Life Sciences Commons^™

Honey Targets Ribosome Biogenesis Process In Human Pancreatic Cancer Cells To Inhibit Their Growth And Metastatic Phenotypes, Aun A. Bangash, Muhammad Bangash, Haider Ahsan, Shiza Khan, Mudassier Ahmad, Dae Joon Kim, Sahir Alvi, Bilal B. B. Hafeez

Research Symposium

Background: Pancreatic cancer (PanCa) is the fourth deadliest cancer worldwide and is expected to become the second deadliest cancer by 2030. In the USA, the National Cancer Institute put forth a grim prediction stating that there will be 64,050 new cases in 2023 alone and about 50,000 of these patients will die. Existing therapeutic regimens against PanCa are not that effective and show unacceptable toxicities. Therefore, developing highly effective new agents with less toxicity is urgently required, which could be used as a monotherapy or as an adjuvant to treat PanCa patients. Honey is known for its tremendous health benefits …

Synergistic Effects Of Nanosecond Pulsed Plasma And Electric Field On Inactivation Of Pancreatic Cancer Cells In Vitro, Edwin A. Oshin, Zobia Minhas, Ruben M. L. Colunga Biancatelli, John D. Catravas, Richard Heller, Siqi Guo, Chunqi Jiang

Bioelectrics Publications

Nanosecond pulsed atmospheric pressure plasma jets (ns-APPJs) produce reactive plasma species, including charged particles and reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS), which can induce oxidative stress in biological cells. Nanosecond pulsed electric field (nsPEF) has also been found to cause permeabilization of cell membranes and induce apoptosis or cell death. Combining the treatment of ns-APPJ and nsPEF may enhance the effectiveness of cancer cell inactivation with only moderate doses of both treatments. Employing ns-APPJ powered by 9 kV, 200 ns pulses at 2 kHz and 60-nsPEF of 50 kV/cm at 1 Hz, the synergistic effects on pancreatic cancer cells (Pan02) …

Evidence Of Direct Interaction Between Cisplatin And The Caspase-Cleaved Prostate Apoptosis Response-4 Tumor Suppressor, Krishna K. Raut, Samjhana Pandey, Gyanendra Kharel, Steven M. Pascal

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Prostate apoptosis response-4 (Par-4) tumor suppressor protein has gained attention as a potential therapeutic target owing to its unique ability to selectively induce apoptosis in cancer cells, sensitize them to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and mitigate drug resistance. It has recently been reported that Par-4 interacts synergistically with cisplatin, a widely used anticancer drug. However, the mechanistic details underlying this relationship remain elusive. In this investigation, we employed an array of biophysical techniques, including circular dichroism spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, and UV–vis absorption spectroscopy, to characterize the interaction between the active caspase-cleaved Par-4 (cl-Par-4) fragment and cisplatin. Additionally, elemental analysis was …

Cyclophosphamide And Epirubicin Induce Apoptotic Cell Death In Microglia Cells, Rafael De La Hoz-Camacho

Research Symposium

Background. Chemotherapy Related Cognitive Impairment’s (CRCI), diminish patient’s quality life, being breast cancer (BC) patients the most affected. Microglia is described to play a major role in CRCI; hence, the aim of this research was to describe the cytotoxicity of cyclophosphamide (CTX) and Epirubicin (EPI), on microglia (SIM-A9), compared to BC cells (4T1).

Methods. We assessed cell viability (Resazurin) and cell death (AnnV), as well as nuclear damage with γ-H2AX, p53, p16 and cell cycle analysis (PI staining) by flow cytometry (FC). Furthermore, we evaluated ΔΨm (DIOC6), ROS (DCFDA) and NO (DAF-FM) production. Finally, caspase activation (TF2-VAD-FMK) and autophagy (CYTO-ID). …

Effects Of High Glucose On Autophagy And Apoptosis In Preimplantation Mouse Embryo Culture, Virginia Wolfe

