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Topic Review
Three-Dimensional Culture Systems
It is getting more and more clear that cancer cell culture models are switching from two-dimension to three-dimensional, in order to better reflect in vivo situations where tumor cells have to cope with a highly interactive three-dimensional microenvironment. Several such culture models have been reported, predominantly multicellular tumor spheroids (MCTS) and patient-derived tumor organoids (PDTO). These are used both to investigate fundamental aspects of cancer development and as test systems for innovative therapies against gastric cancer, the fifth most common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The authors review the actual state of research in this field to provide an overview of the contribution of MCTS and PDTO, especially in the areas of molecular profiling, drug discovery, pathogen infection, and personalized medicine.
  • 801
  • 18 Feb 2021
Topic Review
B-Cell Maturation Antigen (BCMA)
During the past two decades there has been a major shift in the choice of agents to treat multiple myeloma, whether newly diagnosed or in the relapsed/refractory stage. The introduction of new drug classes, such as proteasome inhibitors, immunomodulators, and anti-CD38 and anti- SLAMF7 monoclonal antibodies, coupled with autologous stem cell transplantation, has approximately doubled the disease’s five-year survival rate. However, this positive news is tempered by the realization that these measures are not curative and patients eventually relapse and/or become resistant to the drug’s effects. Thus, there is a need to discover newer myeloma- driving molecular markers and develop innovative drugs designed to precisely regulate the actions of such putative targets. B cell maturation antigen (BCMA), which is found almost exclusively on the surfaces of malignant plasma cells to the exclusion of other cell types, including their normal counterparts, has emerged as a specific target of interest in this regard. Immunotherapeutic agents have been at the forefront of research designed to block BCMA activity. These agents encompass monoclonal antibodies, such as the drug conjugate belantamab mafodotin; bispecific T-cell engager strategies exemplified by AMG 420; and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapeutics that include idecabtagene vicleucel (bb2121) and JNJ-68284528.
  • 801
  • 16 Sep 2020
Topic Review
KRAS
The RAS family consists of membrane-associated small GTPases which play essential roles in cell survival, proliferation, and differentiation. There are four RAS protein isoforms in humans: HRAS, NRAS, and two splice variants, KRAS4A and KRAS4B. 
  • 799
  • 12 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Glial Cells in Physiological and Pathological States
Glial cells are the most abundant and widely distributed cells that maintain cerebral homeostasis in the central nervous system. They mainly include microglia, astrocytes, and the oligodendrocyte lineage cells. Moreover, glial cells may induce pathological changes, such as inflammatory responses, demyelination, and disruption of the blood–brain barrier, to regulate the occurrence and development of neurological diseases through various molecular mechanisms.
  • 798
  • 29 Aug 2022
Topic Review
The Gut–Brain Axis
The gut–brain axis (GBA) it is a complex network in which the CNS and the enteric nervous system (ENS) interact with each other in a bilateral manner by several mechanisms, including nervous, hormonal, metabolic, and immunological ones. Recently, this relationship has been described as the ‘microbiota–gut–brain axis’ because of the known role of the gut microbiota in maintaining a physiological brain–gut relationship and its participation in the pathogenesis of several diseases. In this complex network, a plethora of interactions take place.
  • 796
  • 15 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Volumetric Muscle Loss Repair
Volumetric muscle loss (VML) is defined as a condition in which a large volume of skeletal muscle is lost due to physical insult. VML often results in a heightened immune response, resulting in significant long-term functional impairment. 
  • 795
  • 23 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Exosomes in Motor Neurone Disease
Exosomes are attractive as vehicle systems for small therapeutic molecules and/or biomolecules including nucleic acids and proteins because of their lipid nature, presence of specific surface ligands (CD11b and CD18 receptors, integrins, tetraspanins) and ability to cross the blood–brain barrier. When compared to other drug delivery systems, exosomes have the distinct advantages of blood–brain barrier penetrance, longer duration in systemic circulation, tissue specificity that minimizes unwanted toxicity or off-target effects, stability of content, desirable biocompatibility and minimal toxicity issues. Techniques such as fusion expression, exosome membrane surface display and anchoring platforms have been used to attach peptides and biological ligands of interest to adhesion molecules, tetraspanins or integrins on exosome surface to ensure targeted delivery and enhanced uptake into desired cells.
  • 794
  • 08 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Laundry Enzyme
Laundry enzyme is one type of biological enzymes that are frequently used in the laundry industry, and also it is still the largest industrial enzyme application and thus the laundry enzyme plays a significant role in helping both household laundry and the relative industrial business. Laundry enzymes are sub-class of enzymes, and thus they are also biological catalysts with poly-molecular structure. They usually exist as little blue particles or flecks in both liquid and powder detergents, and once contacting with water they dissolve rapidly, by acting as a catalyst, the laundry enzymes boost the rate of the reaction between stains and aqueous solution. Therefore, laundry enzymes are good at stain removal. The addition of laundry enzymes in detergent products improves laundry efficiency and also makes the process more environmentally friendly, and thus detergent manufacturers are willing to update the products with laundry enzyme formula added. With the consumers' high interest in new bio-technique gradually growing, laundry enzyme detergents are becoming more and more popular in the globe, which reveals the success of laundry enzyme's application in the industry. However, there are still several concerns from consumers brought by laundry enzymes such as the potential allergies and cloth damages, but the experimental result shows the concerns are unnecessary.
  • 793
  • 10 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Age-Related Alterations at Neuromuscular Junction
With advancing aging, a decline in physical abilities occurs, leading to reduced mobility and loss of independence. Although many factors contribute to the physio-pathological effects of aging, an important event seems to be related to the compromised integrity of the neuromuscular system, which connects the brain and skeletal muscles via motoneurons and the neuromuscular junctions (NMJs). NMJs undergo severe functional, morphological, and molecular alterations during aging and ultimately degenerate. The effect of this decline is an inexorable decrease in skeletal muscle mass and strength, a condition generally known as sarcopenia. Moreover, several studies have highlighted how the age-related alteration of reactive oxygen species (ROS) homeostasis can contribute to changes in the neuromuscular junction morphology and stability, leading to the reduction in fiber number and innervation. Increasing evidence supports the involvement of epigenetic modifications in age-dependent alterations of the NMJ. In particular, DNA methylation, histone modifications, and miRNA-dependent gene expression represent the major epigenetic mechanisms that play a crucial role in NMJ remodeling. It is established that environmental and lifestyle factors, such as physical exercise and nutrition that are susceptible to change during aging, can modulate epigenetic phenomena and attenuate the age-related NMJs changes.
  • 793
  • 15 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Homologous Recombination Repair Deficiency
Homologous recombination repair deficiency (HRD) can be observed in virtually all cancer types. Cells possess a complex set of non-redundant and partially overlapping pathways to detect and repair DNA damage. In cancer, DNA damage repair (DDR) is frequently disrupted, leading to genomic instability. One of the pathways that is regularly altered in cancer is HR. HR is an important pathway for the repair of double-strand DNA breaks (DSBs) during the S and G2 phase of the cell cycle, i.e., after DNA replication has occurred. HR is considered a relatively error-free process because it uses an intact sister chromatid to guide DNA repair. HR deficiency (HRD) leads to enhanced reliance on alternative pathways involved in DSB repair, i.e., classical NHEJ, alternative end joining, and single-strand annealing. These pathways repair DSBs without a homologous DNA template, resulting in characteristic genomic scars across the genome.
  • 790
  • 25 May 2021
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