0000000000277245
AUTHOR
George A. Calin
Expression and function of micro-RNAs in immune cells during normal or disease state.
Micro-RNAs (miRNAs) are 19-24 nucleotide long non-coding RNAs that posttranscriptionally modulate gene expression. They are found in almost all species: viruses, plants, nematodes, fly, fish, mouse, human, and are implicated in a wide array of cellular and developmental processes. Microarray-based miRNA profiling brought to the discovery of miRNAs specific to different hematopoietic lineages. Furthermore, the functional assays performed in tissue cultures to discover miRNAs involved in immune responses in combination with the reports of miRNA-transgenic or miRNA -knockout mouse models has helped elucidating the miRNA roles in the development and function of immune system. Abnormal patterns …
miRNAs and their potential for use against cancer and other diseases
miRNAs are 19–24 nucleotide long noncoding RNAs found in almost all genetically dissected species, including viruses, plants, nematodes, flies, fish, mice and humans. Rapid advances have been made in understanding their physiological functions, while abnormal patterns of miRNA expression have been found in many disease states, most notably human cancer. It is now clear that miRNAs represent a class of genes with a great potential for use in diagnosis, prognosis and therapy. In this review we will focus on the discoveries that elucidate their crucial role in mammalian diseases, particularly in cancer, and propose that miRNA-based gene therapy might become the potential technology of choice …
Perspective: Cancer Patient Management Challenges During the COVID-19 Pandemic
On March 11, 2020, the WHO has declared the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) a global pandemic. As the last few months have profoundly changed the delivery of health care in the world, we should recognize the effort of numerous comprehensive cancer centers to share experiences and knowledge to develop best practices to care for oncological patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients as well as physicians must be aware of all these constraints and profound social, personal, and medical challenges posed by the tackling of this deadly disease in everyday life in order to adjust to such a completely novel scenario. This review will discuss facing the challenges and the current approaches…
GAM/ZFp/ZNF512B is central to a gene sensor circuitry involving cell-cycle regulators, TGF beta effectors, Drosha and microRNAs with opposite oncogenic potentials
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small regulatory RNAs targeting multiple effectors of cell homeostasis and development, whose malfunctions are associated with major pathologies such as cancer. Herein we show that GAM/ZFp/ZNF512B works within an intricate gene regulatory network involving cell-cycle regulators, TGFβ effectors and oncogenic miRNAs of the miR-17-92 cluster. Thus, GAM impairs the transcriptional activation of the miR-17-92 promoter by c-Myc, downregulates miR-17-92 miRNAs differentially, and limits the activation of genes responsive to TGFβ canonical pathway. In contrast, TGFβ decreases GAM transcripts levels while differentially upregulating miR-17-92 miRNAs. In turn, miR-17, miR-20a a…
Role of PTPRJ genotype in papillary thyroid carcinoma risk
The strong genetic predisposition to papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) might be due to a combination of low-penetrance susceptibility variants. Thus, the research into gene variants involved in the increase of susceptibility to PTC is a relevant field of investigation. The gene coding for the receptor-type tyrosine phosphatase PTPRJ has been proposed as a cancer susceptibility gene, and its role as a tumor suppressor gene is well established in thyroid carcinogenesis. In this study, we want to ascertain the role of PTPRJ genotype in the risk for PTC. We performed a case–control study in which we determined the PTPRJ genotype for the non-synonymous Gln276Pro and Asp872Glu polymorphisms by PC…