Molecular Biology Commons^™

Human 5’-Tailed Mirtrons Are Processed By Rnasep, Mohammad Farid Zia

Dissertations

Approximately a thousand microRNAs (miRNAs) are documented from human cells. A third appear to transit non-canonical pathways that typically bypass processing by Drosha, the dedicated nuclear miRNA producing enzyme. The largest class of non-canonical miRNAs are mirtrons which eschew Drosha to mature through spliceosome activity. While mirtrons are found in several configurations, the vast majority of human mirtron species are 5’-tailed. For these mirtrons, a 3’ splice site defines the 3’ end of their hairpin precursor while a “tail” of variable length separates the 5’ base of the hairpin from the nearest splice site. How this tail is removed is …

Cellular And Molecular Alterations Associated With Ovarian And Renal Cancer Pathophysiology, Ravneet Kaur Chhabra

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Elucidating molecular alterations underlying tumor development and chemoresistance are critical to expand our understanding of the disease pathophysiology. This dissertation is focused on analyzing the cellular and molecular alterations associated with LPA-induced chemoresistance in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) cells and chronic iron-induced deregulation of miRNA expression in fallopian tube secretory epithelial cells (FTSECs).

Kidney cancer is one of the ten most common cancers worldwide with <15% survival rate at advanced stage (American Cancer Society). ccRCC is the most common type of kidney cancer and is described as a metabolic disease characterized by deregulated lipid metabolism leading to increased intracellular lipid droplets [9, 10]. The current molecular-targeted treatment strategies involve VEGF/VEGFR and mTOR inhibition [9, 12]. However, there are limitations to these approaches leading to the reduced efficacy and/or increased resistance in ccRCC cells [13, 14]. Therefore, it is important to decipher the factors involved in compromising the chemosensitivity in these cells.

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), a bioactive phospholipid, was previously reported to increase resistance against Sunitinib (VEGFR/PDGFR inhibitor) in ccRCC cells and to increase migration and invasion in various tumors [15-17]. In Chapter 3 of …