0000000000951138
AUTHOR
Mariano Barbacid
Definitive evidence for Club cells as progenitors for mutantKras/Trp53‐deficient lung cancer
Accumulating evidence suggests that both the nature of oncogenic lesions and the cell-of-origin can strongly influence cancer histopathology, tumor aggressiveness and response to therapy. Although oncogenic Kras expression and loss of Trp53 tumor suppressor gene function have been demonstrated to initiate murine lung adenocarcinomas (LUADs) in alveolar type II (AT2) cells, clear evidence that Club cells, representing the second major subset of lung epithelial cells, can also act as cells-of-origin for LUAD is lacking. Equally, the exact anatomic location of Club cells that are susceptible to Kras transformation and the resulting tumor histotype remains to be established. Here, we provide de…
Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 4 Regulates Adult Neural Stem Cell Proliferation and Differentiation in Response to Insulin
Abstract Insulin is one of the standard components used to culture primary neurospheres. Although it stimulates growth of different types of cells, the effects of insulin on adult neural stem cells (NSCs) have not been well characterized. Here, we reveal that insulin stimulates proliferation, but not survival or self-renewal, of adult NSCs. This effect is mediated by insulin receptor substrate 2 (IRS2) and subsequent activation of the protein kinase B (or Akt), leading to increased activity of the G1-phase cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (Cdk4) and cell cycle progression. Neurospheres isolated from Irs2-deficient mice are reduced in size and fail to expand in culture and this impaired proliferati…
Evaluation of genetic melanoma vaccines in cdk4-mutant mice provides evidence for immunological tolerance against authochthonous melanomas in the skin
We evaluated the efficacy of a candidate melanoma vaccine approach in mice genetically prone to develop melanoma due to the introduction of an oncogenic mutation (R24C) in the germline sequence of the cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (cdk4), a protein critically involved in cell cycle regulation. Melanomas were induced in cdk4-mutant mice by chemical carcinogenesis and UVB irradiation. A genetic prime-boost strategy targeting the clinically relevant differentiation antigen tyrosinase-related protein 2 (TRP2) was performed which was able to stimulate a melanocyte-specific cellular immune response associated with localized autoimmune vitiligo-like depigmentation. However, significant destruction of …