Current Signal Transduction Therapy - Volume 8, Issue 2, 2013

Phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3Ks) play an essential role in the intracellular signal transduction cascades initiated by the activation of cell surface receptors through their specific extracellular signals. PI3Ks control a variety of cellular responses, including growth, protection from apoptosis, motility, metabolism and intracellular protein sorting. Eight catalytic PI3K isoforms exist in human, which are grouped into three classes Read More

Brefeldin A (BFA) is an fungal antibiotic that induces ER stress in eukaryotic cells. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have indefinite potential for self-renewal and the capability to drive tumorigenesis. The effects of BFA on CSCs have not been fully investigated. In this article we investigated the inhibitory effects of BFA on human lung cancer A549 and H1299 cells. Cytotoxicity toward suspension cultures has been used as a method for the Read More

The NMDA receptor non-competitive antagonist ketamine is regarded to model multiple symptomatic domains and molecular dysfunctions of schizophrenia, depending on acute or chronic exposure to the drug. In this work, we aimed to investigate whether ketamine may induce changes in the expression of transcripts relevant for the dopaminergic system (i.e. dopamine D1, D1R, and D2 receptors, D2R, dopamine transport Read More

Protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) are important in the regulation of diverse cellular functions including proliferation, migration and invasion; aberration of these cellular events is crucial for the development and progression of cancer. PTPs family comprises of two groups, classic PTPs and dual specificity phosphatases. The classic PTPs include both non-transmembrane PTPs and transmembrane receptor-like PTPs (RPTPs). Read More

Cytoskeleton is a major component of living cells consisting of microfilaments, microtubules and intermediate filaments. It plays a key role in many cell functions such as cell migration, cell division, signal transduction and cell apoptosis. Researchers have investigated the cytoskeleton by analyzing its molecular components in isolation and studying its ‘gel’ properties. The proposal of tensegrity model firstly considers the cy Read More

Natural products play a crucial role in research into innovative antiproliferative agents. More than 60% of anticancer drugs involve compounds of natural origin. The aim of the present study was to determine the cytotoxicity effects of 11 quinoline alkaloids isolated from plants of the Rutaceae family. The MTT assay was used to identify the antiproliferative effects of the tested compounds on human adherent cancer cell lines (H Read More

Protein kinases function in key steps in several physiopathological events; therefore the development of specific inhibitors to these enzymes presents new opportunities for the treatment of various diseases. Glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK-3) is a constitutively active serine/threonine kinase, whose dysfunction has been linked to several cases of insulin-resistant type 2 diabetes mellitus, Alzheimer’s disease and mood di Read More

Our previous studies demonstrated that Qi-Shao-Shuang-Gan (QSSG), a combination of Astragalus membranaceus saponins (SAM) with Paeonia lactiflora glycosides (GPL), possessed protective effects against sepsis in mice. The present study aimed to explore its underlying mechanisms with a focus on the adhesion between leukocytes and inflammatory endothelial cells. Our results showed that QSSG (10, 30, 100 μg/ml) conc Read More

Current studies have found that allogenic mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) transplantation (MSCT) can be used successfully in mouse and human SLE. However, syngeneic bone marrow (BM)-MSCT was ineffective. Recently, studies also revealed that BM-MSCs from SLE patients showed senescent behavior. These findings suggested that the senescence of BM-MSCs from SLE patients may be a contributing factor to diseas Read More