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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences
Understanding The Pathogenesis Of Renal Medullary Carcinoma, Melinda Soeung
Understanding The Pathogenesis Of Renal Medullary Carcinoma, Melinda Soeung
Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)
Renal medullary carcinoma (RMC) is a lethal cancer that predominantly affects young individuals with sickle cell trait (SCT). It is not currently understood why RMC only affects certain individuals with SCT. We found that patients with RMC more frequently participated in high-intensity exercise than matched controls. Using mouse models of SCT, we demonstrated the significant increase of renal hypoxia in the right kidney following high- but not moderate-intensity exercise. We also demonstrated in cell culture studies that SMARCB1 is ubiquitinated for proteasome-mediated degradation in hypoxia, and the re-expression of SMARCB1 leads to compromised proliferation in renal cells specifically in the …
Targeting Plasma Membrane Phosphatidylserine Content To Inhibit Oncogenic Kras Function, Walaa E. Kattan
Targeting Plasma Membrane Phosphatidylserine Content To Inhibit Oncogenic Kras Function, Walaa E. Kattan
Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)
The small GTPase KRAS, which is frequently mutated in human cancers, must be localized to the plasma membrane (PM) for biological activity. We recently showed that the KRAS C-terminal membrane anchor exhibits exquisite lipid-binding specificity for select species of phosphatidylserine (PtdSer). We therefore investigated whether reducing PM PtdSer content is sufficient to abrogate KRAS oncogenesis. Oxysterol-related binding proteins ORP5 and ORP8 exchange PtdSer synthesized in the ER for phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate (PI4P) synthesized in the PM. We show that depletion of ORP5 or ORP8 reduced PM PtdSer levels, resulting in extensive mislocalization of KRAS from the PM. Concordantly, ORP5 or ORP8 depletion …