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Mitogen And Morphogen Signaling Dysregulation: Pathophysiological Influence In Pancreatic Cancer And Alzheimer’S Disease, Eric Cruz

Theses & Dissertations

Although the etiology of a particular disease will vary, there are genetic and epigenetic bottlenecks that frequently converge resulting in dysregulation of mitogenic and morphogenetic signaling. This propensity is acutely experienced in malignancy and neurodegenerative disease.

Here, we have first investigated the role of dysregulated signaling in the context of pancreatic cancer (PC). Morphogenetic signaling has been regarded as a pleiotropic pathway with the potential to promote and inhibit metastatic features. Our investigation of bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2), an archetypical member of the BMP superfamily, has revealed the presence of extracellular, intracellular, and long non-coding RNA products. Our findings …