Maya Raghunandan, Jung Eun Yeo, Ryan Walter, Kai Saito, Adam J. Harvey, Stacie Ittershagen, Eun-A Lee, Jihyeon Yang, Maureen E. Hoatlin, Anja K. Bielinsky, Eric A. Hendrickson, Orlando Scharer, Alexandra Sobeck
HUMAN MOLECULAR GENETICS
(2020)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Florian A. Thesseling, Michael C. Hutter, Constanze Wiek, John P. Kowalski, Allan E. Rettie, Marco Girhard
ARCHIVES OF BIOCHEMISTRY AND BIOPHYSICS
(2020)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Luka de Vos, Ingela Gruenwald, Emma Grace Bawden, Joern Dietrich, Kathrin Scheckenbach, Constanze Wiek, Romina Zarbl, Friedrich Bootz, Jennifer Landsberg, Dimo Dietrich
Article
Chemistry, Medicinal
John P. Kowalski, Matthew G. McDonald, Robert D. Pelletier, Helmut Hanenberg, Constanze Wiek, Allan E. Rettie
JOURNAL OF MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY
(2020)
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Matthew G. McDonald, Lindsay M. Henderson, Sutapa Ray, Catherine K. Yeung, Amanda L. Johnson, John P. Kowalski, Helmut Hanenberg, Constanze Wiek, Kenneth E. Thummel, Allan E. Rettie
JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY AND EXPERIMENTAL THERAPEUTICS
(2020)
Article
Cell Biology
Laura Bergmann, Alexander Lang, Christoph Bross, Simone Altinoluk-Hambuechen, Iris Fey, Nina Overbeck, Anja Stefanski, Constanze Wiek, Andreas Kefalas, Patrick Verhuelsdonk, Christian Mielke, Dennis Sohn, Kai Stuehler, Helmut Hanenberg, Reiner U. Jaenicke, Juergen Scheller, Andreas S. Reichert, Mohammad Reza Ahmadian, Roland P. Piekorz
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Maya Raghunandan, Dan Geelen, Eva Majerova, Anabelle Decottignies
Summary: The study reveals an interference between telomerase and ALT pathways in some cancer cells, with hTR and NHP2 playing crucial roles in DDR regulation at ALT telomeres.
Article
Immunology
Keven Hoerster, Markus Uhrberg, Constanze Wiek, Peter A. Horn, Helmut Hanenberg, Stefan Heinrichs
Summary: The study demonstrates the feasibility of genome editing in primary allogeneic NK cells to reduce their recognition and killing by mismatched T cells, making them potential off-the-shelf immune effectors for immunotherapy in cancer. Genetically engineered NK cells are functionally indistinguishable from unmodified cells with natural cytotoxicity towards AML cell lines.
FRONTIERS IN IMMUNOLOGY
(2021)
Review
Oncology
Elizabeth L. Thompson, Jiayi J. Hu, Laura J. Niedernhofer
Summary: This research focuses on advances in melanoma treatment, including mechanisms of drug resistance and the role of senescent cells in resistance and secondary cancer development. Targeting senescent cells in treatment may offer a novel approach for improving clinical outcomes in melanoma.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Maya Raghunandan, Anabelle Decottignies
Summary: Human telomerase has been found to have multifaceted functions beyond telomeric repeat synthesis. Both hTERT and hTR play roles in cellular pathways to enhance cell fitness and protection against apoptosis. The non-canonical functions of hTR, such as regulating replication protein A at telomeres, may be relevant in normal somatic cells that naturally silence the hTERT gene but maintain hTR expression.
Article
Dermatology
Elizabeth L. Thompson, Michael Pickett-Leonard, Megan J. Riddle, Weili Chen, Frank W. Albert, Jakub Tolar
Summary: Using CRISPR technology, researchers identified genes and pathways that can increase C7 expression, and found compounds that upregulate C7 expression, providing a new therapeutic approach for the treatment of dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa.
EXPERIMENTAL DERMATOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Immunology
Peter Gullickson, Yunwen W. Xu, Laura J. Niedernhofer, Elizabeth L. Thompson, Matthew J. Yousefzadeh
Summary: To generate diverse and high-affinity antibodies for effective humoral immune response, DNA damage is introduced at specific regions of the genome. V(D)J recombination, class-switch recombination, and somatic hypermutation are key processes for immune diversity. DNA repair mechanisms play a crucial role in these processes, and DNA repair deficiencies can lead to catastrophic diseases impacting immune system function. These findings highlight the importance of maintaining genomic integrity for disease prevention and robust adaptive immunity.
FRONTIERS IN IMMUNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
William Miller, Charles Lewis Humphrey Pruett, William Stone, Cindy Eide, Megan Riddle, Courtney Popp, Matthew Yousefzadeh, Christopher Lees, Davis Seelig, Elizabeth Thompson, Harry Orr, Laura Niedernhofer, Jakub Tolar
Summary: Spinocerebellar ataxia type 7 (SCA7) is a neurodegenerative disease that primarily affects the retina and cerebellum. This study found that SCA7 leads to the accumulation of senescent cells in the kidneys and cerebellum, which may contribute to the specific phenotype of the disease.
Article
Surgery
Maria Shvedova, Rex Jeya Rajkumar Samdavid Thanapaul, Elizabeth L. Thompson, Laura J. Niedernhofer, Daniel S. Roh
Summary: Society and our healthcare system are facing unprecedented challenges due to the expansion of the older population. As plastic surgeons, we can improve care of our older patients through understanding the mechanisms of aging. Cellular senescence, a major hallmark of aging, can be both detrimental and beneficial.
PLASTIC AND RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY
(2022)
Article
Surgery
Elizabeth L. Thompson, Louise E. Pitcher, Laura J. Niedernhofer, Paul D. Robbins
Summary: Skin aging is caused by both extrinsic and intrinsic factors that lead to cellular senescence, resulting in pathological changes in the skin. The use of senolytics and senomorphics holds potential for improving skin aging and overall aging.
PLASTIC AND RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY
(2022)