Articles

The nuclear transportation routes of membrane-bound transcription factors

Membrane-bound transcription factors (MTFs) are transcription factors (TFs) that are anchored in membranes in a dormant state. Activated by external or internal stimuli, MTFs are released from parent membranes...

Authors: Yang Liu, Peiyao Li, Li Fan and Minghua Wu

A highlight on Sonic hedgehog pathway

Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway plays an essential role during vertebrate embryonic development and tumorigenesis. It is already known that Sonic hedgehog (Shh) pathway is important for the evolution of radio ...

Authors: Gabriela Basile Carballo, Jéssica Ribeiro Honorato, Giselle Pinto Farias de Lopes and Tania Cristina Leite de Sampaio e Spohr

Ras enhances TGF-β signaling by decreasing cellular protein levels of its type II receptor negative regulator SPSB1

Transformation by oncogene Ras overcomes TGF-β mediated growth inhibition in epithelial cells. However, it cooperates with each other to mediate epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). The mechanism of how...

Authors: Sheng Liu, Josephine Iaria, Richard J. Simpson and Hong-Jian Zhu

Inhibition of CREB binding protein-beta-catenin signaling down regulates CD133 expression and activates PP2A-PTEN signaling in tumor initiating liver cancer cells

The WNT-beta-catenin pathway is known to regulate cellular homeostasis during development and tissue regeneration. Activation of WNT signaling increases the stability of cytoplasmic beta-catenin and enhances i...

Authors: Yuanyuan Tang, Joshua Berlind and Nirmala Mavila

Herbal formula Huang Qin Ge Gen Tang enhances 5-fluorouracil antitumor activity through modulation of the E2F1/TS pathway

5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) remains the most widely used agent to treat colorectal cancer (CRC). However, its clinical efficacy is currently limited by the development of drug resistance. Traditional Chinese Herbal ...

Authors: Haizhou Liu, Hui Liu, Zhiyi Zhou, Robert A. Parise, Edward Chu and John C. Schmitz

HMGB2 is associated with malignancy and regulates Warburg effect by targeting LDHB and FBP1 in breast cancer

High-mobility group box 2 (HMGB2) is implicated in tumorigenesis in various cancers. However, the clinical significance of HMGB2 signaling in human breast cancer progression remains unknown.

Authors: Deyuan Fu, Jing Li, Jinli Wei, Zhengquan Zhang, Yulin Luo, Haosheng Tan and Chuanli Ren

Oxidative phosphorylation activation is an important characteristic of DOX resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma cells

Despite the implications for tumor growth and cancer drug resistance, the mechanisms underlying differences in energy metabolism among cells remain unclear.

Authors: Li Wu, Jiayu Zhao, Kexin Cao, Xiao Liu, Hao Cai, Jiaqi Wang, Weidong Li and Zhipeng Chen

LncRNA HOTAIR promotes cell migration and invasion by regulating MKL1 via inhibition miR206 expression in HeLa cells

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as a new and crucial layer of gene regulation in recent years and regulate various biological processes such as carcinogenesis and metastasis. LncRNA HOTAIR, an onco...

Authors: Peng Zheng, Ze Yin, Ying Wu, Yao Xu, Ying Luo and Tong-Cun Zhang

Notch signaling triggered via the ligand DLL4 impedes M2 macrophage differentiation and promotes their apoptosis

Notch signaling controls many cellular processes, including cell fate determination, cell differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis. In mammals, four Notch receptors (Notch 1–4) can interact with five disti...

Authors: Sylvain Pagie, Nathalie Gérard and Béatrice Charreau

Involvement of hedgehog pathway in early onset, aggressive molecular subtypes and metastatic potential of breast cancer

Dysregulation of hedgehog pathway is observed in numerous cancers. Relevance of hedgehog pathway genes in cancer cohort and inhibition of its downstream effector (GLI1) towards metastasis in cell lines are exp...

Authors: Syeda Kiran Riaz, Jahangir Sarwar Khan, Syed Tahir Abbas Shah, Fen Wang, Lin Ye, Wen G. Jiang and Muhammad Faraz Arshad Malik

Enhanced metastatic capacity of breast cancer cells after interaction and hybrid formation with mesenchymal stroma/stem cells (MSC)

Fusion of breast cancer cells with tumor-associated populations of the microenvironment including mesenchymal stroma/stem-like cells (MSC) represents a rare event in cell communication whereby the metastatic c...

