Current Molecular Medicine - Volume 16, Issue 9, 2016

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is the most common genetically inherited neurodegenerative disease resulting in infant mortality. SMA is caused by genetic deletion or mutation in the survival of motor neuron 1 (SMN1) gene, which results in reduced levels of the survival of motor neuron (SMN) protein. SMN protein deficiency preferentially affects α- motor neurons, leading to their degeneration and subsequent atrophy of limb a Read More

Infection is the process of pathogen invasion, as well as the host reaction to the foreign agents. Proline-directed phosphorylation is a major regulatory mechanism that regulates the function of fundamental proteins involved in infection and infection-induced cancer. Recently, the identification of the phosphorylation-dependent prolyl isomerase Pin1 has uncovered a unique regulatory signaling mechanism controllin Read More

The structure and developmental mechanisms of vertebrate retina are highly conserved. One of the most distinctive events during retinogenesis is the temporally and spatially generation of seven types of retinal cells from the multipotent retinal progenitor cells. The importance and prevalence of SUMOylation in regulation of this process through modulation of gene expression and protein function diversity have been increasingl Read More

Kupffer cells (KCs) are vital innate immune system cells in the liver that participate in various metabolic states. Although several studies have directly evaluated the role of KCs in different metabolic situations in the liver, the definite characteristics of KCs remain unknown. KC depletion techniques are used to determine the functions of KCs under metabolic challenges; however, there is debate about their precise role ev Read More

Background and Objective: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Genotoxic stress resistance in patients often contributes to poor clinical outcomes, and is intensively associated to the upregulation of Nrf2/ARE signaling pathway. In this study, we examined the connection between the anticancer activity of two novel indazolo[3,2-b]quinazolinone (IQ) derivatives, IQ-7 and IQ-12, Read More

Purpose: Recently, a different type of microsatellite instability (MSI) instability designated ‘elevated microsatellite alterations at selected tetranucleotide repeats’ (EMAST) has been reported in several neoplasms, but its clinical implications remain unclear. We aimed to determine the relationships among EMAST, MSI and clinicopathologic characteristics, including oncologic outcomes, in colorectal cancer (CRC). Materia Read More

Background: Convergent evidence from genetics, symptomatology and psychopharmacology imply that there are intrinsic connections between schizophrenia (SCZ), bipolar disorder (BPD) and major depressive disorder (MDD), for example, any two or even three of these disorders could co-exist in some families. Objective: To screen out the susceptibility genes on chromosome 6 comprehensively for SCZ, BPD and MDD in a r Read More