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Maternal diabetes increases congenital malformations due to teratogenic effects of glucose on the developing embryo. High glucose culture alters preimplantation embryo development and is associated with increased oxidative stress. Apoptosis and autophagy are programmed cell death and survival mechanisms induced by oxidative stress, but their role in preimplantation diabetic embryopathy is poorly elucidated. It was hypothesized that high glucose culture would alter autophagic and apoptotic responses, and that they are dependent on the timing of high glucose culture initiation. Embryos were cultured with 0.2 mM (control) or 25 mM (high glucose) of D-glucose starting from the early (36 hpi) or …

Mycobacterium Avium Subsp. Paratuberculosis Candidate Vaccine Strains Are Pro-Apoptotic In Raw264.7murinemacrophages, Raul G. Barletta, John P. Bannantine, Judith R. Stabel, Ezhumalai Muthukrishnan, Dirk Anderson, Enakshy Dutta, Vamsi Manthena, Mostafa Hanafy, Denise K. Zinniel

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Faculty Publications

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) is the etiological agent of Johne’s disease, a severe gastroenteritis of ruminants. This study developed a model cell culture system to rapidly screen MAP mutants with vaccine potential for apoptosis. Two wild-type strains, a transposon mutant, and two deletion mutant MAP strains (MOI of 10 with 1.2 × 10⁶ CFU) were tested in murine RAW 264.7 macrophages to determine if they induce apoptosis and/or necrosis. Both deletion mutants were previously shown to be attenuated and immunogenic in primary bovine macrophages. All strains had similar growth rates, but cell morphology indicated that both deletion mutants …

Design, Synthesis, And Antiproliferative Activity Of Benzopyran-4-One-Isoxazole Hybrid Compounds, Shilpi Gupta, Shang Eun Park, Saghar Mozaffari, Bishoy El-Aarag, Keykavous Parang, Rakesh Kumar Tiwari

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

The biological significance of benzopyran-4-ones as cytotoxic agents against multi-drug resistant cancer cell lines and isoxazoles as anti-inflammatory agents in cellular assays prompted us to design and synthesize their hybrid compounds and explore their antiproliferative activity against a panel of six cancer cell lines and two normal cell lines. Compounds 5a–d displayed significant antiproliferative activities against all the cancer cell lines tested, and IC₅₀ values were in the range of 5.2–22.2 μM against MDA-MB-231 cancer cells, while they were minimally cytotoxic to the HEK-293 and LLC-PK1 normal cell lines. The IC₅₀ values of 5a–d …

Does Vdac2 Have A Bh3 Domain?, Lillian Ferkany

Honors Theses

Mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP) by Bax oligomerization triggers apoptosis. BCl-2 family proteins, classified as BH3 only proteins, pro-survival proteins, or pro-apoptotic proteins, control apoptosis partly through their agonist or antagonistic effects on Bax, which are mediated by their conserved BH3 domains. All BH3 domains form an alpha helix containing 5-7 conserved hydrophobic residues, designated H0-H5, and one conserved aspartic acid that drive interaction with Bax and other ‘multi-domain’ BCl-2 members. BH3 agonists induce Bax oligomerization, while BH3 antagonists sequester Bax to prevent MOMP. We discovered that voltage dependent anion channels (VDACs) in the MOM contain a putative BH3-like domain …

Apoptosis Induction In Jurkat T-Lymphocytes By Proton Pump Inhibitors (Ppis), Shreya Murali, Randall Reif

Student Research Submissions

Apoptosis, commonly known as programmed cell death, constantly occurs in humans. As a cancer cell increases in acidity, apoptosis is induced. In healthy cells, proton pump proteins allow for H⁺ ions to permeate cellular membranes, regulating pH. However, proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), such as omeprazole, prevent proton movement. In previous studies, omeprazole induced cell death in Jurkat T lymphocytes; however, there was no confirmation of whether the cells died through apoptosis, or through necrosis, where the cell bursts. By using Annexin-V staining, the effects of omeprazole, dexlansoprazole, and esomeprazole on apoptosis induction can be measured. Cell death was observed …

The Role Of Myocardin In The Progression Of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Soromidayo Akinsiku