Authors: Catharina Melzer, Juliane von der Ohe and Ralf Hass

Frequent overexpression of AMAP1, an Arf6 effector in cell invasion, is characteristic of the MMTV-PyMT rather than the MMTV-Neu human breast cancer model

The small GTPase Arf6 and its downstream effector AMAP1 (also called ASAP1/DDEF1) constitute a signaling pathway promoting cell invasion, in which AMAP1 interacts with several different proteins, including PRK...

Authors: Yutaro Otsuka, Tsukasa Oikawa, Hinako Yoshino, Shigeru Hashimoto, Haruka Handa, Hiroki Yamamoto, Ari Hashimoto and Hisataka Sabe

A functional role of LEFTY during progesterone therapy for endometrial carcinoma

The left-right determination factor (LEFTY) is a novel member of the TGF-β/Smad2 pathway and belongs to the premenstrual/menstrual repertoire in human endometrium, but little is known about its functional role...

Authors: Wu Fei, Daiki Kijima, Mami Hashimoto, Miki Hashimura, Yasuko Oguri, Sabine Kajita, Toshihide Matsumoto, Ako Yokoi and Makoto Saegusa

MicroRNA-135a regulates NHE9 to inhibit proliferation and migration of glioblastoma cells

Glioblastoma multiformae (GBM) is the most aggressive type of malignant brain tumor with complex molecular profile. Overexpression of Na⁺/H⁺ Exchanger isoform 9 (NHE9) promotes tumor progression and correlates po...

Authors: Daniela M. Gomez Zubieta, Mohamed A. Hamood, Rami Beydoun, Ashley E. Pall and Kalyan C. Kondapalli

Predictive model identifies strategies to enhance TSP1-mediated apoptosis signaling

Thrombospondin-1 (TSP1) is a matricellular protein that functions to inhibit angiogenesis. An important pathway that contributes to this inhibitory effect is triggered by TSP1 binding to the CD36 receptor, ind...

Authors: Qianhui Wu and Stacey D. Finley

NFAT1-regulated IL6 signalling contributes to aggressive phenotypes of glioma

We previously demonstrated that the local immune status correlated with the glioma prognosis. Interleukin-6 (IL6) was identified as an important local immune-related risk marker related to unfavourable prognos...

Authors: Yang Jiang, Sheng Han, Wen Cheng, Zixun Wang and Anhua Wu

Bifunctional enzyme ATIC promotes propagation of hepatocellular carcinoma by regulating AMPK-mTOR-S6 K1 signaling

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the cancer types with poor prognosis. To effectively treat HCC, new molecular targets and therapeutic approaches must be identified. 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribo...

Authors: Minjing Li, Changzhu Jin, Maolei Xu, Ling Zhou, Defang Li and Yancun Yin

Adaptive phenotype drives resistance to androgen deprivation therapy in prostate cancer

Prostate cancer (PCa), the second most common cancer affecting men worldwide, shows a broad spectrum of biological and clinical behaviour representing the epiphenomenon of an extreme heterogeneity. Androgen de...

Authors: Nicoletta Ferrari, Ilaria Granata, Matteo Capaia, Marina Piccirillo, Mario Rosario Guarracino, Roberta Venè, Antonella Brizzolara, Andrea Petretto, Elvira Inglese, Martina Morini, Simonetta Astigiano, Adriana Agnese Amaro, Francesco Boccardo, Cecilia Balbi and Paola Barboro

Sirt1 interaction with active Smad2 modulates transforming growth factor-β regulated transcription

The simplicity of Transforming Growth Factor ß (TGFβ) signaling pathway, linear and non-amplified, hardly sustains its variety of responses. This is often justified by the complex regulation showed by Smad pro...

Authors: Eva María García-Vizcaíno, Sergio Liarte, José Luis Alonso-Romero and Francisco José Nicolás

Correction to: A novel protein derived from lamprey supraneural body tissue with efficient cytocidal actions against tumor cells

Unfortunately, following publication of this article [1], it was noticed that the key in Figure 5c incorrectly showed ‘0 h’, ‘5 h’ and ‘10 h’. The corrected version, showing ‘0 h’, ‘12 h’ and ‘24 h’, can be se...

Authors: Yue Pang, Changzhi Li, Shiyue Wang, Wei Ba, Tao Yu, Guangying Pei, Dan Bi, Hongfang Liang, Xiong Pan, Ting Zhu, Meng Gou, Yinglun Han and Qingwei Li

Human hyaluronic acid synthase-1 promotes malignant transformation via epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, micronucleation and centrosome abnormalities

Human hyaluronic acid (HA) molecules are synthesized by three membrane spanning Hyaluronic Acid Synthases (HAS1, HAS2 and HAS3). Of the three, HAS1 is found to be localized more into the cytoplasmic space wher...

