Search results for "etica."
showing 10 items of 13546 documents
miRNAs in the Era of Personalized Medicine: From Biomarkers to Therapeutics
2021
In recent years, interest in personalized medicine has considerably increased [...]
Regulatory network analysis in estradiol-treated human endothelial cells.
2021
Background/Aims: Estrogen has been reported to have beneficial effects on vascular biology through direct actions on endothelium. Together with transcription factors, miRNAs are the major drivers of gene expression and signaling networks. The objective of this study was to identify a com-prehensive regulatory network (miRNA-transcription factor-downstream genes) that controls the transcriptomic changes observed in endothelial cells exposed to estradiol. Methods: miR-NA/mRNA interactions were assembled using our previous microarray data of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) treated with 17ß- Estradiol (E2) (1 nmol/lL, 24 h). miRNA--mRNA pairings and their associated canonical pat…
Small Rab GTPases in Intracellular Vesicle Trafficking: The Case of Rab3A/Raphillin-3A Complex in the Kidney
2021
Small Rab GTPases, the largest group of small monomeric GTPases, regulate vesicle trafficking in cells, which are integral to many cellular processes. Their role in neurological diseases, such as cancer and inflammation have been extensively studied, but their implication in kidney disease has not been researched in depth. Rab3a and its effector Rabphillin-3A (Rph3A) expression have been demonstrated to be present in the podocytes of normal kidneys of mice rats and humans, around vesicles contained in the foot processes, and they are overexpressed in diseases with proteinuria. In addition, the Rab3A knockout mice model induced profound cytoskeletal changes in podocytes of high glucose fed a…
Hypoxia‐induced non‐coding rnas controlling cell viability in cancer
2021
Hypoxia, a characteristic of the tumour microenvironment, plays a crucial role in cancer progression and therapeutic response. The hypoxia-inducible factors (HIF-1α, HIF-2α, and HIF-3α), are the master regulators in response to low oxygen partial pressure, modulating hypoxic gene expression and signalling transduction pathways. HIFs’ activation is sufficient to change the cell phenotype at multiple levels, by modulating several biological activities from metabolism to the cell cycle and providing the cell with new characteristics that make it more aggressive. In the past few decades, growing numbers of studies have revealed the importance of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) as molecular mediators i…
Epigenetic Modulation of Chromatin States and Gene Expression by G-Quadruplex Structures
2020
G-quadruplexes are four-stranded helical nucleic acid structures formed by guanine-rich sequences. A considerable number of studies have revealed that these noncanonical structural motifs are widespread throughout the genome and transcriptome of numerous organisms, including humans. In particular, G-quadruplexes occupy strategic locations in genomic DNA and both coding and noncoding RNA molecules, being involved in many essential cellular and organismal functions. In this review, we first outline the fundamental structural features of G-quadruplexes and then focus on the concept that these DNA and RNA structures convey a distinctive layer of epigenetic information that is critical for the c…
NESSie.jl – Efficient and intuitive finite element and boundary element methods for nonlocal protein electrostatics in the Julia language
2018
Abstract The development of scientific software can be generally characterized by an initial phase of rapid prototyping and the subsequent transition to computationally efficient production code. Unfortunately, most programming languages are not well-suited for both tasks at the same time, commonly resulting in a considerable extension of the development time. The cross-platform and open-source Julia language aims at closing the gap between prototype and production code by providing a usability comparable to Python or MATLAB alongside high-performance capabilities known from C and C++ in a single programming language. In this paper, we present efficient protein electrostatics computations a…
The Good and Bad of Nrf2: An Update in Cancer and New Perspectives in COVID-19
2021
Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) is a well-known transcription factor best recognised as one of the main regulators of the oxidative stress response. Beyond playing a crucial role in cell defence by transactivating cytoprotective genes encoding antioxidant and detoxifying enzymes, Nrf2 is also implicated in a wide network regulating anti-inflammatory response and metabolic reprogramming. Such a broad spectrum of actions renders the factor a key regulator of cell fate and a strategic player in the control of cell transformation and response to viral infections. The Nrf2 protective roles in normal cells account for its anti-tumour and anti-viral functions. However, Nrf2 over…
Generation of an inducible RPE-specific Cre transgenic-mouse line.
2018
The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is an epithelial monolayer in the back of the vertebrate eye. RPE dysfunction is associated with retinal degeneration and blindness. In order to fully understand how dysregulation affects visual function, RPE-specific gene knockouts are indispensable. Since the currently available RPE-specific Cre recombinases show lack of specificity or poor recombination, we sought to generate an alternative. We generated a tamoxifen-inducible RPE-specific Cre transgenic mouse line under transcriptional control of an RPE-specific Tyrosinase enhancer. We characterized the Cre-mediated recombinant expression by crossing our RPE-Tyrosinase-CreErT2 mouse line with the tdTo…
Molecular Determinants of Malignant Brain Cancers: From Intracellular Alterations to Invasion Mediated by Extracellular Vesicles
2017
Malignant glioma cells invade the surrounding brain parenchyma, by migrating along the blood vessels, thus promoting cancer growth. The biological bases of these activities are grounded in profound alterations of the metabolism and the structural organization of the cells, which consequently acquire the ability to modify the surrounding microenvironment, by altering the extracellular matrix and affecting the properties of the other cells present in the brain, such as normal glial-, endothelial- and immune-cells. Most of the effects on the surrounding environment are probably exerted through the release of a variety of extracellular vesicles (EVs), which contain many different classes of mol…
Invariant NKT Cells and Rheumatic Disease: Focus on Primary Sjogren Syndrome.
2019
Primary Sjogren syndrome (pSS) is a complex autoimmune disease mainly affecting salivary and lacrimal glands. Several factors contribute to pSS pathogenesis; in particular, innate immunity seems to play a key role in disease etiology. Invariant natural killer (NK) T cells (iNKT) are a T-cell subset able to recognize glycolipid antigens. Their function remains unclear, but studies have pointed out their ability to modulate the immune system through the promotion of specific cytokine milieu. In this review, we discussed the possible role of iNKT in pSS development, as well as their implications as future markers of disease activity.