Desmosomes, complex structures found at intercellular junctions, are important for the development, structural integrity, and immune barrier of the skin. Extracellular components of the desmosome connect neighboring cells and intracellular interactions amongst cadherin, armadillo, and plakin proteins anchor the desmosome to intermediate filaments. Beyond their canonical role as “spot welds”...
T cells and cancer cells have many common features, including their need to proliferate and their metabolic requirements. In particular, glucose metabolism is highly upregulated in both cancer cells and T cells to support proliferation and other cellular functions. The first step of glycolysis is catalyzed by Hexokinase, which exists...
Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common non-cutaneous cancer among U.S. men. Lack of effective treatments for advanced disease make it a significant public health concern. However, PCa’s long natural history makes it an excellent target for prevention approaches that reduce overtreatment of indolent disease, treatment related morbidity, and mortality....
NSD2, a histone methyltransferase specific for methylation of histone 3 lysine 36 (H3K36), exhibits a glutamic acid to lysine mutation at residue 1099 (E1099K) in childhood acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). Cells harboring this mutation can become the predominant clone in relapsing disease. We studied the effects of this mutant enzyme...
Endothelial cells (ECs) require glycolysis for proliferation and migration during angiogenesis; however, the necessity for the mitochondrial respiratory chain during angiogenesis is not known. In this study, we report that inhibition of respiratory chain complex III impairs proliferation, but not migration of ECs in vitro by decreasing the NAD+/NADH ratio....
Glioblastoma (GBM) is a highly malignant brain tumor that accounts for the most commonly diagnosed type of primary brain tumors in adults. It has a poor prognosis of only 15 months from the time of diagnosis. The gold standard therapy regimen consists of radiotherapy and the chemotherapeutic temozolomide. Both of...
Oocyte meiosis is a specialized, but error prone, form of cell division that is poorly understood. Errors during meiosis often result in aneuploidy, or abnormal chromosome number, that impacts human health and fertility. Aneuploidy is the leading cause of miscarriages and birth defects, such as Down's syndrome in which cells...
Type I interferon (IFN) is the primary antiviral cytokine establishing a broad and potent antiviral response to protect mammalian cells from virus infection. The functional repertoire of IFN extends to innate and adaptive immunity, neoplastic transformation, resistance and cancer immunotherapy. IFN functions are primarily mediated through the Janus kinase (JAK)...
The cellular innate immune response to viruses is a defense mechanism executed by most cells in the human body to form the initial barrier to virus replication. Detection of viral nucleic acids initiates widespread gene expression changes that combine to establish an antiviral state and stimulate professional immune cell activation....
Proper size control of organs and tissues is critical to their function, and it is necessary for the millions of precisely sized tubes that make up those organs— for example, excessive cell growth can lead to devastating diseases such as Polycystic Kidney Disease. The regulation of tube growth is therefore...