Authors: Nguyet Nguyen, Awanit Kumar, Simi Chacko, Rodney J. Ouellette and Anirban Ghosh

A transwell assay that excludes exosomes for assessment of tunneling nanotube-mediated intercellular communication

Tunneling nanotubes (TNTs) are naturally-occurring filamentous actin-based membranous extensions that form across a wide spectrum of mammalian cell types to facilitate long-range intercellular communication. V...

Authors: Venugopal Thayanithy, Patrick O’Hare, Phillip Wong, Xianda Zhao, Clifford J. Steer, Subbaya Subramanian and Emil Lou

Impaired mitochondrial calcium uptake caused by tacrolimus underlies beta-cell failure

One of the most common side effects of the immunosuppressive drug tacrolimus (FK506) is the increased risk of new-onset diabetes mellitus. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this association have not...

Authors: Angela Lombardi, Bruno Trimarco, Guido Iaccarino and Gaetano Santulli

CD146, a novel target of CD44-signaling, suppresses breast tumor cell invasion

We have previously validated three novel CD44-downstream positively regulated transcriptional targets, including Cortactin, Survivin and TGF-β2, and further characterized the players underlying their separate ...

Authors: Allal Ouhtit, Mohammed E. Abdraboh, Andrew D. Hollenbach, Hatem Zayed and Madhwa H. G. Raj

Metabolic shift in density-dependent stem cell differentiation

Vascular progenitor cells (VPCs) derived from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are a valuable source for cell- and tissue-based therapeutic strategies. During the optimization of endothelial cell (EC) inductions fr...

Authors: Simar J. Singh, William Turner, Drew E. Glaser, Kara E. McCloskey and Fabian V. Filipp

Human umbilical cord Wharton jelly cells promote extra-pancreatic insulin formation and repair of renal damage in STZ-induced diabetic mice

We evaluated the therapeutic effect and fate of high doses of human umbilical cord Wharton jelly cells (hUCWJCs) after IP administration to streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mice.

Authors: Martin Maldonado, Tianhua Huang, Lujun Yang, Lan Xu and Lian Ma

A novel protein derived from lamprey supraneural body tissue with efficient cytocidal actions against tumor cells

In previous research, we found that cell secretion from the adult lamprey supraneural body tissues possesses cytocidal activity against tumor cells, but the protein with cytocidal activity was unidentified.

Authors: Yue Pang, Changzhi Li, Shiyue Wang, Wei Ba, Tao Yu, Guangying Pei, Dan Bi, Hongfang Liang, Xiong Pan, Ting Zhu, Meng Gou, Yinglun Han and Qingwei Li

DNA damage response and cancer therapeutics through the lens of the Fanconi Anemia DNA repair pathway

Fanconi Anemia (FA) is a rare, inherited genomic instability disorder, caused by mutations in genes involved in the repair of interstrand DNA crosslinks (ICLs). The FA signaling network contains a unique nucle...

Authors: Sonali Bhattacharjee and Saikat Nandi

Impairment of IGF2 gene expression in prostate cancer is triggered by epigenetic dysregulation of IGF2-DMR0 and its interaction with KLF4

Human cancer cells often exhibit impaired IGF2 expression and the underlying mechanisms are multifaceted and complex. Besides the well-known imprinting control region IGF2/H19-ICR, the involvement of a differenti...

Authors: Undraga Schagdarsurengin, Angela Lammert, Natalie Schunk, Diana Sheridan, Stefan Gattenloehner, Klaus Steger, Florian Wagenlehner and Temuujin Dansranjavin

NF-κB potentiates tumor growth by suppressing a novel target LPTS

Chronic inflammation is causally linked to the carcinogenesis and progression of most solid tumors. LPTS is a well-identified tumor suppressor by inhibiting telomerase activity and cancer cell growth. However,...

Authors: Dongbo Liu, Hongping Miao, Yuanyin Zhao, Xia Kang, Shenglan Shang, Wei Xiang, Rongchen Shi, Along Hou, Rui Wang, Kun Zhao, Yingzhe Liu, Yue Ma, Huan Luo, Hongming Miao and Fengtian He

CLCA1 suppresses colorectal cancer aggressiveness via inhibition of the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway

Chloride channel accessory 1 (CLCA1) belongs to the calcium-sensitive chloride conductance protein family, which is mainly expressed in the colon, small intestine and appendix. This study was conducted to inve...