Biotechnology Theses

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the world and NSCLC accounts for 85% of all lung cancer cases. The mainstay of treatment for patients with stage I, II and IIIA NSCLC is surgery, followed by post-operative cisplatin-based chemotherapy. Additional adjuvant therapy involving targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors has been in use, however even for the targeted therapy, resistance eventually develops. Therefore, there is a need for identifying novel targets for this life-threatening disease. Given that preliminary studies in Ikebe lab revealed that myocardin knockdown significantly promoted caspase-3 degradation, in this study, using myocardin siRNA, we investigated the …

Chemical Characterization And Biological Evaluation Of Epilobium Parviflorum Extracts In An In Vitro Model Of Human Malignant Melanoma, Sotiris Kyriakou, Venetia Tragkola, Ioannis Paraskevaidis, Mihalis Plioukas, Dimitrios T. Trafalis, Rodrigo Franco, Aglaia Pappa, Mihalis I. Panayiotidi

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Faculty Publications

Malignant melanoma is an aggressive type of skin cancer characterised by high metastatic capacity and mortality rate. On the other hand, Epilobium parviflorum is known for its medicinal properties, including its anticancer potency. In this context, we aimed to (i) isolate various extracts of E. parviflorum, (ii) characterize their phytochemical content, and (iii) determine their cytotoxic potential in an in vitro model of human malignant melanoma. To these ends, we utilized various spectrophotometric and chromatographic (UPLC-MS/MS) approaches to document the higher content of the methanolic extract in polyphenols, soluble sugars, proteins, condensed tannins, and chlorophylls -a and -b as …

Bis-Indolyl Compounds And The Induction Of Apoptosis In T98g Glioblastoma Multiforme Cells, Margot C. Brown

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

1,1-bis(3’idolyl)-1(aryl)methane compounds (BIM compounds) have been shown to have anti-cancer properties in colon cancer, bladder cancer, and leukemia cells. The purpose of this work was to determine if BIM compounds could be an effective treatment of glioblastoma multiforme. Sulforhodamine B (SRB) assays showed that 20µM of the BIM compounds could inhibit cellular proliferation of the T98G glioblastoma multiforme cell line over 72 hours. Then immunoblotting was used to analyze the molecular pathway induced by BIM compounds. An increase in the expression of both BAX and cleaved caspase 3 suggest BIM compounds activate programmed cell death, or apoptosis in glioblastoma cells. …

Exploring The Anticancer Mechanism Of Thienopyrazole Derivative Tpz-1 In Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Jessica Dyanne Hess

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Anticancer drug discovery is a time and resource-consuming process for which exceedingly reliable and efficient modern approaches are needed. Phenotypic drug screenings can generate highly potent and innovative drug candidates; however, deconvolution of the drugâ??s target often presents significant barriers to drug development. To overcome this hurdle, we have originally combined in vitro and in silico analyses to uncover the molecular mechanism(s) driving the anticancer activity of the uniquely structured small molecule drug candidate, Tpz-1. Our study revealed that Tpz-1 is a multitargeted agent which induces the programmed death of HL-60 acute myeloid leukemia cells primarily through disruption of microtubule …

The Phenomenon Of Multidrug Resistance In Glioblastomas, Alexandr N. Chernov, Diana A. Alaverdian, Elvira S. Galimova, Alessandra Renieri, Elisa Frullanti, Ilaria Meloni, Olga V. Shamova

Hematology/Oncology and Stem Cell Therapy

The most common and aggressive brain tumor in the adult population is glioblastoma (GBM). The lifespan of patients does not exceed 22 months. One of the reasons for the low effectiveness of GBM treatment is its radioresistance and chemoresistance. In the current review, we discuss the phenomenon of multidrug resistance of GBM in the context of the expression of ABC family transporter proteins and the mechanisms of proliferation, angiogenesis, and recurrence. We focused on the search of molecular targets among growth factors, receptors, signal transduction proteins, microRNAs, transcription factors, proto-oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, and their single-nucleotide polymorphisms.

