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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

The Foxo1 Inhibitor As1842856 Triggers Apoptosis In Glioblastoma Multiforme And Basal-Like Breast Cancer Cells, David Flores, Alma Lopez, Shreya Udawant, Bonnie Gunn, Megan Keniry Jan 2023

The Foxo1 Inhibitor As1842856 Triggers Apoptosis In Glioblastoma Multiforme And Basal-Like Breast Cancer Cells, David Flores, Alma Lopez, Shreya Udawant, Bonnie Gunn, Megan Keniry

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Basal-like breast cancer (BBC) and glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) are poor-prognosis cancers that lack effective targeted therapies and harbor embryonic stem gene expression signatures. Recently, our group and others found that forkhead box transcription factor FOXO1 promotes stem gene expression in BBC and GBM cell lines. Given the critical role of cancer stem cells in promoting cancer progression, we examined the impact of FOXO1 inhibition with AS1842856 (a cell-permeable small molecule that directly binds to unphosphorylated FOXO1 protein to block transcriptional regulation) on BBC and GBM cell viability. We treated a set of BBC and GBM cancer cell lines with increasing …


Mitochondrial Oma1 And Opa1 As Gatekeepers Of Organellar Structure/Function And Cellular Stress Response, Robert Gilkerson, Patrick De La Torre, Shaynah St. Vallier Mar 2021

Mitochondrial Oma1 And Opa1 As Gatekeepers Of Organellar Structure/Function And Cellular Stress Response, Robert Gilkerson, Patrick De La Torre, Shaynah St. Vallier

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Mammalian mitochondria are emerging as a critical stress-responsive contributor to cellular life/death and developmental outcomes. Maintained as an organellar network distributed throughout the cell, mitochondria respond to cellular stimuli and stresses through highly sensitive structural dynamics, particularly in energetically demanding cell settings such as cardiac and muscle tissues. Fusion allows individual mitochondria to form an interconnected reticular network, while fission divides the network into a collection of vesicular organelles. Crucially, optic atrophy-1 (OPA1) directly links mitochondrial structure and bioenergetic function: when the transmembrane potential across the inner membrane (ΔΨm) is intact, long L-OPA1 isoforms carry out fusion of the mitochondrial …


Nvp-Bez235 Or Jaki Treatment Leads To Decreased Survival Of Examined Gbm And Bbc Cells, Neftali Vazquez, Alma Lopez, Victoria Cuello, Michael W. Persans, Erin Schuenzel, Wendy Innis-Whitehouse, Megan Keniry Feb 2021

Nvp-Bez235 Or Jaki Treatment Leads To Decreased Survival Of Examined Gbm And Bbc Cells, Neftali Vazquez, Alma Lopez, Victoria Cuello, Michael W. Persans, Erin Schuenzel, Wendy Innis-Whitehouse, Megan Keniry

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Cancer cells almost universally harbor constitutively active Phosphatidylinositol-3 Kinase (PI3K) Pathway ac-tivity via mutation of key signaling components and/or epigenetic mechanisms. Scores of PI3K Pathway in-hibitors are currently under investigation as putative chemotherapeutics. However, feedback and stem cell mechanisms induced by PI3K Pathway inhibition can lead to reduced treatment efficacy. To address therapeutic barriers, we examined whether JAKi would reduce stem gene expression in a setting of PI3K Pathway inhibition in order to improve treatment efficacy. We targeted the PI3K Pathway with NVP-BEZ235 (dual PI3K and mTOR inhibitor) in combination with the Janus Kinase inhibitor JAKi in glioblastoma (GBM) and …


Apoptotic And Necrotizing Mechanisms Of Recombinant Panton-Valentine Leukocidin In Thp1 Monocytes., Heriberto Deleon Iii May 2016

Apoptotic And Necrotizing Mechanisms Of Recombinant Panton-Valentine Leukocidin In Thp1 Monocytes., Heriberto Deleon Iii

Theses and Dissertations

The Panton-Valentine Leukocidin (PVL) is a highly specialized bacterial exotoxin produced by Staphylococcus aureus. The increased degree of invasiveness of community associated methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CAMRSA) has been attributed to the relatively high rates of PVL produced by the pathogen, thus increasing pathogenicity and virulence. The increased rates of PVL encoding CAMRSA infections have been correlated with increased rates of necrotizing fasciitis, invasive osteomyelitis and invasive necrotizing pneumococcal infections. Previous research as revealed that PVL has the ability to induce apoptosis at low concentration (5nM-10nM) and necrosis (50-100nM) at high concentrations, with little detail on the mechanism of initiation. …


Loss Of Mitochondrial Dna Causes Decreased Cell Viability, Alan M. Herrera Aug 2015

Loss Of Mitochondrial Dna Causes Decreased Cell Viability, Alan M. Herrera

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Mitochondria are an organellar network involved in cellular bioenergetics and apoptosis, and dynamically balance their organization between fusion and fission events. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and nuclear DNA combine to encode polypeptides for the complexes of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) in the mitochondrial inner membrane, which generate a transmembrane potential (ΔΨm) to synthesize ATP. Loss of ΔΨm causes mitochondrial fission, which appears to be associated with the progression of apoptosis, a critical cell death mechanism that allows tissue homeostasis, developmental sculpturing, and the removal of unwanted cells. Using cultured human cell models of decreased ΔΨm (both genetic mtDNA-depleted ρ 0 and pharmacological …