Authors: Xiaofen Li, Wangxiong Hu, Jiaojiao Zhou, Yanqin Huang, Jiaping Peng, Ying Yuan, Jiekai Yu and Shu Zheng

Crosstalk between glial and glioblastoma cells triggers the “go-or-grow” phenotype of tumor cells

Glioblastoma (GBM), the most malignant primary brain tumor, leads to poor and unpredictable clinical outcomes. Recent studies showed the tumor microenvironment has a critical role in regulating tumor growth by...

Authors: Ana Isabel Oliveira, Sandra I. Anjo, Joana Vieira de Castro, Sofia C. Serra, António J. Salgado, Bruno Manadas and Bruno M. Costa

ARF1 recruits RAC1 to leading edge in neutrophil chemotaxis

The small GTPase ARF1 mediates membrane trafficking mostly from the Golgi, and is essential for the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)-mediated chemotaxis of neutrophils. In this process, ARF1 is activated by t...

Authors: Yuichi Mazaki, Yasuhito Onodera, Tsunehito Higashi, Takahiro Horinouchi, Tsukasa Oikawa and Hisataka Sabe

The emerging roles of phosphatases in Hedgehog pathway

Hedgehog signaling is evolutionarily conserved and plays a pivotal role in cell fate determination, embryonic development, and tissue renewal. As aberrant Hedgehog signaling is tightly associated with a broad ...

Authors: Long Zhao, Liguo Wang, Chunli Chi, Wenwen Lan and Ying Su

Tissue-resident stem cell activity: a view from the adult Drosophila gastrointestinal tract

The gastrointestinal tract serves as a fast-renewing model for unraveling the multifaceted molecular mechanisms underlying remarkably rapid cell renewal, which is exclusively fueled by a small number of long-l...

Authors: Qiang Liu and Li Hua Jin

Osteoglycin promotes meningioma development through downregulation of NF2 and activation of mTOR signaling

Meningiomas are the most common primary intracranial tumors in adults. While a majority of meningiomas are slow growing neoplasms that may cured by surgical resection, a subset demonstrates more aggressive beh...

Authors: Yu Mei, Ziming Du, Changchen Hu, Noah F. Greenwald, Malak Abedalthagafi, Nathalie Y.R. Agar, Gavin P. Dunn, Wenya Linda Bi, Sandro Santagata and Ian F. Dunn

CRAMP deficiency leads to a pro-inflammatory phenotype and impaired phagocytosis after exposure to bacterial meningitis pathogens

Antimicrobial peptides are important components of the host defence with a broad range of functions including direct antimicrobial activity and modulation of inflammation. Lack of cathelin-related antimicrobia...

Authors: Eugenia Kress, Julika Merres, Lea-Jessica Albrecht, Sven Hammerschmidt, Thomas Pufe, Simone C. Tauber and Lars-Ove Brandenburg

Erratum to: Inhibition of TRPM7 suppresses cell proliferation of colon adenocarcinoma in vitro and induces hypomagnesemia in vivo without affecting azoxymethane-induced early colon cancer in mice

Authors: Junhao Huang, Hideki Furuya, Malika Faouzi, Zheng Zhang, Mahealani Monteilh-Zoller, Kelly Galbraith Kawabata, F. David Horgen, Toshihiko Kawamori, Reinhold Penner and Andrea Fleig

Inhibition of TRPM7 suppresses cell proliferation of colon adenocarcinoma in vitro and induces hypomagnesemia in vivo without affecting azoxymethane-induced early colon cancer in mice

Magnesium (Mg²⁺) is an essential cation implicated in carcinogenesis, solid tumor progression and metastatic potential. The Transient Receptor Potential Melastatin Member 7 (TRPM7) is a divalent ion channel invol...

Authors: Junhao Huang, Hideki Furuya, Malika Faouzi, Zheng Zhang, Mahealani Monteilh-Zoller, Kelly Galbraith Kawabata, F. David Horgen, Toshihiko Kawamori, Reinhold Penner and Andrea Fleig

Csk-homologous kinase (Chk) is an efficient inhibitor of Src-family kinases but a poor catalyst of phosphorylation of their C-terminal regulatory tyrosine

C-terminal Src kinase (Csk) and Csk-homologous kinase (Chk) are the major endogenous inhibitors of Src-family kinases (SFKs). They employ two mechanisms to inhibit SFKs. First, they phosphorylate the C-termina...