Cytotoxic Activity Of Non-Specific Lipid Transfer Protein (Nsltp1) From Ajwain (Trachyspermum Ammi) Seeds, Saud O. Alshammari, Taibah Aldakhil, Qamar A. Alshammari, David Salehi, Aftab Ahmed

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Trachyspermum ammi, commonly known as Ajwain, is a member of the Apiaceae family. It is a therapeutic herbal spice with diverse pharmacological properties, used in traditional medicine for various ailments. However, all previous studies were conducted using small molecule extracts, leaving the protein’s bioactivity undiscovered.

Aim

The current study aimed to demonstrate the cytotoxic activity of Ajwain non-specific lipid transfer protein (nsLTP1) in normal breast (MCF10A), breast cancer (MCF-7), and pancreatic cancer (AsPC-1) cell lines. Also, to evaluate its structural stability in human serum as well as at high temperature conditions.

Methods

The cytotoxic activity of Ajwain nsLTP1 was …

Alkaline Plasma-Activated Water (Paw) As An Innovative Therapeutic Avenue For Cancer Treatment, Bolun Pang, Zhijie Liu, Sitao Wang, Yuting Gao, Miao Qi, Dehui Xu, Renwu Zhou, Dingxin Liu, Michael G. Kong

Bioelectrics Publications

Plasma-activated water (PAW) is considered to be an effective anticancer agent due to the diverse aqueous reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS: ROS and RNS), but the drawback of low dose and short duration of RONS in acidified PAW limits their clinical application. Herein, this Letter presents an innovative therapeutic avenue for cancer treatment with highly-effective alkaline PAW prepared by air surface plasma. This anticancer alkaline formulation is comprised of a rich mixture of highly chemical RONS and exhibited a prolonged half-life compared to acidified PAW. The H₂O₂, NO₂-, and ONOO^-/O_{2 …}

An Assessment Of Inp/Zns As Potential Anti-Cancer Therapy: Quantum Dot Treatment Induces Stress On Hela Cells, Victoria Grace Davenport

MSU Graduate Theses

Indium Phosphide/Zinc Sulfide (InP/ZnS) quantum dots (QDs) are an emerging option in QD technologies for uses of fluorescent imaging as well as targeted drug and anti-cancer therapies based on their customizable properties. In this study we explored effects of InP/ZnS when treated with HeLa cervical cancer cells. We employed XTT viability assays, reactive oxygen species (ROS) analysis, and apoptosis analysis to better understand cytotoxicity extents at different concentrations of InP/ZnS. In addition, we compared the transcriptome profile from the QDtreated HeLa cells with that of untreated HeLa cells to identify changes to the transcriptome in response to the QD. Intracellular …

Investigative Mechanisms To Exploit Caspase-Induced Apoptosis Using Polymeric Nanogels, Francesca Edith Anson

Doctoral Dissertations

Cysteine aspartate proteases (caspases) act as the molecular scissors of cell death, disintegrating diverse cellular components necessary for survival and growth via proteolysis. Caspases are tightly regulated through a myriad of mechanisms including proteolytic processing, structural changes, post-translational modifications and metal binding. Correspondingly, cancers have evolved numerous resistance and desensitization mechanisms upstream or within the caspase pathway to avoid death signals. These mechanisms are extremely diverse and are not fully understood however, the field overwhelming suggests caspase activity and caspase inhibition antagonism to be critical for efficacious cancer therapies. Accordingly, exploiting the role of caspases in apoptosis has become an …

From Cell Death To Regeneration: Rebuilding After Injury, Kelly Tseng, Dylan Guerin, Cindy Kha

Life Sciences Faculty Research

The ability to regrow lost or damaged tissues is widespread, but highly variable among animals. Understanding this variation remains a challenge in regeneration biology. Numerous studies from Hydra to mouse have shown that apoptosis acts as a potent and necessary mechanism in regeneration. Much is known about the involvement of apoptosis during normal development in regulating the number and type of cells in the body. In the context of regeneration, apoptosis also regulates cell number and proliferation in tissue remodeling. Apoptosis acts both early in the process to stimulate regeneration and later to regulate regenerative patterning. Multiple studies indicate that …

