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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Abl Kinase Regulation By Braf/Erk And Cooperation With Akt In Melanoma, Aditi Jain, Rakshamani Tripathi, Courtney P. Turpin, Chi Wang, Rina Plattner Aug 2017

Abl Kinase Regulation By Braf/Erk And Cooperation With Akt In Melanoma, Aditi Jain, Rakshamani Tripathi, Courtney P. Turpin, Chi Wang, Rina Plattner

Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences Faculty Publications

The melanoma incidence continues to increase, and the disease remains incurable for many due to its metastatic nature and high rate of therapeutic resistance. In particular, melanomas harboring BRAFV600E and PTEN mutations often are resistant to current therapies, including BRAF inhibitors (BRAFi) and immune checkpoint inhibitors. Abl kinases (Abl/Arg) are activated in melanomas and drive progression; however, their mechanism of activation has not been established. Here we elucidate a novel link between BRAFV600E/ERK signaling and Abl kinases. We demonstrate that BRAFV600E/ERK play a critical role in binding, phosphorylating and regulating Abl localization and Abl/Arg activation …


Nfatc2 Modulates Microglial Activation In The Aβpp/Ps1 Mouse Model Of Alzheimer's Disease, Gunjan D. Manocha, Atreyi Ghatak, Kendra L. Puig, Susan D. Kraner, Christopher M. Norris, Colin K. Combs Jun 2017

Nfatc2 Modulates Microglial Activation In The Aβpp/Ps1 Mouse Model Of Alzheimer's Disease, Gunjan D. Manocha, Atreyi Ghatak, Kendra L. Puig, Susan D. Kraner, Christopher M. Norris, Colin K. Combs

Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences Faculty Publications

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) brains are characterized by fibrillar amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide containing plaques and associated reactive microglia. The proinflammatory phenotype of the microglia suggests that they may negatively affect disease course and contribute to behavioral decline. This hypothesis predicts that attenuating microglial activation may provide benefit against disease. Prior work from our laboratory and others has characterized a role for the transcription factor, nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT), in regulating microglial phenotype in response to different stimuli, including Aβ peptide. We observed that the NFATc2 isoform was the most highly expressed in murine microglia cultures, and inhibition or …


Transcriptional Signatures Of Brain Aging And Alzheimer's Disease: What Are Our Rodent Models Telling Us?, Kendra E. Hargis, Eric M. Blalock Mar 2017

Transcriptional Signatures Of Brain Aging And Alzheimer's Disease: What Are Our Rodent Models Telling Us?, Kendra E. Hargis, Eric M. Blalock

Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences Faculty Publications

Aging is the biggest risk factor for idiopathic Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Recently, the National Institutes of Health released AD research recommendations that include: appreciating normal brain aging, expanding data-driven research, using open-access resources, and evaluating experimental reproducibility. Transcriptome data sets for aging and AD in humans and animal models are available in NIH-curated, publically accessible databases. However, little work has been done to test for concordance among those molecular signatures. Here, we test the hypothesis that brain transcriptional profiles from animal models recapitulate those observed in the human condition. Raw transcriptional profile data from twenty-nine studies were analyzed to produce …