Authors: Gahana Advani, Ya Chee Lim, Bruno Catimel, Daisy Sio Seng Lio, Nadia L. Y. Ng, Anderly C. Chüeh, Mai Tran, Mohd Ishtiaq Anasir, Heather Verkade, Hong-Jian Zhu, Benjamin E. Turk, Thomas E. Smithgall, Ching-Seng Ang, Michael Griffin and Heung-Chin Cheng

Deficiency of PI3-Kinase catalytic isoforms p110γ and p110δ in mice enhances the IL-17/G-CSF axis and induces neutrophilia

Phosphoinositide 3-kinase γ (PI3Kγ) and PI3Kδ are second messenger-generating enzymes with key roles in proliferation, differentiation, survival, and function of leukocytes. Deficiency of the catalytic subunit...

Authors: Kirsten Bucher, Fee Schmitt, Benedikt Mothes, Carolin Blumendeller, Daniel Schäll, Roland Piekorz, Emilio Hirsch, Bernd Nürnberg and Sandra Beer-Hammer

Viral manipulation of the cellular sumoylation machinery

Viruses exploit various cellular processes for their own benefit, including counteracting anti-viral responses and regulating viral replication and propagation. In the past 20 years, protein sumoylation has em...

Authors: Angela J. Lowrey, Wyatt Cramblet and Gretchen L. Bentz

Glyceollins trigger anti-proliferative effects through estradiol-dependent and independent pathways in breast cancer cells

Estrogen receptors (ER) α and β are found in both women and men in many tissues, where they have different functions, including having roles in cell proliferation and differentiation of the reproductive tract....

Authors: Sylvain Lecomte, Frederic Chalmel, François Ferriere, Frederic Percevault, Nicolas Plu, Christian Saligaut, Claire Surel, Marie Lelong, Theo Efstathiou and Farzad Pakdel

Fibroblast growth factor 2 supports osteoblastic niche cells during hematopoietic homeostasis recovery after bone marrow suppression

Hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) maintenance requires a specific microenvironment. HSC niches can be activated by tissue damaging chemotherapeutic drugs and various cell signaling molecules such as SDF-1 and FGF,...

Authors: Kyung-Ae Yoon, YeonSung Son, Young-Jin Choi, Joo-Hyun Kim and Je-Yoel Cho

The role of JAK-STAT signaling pathway and its regulators in the fate of T helper cells

The Janus kinase (JAK)-signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) pathway plays critical roles in orchestrating of immune system, especially cytokine receptors and they can modulate the polarizati...

Authors: Farhad Seif, Majid Khoshmirsafa, Hossein Aazami, Monireh Mohsenzadegan, Gholamreza Sedighi and Mohammadali Bahar

Kaiso differentially regulates components of the Notch signaling pathway in intestinal cells

In mammalian intestines, Notch signaling plays a critical role in mediating cell fate decisions; it promotes the absorptive (or enterocyte) cell fate, while concomitantly inhibiting the secretory cell fate (i....

Authors: Shaiya C. Robinson, Kristina Klobucar, Christina C. Pierre, Amna Ansari, Svetlana Zhenilo, Egor Prokhortchouk and Juliet M. Daniel

Identification of EGF-NF-κB-FOXC1 signaling axis in basal-like breast cancer

The pathogenesis of human basal-like breast cancer (BLBC) is not well understood and patients with BLBC have a poor prognosis. Expression of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and nuclear factor-κB (N...

Authors: Stacey Chung, Yanli Jin, Bingchen Han, Ying Qu, Bowen Gao, Armando E. Giuliano and Xiaojiang Cui

LASP2 suppresses colorectal cancer progression through JNK/p38 MAPK pathway meditated epithelial-mesenchymal transition

LASP2 (LIM and SH3 Protein 2) is a small focal adhesion protein belongs to nebulin protein family. As the newest member of nebulette family, the function of LASP2 remains to be identified.

Authors: Bin Wang, Lanzhi Zhang, Liying Zhao, Rui Zhou, Yanqing Ding, Guoxin Li and Liang Zhao

The sound of tumor cell-microenvironment communication – composed by the Cancer Cluster Salzburg research network

Authors: Silja Wessler, Fritz Aberger and Tanja N. Hartmann

The role of TGF-β and its crosstalk with RAC1/RAC1b signaling in breast and pancreas carcinoma

This article focusses on the role of TGF-β and its signaling crosstalk with the RHO family GTPases RAC1 and RAC1b in the progression of breast and pancreatic carcinoma. The aggressive nature of these tumor typ...

Authors: Catharina Melzer, Ralf Hass, Juliane von der Ohe, Hendrik Lehnert and Hendrik Ungefroren