RESEARCH ARTICLES
- Inhibition of ER stress improves progressive motor deficits in a REEP1-null mouse model of hereditary spastic paraplegia
Summary: Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress plays an important role in hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSPs) pathology, providing new opportunities for HSP treatment.
- Cell-to-cell communication mediates glioblastoma progression in Drosophila
Summary: Using a Drosophila model of glioblastoma (GB), we describe the temporal organisation of the main cellular events that occur in GB, including cell-to-cell interactions, neurodegeneration and tumour microtubes expansion.
- Effects of short-term fasting on spontaneous activity and excess post-exercise oxygen consumption in four juvenile fish species with different foraging strategies
Summary: This study compares the spontaneous behavior and exhaustive exercise of four warm-water fish.
- Tau interferes with axonal neurite stabilization and cytoskeletal composition independently of its ability to associate with microtubules
Summary: Tau inhibits axonal transport by blocking kinesin translocation or as kinesin cargo. Tau capable and incapable of microtubule binding inhibited transport equally, indicating inhibition of axonal transport as kinesin cargo.
- Neuronal changes and cognitive deficits in a multi-hit rat model following cumulative impact of early life stressors
Summary: This study is the first of its kind that practically investigated the combined exposure of major early life stressors like protein malnourishment and viral and bacterial infections on the nervous system.
- Cardiac hypertrophy in a dish: a human stem cell based model
Summary: This research describes a functional in vitro model of cardiac hypertrophy, and how the time of stimulation with endothelin-1 affects the cells.
- Visual signal evolution along complementary color axes in four bird lineages
Summary: In four diverse bird radiations, we reveal the presence of complementary colors, putatively for higher contrast. Color patterns may have diversified by redistributing a complementary color pair over the body.
- Sleep-length differences are associated with altered longevity in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster
Summary: We show that fruit flies with shortened sleep patterns have decreased aging rates and increased longevity, while flies with disrupted circadian rhythm have decreased longevity. Our data suggests that circadian and sleep systems interact differentially with mechanisms of aging.
- STAT3 modulates reprogramming efficiency of human somatic cells; insights from autosomal dominant Hyper IgE syndrome caused by STAT3 mutations
Summary: By using naturally-occurring mutations in a human disease, we demonstrate the critical role of endogenous STAT3 in modulating reprogramming efficiency in human somatic cells.
- Acinar transformed ductal cells exhibit differential mucin expression in a tamoxifen-induced pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma mouse model
Summary: In this study, we developed a tamoxifen-inducible transgenic mouse model that closely mimics the age-related onset of pancreatic cancer (PC). We showed that activation of Kras (iKC) specifically regulates transcription factors that promote mucin expression and acinar to ductal metaplasia, whereas, loss of KrasG12D allele in PC cells resulted in the reduction of mucin proteins such as MUC1, MUC4, MUC5AC and MUC16.
- Developing fluorescence sensor probe to capture activated muscle-specific calpain-3 (CAPN3) in living muscle cells
Summary: Our research is the first report of developing sensor probes to detect activated-CAPN3 in cultured skeletal muscle cells.
- Miro, a Rho GTPase genetically interacts with Alzheimer's disease-associated genes (Tau, Aβ42 and Appl) in Drosophila melanogaster
Summary: Our study suggests that overexpression of Miro improves the Alzheimer's disease-related pathologies by decreasing the rough eye phenotype, oxidative stress, apoptosis and neurodegeneration and increasing the lifespan, body weight, phototaxis and climbing activity in the Drosophila model of Alzheimer's disease.