Cellular Bioenergetics Regulates Cell Proliferation During Mammalian Regeneration, Sandeep Saxena

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Mammalian system consists of stress-sensing molecules that regulates their cellular response against damage, injury and oncogenic stress. During vertebrate regeneration, cells responding to injury re-enter the cell cycle and proliferate to form new tissue. Cell cycle re-entry or arrest is at least partly regulated by cellular senescence which negatively impacts the proliferative pool of cells during regeneration. What remains unclear is whether cells in regenerating systems possess an increased propensity to proliferate and are refractory to signals that induce senescence. My thesis work has focused on how fibroblasts from the ear pinna differentially regulate healing in highly regenerative mammals (e.g., …

The Resistive Barrier Discharge: A Brief Review Of The Device And Its Biomedical Applications, Mounir Laroussi

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper reviews the principles behind the design and operation of the resistive barrier discharge, a low temperature plasma source that operates at atmospheric pressure. One of the advantages of this plasma source is that it can be operated using either DC or AC high voltages. Plasma generated by the resistive barrier discharge has been used to efficiently inactivate pathogenic microorganisms and to destroy cancer cells. These biomedical applications of low temperature plasma are of great interest because in recent times bacteria developed increased resistance to antibiotics and because present cancer therapies often are accompanied by serious side effects. Low …

Tunel Apoptotic Cell Detection In Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (Sctld): Evaluation Of Potential And Improvements, E. Murphy Mcdonald

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) is a highly lethal coral disease that has caused a dramatic loss of coral tissue along the Florida Reef Tract and throughout the Wider Caribbean. This study seeks to understand whether programmed cell death (apoptosis) is involved in the pathology of the highly virulent SCTLD tissue loss lesion. Tissues from diseased colonies of Pseudodiploria strigosa collected in 2018 and 2020 were stained using the terminal deoxyribonucleotidyltransferase (TdT) mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay to visualize areas of programmed cell death. The archived tissue samples collected in 2018 exhibited a significantly higher degree of …

Dimers Of Isatin Derived Spirocyclic Nf-Κb Inhibitor Exhibit Potent Anticancer Activity By Inducing Upr Mediated Apoptosis, Smit Kour

Theses & Dissertations

Activation of NFκB pathway has been implicated in several malignancies and plays a role in many key processes including tumor initiation and progression. The NFκB pathway is activated when TNFα in the tumor microenvironment binds to its receptor, eventually leading to the phosphorylation of the kinase IKKβ. Once active, IKKβ phosphorylates IκBα, a protein that functions to sequester NFκB in the cytosol of resting cells. The phosphorylation of IκBα leads to its degradation in the proteasome and allows NFκB to translocate to the nucleus where it can drive gene transcription. The sulfhydryl groups on solvent-exposed cysteine (Cys) residues of the …

Evaluation Of The Bax-Vdac Interaction And Their Influence On Apoptosis In Drosophila Melanogaster, Frances Marie Gatlin

Honors Theses

Apoptosis, also known as programmed cell death, is a cellular process used for development or for when cells undergo injury or stress. The Bcl2 family of proteins includes both pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic proteins that control the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis. Understanding the mechanisms and influence these proteins have on apoptosis is an important area of research focused on in Dr. Jones’s lab. Evidence shows a homology amongst the Bcl2 family of proteins at the BH3 domain. Dr. Jekabsons' lab has found a potential homology amongst VDAC 1-3 and the Bcl2 family at the BH3 domain.

Specifically, our lab is using …

Antiproliferative And Apoptotic Effects Of Proteins From Black Seeds (Nigella Sativa) On Human Breast Mcf-7 Cancer Cell Line, Yamna Khursid, Basir Syed, Shabana U. Simjee, Obaid Beg, Aftab Ahmed

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Nigella sativa (NS), a member of family Ranunculaceae is commonly known as black seed or kalonji. It has been well studied for its therapeutic role in various diseases, particularly cancer. Literature is full of bioactive compounds from NS seed. However, fewer studies have been reported on the pharmacological activity of proteins. The current study was designed to evaluate the anticancer property of NS seed proteins on the MCF-7 cell line.

