0000000000707444
AUTHOR
Javier González-fernández
FOXP2 expression and gray matter density in the male brains of patients with schizophrenia
Common genetic variants ofFOXP2may contribute to schizophrenia vulnerability, but controversial results have been reported for this proposal. Here we evaluated the potential impact of the commonFOXP2rs2396753 polymorphism in schizophrenia. It was previously reported to be part of a risk haplotype for this disease and to have significant effects on gray matter concentration in the patients. We undertook the first examination into whether rs2396753 affects the brain expression ofFOXP2and a replication study of earlier neuroimaging findings of the influence of this genetic variant on brain structure.FOXP2expression levels were measured in postmortem prefrontal cortex samples of 84 male subject…
Drosophila melanogaster Models of Metal-Related Human Diseases and Metal Toxicity
Iron, copper and zinc are transition metals essential for life because they are required in a multitude of biological processes. Organisms have evolved to acquire metals from nutrition and to maintain adequate levels of each metal to avoid damaging effects associated with its deficiency, excess or misplacement. Interestingly, the main components of metal homeostatic pathways are conserved, with many orthologues of the human metal-related genes having been identified and characterized in Drosophila melanogaster. Drosophila has gained appreciation as a useful model for studying human diseases, including those caused by mutations in pathways controlling cellular metal homeostasis. Flies have m…
Drosophila melanogaster Models of Friedreich's Ataxia
Friedreich’s ataxia (FRDA) is a rare inherited recessive disorder affecting the central and peripheral nervous systems and other extraneural organs such as the heart and pancreas. This incapacitating condition usually manifests in childhood or adolescence, exhibits an irreversible progression that confines the patient to a wheelchair, and leads to early death. FRDA is caused by a reduced level of the nuclear-encoded mitochondrial protein frataxin due to an abnormal GAA triplet repeat expansion in the first intron of the humanFXNgene.FXNis evolutionarily conserved, with orthologs in essentially all eukaryotes and some prokaryotes, leading to the development of experimental models of this dis…
Imiquimod inhibits growth and induces differentiation of myeloid leukemia cell lines
Background: The antitumoral effects of different Toll-like receptor (TLRs) agonists is mediated by activating immune responses to suppress tumors growth, although TLR ligands may also have a direct effect on tumoral cells. Given that TLR signaling induces hematopoietic cell differentiations this may serve as a novel differentiation therapeutic approach for AML. Methods: We investigated the effects of agonists for the ten human TLRs on the proliferation, apoptosis, cell cycle and differentiation of ten different types of myeloid leukemia cell lines (HL-60, U-937, KG-1, KG-1a, K-562, Kasumi-1, EOL-1, NB4, MOLM-13 and HEL). Proliferation was measured using the CellTiter 96 (R) Aqueous One Solu…