#beta-catenin

Melanoma is a type of skin cancer in which nearly half of patients have mutations in the BRAF gene that accelerate tumor growth. Although BRAF-targeted treatments, known as BRAF inhibitors, work well initially, tumors often find ways to fight back. Adaptive metabolic reprogramming with oxidative phosphorylation, anaerobic glycolysis, and autophagy are the main mechanisms of resistance, both de…

GATA-3: il fattore cellulare a sorpresa per trasformare le cellule corporee in cartilagine

Come ognuno ha potuto fare esperienza, le lesioni della cartilagine alle articolazioni come ginocchia, spalle e fianchi possono rivelarsi estremamente dolorose e debilitanti. Condizioni che causano la degenerazione della cartilagine, come l’artrite, colpiscono 350 milioni di persone nel mondo e costano al sistema sanitario pubblico statunitense più di 300 miliardi di dollari ogni anno. I pazienti…

Pancreas metaplasia: the malevolent unconsidered precursor that can be reverted with aimed molecules

Acinar ductal metaplasia (ADM) is a natural occurrence that follows bouts of inflammation such as pancreatitis to temporarily reduce the damage from over-secreting digestive enzymes in the pancreas. Characteristics of ADM include morphological changes as well as reduced expression of acinar genes and increased expression of ductal and progenitor markers (e.g. keratin-19 and SOX9, respectively).…

When Bacteria Invade…

Despite therapeutic advances, mortality rates for neonatal meningitis have remained the same over the last two decades. Addressing this requires better understanding of how the disease is caused at a cellular and molecular level. Here we see the re-distribution of the protein beta-catenin (blue) in brain endothelial cells after infection by the bacteria Escherichia coli K1. This bacterium (the small, rod-like cells seen in the grayscale image) has been shown to cause neonatal meningitis.

Led by principal investigator Prasadarao Nemani, PhD, researchers in the Microbial Pathogenesis Research Lab at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles generated this image to better understand the cellular and molecular events that occur when these bacteria pass through the blood-brain barrier as occurs in cases of neonatal meningitis. Beta-catenin helps coordinate adhesion between cells and, in cases of neonatal meningitis, the adhesion between brain endothelial cells is disrupted, leading to brain edema or swelling where fluid accumulates in the brain.

“This helped us identify that re-distribution of beta-catenin helps the bacteria invade the brain endothelium and may serve as a critical step in causing neonatal meningitis,” say Subramanian Krishnan, post-doctoral fellow at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, who was first author on the study published in Cellular Microbiology.