Methods

NS seed extract was prepared in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), and proteins were precipitated using 80% ammonium sulfate. The crude seed proteins were partially purified using gel filtration …

Perivascular Macrophages In The Neonatal Macaque Brain Undergo Massive Necroptosis After Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Infection, Diana G. Bohannon, Yueying Wang, Colin H. Reinhart, Julian B. Hattler, Jiangtao Luo, Hamid R. Okhravi, Jianshui Zhang, Qingsheng Li, Marcelo J. Kuroda, Woong-Ki Kim

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

We previously showed that rhesus macaques neonatally infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) do not develop SIV encephalitis (SIVE) and maintain low brain viral loads despite having similar plasma viral loads compared to SIV-infected adults. We hypothesize that differences in myeloid cell populations that are the known target of SIV and HIV in the brain contribute to the lack of neonatal susceptibility to lentivirus-induced encephalitis. Using immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence microscopy, we examined the frontal cortices from uninfected and SIV-infected infant and adult macaques (n = 8/ea) as well as adults with SIVE (n = 4) to determine differences in myeloid …

A Noncanonical Function Of The Telomerase Rna Component In Human Embryonic Stem Cells, Kirsten Ann Brenner

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Telomeres are stretches of TTAGGG nucleotide repeats located at the ends of linear chromosomes that shorten with progressive cell division and prevent genomic instability at the cost of limiting a cell’s capacity to proliferate. This limitation can be overcome by telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein complex that elongates telomeres via reverse-transcription of the template telomerase RNA component (TERC). Recent studies have reported potential functions of TERC outside of its role in telomere maintenance. These noncanonical functions of TERC are however poorly defined, and the molecular mechanisms and biological relevance behind such functions remain elusive. Here, we generated conditional TERC knock-out human embryonic …

Hei-Oc1 Cochlear Cells As An In Vitro Model To Study The Role Of Connexins In Ototoxicity And Hearing Loss, Rianne Beach

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Connexin 26 (Cx26) and Cx30 mediate the intercellular exchange of metabolites and ions within the cochlea in a process known as gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC). Cochlear cell death and subsequent hearing loss can arise after treatment with ototoxic therapeutics and Cx26 mutant expression. We investigated the role of connexins and GJIC in the development of ototoxicity in HEI-OC1 cochlear-derived cells. The susceptibility of HEI-OC1 cells to aminoglycoside antibiotics and cisplatin-induced cell death was not influenced by the ablation of connexins and GJIC. However, the expression of mitochondrial apoptosis or ER stress markers was altered by the degree of GJIC. …

Analyzing The Effect Of Apoptotic Mutations On The State Of The Nascent-Polypeptide Associated Complex In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Monica Gerber

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Cells experiencing misfolded protein stress can become debilitated and die, contributing to the onset of disease. The nascent polypeptide-associated complex (NAC) is a heterodimeric translational chaperone that protects against misfolded protein stress by mediating proper protein folding and localization during translation. Depletion of this complex results in misfolded protein accumulation in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). To determine the importance of the NAC to proteostasis, we have previously depleted the complex in C.elegans via RNA interference and observed numerous dose-dependent effects, including apoptosis of neuronal cells and changes in gene expression of hypodermal cells. While we have observed these cell-specific responses …

Mechanisms Of Oriented Cell Division And Their Roles In Tissue Development, Evan Blake Dewey

Biology ETDs

Properly executed cell division is crucial to development, maintenance, and longevity of multicellular organisms. Defects in both symmetric and asymmetric divisions can lead to improper developmental patterning, as well as genomic instability, disruption of tissue homeostasis, and cancer. Our research focuses on how regulators orchestrate proper cell divisions. Mushroom Body Defect (Mud) is one such regulator, and here we describe how Mud is regulated via the Hippo signaling pathway kinase Warts (Wts), showing Wts phosphorylates Mud to enhance interaction with the polarity protein Partner of Inscuteable, promoting spindle orientation activity. We next focus on another regulator, Shortstop (Shot), describing a …