Current Molecular Medicine - Volume 10, Issue 6, 2010

Adipose tissue is an endocrine organ able to produce a wide series of pleiotropic molecules, defined “adipokines”. In addition to the regulation of food intake and energy metabolism, adipokines are also implicated in the complex control of bone biology and specifically of bone remodeling. Leptin, the most studied adipokine, promotes satiety and energy expenditure and its circulating levels are proportional to fat mass. Som Read More

FOXP3 is essential for the development and function of regulatory CD4+CD25hi T (Treg) cells. However, recent evidence suggests that FOXP3 alone is not sufficient to completely explain the regulatory phenotype of these key players in autoimmunity and inflammation: after being activated, conventional human CD4+ T cells transiently up-regulate FOXP3 without acquiring a regulatory function. Researchers have recently foun Read More

Aldose reductase, although identified initially as a glucose-reducing enzyme via polyol pathway, is believed to be an important component of antioxidant defense system as well as a key mediator of oxidative stress-induced molecular signaling. The dual role played by AR has made it a very important enzyme for the regulation of not only the cellular redox state by detoxifying the reactive lipid-aldehydes generated by lipid pe Read More

Enteroviruses are common human pathogens involved in a wide spectrum of clinical outcomes ranging from mild or non-symptomatic illness to severe diseases with neurological and/or cardiac manifestation. Despite being responsible for significant morbidity and mortality especially in immunocompromised patients and infants, to date no effective vaccines or specific antiviral treatment modalities are available to preve Read More

Transforming growth factor-beta (TGFβ) is a pleiotropic multifunctional cytokine that regulates several essential cellular processes in many parts of the body including the cornea. Three isoforms of TGFβ are known in mammals and the human cornea expresses all of them. TGFβ1 has been shown to play a central role in scar formation in adult corneas whereas TGFβ2 and TGFβ3 have been implicated to play a critical role in Read More

In addition to their role in dietary lipid absorption bile acids are signaling modules activating nuclear receptors and at least one G-protein coupled receptor named the TGR5. With a different rank of potency primary and secondary bile acids activate a subset of nuclear receptors including the farnesoid-X-receptor (FXR, NR1H4); the constitutive androstane receptor (CAR, NR1H3), the pregnane-x- receptor (PXR, NR1H2), and th Read More

Pharmacodynamic (PD) biomarkers play a pivotal role in anti-tumor drug development as a biochemical measurement to estimate the level of drug interaction with the target, or to assess the downstream impact of its interaction with the target. Although immunohistochemistry (IHC)-based protein biomarkers have been conventionally used as PD biomarkers, gene expression-based PD biomarkers have recently emerged as Read More